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Which Final Fantasy ( SP games ) has the best Setting/World?
- Thread starter plow
- Start date
Final Fantasy XII. The number of large cities alongside the interconnected hubs makes it feel really grounded and alive. It's like you're putting together the pieces of a whole rather than just following a straight line.
Cosign. I don't get the "it's too small!" complaint, XII has a huge ass map that takes forever to explore.
edit: to elaborate on this, these are the areas XII has-
Rabanastre- very large, lived in city. Architecture is magic/technology hybrid- not "quite" steampunk, a little more advanced than this. Rabanastre includes "lowtown" which are the slums where the underclass lives. This is a BIG, BIG city when you include both.
Giza Plains- this is a large, open plains area but it has *a variable weather cycle that can be manipulated by the player*. It can be cycled through "the dry" and "the rains" and the map as well as the monsters that inhabit it will change if you do this.
Garamsythe Waterway- a water labyrinth located below "lowtown." Open and closing the sluice gates changes the map.
Jahara- Where the garif live. This is a "plains" area but includes the village of the Garif, who are a native people that subsist mostly by hunting. Garif hunters will occasionally assist you on the map in this area.
Henne Mines- an underground magicite mine built by archadia. A lot of nasty creatures here.
Salikawood- a large, sprawling wood with moogles in it
Phon Coast- It's all beaches and white sand here, along with hunters who give out quests.
Necrohol of Nabudis- this is the former capital of Nabradia before it was destroyed. You can explore what's left of it at your peril- it was clearly a grand city at one point, but now it's home to some of the worst horrors in the game.
Golmore Jungle- a vast jungle that includes Eruyt village, home of the viera. Eruyt village itself is a fairly impressive village, if sparsely populated.
Sky City of Bhujerba- a floating city in the sky, allied with the archadian empire.
Imperial City of Archades- a VAST, VAST city that puts Rabanastre to shame, it's the capital city of the Archadian empire. like Rabanastre Archades is separated into the imperial city, and "old archades" which is the slums for the lower class. It's clearly high tech, there are "sky taxis" that are flying cars all over the place that the party can take to traverse from one point to another.
Mt. Bur- Omnisace- Sacred snow covered mountain of the Kiltias, it is home to the grand Kiltias. It's a refugee site, pilgrim destination, and holy location for all races.
Port of Balfonheim- a port city run by smugglers and pirates, led by Reddas. It's a "classic port town" with ships, cobbled streets, fishing and waterways
Nalbina Fortress- a populated fortress town built overtop the Nalbina Dungeons
I'm not sure what the complaint about "sand" is, there is a huge variety of locales in the game and this is only about half of it. This is a MUCH, MUCH bigger game than X or XIII are by a massive, massive margin and none of the pre-X games are even in the discussion.
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I love XII's world. There's a ton of lore that really makes Ivalice come together as a setting with a long history.
The areas themselves are also a cool mix between realistic and fantastical. One of my favorite areas is Nabudis, which is ground zero of a kingdom that was wiped out by what is basically a magic nuke. The lore behind it, along with the visuals and music do overtime and making it feel haunting and sad with a sense that you shouldn't be there.
The areas themselves are also a cool mix between realistic and fantastical. One of my favorite areas is Nabudis, which is ground zero of a kingdom that was wiped out by what is basically a magic nuke. The lore behind it, along with the visuals and music do overtime and making it feel haunting and sad with a sense that you shouldn't be there.
You gotta get out of Dalmasca some time, Anakin.
Spira is a fully realized world. FF12 would be second for me, even if it's not my favorite game.
Amazing post. I want to add the Lhusu Mines which are really interesting because they're located in Bhujerba, a floating country. Because of that, you get the expected mine/cave but then you'll find holes that just open up to vast sky beneath you. You're underground but also in the sky. And stuff that falls from the mines end up at Phon Coast an area later in the game.
Oh and the Zertinan Caverns are really cool. They run underneath Dalmasca and have different entrance/exit points in distant regions of the world map. In fact, the way Ivalice is interconnected is really interesting in XII. There isn't always one way in and one way out of a location. The first city has 3 exits all going in different directions. Often you'll surprise yourself by finding a backend entrance to a location, like how the Barhiem Passage leads into the Garamscythe Waterways.
XII has a good world overall but it's a bit disappointing in my opinion. Like you get to Archades, you think it's going to be like Coruscant because of the FMVs, you don't even visit the entrance, you pass through a cave, half the city is a underwhelming slum area, and the other half is basically just the commercial district of the city. You can't even visit the emperor's palace or the judges HQ. Considering most of the game builds up to Archades I expected more.I love XII's world. There's a ton of lore that really makes Ivalice come together as a setting with a long history.
