I Played The WORST Final Fantasy Games Ever Made

[@TheGamingShelf]

What do YOU think is worst Final Fantasy game of all time? 👀

[@Pokaroquai]

Dirge of Cerberus needs a remake/remaster, imagine the whole shooting gameplay got improved 10 times and it's like playing Nero from DMC and it could be damn good.

[@notkmr]

Ffxv

[@GlowingF0ssil]

FF8 when all the heroins and villains looks like a supermodel with bad draw system. FF15 when we knew the game isn't finished after we reached the ending. without the DLC's the game is so trash.

[@edwardheroes7567]

Need to say i played all the bravest and it just seemed like a generic trashy clicker game.. and with that said its just like the most amazing game you averplayed if you compere it to "FF15: A new Empire" No idea why this shamefull creation can be still on store while the actually somewhat good games got closed.. Didnt try the second ff15 builder game yet, tho i have similar expectations to that one too.

[@idontwannatypeaname]

all the bravest def

[@Anime-Doom]

I think the main reason Crystal Chronicles got such low scores wasn't actually because of what the game did but rather what it didn't do. Despite being primarily a co-op game and finally having online co-op they made it so that ONLY the host of the game could actually make progress in story. All The Bravest however not only deserves to be the lowest rated FF game of all time but should have a MUCH lower score than it does, not only are the microtransactions incredibly predatory but the game wasn't even free when it first released.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Oh wow I didn't know that about the co-op! As as I was finishing that game it became quite clear that it was meant as a mutliplayer experience and not solo.

[@ryandude3]

Yeah, as someone who loved the original, I was desperately hoping that the remaster would open it up for proper online co-op. Such a disappointment.

[@pichugirl6]

It's more than just the host, it didn't help that co-op was region lock. Making it unfair for gamers having friends on different sides of the continent.

[@shivur5073]

Not to mention the OG version of CC required a good couple hundred setup for co op which was stupid to begin with

[@Haseo8]

​@@TheGamingShelfYeah, the way the original game's co op worked was each player would control a created character on a single memory card. And each player would be traveling togrther as one caravan. Not how it work in the remaster. Now it's just matchmaking at each area, and as someone said, only the host, for whatever reason, get's progress. So if playing with friends, gotta play the same area multiple times so everyone gets progress. It was the worst thing about the remaster in my opinion.

[@edgeyberzerker]

Dirge of Cerberus is one of my favs. I understand there are flaws but oooooh I love every second of it

[@wahidpawana424]

The weapon customisation is so addicting. Even after completing the game multiple times, I am still experimenting with different combinations. Story wise, I was disappointed with how lucrecia was written.

[@getnood]

One of the best games ever and if people can’t beat it then that’s on them 😅 Hope to see an updated remaster or perhaps even a remake one day. The end bosses were especially cool. Feels like an early version of what would become the Eikon battles in FFXVI

[@LacourseK999]

I was about to say the same thing, The weapon system and honestly the combat was really fun I 100% that game, couldn't put it down.​@@wahidpawana424

[@SouthBridgeGaming]

I think that part when Vincent ambushed by Fangs (i forget their names) event on Bad Lands copied by Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Blade Wolf intro boss battle years later. Both MC are the supporting character from main title. Mission plays as Cait Sith = Play as dwarf Gekko. The variety of boss design as well, 1 girl, crazy guy, big guy, charismatic guy. People just don't see the similarities. And yeah, I love both of these underated games.

[@NotMe-vv4bu]

The reason your opinion seems to align more with User Scores than with Metascores is that you actually played the games, unlike most critics. 🤣

[@TheGamingShelf]

Yeah actually finishing all the games and having an open mind definitely changes things 😆

[@s-wo8781]

You don't know what the hell you're talking about. We actually play the games. Always some people on the internet who don't do your job thinking they know your job.

[@danman1124]

How is anyone gonna review a game they haven’t played? That’s just a bad take

[@Gabrielleyale]

Funny you should say that. According to Wikipedia, ff7 rebirth has a sky high rating, universal acclaim so to speak. Well I fell asleep just watching others play. So many side quests and so much running around. The storytelling is cut into tiny pieces if it still exists 😮

[@danman1124]

@@Gabrielleyale ok that’s just you, so what? So because of your experience, the critics are all wrong? Rebirth is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time.

[@StoneCresent]

If I recall correctly, Dirge of Cerberus had a number improvements made for the NA/EU/AU release. The original Japanese release controlled/played much worse. The game also supports mouse and keyboard controls; try hooking up a USB keyboard and mouse to the PS2 the next time and see if the control is better. Honestly, there is a lot of potential for improvement with this game; I'm surprised a remake or remaster wasn't made already. Given the love given to Crisis Core recently, maybe we could see one or at least a PC release.

[@FelisImpurrator]

I loved the game as a kid. Would kill for a remaster.

[@Ubu90]

@@FelisImpurrator same, it wasnt as bad as some ppl say

[@dylansetright3359]

@@Ubu90 Its story was as bad as people say hell i'd argue it was worse. Its the most cheesy terrible mid 00s style dialogue, with horrible villains and a THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP! epilogue moment

[@tona4x7]

I loved DoC, just wished it was a little harder, and the online mode that the japanese version had instead of the stupid extra missions that required fighting all the Tsviets as Cait Sith at once.

