This Old Neon Forum

Did you know that Square Enix has been relentlessly releasing Final Fantasy spinoffs and mobile tie-ins for the past few decades? This is a great time to sift through the silt and see what nuggets we can find. We haven’t included remakes, ports, and enhanced versions of main series games. If you really like one of those GBA updates, go ahead and vote for the main entry.

• You can vote for one (1) game.
• The winner of each poll will advance to the Finals!
• The loser of each poll will compete in a bronze medal bracket.
• You can’t change your votes once they’ve been submitted, so click carefully. Voting closes on Saturday at 11:59 P.M. ADT.

VOTE HERE

The SNES Fantasies
Final Fantasy VI (1994, SNES)
Final Fantasy IV (1991, SNES)

The 1997 Fantasies
Final Fantasy VII (1997, PS1)
Final Fantasy Tactics (1997, PS1)

Final Fantasy Tactics is an easy, easy vote over VII. Tactics is a mess in a way that works for the sandbox/playground nature of the game, but VII is a mess in a way that works against the game.

IV vs. VI is a more interesting match, hearkening back to the age-old debates of AGFF. I'm going to give the edge to IV on this one for a couple of reasons. First is that it was the first FF to come west since the primitive and basic original NES entry, which made it seem like a massive advancement in RPG storytelling. Great colourful 16-bit graphics, thrilling music, a nice cast of characters, etc.

Second is that it feels more focused than VI. While VI obviously has a LOT of content and a lot to do, it's sometimes to the game's detriment. There are tons of characters, many of whom don't really exist for any reason other than to have another skill set. The individual character skills are largely underwhelming, and everyone can learn every spell with Magicite, smoothing out the differences between them. The characters in IV, by contrast, have their own discrete skills and spells, making them stand out more. (The fact that the game dictates your party formation for you to suit the comings and goings of the story makes it so you have to adapt your tactics regularly, while in VI you can just plug different characters into your accustomed roles.) The story of VI also goes off the rails in the second half, becoming a directionless "go anywhere and do some stuff" plot that seems tacked on (and indeed, if you read interviews, actually apparently was literally tacked-on as the developers found themselves ahead of their production schedule).

In short, VI is big and has a lot to do, but it's much less tight and focused. Final Fantasy IV is J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and Final Fantasy VI is Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film trilogy.

Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy Tactics will advance to the Final finals.

Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VII will face off for the bronze chocobo.