I'm going to be making a series of threads where I ask you what would you score each game of a certain video game franchise in the 1 to 5 scale, first one is going to be on Final Fantasy.

Here's what I would score each FF game (Based off the main series, not the spin-offs because there's too many of them):

• Final Fantasy: 3 out of 5 but for it's time it would scorea 5 out of 5 from me
• Final Fantasy II or IV in Japan: 5 out of 5
• Final Fantasy III or VI in Japan: 5 out of 5
• Final Fantasy VII: 4 out of 5
• Final Fantasy VIII: 2 out of 5
• Final Fantasy IX: 4 out of 5
• Final Fantasy X: 3 out of 5
• Final Fantasy X-2: 2 out of 5
• Final Fantasy XI: 2 out of 5
• Final Fantasy XII: 5 out of 5 (Very underappreciated I must say)
• Final Fantasy XIII: 3 out of 5

All of them 5/5, except for III. I'd give that a 4/5

The ones I've played:

FFVII: 5/5

FFVIII: 4/5

FFX: 5/5

FFXI: 3/5

FFXII: 4/5

FFXIII: 4/5(so far)

* Final Fantasy: 2/5
* Final Fantasy II or IV in Japan 4/5 first ff RPG 2nd JRPG ever behind dragon warrior loved it
* Final Fantasy III or VI in Japan: 5/5 Best RPG Ever
* Final Fantasy VII: 4/5 Great game my 3rd most playd FF behind ff2 and ff3 US
* Final Fantasy VIII: 2/5 BLeh
* Final Fantasy IX: 3/5
* Final Fantasy X: 3/5
* Final Fantasy X-2: 4/5 What can I say I loved its Quirkiness and battle system
* Final Fantasy XI: 2/5 was ok just hated it took forever to do anything at all.
* Final Fantasy XII: 0/5 I lasted maybe 2 hours what a waste of time.
* Final Fantasy XIII: N/A

Final Fantasy: 2/5 stars
A solid NES RPG but it's really just a DQ clone and there isn't much plot to speak of.

Final Fantasy II: 3/5 stars
Added some story and better gameplay but still nothing special.

Final Fantasy III: 3/5 stars
Improvements over FFII but not enough to really change the score, tougher though.

Final Fantasy IV: 4.5/5 stars
The start of what FF really is, one of the best plot lines of any RPG, great cast, great combat upgrades.

Final Fantasy V: 3.5/5 stars
The story wasn't up to the standard FFIV set but the job system was pretty amazing.

Final Fantasy VI: 5/5 stars
The best game in the series, great plot, great cast, great everything, the perfect RPG experience.

Final Fantasy VII: 4.5/5 stars
Great in so many ways, the plot was mature but sloppy at times, combat was a step up, great cast.

Final Fantasy VIII: 4.75/5 stars
Great plot, great cast, best character development mechanics from any FF (junction system), really underated.

Final Fantasy IX: 4.25/5 stars
The plot was a step down from VI-VIII but still good, cast was great, development mechanics were good, great atmosphere.

Final Fantasy X: 2/5 stars
Beautiful game with good combat but awful plot, awful cast of characters and way way to linear.

Final Fantasy XI: 1/5 stars
Not Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy XII: 3.25/5 stars
An improvement over X but the plot and cast are equally weak.

The plot and characters were great in Final Fantasy XII, it was filled with political intrigue instead of a angsty and cliche save the world plot. The characters actually had character and not 1 dimensional anime stereo-types.

I have to disagree, I found it to be distant and sub-par. The main problem with FFXII to me is that at no time did I ever made an emotional connection to the characters or the plot, both were lacking compared to previous entries in the series. In fact I've always thought of FFXII as Vagrant Story 2 and not a Final Fantasy at all. Plus the gambit system is god awful.

The ones I played:

Final Fantasy IV: 4/5
Final Fantasy V: 3/5 (Didn't finish it)
Final Fantasy VI: 5/5
Final Fantasy VII: 5/5
Final Fantasy VIII: 3/5
Final Fantasy IX: 4/5
Final Fantasy X: 5/5
Final Fantasy XII: 1/5

Overall the best for me are VII, VI and X.
The worst BY FAR is XII

PS: I Didn't play XIII yet.

Final Fantasy X: 5/5
Final Fantasy XII: 3.5/5
Final Fantasy XIII: 4.5/10

Let's just say "not very good". IV, VI, and IX would probably rank highest for me, coming in at 3/5 to 4/5. The rest would be 2/5 to 3/5, especially XII, which could pull a 1/5 if I was particularly grumpy that day. I don't care how good a game is, if the first 15 hours are lame, the game is average AT BEST.

I will not buy into the idea "but it gets BETTER" because then you're punishing games whose developers worked bloody hard to give a consistent experience and not make the first 1/3 of the game suck ass. Slow-starting games must be marked down accordingly in fairness to games who provide a solid experience from beginning to end.