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Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game From Worst to Best

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

Gaming - September 1st 2026, 22:00 GMT+2

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 2 — 16. Final Fantasy II (1988)

Ambition was never *Final Fantasy II*’s problem. It replaced blank-slate heroes with Firion and a resistance fighting the Palamecian Empire, introduced series fixtures such as Cid and chocobos, then tossed traditional experience points for a learn-by-doing progression system. Unfortunately, that system turns character growth into obscure housekeeping: weapons improve through repeated use, spell levels demand grinding, and stat gains rarely behave as a first-time player expects. Add punishing encounter rates and dungeon doors that lead to glorified monster closets, and this bold sequel becomes the mainline entry most likely to make experimentation feel like unpaid clerical work. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 1 — 15. Final Fantasy (1987)

The original *Final Fantasy* deserves a museum plaque and a sincere thank-you; it does not always deserve another twenty hours of your weekend. Choosing a four-person party from six classes still creates a pleasing sense of ownership, while the crystal quest and Garland’s time loop sketch the blueprint for everything ahead. Yet the NES adventure is also a land of relentless random battles, vague directions and mechanics that occasionally fail to function as advertised. Its simplicity has charm, especially in modern remasters, but history does much of the lifting once the novelty of seeing the franchise’s first steps wears off. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 15 — 14. Final Fantasy XV (2016)

Four friends, one royal convertible and a destination nobody is in a hurry to reach: *Final Fantasy XV* is at its best when Noctis, Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto are simply camping, bickering and taking terrible roadside photographs. Their easy chemistry gives the adventure a warmth its fractured narrative cannot match. Crucial context was scattered across a film, anime, DLC and post-launch updates, while the open-world freedom eventually collapses into a rushed, fiercely linear final stretch. The combat looks flashier than it feels and the side quests lean heavily on errands, but that ending can still land like a truck—Regalia pun entirely intended. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 13 — 13. Final Fantasy XIII (2009)

*Final Fantasy XIII* spends ten chapters marching its heroes through gorgeous corridors, pausing mainly to explain why a fal’Cie made a l’Cie pursue a Focus before becoming a Cie’th. The terminology headache and reliance on datalog exposition make Cocoon harder to love than it should be, while towns and meaningful exploration are almost entirely missing. Then the Paradigm system finally bares its teeth: switching roles mid-battle, building stagger meters and balancing offense with survival becomes fast, tactical and genuinely satisfying. Lightning is an excellent lead and Masashi Hamauzu’s score is immaculate; the game simply demands an unreasonable amount of patience before showing its best hand. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 8 — 12. Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

Squall Leonhart may insist that he does not care, but *Final Fantasy VIII* cares about everything at once: teenage mercenaries, political assassinations, time compression, space romance and a card game capable of swallowing entire evenings. Squall and Rinoa give the chaos a sincere emotional center, and Triple Triad remains dangerously good. The Junction system is equally brilliant and hostile, allowing players to attach stocked magic to stats, then quietly discouraging them from casting their strongest spells. Enemy level scaling, endless Draw commands and the infamous orphanage revelation make the adventure feel overdesigned, yet its wild confidence is far more interesting than simple competence. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 3 — 11. Final Fantasy III (1990)

The Onion Knights brought one of the series’ smartest ideas and one of its meanest dungeons. *Final Fantasy III* lets its heroes swap jobs as new crystals unlock fresh roles, turning party composition into an ongoing puzzle rather than a decision made at the opening screen. That flexibility is enormously influential, and the growing world—beginning on a floating continent before revealing something much larger—still has a lovely sense of discovery. Its nameless original cast cannot compete with later ensembles, however, and the marathon through the Crystal Tower into the World of Darkness remains an endurance test designed by someone who apparently considered save points a moral weakness. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 5 — 10. Final Fantasy V (1992)

If battle systems alone decided the order, *Final Fantasy V* would be threatening the podium. Its job system encourages gleeful rule-breaking, letting abilities migrate between classes until a mild-mannered freelancer can hit like a chemically enhanced demigod. Boss fights reward that flexibility, and Gilgamesh supplies the swagger that the central villain occasionally lacks. The lighter story has genuine heart—Galuf sees to that—but Bartz and company never gain the psychological texture of the series’ finest casts. What remains is an exceptionally replayable RPG whose mechanics inspired challenge runs for decades, even if its plot is usually the part players remember second. | © Square Enix

Anking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 11 — 9. Final Fantasy XI (2002)

*Final Fantasy XI* did not politely ask fans whether they wanted an MMO; it dropped them into Vana’diel, handed them the PlayOnline launcher and expected them to find five friends before dinner. Its severe early-game grind, cryptic quest design and dependence on coordinated parties can feel archaeological beside modern online RPGs. Push through that friction, though, and the first *Final Fantasy* MMORPG reveals an extraordinary world built around interdependence, flexible jobs and expansion stories such as *Chains of Promathia*. It also helped pioneer cross-platform online play between consoles and PC. Accessibility was never its specialty, but community was not a marketing promise here—it was the actual combat system. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 4 — 8. Final Fantasy IV (1991)

*Final Fantasy IV* is where the series learned how to perform rather than merely explain. Cecil’s transformation from dark knight to paladin turns a class change into a redemption arc, while Kain’s betrayals, Rydia’s return and Golbez’s operatic menace keep the story moving with marvelous urgency. Its newly introduced Active Time Battle system also gave combat a pulse that shaped the franchise for years. Fixed character roles restrict experimentation, and so many apparent deaths are reversed that mortality eventually starts feeling negotiable. Even with those old-school theatrics, its emotional clarity and disciplined pacing have aged remarkably well. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 16 — 7. Final Fantasy XVI (2023)

