final fantasy maps: a ranking
alright - i've only played the first six final fantasy games. and the first one a handful of times. to be fair, its the simplest one! but they've all got good overworld maps. frankly, it's one of the more interesting parts of some of them. changing maps, looping around the world, over worlds, under worlds, other worlds. it's a fun way to experience the games. so i'm gonna rank 'em. let's see what i think!
spoilers beyond the wall! read with caution!
#6 - final fantasy 3
it's a bit unfortunate, as the floating continent is such a good map, probably the best individual map in the original games, but the lower world is... pretty bad. several locations only accessible via the invincible, several locations NOT available via the invincible, long winding paths you have to go in and out of multiple times, not to mention my several other issues with this game. floating continent is a wonderful map, but it's dragged down all the way to the bottom unfortunately due to the lower world. in a shorter game with only the first half, it would easily be the best map in the series.
#5 - final fantasy 1
it's a good map! good for the first game, a bit clunky and not explained too well, a tad vague, you gotta figure it out yourself, the walk back from the first dungeon is brutal if you're unprepared, mt. gulg and the ice cavern are in rough spots, and the dragon caves could be better, but overall, a good first go at an overworld! i like it. it's fun, despite my complaints. it's an NES game, it's meant to be archaic and weird!
#4 - final fantasy 4
the first of the SNES games, with the least best map in my opinion. it's not bad, by any means, some of it just feels a bit empty. the main overworld is great, you've seen maybe half of it by the time you get to mt. ordeals, and by that point the story's picked you up and you're into it until the credits roll. i guess if i had to pick something besides the bit of emptiness from earlier, some of the enemies around troia are way too strong. otherwise, great game, good map.
except bahamut's lair. why's he have like, 6 behemoths guarding him? that's overkill, man. you're bahamut. you can do better than that.
#3 - final fantasy 6
yeah! this one's pretty good, i love the world of balance, you can go through so much and meet so many people through it, the fact you can explore all of the top continent and everything comes back to narshe is fun. everyone goes there, sooner or later, or has already been there. and the world of ruin is fun too! navigating it is a bit trickier though, but it's still a great map! i don't have much else to say, but take my word for it. it's a good map
#2 - final fantasy 2
yeah, i thought the same thing when thinking about it. ff2 isn't the best game, let's be real, but if it did anything right, it's a tossup between paving the way for future games to pull mechanics from and replicate far better, and having a cool world map. this is the only game to require you to cross up and over the border of the world to progress the story, every other one is either island continents that don't wrap around the screen, or have walls that stop you. but the first time i saw it i thought it was kind of cool! and it still is! almost too cool of a map for what the rest of the game is, unfortunately, but we're not here to talk about the game itself. great map, in my opinion!
#1 - final fantasy 5
this is it! the best one! final fantasy 5 is chock full of stuff to do, in bartz's world alone. they could have contained it into just this and it would have been good. you get so much stuff to do and see in this world alone, and if you dont get to do it now, it's there for you in the merged world. villages, castles, mountains, caves, it's the same song and dance as all the rest of 'em, but its a ton in just this first world.
galuf's world is a tiny bit smaller, but there's still plenty to do, iirc the desert in the top right you have to navigate through precisely or else you'll get attacked by super tough enemies, so that on its own is a fun trick to do. big bridge, however, is probably the most iconic part of the whole game, some dude's antics in there make him keep coming back every so often, and he's just as fun as he was the first time.
and the merged world combines the best of the first two. most places you've seen and have been to are shifted around, gone entirely, or are completely new! crescent island is now a full connecting path around the world, north mountain now sits at the edge of the perilous desert from galuf's world, big bridge is there, everything is so much more scattered and frantic. it really plays well with the game itself.
and that's it! with only one bad map, and even more fun overworlds, the final fantasy games are pretty darn good at having interesting worlds to explore, places to see, things to do. they're good games! you should play em. maybe you'll think something differently
