Ranking Final Fantasy Games by Endings (MMOs and Tactics Included)
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- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- #FinalFantasy #FinalFantasyXVI #FFXVI #FF16
To celebrate the release of Final Fantasy XVI, I decided to release 16 videos ranking different aspects of the Final Fantasy series. In this video, we're going to rank the endings of the main series games, plus Tactics.
Final Fantasy Ranking Playlist: • Final Fantasy Ranking ...
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:19 - 16. Final Fantasy XII
2:26 - 15. Final Fantasy I
3:10 - 14. Final Fantasy V
4:00 - 13. Final Fantasy VI
5:27 - 12. Final Fantasy III
6:33 - 11. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
7:39 - 10. Final Fantasy XI
8:56 - 9. Final Fantasy II
10:22 - 8. Final Fantasy IV
11:32 - 7. Final Fantasy Tactics
13:31 - 6. Final Fantasy XV
17:06 - 5. Final Fantasy VIII
19:29 - 4. Final Fantasy XIII
21:20 - 3. Final Fantasy IX
23:47 - 2. Final Fantasy X
26:52 - 1. Final Fantasy VII
Video Source Credits:
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Valis77
RickyC
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xRavenXP
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SilentLongplays - / @silentlongplays
Boss Fight Database - / @bossfightdatabase
LordCloudStrife - / @lordcloudstrife
Dangs08 - / @dansg08
Korvana - / @ffxithemovie
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3rdratedgamer - / @3rdratedgamer857
veteran0121 - / @veteran0121
Oni Black Mage - / @oniblackmage
XygorGaming - / xygor
LongplayArchive - / @longplayarchive
NintendoComplete - / @nintendocomplete
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If you enjoyed this video, be sure to check out the other rankings in the series!
ua-cam.com/play/PLXjn34wFCMP-6Kl56Fn2Ig3msOHqZAVhv.html
FF IX was the first FF I played…I was 10 or 11. I beat it and the ending had me balling my eyes out. My first time crying for a video game. My mom came rushing into my room to ask “Are you okay?! What’s wrong!?” I distinctly remember saying through the tears running down my face “It’s just so beautiful!” 😭 I’ve been a die hard Final Fantasy fan ever since.
FFIX's ending moved my wife to tears when she first played it. She had no idea a video game could move her to tears.
@@gregtroyan I’m glad you popped up in my feed! I subbed and belled! I’m about to watch at least 16 of your videos haha
@@dakotawinston7677 Awesome! Cheers friend! I hope my takes aren't too scorching hot in some the videos! Looking forward to your commentary! : )
Ffx story is so good man... The ending is poetic
Great damn video. Very well explained. Thank you 🙏
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I made 16 rankings as part of this series, so if you liked this one, I recommend checking out the others. I also have a couple new videos on the Chrono series and Final Fantasy XI that should also be worth your time. I enjoyed your commentary and hope you'll be able to appreciate some of the other vids as well. Cheers! : )
I hope you share your thoughts on Final Fantasy XVI's ending in a new video.
That would definitely be cool!
I totally agree on VII being the best. They managed to put both meaning and tragedy in an ending that isn't even particularly long (even though it was considered very long when it came out). XVI also deserves a good spot.
XVI's ending is pretty cool. Not sure where I would end up ranking it.
Ff x ending made me cry so much
It's a great ending!
Dude FF8’s ending is by far the best.
So is its music, art direction
Did you watch my art direction video?
I would not be surprised to see FF7 be in the top two.
haha I've been watching through these videos and having a good time. They are really good for the most part. You've put VII at the top of all of them though, and it is completely subjective but I opened this one being like "there is no way there is a better ending in FF games than X. He will have to not put VII there." I was wrong lol.
I like to keep people on their toes. Hahaha!
Joking aside, I'm not one of those guys who pretends to have cooler takes than I do. I could mix it up and rank VII lower in a lot of categories, but it would basically me lying to make things more interesting rather than giving my honest take. In the categories where VII smokes, it smokes, what can I say? Hahahaha.
