Penumbra Crystallis is an original reimagining of Blackmoon Prophecy, a Final Fantasy fan game. I don't have any noteworthy updates on Penumbra Crystallis today, but I felt it would be fun to rank the Final Fantasy titles from my personal least to most favourite since this game wouldn't exist without it! There would be no Penumbra Crystallis without Blackmoon Prophecy, and there would be Blackmoon Prophecy without Final Fantasy. So, here I go!
Disclaimer: I am not including the MMO installments since I did not play XI, and could not get into A Realm Reborn (sorry, I really tried). Also not including XV since I have never played it and don't intend on ever doing so.
12. Final Fantasy II (1988)
Final Fantasy II originally came just a year after the first game, and it clearly shows. Final Fantasy II was just a mess. There was little structure to the game, the plot was ho-hum, balance was out the window, and it did little to differentiate itself or make itself any better than the original Final Fantasy. I don't really recall having any fond memories of this one at all. Many of us may have felt better about this game had it been released in North America in the appropriate year, but for most of us our first taste of this game was over a dozen years after its original release. Expectations and tastes changed a lot during those years, and this game was more or less dead on arrival when we finally got a chance to play it.
My Rating: F
11. Final Fantasy (1987)
I'll give this game credit for one thing - I wouldn't be writing this blog post if it hadn't happened. The original Final Fantasy was Squaresoft's last hurrah before they would have gone under, and they dared to release an RPG that was simply different than what Enix was pumping out with the Dragon Quest games. It was different from the competition back in 1987 and it was fine at the time, but the gameplay and storytelling are just too archaic in 2021. Unless you have your rose-tinted glasses on, or are just a hardcore retro game enthusiast, you're better off looking to almost every other game in the series since they do more or less everything better than this game in every way imaginable. The soundtrack does have some good bops though!
My Rating: D-
10. Final Fantasy XIII (2009)
Hey, I have a great idea! Let's lump a bunch of really unlikeable characters together, force them to trudge through linear and narrow corridors for 30 hours, remove all aspects of exploration including visiting towns, and make the story so cryptic that you practically need to reference the in-game encyclopedia to understand what the characters are talking about half the time. That is Final Fantasy XIII in a nutshell. It's a shit game that prides itself on looking pretty, and more often than not prioritizes being a cinematic movie over being a playable game.
I can count the things I like about this game on one hand... one character and a few music tracks. The only reason this game is not occupying the twelfth spot is that it is more modern and is thus infinitely more accessible and playable than its ancient and clunky NES siblings.
My Rating: D-
9. Final Fantasy III (1990)
Squaresoft took a little bit longer to work on the third entry in this series, and it... sort of shows? Maybe? There isn't really a lot to love about Final Fantasy III. It tries to be more grand and story driven than what came before it, but it is still vastly limited by the technological capabilities of the NES. Final Fantasy III does introduce us to the job system though, which was a lot of fun to play around with. The system wasn't perfect and was later improved upon heavily in Final Fantasy V, but it's not bad here either. The game is decidedly average overall with the job system being the saving grace that keeps the game out of the bottom three spots.
My Rating: D
8. Final Fantasy X (2001)
Here we go, some positively will finally start to shine through in my descriptions. I do not by any means love this game, nor do I ever feel inclined to play it. Additionally, I absolutely hate the linear structure of it and am bothered that this structure became the gold standard going forward for some unknown reason. I did say there would be some positivity though, and there is some. Final Fantasy X has some of the most interesting character designs from the entire series and I definitely like the story arc of some characters.
The story, while kind of ho-hum, is written competently even if it's not always the most interesting. Some of the tracks in this game are also absolutely fantastic, but there's also a lot of stinkers. Final Fantasy X gets a lot of hate, and also a lot of love, from people on the internet. For me? It's just meh.
My Rating: C-
7. Final Fantasy XII (2006)
I remember having a lot of fond memories of this game when I first played it on the PS2. However, after playing the remaster recently, I was kind of left with lukewarm feelings. Some of the dungeons drag on and on and the pacing of the story is all over the place, two traits of this game that I had apparently forgotten all about. In addition, Vaan is a terrible main character, but the game makes up for this by having pretty much every other character being either tolerable or fantastic.
Though the faces of the characters look a little weird in this game (as if they are all monsters wearing weirdly smooth and stretched human masks), the voice acting is excellent. The music is also pretty A+ and makes me think strongly of Final Fantasy Tactics (makes sense, same composer). I do appreciate the gameplay and the license board feels a little better than X's sphere grid, but it's still pretty linear with an illusion of choice when you really boil things down.
As for the battles, the gambit system is interesting, but frequently a pain in the ass to manage. I like this game, but large chunks of it are extremely unmemorable.
My Rating: C+
6. Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
This one was hard to place because, in my heart, it could probably sit as low at 8th or 9th and belong there depending on what part of the game I'm talking about. VIII has fantastic visuals (the game was breathtaking looking in 1999) and the soundtrack is one of the absolute best in the series. The characters are sort of "okayish" most of the time, often completely overshadowed by Laguna who the players only take control of for small segments throughout the game.
