These are all three really great games. I won't give my opinion but i would like to see what other people think.

What was good and bad about each game. Don't just say "the ending sucked" that doesn't mean anything.

Talk about: graphics
storyline
gameplay
battle system
secrets
characters (personality, abilities, appearance, etc.)
and any other important features i left out (quite a few)

Also be specific!

Moving to General FF, since it's not just about FFX...

Oh god, and how I fear the things people are going to post in here. >.<

***SPOILERS.***

Final Fantasy VII:

Graphics: The most unrealistic of the three. Sure, at the time it pushed the limits, but the characters are blocky in order to get more detail into the backgrounds. Overall though, seeing as it's been 7 years, good stuff.

Storyline: There were two main storylines running alongside one another, AVALANCE Vs Shinra, and The planet Vs Sephiroth. The characters involved developed as the story went along, albeit not as fully as one would've wished (Vincent and Yuffie spring to mind, the Turks too.)

Gameplay: Easy to pick up and play for an RPG newbie, which is what the game was aimed at.

Battle system: The Materia system. Easy to pick up with enough flexibility for those who wish to tweak and master their characters up as far as they like. Pairing up Materia types for defences and stuff was neat, as was the double, triple growth of AP in weapons and armour.

Secrets: There were tonnes of secrets. The Weapons. The Limits. Chocobo Racing. Chocobo Breeding. The list goes on.

Characters (personality, abilities, appearance, etc.): Cloud was a well developed character, but we really did not see that much of Sephiroth nor really fully understood what the heck he wanted to do after he'd achieved his plan. I mean, what motivated him to go down that path between the Nibelheim incident and now? I'd also liked to have seen more of some characters as mentioned in storyline.

Oh, one more thing...

Soundtrack: There are some beautiful tracks played during the game. Jenova's Theme is nice, Cid's Theme is powerful, Aeris' Theme is tear-wrenching when played during the fateful battle. And Sephiroth's theme is memorable.

Final Fantasy VIII:

Graphics: The most realistic graphics on the PS1. The characters are beautifully drawn, and the fade into battle is a lot better now the real character sprites are used. The FMVs are also very impressive.

Storyline: A love story in all but name, the story of how Squall starts off as a closed book with no apparent way to unlock his pages before the key, Rinoa, comes into his life, and he changes slowly before your eyes from uncaring bastard to carrying the girl who wins his heart across half the world to cure her, and then being saved by her at the end. Awesome stuff if you read it in the right way.

Gameplay: There's lots to do again in this game, and it's of a similar vein to FF7 in the exploring way. Drawing magic and GFs are more confusing, true, but one can get used to it with practice.

Battle System: As I've mentioned, the battle system involves drawing magic and junctioning it to strengthen your stats. This is a double edged sword as you don't use magic for fear of weakening your characters. Also, getting GFs to like you takes a while.

Secrets: Getting all the GFs, finding all the ultimate weapons, collecting Blue Magic for Quistis, Chocobo quests, the use of the Pocketstation for the mini quest. There's lots to do here too.

Characters (personality, abilities, appearance, etc.): Squall starts off as a jerk, but develops much further than his counterpart Cloud and becomes, y'know, human and caring at the end of the game. Rinoa also develops alongside Squall, learning about herself on the way. They save the soul of someone whom they care about in Edea, and even though it was hard to understand Ultimecia's place in the story, her purpose (to destroy everything that ever happened in order to hide her pain) is the anti-thesis in what the party stands for.

Soundtrack: Eyes on me. Liberi Fatali. The Man with the Machine Gun. Time Compression. There are so many great tracks in the list that it's hard to fault.

Final Fantasy X:

Graphics: The graphics are very smooth and well done. Occasionally in battle you get a fuzziness (or I did, though it was probably my eyes.) The FMVs are beautiful, and each character is thought out in appearance.

Storyline: I cannot give the storyline justice. People say it's mindless, but if you take it from each character's point of view, then it just grows and grows and grows. Of all the worlds, Spira is the most alive and with the most... Real... Feeling of the series. The oppression and fear of Sin, the determination of the characters to defeat Sin. The presence of the Maesters and the sub characters like Belgemie and such all add to the depth.

Gameplay: The battles are fluid. The map is easy to follow. Although the game is very linear, once you get the airship it opens up so much and you've got the choice to go on or go back and do lots of secrets. And there are lots of secrets. Plus you've got sub games like Blitzball that keep you busy too.

Battle System: The Sphere Grid is unique and while confusing to begin with grows on you as you get used to it. Levelling up is easy and customising your characters so they are a mix of different types really adds to the game. Aeons are a more unique form of summon. Being able to CONTROL them to an extent in battle is new, and a feature I hope is considered for each game.

