History YMMV / FinalFantasy

** The story of ''Final Fantasy VII'' originally being meant for a Nintendo 64 release is well-known. However, one of the rejected prompts for the game went to become ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', with both games releasing on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and not the Nintendo 64. Shortly after ''Xenogears'''s release, its development crew would go onto found Creator/MonolithSoft, who would later make ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', a [[VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} second]] SpiritualSuccessor for ''Xenogears''...after Monolith Soft had been bought out by Creator/{{Nintendo}}. And then things came full circle even more so when both Cloud and Shulk were add to the fourth ''Smash'' game, thus allowing them duke it out.

* DarthWiki/MostAnnoyingSound: The classic era ([=FFI=] thru [=FFX=]) all have beautiful, atmospheric Nobuo Uematsu scores that will inevitably be ruined by the sudden crash wipe into a random encounter, followed by the same exact battle theme you've heard a million times before. Makes you wonder why they bothered coming up with all that dungeon music at all; you'll never hear more than fifteen seconds of it at a time.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' is a two-fer, one in the form of the game, and one in the form of a character.
*** The International script of the game (first put together by Ted Woolsey, creating the {{Woolseyism}} trope in the process) compared to the Japanese script, turned Kefka from a forgettable villain into a LaughablyEvil LaughingMad OmnicidalManiac which caused his popularity to ''soar''. Every time the game has been remade in Japan since, his character has been based on the international version.
*** While the original version of the game is beloved and the Advance version is admirable, two DuellingWorks known as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIBraveNewWorld'' 2.1.0 and the ''Pixel Remaster'' came out on the same day in 2022. Both have people claiming them to be the definitive version of VI. Those in the emulation scene prefer Brave New World for its CastSpeciation, continuous music in dungeons and ability to suplex anything. And you can even mix-and-match soundtracks (and add the PR Opera vocals) thanks to the MSU-1 addon.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' was the game that caused the ''Final Fantasy'' series to explode in popularity, to the point where it has been remade no less than ''four'' times. The Advance translation cleaned up the script and added all sorts of bonus content, the DS remake was widely seen as a HardMode version of the game that brought a new challenge to veteran players, the PSP 20th Anniversary Collection married both releases together and brought the sequel and a new Interquel to the picture, and the ''Pixel Remaster'' featured graphical touchups and rebalancing but left out additional content. Generally, the PSP version is considered the superior remake.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Alongside SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic, this is the other trope that most fans universally agree on, ranging from the elaborate opera scene and [[spoiler:destruction of the world]] in ''VI'', to the warping antics and titanic Astrals in ''XV''. The most common ground for these are a) the ever-present summons, and b) the more recent fight scenes.

*** While the original version of the game is beloved and the Advance version is admirable, the ''Pixel Remaster'' release goes above and beyond, rebalancing several pieces of the original game, fixing broken mechanics, completely remaking the game's SignatureScene to be more cinematic in nature, and other quality of life changes. Attitudes in the months since its release seem to indicate that the ''Pixel Remaster'' version is now considered the best way to enjoy ''VI''.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'' were rereleased on the Playstation in the ''Dawn of Souls'' release, which updated their graphics and music, brought some of their aged gameplay elements to modern times (for the 1990s), and included bonus content. These were later also ported to the Game Boy Advance and Playstation Portable, retaining all content, and later the ''Pixel Remaster'' releases which kept almost every change except for the additional content.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' was considered a moderate success at the time of its original release, but the game never saw a proper international release until the Anthology Release on Playstation, which was considered an ''awful'' port. However, the Advance Translation changed everything, featuring an irreverent script lampooning series-wide tropes, as well as making the cast of characters far more memorable than the original game, not to mention the bonus content added, have resulted in the Advance Translation being considered the definitive version of V, even ahead of the ''Pixel Remaster''.

*** While the original version of the game is beloved and the Advance Translation is admirable, the ''Pixel Remaster'' release goes above and beyond, rebalancing several pieces of the original game, fixing broken mechanics, completely remaking the game's SignatureScene to be more cinematic in nature, and other quality of life changes. Attitudes in the months since its release seem to indicate that the ''Pixel Remaster'' version is now considered the best way to enjoy ''VI''.

* EvilIsCool: Who doesn't remember the villains in this series? There are even a few examples in online fandom of people who have stated they [[MisaimedFandom want to be like Sephiroth or Kefka.]] Taken [[UpToEleven to the extreme]] with [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 Caius]] who is ''[[WordOfGod canonically]]'' the most powerful antagonist in the series so far.