I do legitimately think that VII's ending is incredibly powerful thematically and the open-ended nature of it is to the benefit of the narrative's themes in a profound way, but if someone says they like X's better, I'm not going to think it's unreasonable. It did rank second place for me, after all, and it's a phenomenal ending.
I'm looking forward to when you get to the video on Expanded Universe Content, and I'll leave it at that for now.
@@gregtroyan Haha yeah. Not diminishing your take. It is your opinion after-all. UA-cam actually just recommended the extended content one so that was queued up for later today.
@@christopherschmidt8343 I look forward to your commentary on that one, hahaha.
Also, if you want to post rankings in any video, please do. I love reading those!
Now that I’ve beaten almost every game. X will always be my #1. Fucking destroys me every time. 😭
X's ending is absolutely fantastic. Incredible ending!
The real winner in FF 9 was Steiner
Here's my ending ranking :) for me, it counts not only the final cutscenes, but the final boss and the dungeon before it
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
Final Fantasy VI
A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy Dimensions II
Final Fantasy Dimensions
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy XII
World of Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy X
Oh man. Surprised how low VI ranks for you!
@@gregtroyan hahaha. It's just really dumb for me 😂 just like escaping a tower and multiple of them being alluded to dying or committing suicide is just... Weird. Not a big fan
@@rpgranked UM, I'M SORRY, YOU MEAN THE BEST IN THE SERIES, RIGHT???
Hahahaha 😂 12 is my favorite sooooo... And that's one you like even less than 6 😂😂
@@gregtroyanit sounds even MORE obnoxious when you say it hahaha
Hmm, I haven't really thought of ranking games just because of the ending but if I were to pick the most impactful...FFX would take my number 1 spot closely followed by FFXIII, FFIX and FVIII. FFVII is an all-time fave of mine because of overall theme, narrative and presentation but I think it lacks that impact in the final scene. Same goes with FFIV and FFVI as I love both game in its entirety but lacks that "oompph" on the ending. I think it is because Japanese story telling tend to be more open-ended than others (like when I'm reading a manga etc). For me, FFXIV should not be in the ranking, IMHO because the story-arc for this game ended with Endwalker and not with ARR. EW had a very satisfying and impactful ending as well as the journey so I would abstain FFXIV from these criterion.
At the time ARR was released, it was the ending of FFXIV. I treat expansions like sequels generally, and ARR did trigger credits. I think it counts in the same way the first Matrix movie has an ending.
Nice video!
I'm a quite sensitive guy so, in my case, 9 and 10 are top endings cause they always make me cry so badly 😂😂
However, I liked your reasons for ranking FF7 as top 1.
IX and X both have brilliant endings. I'm a sensitive fella myself. 💪
There are some absolutely great endings to the games in this series. I agree with the top 5, however I have them in a slightly different order:
5. FFXIII
4. FFIX
3. FFX
2. FFVII
1. FFVIII
I thought the ending to VIII was perfect. Narratively, thematically, it all came together, coupled with fantastic music and visuals and all the characters having their moments. I thought it was great.
I'm pretty amazed to see the same top 5, even in a different order. A pleasant surprise. : D
too bad expansions were excluded, wouldve loved to see where you'd rank endwalker on this list. i'd argue first place.
I still need to play the rest of XIV. I did just drop a new video on all the XI expansions, though! 😊
sweet ill check it out. ff11 was my first love. CoP and Wings of the goddess especially. @@gregtroyan
@@Angarato86Nice! I love both of those!
Can't wait to see how you are going to rank the endings of sequels and expansions. FF XIII-2's ending would rank at the absolute bottom and FF XIV Endwalker would be on the top, I think.
I've beaten XIII-2. I was fine with the ending because I know it just leads into part 3. Didn't love it, but I didn't rage. No opinion on XIV past ARR, but I really not a fan of the gameplay so the story really needs to step up in Heavensward.
Why all the hate for 6 in your videos? You hold it to a higher standard than the others.
Not really. I like VI a lot. It usually ranks right in the middle.
7 is my favorite overall but I hate its ending. I personally would rank 9, 10 and 12 above 7
We clearly disagree about the endings of XII and VII.
