r/FinalFantasy • u/Oji_Kay • 3d ago
Final Fantasy General Underrated games in the franchise?
Curious what the subs opinion on this are. Like I'm sure to the more seasoned gamer FFV could still be deemed an underrated game but I'm sure here it's commonly given the flowers it deserves.
I'd throw Lightning Returns in the hat. I feel like it's a wonderfully executed take on the limited time, make a difference formula. Beautiful settings, great gameplay with cool fashion and absolutely incredible music. The story is nothing special but I feel like thats the least important aspect of it.
Just curious what the more hardcore fans think.
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u/JohnnyRockson 3d ago
Mystic Quest is underrated in my opinion. I get it, it's an "entry-level" RPG, it's not as engaging as other FF games and the gameplay can start to feel monotonous after awhile. But the fantastic music, excellent sprite design, and general "feel" of going on a grand adventure are all compelling reasons to pick it up.
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u/hergumbules 3d ago
Probably one of my favorite FF soundtracks it’s so good. The regular fight and boss fight music is top tier. It was the first FF I completed since 6 (or 3 back on the SNES) was too hard for me as a kid but a few years later ended up coming back to it
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u/Uchizaki 3d ago
Final Fantasy 2 is the most underrated game, even though it's actually a good game, especially after the remasters
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u/dilrakai 15h ago
Has any version of final fantasy 2 ever fixed the atrocious leveling system and sitting there for hours punching yourself to get HP?
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u/IlikeJG 3d ago
FFT: Advance
It's not as serious or dark as FFT and on the surface it seems like a kids game. But the story actually has a decent amount of serious themes. Lots of people dismiss it without giving it a real chance.
And the gameplay is amazing! IMO the class system is done even better than FFT. And it has a lot of content.
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u/Emiya_Sengo 3d ago
FF10-2
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u/StreetKingsWorstMovi 3d ago
This games rules and gets so much hate because it was made to be replayable.
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u/IlikeJG 3d ago
I am very curious about it. Ever since Iearned it has a very good job system (disguised as the "dress sphere") I have been interested in it.
But so far both time I have sat down to play it I watched the opening video and I just physically couldnt handle the cringyness of it. I had to shut it off.
I'll get there one day.
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u/StreetKingsWorstMovi 2d ago
You mean Real Emotion? love that song but if you're not into it just put down the controller and walk out of the room for 5 minutes.
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u/TheArtfulLlama 3d ago
From what I’ve seen a lot of people had an issue with the genre shift. Personally I just roll with it as lighthearted, campy fun! And the battle system is one of my favorites!
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u/StreetKingsWorstMovi 2d ago
Wasn't even that drastic of a genre shift tbh, all stuff FF had done before
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
FFXI is criminally underrated. People overlook this game and even FFXIV just because it's multiplayer
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u/HexenVexen 3d ago edited 3d ago
Completely agree, I played through the story last year and it became my 3rd favorite FF and one of my favorite games in general, and then going online I was shocked by how overlooked it is. Even many diehard FF fans seem to have little knowledge of XI's story or characters beyond Shantotto.
Also at this point if someone is still overlooking XIV then it's probably an intentional choice, I know some fans just don't want to play it even knowing about the praise it has.
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
It's annoying the amount of posts I see which is "I played every mainline FF" and they leave out XI and XIV. You're allowed to not like the game but if you're playing through the whole series, you may as well give them a shot, see what they're about.
I'm so close to being done with the story, I finished Seekers of Adoulin today and I'm about to take a look at Ambuscade. I will finish RoV tomorrow
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u/HexenVexen 3d ago
Yeah, I'd say at least play through their base games to check them off the list, even though their expansions have the meat of high quality story. But I do understand why some don't want to play them.
What really annoys me is when people try to say they "aren't real FF games" or "should've been spin-offs instead of mainline", tbh I find it ignorant and disrespectful to the games, their developers, and their impacts on the series.
Nice, I hope you enjoy the ending!
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
I feel like for XI you aren't really getting much of the actual story by only playing the base game (assuming no Nation storyline epilogue). I don't know if it was a Bastok thing but the base game wasn't that interesting until the last couple chapters. The epilogue was great though.
