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Instead of asking the traditional question of "What's your favorite FF?" (which has been beaten way past death and ressurection, almost literally), I'm going to ask what your second-favorite FF is. In a sense, if you don't get what I mean, then I'll say it this way: If you can't pick your true favorite FF, what's the next FF game you'd pick to say as your next favorite?

I would choose Final Fantasy V.

It's a solid game, with a very direct, rather simpler plot, and a pretty impressive soundtrack that quite well complements it. But the gameplay's probably the best part of this game; this is the first character-class-based game in which characters can develop and keep skills learned from different levels of mastery of classes, and then use those skills even when mastering another class. This design made for a rather intuitive, easy-to-understand system which nevertheless has almost infinite potential for strategy, customization, and fun. The graphics were also decent; though lacking in comparison to FFVI, they held their own, and there was no point in the game at which I was asking for more in terms of graphics.

All this while it didn't have annoyingly long story moments (a.k.a. FMVs ) or leveling-up moments. And a story that's simple and to-the-point, not extraordinarly complicated or unnecessarily awkward.

And it at least made sense that bards could do very little damage by playing on harps.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

I agree with everything you said concerning FFV, but my pick would be FFIV. I often just tie it with FFIX for second place, but as I've said before, IX has no Mithril Town/Silvera, and there's just gotta be a tiebreaker somewhere.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

Like Mr. Harvey I say FFV is my second favorite game in the series. I took me about 10 minutes to decide between FFV and FFIV but what barely put FFV over the edge was the job system. Also what is great about the game is the two optional bosses, Omega and Shinryu who are more difficult then X-Death and I think this may be the first FF game (I could be wrong as usual) to include the optional bossses that are harder then the main boss. Plus you have a tree for a main enemy...you gotta love that.

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War is for the participants a test of character; it makes bad men worse and good men better. - Joshua Chamberlain

U sir R a n00b >:-( - Cactuar

My *second* favorite would have to be Final Fantasy VII. FFV was really good, as was FFIV and FFIX, but I've always had a close relationship (not romantic!) with FFVI and FFVII. FFVI has always had a special place in my heart cuz it's the first one I've played seriously, and everything about it is awesome (I don't feel like explaining why), so FFVII has had to take second place with its equally awesome stuff but admittedly slightly hard-to-understand story. Typical "anime-iety" to cram all that crap into such a short game.
FFVII raised the bar for the series as having the first completely 3D sequences and 3D-ish maps. All the characters had their own backstory, something first impressed upon in FFIV (I think?). And, in my opinion, if that crazy story was anywhere else, like in a movie, it would've crashed and burned. On the flip side, I can kinda see FF: Spirts Within being a pretty good videogame.

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"It is a part of human nature to be evil, and it is a part of human nature to destroy evil, therefore, when evil is destroyed, so will be the human race..."
- Atma

my second fave has gotta be ff9. it just reminded me so much of the old school games i guess, and i really liked the way abilities were learned using equipment. the whole plot and story was just awesome. im actually replying it right now! lol

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Wow, an FF topic with the word "favorite" in the title that won't be dominated by FF VI? Interesting.

To answer your question, FF IX, although the answer to this question changes regularly (sometimes it's FF VII, sometimes X, sometimes IV). I consider character magic/ability systems paramount to the gameplay of an RPG, and I loved FF IX for its heterogenous characters and entertaining equipment-ability system. The plot gets a little trippy by the third disk (to say the least), but the characters were interesting, entertaining, and often quite hilarious. Chocobo Hot and Cold, MogMail, and Tetra Master were entertaining sidequests, and Ozma was a good (if not as difficult as I thought it would be) optional super-boss. For the record, I consider one of my greatest gaming accomplishments to this day getting the Excalibur II in FF IX (Excalibur II was Steiner's best weapon, the strongest weapon in the game, which you can only get if you reach to the final dungeon in under 12 hours).

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I forsee this topic opening the door for (a) post whores to open polls "Whats your 3rd-15th favorite FF?"