The areas themselves are also a cool mix between realistic and fantastical. One of my favorite areas is Nabudis, which is ground zero of a kingdom that was wiped out by what is basically a magic nuke. The lore behind it, along with the visuals and music do overtime and making it feel haunting and sad with a sense that you shouldn't be there.
You gotta get out of Dalmasca some time, Anakin.
We'd be here all day just listing the cool locations. I didn't even mention the gigantic crystal the size of a city that serves as a dungeon your party wanders through late in the game
Honestly, what you described is what is great about it. In most games, you would just walk in through the main gate of the royal capital and walk around uninhibited. In XII, the Empire is your enemy and since you're sneaking in, you have to take another route and you end up in the slums of Old Archades, where you learn the unfortunate reality of the class system there. You make your way from the slums up to the area where the upper class live through interacting with the citizens and learning about how life functions there.
Sure, we don't get to go to the palace but it's just not part of the story to go there. We still see it multiple times during cutscenes to understand what it's like.
FFXII is absolutely beautiful, love the architecture of Ivalice. But honestly probably FFX, the world is so unique. A lot of variety in each individual location and the world itself feels like a character in the story.
However, I feel like IX probably has the most consistent well designed towns due to the detail of the backgrounds, but it falls flat for me because it feels very safe in terms of how it's mostly just basic fantasy.
I love Midgar but I feel as if there is no other FF7 location that reaches that high throughout the entire game, aside from the Golden Saucer.
FFXIV obviously has fantastic locations, but I feel like choosing that game would be kind of cheating lol
However, I feel like IX probably has the most consistent well designed towns due to the detail of the backgrounds, but it falls flat for me because it feels very safe in terms of how it's mostly just basic fantasy.
I love Midgar but I feel as if there is no other FF7 location that reaches that high throughout the entire game, aside from the Golden Saucer.
FFXIV obviously has fantastic locations, but I feel like choosing that game would be kind of cheating lol
You can say that about Bevelle or Cocoon, that there's story reasons it's not a very good location, it could have been a lot better. Imo it should have let you visit several big districts with the flying crafts, like Lindblum. It's an anti climax after all the journey there. In my opinion, you can't call it a great world to explore when you're not allowed to go to some of the most interesting places.
I love FF VII's world but something about it never felt quite cohesive to me. Like Midgar and Junon are completely modern cities but once you leave them the rest of the world is almost entirely medieval fantasy. Like why do cars exist in this world but there are no highways between towns? You go from running around in fantasy tokyo to traveling on foot fighting monsters. There's something about it that never quite gels to me.
It's gotta be FFVI for me. What a beautiful, desolate steampunk setting, and the twist halfway through really cements it as the best for me.
I do, however, really enjoy how weird FFXV is, not necessarily as a cohesive whole but individual elements of it are really interesting to look at. Like the whole Americana / fantasy vibe at the start, the crazy Venice city later in the game, it's a hodgepodge of really interesting ideas that all clash but are very cool on their own.
I do, however, really enjoy how weird FFXV is, not necessarily as a cohesive whole but individual elements of it are really interesting to look at. Like the whole Americana / fantasy vibe at the start, the crazy Venice city later in the game, it's a hodgepodge of really interesting ideas that all clash but are very cool on their own.
Bingo. on top of what you said here it is SUPER obvious that Archades is separated and cordoned off by an extremely aggressive caste system. You can't even take a cab to certain areas of the city unless you have the correct status symbol indicating your place in society.
Expecting to *walk in the palace* or the judge magister HQ after all that isn't realistic.
I'm not sure whether it was the original or FF7R that alluded to this, but all the cars and high tech stuff in midgar (and junon) require a metric shit ton of mako that they get from the reactors mining it directly out of the ground. Some of this gets exported to the outlying areas, but not enough that you'd be able to set up a network of highways or modern civilization.
Imagine New York State if only New York City had electricity and everyone else still had to use gas lamps and horses and you're pretty much there.
I think FF12 for me. The fact that the story was just a regional war in a much larger world always intrigued me. We don't even see much of the second empire outside of some representatives. It's also interesting how it ties into the Tactics and Vagrant Story series.
XII is definitely the most well rounded of the settings. It feels like a believable world with the scale and scope you would expect.
A lot of the other games just feel very themepark-ish where the worlds don't really seem to make sense as a cohesive setting and just come across like a handful of set pieces.
That said I think VIII is still my favorite setting in the series. The style and feel of the world is just really unique within FF. It's definitely one of the more grounded looking at first glance, but still has some cool fantastical elements. IX is also a really enjoyable world.