** Creator/TetsuyaNomura became this trope thanks to being the Creative Lead of the ''[[ExpandedUniverse Compilation of Final Fantasy VII]]'' [[note]]A Slew of SpinOff titles focusing on expanding VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII.[[/note]] that was a major focus of the company in the early 2000s. When ''VII'' became a huge hit, Nomura not only became the go-to artist for many subsequent main series titles, but he became director and producer of several ''Compilation'' titles, and fans began to blame anything wrong with the series on him. This is despite the fact that outside the ''Compilation'', he had only ever been an art and character designer. Note that this is exclusive for the pre-2010s games, as some 2010s-era games begin to credit him as a Creative Producer.

** The ''XIII'' trilogy and ''XV'' saga both earned intense hatred for directors Motomu Toriyama and Hajime Tabata -- "Toriyama'd" became shorthand for TrollingCreator during the ''XIII'' trilogy's run in the spotlight, and Tabata got a lot of flak for releasing ''XV'' as an ObviousBeta that he tried to finish with patches and DLC. In both cases, while they certainly merit some blame for the games since they directed them, neither is entirely at fault: the major criticism of the ''XIII'' trilogy was its confusing and nonsensical stories in ''XIII-2'' and ''Lightning Returns'', and Toriyama didn't write those two games, Daisuke Watanabe did. As for ''XV'', its TroubledProduction is infamous for spanning a decade from its initial reveal to its release (2006 to 2016) and Tabata was only director from 2012 on, and the project had a lot of behind-the-scenes problems that persisted into his tenure.

* MyRealDaddy: Some fans will tell you the series began to lose its way once Hironobu Sakaguchi resigned from Squaresoft, and its subsequent merger with Enix from 2001-2003.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The classic era ([=FFI=] thru [=FFX=]) all have beautiful, atmospheric Nobuo Uematsu scores that will inevitably be ruined by the sudden crash wipe into a random encounter, followed by the same exact battle theme you've heard a million times before. Makes you wonder why they bothered coming up with all that dungeon music at all; you'll never hear more than fifteen seconds of it at a time.

* TheScrappy: [[TheScrappy/FinalFantasy Has its own page]].

** The story of ''Final Fantasy VII'' originally being meant for a Nintendo 64 release is well-known. However, one of the rejected prompts for the game went to become ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', with both games releasing on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation and not the Nintendo 64. Shortly after ''Xenogears'''s release, its development crew would go onto found Creator/MonolithSoft, who would later make ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'', a [[VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} second]] SpiritualSuccessor for ''Xenogears''...after Monolith Soft had been bought out by Creator/{{Nintendo}}. And then things came full circle even more so when both Cloud and Shulk were add to the fourth ''Smash'' game, thus allowing them duke it out.

* WinBackTheCrowd: Many fans gradually grew disillusioned with how Square Enix handled re-releasing many of the older entries from 2014 onwards, with many of the games from ''I'' - ''IX'' being remade for mobile phones with varying degrees of cheapness before being sloppily ported to other platforms, culminating in the [[JustForFun/{{Egregious}} egregiously]] ugly ''V'' and ''VI'' remakes. When the ''Pixel Remaster'' series of remakes for ''Final Fantasy'''s ''I'' through ''VI'' were announced in 2021 with little fanfare, before soon being released with even less only on PC and mobile, along with the confirmation of each game lacking any of the bonus content from each of their different versions released over the years and the look of the games falling into similar pitfalls the aforementioned ''V'' and ''VI'' remakes did[[labelnote:*]]Inconsistent pixel scaling between menus and the game, a cheap-looking font for EFIGS languages, and overly smooth shading on sprites[[/labelnote]], many were naturally sceptical of whether they would be any good. Come release, many were surprised to find the visuals looked nice, with really slick transitions and effects, the new arrangements of the soundtracks were excellent, and that each game had unadvertised balance changes that refined each game while staying true to the originals[[labelnote:*]]''[=FF1=]'' uses the Vancian magic system while adding Ethers to restore magic charges, ''[=FF2=]'' tweaks how stat gains work to make them slightly faster while allowing characters in the back row to get hit so they can get HP increases, and ''[=FF3=]'' removes the penalties and costs from changeing jobs and tweaks all the jobs to generally be more useful[[/labelnote]]. On the technical side of things, the PC versions have menus optimized for larger screens instead of being carried over from the mobile versions, support up to 21:9 ultrawide resolutions, and all versions have the pixel art of gameplay elements stay on a consistent grid. As a result, many have actually called the first three ''Pixel Remaster''s the definitive versions of each game and have regained some faith in how Square Enix is handling the series' older games.