[@BuryTheLight-tds]

I feel like they might remaster this game in the same way Crisis Core Reunion did, after they've released Part 3 of the remake trilogy.

[@FatalMasamune]

For Crystal Chronicles most of the negativity went towards the changes in multiplayer. The reason the controls are so weird is because the Gamecube original was controlled with 4 players all using GBAs linked to the Gamecube to play. Dumb but really fun with a group. Instead of just making the original multiplayer but online with regular controllers they turned it into a matchmaking system where your party disbands after every dungeon and only the host gets progress instead of the whole party gaining progress like in the original. Playing single player it pretty much the same game as the original but it is the multiplayer where the remaster stumbles

[@TheGamingShelf]

Good to know! I didn’t try the multiplayer but that makes a lot of sense.

[@shadowtony8]

I actually like FF2. It's definitely among the worst FF main series games, but that's just because the others are REALLY good. As a game in general, I think FF2 is pretty good. I just wish there was more build variety. There's pretty much only 3 "builds". Black Mage, Fighter (weapon attacker), and White Mage/Paladin.

[@simonefiumicini]

Pretty good? The dungeons are dogshit

[@vegeta2998]

The game was okay. Beat it easily cause the skill stats on everything made it very easy to abuse. I wiped the floor with the final boss without any trouble.

[@CerberusLives]

A King's Tale was indeed free on release. I remember being moderately entertained for about an hour, then never thinking about it again.

[@joripien]

I remember playing the IOS port of FFII on my iphone 4 back in high school. Maybe I'm looking through nostalgia lenses but I have nothing but fond memories of that game. I loved the leveling system, being able to shape your party members however you want by training specific things in battle, like hitting Guy over and over again to make him a defensive beast. The rotating cast of guest characters was really cool too. Never forget Ricard Highwind, the OG dragoon!

[@zerohx77]

I enjoyed Final Fantasy II on GBA. Crystal Chronicles Remastered got a bad score because the multi-player is one sided. When you used to play with friends everyone would have their own families and receive letters and now you just follow whoever's game you joined. Or so I've heard. It was really fun with friends on Gamecube with GBAs. Dirge of Cerberus should get a remaster but make the shooting gameplay better, maybe something out of Rebirth mini games.

[@vanishingdragon7]

I played Dirge of Cerberus and honestly, really enjoyed it. That was a long time ago, so the gameplay could have aged poorly. But i enjoyed the story.

[@WaseemMuhammedIlyas]

I enjoyed it too

[@os_wand]

Same here bro. I just not only played but also replayed many times back in the PS2 days

[@vanishingdragon7]

@@os_wand I probably would have replayed several times myself, but, unfortunately, I never had my own copy. My only playthrough was done on a rental back then.

[@dantelan-i-er5466]

I loved that game as a kid. Will revisit it soon

[@tmaclabi]

I love it too. I'm a big Vincent fan growing up as a kid

[@rightwing707]

What I love about Dirge of Cerberus' opening is that it explains why Vincent and Yuffie weren't in the ending CGI scene where Meteor was about to fall. The game itself was overall really fun if a bit short, the combat is clunky at first but it becomes much more fun when you jump into the two higher difficulties. The hardest acting like a kind of NG+ mode allowing you to experience the full game with the Ultima Weapon was also a lot of fun and a great way to set-up a solid build to tackle the bulk of the challenging EX missions with. The secrets throughout the game are fun to come across and getting the secret ending was really hype at the time even if it went nowhere.

[@rottengalaxy]

If the level up gimmick from FF II showed up in a modern day retro inspired RPG it would be applauded

[@HollowAshes747]

It's already in modern games. FF2 literally spawned the SaGa series.

[@JosephHeiskell]

@@HollowAshes747Not to mention the Elder Scrolls has a very similar system.

[@Dhalin]

The main problem with FF2 was that it was too slow to level up. This is proven in the Pixel Remaster version of FF2 which is 10x better to play. Seriously, give it a try. It's _amazing._ You can still hit your own group members to get increases, but _you don't have to_ as you gain stat increases regularly during combat and it feels much more fluid and smooth and all you have to do is kill stuff you run into naturally and your characters will grow over time, just make sure to occasionally cast spells to keep MP going up too. The Fast-Forward feature is also a huge QoL, you hit a button and the game speeds up by 1.5x and automatically chooses the previous inputs you gave each character so you can set them up and just have them execute those commands until you hit the button again which is awesome for most non-boss fights.

[@nickelakon5369]

​@JosephHeiskell the reason why people don't mind the leveling system in games like TES but hated it in ff2 is cause there is significantly less rng involved. You can easily train something like light armor just by wearing it playing normal without worrying too bad about it being underleveled. You don't just get points in light armor for getting hit.

[@Jebbtube]

Record Keeper and Dissidia: Opera Omnia were both enjoyable, but also exploitative. They've also both been discontinued, so there's that.

