Are you serious? I thought crystal chronicles was a pretty good game and all, but its story wasn't why. KH2s story was far better.

QFT

Kingdom Hearts II's story was great.  Not only was FFCC's story straightforward, it was a carbon copy of Legaia

Without spoiling anything: The premise of the game is that, via the cycle of death and rebirth, the world has been unmade and now lies in ruin, with the few human survivors struggling to make their way in a strange post-apocalyptic land full of demons and mythical creatures. The humans that have persevered through the calamity must now engage in a battle of wits to reshape the world in their image.

While there are a few cutscenes, most of the major events in the game occur through choices you make: you can either agree with, and perhaps aid, one of the survivors, or attempt to create your own world.

Aside from the Team Ico-like way in which the story is told, the main draw of the story is how utterly bereft of cliche it is. There's no main bad guy, there's no team of heroes (just you - a half-demon - and whatever other beings you can recruit to your cause), and there's no world to save - indeed, the world as we know it is already gone. Therefore, what looks like a deceptively simple story gradually branches out into something far more profound than any "save the world" fairy-tale-style shindig ever could be.

To compare it to Xenogears, though: I played most of the way through the first disc, and didn't think the story was anything special. In fact, I laughed my ass off when the villain revealed that he wanted to "kill God." How more cliche can you get?

Your counter arguments are very weak. I have to ask have you ever read a book in your life? You swallow all those attempts at plot like they were some sort of Shakespeare or Dostoievski books. I can enjoy simple and cliche plots like those in DQ, Lufia or some Tales series. Modern FF games on the other hand are pretentious. Like modernist art where you crap on a golden plate and call it art.

FF7 got annoying plot twists. Your Stars Wars example is pretty stupid. Vader and Luke relation doesn`t affect Last Hope story at all, it makes sense when you watch the movie. A bad plot twist would be something like Alderaan was not destroyed, the Death Star destroyed a Alderaan from the future. The tusken raiders led by Jar Jar Binks descendant from the future used a device to transport the Alderaan from the future and fool Vader. That is a perfect example of no one saw it coming plot twist. It is random, there is no hint in the story and a convenient character is introduced to make it sound reasonable. Look at FF 7 plot: Cloud memories are fake, Tifa conveniently remember things wrong, Sepiroth who was a very rational character turns into a madman. Explain me why he don`t even realize who his parents are? Why he thinks he is some sort of true descendant from the planet (Cetra) when his parents are human and Jenova is not even a Cetra? Why important plot events like Lucrecia experiment are learned through a very short sidequest? Those things are never explained in a reasoble manner they just present them and hope you get it.

FF 8 problem isn`t too many things, it is lack of focus. You start out as some mercenary, then you fight against an evil country/empire, then you must assassinate an evil sorceress, the you die, then you wake up in prison and is alive. then you defeat the evil sorceress but learn she was the one who created you and all your party members like her own sons and convenietly you forgot all about it, then your friends try get you and Rinoa together, the evil sorceress spirit manifest in her, then you must go to the moon to kill the sorceress, then you have a date into a Alien (the movie) like ship and finally you kill the sorceress so that Squall can overcame his gay urges for Seifer and experience his first kiss with Rinoa. It may be oversimplificating, but that is the problem with bad plots, they are told in a way you never see the whole picture just the small bits. As for the movie examples, they are retarded. Superman and Spiderman don`t spend 20-30% of their screen time discussing their relationships. Every character save for Rinoa and Squall are forgotten after the first disc. Almost every charater development after that point is about the two getting closer. It get pretty annoying, there is no time for flirting, you must save the world. When did Spiderman put Mary Jane above NY safety? In the comics and cartoons they break up several times because Parker is always late.

FF 12 is crap just face it. I was not trying to be funny, not at all. The fact that you think I was trying to make a joke is funny, I was just describing the game. Out of all the 6 characters only 3 got reasons to fight. The other 3 are just in for the ride. So you think that a princess without a kingdom would fight against an entire empire with random people trying to loot her castle? Basch, Fran and Balthier can fight why would the princess choose random orphans that got no reason or experience to help her? The clothes are extravagant and ridiculous. Everyone save for Balthier is either semi naked or using urban culture fashionable acessories. That doesn`t help against the monsters. You may use the strawman argument and say that it is a fantasy game, fantasy settings, it doesn`t need to be realistic yadda yadda yadda. However the game is set to be the most realistic FF so far. It is pretty lame that you spend most of your time hunting for magic rocks to destroy the evil empire when they go as far as to make a detailed setting for the world. Your Star Wars and LoR analogies are lame. Why don`t you attack the plot and dress code like I did? Why talk about side characters and not the main ones? Since when fat, old, ugly, deformed and strange haircut are ridiculous characteristics for fictional characters? Hairy Feet and androgyouns match the races the characters belong to. If those guys were semi naked and dressed in skin tight leather then you would have a point. Political the way you use it is political in the loose sense. Every game made by men is political in this sense. If you wanna see a example of political focused plot game play The Bully or Fire Emblem series.

That last part made me a little angry. I can`t look beyond the surface? It is more like you are too busy worshiping SE to accept valid criticism. Do you really think those games had some sort of deep lesson to teach. They are a bunch of cliches made with a certain demographic in mind. Someone write a scenario and then SE just add things to suit their fans tastes (that is why some characters usually have little to no importance to the plot). Did you know Tifa was not in the original FF 7? Guesswhy they added her? Squaresoft though she was a good character to reach the target audience (read geeks). Vaan was not the main character into the initial stages of FF 12. He wasn`t even a character. SE added him because the fans seem to love pretty boys with feminine looks. Why does the girls in FF 12 dress like hookers? Because that is what fans love. If you really think there is a deep message in the games feel free to tell me. The best I can think of is that FF 7 tell us that to save the nature. Ironically everything important in the game is made with use of eletricity or materia.

Best...hmm...FF6 has always been a favorite of mine, Disgaea is good (if that counts as a JRPG?), I'm playing through FFX right now (30 hours in) I'm enjoying that one.

But the worst is easily FFXII. When an RPG can't even get me interested enough for me to play 20 hours...it's gotta be pretty bad. It was just one predictable event that I didn't care about after another. And the story was presented in such a boring way...no surprises, no mystery, nothing to make me wonder what's going to happen next. As I am playing through FFX, I am always wondering what's going on. It keeps me hooked, makes me care about the characters, always leaves a few unanswered questions. FFXII... it's basically one quest after another, and if you've ever played more than one other JRPG, nothing in the game surprises you. Vayne is a bad guy...saw it coming from the beginning. Larsa is his brother...he might as well have been wearing a T-shirt declaring it. Basch didn't really kill the king? Who could have guessed? Oh, that's right...anyone. But an evil twin, come on! That's as unimaginative as it gets.

I suppose I don't really have any reason to rant about this game. I'm just used to better from Final Fantasy. At least FFVII, as strange and implausible as it was, was at least interesting. So...FFXII actually makes me angry because it's so bad. I usually don't get upset about games...ever. But FFXII is a very rare exception.