* AmericansHateTingle: The series is still hated by many Americans, due to the low sales of RPG's in that country.

* HilariousInHindsight: A commonly believed though untrue story behind the series' title; it was called "Final Fantasy" because Squaresoft was going bankrupt and everyone in the company expected this to be their last game, and Hironobu Sakaguchi was considering giving up being a video game designer and decided to let this game decide for him. Instead the game was hugely successful, saved the company and Sakaguchi's career, and is now a pillar of the JRPG genre.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhof: It is quite popular in France, likely due to the population of France's love of fantasy themed fiction.

* MisBlamed: Some have unfairly pointed fingers at ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' for creating the idea that Bahamut, a whale from Arabic Mythology, was a dragon. In fact, ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' got it from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' was based ''a lot'' off of D&D Second edition.

* ScapegoatCreator:
** Creator/TetsuyaNomura became this trope thanks to being the Creative Lead of the ''[[ExpandedUniverse Compilation of Final Fantasy VII]]'' [[note]]A Slew of SpinOff titles focusing on expanding VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII.[[/note]] that was a major focus of the company in the early 2000s. When ''VII'' became a huge hit, Nomura not only became the go-to artist for many subsequent main series titles, but he became director and producer of several ''Compilation'' titles, and fans began to blame anything wrong with the series on him. This is despite the fact that outside the ''Compilation'', he had only ever been an art and character designer; some 2010s-era games begin to credit him as a Creative Producer, but the hatedom for him existed long before then.
** The ''XIII'' trilogy and ''XV'' saga both earned intense hatred for directors Motomu Toriyama and Hajime Tabata -- "Toriyama'd" became shorthand for TrollingCreator during the ''XIII'' trilogy's run in the spotlight, and Tabata got a lot of flak for releasing ''XV'' as an ObviousBeta that he tried to finish with patches and DLC. In both cases, while they certainly merit some blame for the games since they directed them, neither is entirely at fault: the major criticism of the ''XIII'' trilogy was its confusing and nonsensical stories in ''XIII-2'' and ''Lightning Returns'', and Toriyama didn't write those two games, Daisuke Watanabe did; as for ''XV'', its TroubledProduction is infamous for spanning a decade from its initial reveal to its release (2006 to 2016) and Tabata was only director from 2012 on, and the project had a lot of behind-the-scenes problems that persisted into his tenure.
** When ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' was first released in 2010, it was panned heavily from critics and players alike for being full of glitches, having illogical gameplay mechanics, and having a lot of CutAndPasteEnvironments. Hiromichi Tanaka was the director at the time and was also the director for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''. Tanaka got the blame for the failure that ''Final Fantasy XIV'' went through, which resulted with him being forced out of Square Enix (with a note that he had been one of Square's ''founders'' in the [=1980s=]. Although he was rather famously awkward with the news media in general and made some specific gaffes during the initial press cycle for ''XIV'', some fans of the 1.0 game feel Tanaka was made to take the fall for a disaster that had a ''lot'' of responsible parties.
* TheScrappy: [[TheScrappy/FinalFantasy Has its own page]].

* SilentMajority: Every game (in the main series, anyway) has gotten great reviews from critics and fans alike and sold millions of copies. You wouldn't know it from visiting online forums, where players will line up to tell you that each individual title (and especially the most recent one to be released) is one of the worst video games they ever played and almost ruined the series.

* VocalMinority: The "Final Fantasy YaoiFangirl" stereotype...''hoo boy''.

* YMMV/MakaiToshiSaGa (aka ''The Final Fantasy Legend'')
** YMMV/SaGa2 (aka ''Final Fantasy Legend II'')

** After ''Final Fantasy XIII'' came out, fan attention for the trope shifted to Motomu Toriyama. Many fans see him as a TrollingCreator and blame him for the poor quality of the ''XIII'' trilogy. A bit more justifiable than Nomura, as Toriyama is the director of those games and thus ''does'' merit blame for their quality. It remains to be seen how any future projects he's a part of, or just future titles in general, will uphold this status.