Clive Rosfield’s revenge story arrives dressed like prestige television and fights like an action game that has eaten an RPG for protein. *Final Fantasy XVI* delivers magnificent performances, a muscular score and Eikon battles so extravagant that ordinary boss fights suddenly seem underdressed. The problem is what happens between those peaks: thin loot, shallow crafting, repetitive side quests and almost no meaningful control over party members leave the role-playing side conspicuously hungry. Clive and Jill’s quieter scenes give Valisthea a human pulse, but the political intrigue gradually yields to familiar god-killing business. It can summon a mountain-sized Titan; it cannot make a belt with three extra defense points feel exciting. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 12 — 6. Final Fantasy XII (2006)

Walk into Rabanastre and *Final Fantasy XII* immediately feels larger than the heroes wandering through it. Ivalice is dense with imperial politics, regional accents, hunts and enormous zones where dinosaurs can casually ruin an afternoon. The Gambit system turns party AI into programmable strategy, an idea mocked at launch for “playing itself” and later recognized as years ahead of the industry. Ashe, Basch and Balthier drive a sophisticated war story, although Vaan sometimes resembles a tourist who slipped past security and joined the cast. A muted second half keeps it from the podium, but no other single-player entry makes adventuring feel quite this autonomous. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 14 — 5. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (2013)

No other numbered *Final Fantasy* needed a literal apocalypse to become excellent. The original *Final Fantasy XIV* launched in such poor condition that Square Enix shut it down, destroyed Eorzea in-universe and rebuilt the entire MMO as *A Realm Reborn*. What followed became one of gaming’s great recovery stories: welcoming job flexibility, superb raids and an increasingly ambitious narrative that peaks across *Shadowbringers* and *Endwalker*. The opening campaign still overfeeds players errands, and hundreds of hours separate newcomers from its strongest material. Corporate humiliation somehow became a beloved second home, an act of resurrection no offline sequel could imitate. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 6 — 4. Final Fantasy VI (1994)

Kefka wins. That audacious midgame catastrophe splits *Final Fantasy VI* into two distinct adventures and gives its villain a cruelty far beyond theatrical laughter and excellent face paint. The enormous ensemble is packed with standouts—Terra, Celes, Locke, Sabin—and the ruined world lets players rebuild the group in a surprisingly open order. Individual commands keep each hero mechanically distinct, while magicite provides just enough customization to get wonderfully abusive. Not everyone receives equal narrative attention, and the combat balance eventually collapses beneath powerful magic, but the opera, the train and Celes on the cliff remain proof that 16-bit storytelling never needed to feel small. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 10 — 3. Final Fantasy X (2001)

Yes, Tidus’s laugh is supposed to sound painful. *Final Fantasy X* understands performance better than the meme suggests, building its pilgrimage around two young people pretending not to know how Yuna’s journey must end. Spira is beautiful, devout and quietly terrified; every temple and ruined machine adds weight to its cycle of sacrifice. Conditional turn-based combat makes planning wonderfully transparent, while the Sphere Grid offers controlled freedom without burying newcomers in menus. A few late bosses lean on difficulty spikes and unskippable scenes, but Tidus and Yuna’s romance gives the spectacle a vulnerable center that the series has rarely matched. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy 9 — 2. Final Fantasy IX (2000)

*Final Fantasy IX* looks like a cheerful storybook until Vivi starts asking whether a manufactured life can possess a soul. That tension between whimsy and mortality runs through Zidane, Garnet, Steiner and a world consciously revisiting the castles, crystals and black mages of the series’ earliest days. Learning abilities from equipment makes every new purchase interesting, and the localization gives the cast warmth without sanding away their sadness. Combat moves at a sleepy pace, Trance activates whenever it pleases, and the final villain arrives with all the preparation of an uninvited wedding guest. A sluggish ATB gauge is a small tax for forty hours in Vivi’s company. | © Square Enix

Ranking Every Final Fantasy Game Final Fantasy — 1. Final Fantasy VII (1997)

Midgar arrives in a dirty green haze, all steel plates and stolen mako, and *Final Fantasy VII* never stops making its world feel endangered. Cloud’s fractured identity, Aerith’s defiance, Tifa’s patience and Sephiroth’s impossible presence turn an ecological rebellion into an intimate study of grief and memory. The Materia system is accessible enough for newcomers yet flexible enough for absurd combinations, while the pre-rendered backgrounds and cinematic staging gave console RPGs a new visual language. Its translation is rough, its blocky models remain charmingly prehistoric and several minigames belong in custody. None of that weakens the shock, momentum or cultural afterlife of the series’ defining game. | © Square Enix

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Ranking every Final Fantasy game is less an exercise in criticism than an invitation to be yelled at by several generations of RPG fans. The series has reinvented itself so often that comparing its wildly different adventures feels both unfair and completely irresistible. From beautiful misfires and divisive experiments to genre-defining classics that still leave emotional bruises, here is our Final Fantasy ranking from worst to best. Yes, your favorite is probably lower than you want it to be.

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Ranking every Final Fantasy game is less an exercise in criticism than an invitation to be yelled at by several generations of RPG fans. The series has reinvented itself so often that comparing its wildly different adventures feels both unfair and completely irresistible. From beautiful misfires and divisive experiments to genre-defining classics that still leave emotional bruises, here is our Final Fantasy ranking from worst to best. Yes, your favorite is probably lower than you want it to be.