Darkest FF to date?

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black_eclipse

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We all know Final Fantasy plot is always set in a fantasy world (the title says it best) and majority of them are at least teen friendly but there are some dark moments in each title. Which one do you feel is/are the darkest?

FFT (War of the Lion) - Probably the darkest FF to date. Almost all of the characters here are wicked except Ramza's group and some other peeps who helped him. From his best friend Delita who uses other people to get what he wants to his brother Dycedarg who killed his father just to take his position and of course, the church whom everyone thought was a group of good guys.

FFII - As simple as it is, it is the gloomiest FF to date. From the plot to music, everything seems so depressing. Followed by the deaths of some supporting characters, this part of the series introduced the dark side of Final Fantasy.

VersusXIII - It seems to be shaping up as a dark title. With bloods coming out from the wounds seen in the trailer, this one feels to be the bloodiest FF to date. It have those mafiosso vibe (ala godfather and scarface) hence, the dark feeling.

Type-0 - A Chocobo covered in blood!? NOOOO!!!!!!!!
 
FFX when Sin destroys Kilika it was.....i knew this game would be dark, then i the events after Sin Spawn Gui battle just cimmented it.

As runner up would be FF5 just because my favorite FF character Galuf died.

Another would be FF6 nuff said Doma Castle Poisoning.....
 
I agree, X was very dark. It didn't seem like it whilst playing, but when you look back, the whole plot is completely tragic, it's just one sad thing after another. It's all about death too and suffering, so yeah, X is probably the darkest.

I actually think IX is quite dark as well, with the Black Mages and how they are created and how many people they murder. The genomes as well, and there's so much destruction goes on in that game, nearly everywhere you visit gets totally ruined. Cleyra was probably the worst, every time I play the game and get to that part I hate how sad it is.
 
They're all pretty dark to to be honest.

FF6 has Kefka which is just walking nightmare fuel.

FF7 has Jenova, Cloud being mind-screwed with, Sephiroth killing everybody in Nibelhiem and more.

FF8 has Adel being locked in space and still being able to think and feel.

and more.

I'll say they're all pretty even. :hmmm:
 
I'm not sure which FF is the darkest because I've not played them all but for me FFIX feels like the darkest. People judge it by it's cute characters and chibi style and stuff and the fact that Zidane is so happy-go-lucky that they don't bother to actually see what the story is about. It's all about death and being alone and feeling like you have no one. About being replaced and abandoned and lied to. I don't see how anything could really get darker than that.

Plus the bad guy destroys an entire planet hahaha that's pretty dark :wacky:
 
Well, as a general rule of thumb, I don't see a game with incessant whining by an angsty protagonist(s) as befitting of being called "dark". That's just being obnoxiously (melo)dramatic and inviting me to want to punch you in the face. What I suppose is "dark" for me is if a game maintains a general air of moodiness, misery and difficult, hard-hitting sights and decisions, while curbing back on some of the more light-hearted moments to break up the monotony of misery. A game that only occasionally features someone being killed or a town wrecked while most other things remain rather cartoony (like FFV from what I've played so far), isn't dark in my opinion. It's just a game that has dramatic moments.

I suppose FFX does a rather good job of keeping this air of misery going on. It certainly doesn't do it anywhere near perfectly, but its hard-hitting theme of a spiral of death that has been perpetual for a millennium while anger and spite turns your beloved into warped Unsents or fiends and a powerful single religion pisses on everything it preaches is always there for the player to notice.

FFVI and FFIX also come to mind. The former really wastes no time after a while. The earlier segments feature more lighthearted moments that have to make you chuckle, like Sabin in general and his suplexing a train. Then from Doma onwards and especially during the World of Ruin, it gets pretty dark. Dark in that there are rather emotionally heavy themes going on - the peak being that Celes, so distraught with despair and loss if Cid dies, goes as far as to attempt suicide. You get a powerful sense of a world physically and psychologically dying while a deranged clown cackles on his throne.

