FF7 - I think this gets a lot of undeserved hate because it widened the JRPG demographic substantially and a lot of the people it brought in are annoying. However, the story is strong, characters are memorable, battle system was fun and highly customizable, and there was A LOT to do in this game. As for Cloud being a cad... well, wasn't that the point? Cloud's story is that he's delusional and out of touch with reality, with the culmination of his story being him realizing that he may not have met his own expectations, but he still did the one thing his own hero failed to do: Stop Sephiroth and protect Tifa. Once he realizes this, his character takes a change for the better (even if he doesn't fully recover until the end of Advent Children). All in all, a good game and a historically important one.
FF8 - This game suffered for two major reasons. This first is that tt was originally supposed to be two different games (One for Squall and his friends, one for Laguna and his). However, the guys upstairs didn't think people would buy two games to get the complete story and so they combined the two games into something unimaginable partway into development. This is the reason why the plot makes NO fucking sense and why none of the characters get significant development aside from Squall, as they had to cut out huge parts of both games to make the length manageable and because of the medium at the time.
The second reason it sucked was because the Draw System was poorly thought out and horribly balanced, as were the crafting systems.
FF9 - Pretty good. Would have been better if they hadn't rushed development near the end and had stuff come out of fucking nowhere. Still, they didn't screw this game up so much as not meet their own standards.
FF10 - Fun Gameplay, shitty story... and they don't even have the excuse of time or budget. They just dropped the ball on this one.
FF11 - Didn't play it. No Comment.
FF12 - People give this game a lot of hate because of it's story, and that the people they thought were the main characters didn't really do anything. These people completely missed the point... Vaan and Penelo aren't the main characters, but rather the Rosencratz and Guildenstern of the bunch. They are supposed to be people the player can connect with, as they are just as much outsiders in this story as we are. The main character of the game is actually Ashe, as it's HER actions and decisions that drive the plot. If Square Enix failed anywhere, it's in not establishing that it's HER story before introducing Vaan.
A lot of people claim that the story is too political, complex, and ambiguous. However, this is only true if you look at the game as a Final Fantasy title. Instead, you should look at it as one of the main games in the
Ivalice Alliance series, all of which offer Shakespearean inspired stories full of revenge, betrayal, love, and politics, and are all connected by taking place in or around the same area (The country of Ivalice). When you look at it that way, it's actually par for the course. This is Square Enix's failure: They should have marketed it as an Ivalice Alliance title, not a Final Fantasy one.
Now lets get into the specifics for the story. It's a deep story with very clear analogies to modern nuclear weapons, but instead of treating them like you would in a child's story (NUKES R BAD!), it actually delves into the political and security reasons someone might be driven to have them. Ashe is the rightful ruler of a tiny country, one that is unable to defend itself against it's larger and more powerful neighbors, and she has been usurped because of it. But then she is offered the power to drive out these forces and protect the people she is bound to... a power that WILL bring peace to her nation, but of such horrific magnitude that it's only use has become a LEGEND among the people it affected (Like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). All she has to do to get it is surrender the fate of her people onto a group which may or may not have it's best interests at heart (UN/NATO/US involvement in the affairs of 2nd and 3rd World countries)... and you know what? She actually considers it. She doesn't dismiss it out of hand like a Hollywood movie or a Television show would make her, but rather it has her companions weigh in on it from their various perspectives. It actually gives her decision the weight and magnitude it DESERVES. It doesn't treat Ashe like a psychopath for wanting that kind of power, but like a concerned leader, desperately searching for the one thing that will guarantee her and her people's safety and freedom.
In other words,
Final Fantasy XII is THE BEST argument for AND against Nuclear Proliferation in any medium I have ever seen. You can complain about the battle system all you like (And yes, I agree. it's definitely not for everyone), but you can't really complain about a story when it's this good.
FFXIII: Haven't played it. No Comment.