I picked IX. It's a great game that excels in many areas, but I like IV better.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

I voted ff9 it came close with ff6
but they're both so good loved the leveling style!

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So youre saying that odin turns into Raiden?
yes i am.
But i thought he turned into Gilgamesh?
...Jeez...

It appears I underestimated the zeal to actually describe one's second favorite Final Fantasy, and actually put thoughtful posts in this thread. So here you go, kids, enjoy. I got a whopping two non-staff PMs about this issue, and discussions I had with staff lead me to believe that I was a bit overzealous here and you guys can have the topic back.

Two provisos:

1) Anyone who starts the "what's your third favorite FF" thread will get kicked square in the butt by yours truly - the reason GMH posted this is not something that is really able to be replicated as you go down the line, I think.
2) If you have nothing to say in your post, click the poll vote and move on. Posts like "ff4 is my second best end of post" really are something that nobody can care about. GMH's intent is to get people talking about why your second-favorite doesn't quite reach the top spot, but why it's still so good.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I love FFIX because it has everything from the classics, a black mage with the old FF1 look, a princess named Sara, the Crystals, and real moogles(not Mogs from FF7 and there really was no moogles in FF8).

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Yunalesca: "Hope is...comforting. It allows us to accept fate, however tragic it might be. "

Yunalesca: "Poor creature. You would throw away hope. Well... I will free you before you can drown in your sorrow. It is better for you to die in hope than to live in despair. Let me be your liberator. "

If I couldn't pick FFT, I guess that I would pick either FFVI or FFVII.

FFVI-It's an excellent game with deep, well-thought characters. You get quite a bit of development despite the large number of characters. And it's not too uber

FFVII-Square's first foray into 3D. While the characters were a "bit" blocky, I didn't feel as though it detracted heavily from the gameplay. I really enjoy the limit break system. The attacks were awesome, especially the final limits.

I'll pick FFVII................*OMNISLASH

I voted Final Fantasy 3J. Just behind the 2way tie for first with VI and IV.

It was a great game, it really excelled in the job system in a way FFV didn't seem to. I think the simplicity of it may have been better. It had it's hard moments, It had it's easy moments, It had it's share of good characters and towns and twists too. It also had the best airship of any FF and a great musical score, probably the best I think. If I imagine it in something other than 8bit form. It was well done, but the sub par storyline left me a bit empty. It was okay, but by comparison to VI and IV it lacked umpf. I understand it's hard to attatch a whole lot of development to characters constantly changing apearance though. See FFV.

I mean it's sort of like- (SHOVED OUT OF UR)- GO SAVE THE WORLD!!
"OK!!"

They have less of a reason to go out than Benjamin from Mystic Quest. At least his village was destroyed. "Destiny" is hardly a good reason.

That aside, it was a great game.

This post has been edited by MogMaster on 4th April 2005 03:05

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

With FFVIII and FFT tied as my favorites, my second favorite is
FFIX. It has a very compelling storyline and great moments aside from goofy and stupid ones. The battle system is good and the characters are very interesting and unforgettable and it has one of the greatest game villains in Kuja. As to why it is not on level with FF8 and FFT is purely for personal preferences in the proverbial "overall" statistic.

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

Second place has to be FF9 for me, because it doesn't send you through so many emotions quite like 7 but it has so much comedy in it.. and I love comedy. This game made me laugh so much, which is definately a good thing in my book and amazingly it still kept the brilliant story line going without the humour subtracting from it.

And simply, I enjoy the story of FF7 that much more. Seems more impressive to me.. with the way they did the way the world was at huge risk.

When I think about it though, this game isn't far behind FF7 at all overall. Superb.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

I voted FF3, because it was a brilliant game way ahead of it's time. It has a good job system that actually to some extent prevents you making four black mages so you can annihilate one boss, and my favourite musical score of any FF. Graphically, it was great, and had both a pretty nice story and the origins of several FF mainstays such as moogles, summons and The Sidequest. It was also quite challenging.

