I feel as though I'm one of the few people who actually enjoyed 13, but Lightning Returns was just horrendous. The combat was clunky, I couldn't stand the way the timer was implemented, and the fetch quests were exceptionally lame.
I have yet to play Lightning Returns, but I thought it was generally agreed that its combat was awesome (and probably the best thing about the whole game). I enjoyed 13 too, BTW. Loved 13-2, which I thought was vastly superior in every sense. I really should get around to playing Lightning Returns already, though it sounds like it's gonna be disappointing.
I think the XIII trilogy is in its entirety the worst Final Fantasy in existence. I just can't stand it. I think that the story is stupid, I dislike characters, the combat is a bore... I'm sorry, I just can't. Not to mention it's the most un-Final Fantasy thing ever made. And I've played XII. And I liked it, so it's not like I'm opposed to see changes in the series. Hell, my favorite game is Tactics, so it's not like I have a problem if they want to try different things. But I didn't like XIII at all.
Final Fantasy II, by far. The levelling system is an interesting idea in theory, but in practice it makes grinding even grindier. The dungeons are monotonous as hell, as well, which doesn't help a whole lot. It also reeks of a Star Wars ripoff as far as the plot is concerned: a plucky band of youths are fighting against an evil empire led by a devious emperor, and they join a resistance to bring him down. There are also personal ties with the emperor's black-armored right hand man, who is brought back to the good side by the end. I know Square has lots of Star Wars references woven into their stuff, but that's going a bit far. Overall, not a terribly good game. Also didn't like the FFXIII games that much, particularly the first two. Running on rails as a bunch of largely unlikable characters didn't appeal to me all that much, and the combat system made battles way too long. At least the third game had a much more open-ended world.
I'm not a super hardcore fan, but FF13 and its two companions didn't do it for me. The only thing positive I can say is that the art and graphics are really good looking, but the lore of the game is all over the place and I was pretty much confused on what the hell was going on the first time I played through it. It took me scouring the net just to get some backstory on the game (especially when it came to the Maker and Fal'cie or however you pronounce that).
Yeah I forgot about the FF 1-3. Pre-Playstation era... Kinda slipped my mind. I wouldn't touch them again ever haha. They have their place in history but they're quite dated.
I had a hard time playing ff13. I mean the game is pretty much a linear map.. it made me so unreasonably angry when I reached the first explorable map and found out I was past halfway through the game. I spent hours walking in one direction for most of the game! Not the mention the story was so poorly written you can't recognize the ass end from the head.
I haven't played all of them so I can't say much but I did not find FFIX appealing at all. For such a long time I was looking to figure out what fans liked about Final Fantasy so much and with FFVIII I did finally understand it but the game that came after just didn't seem all that interesting to me unfortunately. I just didn't like the character designs and the settings as well. I have never given it a try though so I might end up changing my mind but for now I would say that was the one that disappointed me most.
According to me, it is the very first one. A possible explanation for this may be because it was the first one to be formed, therefore there is some tendency that the developer had not gathered enough skills to develop it. But the games that followed improved due to the developer's response to players' reviews.
I think you are sailing in the same boat with one of my friends. Imagine he dislikes almost the whole of the FF series, except FFVI.
It's cause that's the first one and the managers hadn't come up with better ideas like they have now and there's a beggining in everything. I enjoyed playing it and I still do from time to time.