Secrets: Celestial Weapons. The Hidden Aeons. The Dark Aeons. Unlocking all the limit breaks. Unlocking the entire Sphere Grid. Al Bhed Primers. Sure, things are linear, but go back and do everything. You'll be there a long time.

Characters (personality, abilities, appearance, etc.): I could make a separate post about each character... Let's just say that each adds their own mark to the story and the game as a whole. Tidus is the catalyst of change Spira sorely needed. Seymour is his exact opposite, trying to alter Spira from being alive to being dead. Yuna is Spira's Hope and the vessel for the change that is needed. Auron is the conscience of the dead who have long since gone and who cry for others to learn from their mistakes. It goes on and on.

Soundtrack: All the soundtracks are awesome. The Song of Prayers, the People of Mt Gagazet, battling Seymour, battling the final boss, the tunes sing in your head.

Phew... I'm done. I think.

Adam, I'm stealing the format you used to answer this. Hope you don't mind.

***SPOILERS.***







Final Fantasy VII:

Graphics: I admit I cringe a bit at FFVII's lego-ish characters now, but I remember being in awe over the opening movie when I first saw it. I don't think VII's graphics really stood the test of time as well as sprites did.

Storyline: To me, the story sort of fell apart after the first disc. There were so many things that were never explained or justified. It feels almost rushed, in a weird sort of way.

Gameplay: There were some things as far as gameplay goes that I really like. I love it when there are fun things you have to do besides level and fight bosses, like when you had to dress Cloud up like a girl. There's lots of fun stuff to do in this game that have nothing to do with advancing the plot of the game.

Battle system: There are things I liked and disliked about the Materia system. I don't think it's as godly as some people like to say it is, but it isn't the god awful system I've heard people describe it as either.

Secrets: The game was chock full of secrets, as any good RPG should be.

Characters: I didn't care for the character design in FFVII at all. I suppose it's too simple and plain for my tastes. I didn't feel like I got attached to any of the characters I was supposed to- I liked the turks more then I liked any of the main characters, except for Cid.

Soundtrack: VII has some of my favorite FF music. Tifa's Theme in particular is one of my favorites.

Final Fantasy VIII:

Graphics: The opening movie to VIII gives me chills to this day. I think it's got some of the best FMVs in the series, and I don't have any complaints about the ingame graphics.

Storyline: The story to VIII is fantastic. A lot of people complain about it, and say they couldn't get into the whole love story, but there's so much more to in than that. The character development in this one was phenomenal. I liked jumping around in time like the story did.

Gameplay: There were some really fun things in this one too. I like the scene where you fight the dragon for the movie in particular. I missed MP, but I did like the junction systtem.

Battle System: The junction system is a lot of fun, once you figure it out. I had a lot of fun with it. Like I said before, I did miss MP, but I didn't mind sacraficing it for a game to have fun with something new.

Secrets: Chock full of em. ^^

Characters: I liked the character design on this one a lot better then 7. I still prefer more elaborate costumes, like in older FF games, or in X, but this time around I felt like the characters had. . . more character. The characters are wonderfully developed- Squall in particular undergoes a complete transformation. And I tear up at the end when Seifer laughs.

Soundtrack: Liberi Fatali is one of my very favorite pieces. I also love Eyes on Me

Final Fantasy X:

Graphics: It was the best looking game I'd ever seen at the time I played it. The FMVs are jawdropping, and the in-game looks almost FMV worthy.

Storyline: Spira is so much more developed then any of the other worlds in the FF series- it's insane. It made everything so much more powerful. When my characters discovered things, I didn't just think of how they reacted to it, I thought of all the people of Spira, and how sad it was, for them. Meh, I know that didn't make much sense, but I hope you get the jist of what I'm saying. Second in story only to FFVI.

Gameplay: The game was extremely linear, but I thought that suited the almost movie like narrative.

Battle System: I adored the battle system in X- it's one of my very favorites. Having certain types of monsters being weaker against certain types of attacks was fun, and I liked being able to switch around my characters. The Sphere Grid system was fantastic- I had so much fun moving around the grid, trying to teach my characters new things.

Secrets: Heh. Really I can't think of an FF game that isn't loaded with secrets.

Characters: First off, I think X has the best character design in the whole series. Just looking at the characters, not even knowing a thing about them, there's so much to them. I liked all the color too.

As for the characters themselves? Well, I wasn't very fond of Tidus, but I thought he was very real, and it made sense that his character was the way he was. His cheery type personality in the world of Spira was very interesting to see. And Yuna. . .Yuna is one of my favorite FF characters of all time. She's almost as wonderful as Terra. Every character was extremely well developed, including characters that weren't even in your party.