Why didn't it get the top spot? Well, I found FFVI and V more fun and alittle deeper. That's all. It's actually not far behind at all.

I personally voted FFI

It had great gameplay, I loved the way you could make your own custom party (football team of fighters, Magic exterminator squad [RM, RM, WM, BM] etc...)
The 8-bit graphics never bothered me and I loved the Bosses in it...
I dunno how to otherwise put it, but it's simply addictive to me...

Where it fails though, is impersonal characters, which I find sort of sad...the heros saving the world have nothing to say (the classes could've at least had some scripted personalized lines...)

Everything was so goddam expensive too! Before I started finding kick-arse weapons and armor I had to stock on silver stuff, and acquiring gold for those was time consuming...
Spells where a horrible expense too...

Last annoying point was the dungeon lenght combined with the impossibility of saving somewhere in the middle...and without warp/teleport spells it got kinda hard to back out of the dungeon to recover.

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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

I voted for VII. FFVII's got one of the most memorable villans, interesting environments, intense battle action, quality music and impressive graphics for it's time. When I first played it I thought it was better than FFVI for one evening, but no longer than that. The game provided some great moments and some bad moments too. It just ends up being too depressing, and the characters are pretty lame. There's no Gau or Sabin in FFVII.

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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

FF6, right below FF9 at the top. I love them all though.

Oooo... First place was a tie between X and IV, but I'd have to say my 2nd place is V. I liked the story line, and suprised that I liked the job system. Omega and Shin were both tough bosses, even IF you knew the best stratagys to beat both of them, they were still VERY tough, and hit very hard. Omega took me a dozen or so tries, all though Shin was significantly easier for me.

This post has been edited by Fadien on 2nd May 2005 16:04

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"And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped” -Sir Bedevere the Wise

FFIX tied with VII, finishing second to FFVI.

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If something were to happen to me, all the world's women would grieve!
- Edgar

Nothing beats the music of thousands of voices screaming in unison!
- Kefka

Lover of all FFs, especially IV, VI, VII, IX, and X. (except for II and X-2)

my 2nd fav is 7 and my first fav is 8 just cause i like gunblades lol

my second favorite is FF7 for the story line and characters and stuff, but FF6 still wins for all the above + more.

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Lets see, connect the blue wire to the ...wait, why is it tick*boom*

I chose FFVI as my second favorite. Thier was so much going on in the game but it some how still kept its composer and made a whole of sense. I still like FFVIII more though. It was the first Final Fantasy game I owned and I just enjoyed its compelling love story.

i think VIII is my second fav, then VII IX IV VI V III II I but X is my most favorite FF ever ^^

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Just something im messing around with,

Orion is a great treasure hunter, He is the best hunter in all of his hometown of Laska, His friend Jay, Is his partner, In the past, They have found many great treasures and have many great adventures.... their latest adventure is about to unfold befor their very eyes....

Does anybody think its good?

My favorite is FFVI, but in SECOND is FFX. (for the record, #7 comes in third)

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The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole witness to history

ICO-You were there-

My second favorite is FFVI.. I mean, 6 was very nice, but FFV changed my life and made me addicted to it..

FFVII is my second favorite.
It was a great game with good characters and villians, but I found the story to be a little too complex, as opposed to FFVI, my favorite FF.

Second fav is FFIX is a awesome game with weird characters= pretty good game

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"To be forgotten is worst than death." Freya , FF9

"How do you prove that you exist...? Maybe we dont exist." Vivi, FF9

Mystic Quest! Although there's no Category to vote for it. It's my Second favorite because although it was easy and not the greatest FF game it is in fact what started me playing Final Fantasy games. My first favorite would have to be Final Fantasy VI.

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- The problem isn't relgion, the problem is religious tolerance -

Mystic quest? , I just recently knew it ( cool game)
My second favorite is FF VI, because just like FFVII ( my favorite), it marked and after and a before on Final Fantasy games series. These two games can be considered at the two best FF games ever ( maybe the best games ever)

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"Its no cheating if you don't get caught"