FFIX, as mentioned already, tosses aside much of the fluffiness of the first disc and heavily goes into the territory of imminent death and how to handle it when it comes. You see that typically with Kuja, but most heart-breakingly, with Vivi.

tl;dr yeah, not sure which is the darkest either. It's difficult to properly gauge in my opinion.
 
They're all pretty brutal in their own way... The two that REALLY stand out are FFIX and X.

IX if you think about it, within the first arc of the game has seen three kingdoms/four cities absolutely destroyed by summons (and if you backtrack and include Maidan Sari make that FIVE) and just continues with the destruction of an entire planet. I think IX has to be one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever experienced, because it's such a jolly old game but the amount of destruction that goes on is immense. IX's really weird in that it lets you be a bit detached from the destruction when, I think if it pushed the point could have sent any gamer into depression, the destruction of Cleyra and an entire district of Lindblum was just whoa...

X though takes the cake in that where IX is simple death and destruction when you boil it down to its very essence, X goes one step further by making an exploitative state (Bevelle) utterly subvert their mistakes by turning a war defeat into a religious victory. If its assumed they started the war with Zanarkand, and we acknowledge that its (consequences) have been going on for a thousand years and they're STILL subverting the whole situation, then the only real conclusion you can come to is that humanity, particularly in positions of power in Bevelle are just corrupt, horrible exploitative people that just don't learn their lesson. I think X-2 actually compounds that situation and to be honest I think Spira's bloody lucky they had someone as nice as Yuna to pull their nuts out of the fire.
 
Personally, I found the darkest Final Fantasy to be VII. When I first played it, the concept of main characters dying in games was still new to me. When I saw the sword going through her, my exact reaction was, "what the hell is this?!"

I didn't cry or carry on like many other people did after witnessing Aeris' (yes, I said Aeris, not Aerith) untimely demise. I also certainly didn't spend all of my training efforts on her before she clocked out, so I suppose it didn't affect me all that much. Still, it was pretty dark.
 
Final Fantasy 7 is pretty dark, and Im not even going to mention the characters because what makes the game dark is the downfall of society. The planet is extremely damaged, people in the biggest city in the world live in misery, there is a lot of corruption and unecessary colateral damage from war conflicts. Final Fantasy 7 is like earth will be in several years in a way. The mood of the game is very degrading.

But to me the darkest final fantasy is definately X. Everything points to suffering and agony, everyone is suffering not just the main characters.

Final Fantasy 2 is dark if you take into consideration the character pov of the world but the world itself is not that dark per se.

Oh wait, final fantasy 6 is actually the darkest halfway through the game but obviously I dont want to spoil anybody and say why but I think most of you will know what I am talking about.
 
FF7 Dirge of Cerberus is like...the definition of dark. The biggest world corporation was hiding an army of assassins, and then they are unleashed on innocent towns where the people are to be captured and killed. On the side, there are these waves of darkness that suck people into unknown. That game is so frickin dark! Death, pain, literal darkness, that game got it all.
 
FFIX is much darker than people give it credit for and I think its because of the character designs. Look at many of the themes in the game. I remember being creeped out when it was revealed that the dead become the mist which is then used to power up machines.

FFVI also had some pretty themes. Hell most of the world's population is killed and we watch Celes attempt suicide.
 
Probably Final Fantasy VI. The game's world literally went to hell. Literally.
 
Going down the line I feel like every FF was dark. There's a sense of darkness in every FF game, even in the first one xD.

Final Fantasy Tactics has a lot of weight when it comes to darkness and storytelling in general. It is hands down the darkest final fantasy I've ever played, which is why I enjoy it so much. The characters are living in a medieval apocalypse society from the very start since all technology had been lost due to some tragedy. Not only that but the characters are constantly emotionally tested way beyond ordinary limits and the pile of dead character bodies that stack up by the end of the game seem endless. Not only that but at any point in any battle you could potentially loose your party companions, whom you built and customize yourself, which I find to be very dark after a player has lost something he/she has put so much time in. Overall this game takes the cake for me when it comes to dark storytelling. Every villain is twisted, every setting is unsafe and dreary, every character is tested, and every party member is mortal.