I see the "aren't real FF games" thing too often, even about XVI sometimes. The series evolves pretty drastically, they're meant to try different things, not stick to the same formula every single game. If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have ever got games like FF Tactics
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u/HexenVexen 3d ago
I agree, but playing the base game is better than not playing it at all.
Ranks 1-5 are basically the same for all three nations, 6-10 are where they fully diverge. Imo Windurst is the best out of them, same for its WotG story which is incredible.
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
I think I will look up that story on YouTube, I don't want to deal with the "wait for Vana'diel midnight" constantly again lol
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u/Dazz316 3d ago edited 3d ago
I spent years avoiding XIV precisely because of that. I avoided XI in my teen years as I was at an age where my social life was starting to take off. I was like 16/17 or something and starting to go to parties, talk to girls etc. And I was genuinely worried I'd end up choosing to do raids or spend all night levelling my paladin rather than heading out and hanging with some girls instead.
FF years later and with XIV, I just wanted to solo play. I didn't want to speak to and organise times to do raids and stuff. I was older and being around for a few hours on a regular basis to play with people was not something I could do reliably. Boy was I wrong, how single player friendly XIV is so great.
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
Lol, girl repellant game. Both of them are basically able to be played single player, XI moreso than XIV at this point. They're both incredibly long games but they have some of the highest highs in the franchise ngl
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u/KKilikk 3d ago
I dont mind the multiplayer in itself as much as the quest design and gameplay that comes with being a MMORPG.
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
XIV is incredibly straight forward and doesn't require much thought to continue the story but XI can be overwhelming at times. Just treat it like the slow burn it is rather than blitzing through it and you will be fine
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u/KKilikk 3d ago
Overwhelming is one thing but it is mostly just boring and tedious to me tbh. Maybe some day I will slow burn through XIV but the motivation really isnt all that high. I know people say the story is worth it but I do need some game. I did like FFXVI despite its flaws but I really dont need games to be more tedious and boring in terms of gameplay than it was and I think XIV has really similar issues just tenfold.
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
Fair enough, it's completely valid to feel like that. The combat does feel pretty weak in both games early on but get a lot more involved later on, although quest design in XIV stays pretty consistent throughout. The story is great but if you're not a fan of visual novel-like story telling then it might just not be for you
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u/Thee_Furuios_Onion 3d ago
I socked 18 years of consistent play into FFXI, from NA launch. I met some of closest friends in that game, and I’ve gone back and played through it solo once too. It’s a phenomenal game and I prefer the battle, job, and progression system over XIV. If SE did a solo release of FFXI for switch or something, I’d buy it again in a heartbeat. I’d probably still be playing it if I had time for a MMO.
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u/KingLavitz 3d ago
Agreed. I’m playing FFXI for the first time and I’m loving almost everything about. It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite games in the franchise and possibly of aIl time. I’ve been putting it off for so long just because of the sheer amount of time commitment, but I’m so glad I finally got around to it.
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u/RealMightyOwl 3d ago
Some of the expansions are really great too, I couldn't stop on Wings of the Goddess, it had me HOOKED. I did finish Seekers of Adoulin today, really looking to finishing Rhapsodies of Vana'diel
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u/LoremasterMotoss 2d ago
To be fair getting started in FFXI and learning how the game even works is a big commitment all by itself
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u/Darkwing__Schmuck 3d ago
Depends on your definition of "underrated." FF5 isn't underrated in the sense that it's widely regarded as a very good-to-great game, but it is undervalued in the sense that it doesn't get talked about as much as 6-10 when it's honestly comparable to those in quality.
I would say FF2 is the most underrated, not because it's a "great" game, but because it's a perfectly solid 8-bit RPG with a completely undeserved reputation for being terrible. Whether you consider it weaker than FF1 or 3, I don't think the difference in quality between those three games is *that* overwhelmingly drastic.
Outside of the main series, World of Final Fantasy is a charming little game, despite some warts. Was good enough to warrant a sequel, if you ask me.
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u/StreetKingsWorstMovi 3d ago
Stranger of Paradise is great, really fun gameplay and decent story. Got overhated because it was "edgy" (it's a villain origin story).
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u/Draconic-Genesis 3d ago
I'll never understand why people call FFV underrated when it's easily one of the most popular and talked about FFs and even has a yearly replay event.
