Whenever the mainline Final Fantasy games are discussed, there are certain games that are left out of the discussion for one reason or the other.  This is your chance to vote on your favorite sequel, prequel, remake or MMO of a mainline Final Fantasy game.  All of these games are like the mainline games, but are either additional stories, alternative stories, or MMO's.  Please tell us which one is your favorite and why.  The options are:

Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XIV
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 
Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XIII-2
Lightning Returns

If you would like to vote on and discuss the other mainline Final Fantasy games, then you can find a thread here.

Damn, this one is hard for me.

From the poll its between FFVII Remake, FFVII Crisis Core and FF XIII-2.

FFVII Remake - playing through it right now and halfway done with the game, I'm just loving the expansion of Midgar, the introduction of new characters and how the OG cast is depicted and their interactions. The gameplay is great, the remixed OST is great and the new additions to the OST is making me love the music.

FF XIII-2 - felt like a love letter to the typical FF fan, the story was cheapened by the introduction of time travel but gameplay wise the game has been great - the fact that you can recruit monsters as a third party member was great (I had a Chocobo army). The OST is bonkers amazing, I love it, even the crazy Chocobo track from Nobuo Uematsu. The gameplay won me over and is the main reason why I enjoyed it more than the first game

FFVII Crisis Core - played the PSP version years ago, the story and cast of characters was the best part about the game. Gameplay was okay and the music was amazing. Cant wait to play the remake/remaster after I finish up FFVII Remake.


I went with FFVII Remake because out of the three this one I'm having a blast - story and gameplay are on point unlike FFXIII-2 which had great gameplay but poor story and FFVII Crisis Core which had great story but poor gameplay in comparison.

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I havent played XI or XIV so cant give an opinion on them - same with Stranger of Paradise and VII Rebirth

Lightning Returns I only played a bit of it but cant judge it yet

X-2 was garbage comparison to X - the OST was okay and the gameplay was decent but the story and progression of the game sucked.

IV After Years is absolutely the most biggest piece of garbage of a game in the entire series. I enjoyed FF2 NES more than this garbage. I've only played the PSP version but I'll eventually have to stomach through the 3D remake which I'm hoping at least is better than the 2D version.

Edit: To expand FFIV After Years - the story is segmented in different parts which makes you jump multiple times throughout the story (btw the Children/successors are not as memorable as the original characters) but a lot of the bosses and locations are re-used with little to no difference between the first game and this game.

They upped the difficulty to the max and the Moon system is abuseable but at the same time was an annoyance, makes you wonder why they even added it in the first place - reminds me of the Junction system from FFVIII , just felt like a chore rather than a fun experience.

VII Remake

Everybody says XIV is great but the base game is honestly a big boring. You bees to wait a lot dor the story start engaging. I think I kkght be too old for MMOs lol

VII Remake I think. In spite of its padding it really won me back after a decade of not loving the franchise.

Rebirth is a more well rounded gameplay experience but also more unpolished technically and messy story wise.

A choise between VII Remake and Rebirth I think. Remake is a bit more focused storyline-wise, but Rebirth is stronger overall, so I voted for it.

Rebirth. It's the closest the series has come to what it should be, ignoring the story of course and the fact that it is one part of a larger story. Elden Ring however is still the best Final Fantasy game.

No space for DIRGE? THE DIRGE OF CERBERUS? Disgraceful. Anyway, best remake is the DS version of 4.

And as we established yesterday, all souls like are just Zeldalikes, which means Ocarina of Time is the best Final Fantasy game ever made?

Only Elden Ring is a Zelda Like. 

From what I played and finished:

FF7 Rebirth = FF4 PSP (if 2D remakes count) > FFXIV (including expansions) > FF7 Remake > FF3 Remake > FF4 The After Years = FF1 PSP > FFX2 > FF2 PSP (didn't finish lol I did like the music and gloomy atmosphere).

It's difficult to rank XIV though. Not really a comparable experience to offline Final Fantasy games. Countless hours of fun with many great moments, but it is at its core a PS3 MMO.

When it comes to remakes FF7 Rebirth is the top dog imo, followed closely by FF7 Remake. Both fantastic games.

When it comes to spinoffs the OG FF Tactics for ps1 is goated. Tho I guess is really not a spinoff.