I donāt love VI as much as others, but itās still great, and I know itās a lot of peopleās favorite, so Iāll allow it.
XII, LOL, no. Itās really good, but suffers from Vaan being mid and Penelo being useless and even uneven focus on the important characters (I swear Basch just fades into the background for a huge chunk of the second act and I donāt even remember the villain at all), also while the Gambit system was great but the actual combat felt too hands off plus not enough ability distinction between party members.
X, should be a bit lower, but still based. Yes, Tidus, Yuna, and especially Wakka are weak characters, but Lulu, Kimahari, and Rikku are great, and Auron is the chad of the series. Add in one last hurrah for the classic battle system while adding a great swapping mechanic and a fun Sphere Grid leveling mechanic, great OST, and a classic adventure, and youāve got a solid FF, haters be tripping.
VII, both versions, are excellent and deserve high spots, VII is an established classic, and Remake is the one modern FF to properly mix action and RPG together. I would have held off ranking Remake until the whole trilogy is out though.
V I just do not like anywhere near as much as others. Cool, itās got character classes, so do other FFs, and the story/characters did not stick with me.
XVI should be the actual lowest, I like my RPG elements to actually matter in my RPG of a series made entirely of RPGs. So for those throwing out the ābut itās experimental!ā, nah, Iām not hearing that noise, I want good RPG in my FF, period. The music and Cid are the only highlights of the entire game for me.
Wonāt comment on VIII as I could never make it past a few hours. I feel I wonāt vibe with it, but if I give it a shot again someday, maybe itāll surprise me.
IV should be a few spots higher.
IX being that low, FUCK THAT. The absolute #1 of the franchise, and one of the GOAT video games period. This game defines what it feels like to go on a grand adventure.
III and 1, eh, theyāre not bad, I just have no passion for them, theyāre very a product of their time.
XIII should be a bit higher. Yes, it has issues, but the cast is generally fun even if the story is rough, the battles are fun, and the music is great.
XV is about right in its placement. Even with the āComplete Versionā, it still suffers from a weak cast, a badly handled story (watch a movie and an anime to get the character/story development that clearly were missing from the main game, fuck off with that), a brain dead combat system that makes it impossible to lose if you have tons of revive items, and the worst OST of the main entries (which they try to disguise by letting you listen to other gamesā better OSTs in the car, LOL).
II shouldnāt be the lowest, but it is definitely the worst of the classic FFs.