Current Events > What is the worst dungeon in the FF series?

(+) Yeah! (+)

After a battle, the definitive best Cid award goes to Cid Highwind via FF7

That being said, there are ALOT of dungeons throughout the series. These are the ones that jumped out the most not only from what I researched, but also from what I played. See below for details in order from the poll list:

The Pharos - FF12: a 2 hour filler dungeon, full of annoying battles and even more annoying puzzles. At least the end of the dungeon has a decent climax to it.
Oeilvert/Desert Palace - FF9: Two dungeons back to back where you pick 4 party members for the first one, and then the remaining party members take the second half. Problem is, Oeilvert has a NO MAGIC policy, and it's briefly and barely mentioned. If you happen to bring three casters with you, you are in for a bad time. This is followed by a confusing puzzle dungeon with a boss that gets weaker as you find bloodstones throughout the dungeon itself...that is...IF you find them.
Riovanes Castle - FFTactics: The infamous Riovanes. A level/dungeon in the strategy game where no doubt, many people had to start the whole game over due to not having a backup save. The fight against Wiegraf himself is fought initally solo by Ramza, and then a rough Zodiac battle follows suit. Honestly, the solo battle I've always personally found more difficult.
The Great Glacier - FF7: You end up here after the first snowboard run down the mountain. The map is initially very difficult to navigate and sort through, and even once you sort through it, there are a very strict roads and guidelines you must follow in order to acquire the Alexander summon materia, all before passing out in the cold, else, doing it all over again.
The Cloister of Trials (any of them) - FF10: Outside of the elements, they all look the same, and feel the same. Getting the secrets to each of these is debatably a nice brain tease. At least you can re-do the dungeons later in the game in case you missed the treasures. Albeit at that point, minus items, any gear you would acquire would be useless.
Lodestone Cavern - FF4: I haven't played this game, but this dungeon pops up non-stop in google for being annoying. Apparently, there is a magnetic field in the dungeon, and so anything considered metallic, cannot be used. Goodbye to your armor.
The D-District Prison - FF8: This dungeon features the party traveling up and down stairs...the entire..fucking...time. And not just stairs. You go down/up some stairs, then you have to travel AROUND the block, to be able to go down/up the next set of stairs. Copy/paste 10 or so floors and add random battles and a few hidden treasure rooms.

Please mark Other if I missed one that is grueling. Let's see who takes the cake

Best Minigame: Triple Triad via FF8
Worst Minigame: Dodging Lightning via FF10
Best Gameplay Mechanics: Set classes and (learnable) abilities via FF4/6/9
Worst Protagonist: Vaan via FF12
Best Cid: Cid Highwind via FF7

Edit: typos

---

FF12: Great Crystal

---

Jesus Christ, remind me to proofread my own text next time

---

That stupid castle or whatever at the end of FF3.

---

KainWind posted...

That stupid castle or whatever at the end of FF3.

Crystal tower?

Edit: Aww fuck I just looked it up. So it's multiple grueling difficult dungeons and no save points, and unskippable cutscenes. Neat

---

Seeing as how I just recently did it, I say the prison in FF8. But luckily in the remaster you can turn off random battles and/or speed things up

whoever developed the cloisters of trials should be sentenced to life in prison

---

Other: Almost any timed escape sequence or dungeon, especially in FF5 and 6. Not because of the timer per se, but so many annoying gimmicks.

FF5:
Castle Karnak escape is filled with missible chests and Monsters-in-a-box. Yay for unrunnable battles!

FF6:
The escape section of the Floating Continent is filled with inescapable battles filled with status attacks to waste your time.

And screw the recruitment mission for Sabin in the World of Ruin. You're almost guaranteed to have only Celes, you have a time limit, and you have to deal with petrification. Screw that.

Thankfully, these dungeons are short.


---

FF8: Final Dungeon
FF3DS: Crystal Tower sequence


---

Musourenka posted...

FF6:
The escape section of the Floating Continent is filled with inescapable battles filled with status attacks to waste your time.

I shouldve added this one.

Speaking of the timed ones, I was tempted to add XATM092 via FF8, but you're given a shitload of time to escape, despite the battle with him and his encounters (if you don't know how to avoid them) being difficult/annoying. Although despite this part, the entire rest of the mission/dungeon is actually really fun at this point in the game. And then there's Quistis on the machine gun

---

I honestly can't remember most of these. Only played them all once.

But I do remember Weigraf... so that gets my vote.

---

FFIV: Lunar Subterrane

---

All of them.

---

WSM Piru posted...

FF12: Great Crystal

This. What the hell were they thinking?

