Final Fantasy XVI Directors rank their top 3 favorite FF games

What are your top 3 FF games?


  • Total voters
    256


Hiroshi Takai(Director):

3) FF 10
2) FF 6
1) FF 5

He considers 6 the peak of their 2D works and he was involved as a designer in FF 5.

Kazutoyo Maehiro(Creative Director):
3) FF 12
2) FF Tactics
1) FF 5

He is sad that FF tactics is not playable on modern systems and wants it to be one day, like the FF pixel remaster collection.

Ryota Suzuki(Combat Director):
3) FF 5
2) FF 10
1) FF 3 (was his first FF game as a kid)

He was captivated by the story of FF 10 and they hope that 16 can give the same feeling of wanting to know what's next whenever you put the controller down.

All 3 say that 16 is influenced by 5 in some ways, in story and in combat options.

Edit: More rankings from Yoshi-P, Minagawa, and Koji and more thanks to YukiOnna YukiOnna

The rest of the teams favourites:
Yoshi-P:
3) FF7
2) FF3
1) FF1
Minagawa:
3) FF12
2) FF5
1) FF3
Koji:
3) FF14
2) FF11
1) FF5
You can read their explanations in the article:

Like Yoshi-P has said, it depends on which ones you grew up with and those will be your most nostalgic/biggest influence. The V bias though because Hiroshi Takai worked on it, lool. If you're curious how 16 is influenced by 5, it's in the Summon ability system they have. They talk about it a lot in interviews.
 
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Those are incredible points of inspiration to go from, since the bogstandard answer to everything is VII.

You can definitely taste some of those flavors in the demo, particularly the Ivalice inspiration.
 
Kazutoyo Maehiro(Creative Director)
3) FF 12

denzel washington GIF
 
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The rest of the teams favourites:
Yoshi-P: 3) FF7, 2) FF3, and 1) FF1
Minagawa: 3) FF12, 2) FF5, and 1) FF3
Koji: 3) FF14, 2) FF11, and 1) FF5
You can read their explanations in the article:

Like Yoshi-P has said, it depends on which ones you grew up with and those will be your most nostalgic/biggest influence. The V bias though because Hiroshi Takai worked on it, lool. If you're curious how 16 is influenced by 5, it's in the Summon ability system they have. They talk about it a lot in interviews.
 
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The most shocking thing to me is that they all love 5. Not my favorite but I can respect any answer from the SNES or set in Ivalice.

It's funny, for the full tilt towards action, you can tell that everyone involved really had reverence for the franchise and wanted to go back to the foundation to build something new and interesting on something historically solid and built to last. Something about the WORLD, I think. Valisthea feels like a classic RPG setting. Lived in, vibrant, inviting but dangerous. I dunno, it feels like they understand their toolset.
 
I love pretty much most mainline FF games from 4 to 8 to 12 etc.. 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 ,10 and 12 all very exceptional games in my opinion, however my heart would probably have to go with 10.

Spira, Yevon, Zanarkand, the vibrant colours, the setting, the story, romance, the ridiculousness of Sin, the characters, the father/son stuff that feels more real that any other game, the music, the ending.... just something very dream like and touching about that game that I'll never forget.
 
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The most shocking thing to me is that they all love 5. Not my favorite but I can respect any answer from the SNES or set in Ivalice.
I don't know if I've ever met a Japanese fan of the series that didn't have 5 in their "top 3". Seriously, that game must have spoken to their culture or mindset on some sort of visceral level.
 
I don't know if I've ever met a Japanese fan of the series that didn't have 5 in their "top 3". Seriously, that game must have spoken to their culture or mindset on some sort of visceral level.
Seems that way, in a lot of these rankings you will see FFV, FFVI, FFVII and sometimes FFX taking the top spots for the Japanese audience.
 
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edit: ignore me, I got mixed up

VI & VII are always my top 2 (to the point they're basically 1a and 1b)
 
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I chose 6, 12, and then I struggled to pick a 3rd. I ultimately chose Tactics but depending on the day it could be 4 or 9 as well.

Also LOL no one here has picked 5 yet.
 
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I don't know if I've ever met a Japanese fan of the series that didn't have 5 in their "top 3". Seriously, that game must have spoken to their culture or mindset on some sort of visceral level.
My guess is the godawful story doesn't bother them and they have more patience for excessive grinding so that the job system is actually meaningful. It takes forever to master a single job in FFV that I just lose interest in it personally.
 
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Most of them have great taste(Except the creative Director), which makes it even more dissapointing what they are doing with XVI.
 
1 - VII

2 - FFT

3 - X

You really can't go wrong with my ranking.

I'm a man of superb taste.
 
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1) FF7
2) FF10
3) FF14

Honorable mentions being FF8 and FF9. I love FF7 Remake, but I'm reserving judgement on how that went until all three games are out.
 
FF8 Is the GOAT.

The art design, the music, the battle system, the limitbreaks, the summons, the card game, the refining system, the insanely flexible junction system.

and the set pieces were abolutely top knotch.
dollet mission, train hijacking, assassinating the sorceress, GARDEN WARS, estha, going into fucking space, lunar cry, going to the future.

It was a rollercoaster of insanity, and I loved every minute of it
 
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XI - I played this game for 16 years and had one of the most pristine accounts across all servers until I retired I met some amazing people and we seriously got shit done I miss them and wish I could rewind time and do it all again.

VII - My first FF I got it on my 14th birthday and fell in love with the characters, music and the story. It was a lot too take in and learn for my noob ass but I ended up doing very well, I could never beat ruby weapon and I never got knight of the round back then.

X - Struggled to choose between VIII X and XII for 3rd favorite as I really like all 3 but X just edges it I think, Back in 2001 it was absolutely incredible what Squaresoft pulled off on PS2 so early in the consoles life, When that Besaid music kicked in it was like yeah this is gonna be good.
 
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FF8 Is the GOAT.

The art design, the music, the battle system, the limitbreaks, the summons, the card game, the refining system, the insanely flexible junction system.

and the set pieces were abolutely top knotch.
dollet mission, train hijacking, assassinating the sorceress, GARDEN WARS, estha, going into fucking space, lunar cry, going to the future.

That game's story was fucking bonkers. I loved it.
 
For me:

1. Final Fantasy X+X-2
2. Final Fantasy IV
3. Final Fantasy VI
4. Final Fantasy Tactics
5. World of Final Fantasy

Everything else I'm either indifferent to or actively despise for the most part.
 
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