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The Top 5 Final Fantasy Spin-Off Games By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman I have a really weird set of preferences when it comes to the legendary Final Fantasy franchise. While I do like the “classic” Final Fantasy main games, I sort of felt that the series was experiencing a bit of a decline with FF7. Don’t get me wrong, Final Fantasy 7 is a good game, but there was something about it that was kind of lacking from the previous games. I want to say it was the fact that any character could essentially be any type of job/class that you wanted them to be, as opposed to the previous Final Fantasies where characters were bound to the parameters of their job. When Final Fantasy 8 was released, I felt that the series had “jumped the shark.” I didn’t like the stupid spell casting system (which I jokingly refer to as “magic the gathering”) and I thought the characters were a bit stupid (even more so than that whole Cloud/Zack thing in Final Fantasy 7). However, I did like that song by Faye Wong, Eyes on Me. Even with its nice pop song ballad, I couldn’t bring myself to finish 8 and subsequently never played any of the main Final Fantasies since (though Ron says I’d probably like 10 for whatever reason). I will say that even though I don’t play the more recent main series games, I am a huge fan of the spin-offs. I love how they’re different types of games based on the familiar things we’ve come to love from the main series. Therefore, I decided to list out my top 5 Final Fantasy spin-off games.
5) Final Fantasy - Mystic Quest: This one is a cheat in many ways. While the game does bear the Final Fantasy branding, there are not too many shared aspects from the main series. This game is basically a beginners/intro RPG; it’s noticeably easier and much shorter than other Final Fantasy games (even in the context of this being an SNES game). Along with the relative ease, the game also lacks random battles (in both the overworld and “dungeon” maps) and has a bigger focus on exploration and puzzle solving. Though many gamers pan this as a bad game or one not worth their time, this is actually pretty fun game to play through on a rainy Sunday (or similar situation).
4) Final Fantasy – Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time: Though this game only wins the 4th ranked spot. It does win the prize for longest title on this list. Echoes of Time (or E-Hoes as we call it around here, based on a hungover Josh’s misreading of the title) is like having an MORPG (not a typo, since it’s not very massive) on your DS. The fighting and spell casting is action based and there’s a bit of avatar play in this game, as your characters actually wear their equipment. The game is pretty fun and the storymode is great, but that’s where it ends. The thing that kept this game from ranking higher on my list was the fact that the online is terrible. Playing a three man game with 2 other friends online was a total lagfest. Considering this game is action based, it really made the game near unplayable while online. I’d often miss easy jumps, despite having a “ranger” type character specifically made for agility. However, one really cool thing about the online in this game is the fact that it’s crossplatform compatible, as Wii players can also play with people who have the DS version. Too bad they may never get to enjoy it.
3) Final Fantasy Fables – Chocobo’s Dungeon: I really like rogue type games. They have this pseudo action feeling that makes them very fun to play when drunk or faded. You’re not bogged down by lengthy turns and stupid animations, but you also have the opportunity to think about what you want to do in the next few moves if you need it. Chocobo’s Dungeon plays like a textbook rogue like game with a very cute theme. As the title implies, you play as the cute fictional yellow bird from the Final Fantasy games making your way through various dungeons (which are actually supposed to be the memories of the citizens living in a Twilight Zone-esque city). In each dungeon you collect classic Final Fantasy items, as well as fighting off the well known monsters seen throughout the main series games. In fact, a lot of the game’s charm comes from this sort of nostalgic theming. Even the music are remixes from previous games. Though the main reason I like this game is based on the fact that you can dress your chocobo up in by making it different jobs. It’s a really cute added touch in this game. Sadly, the developers made this game very easy as compared to other rogue likes they’ve made. Any veteran to the series or gamer that has done some dungeon crawling before will find that the only tough parts in this game are the challenge dungeons.
2) Final Fantasy 12 - Revenant Wings: As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I haven’t played a Final Fantasy sequel since 8. So I had very little interest in getting this game at all. It wasn’t until talking with my friend Aspen about the lack of RTSs on the DS that I was this introduced to game. I used to be a huge fan of real time strategy games in late high school and early college. In fact, I won some stupid Age of Empires 2 tournament a few years back. It was one of the few gaming tournaments I ever participated in. Then again, what do you expect? I’m half Korean. I was quite honestly floored when I got to play Revenant Wings. It put away a lot of my doubts that a decent and in-depth RTS could be made for the DS. Though the game is by no means a full fledged Starcraft or Command and Conquer, it’s very well made for what it is and what platform it’s on. It even puts Robocalypse to shame, which was actually made a year later and ended up being a bit of a disappointment (in its own way). My biggest gripe with this game is that I don’t care about the world of Final Fantasy 12. However, a lot of the story kind of assumes you do care about it. Perhaps, that’s more my fault that I haven’t given the game a chance. But I also think the Square-Enix could have just made this game a new intellectual property, but then it would be on this list I guess.
1) Final Fantasy Tactics: Seriously, was there any doubt that this would be up here? This is a really good game. Tactics is the Final Fantasy spin-off that does everything right. Fun grid based strategy game mechanics, awesome incorporation of many Final Fantasy elements, great music and a really engrossing story (though I did have to later read a story synopsis, since tales of political turmoil and wars between the church and government didn’t interest me at 16). These alone make the game deserving of the top spot. However, the game had one huge thing going for it, it’s deeper than the ocean and vaster than space (not really). But there is a lot of stuff to: do, find, and unlock in this game that are apart from the main story. The game also has amazing replayability by having about 20 classic Final Fantasy jobs to master, giving you tons of potential team configurations to try out. Though I said the story is very engrossing, it is a bit confusing at times. It’s kind of like how reading the Bible is confusing and sometimes you need to read a passage twice to get it. However, I can see past that and just enjoy the game as merely a game (as I sometimes just make up my own story, if I find the actual storyline in a game too confusing).
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