[@jackycheung2781]

Though FFRK JP version continues.

[@KillerGothChick]

I loved both of those i always liked that they showed the different characters interacting 🎉

[@the.duck.is.ronin.]

DFFOO wasn't exploitative at ALL by gacha standards. They literally took it down because it was so generous it wasn't making enough money.

[@hippiechick73]

DFFOO got me back to final fantasy after taking a break (I hated FFX voice acting and hadn’t played since then.) I enjoyed playing DFFOO with my kids, and continuing to FFXIV from there. Thanks DFFOO for introducing me to my fave numbered title!

[@bwareist]

@@the.duck.is.ronin. That's not even true. Opera Omnia was their second biggest money maker in the entirety of their mobile games library behind Brave Exvius. They shut it down because they felt it was a good place to end the story on.

[@thatsmylatt5745]

You had me worried with the thumbnail 😭🙏🏿

[@TheGamingShelf]

😉

[@FelisImpurrator]

My favorite classic FF is actually 2 because of the leveling system everyone hates. Seriously.

[@BerserkMoogle]

While not my favorite, FF2 is severely underrated and I wouldn't put it at the bottom of my personal list. Furthermore, it has an EXCELLENT soundtrack, including my favorite overworld theme and my favorite regular battle theme. I actually enjoy how open the world is and how you can can wander into areas way out of your league at the very beginning. I also feel the flaws of the game tend to be greatly exaggerated.

[@FelisImpurrator]

@@BerserkMoogle Oh yeah, agreed. Also... The skill system is literally the same as the one in the Elder Scrolls games and people love those. In particular, the janky but deep version in Morrowind is what it feels like, and that one is my favorite of the series. I never did manage to grind quite enough to make Firion a mage worthy of Ultima though, but I can't help myself. I have to try to make every generic swordsman protagonist into a spellcaster if a game will let me.

[@tuskinradar8688]

I've been playing through the OG FFs since the Classic collection was released on switch, sort of a tracing the genealogy of the series, and one thing I have to give FF2 credit for is its responsible for lots of mainstays of the series being introduced, I can't remember all the assets that made their debut there, but enemies like Malboro, the Evil Empire plotline/ Resistance cells, Chocobo mounts, the magical land of Mysidia, I think even Ultima as a spell all made their debut on that game, so I have to give it respect for its quietly super influential contributions to the franchise, even if I'm not a huge fan of the game itself, rating it lowest of the mainline entries ive played so far (1-7, 7R1, part of 8 currently, 10, most of 12, 16)

[@eclat4641]

Same for me with FF8 lol

[@feiitogaming]

Awesome video Taylor. Super nice to go back in time and see Dirge of Cerberus again. I don't remember it to be this bad and now I kinda want to replay it 😅 Can't wait to see you doing this kind of video with another series. 😉

[@TheGamingShelf]

Thanks for watching! Yeah I'll definitely be checking out other series for sure when the time is appropriate :D

[@Poormrworry]

i find it truly isane that the moment i am most excited for in the third remake game is Yuffie finally having her showdown with the secondary antagonist of dirge of Cerberus! I feel that remake devs really loved the characters and art they made for that game because the only reason to bring back anything from that game was because they wanted to.

[@wahidpawana424]

If they are remaking dirge, they should really fix how lucrecia was written and add Yuffie as a playable character and expand on her story.

[@femtrooper]

Awesome video! I really like the topic and found this really interesting! Definitely do more like this! Just kinda neat to see if games are actually as bad as scores say. Haha and yeah, some of these look terrible LOL

[@TheGamingShelf]

Thanks Paige! Yeah some of these are stinkers and definitely deserve their scores 😆

[@XellosNi]

"They screwd up somehow" That is a massive understatement.

[@TheGamingShelf]

😂

[@foufoufun]

18:49 Gotta love the cash shop tutorial. It's not explaining anything, it only says where to swipe your credit card.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Haha right?

[@retrobrandon]

Dirge is my most beloved on this list and I think your review is 100%. I was on that Advent children high when I played it and was so hungry for more lore, loved Vincent. And I personally didn't play the other games you referenced. I think objectively, it's not great, but yeah, 57 is too low. Maybe 65 - 70 IMO. Great video!

[@lordgohan5907]

The number one reason crystal chronicles wasn't well received was the botched co op. We were all excited to finally have an easy way to play the game with friends without gamecube to gba link cables. But instead of creating a caravan with friends and going on the adventure together, you have a single host that starts the lobby for each dungeon and all progress is gained by ONLY the host. So if you and 3 friends want to progress, the guests either have to do everything a 2nd time solo or everyone had to do everything 4 times. Ridiculous. I dont know who thought that was a good idea at the start of production, but they deserve to be let go or demoted for overlooking the one and only reason for remastering that game.

[@nessless5]

The only logical explanation is that whoever came up with the idea purposely wanted the game to fail and sabotaged it. I can't think of anyone who would actually consider the game releasable in that state. They turned a fun game into a worthless, unplayable one with that one choice. When it's more feasible to find a gamecube, 4 gbas and link cables than to buy your remaster, you know you messed up.