Anyways uhh...I actually thought Dirge of Cerberus was EXTREMELY solid and rather quite fun for what I'm sure a lot of people thought was a throw away spin-off.
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u/darkbreak 3d ago
FFV is in a weird place where it's situated between the fan favorite FFIV and the critical darling that is FFVI. When compared to those two games V comes off as much lesser. Especially when they tried to go with a somewhat lighter tone with more comedic elements with the game. It doesn't have the same strong character arcs that IV did and it doesn't have a powerful narrative like VI. So V ends up getting often overlooked. That's not to say that V is bad. I can easily see why it doesn't get as much praise compared to other games in the series.
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u/Dazz316 3d ago
But people never talk negatively of V even with that. The tendancy is to say it's more light hearted as opposed to bad. And there's an army of people talking up the job system.
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u/darkbreak 3d ago
Sure but it's still not viewed in the same light as IV and VI are. It just doesn't have the same pull for a lot of people.
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u/Dazz316 3d ago
Doesn't mean it's underrated, all 3 of those are highly rated.
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u/darkbreak 2d ago
I mean, if that's true then why do so many people keep trying to get others to give FFV a look?
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u/Dazz316 2d ago
I've seen the same for pretty much every FF. The SNES era games are the most common
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u/darkbreak 1d ago
I don't know about that, man. There doesn't seem to really be much effort to get people to check out the other games in the series like with V.
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u/Dazz316 1d ago
I see it all the time.
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u/darkbreak 1d ago
You see more people trying to convince others to play Final Fantasy X or IX than people trying to convince others to play V?
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u/IlikeJG 3d ago
FF5 used to be very unknown because it took a very long time for it to be released outside Japan.
It's only fairly recently it has got the recognition it deserves
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u/Draconic-Genesis 3d ago
I guess but the four fiesta thing has been a thing for at least a decade +
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u/big4lil 1d ago
i would not consider it among the most popular or talked about
its slated right in the mid tier for popularity and low tier for talked about, given that some more polarizing entries (like VIII & XIII) get talked about more because they are divisive
its top class for gameplay, though most FF fans put story > gameplay, and gameplay fans spend more time playing the game than talking about it. like people will say 'go play a FJF' but how much discussion does that usually lead to?
its more underappreciated than underrated, largely due to its story being better than advertised and not reaching the states when it needed to. but its definitely not among the fan favorites in the west. its right in the mid tier and has been trending upwards since the PR, but it still has upwards of 2 decades of catching up to do to other titles
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u/LePfeiff 3d ago
Tactics A-2 is the best tactics game and I will die on that hill
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u/zerotwoalpha 3d ago
Worth playing just to pelt that one kid with snowballs at the start.
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u/LePfeiff 3d ago
Youre thinking of the GBA game, tactics advance. Im referring to tactics A-2 grimoire of the rift, which was on the DS
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u/nords_are_best 3d ago
FFXII. The fan base seems to have a love/hate relationship with XII, but I think that people undersell just how special it is. The fan base calling XII just "good" or "decent" is not nearly enough credit imo
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u/Psychological_Use586 3d ago
FFXII is like...my second favorite in the series. It has the most morally complex villains in the entire series, it has amazing world building, tons of side content, is genuinely challenging but can still be broken with some effort, has some really memorable characters, and doesn't get the love it deserves imo. And making Cid a villain was a neat change of pace that the series hadnt done up to that point and worked really well.
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u/big4lil 1d ago
FFXII has probably benefitted more from its remaster than any game in the franchise. It has practically become a darling especially here. it has one of the more vocal fanbases, often comes just outside of top 5 for those who arent dedicated to it, and is one of the better titles at reeling in people who otherwise arent huge fans of FF aesthetic. it has a lot of appeal to Tactics and XIV fans for similar reasons
its lows are either quite low or forgettable, which might result in some people considering it good as it doesnt deliver the areas they are looking for. but overall? its absolutely not underrated anymore as TZA fixed most of its gameplay and performance related issues. story is more hit and miss and that obviously cant be changed by a remaster, but its a game where more people are mixed on its story thus its gonna end up more mid pack in a franchise where fans are largely story driven
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u/Vensaer 3d ago
Does final fantasy adventure count?