Respectfully, hahaha
I liked FF9's ending the best. It just felt so wholesome and satisfying. I agree with FFX but not so much FF7, for pretty much what you stated. After everything that happened to all the characters, I didn't really feel like you got much of a resolution to what happened after Meteor failed.
The character emotional resolution occurred before the ending, and the thematic resolution happened in the ending itself. The ending for FFVII was about a statement on the theme and it is pitch perfect in my book.
That’s kinda the point
well said
6 was not q play, it was an Opera that has an opera built into the plot and the name thing is because the guy had 30 days to translate the game into English and Japanese is sometimes written right to left. Meaning in the Japanese version it could technically be correct and he didn't notice. The translations of 1 and 4 are worse, yet not subject to the same scrutiny. But i played them in their time and fully appreciate the impact each game had on what came after. 7.is a bunch of recycled, teused, and rejected ideas for 6, and it's a fucking masterpiece in its own right.
I like all of the games in the series. I'm not harsh on the translation of any of the games really.
Fascinating choice for VII being the top ending for you. Of course everyone has different preferences and views for each game so there is no right or wrong answers. However to answer your question in regards to why people wouldn’t rank VII so high, you already mentioned the 3 very big reasons. Your reasoning to defend those 3 flaws is where personal perception lies but obviously the majority sees it differently.
The best answer I can defend why VII falls short for best ending is the exact opposite of how you feel XV ranks. VII had the better journey and setup but the payoff felt abrupt and too vague. XV has a weaker and incomplete journey but the ending is very conclusive. So objectively, when comparing those two endings, which game would most people say “that’s it?”. VII definitely felt that way for me personally. Lol sometimes people do want to see someone like Cid going home and having coffee while scolding Shera.
I've noticed that the ending for VII tends to do really well with bookworms and literature nerds and less so with average gamers. I'll again reiterate that the cast have already had their individual arcs concluded by that point (Cid going into outer space being a perfect example) and that the ending is more serving as a resolution of themes and the characters of Cloud and Tifa. The only unresolved thing is the fate of the humans in regards to Holy, which again, enhances the story's themes. It's not abstract and abrupt without purpose. If that were the case, it would annoy me too, but the building blocks were all there throughout the narrative, including the question on whether Holy would deem humanity worthy of survival. Leaving that question to linger with the player allows for more reflection than just saying "yes".
Not every story would work with an ending like VII's, but in my humble opinion, the setup was there, and the payoff was something profound. And while it is my opinion, it's based upon the text contained within the game, and the literary analysis of the ending isn't a stretch or leap but rather a fairly straightforward interpretation of the thematic content as presented. If I were to argue I like VII's ending because it reminds me of the American Revolution or something, it would be fine, but it wouldn't be based on the game's text. Nothing in my analysis of the themes is a stretch because it's all based on the game's text. As I mentioned in IV's ending, sometimes the simple happy ending is great and all you need. But VII'S ending is still brilliant and I stand by that. 😊
I'll just say that I do very much politely disagree with the assertion of personal perception clouding (pun unintended) my judgment of the ending, though. It doesn't require too much media analysis skill to figure out what the ending of VII means because all the concepts are laid out in the game's text beforehand, and I don't think it's personal perception to put the puzzle pieces together. If I made up a new puzzle piece, that would be one thing, but literally everything is already there and I'm just summing up why it's meaningful.
@@gregtroyan I actually agree with many of your points. Overall VII is my favourite too but I can’t defend the ending as a great ending. Is it bad? No it is not. Is it perfect? From from it. You hit the nail right on the head when pointing out the one major flaw for its vagueness. What happened to humanity? Open endings for interpretations like Nier Automata works well. With VII and the RedXIII scene it just adds more questions. Hence why the resolution of humanity isn’t actually closed. Just a theory but it does seem like a Nomura thing to do, humanity may have been wiped out during that Red XIII event. Wouldn’t be surprised if he uses that to do some twisted timeline story along with Zack.
I didn’t use the word clouding but in terms of personal perception, I meant personal preferences and or interpretations. For example for me XV is my personal favourite FF game. Is it trash for most fans? Probably but it’s my kind of trash. I can admit it is flawed in so many ways but personally for me the world and lore gave me enough to fill in those holes with how I interpret the way the story was trying to be told.
