The NES is where Final Fantasy but it wasn't until the SNES days that the series would start to blossom. However, many fans would argue that the series didn’t explode until the PS1 thanks to Final Fantasy VII. Including that game there were twelve core titles and spinoffs released for the hardware. There are two extra games worth mentioning before moving on.
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Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring and Vagrant Story are technically related to the Final Fantasy franchise. Ehrgeiz is a wrestling game which had Final Fantasy VII characters like Cloud in cameo roles. Vagrant Story didn’t launch as part of the Ivalice series but was later retconned into it but still isn’t what one would call a Final Fantasy game. Those game examples may make things sound confusing but the rest of these entries are straightforward.
12 Chocobo Stallion
Chocobo Stallion released in 1999 only in Japan. It was a simulation game themed around raising Chocobo and racing them. Unlike Final Fantasy VII which it seems like this game takes a lot of inspiration from, players took an offhand approach to the racing segments. That's okay though as raising Chocobo has its own perks which can be quite soothing like Animal Crossing.
11 Dice De Chocobo
Dice de Chocobo also released in 1999 as a Japan exclusive. It did get a GBA port in 2002 but that was also only in Japan. The game is like an RPG version of Monopoly. There’s a whole series like this in Japan called Itadaki Street, which the West did get one game in the series: Fortune Street for the Wii.
10 Chocobo No Fushigi Na Dungeon
Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon released in 1996 in Japan only. It is the first Final Fantasy themed spinoff to the Mystery Dungeon series of dungeon crawler roguelikes.
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It’s a little harder than the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games but it’s close in terms of user friendliness. This is a good roguelike for beginners in other words.
9 Final Fantasy Chronicles
Final Fantasy Chronicles released in 2001. It was a combo pack that included straight rom ports of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV. However they were burned onto the discs was not great because the load times were infamously bad. The added cutscenes were nice, but this is the worst way to play either game.
8 Final Fantasy Anthology
Final Fantasy Anthology was a similar combo pack that released a couple year earlier in 1999 for North America. It included Final Fantasy VI and for the first time Final Fantasy V. That was originally a 1992 game on the SNES in Japan meaning it took eight years to come over. The load times were a bit better in this collection but these ports still weren’t the most ideal.
7 Chocobo’s Dungeon 2
Chocobo’s Dungeon 2 is the first game North America got in this spinoff franchise. It’s very similar to the first in terms of gameplay and it doesn’t seem like much new was added to differentiate the two. On the plus side fans of the Final Fantasy series were still happy to see it come over.
6 Chocobo Racing
Chocobo Racing, unlike Chocobo Stallion, did allow players to manually race. It’s more different than Final Fantasy VII though and instead was Squaresoft’s attempt at a Mario Kart clone. Besides Chocobo and other Final Fantasy based monsters and classes, it also has some secret characters from the series in it like Cloud.
5 Final Fantasy Origins
Final Fantasy Origins was a very late release for the PS1 in 2003 for North America. This was already three years into the PS2’s lifecycle. However, it did launch at a $20 price point which was a nice incentive.
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It collected the first two games in the series which was the debut of Final Fantasy II in the West. That was originally a 1988 NES game. These two games were also remakes, based on the WonderSwan Color versions from 2000.
4 Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII had some big shoes to fill after Final Fantasy VII. That may be why the reaction to it was so split when it launched as some didn’t feel like it did jump forward. It’s a black sheep of the family, very different from any other entry. It’s still a great RPG though that equally pushed the PS1’s limits.
3 Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy IX was a sendoff to the classic Final Fantasy medieval settings. It’s exactly what the series and the PS1 needed at the time. Perhaps one day the proper games will go back to this more fantastical setting and get away from the more tech side of the more recent entries. Final Fantasy XVI looks like it is pretty close.
2 Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics was the first entry in this tactical RPG spinoff. It was successful enough of an idea that Square Enix to decided for use its world, Ivalice, to create a sprawling universe. It connected spinoffs and main entries. There are only six games in the Ivalice sub-series so far but any day now that number could grow.
1 Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII was the culmination of the series up to this point. It really upped the ante in terms of visuals, storytelling, and gameplay from its NES and SNES predecessors. The PS1 haD some hits prior to this, but this is one of the game’s that made the system so popular. Even non-RPG fans jumped onto the Final Fantasy bandwagon.
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