A lot of the other games just feel very themepark-ish where the worlds don't really seem to make sense as a cohesive setting and just come across like a handful of set pieces.
That said I think VIII is still my favorite setting in the series. The style and feel of the world is just really unique within FF. It's definitely one of the more grounded looking at first glance, but still has some cool fantastical elements. IX is also a really enjoyable world.
X easily after that VIII and IX for me.
Same. My least favorite world post VI.
Imo we see everything we need to see about Arcades. Going to another district or two wouldn't change anything. And like I said, we may not go into the palace but we see it many times through cutscenes. When I call it a great world, I mean more than just the physical space you are allowed to move through. It's the visuals, the lore, how the story handles it, how the people in those places are. XII handles all of those well.
Final Fantasy XV and its accompanying media (Kingsglaive, etc.). I love Eos and how varied it is. It has modern cities like Insomnia and Gralea, the Venitian city of Altissia, and fantastical locales like Steyliff Grove and the Disc of Cauthess... and they all fit together very well, or at least I feel like they do. I love just wandering around the environments and just taking it all in, which isn't something I can say about a lot of games. It's a neat world to explore.
Would've also added pictures of Lestallum and Angelgard, but didn't want to put too many pics here.
Would've also added pictures of Lestallum and Angelgard, but didn't want to put too many pics here.
Lore and Setting wise department XIII is really good. Too bad the actual plot and characters outside of Sazh are trash.
I'd go with FFX - The way the world works with the constant apocalyptic background is fun, tied in with the heavy religious overtones eventually being shown for a false God narrative is pretty neat.
Probably FFXII & FVII next - XII has an amazing world, being a fully fleshed out one in Ivalice, but you just don't get to see a great deal of it and the amount of Sand you -do- see does kind of make it all feel samey, even when it isn't. FFVII is just by virtue of Midgar & Gold Saucer (With Corel Prison), which are some of the best-conceived locations in Final Fantasy, but outside of those, it's fairly bland.
Probably FFXII & FVII next - XII has an amazing world, being a fully fleshed out one in Ivalice, but you just don't get to see a great deal of it and the amount of Sand you -do- see does kind of make it all feel samey, even when it isn't. FFVII is just by virtue of Midgar & Gold Saucer (With Corel Prison), which are some of the best-conceived locations in Final Fantasy, but outside of those, it's fairly bland.
You twisting when I'm saying. "Visiting" doesn't mean literally walking in without security. They could have been a cool sequence when you infiltrate the palace, if the party can take down Sky Fortress Bahamut, there could be a cool plot reason to infiltrate the palace. Regardless if you have to use story reasons for why you can't visit some of the most interesting places, then I wouldn't say it has the best world in the series.
Well in my opinion, it needs to excel at both. Some posters are showing linear locations like Insomnia and Zanarkand that are out of focus and get destroyed, so I admit it can be difficult to see their opinion.
Imo XIII and XV are like promises of worlds, they look good in FMVs but don't get reflected in the games themselves, Insomia and the second region is a massive anti climax. Some games like VIII and IX make a fantastic effort to let you explore these locations throughly and some games like X are in the middle, where there's several towns but you can't explore the big ones. XII is one of the better worlds, but feels like a lot was cut from the story and perhaps that's why the Arcadia region is where the game begins to really disappoint.
On the other end of this, I don't think a story should be written in a way that forces the characters to physical explore the space of every single locale. Like don't force it if it's not natural to the story. Just because the Arcadian palace exists doesn't mean we have to justify a reason for the main characters to go there. The place exists, we know of it, we see it several times, it has a place in the story. The main characters don't need to go there.
I'll also say that just because you can't walk into every place doesn't mean the world design can't or doesn't "excel." In my earlier post, I described exactly why XII excels in the physical world you can move in with how interconnected and interesting it is to explored. Not being able to go to the imperial palace doesn't undo that.
I'm torn between 9 and 12.
9 is probably one of the best realizations of the traditional Final Fantasy fantasy setting with strong elements of magical technology. 12, though hyper localized, is probably one of the best fleshed out settings in an offline final fantasy, where it feels like everything actually has a history and well thought out purpose for existing within the setting.
1-5 are all fine, but 9 basically is the perfection of what they did. 6 is definitely up there due to how different it is from what came before it and, frankly, what came after (barring 7 of course). I love 7 and 8 for the interesting things in them, but they suffer from feeling a bit too kitchen sink. 10 is also up there for uniqueness and also being a more detailed hyper localized area, but I don't think it has as much care put into it as 12's corner of Ivalice. 13 is back to being too much of an incoherent kitchen sink, but without the good areas like 7 and 8. 15 is fine but, despite being one of the biggest final fantasy settings, doesn't really feel as detailed and unique?
