I love Final Fantasy games. It's one of my favorite RPG series of all time. I like the characters and the exploration and of course the lighthearted story lines. But, when I compare Final Fantasy games to other RPGs, I can't help but notice the story. It's like comparing a children's book to an adult novel (with FF being the children's book). Yes, the story in FF games are good in their own right. But when you look deeper, don't you think that they're kind of mediocre?
I think the first 4 were mediocre after that though they really started working alot harder on their storylines. Only the first few storys sucked in my opinion.
I think its a matter of Genre, also not all FF titles are created equal, Alot of the storylines are completely different...
Many earlier games will always take on a simpler approach to the story. In FF6+, the stories were well written and deeper. There were individual character stories and I really liked peeking into their past. I can't say much about the online game versions of the series, as I haven't played them before.
I agree with tinybutnofangless. Some games had a much deeper storyline. I personally liked Final Fantasy VII because it made me feel for the character. However, I found the latest ones to be a little too shallow and long winded.
I think Final Fantasy 10 has a great story. The others are a bit predictable, but when I played Final Fantasy 10 I was actually blown away by the story. It's also the first time I found out that a FF protagonist doesn't have to be "angsty" all the time. And Tidus kind of "died" in the end, and I think that's a big deal because not many game developers have the guts to kill off their protagonist. Hopefully the next main title will actually have a great plot!
It depends on the game. From time to time, Final Fantasy will have a terrible or cliche storyline like X-2 or some others. However, for games like IX or VI, it's better. It probably has alot more to do with a person's preference for what kind of story is being told.
I think Final Fantasy plot lines either too simple or too complex or too cliche. Let's take for instance FF7. not to take anything away from it but I think that it was too simple. FF8 I think was too cliche. FFXII was just too complex. I did love FFVIII to FFX. I'm a fan of the series. But if you would compare their story to other JRPGs like Chrono Cross or Xenogears, it fails in comparison.
Early FF, yes there wasn't much of a plot to enjoy. I liked 9 the best because it was a good balance of characterizations, personalities and storytelling. 7 was good but Cloud wasn't relatable to me and at times seemed a little flat, like a two dimensional character than 3 dimensional one. Also Square likes to draw a little too heavily on Japanese character tropes which can get a little old at times since it's also in anime/manga.
I actually loved the story of FF13 and even the combat, but the game seemed to forced. Still, a lot of the games have had great stories, and then some of them obviously weren't so great.
The pace really picked up in the next few games. You have to start somewhere, and the game has progressed majorly than what it use to be. I personally enjoy the story lines of all the games and I have thoroughly enjoyed playing them all. Yeah, some are cheesy moments and just not the best, but the characters and the other game play is what really keeps me attached to the series in the first place.
It is really subjective, but I can see how some people would dislike the storylines. They are often overcomplicated and contradict themselves. It's also annoying when they throw in surprises that completely destroy everything the story had previously taught you to think. With that said, I don;t mind the stories.
FFIX story completely sucked in my opinion. The characters were not interesting at all and the game was a graphical downgrade to 7 and 8.
