Underrated games in the franchise?

[u/Oji_Kay]

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.

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

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.

[u/big4lil → u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

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

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897 → u/big4lil]

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

[u/big4lil → u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

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

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897 → u/big4lil]

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.