9 is probably one of the best realizations of the traditional Final Fantasy fantasy setting with strong elements of magical technology. 12, though hyper localized, is probably one of the best fleshed out settings in an offline final fantasy, where it feels like everything actually has a history and well thought out purpose for existing within the setting.
1-5 are all fine, but 9 basically is the perfection of what they did. 6 is definitely up there due to how different it is from what came before it and, frankly, what came after (barring 7 of course). I love 7 and 8 for the interesting things in them, but they suffer from feeling a bit too kitchen sink. 10 is also up there for uniqueness and also being a more detailed hyper localized area, but I don't think it has as much care put into it as 12's corner of Ivalice. 13 is back to being too much of an incoherent kitchen sink, but without the good areas like 7 and 8. 15 is fine but, despite being one of the biggest final fantasy settings, doesn't really feel as detailed and unique?
I'm not twisting what you're saying at all.
Your assumption here is that the emperor's palace in Archades was one of the "most interesting" places and you're upset you couldn't go there- but the narrative gave them no reason to be there in the first place, AND the narrative was pretty clear that navigating archades- from old archades to the imperial city, and throughout the districts of the imperial city that were available- was very difficult because Archades (and Ivalice in general) are heavily divided on class based lines. Using Archades to emphasize that the strict class system that Ivalice operates under is detrimental to the people that live there is a perfectly valid use of the location, even if you don't get a palace raid out of it.
But despite that- the party's goal wasn't to "get to Archades" at all. They were only there to access Draklor Laboratory in hopes of confronting Dr. Cid.
The goal was always to get to Giruvegan and the Pharos, where Ashe would have been turned into a new Dynast-King by carving deifacted nethicite from the Sun-Cryst. Archades and the Emperor were just side narrative to all of that.
also this.
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I remember 7 and 10 the most. I hate Final Fantasy 10 and I hate it even more that the world building was so good.
You're going to love it. The art director of FFXIV was the co-director and visual designer of FFXII
VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and XII all excel at this. I can choose a single entry above the rest in many other categories but selecting an all-star in the setting department is far more difficult.
Oddly I think XIII, but it's all wasted potential. However the world itself was beautiful, the lore of this lost and abandoned world below cocoon was a great setting. I've suspected for a long time had XIII came at a time when SE didn't feel the need to change stuff up so much, follow trends, or weren't struggling with HD, then it could have been one of the best rather than the rush job it ended up as.
Unfortunately that not the case so I'd go with my second option as a backup, FFXII
Unfortunately that not the case so I'd go with my second option as a backup, FFXII
X is and will always be one of my favorite settings in any piece of fiction ever.
It's so unique and beautiful and it really does feel alive and filled with wonder.
Honorable mentions I will give to VII (especially after the Remake) and IX. Those settings are pretty damn great too.
It's so unique and beautiful and it really does feel alive and filled with wonder.
Honorable mentions I will give to VII (especially after the Remake) and IX. Those settings are pretty damn great too.
I like XII's world a lot.
But VII is by far the best in my head.
Outside of the FF series, staying with Square: the world/universe/lore/aesthetics of Xenogears are amazing.
But VII is by far the best in my head.
Outside of the FF series, staying with Square: the world/universe/lore/aesthetics of Xenogears are amazing.
Probably X just because it is so important to the overall story. Everything about it is so consistent and cohesive. On your pilgrimage (which probably also helps flesh out the locations and the people there) you get to see the effects of Sin, you get to see the places and understand their importance to the world, you slowly learn what exactly your pilgrimage means to the world, etc. Everything has a really unique look to it as well that is unlike previous FFs.
I don't know if other FFs had the same intimacy and reflection on the state of the world. I think it's a combo of the removal of an overworld and the story itself that just lends to a closer look at the world.
I don't know if other FFs had the same intimacy and reflection on the state of the world. I think it's a combo of the removal of an overworld and the story itself that just lends to a closer look at the world.
The locations are beautiful but what kills them for me is that nothing interesting happens in themI love XII's world. There's a ton of lore that really makes Ivalice come together as a setting with a long history.
The areas themselves are also a cool mix between realistic and fantastical. One of my favorite areas is Nabudis, which is ground zero of a kingdom that was wiped out by what is basically a magic nuke. The lore behind it, along with the visuals and music do overtime and making it feel haunting and sad with a sense that you shouldn't be there.
You gotta get out of Dalmasca some time, Anakin.
Ever
Y'all practically praise XII for being simple and mundane but idgi
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Division 1 Square Enix is best Square Enix tbhMy favorite Final Fantasy worlds:
I've finished every mainline title except VIII and XI. I think XII has the best world and it is not even close.