For you, you interpret the resolution of Cloud and Tifa holding hands. For others, they don’t see it that way. I believe someone else made a comment about stretching. I think that individual was referring to that interpretation. We actually haven’t seen any concrete evidence to support the Clifa relationship, especially after Advent Children. However we can’t dismiss the possibility. Realistically I don’t think they would actually conclude that triangle. Then again…….Zack…….Nomura………alternate timeline……I dunno anymore….lol.
@@ruihanazawa2906
Allow me to go point by point:
Point 1. "Overall VII is my favourite too but I can’t defend the ending as a great ending. Is it bad? No it is not. Is it perfect? From from it"
I can defend it as a great ending. I can see someone preferring X or IX, but I would argue the ending to VII is perfect based on thematic building blocks established throughout the game.
Point 2. "Open endings for interpretations like Nier Automata works well. With VII and the RedXIII scene it just adds more questions"
That's the point. The point of the ending is to encourage the viewer to reflect and ask questions. I think if an open-ended ending can work in a game like Automata, there's no reason one can't work in VII, if the proper building blocks for such an ending were set up, and VII continually did so throughout the narrative.
Point 3. "I didn’t use the word clouding but in terms of personal perception, I meant personal preferences and or interpretations"
I know, but using the word clouding allowed for me to make a dumb joke.
Point 4. "For example for me XV is my personal favourite FF game. Is it trash for most fans? Probably but it’s my kind of trash. I can admit it is flawed in so many ways but personally for me the world and lore gave me enough to fill in those holes with how I interpret the way the story was trying to be told"
XV definitely has some problems, but it definitely isn't trash, and with all of the tertiary media (you should watch my video on Expanded Universe Content) it tells a great story when you take it all as a whole. The game, in isolation, is a mixed bag story-wise but overall a good video game still, and the haters in the community need to chill IMO.
Point 5. "For you, you interpret the resolution of Cloud and Tifa holding hands. For others, they don’t see it that way. I believe someone else made a comment about stretching. I think that individual was referring to that interpretation. We actually haven’t seen any concrete evidence to support the Clifa relationship, especially after Advent Children"
My interpretation of VII's ending, granted, ignores the compilation and looks at just the original work. Ignoring Advent Children and just looking at the context of the game, Tifa helps Cloud heal his past trauma by diving into his psyche, and the two share a romantic night underneath the Highwind. Tifa telling Cloud that "words aren't the only way to express your feelings" and that fade to black with her leaning on Cloud's shoulder implies a romantic relationship, and even if they haven't fully developed into a couple, they've deepened their bond significantly.
And the realization of Cloud needing to reach out and accept Tifa's hand instead of Aerith's to better accept what he has right in front of him rather than clinging to the dead which he can no longer hold in order to save himself and pull himself up really isn't that much of a stretch when the game has heavy themes of life and death and acceptance. I read in one of my comments that many interpret Terra's journey in FFVI as being an metaphor for the trans experience. I can respect that if one gets personal meaning from such a reading, but there's nothing contained within the story itself or even the intent of the creatives to lead to such an interpretation. My reading of the Cloud/Aerith/Tifa hand scene is all based upon concepts contained within the game's text, in the same way one can interpret the meaning in Animal Farm based upon the context of the material, so too can one make very reasonable assumptions about the meaning of that ending metaphor, and the "stretch" being made (as claimed by another commenter) isn't a stretch but rather a very basic and simple understanding of the material.
I'm annoyed or displeased with most video game endings. I thought the ending of VI was kinda blah. So, perhaps Greg got one right when he ranked VI at 13th for endings. I don't know if 12 other FF endings were so much better though, doubtful.
