Well, until Ultimecia started time-compressing worlds, but, you know, whatever. These sorts of moments transcend some of the lesser-executed design elements, and give us a narrative that is a little less fantastical, and thus a little more real, than some of its forebears. Where VIII shines brightest is in its plot moments: Squall’s first dance with Rinoa, the assassination attempt on Edea in Deling City, the revelations at the Orphanage. The Junction System is one of the most creative magic systems of the franchise, but drawing magic from enemies created a constant hesitancy that short-circuited the magic side of battle (junction effectiveness decreases as you use your drawn magic).

The ideas that run this entry are among the best, but the execution of those ideas is sometimes less dynamic. VIII is a beneficiary, as well as a victim, of its own ambitions. But featuring arguably the most exhilarating opening in the series, VIII immediately seemed up to the task. On the heels of the massive success that was Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII was always going to have an uphill climb. All of that said, once more unto the breach! Here are the nine best Final Fantasy games of all time. A cavalcade of spoilers follows, as well, so please be warned. Whittling down dozens of games into a list of nine is a brutal exercise, allowing no way forward that doesn’t leave excellent entries on the cutting room floor. It seems unfathomable that we came so close to never having Final Fantasy as the iconic franchise it has become.

Talking to Famitsu back in 2007, Sakaguchi said “The name ‘Final Fantasy’ was a display of my feeling that if this didn’t sell, I was going to quit the games industry and go back to really was a ‘final’ situation.” Another explanation for the “final” name choice was concerning Square’s precarious financial situation at the time -confirmed by series music composer, Nobuo Uematsu, in an interview with Wired back in 2009. When Hironobu Sakaguchi began working on the first Final Fantasy in the mid-1980s, he had a team of seven people, an uncertain product, and the belief that if this game didn’t make it, he was bowing out.

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