HAVE YOU PLAYED FINAL FANTASY I? WHY NOT?

author=pianotm
I suggest you give IV, V, and VI a chance. VI is considered to be the best of the series (VII was fantastic, but the only real reason that people think it's the best is because it was basically Playstation's flagship game and a lot of gamers first FF.).

Some of this is hype. In terms of coherent development of characters, FFV is actually better (too many characters in FFVI and some of them, like the Snowman guy, have little characterization). The early game was brilliant because it focused on about 6-8 characters, but the later part was a trainwreck.

Also, I'm probably one of the few people here that actually liked Final Fantasy 8. It's because I understand that it's not really supposed to be a straight-up love story but an allegory. The actual plot is closer to Vanilla Sky or Comet, as it is strongly hinted Squall might be dead before the story even starts (what the Time Compression meltdown shows). The point being a sort of love > death theme.