@ bold - I totally agree. I certainly wouldn't argue against anyone that says FFVI is the best in the series. It would have been so easy for that game to turn out less than it was, considering the vast number of characters and interrelated storylines it had through out - but the game developers pulled it off.

FF IV for me, even though i haven't played much, so far I've only tried I, IV, VII, X.

I loved how no one among the 100 voters, no one claimed FF13 to have the best story. Is it that bad guys ? If i want to try one, should i go with XIII or XIII-2 ?

Forget about final fantasy go play suikoden 2.

For me back in ps1 days I played final fantasy 7 on a friend's machine. At that time, the graphics, the gameplay, music and the scope of the game world blew everyone's mind.

Idk

In 7, you see a well respected soldier in Sephiroth. You get to see and understand exactly how he became a villain. Sephiroth found out the "truth" and went crazy. Cloud also went through the exact thing as Sephiroth. He found out the truth, went crazy and had to be saved by Tifa

FFX was weird when you found out what was really going on. Like how Auron died 10 years before the beginning of Final Fantasy 10 and how Tidus was a dream.

Or the moment when you found out that Yevon was a joke. We got to see a great transitioning in Waka. He was pretty much the epitome of a devout Yevon believer. He was True and stood by his Yevon beliefs all the way up until he finally broke loose from the endless spiral of hopelessness at the Yunalesca fight.

Auron knew the truth at the very beginning but decided not to tell them. He wanted them to find out exactly how he did. Auron sat there and watched as Yunalesca told them the same exact thing she told him right before he snapped(much like how Tidus did) and tried to fight her resulting in his death
4:40 to 5:40 Dat speech!

FFVI, simply the best story. No question.

To answer your poll: the Golden Age.

Final Fantasy Tactics. The story was fantastic. It was A Game of Thrones in sprite form. I'm not kidding about that. War, murder, social injustice, betrayal, revenge, regicide, patricide, power struggles between church and state, and the skewed perspective of history were all themes. It was mature in every sense of the word.

As for the numbered entries, Final Fantasy VI was by far the best designed and constructed. It didn't simply have one story, but several compelling stories and themes that came together, split apart to develop separately, then came together once more in the second half. It was really a brilliantly told tale of many converging paths. It also had some of the best character development in video-game history.

Why do some people have mixed feelings about Final Fantasy VII? Personally, I think, even though I liked the game a lot, that it marked the beginning of the 'style over substance' era of Final Fantasy. Cut-scenes, an emphasis on graphics, giant swords, and "cool" looking main characters started here. Also, it seems to have started the love affair the Japanese have with stories that make little sense and are littered with plot-holes and a willful disregard for logic. I will always think of it as a step down from the true depth of FF VI.

FFVI

yeah, XIII was bad. 

The worst part is knowing that the backstory and world they created was deep and VERY involving, but the people who made it had NO Idea how to weave exposition into the Narrative, so the only way to GET any of that information was to go into your menu and read hundreds of datalog entries.  It got so bad there was one point in the game where you fought a bunch of enemies (I think right before leaving coccoon and landing on gran Pulse) where one woman was clearly some sort of antagonist that you were supposed to like, but there was little talk of her AT ALL up to that point.  The only way you could know or understand anything about her was to read the datalog.  

The whole story was like that, requiring you to read an in-game encyclopedia to understand what was going on because the story that you experienced was so rudimentary and shallow.  

Was the story good?  It was mediocre - certainly not bad - but it was nowhere near good, especially considering HOW you experienced that story.  

Personnaly, I think FF XIII was the worse in the series, and I haven't even bothered with the spin-offs. I really don't understand how that game has made so much money and SE has made so many spin-offs. The FF brand must still be really strong.

Generally speaking, it is my favorite franchise, but there's always points where I'm like
WTF, why do that! and not in a good way moments some worse than others. Some lag in certain areas.

VI, VII, X, XII (12's story is quite good and probably the tightest, however it is paced really really bad, that doesn't make the story not good however)

Those aren't my favorite FF games though. FFV, FF8, and FFX-2 are, because they are just more fun to play within the story... I have weird (bad) taste :).