The story is all over the place and is pretty bonkers and nonsensical, and I find that the world map is a little on the boring side and is probably the weakest post-NES world map that the series has. We get so much thrown at us in dialogue about the world and we feel like there's so much activity and political intrigue, but then you get walking around the world map and it just feels so... vast and empty? Also, junctioning and drawing was a fun experiment, but there's a reason why these systems have never reared their heads since VIII. They're just not that good.
Visuals and gameplay (when you have the junction system setup appropriately) are both pretty stellar though, and I once again cannot stress how great the soundtrack is in this game. The best part about this game though is the mini-game, Triple Triad. When an optional card game is better than the main game itself, something's up (but this may also just be a testament to how damn good Triple Triad is).
My Rating: B-
Triple Triad: A+++++++++++++
5. Final Fantasy V (1992)
This is a tricky one. V takes III's job system and hones it to perfection while throwing a very strong and robust battle system at us in addition to a really killer soundtrack. V was also a treat to look at and is still a decent looking 2D RPG to this day as it sort of straddles a line between looking like IV and VI (as it should, it sits between those two juggernauts).
The characters and overall story aren't exactly thrilling and won't excite many players, but there are a few great curveballs throughout the game (namely beating VII to the punch when it comes to killing party members off). I like this game quite a lot and have replayed it many times over the years, but somewhere along the road I always lose interest and stop playing. I attribute this to the game's weaker story and somewhat one-dimensional cast of characters.
My Rating: B-
4. Final Fantasy VII (1997)
The game in the series that everyone knows on account of Squaresoft marketing the everliving hell out of the game when it was clear that the Sony Playstation was selling like hot cakes. Square's marketing campaign for the game mixed with the popularity of the PS1 resulted in the perfect storm. Final Fantasy VII was a mass success and brought in legions of new RPG fans who would, for the following two decades after the game's release, fondly look back on what was their personal favourite RPG of all time. Well, it ain't mine!
I like this game a lot, and I do mean a lot. Never really got the craze though? It's pretty robust and character customization is way up there. The soundtrack is probably the absolute best in the entire series and the cast of characters is supremely likeable. Drawbacks? Characters can't really do a whole lot if they don't have any materia equipped, so late in the game it doesn't really matter who you have in your party if you're not caring about limit breaks - the game becomes all about the materia (similarly to VIII being about the GFs first and foremost rather than the party members). The materia system works well, but it's a bit of a grindy slog at times.
My biggest gripe about the game is that it presents us with what is supposed to be a riveting world full of intrigue, but outside of the Gold Saucer and Midgar there really aren't many locations that feel really alive and lived in. The game promotes this epic war that had transpired with Wutai, and then when you reach Wutai and it's just a tiny little village on a remote island. They hardly feel like they could have been any kind of superpower in this world, so I feel like the game doesn't really do a good job of establishing the world that much outside of Midgar. This also ties into the story that, back in 1997, I didn't know what the hell was going on with all the talk of aliens and clones and what have you. I remember people trying to dissect this story and make sense of it being a hot topic on the internet even into the early 2000s. If a lot of people don't fully understand your game's story the first time through, that's not really a good sign?
My Rating: B+
3. Final Fantasy IV (1991)
The king of tropes! This game has so many betrayals and convenient plot twists that you'd think it invented them. The story is often laughable with all of its convenient twists and characters oddly evading death when they really should have died. Enough poking fun though, this was the first game in the series that tried to feel epic and grand and actually succeeded. There is so much intrigue in this game's story that sees you traverse across three vastly distinct world maps.
The battle system was the first to utilize the ATB system (though ATB gauges did not appear until V) and was pretty robust. The game also didn't pull any punches with its difficulty, and even with the toned down version that we got in North America, the game could still be hard at times. Characters all had pretty distinct classes and roles, but that was mostly it. There wasn't any customization, so characters were locked into doing what they were designed for.
Though IV is from 1991 and was an early SNES game, the soundtrack is freaking amazing. Uematsu hadn't hit his prime yet with IV, but some of the tracks in this game go toe to toe with his best works in VI and VII.
I really adore this game and I always have. It was also my own personal introduction to the Final Fantasy series way back in 1992 (I had previously rented the original Final Fantasy a few years prior, but I don't count it as I didn't understand the game and returned it within a few hours that same day). I will always sing this game's praises and maintain that the only negatives are lack of customization and the story being overly reliant on predictable cliches and tropes. Other than that, this is just a fantastic game in general.
My Rating: B+
2. Final Fantasy IX (2000)
Final Fantasy's swansong on the original Playstation was a doozy, and the series went out with a bang. With this being Sakaguchi's final entry in the Final Fantasy series, he decided to go back to the quaint and simple medieval setting of the old games instead of continuing the epic and grand futuristic settings of VII and VIII. This gamble paid off, and it helped pave the way for this to become one of the most beloved games in the series. My placement of this game is far from generous, as it's actually exceptionally rare to see IX place any lower than 3rd or 4th on these lists.