VI comes in a close second as the second half of that game is probably the most epic, dark, crazy experience I've ever had in a video game. I think if this game were to be remade with modern graphics and voice acting, it would have an even bigger impact on it's audience. And the things done to the characters before and after the big world change are pretty horrid and challenging.

IX is a good runner up for me because of it's emotional pull as well. I loved how fun and quirky the world and characters were and that it made you actually care about the characters and world while it was being destroyed. This game definitely rocks the dark theme in a good character driven story.

II is pretty dark as well. Does anyone remember the Dreadnought? And your party members who come and go from your party so often? After playing this Aeris' death looks like a carnival. Nuff said.

I should mention VII but I did not find it as dark as the other games I favored. I liked the life stream concept and the planet on the verge of dying was pretty heavy stuff. And Cloud's little moment made me very impressed. However I don't find the game to be the darkest.
 
Honestly, the only Final Fantasy game that has much more dark moments than light moments is FF7. This also has to do with the personality of most of the characters. Let's take a look...

*SPOILER ALERT*

A corporation sucking the planet dry of its resources.

Said corporation (Shinra) causing the plate to collapse on the slums of Midgar.

Sephiroth finding out that he was a Shinra experiment created with cells of Jenova and, in his sorrow, spending endless nights in the library before going completely insane with delusions of grandeur about himself. He then destroys Nibelheim.

Barret supporting the making of a Mako Reactor in Correl leading to his hometown being burnt to the ground by Shinra.

Barret witnessing Dyne off himself.

Finding out Cait Sith is a spy.

Aeris dying. (der)

Cloud discovering that he is a failed clone of Sephiroth, that he was carrying the memories of Zack, and that the story he told in Kalm was all a fabrication he made up in his head.

The ending which led you to assume that Meteor struck the planet and extinguished all life (of course this is debatable but a lot of people including myself believe that this is what happened in the end).

So yeah, the plot accompanied with the very haunting (at times) musical score makes for the most dark and depressing Final Fantasy game. FFVI comes in at a close second.
 
For some reason, I thought of FF7 first. I think it's because FF7 is very, as much as FF can be, realistic. FF7 reflects our planet a lot (lol - I can't believe I just used "planet" in replacement to earth or 'our world'. Oh, the effects of FF...). The game's colors were also very dark and the music was very moody, even the ones that were supposed to sound more upbeat. Midgar is so sad and reflects a lot of what our urban communities are and our global warming situation (if there really is one). Then Nibelheim's sad state of history and lies and how they even got actors to pretend that nothing ever happened there. Cloud's mother, his only family that he had left, died there...their world also has a lot of dirt and mountains and just...earth. It's very sad, like a country area all around, quiet, eerie, and full of secrets. Very scary...and then losing Aeris, and even Cloud losing himself, battling Sephiroth...everything.

I've seen a lot of people mention how dark 9 is. I never finished 9, I'm not even sure if I - oh, yeah...I think I was on the second disk, I forget, but from what I do remember, yeah...I guess it was pretty dark, too, in its cartoony design, especially with adorable little Vivi seeing his own reflection turned into a bunch of produced puppets and being raised by someone who I think was not actually his family...I didn't get to find out if he even had an actual family.

I would say both of them. 7 in regards to its reflection of reality, and 9 in its darkness in a world of fantasy.

10 was pretty dark, too, but I guess I don't see it that way because eventually the problem got solved and the world was so beautiful...the only real issue left was that Yuna and Tidus couldn't be together.
 
VI and VII are the two that come to mind for me. VI has its whole 2nd half of the game as a dark, mess of a world. VII is in a dystopian future where a corporation act as a government and run for their own greed.
 
I really dont see why everyone's answering FF7, I never found that one "dark" just sad at moments. The only one I can truly say is dark would be VI just for the simple fact its the only FF game to date where....

The villain won, the world was destroyed, and everyone was split apart, not to mention enslaving the eidelons, pretty dark stuff

I mean its a short answer but after playing ever game multiple times in my life its the only one that comes to mind.
 
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