In an unusual venue, an unusual and possibly unpopular opinion was revealed: The Bouncer is the best Final Fantasy title. A fan in the audience proudly held up the sign at Smackdown, a venue lacking in Square Enix connections.
There is virtually nothing known about this random attendant, save for their love of a game that isn't even in the Final Fantasy series. Was the sign simply the efforts of a troll? Or was it the misguided attempt of a confused fan to promote a game over 20 years old?
The revelation comes from a Reddit post made by u/BananaBoi7668 on r/FinalFantasy. The comments were a mixed bag of people with love and nostalgia for the title and others criticizing it for the character design and short length.
The Bouncer was released in 2001 for PlayStation 2. It was directed by Takashi Tokita and Seiichi Ishii with character designs by Tetsuya Nomura. The story follows three bouncers working at a bar on the dangerous Dog Street in the city of Edge. Each comes from a different path in life but found their way to the same place, and with a mysterious girl in their charge. Life is good until she is abducted by the mysterious and powerful Mikado company. They venture out to rescue the girl and uncover the reasons why.
Despite the stunning visuals for the time and being a launch title for the PlayStation 2, The Bouncer received lackluster reviews from critics and fans alike. Many were critical of its short length and repetitive combat. Compounding the issue was the uneven balance of cutscenes compared to actual gameplay. Watching a playthrough shows that actual gameplay only makes up about a third of a playthrough. While reviews weren't terrible, they weren't great, and that combined with poor sales led to the series going nowhere.
The most confusing part of all of this is that The Bouncer isn't part of the Final Fantasy universe. Yes, it shares a developer, Squaresoft at the time, and there are teases to that series, but that's it. Even if the statement is to criticize the Final Fantasy franchise, going with another Squaresoft game that actually had Final Fantasy characters in it would make more sense. Ehrgeiz is an equally lesser-known fighting game from Squaresoft that actually had characters from Final Fantasy 7 in it. That would at least fall in line with a game that isn't technically Final Fantasy being better than Final Fantasy.
Secondly, to make such a claim at an event like Smackdown, which has no real connection to either The Bouncer or Final Fantasy is befuddling. So unless this random fan makes a post of their own or someone tracks them down for answers, there is no way to know the true meaning behind the sign.
The Bouncer is available for PlayStation 2.