Which Final Fantasy game is the best?

Note that I was born *after* the first FF game came out. I'm writing this as I've played the first 8 games in the past year and a half.


Final Fantasy I - Novelty
When Final Fantasy I came out, it was Square's last hope before Bankruptcy. They were hoping for a miracle, one that they achieved with the release of Final Fantasy I. Never before had the world seen such a game, featuring a unique battle system, storyline, character class, with some things that came to be known as "leveling" and "casting a spell", etc. Even though the characters were nameless without any growth, for its time, it was amazing.


Final Fantasy II - Leveling Up
Following the success of the first game, Square tweaked some things and released Final Fantasy II. The characters have names now, as well as a plot surrounding them. However, the true gem of this game that hasn't been repeated in any Final Fantasy games since is the unique leveling up system - that's very easy to manipulate. Instead of getting XP and leveling up when you get enough, each stat levels up - or down - independently. To increase a character's HP, it has to be injured enough times. To increase a level of a spell, a character has to use it enough times. In the first of these cases, you can attack yourself (which would also increase your attack skill), and in the second, you can select to cast the spell, move on, cancel, reselect, and repeat until you get tired and in both cases, the stats will skyrocket. But putting that aside - it was a great idea that, because of this manipulation, failed miserably.


Final Fantasy III - Magic System
All the Final Fantasy games up until this point had a common thread linking them, and that is the process by which magic was attained. In all three, magic was purchased or found. Final Fantasy III was no exception. Final Fantasy III featured a unique way of categorizing spells by level, and only being able to use that spell a certain number of times rather than using MP, that ended here. In fact, the entire system of purchasing magic ended here. This is a plus in the sense that there may be ways to "learn" magic coming up later that's a lot cheaper, but a downside because not everyone can learn magic later on.


Final Fantasy IV - Characters
Final Fantasy IV was the first Final Fantasy to have named characters that had a significant plot around them. For Final Fantasies I and III, the characters were completely nameless, so no plot centered around them. For Final Fantasy II, the characters had a small plot, trying to find their friend by enlisting various other people as a fourth party member with various skills. But Final Fantasy IV introduced Cecil, a Dark Knight who was in love with Rosa, a White Mage. It introduced Rydia, a summoner whose family was killed, Palom and Porom, twins with contrasting mage abilities, Kain, a backstabbing best friend of Cecil, and a villian who has a much larger role than just "final boss".


Final Fantasy V - Character Development
Final Fantasy III was the first Final Fantasy to have character classes, but the system was awkward in a sense that to go from one class to a similar cost less points than a different, and points were gained during battle and you couldn't have more than 255, etc. Final Fantasy V gives you character classes that level up as you gain points after battles. Each level gains a character a new skill. The character, in any class, has a preset ability given by the class and another ability that can be anything the character has learned. To switch the character to another class is free, and sticks the character where he or she last left off. Due to the infinite combinations of classes and abilities, this is easily the longest Final Fantasy game to play, but also one of the most rewarding.


Final Fantasy VI - Battle System
Whether or not Final Fantasy VI was the first game with the ATB or Final Fantasy V (to be honest, it's been so long since I've played V that I simply cannot remember), it's clear that there were other developments that Final Fantasy VI introduced that stuck around in other forms in all the Final Fantasy games to follow. Final Fantasy VI called them "Desperation Techniques". The following games called them "Limit Breaks". In Final Fantasy VI, each character, in relation to their preset character class, was given a unique Desperation Technique that he or she could use at any point in battle as many times as he or she wished. For Edgar, it was the use of Tools, since he was the King of a Technologically Advanced Kingdom of Figaro. For Cayenne, it was the Sword Technique, because he was a Samurai Warrior. For Gau, it was Rage, because he was a Wild Boy who learned enemy skills. For Relm, it was Sketch, because she drew a copy of the monster that would attack with that monster's skill. This made it very difficult to choose which 4 of the 14 characters would be placed in your party, because each of these skills have great advantages and disadvantages.


Final Fantasy VII - Storyline
Final Fantasy VII has been the most profitable game in Final Fantasy history. It has spun off a movie sequel, a video game prequel, an anime explanation, a video game sequel, and probably quite a bit more things are in the works. Why is this so? Because the storyline allows it to. The scientific background about the creation of Sephiroth from JENOVA, the philosophical thoughts about the Lifestream and Meteor vs Holy, the emotional development of Cloud learning who he really is, all add up to make a thoroughly unique story that will never leave.


Final Fantasy VIII - Music
All Final Fantasy games up to this point have had music composed by the famous Nobuo Uematsu (I think), however, it wasn't until VI that the soundtrack really became amazing, with songs such as Cefca, Tina, and of course the Opera. VII introduced us to the magic of One Winged Angel and the emotion of Aerith's Theme. However, it wasn't until VIII that a full orchestra was used instead of a primitive MIDI system during the game. This allowed songs like Liberi Fatali to become true masterpieces without having to purchase the soundtrack. Even during actual gameplay, songs like Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec featured vocals, where in VI, the One Winged Angel battle theme was computer instruments and no vocals.


So what Final Fantasy game is the best?
None. They're all amazing in their own areas of specialty.

ShizNat fanfic: Discovery

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3345090/1/

Weeheehee! Read and review, my friends!

You know what the best 2006 anime release was?

SIMOUN.

(But first let me apologize for lack of posts - I've been sick since Christmas Eve or so and I've been calling in sick to work, staying home from school, etc, so I've just pretty much been playing internet games at Newgrounds for two weeks.)

Yes, Simoun was absolutely amazing. It makes it into the top five on my anime list.

But why? What makes Simoun so amazing? I mean, half the characters in the end turn into guys therefore totally depleting all the yuri potential right?

Wrong.

The characters that turn male are actually surprising. I don't want to spoil anything, but the characters don't always follow what they've through during the beginning of the series on what they're going to choose, since their character development completely changes that. So the yuri-fied characters stay yuri-fied. Isn't that something?

And a semi-happy ending for the yuri-fied characters. That's something too, isn't it?

So Simoun starts yuri, progresses as yuri, and ends yuri. It's amazing.

I think I might start rating the anime I watch on some kind of 100-point scale, but I'm not sure what parts I should focus on.

But no matter - Simoun gets 100 on all of them. Well, except music, where it gets 95. But the opening kicks because it's awesome. Check out the music video on YouTube - it's yuri too! Just search Simoun and it should be on one of the first pages.