[@lordgohan5907]

@nessless5 yup. I played it back in the day with my brother and I wanted to play with 4 people but 2 of my friends stopped after a few sessions of the remaster

[@Glitchy1988]

It's funny how FF2 is hated for having a system that was loved in oblivion and skyrim. You level up certain attributes.

[@rexellate]

My friends and I played the CRAP out of Crystal Chronicles when it came out originally. We could not get enough of it. Something about us each having our Gameboy Advance SPs hooked up to a Gamecube and combining spells to make bigger ones... coming up with "roles" for each person... and at the end of each dungeon you'd get this "mail time" event and we'd each get mail from our character's families in the hometown village and read them out loud because they'd only be viewable on each of our individual Gameboys because the main screen would just be our characters sitting around looking at their mail... The first time we had ever pulled an all nighter was on this game. Take me back.

[@RwnEsper]

Poor FF2. Is it one of the weaker FF titles? Yes. But for a 1988 game it was incredibly ambitious and the fact that they were even able to make it function is fairly impressive. Crystal Chronicles solo is not a fun experience. Sticking points with things like the tribe-locked doors are clearly designed around having mulitple players. Dirge of Cerberus I enjoyed, but I understand why it got tanked (also, one of a handful of games I haven't kept, so there's that)... The combat really holds it back, but I'd love to see it get a remake with a combat system more in line with the Remake. All the Bravest is the stuff of nightmares! I'm glad I never played more than a few minutes of it

[@chisaten]

I am a rare gamer who didn't have a problem with how FFII worked. I'll admit that I played the GameBoy release that had the extra content that added meaning to those temporary characters, but I really enjoyed that game and completed it, whereas I just couldn't get myself to do more than a few dungeons of I.

[@AlexanderArts]

Cool to see Ultros make an appearance!~

[@TheGamingShelf]

🐙

[@patrickmurphy9470]

“Don’t tease the octopus kids!”

[@PhilipWester]

"All the Bravest" was not pulled for being bad, it was pulled for having run its course and no longer making any money for Square Enix. The game ran for over 10 years.

[@Trowelhands]

Crystal Chronicles's metacritic score mostly stems from the fact the online play is region locked.

[@mechaotakugamer]

I came here to see what you thought about Dirge of Cerberus. I like the gameplay and Vincent. But not so much the story as I couldn't understand much about it. That Kings tale ff15 game , I played for a bit, and it was a fun little beat em up type game. That last game is cheeky. All The bravest is literally ATB

[@lyricMNH]

loved this vid man

[@janaxelblomberg7768]

We need more playing worst games vids, this was hilarious and informative, especially as someone whos planning on playing dirge :D

[@TheGamingShelf]

Oh don’t worry, they’re coming! They just take time 😆

[@VegettoBlack]

I loved dirge of Cerberus when I was a kid so I'm curious to see your opinion on it since I am assuming it's on here lol

[@sepphero9639]

A Kings tale FF15 was a free preorder bonus i think, it definitely was free

[@charlesedwinbooks]

A tip for folks playing ffcc for the first time. You can rerun dungeons over and over to pick up any artifacts you didn't get without progressing the years.

[@nezkeys79]

Just tried dirge of cerberus on an emulator 5 mins later...uninstalled 😅

[@PetrosofSparta]

I played all of these except I played the PS1 version of FF2 originally then the GBA version. I think that's the absolute right ranking, sir. I think Dirge getting the Crisis Core treatment with some better gameplay would be fun, but I've no idea if it would sell.

[@demiraichan]

Vincent will always sell, and if it keeps Gackt's music, yeah it would sell.

[@Uryendel]

FF2 is great, first FF to have named characters, an actual story, chocobos, most of the recurring monsters and set a non continuity between the different episode, this is the game that defined what a final fantasy game is. The only downside is the level design that is not great

[@NovaZoneTV]

So obviously you're playing tons of games for this and trying to cram them into just 20 minutes so I'm sure you couldn't spend too much time on researching this part, but the distaste for the Crystal Chronicles remaster is so much deeper than just not fixing old problems. Really, most of the 1P issues were actually made better in the remaster. No more limited inventory, wide screen, you can trade items between your characters, cleaner UI, bonus dungeons, as a single player experience the new version is better. However, the multiplayer completely missed the mark. As you noticed, lots of FFCC felt like it was designed for multiplayer. The core of the original was that you were on a journey with your friends. You got in the caravan as a party, and experienced the journey together. Went to dungeons together, met the same people on the trail, waited on your slowpoke friends to finish deciding what to buy at towns, etc. It was fun for bonding with friends. The only problem was that you NEEDED 1 game boy advance and 1 game boy advance link cable per player. Which walled a LOT of potential players. So the remaster would've been a great way to remedy that problem. But instead, they gutted multiplayer. Now you can only have a party inside of a dungeon, and ONLY player 1 gets a myrh drop per visit. So if you try to replicate the experience of the original by getting a 4 person party that starts from the beginning, you'd have to run every dungeon 4 times to keep the party at the same point. For the other games you talked about I mostly agree. I can never be angry with free games & FF2 kinda not fun. I tried the SaGa series recently which is directed by the guy who designed the combat and progression of FF2. I thought it was gonna be a refined FF2 but it was actually an even more confusing system with tons of RNG factors.