I'm displeased and annoyed when Greg ranks anything I have an emotional attachment to. At least in the FF series I only have an attachment to one game that Greg ranked. Imagine if I subjected myself to Greg ranking the full catalog of something I really love? That would be true self-torture. See you all for the next Thin Lizzy Thursday.😏
I encourage you to look at the ending for what I ranked at #1, then go back and look at VI's ending in this video, and tell me which one you think sounds better. : )
swap X and VII and we might see eye to eye on that (scratch that despite me loving VII i can't say Sephiroth ends there either so should be lower since it's not a real ending same could be aplied to FFX tho)
I'm ignoring The Compilation and looking at VII as a single narrative work for my analysis here. If I had to look at the whole compilation, I guess that would mean the end of Dirge of Cerberus, so I might rank it above FFI and below everything else if that's the criteria. 😜
@@gregtroyan loopholes and dirty tactics bro ... hahaha it's cool tho it's your list
9 is number 1 to me.
That's a fine choice.
9 and 10 were better than 7 but this was well done
Thank you for the kind words.
My top 3 are: 9, 7, 10
That's a good top 3! : D
@gregtroyan I want to give my reason for why 9 is the best. Vivi. Vivi is the youngest character across all games. What makes a character great is seeing a character develop from where they are to who they become. My life experience as a teacher showed me many students from broken families. Vivi has to have the most broken origin story of all the games. He knows not where is is from, or his family. His parent figure is just raising him to be eaten. He doesn't really have a family. He later sees other black mages like himself and tragically sees them killed. He meets with other black mages and learns about death. He then learns the true origin about his meaning to live, to bring about mass murder. This is got to be the most broken existence for any FF character. To see Vivi develop into a father figure and teaching his children to be better than that which created him is highly emotional. All this development over the course of about a year makes Vivi my favorite FF character and is why 9 is my number 1.
@@jasonwintermyer8566 I'm saving my overall ranking of the games as a finale of sorts to this ranking series, but I can tell you I'm a big fan of IX and Vivi is an excellent character. It's my wife's favorite video game by a wide margin.
Nah, 7s ending isn't that great, I found your analysis a bit of a stretch. Loved seeing Red XIII in the future though.
Curious. What part of the analysis do you think is a stretch specifically?
I’ve been watching a lot of your videos and I really appreciate the quality of your videos and the in-depth analysis. Really great stuff! However, I just can’t understand all the hate for FFVI. Everybody is certainly entitled to their own opinions, but FFVI is such a genuine and beautiful story with fantastic characters. It is not by any means my favorite, that goes to FFIX without a question, but FFVI is fantastic! Personally, FFVII is one of my least favorites in the series overall. I found the combat to be bland, the characters boring, and I found that there is almost no character development for anyone other than Cloud. I can’t stand the fact that all of the characters in FFVII feel like blank slates and there is really no reason to have one character over another (same complaint with FFVIII, FFV, and FFIII). I also found the ending of FFVII to be abrupt and unsatisfying. There’s really no closure to anything. I have to say though that I truly appreciate that you are not a staunch hater of FFXIII like most of the general public. It’s probably my second favorite game in the series (close tie with Tactics). Keep making good content though! I always appreciate hearing different opinions about my favorite video game series!
I don't hate VI. I love FFVI. I think the difference between myself and other VI fans is that I'm not overwhelmingly gushing in praise when I discuss it. VI is an incredible game, but I think it's overrated and has plenty of issues that are commonly ignored in discourse about the game. So, the fact that I bother to talk about the things I don't like in VI makes it seem like I hate the game, but I really don't.
I'm not sure if you watched my video ranking the party members, but I hard disagree with your take on VII's cast on being bland and not having any arcs. I wouldn't argue that about the cast of VI either (overall a great cast), but I don't know how someone can look at, for example, Cid from VII and say he's bland and has no arc. Or Barrett. Or Red XIII. Or Cloud. Or Tifa. Etc.
As far as endings go, I find the ending of VI more abrupt than VII in some ways, despite it being longer, because it doesn't offer any more character resolution than VII's ending. VI's 20+ minute ending still doesn't show the cast going home and what their lives are like after the adventure, it's just them escaping the dungeon and waving at people on their airship. There isn't really any character resolution in that ending or anything really thematic either.
VII's ending is more thematically rich and focuses on the themes the entire narrative was written around.
I'm glad you've been enjoying the videos. I'm not sure if you've been watching them in order or picking one's to your fancy, but I hope by the end of the series you'll see my appreciation for VI and see if I can't change your mind (or at least offer an understanding) on VII's strengths.