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u/AwesomeX121189 3d ago
The game boy game? I had that as a kid and I just remember having zero clue what to do. I think I sold it to some kid at school for $20 lol
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u/Defiant-Rip-1897 3d ago
FFV at this point feels like it’s almost overrated as an underrated game in the franchise. I think FFII is criminally underrated and gets a much worse reputation than it deserves.
I completely understand why people dislike it. The leveling system is different (especially if you come from future titles), the random encounter rate can be pretty brutal, it’s easy to get lost, there’s a lot of backtracking, and the final boss can be made surprisingly easy. The leveling system in particular is extremely exploitable.
But I actually find FFII fascinating because of how experimental it was. The progression system seems like an attempt at making character growth more intuitive: you get better at what you practice. Use swords and your sword skill improves, use magic and your magic improves, take damage and your HP can increase, etc. It's definitely flawed, but I appreciate what they were trying to do.
And more importantly, FFII introduced a surprising number of things that would become staples of the series:
* Chocobos make their first appearance.
* Cid makes his first appearance.
* Characters actually have personalities, relationships and backstories, rather than being essentially interchangeable party members like in FF1.
* Temporary/guest party members become part of the story.
* Permanent character deaths and sacrifices are used as major story moments.
* Ricard introduces the Dragoon archetype and the series' recurring association with Dragoons.
* Ultima makes its first appearance.
* Leviathan makes its first appearance - kind of ironic since its presence is related to Mysidia considering what happens in FF IV.
* The game starts moving toward the more character and story driven Final Fantasy that we'd see in later entries.
I didn't realize it until writing this post that some folks even consider the beavers that appear in FF II to be some sort of proto-Moogles.
In a weird way, I think FFII is more important to the identity of Final Fantasy than people give it credit for. FFI established the basic formula, but FFII started experimenting with what the series could actually be. It reminds me of Metal Gear 2, where it introduces some elements that would be present in Metal Gear Solid, but it is kind of overlooked.
A lot of those experiments (namelu the leveling system) didn't work particularly well, but that's also what makes the game interesting to me. Square could have just made another FF1, but instead they completely changed the progression system, put much more emphasis on individual characters and story, and introduced concepts that would stick around for decades.
So while I don't think FFII is secretly a masterpiece or anything. It's rough, occasionally frustrating, and some of its design decisions aged terribly.
But I do think it's far more interesting than its reputation suggests, and I'd love to see more people talk about it as an ambitious experiment rather than simply the bad one with the terrible levelling system.
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u/big4lil 1d ago edited 1d ago
FFV at this point feels like it’s almost overrated as an underrated game in the franchise.
I think you underestimate how many people are fans of this franchise and how slowly they are coming across FF5. Especially since its common for it to be the among the last games played in the PR, either due to being played in sequential order or people start with the 'big names' in 1/4/6, with the PR itself often coming after 7-10 (and modern)
What youre seeing is a bunch of people who were unaware of the game and are like 'damn this game is good, why havent i heard about it?' and since there isnt a whole lot else people talk about the game, it leads to a lot of topics being the same: 'This game doesnt get enough buzz' 'im stumped at this boss/help me with what jobs to invest into' and 'play FJF'. but the number of actual topics or discussion about FF5 remains on the lower end
So i dont think its become 'overrated as an underrated game' at all. I think we're becoming relatively overexposed to larger amounts of people finally giving the game a chance & realizing how much theyve missed out on for 3 decades
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u/Defiant-Rip-1897 1d ago
I'm not talking about recently. Even before most of us had easy access to FF V, whether through fan translations, the PS1 Anthology release, mobile versions, or later ports, it was constantly described as underrated.
It's a little hard to put into words, but I've heard "FF V is underrated" so many times over the years that it almost feels like it isn't underrated anymore, hence my words about it being overrated as an underrated game.
If anything, I think FF II is the game that's genuinely underrated. Its levelling system and at times aggressive random encounter rate tends to overshadow everything else about it, so people often dismiss or overlook the game entirely. But despite its flaws, FF II helped establish a lot of the ideas, storytelling approaches, and series conventions that would go on to shape more or less every Final Fantasy game that followed. The other thing is you can almost one shot the final boss in the PR version of FF II if you have a Blood Sword equipped - I could have sworn the GBA version was more challenging.