---

The Cloister of Trials dungeons are fucking garbage, ESPECIALLY the Macalania one because of where its placed. There isn't a single redeeming aspect to any of them, and the music is horrible too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUU9SaOik0s

---

This dungeon features the party traveling up and down stairs...the entire..fucking...time. And not just stairs. You go down/up some stairs, then you have to travel AROUND the block, to be able to go down/up the next set of stairs. Copy/paste 10 or so floors and add random battles and a few hidden treasure rooms.

*laughs in Shinra Tower*

---

The Great Crystal in 12 is really bad
---

the great crystal is like objectively one of the worst designed dungeons ever

jumi posted...

*laughs in Shinra Tower*

xd

---

KainWind posted...

That stupid castle or whatever at the end of FF3.

It's this. Second would be FFXII, the others don't even come close. Most of those qre barely notable.

---

Via Infinito from FFX-2

If that doesn't count then the only real answer is the great crystal. It's one of the worst designed pieces of shit in any jrpg.

---

Since I plan on getting The Zodiac Age soon, I'll get to experience the fun that is the Great Crystal!

---

WSM Piru posted...

FF12: Great Crystal

Came here to say this.

---

Marsh Cave in FF1. The difficulty jump is way too steep, way too early.

Last dungeon in FF3 NES really could have used a halfway point save. But I'm gonna go with FF4 Magnetic Cave.

---

Final Fantasy III (not 6) extremely grindy boring final dungeon that needs more save points for how tediously long it is

I hate the Great Crystal even though it leads to some awesome fights. Teleporter mazes are never fun.

---

Reis posted...

the great crystal is like objectively one of the worst designed dungeons ever

This. Voted Pharos as a proxy vote for great crystal

---

Heaven-on-high, FFXIV

RNG can still mess up a run. And even at an amazing pace it's several hours long.

Otherwise, FFIV TAY Porom's bonus dungeon since you'd have to run it like 42 times to get everything. And the rewards are kinda worth it since some stuff is BiS or used to get special things like adamant gear in the final chapter.

After that, the great crystal. Even knowing what to do, you'll definitely fail with the timed door sections a few times or go through a door that semi resets multiple gates in that section of the crystal so if you're not using a guide, whoops you'll reset the entire floor.

---

gunplagirl posted...

Otherwise, FFIV TAY Porom's bonus dungeon since you'd have to run it like 42 times to get everything. And the rewards are kinda worth it since some stuff is BiS or used to get special things like adamant gear in the final chapter.

I thought about mentioning one of the character dungeons but couldn't remember which was the worst. Though most of the issue is in running them constantly, which wasn't as bad when waiting for other chapters to be released.

---

Great Crystal, yeah.
---

i actually really liked the great crystal, it brought me back to making maps for dungeons in dragon warrior 2

i think my least favorite is the ice cave from ff1

although since we can count ffxiv, prae.
---

Great Crystal is the worst I can think of. Of the ones listed in the poll I'd go with D District Prison. It's just so god damn boring.

---

KainWind posted...

I thought about mentioning one of the character dungeons but couldn't remember which was the worst. Though most of the issue is in running them constantly, which wasn't as bad when waiting for other chapters to be released.

I never finished the second lunarian chapter bonus dungeon, the first was hard enough. The level caps, just... Why?!

And one or two others were a bit rng dependant. There's nothing forgivable about Edward's but at least after the first 3-4 clears you can just loot and scoot because you'll have the gear to nuke the enounters blocking you from the super expensive stuff, turning it into a few dozen 5-10 minute trips to finish the rest of the way.

---

Damn. I remember using a guide for the Great Crystal so I suppose that's why it doesn't jump to mind for me.

Looks like Great Crystal is actually winning by 1 vote at the time of this posting

---

Okay, I actually looked up some playthroughs of the dreaded Great Crystal by people without guides. So you basically wander around for eternity.

---

Pharos was the first one I thought of, but the Great Crystal sucked too.

---

Ok Dog, I am now playing FF1 for the first time. The PSP version.

---

Zodd3224 posted...

Ok Dog, I am now playing FF1 for the first time. The PSP version.

Good luck! I haven't played that one. Let me know your 4 party members

---

Also, because of how close this is, I'm gonna have to do another poll with the top 3 from this group.

---

I went with a warrior, red mage, white mage, black mage

---

The Anti Magic Dungeon in FF9

I put the game down completely at that point and have had no desire to pick it up since

---

Aurum Vale lmao

---

Ff15 that platforming dungeon

CruelBuffalo posted...

Ff15 that platforming dungeon

Pitioss Ruins?

---

I never did Pitioss, but Crestholm Channels is the most irritating sewer level I have ever played in any game.

---

Great Crystal. None of the rest of those come close as far as I'm concerned.

---

Riovanes Castle. It's the only one on the list that can cause you to have to restart the whole game over.

Tsukasa1891 posted...

Riovanes Castle. It's the only one on the list that can cause you to have to restart the whole game over.

It's also not really a dungeon

---