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I've noticed final Fantasy fans tend to sit in two camps people who started early on in the series (either with the NES or SNES titles) Hate VIII and Usually don't like X much either. Whereas people new to the Final Fantasy series are in love with those two titles. I think it has a lot to do with those being the "mainstream titles" Those two were the most well recieved by the general public, people who didn't play final fantasy normally played those games. Which is good in that they've got universality and bad becasue they take out some of the more complicated aspects to make them more accessible.

In both cases they opted for a primary love story,though I appreciate in 10 that instead of the cliched love story it's more of a tragic love story. (It's also worth noting most of the other FF's also have love stories they just aren't quite as key to the plot, they're slowly developing love stories rather than being shoved in your face every 10 seconds).

They both have marvelous graphics and attractive characters. (if you're all about graphics those are the final fantasy games for you!)

They both have stories easy to conenct with and easy to understand because they're very similar to stories in most drama.

They also both offer some of the most open characters in terms of classes. If you're an old Final Fantasy fan you expect some ridigidy in your character classes and those just don't offer that (conicedentilly neither does VII) The Junctioning system in 8 makes the game far too easy IMO, you can make yourself darn near invincible by level 15 possibly earlier and also kind of obliterate any class system save for their special attacks. Same thing with X your charcter starts in a specfic class but can move all over the grid, I have a friend who sent LuLu down the white magic path so she didn't learn high black magic until she was in her 30's level wise. And in both cases I think being able to do that with your characters kind of ruins the strategic aspect of the game. You can basically make anyone whatever you want. No, alright I can't live without a white mage and have my main charcter who's oh say a knight, so now do I bring in a black mage, a red amge, or a fighter, and hey maybe this guys got something good maybe I should grab my theif. I think while not having that aspect there is good for new fans fo the series it's disappointing to the older fans.

I'm with Raven in that I disliked both VIII and X.

I eventually stopped hating VIII and made peace with it but I still think the storyline is well...lacking.
I think the whole we forgot our Memories becasue we have GF's thing is just too unbelievable especially when you consider you just got control of GF's when you start the game!
I also got real tired of Rinoa's oh squall come save me... crap pretty quickly. So she lead a team of rebels before she met squall but, now that he's there she's become a helpless maiden?
Let's also not forget that Rinoa spent the entire begining of the game talking about the greatness of Seifer leaving poor squall to feel more than a little rejected I'd think!
On to it's good points, I give the developers credit for having an entirely new system with the junctioning and drawing of magic, the graphics are lovely for PS1 and a huge upgrade from VII( Personally I think Irvine is quite nice to look at heart ) And the music, as it is in all final fantasy games, it beautiful and appropriate.

My first issue with X actually has little to do with the game itself it's a personal thing and it's that I wish they'd have given me a Japanese with subtitles option, the voice acting is pretty good considering the normal quality of english voice actors but, I'd still perfer to hear it's orignal dubbing.
Storylinewise I thought the story was cliched and prediticable the only thing I really didn't see coming was Auron but even then it wasn't a matter of wow I'd have never guessed it was much more Wow that makes perfect sense how did I miss that?
I really thought the charcters all had the potential to be very interesting but, the charcter development was secerly lacking on everyone except Tidus and Yuna. You'd get a nibble of a backstory about them but, then it would shift right back to Tidus.
Rikku's sudden oh Yuna and I are best Buds cause we're related even though I've never really talked to her before left me with an overwhelming sense of wtf?.
Gameplay wise even though it makes perfect snese and I've always thought you should be able to do it in the other FF games Charcter swaping in mid battle also kind of sucks the strategy out of important battles.
I'm also not a fan of the spheregrid idea as you could in theory make super characters eventually and really whats' the point of it being so easy?

For it's good points I really do like the charcter designs Yuna and LuLu are some of the prettiest FF girls ever, the enviroments are beautiful and the music is lovely and appropriate. The storyline while I think it's cliched is easy to understand and still enjoyable enough just not anything spectacular.

To sum it up the best thing I see about (VII & X) are their graphics and personally no ammount of pretty graphics are going to dissuade me from the game itself, after all I'm old enough and nerdy enough to have play those all text rpgs no graphics whatsoever. yes really terrible graphics will bring down the overall quality of a game but, really great graphics can't hide an awful game. Which isn't to say that those games are awful becasue, they aren't awful, they're good games they just aren't as great as some of the series counterparts (In my opinion).

I'll just leave every one with that novel I wrote now... sweatdrop

FFVII was also the most respected games of its time. It was also first Final fantasy ever made for PSX. Not only was the story, music and the characters great, the fighting system with materias and all was also great and i really enjoyed the customability of the system. It allowed use of different strategies on different bosses.
Altough W-summon+Knights of round+MP boost+Mime owned pretty much everything in the end and Mime wasnt even necessary at others than Ruby- and Emerald weapon...
And i heard they are making remake version of the whole game on PS3 (i'm not sure or anything, just heard a rumour)...
FFX was also great game with great story, but when they tried that new leveling system, it kinda blew up the gameplay...
FFIX was not that great, i dont know why, but it lacked that real final fantasy feel from it. Musics wasnt remarkable, neither were characters or the fighting system, even the story wasnt really that intresting. It was average at everything, but great at nothing...
FFVI was though one of the best final fantasys ever, i never actually played it through, but the story was quite enjoyable. Only bother was that it was on SNES...
Only Final fantasy i have not played is VIII...

Think about it. Final Fantasy VII is an amazing thing. Even with it's giant holes in it's plot, everyone still loves it. What kind of game would it be if they had time to actually finish it? Wow. . . . . .

to be quite honest.... FF8 did a lot to seperate itself from the rest of the other FFs.... maybe too much.... first off the magic system was totally different in the fact you had to draw your magic from the monsters or draw points or create it from items..... this alone spawned many other changes since they could not rely on magic to drive the story as most other FFs do.... thus we dring in the tech and the sorceresses..... plus i think.... I THINK.... it was the first FF to acutally include a soundtrack that had actual singing... fay wong's "eyes on me"..... all though i admit this whole idea of setting itself apart did, in the end, back fire extremly, i don't thin FF8 deserves as bad a rap as most people give it