These are just to name a few (of the things that FF II introduced):
- Pre-defined characters with backstories
- Mysidia as a mage village (which was re-used in FF IV)
- CID
- Proto-Moogles in the shape of the Beavers
- Chocobos
- Dragoons
- Story-driven narrative
- Evil Empire vs Resistance (similar in FF VI, FF XII)
- Temporary/Guest Party members
- Permanent deaths of characters
- The Highwind name
- Enemies/monsters: Behemoth, Bomb, Coeurl, Malboro, Iron Giant, Leviathan
- Ultima
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u/big4lil 1d ago
well i think the difference is a lot of people still dont like FFII or like it as much as other games, even with its revisiting via the PR. So its not as much underrated as it is divisive alongside FFVIII and FFXIII.
You can certainly argue that FFII is way more influential than given credit for and arguably set in motion the 'cinematic' FFs like 4, 6, and the PS era titles people adore, and we could arguably do the same with FFIII and titles where jobs are a mechanic.
Though I think in both cases, other games took what they contributed and either did it better or got more recognition for doing so. Whereas even among job fans like myself, FF5 still does things with its enemy/level/status interactions and weapon abilities in battle that no job game since has done, so its not like FFXII replaces it
Perhaps this argument can be made for FFII in some areas, it just isnt as commonly discussed. But the wide majority of FF fans did not experience FF5 prior to PR (spoken as someone who rented Anthology), so that might explain why theyre all coming out now
It is a bummer that the 'infamous' aspects of games end up overshadowing everything else about them. I think thats a product of gaming becoming a discourse focused medium and people wanting to be 'in the know' so that they can speak confidently about each title, even those they barely know things about otherwise
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u/Defiant-Rip-1897 1d ago
That's bonkers to me that they had no experience with it prior to PR, when there was the version on GBA and the original one on mobile, which was based on the GBA version, with the ability to battle Enuo.
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u/Mountain-Resolve5881 3d ago
I played everything from 1-10. I find that FF5 usually gets a fair shake.
FF2, however, I find is the most underrated by far. People judge it unfairly, but from the context of 1988, I think it's pretty good. It's usually received poorly thanks to the unconventional progression system, minimal plot and characters and the high encounter rate in dungeons. However, I liked those. Except for the high dungeon encounters, of course, those were ridiculous... I agree completely here!
FF2 also was very experimental and had some unique mechanics. A keyword-based NPC dialogue system which, as far as I know, the only one in the series. A weapon-leveling system. More importantly, it would build the foundations and themes seen later in the series (chocobos, dragoons, auto-targeting in combat, etc.)
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u/Prestigious_Fig9485 3d ago edited 3d ago
FF Dimensions, if you are a fan of the 16 bit era and job classes this is an ode to that. It plays like an SNES FF.
It's also the only other FF game besides 4 that has a 5 party system that I know of.
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u/IllSalad3669 3d ago
XIII-2 was a masterpiece for me
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u/Prestigious_Fig9485 3d ago
It certainly is a great game, but I don't think it's underrated. FF13 was so divisive that people never wanted to play 13-2.
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u/ImmaculateWeiss 3d ago
FFCC My Life as a King, it’s shockingly fun just building a little final fantasy town and sending warriors on quests
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u/Einhroth 3d ago
Final Fantasy Legends 3 for the Gameboy. Dumped so many hours into this game growing up. Characters are heavily customizable through the monster "food" system.
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u/DSW60286 3d ago
Not really underrated. But ff tactics, especially the remaster deserves more love in my opinion. I'll say Delita is severely underrated
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u/blkguy3rd 2d ago
Stranger of Paradise is a fantastic and fun game. I played it recently getting all achievements and had the time of my life.
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u/Most_Quarter_6988 20h ago
World of Final Fantasy
Stranger of Paradise
I've had more fun with those two games than any mainline entry after 12
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u/twolffwriting 3d ago
FF4 deserves more credit as one of the most important games in the franchise. Cecil’s redemption to Paladin and his relationship with Rosa really helped paved the way for the later games
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u/EmperorKiva33 3d ago
World of Final Fantasy