What makes IX so special? For starters, it has one of the most relatable cast of characters in the franchise, if not the most relatable. Zidane's gradual struggle with identity, Vivi's everlasting existential crisis, Beatrix and Steiner challenging their own beliefs and questioning their sense of duty and honour, Freya's constant loses and how she rebounds from them, and Quina's... well, okay, they're not all winners, but what Final Fantasy IX's writing does well, it does very well!
For the first time in three games, characters once again were locked into specific roles as well, and how these roles functioned could be altered slightly via the game's Ability system.
The soundtrack of IX never lets up. While it's not the best soundtrack in the series (again, that's VII), it's far above average and there's frequently any moment throughout the game where you'll be getting tired of hearing any given track - though it does happen a few times. The battle themes also kick serious ass and are probably the best in the series, especially the boss theme which admittedly is the best in the series at establishing a feeling of dread and tension in the player.
God, I can just gush about this game endlessly. I love it so much and there's very little that I think it does wrong other than the the battle system being slower than the last 4-5 games in the series, odd pacing issue here and there (a few parts of the game are slow and drag a bit) and the card game (Tetra Master) sucks balls this time around because it has an element of RNG that can screw over even the most competent and informed players. Other than that, this is a massive home run and anyone who likes JRPGs needs to play it.
My Rating: A
1. Final Fantasy VI (1994)
This is it, the defacto numero uno in my mind. I get warm fuzzies inside just thinking about this game. The fact that this little 2D gem is as heralded and revered as VII, arguably the most talked about RPG of all time, says a lot. If you simply judged a book by its cover, you possibly wouldn't understand why this game is often in contention for not best in the series, but also contesting for the title of best RPG of all time along with Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII. Sure it's one of the nicest looking games on the SNES, but what else does it offer?
For starters, this game does an incredible job of developing its cast of characters, which is no small feat considering you get over a dozen characters in your party by the end of the adventure. While a few optional characters don't get much development or time to shine, the core cast gets just as much depth, if not more, than later characters in the 3D installments. Celes in particular has one of the most unbelievable and heartfelt trajectories of any Final Fantasy character, and she is someone who I think a lot of gamers growing up probably connected with due to how, at one point, she feels absolutely hopeless, lost, and alone which leads to her attempting to commit suicide. In a 1994 2D JRPG. Hoooly shit. This game's story did not pull any punches, and while it frequently presents itself as a fun and jovial adventure, this game is perhaps the absolute bleakest, darkest, and most depressing in the entire franchise. Hope is the overarching theme of the game, and the main characters need a hell of a lot of it because the world of Final Fantasy VI is full of betrayal, injustice, murder, oppression, personal loss, poverty, sacrifice, suicide, and so much more. It's a shockingly dark game, but that just makes things all the more poignant when the ragtag band of heroes eventually prevail against...
Kefka.
Take yer damn Sephiroth and keep 'em! Kefka is the best villain that this series has ever seen, and those who say that he's just a "crazy clown" are not understanding what Kefka is about, nor are they paying attention to what the game is saying about him. Kefka was the very first human to be experimented on and was the first Magitek knight. Kefka was a good soldier before this, but the process that was used to grant him the gift of magic had not been perfected and the process took its toll on Kefka's mind. It broke him, snapping his mind like a twig. The Kefka that we see throughout the entirety of the game isn't the real Kefka. The real Kefka died when he was experimented on. This new Kefka is what remains of a broken man who cannot ever be restored to who and what he once was. All he knows how is anarchy, madness, and a nihilistic lust for chaos because he has been rendered nothing more than a mad sociopath. Kefka doesn't have a motive for causing so much death and destruction because he doesn't need one, he is a clinically insane and a broken person.
You could probably use Kefka as a case study for an essay on mental health, and casual observers of the story who are playing through "just to get through the game" will miss all of this. Kefka is the bad guy, and yes he succeeds where no bad guy did before or after by actually destroying the world, but he's also a broken and tragically sympathetic person. The real Kefka wouldn't have done this. This is a monster that Emperor Gestahl accidentally created and let loose into the world. Gestahl let this shadow of a great man cause so much chaos and strife all while believing that the unhinged Kefka was his puppet and tool that he could control.
Emperor Gestahl? He was the real villain of Final Fantasy VI. Kefka, or what remained of him, was not the villain, but rather a byproduct of the true villain's actions. Putting down Kefka at the end of the game was putting an end to the tragic events that Gestahl willingly let play out.
Look at that. I just rambled about Kefka for multiple paragraphs, and that's just about one aspect of the game, the villain. I didn't plan on doing that, I didn't prewrite anything, it just happened spontaneously. I can do that about any part of this amazing game. For Celes or Locke, for the amazing soundtrack, for the surprising customization that relics provide in conjunction with Espers, for... every facet of this game. Final Fantasy VI is one of my favourite games of all time, and it is the sort of lightning in a bottle that can only be captured one time. Square-Enix can certainly try with their Final Fantasy VII remakes and glorified and overly cinematic later entries (XIII and XV), but what allowed them to make such amazing games in the 1990s (this one specifically, but the entries in 2nd to 5th as well) is lost to them in 2021. We'll never see a JRPG like this one again.
My Rating: S