Also, post your rankings! 😊
It's interesting you complain about FFXII's ending being a happy ending whereas you praise FFIV ending for litteraly the same reason. I liked XII's ending a lot for it slight bittersweetness. Although they lived something extraordinary together, life will set them apart, due to duty or simply because they are from different worlds (queen vs commoners, archadian general vs citizen of dalmasca...) Sure, Larsa is probably going to be a good ruler of Archadia, but that what makes Basch take Gabranth's mantle so important. It's very clear in the game that Archadia, much like Rome from which it is inspired, is subjugated to coup and political plots, making Basch role as Larsa's protector all the more important, although it isolates Ashe completely. She literally has no one from the party in her entourage anymore, something reflected empathically by Penelo, and it's a bit sad. But it is also happy has we know everyone, although apart will live a meaningful life and may have the opportunity to cross paths in the future. It all fits quite well with "Kiss me goodbye" playing in the background, and it works quite well that it is the voice of Penelo, the most down to earth party member, that explains to us (hum Basch) all that happens. Because the game is so long, I spent more than a 100h with these characters, and see this page of their journey ends (with new individual journeys starting) felt right and earned. It does resonate with (young) adults starting to lose friends from highschool/university simply because life sets them apart. I liked it.
Though I completely agree with your top 3 (that I would perhaps not put in the same order). Although apparently everyone keeps forgetting the post-credit short scene from FFIX showing the fusion of the two planets and the birth of a cristal, indicating that everyone dies at that moment, fitting completely with the theme of the game about mortality and the fear of death.
I don't remember IX's post credits scene at all. I need to revisit that. As far as XII's ending vs IV's ending, I think the convolution and tone of the stories is what makes the difference there. IV was more operatic and grand, like a shonen anime, and painted with big bold strokes while XII went more for gritty politics with more complexity. The fact that everyone in XII's ending ended up basically exactly where they intended to fell flat for me (and my wife), and the sacrifice of Fran and Balthier felt rushed and awkward without buildup in their characters for such a moment to make any kind of sense as resolution to their arcs. We had the opposite impression, because of his long we spent playing the game (around 80 hours) we expected something more substantive. The nuances between the events of the endings of IV and XII, and the events that lead up to it, is what makes the difference to me, rather than the fact both are happy. I hope that makes sense. I do see the merit in XII's ending and can see how one would resonate with it.
@gregtroyan, thanks for the reply, it does make sense indeed, and it's all about a question of personal preference and how much you appreciated the time with these people. The sacrifice of Balthier made narrative sense to me, especially when we realised he passed most of his past escaping the empire, his father and his duties as judge, to final embrace his role as "leading man" that he claims to have the entire game. It's a very Han and Luke dynamic of course, but his relationship to Vaan slowly builds to him giving him the keys of the Strahl. I would say the main default of XII is not the story but how minimalistic it is portrayed. We spend litterally days with those characters but we have long periods of time without any cut-scenes to deepen our understanding of their motivations and see the growth of their relationships, but I do think every scene we have is well written and act, and I liked the more restrained approach so I had no difficulty appreciating the characters and their arcs, but I imagine it can be a bit "thin" for some people and some set-up/pay-offs (like Balthier's evolution or the parallel between Vaan and Ashe could have been further developed)
Well, there is always a good reason to revisit FFIX :D
My god this guy hates FF6. I’ve been skimming through all of these in he always puts FF6 somewhere between 15-8
So...the middle?
The knee-jerk edgelord reaction to the end of this video would've been to respond with something like, "Bro can't handle someone not completely glazing FF7, durr hurr." However, your analysis of the end of FF VII was quite thoughtful and beautiful. I think the ending of VII suffers, for me, from overextended anime syndrome (and a cultural difference in East Asian vs Western writing in general). I'm sure many anime fans have come across a series that has a clear defined goal but the anime gets ahead of the source material, typically the manga, and it ends abruptly and the ending is vague and left to interpretation. I've always hated the "if you want to see how things really ended go buy (insert medium) to find out." It might be a bit of an anachronism to imply this was the case with FFVII but the constant milking of this game certainly doesn't help.Regardless of how it was back then we now live in the post "Compilation of FFVII" world and anyone playing the game now will have a valid reason for feeling this way.
