The winner is FFX! FFVII is defeated in the final round with 54% of the vote. Thank you all for the participation and lively debates in the comment section. All poll statistics are now public here: https://strawpoll.com/user/vivifying-v and I have attached a JPEG to this post.

Surprising, but I guess my surprise that it even made it this far has numbed me to this final verdict. I truly don't see what people enjoy about this game. To me it was the beginning of the end of what made Final Fantasy great.

Its obnoxious battle system forces you to putter around switching all 7 characters in and out if you want each of them to earn experience in a battle. It's so boring to me that the enemies are pre-determined to be weak to specific characters. "Flying enemy? Better bring in Wakka." How dull and repetitive.

The Sphere Grid presents the illusion of customization, but really your characters are on a largely pre-determined track for the first 3/4 of the game. The "trials" for each summon are boring puzzle sequences that rely on the repetition of a few basic concepts, compounded on one another ad nauseum. There's little actual exploration to the game-- people give FFXIII shit for being on rails, but FFX was the progenitor of that.

As for the story, I'll admit that some of the "mystery" elements are intriguing, and the "big reveal" about Tidus is interesting. But ultimately Seymour is a bland villain, and Tidus is the most annoying protagonist in the entire series. At least Vaan is basically a non-entity after the first several hours of FFXII; Tidus remains irritating and stupid for the entire game. What's worse is that you have to listen to him monologue more than any other Final Fantasy hero. It's like listening to Bill and Ted talk to a therapist.

Well, I guess I needed to get that off my chest. I'm sure there are some who agree with me and some who vehemently disagree. I know no one really cares about my opinion and this probably comes across as petulant. I guess it just makes me frustrated that THIS is what people consider to be a good JPRG. It explains why the series has veered so far from what I personally consider to be enjoyable.

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