4, 19 and 35 for the Final Fantasy ask
Final Fantasy II. But I have no idea if that’s justified or unjustified; despite numerous attempts, I’ve never gotten anywhere with it. But of the series, I think it is the one for which I’ve seen the least from fandom. The first is held in high regard for being the start; 3 has fans off the back of the DS port. 4 and 6 have their devotees. 5 at times feels like one of the more secretive beloved ones. Everything from 7 onwards has very clear fandom presence.
But 2? I know it introduced at least Cid originally. And I think some of the characters tend to show up in crossovers, but no one really seems to fixate on it.
(for unjustified underrated, it would normally be 5, but given there’s a whole event around it at the moment, that doesn’t feel relevant. Not sure any of the other entries in the series are really underrated)
19. Which game had the best love story?
Final Fantasy XII – and Fran and Balthier specifically. I normally complain about not seeing the starts of a relationship, but here it works just fine. And I think part of that might be the focus away from the how and why of that pairing; their relationship is incidental to the plot and demonstrated in how they act around each other and there’s no will they/won’t they tension or LTD or anything getting in the way of that (also helps they’re explicitly not the POV characters).
But; its not like FFXII is about that or that relationship is even part of the focus.
Only some of the games really get into romance as a plot point; off the top of my head I think 4, 8, 9, 10, 10-2, 13. 13-2 and 15 (and 7 doesn’t get into it. The specific events usually thrown up for this are the initial sparks of attraction and companionship, not love) have something approaching it. Of those only 8 (and maybe 13/13-2) was really intended to rely on that (10-2 could have but made a point of allowing it to be completely side-stepped) – which might also be the best evidence for why trying to foreground it like that doesn’t work given how messy 8 gets (don’t get me wrong, I enjoy FF8 despite a multitude of problems, but it is a story nightmare at so many points) or how tiresome 13 got (getting past Snow’s implausibly correct conjectures, their couple status still sees Serah flit off across space and time with a guy she barely knows who she has better chemistry with). The others sensibly push it more into secondary plotting/a more incidental aspect of unfolding events (though 15’s I still don’t understand) rather than having it centre-stage.
Of that second set, 9 or 10 are probably the best executed with the romance being a more overtly progressed aspect/a result of ongoing interaction between the participants. 8 would seemingly be the best choice, but it can never get past the rather jarring attitude changes needed to make it work towards the half-way mark and into the second half of the game.
35. What is your favorite NON-canon couple?
While the answer (Aerti) is no surprise, its odd to realise that answering this question a certain way might be taken as hypocrisy or at least terribly biased. Not that I’m not biased or anything, just... I tend to operate on the logic that there are no canon-couples in FFVII – of which this answer is turning into.
Well. Only lacking verifiable couples in terms of the main-cast anyway; there are plenty of unarguable couples in FFVII: Barret/Myrna, Ifalna/Gast, Hojo/Lucrecia, Cloud’s parents, Tifa’s parents, President Shinra/Mrs. Shinra, Reeve’s parents, Johnny’s parents, Mr Gainsborough/Elmyra, Zack’s parents, Godo Kisaragi/Mrs. Kisaragi etc etc.
I mean; even with the absolute best arguments for the main cast, the best anyone can do is pluck a lot of nuance, facial expression and seeming body language to justify a stance or have something happen in the past (and then some combination of interviews/tweets/guide book fluff as somehow the definitive word). Text or footage of anyone (outside of Cid and Shera) in game present being noted as a couple or doing couple-y things - by someone who actually knows them personally and isn’t a stadium announcer or the owner of what passes for a slum taxi company for example - is absent.
So; Aerti – all the nice moments, but without an astonishing shift in stances and one hell of a surprise, not due to be canon anytime soon.