[@TheGamingShelf]

The more I reflected on FFCCR the more I realized it was meant for mutliplayer. Like the button that opens depending on your race and stuff like that. I'm sure it would have been different on MP. Having progress only carry over for the host is insane.

[@leley2282]

I didn't even know that we can play as noctis dad, can i still play it?

[@loritaylor1602]

Even though it’s technically IOS, I actually enjoyed Final Fantasy 2. Didn’t play the other 4. But why should I play at least Dirge of Cerberus of All the Bravest?

[@TheGamingShelf]

Honestly Dirge is pretty rough. I’d only recommend it unless if you’re a hardcore FF7 fan.

[@joeykornegay4587]

The most annoying thing in Dirge of Cerberus BY FAR for me was seeing Vincent showcasing these cool superhuman feats of strength, speed and agility that you’d expect from a prior Turk that had special materia infused to his body that enabled him to transform into these immensely powerful creatures and literally made him immortal, only to resume gameplay and only be able to do some half-assed 2ft dash or laughably average jump, all while fighting these other superhuman Shinra experiment characters who would perform the same superhuman feats against you that they performed in the cutscenes. Vincent is such a cool iconic character and they reduced him to what felt like just some quiet, edgy metal gear wannabe.

[@heroshadow42]

I played Crystal Chronicles, but I didn't know what I was doing so I was accidentally grinding, thinking I was progressing. It was a rental so I never got to finish. Dirge of Cerberus was originally my Brother's game, but I don't remember him getting far and I tended to worry about playing his games, minus DDR. I managed to be at All The Bravest. I forgot if I finished grinding to max level, girl, or all drops from the free segments. Didn't buy characters or stages, and I think I had spare free hourglasses because packrat.

[@robbrooks05]

How is lightning returns not on this list

[@VioletElite4]

Fun fact: Dirge of Cerberus had an online pvp multiplayer mode that was only available on the Japanese versions of the game. The servers have been taken down long ago, but there's videos up on here on what it was like. It was back in that era where every game seemed inclined to shoehorn a multiplayer mode in their game but before microtrasctions so it was more genuine.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Woah what!? That's insane! I need to look this up.

[@nanoatic]

Fun Fact: You can use mouse and keyboard with FF7 Dirge of Cerberus makes the game gameplay real good, i remember it playing it on my old PS2, I still remember the game being awesome.

[@ge0metr1xx]

I appreciate the spoiler warnings very much. Subbed.

[@grieveromega6060]

Dirge of Cerberus made the impression like Square had too many trainees at a time and they told them to make a game in some weeks as a closing project. It has many great ideas and good atmosphere, but is technically just executed badly. It needs a professional remake.

[@DanteCrowlley]

Type 0 needs a remake, it has potential under bad gameplay, I couldn't keep playing it after some hours but the lore n universe is interesting

[@wiseguy240Winston]

Wouldn't be profitable to remake that after the sales of the remaster. Plus, Tabata left, and that game was his project. That's why Type Next will never happen

[@bassgrudge1602]

honestly i kinda loved the vincent game back in the day... i always wanted to see a more in depth story or game about him after playing FF7 growing up and watching the animated movie advent children

[@Dukefazon]

I expected Mobius Final Fantasy to appear on this list. I played it for a couple of weeks but it was terrible, it barely had anything FF in it. It looked good, especially for a mobile game but it wasn't enought. It felt super empty. Ohh, I LOVE Dirge of Cerberus! Too bad it got such a low score, I think the game is beautiful, fun and the story is engaging. A nice addition to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. The mission where you walk around the rainy town has such a strong atmosphere with that music, I kept listening to the theme of that level for years, the track is called Silent Edge.

[@cs82271]

Ngl as someone who's only played the mainline games, Lightning's Revenge is easily the worst imo (boring af), but these look like close competition

[@JosephFargoo]

Final Fantasy 2 was torture to play, my God. The game is so unbalanced in so many ways that I managed to finish the game with just Firion. Because everyone on my team died to the final boss, and Firion had 99% Evasion. And the last battle was basically me using Ultima + Dodging with 100% effectiveness of physical attacks, because I was using osmosis and the boss had no MP at all.

[@junnaka9326]

How is Revenant Wings not here?

[@TheGamingShelf]

Didn't have low enough review scores.

[@lordclansman4205]

Dirge of Cerberus was playable with mouse and keyboard and that improves the controls immensely

[@nachgeben]

You picked a franchise that'll always have an entry that's beloved by someone, why again?

[@Ismael-cj9rd]

why not?

[@Whatsdogpee]

I actually really liked FF2’s leveling up system. Every battle had a chance to grow a stat so it felt more satisfying to come out with a strong team because I knew I had to actually work to manage my characters. It’s more engaging than watching an experience bar/number fill up. Story may leave you lost at what to do next or u may stumble into high level area, yes. Totes agree but personally, I wanna play another (better) game with that level up system.