Final Fantasy VII isn't based off a manga and it isn't a movie like Inception where the whole point of the film was to leave the viewer guessing and indulging in a bit of speculation/headcannon at the end. It's a video game and if I was playing where Cloud takes his cannon-daddy on the Ferris-wheel and I'm deprived of the ending where Mako-Mommy Cloud and Cannon-Daddy Barrett don't get to raise Marlene as a progressive example for a more modern Midgar then I might be a little upset. Or you could be one of those people that found Tifa a poor match for Cloud because her deception early on in the game make her ill-suited to pair with Cloud. You, Mr. Troyan, made a sound argument for *cringe* Clifa being a viable outcome but going with a vague ending is inherently going to be divisive. Final Fantasy VII can have a beautiful ending if you want to take the time to reflect on it but if you're just wanting a clear resolution to the 20+ hours of gameplay you put into obtaining the ending then it feels like a cop out.
I can tell you that when I first finished the game 25 years ago (JFC throw dirt on my corpse already) not only did I have a very unsatisfying boss battle with Sephiroth but I was in no mood, at the time, to devote any more brain-power to interpreting the ending. I've learned to appreciate the ending later on in life but my initial reaction was one of "wtf, is this it?" I really enjoyed your interpretation of the ending of the game. I think it was crafted with a lot of affection and attention to detail. However, the way you eschewed criticisms that were levied against the ending was rather pretentious. Personally, I find of a lot of the criticism regarding the narrative of FF VIII (yours included) to be quite baffling but all I can do is make my case and let the Triple-Triad cards fall where they may as I want to dissent but not be dismissive.
Anywho, I'll keep looking through your content as it's intriguing. Cheers fella.
tl;dr: Bruv, I like the passion for FF7 but try not to be a knob towards others who don't share that passion.
I'm fine with people not being passionate about FFVII, but I'll be a knob about folks with bad takes about any game in the franchise. Most gamers I found aren't good at media or storytelling analysis, and given how popular VII is in pop culture, there's a lot of takes on the game out there, and thus a lot of bad takes. If you want to see me get passionate about bad takes for a game that isn't Final Fantasy VII, check out my new 2 hour video essay on Final Fantasy XI. :P
Anyway, my take on the VII ending is objectively correct. But again, I'm really less of a gamer and more of a lit nerd, so the ending really works for me. An objectively correct person. ;)
Cheers mate! Hope you find content you enjoy on my channel. And again, if you want some scorching hot (yet correct) takes, check out that XI video.
@@gregtroyan yeah I might do that later tonight. I don't have much interest in the MMO games but with the way you're selling it I'm at least going to have to take a peek for bit at some point.
Honestly, I heavily disagree on FF7 being even top 10. The game has one of the best final bosses but after that, I wouldn’t call it an ending, it just, ends before the core conflict is resolved.
We spend 40 or so hours leading up to repelling Meteor and then don’t get to see it happen. It’s the big payoff the game has been building up to and doesn’t provide. Let alone not seeing the party settle down, we don’t know if the party is alive, save for Red XIII.
It’s subversive, yes, but in a The Last Jedi kind of way “you thought this game would have an ending but it doesn’t. Aren’t your expectations subverted?”
If this was a short 6 hour experience like Undertale I can respect a non-ending but after a 40 hour massive experience, I’d say the player deserves a proper ending.
It’s a similar issue that I have with 15, that ending also feels like it was put together at about the last minute.
In fairness, The Last Jedi is the only Star Wars movie I actually like (I don't really like Star Wars personally as I think the writing is pretty mid). I think the ending to FF7 is deeply profound, and again, we got the resolution for all of the character arcs by the time we've reached the ending scene. Each of the cast members has resolution in their arcs and I think the profound nature of the ending in the way it ties into the themes makes it far more powerful than the epilogues the compilation gave us. I could argue against your specific points, but I feel I already did that in the video and would be going in circles in that regard, as I would just be restating my analysis in the video. So it may just have to be an agree to (respectfully) disagree in that regard.
