Square-Enix and the Final Fantasy series have always been known for their storylines and graphics. But will they ever get darker?? I think thats what made VII so popular and addictive with the darkness of Sephiroth and the uncertainness of Cloud, but can they make a truely evil storyline?? With the more recent games I've found the evilness a bit weak for the most part. Seymour wasnt quite that evil, just a bit loony and dead. in IX Kuja at times seemed more kiddish then Zells fits with Seifer. The quality of storylines is good and addictive for some but there seems to be lacking some evil. Sin saved X for the most part but would it be possible for Squar-Enix to make a truely fearfull,evil,badassed character?? Who knows, we'll see in the future.

oh, i forgot to add VIII, which was more on the mature teen/adult side but still not that dark

Really, I think that FFX was dark enough. The game basically centered around death and hopelessness.
FFVI featured the destruction of most of the world and some character deaths, FFIX had a deep, serious story hidden behind the cute graphics, and I pity you if you think Kuja was "kiddish" - he was one of the best-developed and best characterized villains Square Enix ever invented. He certainly made more sense than Sephiroth!

But, well, like I said, if you can't see the darkness in Final Fantasy X, and continue blindly praising Sephiroth and FFVII for being oh-so-grown-up... well... your loss. :/

I don't think FFVII was dark at all, sure it was depressing, but black capes and opera theme songs mean nothing but appearance. If you mean the pollution in all the cities, yes VII was dark.

I agree with tokiko, Final fantasy X was very "dark" (just look past all the bright tropical islander colors)

If there was a list for the category I'd say FFX is in second place, with FFVI in third

some people say FFIV was dark, but once again, there's a difference between dark and constantly deperessed characters.

Originally posted by Melchior
If there was a list for the category I'd say FFX is in second place, with FFVI in third

What would be in first, out of curiousity?

At any rate, VI is extremely dark- there's a scene of a handcuffed Celes being beaten by other soldiers, the world is destroyed, there's death and suicide- certainly not lighthearted stuff.

X was quite dark too.

As for VII being the darkest? Please! Sephiroth wasn't even that evil of a villan, especially since he came after the most twisted villan of all time

XII looks like it's going to have quite a dark storyline too- the judges look creepy.

^^^^^
What they said...

...."darkness" in a story line doesn't have to do with just the villains...in fact it hardly has anything to do with the villains... "darkness" is a mood really.

I agree about FFX...it was very VERY dark...I can hardly stand playing through the story anymore because it's just simply THAT depressing, around every corner is yet another tragic plot twist

Originally posted by Ndi


What would be in first, out of curiousity?

oops!

I said that wrong, I meant VI is 1st

im glad all of u r finding it difficult to agree on which is the darker ff
thats lakie tryin to argur for which is the best. i do find it odd wen u say sephiroph isnt the darkest character in ff but then again thats jus my opinion, its good to c however that none of u thought ffx-2 was the darkest i was a little dissapointed wiv the storyline but did like the new chain battle feature, i didnt really like the girlieness in the game,

There was a certain darkness associated with FFVI that hasn't really been topped yet. I point to Kefka for this. If the future FF titles want to be "darker", then they need to have more villians that are as evil as Kefka was.

the thing that made Kefka so evil was that you never truly learned his motivation for doing the things he did

overall i wasnt prasing cloud and sephiroth but simply stating that they were accually darker than many other characters. mainly i was basing the storyline issues towards ps/ps2 ff's and i do agree the VI is a decently dark snes game along with IV's issues with cecils past and kain's constant betrayal. X may of centered around death and the point of saving someone but that doesnt automaticly make a game "dark". You cant take the script of X, read the book, and say it was a dark, mysterious, captivation plot with extreme suspense. With Kuja, its more of how he handled things is what i think is kiddish at times. although he didnt figure out the power of trance till later he still could of easily handle the whole planet on his own before garland interferred. im not saying that square-enix would have to fill the game with deep depression, blood and gore but it could just us a bad guy that is accually terrifying to fight but still be able to hold its good elements with character relationships and love at some points. i just wanted to point out that its just to "cheery" at times, not that happiness kills.

its just sometimes sad to know that my 10 year old sister loves every bad guy in the ff's because he's unbelievably cute and the storyline doesnt make her flintch.........

oh and this isnt about favortism on characters

Meteora, I don't think Cloud is darker than any other FF character. I don't think he is as gloomy as he's always said to be... actually. Think about it, he does jokes every now and then, he lets himself be dressed up as a girl, etc.
What makes him darker than Squall, who was brooding during all the game, being depressed, afraid of developing feelings towards others...?
What about Auron? What about Cyan, who had his family murdered, Celes, who attempted suicide after all? Cecil, who had to realize early on that he is what people like to refer to as a "bad guy"? ;)

Sure, Cloud had issues, but nothing worse than Terra's problems, surprisingly similar to Zidane's situation in any case.

And of course the plot of FFX being centered around death makes the game dark. Yes, you CAN take the plot of FFX and write a dark, mysterious and captivating book about it. Probably better than wth FFVII, in any case, because the story of FFX is very straight forward.
And remember what
Ereptor Eximius said:
Darkness is a feeling, a mood, an atmosphere. And FFX just has this atmosphere of darkness, death, hopelessness, you can feel it almost all the time. In FFVII things are a bit more optimistic.

well i think if it's a character squall is very dark and cecil



spoiler!!!
















but when zidane came to terra i think he was very dark and sad

FFX was rather dark, FFX-2 actually got a darker story line about 15 hours into the game lol, atleast how I saw it.

I thought Final Fantasy 2 was a dark game... I mean think about it, 4 orphens running away from their burning village. Parents, family, and friends are all dead. What made things worse is that they meet up with party members and they all die one after another.

I mean give these guys a break... they have death all over. The world in FF7 didn't have much of a "Oh shit we're going to die..." it was so sudden on how that meteor just showed up and how everyone acted pretty... well... artifically about it. Sin in FFX... well, it's like death and you know. It's just "going" to happen and you know it's going to happen. That's living years on fear btw.

Final Fantasy 7 had an industrial feeling, a bleak feeling... that's it. There was no "dark" or "evil" feel to it, it was just a "Zone of the Enders" type of deal, it was just "the end" to them. It doesn't mean death or anything like that, just a damn boring routine life.