[@asdfauilor3916]

I know the mob will find this blasphemous... but i actually enjoy FF2 more than FF4, and i first played it on NES emulator! I still like FF4 a lot and it has some of my favorite characters, but i feel the weird system of FF2 and amount of customization is a big part of what made it fun whereas the lack of customization is what made FF4 less so. FF2 does have a high encounter rate, but FF4 isn't far behind by any means. The difference is that the weird leveling system actually made FF2 encounters fun, as i got to work on my characters on each battle and every move can count (i didn't even have to grind or spend hours hitting myself or whatever, i just used the high encounter rate to fight as i'd like to), whereas nothing really matters much for the random battles of FF4. Even when you look forward to your mage learning a new magic at level X, they're probably going to "die" at the end of that dungeon and come back with whole new stats later in the game anyway. That said, i still would give FF4 and FF2 good scores, but i'd put FF2 higher and somewhere in the upper-middle ranking of all numbered FF games i've played.

[@MrFutago87]

Interesting to see your take on Dirge Of Cerberus and compare it to mine. I also have a deep love for FFVII and also played Dirge recently in preparation for Rebirth, however my thoughtsa are kinda the opposite of yours. I honestly think the score of 57 is too high even, like I REALLY did not like the game on my revisit of it. The gameplay issues you mentioned are fuly there but also to there is so much more. Most of the enemies just stand there and shoot you, no one fucking moves, there is barely any enemy AI to speak of. And also my biggest gripe is the characters, writing and just the cutscenes in general, my god everything in this game is so aenemic and boring. And the cutscenes, especially in the second half, just won't end and it's all just talking about shit you already know. Like I practicylly screamed at my screen during the last part "JUST END ALREADY!"

[@TheGamingShelf]

Yeah like I mentioned, DMC and RE4 are WAY better for that era, but something about it being in the FF7 universe just worked for me. Gameplay is pretty rough though lol.

[@ianjohnson7761]

Dirge of Cerberus was how I discovered FF7. I started with 10. I’m trying to go for a sort of completionist playthrough on the PS4 HD Remaster.

[@ianjohnson7761]

I enjoyed Dirge of Cerberus myself ;)

[@AngelusGaston]

Honestly DOC is one of my favourite FF's. I had no issue's with the shooting mechanics and this is coming from someone who doesn't play 3rd person shooters, honestly felt pretty smooth and I could hit consistent head shots even moving. The story was pretty well written and I enjoyed the back story it gave Vincent being one of my favourite characters from 7. Enemies never felt boring or samey especially the bosses and more than once I struggled with beating them ( I had to learn mechanics for once ). The sound track was actually good which is a bonus in my books if I'm going to be playing a game constantly. I liked that they didn't use 7's music as after so many hours I got tired of hearing it plus this is Vincent it was nice hearing something not so up beat or anything. Yes it has its bad aspects but so do many many games I honestly dont understand the hate it gets as I seem worse from other FF games.

[@patrickmontgomery7449]

Gackt as Genesis is gold to me

[@marcuskennedy313]

My biggest issue with Crystal Chronicles remastered was that they didn't add couch coop and just like with the original release, coop was handled extremely poorly. I enjoyed the original and because of that I skipped the remaster

[@unlimitedslash]

Actually in FF:CC you can repeat any dungeon you've done before at any given time, the limit of 3 dungeons only applies for those dungeons which have active droplets you must gather, once gathered you can repeat them at your discretion before advancing in the story, so before advancing a year is recommended to go trough each dungeon and grab all the trinkets available, specially those that boost your main stat (depends on the race used) and those that increase your slots, it's also a good way to gather resources for better equipment, one of the issues with CC i think it's the fact that the new version doesn't seem to come with a manual, lot of useful stuff in there. And the rating score for Dirge of Cerberus is a crime, a great game be it for casual or speedrunning, fun thing, it's one of the few games in the PS2 that supports full keyboard and mouse control.

[@BlueLightningSky]

You ever notice how Japan sucks at making "shooters" where you have to aim but are godlike into making action games where you use guns. Resident Evil is probably their best shooter but even in that game the shooting takes a backseat to melee. Dirge feels like it wants to be DMC. It would be nice to see what they would do with it with all the progress we've learned with console shooters but seeing as I think Lucrecia is a horrible woman and the whole game is Vincent simping for him, I'd prefer if this gets banished into non canonicity from all timelines.

[@TheGamingShelf]

How does melee take priority in any Resident Evil game? I’ve beat every single one and they’re all about the guns.

[@melissamiller4740]

Also doesn’t vincent have an ability to turn into a monster that is very good in combat, interesting that dirge of cerebus does not have that

[@q306005]

I've heard many people say the PSP port is the best, if not the only playable version of FF2. These statements were made before the pixel remasters came out. Crystal Chronicles remaster is so awful because it's meant to be a couch co-op game, but they made the multiplayer online only. Dirge of Cerberus is actually my guilty pleasure. I love that game. I've beaten it multiple times, which is a rarity for me.

[@TheGamingShelf]

The Pixel Remaster is definitely the way to go now haha.

