Final Fantasy

Very Big image, best to click on it for full view of various box arts.

What does it matter anymore? I sat here and had a conversation with my girlfriend about the subject last night (well early this morning) and I've come to the conclusion that Square-Enix is the video game equivalent of M. Night Shyamalan. I'll explain why with everyone's favorite game to love or to hate. Final Fantasy VII

   Many will say this is the best of the series I wouldn't go so far as to support that thinking. I remember getting this game in 1997, it was the first game I got with my PSX (Playstation 1 for all you younger people) and I was blown away at how awesome it was. The story was great, the characters memorable, and it had a great soundtrack. It really was the turning point in the series, the end all of end all at the time. Does that mean SquareSoft should have stopped trying to make new games? Apparently it did.

Final Fantasy VII set so many standards for the RPG market and many of them are still in place today. You had a cast of troubled characters, each with their own dark past. You had stunning visual effects and innovative game play designs. The active time battle system, the 3 active party members, mini-games galore, and enough side quests to shake your fist at in rage because of the varying difficulty.

But for all the good it brought to the market, it became the most hyped game in the series because of it. You don't hear other Final Fantasy games compared to say Final Fantasy IV for instance. It's always compared to Final Fantasy VII, a curse in it's own right. The game set the bar so high for SquareSoft that they've never been able to surpass it in the eyes of the fans, instead they try to cling to the false hope and security that it's gotten them.

That brings me to my earlier statement, that SquareSoft is the M. Night Shyamalan of the gaming world. Shyamalan made critical acclaim as a director with the movie The Sixth Sense. It's hailed as his best production and acclaimed for it's twist ending, it's great story progression and it's suspenseful direction. This has been his curse. He's assumed that since what has worked before will work again and it's what the movie-goers want to see. So every movie after he's followed this same format and it's gotten him nowhere. He's considered a hack and a one trick pony. Sound familiar?

Square has been in the same boat. I feel I have a right to say the things I do being that I've been a fan since the early 1990's. I remember skipping school to play Final Fantasy, my cousin getting me Final Fantasy II (IV everywhere else) for my birthday when it came out, renting Final Fantasy III (VI everywhere else) when it came out. Personally I see Final Fantasy IV as my industry standard. The great story full of love, romance, conflict, horror, betrayal, danger and adventure coupled with great characters, music and game play? It's my favorite of the series.

I'd been a loyal fan through the PSX era, getting Final Fantasy VIII when it came out; (I actually consider FF8 a much better game than FF7 in many aspects, despite beginning to hate it because of the plot over the recent years) and getting Final Fantasy IX for Christmas. I see Final Fantasy IX as SquareSoft realizing that they fucked up and they tried to fix their reputation by throwing back to everything that made the series famous. They took away the future setting and got rid of some of the angst and trouble that was in the past of the characters. Reverting to more traditional standards they attempted to go back to how the series used to be. Many will say it's a faithful retelling of the classic story.. but myself will say it's just more stale rehashed goodness that they've become famous for.

And then we jump ahead a few years to the PS2 and the launch of two firsts for the series. First we'll get around to Final Fantasy X, while a fun game in it's own right it follows this trend that Square decided to do that has become rather.. obvious. They don't spell out the protagonist, and try to make you play as a supporting character rather than the main hero of the game. Despite what anyone says you're just playing a whiny bastard who has serious daddy issues, end discussion. A few years before the release of Final Fantasy X, square began production on Final Fantasy XI, they had actually intended to launch it as Final Fantasy X and X as XI but delays and testing issues sloshed that up. Final Fantasy XI was the first Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game in the series and by it's own regard has been a huge success. It's mostly a love it or hate it game you're either a fan of it or not, there really isn't a middle ground.

Not covered in the header image is the "movie" that ruined the company and pushed it off to near bankruptcy. The ill-fated Final Fantasy: Spirits Within. The movie was such a flop in the box office and the home sales that the company was forced with an ultimatum, merge with another fledgling company Enix or go belly up. Ever since this merger the quality of games has dropped significantly and will continue to do so.

Anyway back on topic. After Final Fantasy X was released people were so upset with the ending (which I was fine with personally) that they demanded a sequel. Something that wasn't done in the series. So we get the ultimate fanservice game, Final Fantasy X-2. It was basically a redone version of Final Fantasy X with the focus on two of the three female leads from the previous game. It wasn't an overly awful game, it was just poorly planned and basically a rehash of Final Fantasy X.

Then we reach Final Fantasy XII, this was the game in the series that made me realize that the newly merged Square-Enix only cared about our money rather than the fans. The story was an even more incomprehensible pile of garbage. You're playing yet another supporting character, the kind where if you removed him from the story entirely, the game would still make perfect sense with his absence. Also this marked the end of the traditional battle system for Final Fantasy, something that had lasted since 1989 was now axed in favor of a more "tactics based" system. While this sounds good in theory in practice it's clunky, boring, and takes all the magic out of the game. 

Speaking of failures of a game, we fast forward a few years, and see the release of Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. This is, in the opinion of many, the worst game in the series ever made. They butchered the series to where it's barely a shell of it's former self. All the magic is gone and you're left with a narrow minded tunnel crawler with a reset battle button. Sure it looks great, but it doesn't play that well.
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I didn't feel the need to cover the Tactics Series or the various remakes (although I included a picture of the box art for FF3 up top) and the side games released for the Game boy in the early 90s. They're all good games but just didn't feel like they needed to be brushed upon in this rant of sorts.

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I'm just not sure if it's just me getting older and becoming nostalgic in my old age. Of if it's just me getting to the point where I'm tired of dealing with games and realizing that it's all just a waste because of developers like this. I used to see games as more glorified version of books and movies. Something more interactive (action games) or more descriptive and deep to get myself into (rpgs). I guess I just miss the old days where playing a Final Fantasy game had the same feel as watching an epic movie or reading a great book. This has been a very long winded rant but dammit I wanted to get it off my head. I've lost all faith in this company and honestly will never play or buy a new numbered Final Fantasy game unless things are drastically turned around.

As for my previous statement about Final Fantasy VII not being the best, it all boils down to personal preference. I just feel that this younger generation of gamers who only care about how realistic things can look has no right to say which of these games is the best. Especially when they're making this claim based off not having played any of these when they came out and only after playing Final Fantasy X or seeing Advent Children. So from all the original fans to all you new ones, Fuck You and the high horse you ride on saying it's the best of all time. It most certainly is not FF4 and FF6 and hell even FF8 would have a word with you. Every game prior to Final Fantasy X is great in its own right and should be handled accordingly. Also to all you Final Fantasy X fans, a big FUCK YOU to you for thinking it's the best when you've never played any of the others.