Summary
For a long-running triple-A franchise,Final Fantasyhas never been afraid to take risks with its numbered entries. Almost every game in the series has seen significant differences and changes compared with its predecessors, whether that means a different combat style, reworked gameplay systems, or different settings and structures for the games.
When some players pictureFinal Fantasy, they think of an overworld world map for characters to explore, as in the PS1 era and some of the classic 2D games. Not every game took this approach, and modern entries have experimented with both more linear and more expansive, continuous worlds.
For players who love theFinal Fantasygames for their exploration, some entries stand out more than others. Some for the beauty of the world, others for the unexpected secrets that can be found. So, this topic will rank the games based on just how fun they are to explore. These are the bestFinal Fantasygames if you love exploration.
Rather than sayingFinal Fantasy 10rewards thorough exploration, it might be more accurate to say it punishes a lack of exploration. While the majority of the front end ofFF10’s story is linear, failing to explore the optional pathways within maps as players progress can lead to easily missing Lock Spheres and other useful trinkets.
Much later in the story, the game opens up and allows players to freely backtrack and explore earlier areas. Once this happens, exploration becomes a lot of fun inFinal Fantasy 10, as there’s a good amount of completely optional content and secrets to go back and find. From Summoner fights to celestial weapons, there is some memorable optional exploration, though being loaded into the back end of the game makes it a little awkwardly paced.
Final Fantasy 12’smain character, Vaan, is somewhat unique in that exploration is one of his main motivations. Other characters may be out to save their city or the world, but Vaan wants to go on an adventure with sky pirates. While this core motivation shifts throughout the game, it does lend more credence to the idea that this character would want to explore the world as much as possible.
Whether this affects how much players enjoy exploring is questionable, but fortunately,Final Fantasy 12also gives players some good reasons to go out and explore the less easily accessible parts of its maps. Montblanc’s hunts and the secret aeons are some of the best gameplay reasons to get out and explore.
The early 3DFinal Fantasygames are some of the most rewarding to explore. From the rich, pre-rendered backgrounds in towns and cities, to the random side activities that players can find,Final Fantasy 9’sexploration is intricate and layered. Take the city of Treno - players have the auction house, the card tournament, and the monster arena, as well as other scattered side quests, and that’s just one city.
One of the best reasons to explore inFinal Fantasy 9is to get the full story about each of the party companions. There are some emotional highlights as players uncover these side stories that definitely shouldn’t be missed. There isn’t anotherFinal Fantasygame that treats companion quests in quite the same way, meaningFinal Fantasy 9’s exploration still feels special in this regard.
For players who like to know all the best places in a game to “get overpowered early,“Final Fantasy 8will scratch their exploration itch.Final Fantasy 8’s Draw system remains controversial with some fans, but knowledge of the games' hidden draw points and what spells could be picked up where makes it a system that’s as abusable as a player wants. That gives an added incentive to exploration for new players and a reward for map knowledge to veterans.
Final Fantasy 8also includes a lot of the more whimsical reasons for exploration thatFinal Fantasyfans love, too. Once the player gets access to the full world map later in the game, there are plenty of hidden locations to explore. Chocograph locations, hidden GFs, and more can be found, and there are some prettywell-hidden secretsfor completionists.
The firstFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeinstallmentplaced much less emphasis on exploration compared to the original game, covering only a small, enclosed portion of the map. In contrast,Final Fantasy 7: Rebirthrepresents a much more open-ended part of the original, and as such, it gives the player a much bigger environment to explore and a huge number of reasons to do so.
A lot of this exploration takes a very “modern RPG” approach, filling maps with a lot of content that can get quite repetitive across multiple areas, but the amount of unique scenarios, scenes, and interesting encounters that players will come across remains high. Whether players prefer this gameplay-directed approach or the original’s player-directed approach will come down to personal tastes, but both have a lot to offer for fans of exploration.
However fans might feel aboutFinal Fantasy 15’s gameplay and story elements, there are a lot of good things to be said about how it handled exploration. One of the best aspects of the game is how it fosters the vibe of being on a road trip with the gang. That often just involves cruising along listening to nostalgicFinal Fantasytunes and looking at gorgeous vistas, but the vibe it creates is immaculate.
This was helped at the time by being the firstFinal Fantasyto fully realize this kind of large, continuous world where the player can see what’s on the horizon or look at a giant creature in the distance and wonder about taking it on one day. This was hurt somewhat by exploration being, by and large, quite unrewarding, but for players who want to explore just to soak in the environment andworld design,Final Fantasy 15paints a beautiful picture.
Once players have the Airship, the Blackjack, inFinal Fantasy 6, there’s a lot of optional exploration available to the player. Some fans will appreciate the fact that this is an entirely player-directed exploration, too.Final Fantasy 6does very little to guide players toward optional exploration and secrets. The only hints players tend to get for any of these things are cryptic NPC dialogue lines.
There are plenty of missable intricacies inFinal Fantasy 6’s exploration, especially with the game being split into two distinct halves. At the same time, it won’t ruin a player’s game if they miss some of these details or secret items, so exploration serves as a nice extra reward or a reason to revisit the game.
One of the reasons thatFinal Fantasy 7captured the imagination of so many players was its open-ended exploration. Once players get out of Midgar, the scope of the game’s map reveals itself, and what at first seems like a restricted form of overworld travel slowly opens up into more and more ways to explore and access new areas.
Breeding chocobos is a key part of the game’s exploration loop, as different breeds have different traversal capabilities - blue chocobos can cross water, green can run over mountains, and so on. This exploration was well-rewarded with secret areas, hidden summons, and some of the game’s strongest equipment and materia. The originalFinal Fantasy 7has a lot of surprises waiting for intrepid players.
