Opiumcloud ranks the entire FF series

[Ender]

Even my favorite games in the series, I didn't give anywhere close to a ten. If if would make you guys happy, you can pretend that I gave FF Tactics a 9.8/10 and FF9 a 9.0/10, instead of giving tactics a 9.5/10 and FF9 a 7.5/10. In such an alternate ranking system, the ratio of each game's distance from a "perfect 10" ranking would remain the same, but I don't like such "curved upwards" rating systems, because they leave the reviewer little opportunity to differentiate between very good and great games.

Touche.

Fans of a particular series or genre, or just games in general have a tendency to skew their rankings far too much toward the high end creating a situation exactly like you're talking about...a game rated 9 might be a great game, but quite noticeably worse than a game rated 9.5, yet on an absolute scale they look to be quite comparable.

Random thought:

IMO we'd sometimes be better off with a logarithmic scale ranking system, like the Richter Scale, where each point was equivalent to a fixed multiple of the overall quality of the game or something, particularly when we're talking about games within a series that are all highly rated relative to "all other games." Then we could say, yeah, FFI is really good, but FFVI is a lot better and get a better picture of how much better we're really talking about.

Anyway, I enjoyed the reviews. Thanks.

[Vivisteiner]

The rating works so long as 5 isnt average. Im sure FF9 must be more than 2.5 above average.

However, I take your point that it can be useful in highlighting important differences.
E.g. I know I definately like FF9 above FF8, but Id still give FF8 9/10 as its a very good game.

Its because I have played so many worse games than FF8.

Lol. I still cant get over FF9 being only 0.1 better than Mystic quest.

[DarkLadyNyara]

Hm. I actually agree with much of this (though not all, by any means), and you have obviously thought it out instead of resorting to senseless character bashing. Kudos for that.

[Martyr]

Wow. You totally, like, ranked FF1 lower than it deserves.

It should be #1. Coincidentally, I'm not going to back up my argument.

[Bolivar]

I just want to say at first I was shocked that you ranked FFII higher than IX.

But this was a good read, and I have to agree with everything you said.

I recently beat IX and I see exactly why it doesn't stack up to the other games, I got a feeling of that playing it this time around. It is more a mixture of what everyone likes/wants rather than focusing on getting the job done. It indeed is the least innovative, and I can definitively say that the creators were more concerned about making a testament/memorial to the series than an actual new installment.

I have to say bravo for putting FFVII and Tactics at the top of the list, but for backing them up, I really can't see how someone could disagree with your justifications, not to mention there's more thought put into it than I think most people on this forum are capable of. This should be published.

I think in today's internet-blog-information world, everyone can pretend to be a connoisseur on any subject, and many seem to bash VII for no reason other than it's more widely liked than their favorite game. But in this you proved why that is. It's not only the first FF to "go mainstream" but there was alot more thought put into its representation than most of the other games in the series, including FFVI. I feel like between this and FFT, they were able to write the rest of the series based on these 2 games.

You reminded me why I like VII and V so much. Plus you took my perspective on IX that I haven't been able to explain and put it into words.

Good Job.

[opiumcloud]

Although I won't review these unless anyone is interested, here's my ratings for some non-FF games that I really like, on a scale that is consistant with my rating scale for the FFs. This should at least help establish a sense of relativity between the FFs and other games.

Shenmue II: 9.7/10
Shenmue: 9.6/10
Super Mario 64: 9.4/10
Zelda: LTTP: 9.3/10
Tales of Symphonia: 9.2/10
Eternal Darkness: 9.2/10
Silent Hill II: 9.2/10
Alternate Reality: 9.1/10
Max Payne 1: 9.1/10
Shadow of Destiny: 9.0/10
King's Quest 6: 8.9/10
Ultima 6: 8.9/10
Zelda: TOOT: 8.8/10
Strikers 1945 Plus: 8.8/10
RE: Code Veronica: 8.8/10
Resident Evil 4: 8.7/10
Silent Hill 1: 8.6/10
Super Mario World: 8.6/10
Solstice: 8.5/10
Metal Gear 2 (NES) 8.5/10
Maniac Mansion: 8.4/10
Legend of Mystical Ninja: 8.4/10
Lunar 1: 8.4/10
Chrono Trigger: 8.3/10

[Gnostic Yevon]

I would have lowered FF7 just a bit. While the World is well developed, the characters were flat and boring. Maybe I set a higher priority on such things than others, but it seemed to me as though most of the characters could be described with a single word.

Aerith, for example, was the sweet, innocent one. She started as the sweet innocent girl (in the flashback), she grew into a sweet innocent teenager, and so on.

Barret, I'd classify as a hotheaded crusader. A true believer.

Red seemed pretty much like the stereotypical "noble knight". Not that he wore armour or anything, but his reason for staying around is more about Duty and Honor than any other reason.

and so on.

[The Unknown Guru]

I disagree. I'm too lazy to type anything else unless cornered.

Congrats on playing every single FF game in existence, by the way.

[Wild0ne]

It seems you put too much intelligence into your writing...When reading about games I like the simplier writing, your writing started to make my think I was reading my advanced humanities book again...

Either way, it seems a lot was based on too much opinion, although it was an opinion ranking. You seemed to give too much credit to FFII than to FFI, you ranked MQ higher for pete's sake!! FFI created the series, and is ahead of its time. FFII tried to do too much, with too little and actually make the game less fun. FFIII was like the real FFII having everything FFI was good at, as well as many, many more freatures and classes.

Then on FFIV, yes it was straight forward, but Chrono Trigger didn't get such great reviews because it was difficult. FFIV had an amazing story, and the point was to get the strongest weapons, because thats what made the characters better, not class or combos. This allowed more focus on the story, which may have taken away from the replay value, but still a great game nonetheless.

Oh and FFVII was way better than FFVIII or FIX suckers!!!!