12. Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy protagonist Squall (right) wasn’t the most charismatic hero of the series, but the game’s story was still good though.

With Final Fantasy VIII, developer Square had to deliver a good successor to the phenomenal Final Fantasy VII, which is regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made. But while Final Fantasy VIII improved on its predecessors’ graphics and had the typical good Final Fantasy story about nations at war and love, some aspects of the game were slightly lacking.

This is because this Final Fantasy game had a new magic system and combat was mostly based on the “Guardian Forces”, powerful elemental beings that players could summon in combat. But summoning the Guardians led to long, non-skippable attack animations, meaning simple random encounters could drag on for minutes, often making combat a chore. The game’s production values and gameplay were still good overall, just not as great as its predecessor Final Fantasy VII had been though.