User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 465: 400 Years, Review and Commentary/@comment-7418318-20151207214012/@comment-7418318-20151210225417

Among the hard-core fans it's something between the beginning of the end and the last "true" Final Fantasy, since after this the franchise switched to models more akin to MMOs even for the single players.

I still like XII and XIII (at least XIII and XIII:2, Lightning Returns sucks really hard both in gameplay and story), but they are quite different. It's more like playing spinn-offs than "real" Final Fantasies.

And X made the first few steps in that direction with the lack of open-game content and heavy use of cliché wasn't too well received either.

But I still love it and would even rate it above FF7. While a great game I think FF7 is overrated. It was the first to become widely popular outside of Japan and the first to get a PC release, which probably is the reaon why it's so famous, but I had more fun most other FFs.

If I had to make a rating I think it'd go like this:
 * 1) FF6 and 9 tied.
 * FF2
 * FF5
 * 1) FF10
 * FF8
 * 1) FF13:2 (It can be confusing and the lack of partymembers isn't exactly great, but I still love it.)
 * 2) FF13
 * FF7
 * 1) FF12
 * FF4
 * FF3
 * FF1

12 and 14, the actual MMOs I have never played and FF15 I haven't played either, but considering what I've seen of it, I doubt I would enjoy it much.