Soundtrack: While I liked the music in X, there are less tracks that stand out to me. Suteki de na was beautiful though, and perfect for the moment.

Wow! Thanks for the awesome descriptions!

THERE'S NO FFIX, another grave injustice to the best FF game of them all. It's always overlooked and I would like everyone to please remember it when asking these sorts of things!

Like all of these reviews, I'm bound to *spoil* some of the game within here someplace, so if you haven't played it yet, I suggest not reading on. Thanks.

Final Fantasy IX, PS1, Released 2000, Squaresoft (Now Square-enix)

This was the last 32-bit (pre PS2) game that Squaresoft released and they released it just before the PS2 came out. This bad timing ment that the sale wern't so good because most people ended up saving for a PS2 and not apriciating FF9. You can tell by the fact of the number of posts for the previous games being more and obviously the more recent games havn't had the same amount of time to acumilate as many posts and they probably would giving the same time too! I believe it is the best FF game yet and I wish to share this apriciation with you all.

I won't be scoring like Bahamut ZERO because it is up to the individual's opinion not the writer

Storyline

Final Fantasy IX has the best story line of all FF I don't care who likes FF7 it's not as good as FF9! You start off as a member of Tantalus (a troop of theives mascrading as theatre performers), Zidane Tribal. Your current mission is to kidnap the hottest girl in Alexandria, Princess Garnet Til Alexandria XVII it's for the ransom you might think but there is plot twist after plot twist and you find all of the charater's lives are more intertwined than you would have thought when they came together. You never see the main plot coming for you because you think that the one at the start is the main plot. The ending is so sweet even to the point of being moving, showing how much Garnet and Zidane had fallen in love that Zidane could come back helped be his thoughts of her.

The story really does touch on a lot of different topics in a way that I think that other FF games don't even come close to. The loss of innocence is clear to see in all of the charaters, even if the focus is on Garnet's nievity and they grow in ways that the charaters form the other games don't even have a chance to (not knowing about FF1 to 6). However there are things in X-2 like Yuna was the one who was going to die at the end but then they all find out Tidus and Auron are instead.

The writing is masterful, the characters plot lines sepatate and join up again which is not really achieved in any other FF game to the same extent. And the four character ATB system really works with the plot because when they sepatate the most they go around in is four.

Squaresoft's concept designers brought together all of the best bits of the FF games that went before it and puts them together. Also for the FF veteran there are many references to the other FF games FF9.

Graphics

In my opinion the graphics of the previous games tried too heard to be impressive for how far the technology have gotten and it just doesn't work for me especially FF7. But the graphics in FF9 are just right, it's not to simple to not have the usual FF impact but they don't look crappy and too over the top for the technology. The angles in the buildings and towns are well done just at the right angle, in FF7 for example they were too sharp, looking down. The charaters were a bit cartoony and illproportioned though. The background have a nice amount of detail enough for it to be believible but not so much your lost in detail.

Sound

The woman that sings the intro song really has a beautiful voice tbh. The music moves with the characters and plot. At the start there is a lot of innocent music and as the game progresses the plot is revealed the music becomes a lot harder and menacing. It is always apropriate for the task.

Gameplay

It is the best so far in terms of gameplay! The learning abilities from equipment is inspired novice and veteran alike can easily use the equipment to it's full potential, there's no fiddling with materia in this game!, the weapons and amour are quick and easy to understand then equip.

The character HP/MP/lvl ratio was well done in this game because they each had a job so could be programmed apropriatly. Nowhere in the game was the level too high or too low to keep it challenging but not a walk over.

The trance was a very good idea too I've never liked the limit break kind of special move. It allows added power over a time and not as often so you can think about want your doing, and they are move unique to the individual again because of the jobs system. Trance again grows at the right rate for the story and the level of the characters.

Lifespan
Not so good. It is the most underated FF game of them all. It can only try to blosom under the popularity of FF7 the most overrated FF of all time! It can't compete with the graphics of FFX and so on also doesn't get the retro status of FF1 to 6 because it's 32-bit so it's mostly ignored in it's perfection. It can be played over and over if you give it the respect it deserves!

Summary
It has a perfect balance of all of the qualities of an RPG and outshines all other FF games even tough it is mostly left out because of FF7. * Paraphrased quote* It was the final send off from Square for the PS1 and was made with a little something extra as the last 32-bit Square made, ready to reinvent the FF games in FFX. * End * I don't think they really did change it though. It deseves more respect than it gets as a great game.