As for 15, I have the exact opposite opinion of you. I don't think the ending was last minute at all and instead was an ending they had planned for a long time, but they got caught up in so many other aspects of game development that they neglected the proper building blocks to that ending.
@@gregtroyan I can agree that 15 was likely lost due to lost building blocks. If we got Episode Lunafreya and Episode Noctis then yeah the story would have likely felt more complete.
And in 7’s case, I feel like, at least *seeing* Meteor be repelled would have helped. If we saw the lifestream physically push it away, before the planet turning into light and fading to white, it would be about as abstract, but we’d get the satisfaction of *seeing* the quest succeed, rather than have to infer it from a post-credit scene. You can make a point that humanity is irrelevant to the ending, but you can keep that and still don’t resolve the core theme of the game off-screen
Also, while I got you, I’m curious if using Endwalker as the ending for FFXIV would have changed your rankings. It’s the ending of the main story arc that’s been going on since 1.0, so while I perfectly understand why you wouldn’t want to consider expansions, I would be curious for that one specifically.
@@vbarreiro I do plan on returning to XIV later after I finish a few other games on my list, and when I go back to XIV, I'm going to rewatch the 1.0 cutscenes and a summary video of 2.0 before diving into the rest of it all once, to make it full experience. I've mused about revisiting a couple of these rankings after finishing XIV and/or doing a video ranking the expansions of both XI and XIV. It really depends how inspired I am to work on it when that time comes, as these videos were a ton of work. Turns out doing 10.5 hours of video essays is a lot, hahaha. So I might just do a ranking update video rather than redoing the whole series. I don't know. We'll see, and it's a long way off.
In the case of VII's ending, with the triumphant music playing, it felt obvious that Meteor was repelled by Holy, but IF they showed Meteor being repelled in that blinding light, it would also show whether or not humanity survived the blinding light of Holy. I think leaving the blinding light there was a good move, because again, the point was to make you wonder whether or not humanity would survive Holy, and it was clear from the final shot of Meteor it was successfully being repelled.
Also, if you want Episode Lunafreya and Noctis, The Dawn of the Future novel has those. It's basically the DLC they had planned, in book form, because they ran out of budget to finish the DLCs, and it's nice to get that level of conclusion to the tale.
The Ending to 7 always left me unsatisfied.
It's why despite 7 almost always being a top 5 in most everything FF for me, the ending doesn't make my cut.
@@UA-camCensors A hard disagree from me, but I do see a lot of folks with that opinion.
14 would top the list if you included the expansions.
I may revisit these rankings after I finish the rest of XIV. XI would rank higher as well.
Lol the ff12 hatred is real lol
Something's gotta rank at the bottom. Hahahaha. I don't hate any of these games. XII has some aspects I like quite a bit.
I enjoyed playing xii, but the final boss was a walkover, every thing ended way too quick, then we find Fran and Balthier's deaths were fake outs. A very disappointing ending.
@@robbaskerville253huge fax
@@BankaiFever The first 5% was bad, the last 5% was bad, the 90% in the middle was really good.
Why include tactics, but not tactics advanced?
Two main reasons:
1. In numerous ranking videos of the Final Fantasy games, Tactics is the game that most commonly gets a nod but isn't included in the ranking because it isn't a mainline game. However, out of all the spinoffs, it has the best reputation, had a spinoff become a mainline title, and generally has the closest legacy to a mainline title of any of the spinoffs. Originally I wasn't going to include Tactics in the rankings but added it on a whim because of the general positive legacy it is.
2. Workload. I've beaten Advance and A2 and actually like them quite a bit, but there's a lot of other Final Fantasy games I've beaten (Mystic Quest, the Legend trilogy, X-2, XIII-2, Brave Exvius Season 1 and 2, etc.) and the video series is already really, really long. The video on music is over 2 hours long, and adding in a bunch of other games would double or triple the workload, and the video series wouldn't come out at all. If I was just doing one video generally ranking all of the games, that would be doable, but since I'm doing 16 videos ranking in different categories, it would be too much work for me at this time.
FFX
FF6
FF 13-2
FF8
FF12
I'm surprised you rank the ending of 13-2 so high and don't like 7's ending.