Final Fantasy Rankings Part 1 and March 24

Bottoms up: The bottom 5

(unabridged MUCH LONGER original posting from my Gaming Blog)

This is a listing of my ranking of Final Fantasy Core games as of 2014.  I am keeping to the Core numbered Final Fantasy games, excluding the MMO's(11 and 14), and excluding 3 as I have not finished it. There will be 2 numbers after the game's title: the first is my game grade(1-10) in context of when it came out.  The second is what I'd grade the game today.  I would also like to point out that when I talk about "Graphics" I am also talking about the original versions, as the remake graphics of FF1 and FF2 are really really nice, and the 3D versions of 3 and 4 are pretty good too.

Also, I will try to keep vague on my spoilers.

11. Final Fantasy 8 (5) (3)

Final Fantasy 8 is the only "bad" rated game on my list of Final Fantasy games.  It got good marks for visual world design and the impressive sound track.  Story is my most important factor in a Final Fantasy, and I much more enjoy the almost non-existent story of Final Fantasy 1 to the horrible story of Final Fantasy 8.  Gameplay failures include: Junction Magic, Weapon crafting, level scaled enemy difficulty, lack of exploring on the final disc.  As I said, this is the only "bad" rank on the list, it feels unfair that the next games are near it, because they are vastly better than 8.

10. Final Fantasy 1 (10) (5)
9. Final Fantasy 2 (8) (5)

The pioneering games were revolutionary for their time, and the graphics are charming now, but they have some obvious flaws.  Final Fantasy 1 barely has any plot to speak of, and Final Fantasy 2 has a crippling level up mechanic that will have you attacking your own members more than the enemies on screen.  Final Fantasy takes a decidedly scifi switch near the end, with satellites, robots, and time travel.  Final Fantasy 2 has political intrigue, death, loss, war, and introduction of PLOT to the series.

8 Final Fantasy 5 (7) (6)

If this game had modern graphics, cutscenes and a coherent re-write, we would have one of the most epic stories this side of the original Star Wars trilogy.  Multi-world space wars, generational evil epic battles, fallen heroes redeemed, honor bound enemies, its got it all.  If you love the job changing system, this game does it best.  There is no "this is the best" set up, everyone I know ends with vastly different characters at the end.  The failure of this game is the crappy translation that Square has given it in all its incarnations.


Final Fantasy 10 (8) (6)

This Final Fantasy title is the nomad of my list.  It keeps going up and down in rank.  Its characters, and indeed the game, is somewhat saved by Auron, who would rank high on list of "most badass characters" in games.  The game gets extra high marks for its pre-rendered cut-scenes and its musical score.  Its beginning and ending is also ranked high, previously being my favorite ending to a Final Fantasy, though newer titles eclipse it.  The beginning with the Blitzball invasion by Sin is still my favorite beginning to a Final Fantasy, and part of that is because the soundtrack is just as badass as Auron is.  Sadly the game is based on a personal story between a small group of characters, and these characters are rather flat and do not grow emotionally during the game.

Tomorrow will not be the continuation of this list, but when I get to the list again it will be a struggle for me to keep them short.  I may split it up further.

March 24th, 2014

Grocery Day.

I've recently started experimenting with Wontons.  Wontons are tricky.  They go from done on the edges to crispy black in about 1 minute, so if you're baking them you gotta keep an eye on them.  Wontons are really cool because they are so versatile.  You want a bit more "healthy" noodles for your chicken soup?  Use Wontons.  Want the soup to be thick and have bigger noodles?  Then let the wontons cook in the soup for longer periods.  They expand.  I want to make a wonton lasagna so I can actually eat more than a spoonful.

I've been getting my "soup" goodbyes out of the way before the weather gets too warm.  In winter I love to make tons of soups, but this year I've just neglected them.  The last 3 Fridays I've done Potato Soup #3, invented Dirty Rice soup and made a Wonton soup.  I think this Friday will be my last soup for a while and I need to come up with something.

If you are the kind of person that needs to cut down on your carbs, I have to make a suggestion: Oscar Meyer P3.  These are $1 snacks that are 3 proteins in the pack with no carb filler.  The "Rev" by... whoever, cover their "energy snack" in a big carb tortilla wrap.  The P3's have nuts, cheese, and meat in a pack.  They have colbyjack, almonds, peanuts, turkey, chicken and ham... well combinations of those things depending on the pack you get.