[@themissinggene]

You’re missing a bit of context for Chrystal chronicles, by far the most unique thing it did was it’s multiplayer where you and some friends would go on this journey together, the weird stuff combat feeling more deliberate as you bait enemies and perform spell combos. And you’d replay areas to get money and materials and recipes for everybody’s gear so you’d get more stat boosters as well. This is by far what people were most looking forward to and is why fans can overlook the very stupid hardware requirements of the original and the person stuck with chalice duty. What the remaster did was give it online play but removed the persistent multiplayer in favor of dungeon lobbies so your journey is now lonelier with more Menus and is region locked as well. Which just leaves a giant spotlight on the games more lackluster bits while disappointing fans of the original.

[@joesomenumbers]

The PSP games still look better than the pixel remasters

[@Takato2527]

reason FFII was shite is the grind. Not only it's awkward to level some attribute, and there weren't anything to back-up some of those attribute lv, at least in the NES, like why do I want to level up rod skill when it only increases bonk dmg and not spell dmg? Why do I want to level up dagger lv when there will be no new dagger in mid-game? Oh you want to increase max hp? Get hurt and stay hurt until the battle is over, and getting healed will reduce the chance of leveling up max hp to nothing, and there's nothing to stop you from leveling up those attribute, so your character is either too weak or overpowered. Fun fact, I once shat on this game in some Discord Server, and they gang up on me as they thought FFII was one of the best, because grinding is essential in RPG to them, until I forgot that server played gacha games a lot (Genshin Impact included), so ... let that sink in.

[@ladynikkie]

I have Final Fantasy 2 on PSP and it's not that bad just the only annoying thing about it is the way you have to level your spells and your characters it's pretty time consuming and you are right about the high encounter rate. And I think for Crystal Chronicles the original how to four-player co-op feature in which certain areas you needed in order to progress and I'm thinking of a master edition they took that away

[@Hollow_Tim]

3:11 The first reason for it not being good is because it just isn't very good? Wow, that's the best reason I've ever heard

[@roguerifter9724]

I played most of them. I played a friend's copy of the original version of Crystal Chronicles but never played the remastered version, and I never played All the Bravest. I definitely don't think poor underappreciated Final Fantasy II deserves to be anywhere near this list. Its either my fourth favorite or fifth favorite game in the main series depending on my mood. Its a classic rebellion against evil empire story and we actually get to control how our stats grow what's not to love? I own or have owned every official US release and I used to have a translated Famicom rom.

[@I_cant_sneed]

CC has such a banger OST The problem with the game and why it was rated low is because they messed up on the multiplayer in the original game your friends are your party your travel companions, the multiplayer in the new game it only exist in dungeons, they are not your travel companions them being able to travel with you always felt like a core thing of the game. experiencing random events ect with your party.

[@gonzalomercado7063]

I highly agree with this list. Indeed, dirge cerbus is the worst ff game I have played and I played lots of final fantasies

[@s-wo8781]

Oh I didn't know Crystal Chronicles used Final Fantasy IX monsters. Why is that?

[@TheGamingShelf]

Has a similar vibe but otherwise not sure!

[@mongodellango4732]

Crystal chronicles remaster isn’t a bad game. It’s just a disappointing remaster. A big thing that hinders it is the lack of cross play. Its combat isn’t completely devoid of substance. It’s all about timing your swings correctly. Button mashing won’t really help you. It’s intended as a multiplayer experience and definitely feels better as one.

[@keiyangoshin3650]

Thank you for playing the games, in spite of their bad score and deciding for yourself if they were good games. ☺️

[@josealvelo3348]

I love Final Fantasy VII, it was my first Final Fantasy love and it will always hold a huge place in my heart. To me, Dirge of Cerberus deserves a lower score. I remember playing that game when it came out and being so disappointed and the fact that it took place in the FF 7 world made that disappointment sting harder.

[@shoux]

king's tale was awesome! a free promotional game, simple responsive controls, with a little backstory not found anywhere else (i think) ... my only gripe was it was too short ... would have loved to get more tales about them

[@fleischi62]

Great video! The Spinoffs of JRPG's are always the worst ones 😂😂

[@TheGamingShelf]

Not always! But yeah these weren’t great 😆

[@ChongIllustration]

Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite FF titles because it is rare to get to develop a stand alone full game (not DLC) with one of my favorite FF characters, Vincent Valentine!!!

[@sirducksworthythe3rd842]

My problem with ff2 was not the encounter rate, or price on oso, nothing like that. I quit playing cause every time I got my characters were I wanted them, did move forward I. Story, and the story would take away one or 2 characters I had via death or whatever in the story, and give me replacement that was way behind all my current, so I'd have to grind again, after about the 5th time this happened, I quit playing the gane period

[@garingaming9308]

"99 cents for 1 character is crazy" looks at dragon ball legends 16$ for 10 characters and that's when its a discount normally its 24$ not counting their "special sales" where you have to buy them all for the maximum rewards that can cost upwards of 200$+

[@kellyrajczak1087]

Dirge of Cerberus is still one of my all time favorite games!! Yes it has issues and the graphics could have been better WHEN it came out. However the story was great the characters were lively and the voice acting was actually pretty great!! I honestly hope that this one gets a remaster like 7 remake and rebirth!! This would be absolutely BADASS today!!

[@dracoerrarus4834]

I’m not sure you should rate a multiplayer game on its solo mode. Crystal Chronicles relies on combining your attacks and spells. I didn’t get to play it, but I watched my brother’s family co-op it together and it looked like a blast. I had a bit of fun with All the Bravest, not because of the gameplay, but because of IT’s funny bestiary entries and a decent respect for the 8-bit pixel art. However, Final Fantasy Record Keeper is an amazing game that took the positives of FF:ATB and multiplied it by 1000.

[@davidparkinson3470]

Really hoping for a DoC remaster with tweaked controls

[@TheGamingShelf]

Would be nice! Would totally fix the game.

[@Priomful]

I forgot All The Bravest existed. I think you unlocked some unholy memory there. In hindsight, "All The Bravest" might be a perfect name since I'm sure it took a lot of bravery to make a game this scummy. : p

[@TheGamingShelf]

HAHAHAHA perfect 🤣

[@bitsuuuuuu]

But it have manual aiming and the gun can be customize for long range.

[@ulamgexe7442]

FFII is arguably my favorite JRPG among the franchise :< I really love the arts and the musics. I didn't really mind the peculiar leveling mechanic. The nostalgia probably has a big impact on my feeling, still I've played 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, a bit of 12. I don't quite understand why you only evoke the pixel remastered and the psp versions, why not talking about the og on famicon, the gba port or other ports like on ps1? Btw I've only played FFII on gba, I don't know if the 2nd part of the game (where your main character is Minnwu) is in the other ports. PS: once you get Scott's ring, you can open the world map by pressing B + SELECT (at least on GBA)

[@LilT2o00]

CC remastered lost me for how much unnecessary trouble it went to playing online and me and my friend eventually just said screw it, it's too annoying

[@strappedwittaknife]

Great Video

[@HeilRay]

I still cant believe Final Fantasy XV had ALL these side projects and the main game was...wow.

[@HeilRay]

They were absolutely certain it would be the next FF VII.

[@TheGamingShelf]

Pretty wild for sure lol

[@blockmasterscott]

I tried to play FF15, but I just never could click with it. It just seemed bland to me.

[@HeilRay]

@@blockmasterscott Exactly, I was hyped for it, it looked really cool with a nice concept, then it released..

[@littlecatale7378]

The story wasn't that bad, the really bad thing was that the gameplay was very different and wasn't fully worked out to be enjoyable for all audiences, still, I consider That its history and setting offered much more, it's a shame that it was forgotten.

[@reso-9]

My heart will always go out to FF2 purely for the system that rewards time investment with power (of course, not mentioning the ability to hit your allies to powerlevel). My only complaint is the world map bit. It's not perfect and this game didn't escape FF1's Peninsula of Power (try going south of Altair, see what I mean), but much like FF1 map is available early and through set button combination, iirc it's found in the Ring you get in occupied town of Fynn from the person you seek out at the start. It definitely does not help that once you recruit the Wizard, you can actually make a very early trek into Mysidia albeit it can still be dangerous. Shame review didn't mention Arcane Labirynth at all.

[@Quest4GloryGamer]

Not many know this but, people who talk about FF7 Dirge of Cerberus highly know it's one of the few games you can play mouse and keyboard with on PS2.

[@DreamerFromTheDepths]

I *think* the potential reason for the low scores on A King's Tale are because it was originally marketed as exclusive to certain retailers (although I remember it being advertised as pre-order or deluxe edition exclusive), I think the low scores are still way too low even with the advertising in mind. I have not played Dirge of Cerberus or Crystal Chronicles but unfortunately I have played the travesty of a game that was All The Bravest, the gameplay does in fact speak for itself, there was no depth to it but the game was more or less pay to win, the main Final Fantasy characters pretty much did 20 times the damage of the standard units or something wild like that, obviously it's been a decade since I played it so my memory's not perfect but I remembered there being a VERY noticeable difference between the recognisable characters and the basic classes, the gap between them was just absurd, very scummy game. On an unrelated note can I just point out that the Collector's edition of FFXV is ass? It defeats the purpose of a Collector's edition when the customer isn't getting anything unique to that edition, an artbook and a spear accessory for Noctis? That's legit the only things exclusive about it, ironically the standard version and 30th anniversary version of the same Noctis figure are much more expensive and WAY more difficult to find, in fact I can't even find the 30th anniversary version.

[@Howlzifer]

Weird how there are guides to "the best version of each Final Fantasy" and when it comes to Final Fantasy 2 they usually say to play the PSP version because it has all the bonus content and better graphics or drop down to the GBA version for just the bonus stuff. They mention to play the PR version if you just want to play on modern systems lol.

[@murruelaflaga]

I've played Crystal Chronicles both on the gamecube and the playstation. It was my first final fantasy game and one of my favourites. They really messed up the multplayer feature of the the remaster. Deserved better.

[@mattiasolsson1523]

Some games i might give it a try just because of the franchise, more remaster port Maybe?