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The Final Days of Final Fantasy
An anonymous reader writes "Could the Final Fantasy series have finally come to an end? About.com's Adrien-Luc Sanders thinks so in his article The Final Days of Final Fantasy. I'm sure many people here remember Final Fantasy VII and how it helped Sony win the console market away from Nintendo. The article contends that Final Fantasy's glory days are over, that with the release of Final Fantasy X-2, the underwhelming EverQuest clone Final Fantasy XI, and the much-delayed Final Fantasy XII (finally confirmed for a 2006 US release), we've effectively seen the end of Final Fantasy. Is it time for Square-Enix to give up on Final Fantasy?"
I, like many others, I'm sure, have enjoyed many hundreds (possibly thousands) of hours of Final Fantasy over the years...replaying them time and time again. However - and this is barely arguable - it's all been downhill ever since FFVI. I would like to see SqareEnix branch out and truly deliver on the innovation that should have been bourne out of their union...but, as with the Star Wars franchise, I'm sure they will continue to go back to the little black box that gives them two dollars for ever quarter they put in.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
Final Fantasy can not realy end , its non sequential and the games are just difrent RPGs with a commen evolving system. .
I am not a major FF fan but i do enjoy the games , honestly its just a small dip which hapens to anything long running
I never take Death reports/predictions in the Tech industry to seriously.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Throwing around pointless doom-and-gloom predictions when the next sequel to the franchise is still highly anticipated deserves an anti-award.
Even if SE completely abandons offline games they will still paste the Final Fantasy name on their games, though I expect to see a Dragon Warrior MMO before the next MMO FF.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
That's like saying that the end is near for Nintendo's Mario/Zelda/Metroid, or Polyphany's Gran Turismo. It doesn't matter whether the quality dips or rises across the series or console generations... In marketing class if I learned anything, if your product is in "Cash Cow" corner, you hold on to it. As long as people keep paying for Mortal Kombat, Midway is going to keep turning the crank and popping them out.
//Nothing to see here, please move along.
the answer is a resounding no. However, they need to go back to what made it so special in the past. That is, back off of the convoluted plot, the rediculous looking and uninteresting characters, and the complicated and boring skills systems. Instead, bring back the spirit of adventure. Those that have played it will remember the magic of getting to finally pilot the air ship in FFIV, where you could FINALLY go over mountains and such, and visit those remote places in the overworld. It was the gameplay, the original and loveable characters (even characters we may idolize to some extent... it'd be nice to be as cool as Locke) that makes FFIV and FFVI the best in the series for so many of us.
SquareEnix needs to take a step back and return to its roots. FFIX was a step in the right direction, if you ask me. FFX was a supreme dissapointment, and FFXII looks to be much of the same. A gorgeous soundtrack will only take you so far.
Final Fantasy VII came out when I was in high school, back when the only exposure that I had to video games (due to a sheltered life and a technophobic parental unit) was an extremely old SuperNintendo system with Mario 2that I got when I was...five, maybe?
.... that Final Fantasy is dead. Wuhzuh? How does that make sense, in a money making sense? Last I checked, people are drooling on themselves for the FF7 spinoffs and FFX-2 made money. I personally liked FFX-2... More than FFX, even. FFX-2 was a lot more fun than FFX.... I believe this is just a fanboy that doesn't like the way the series is going. I can't say I blame him on the account of the 4 thousand FF7 spinoffs and FFXI, but.... The series is probably not dead any time soon.
Sorta off topic, but... wow. I'm wondering if he meant NES or SNES... The game and age make me think NES, though.
The pinnacle of Final Fantasy was when all of the development was focused on the main lineage and the occasional Tactics or Crystal Chronicles were a nice side diversion that had nothing to do with the main storylines.
Since when did the FF games have a main storyline, anyway?
On topic now....
His entire arguement is that because he didn't like FFX-2 and FFXI, and that because Square is making a few sequals
Square-Enix declares that About.com's Adrien-Luc Sanders' days are about over.
Sounds just about as plausible, which is to say not at all
But then again, chances are About.com or at least Mr Sanders will be gone long before Final Fantasy is.
There's an interesting debate to be had about the future of the franchise, but sadly, this won't be the article to spark it off.
The author's main problem is that he didn't like FFXI or FFX-2. As far as I'm concerned, that's his problem. Far from being a failure, FFXI still has a commanding position in terms of the size of its user-base. Last I saw, it was only behind WoW and the Korean MMORPGs (for which figures should be treated with a degree of caution due to the methodology used to count players there). Indeed, before the release of WoW, it had been the biggest MMORPG played outside of Korea for quite a while. User figures have been steady for a long time, with the release of WoW not making any significant dent. In the highly competative, dog-eat-dog world of MMORPG publishing, I'd call that a resounding success, rather than a harbinger of doom.
FFX-2 has always been contraversial among Final Fantasy fans. I'll admit that it's never been my favorite installment in the series (this would be FFX - and yes, I've played the whole "main" series, including FF6). However, this isn't to say it's without merit. In many ways, it's a return to more traditional gameplay, with a much steeper difficulty curve than other recent games in the series and a job-based character system. If you approach it without expecting it to be "more of the same" from FFX, then it's actually a very good RPG. A lot of tormented, gothy Final Fantasy fans felt they had to dislike FFX-2 out of principle, because it's actually quite upbeat. Personally, I'm secure enough that I can play a game like this without it making me "doubt my masculinity" (author's words).
The most significant issue the author raises, in my view, is the wait for FFXII. This has certainly been longer than I expected. However, I think this is largely a reflection of the fact that development times and costs have risen, to match customer expectations. When you completely rework your graphical engine, combat system and game world for each installment of your series, you can't be expected to stick to a Madden-style production schedule. At any rate, I'll reserve judgement on FFXII until I can actually play it.
Bleh... this guy didn't grow up with Final Fantasy like I did. I remember sitting in my 4th grade classroom, reading the Nintendo Power Final Fantasy strategy guide for silent reading time, then trading my Super GameBoy and some games to a classmate in 8th grade so I could get my hands on the coveted Final Fantasy III (6j) since none of the rental stores carried it.
I remember saving allowance money for months to afford Dragon Warrior IV, with its hefty 59.99 price tag from Toys R Us...
I played the heck out of these games, and cannot say the same about the 'next gen' iterations (Dragon Warrior VII as an exception, but just because the game is so damn long, and seemed to hold my attention)
I don't think the problem is that Square-Enix is stagnating... I think it's getting increasingly more difficult to hold the gamer's attention who grew up with these games. I remember crying when Celes lept off the cliff in FFIII (FF6), but the famous 'death of Aerith' in FFVII completely failed to evoke the same reaction. It was too predicted, and scripted... though the music was tear-jerking.
Anyway, I don't think the games are going anywhere. Square-Enix needs to reach harder into the younger market though, and bring in new fans to the series.
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But I'm just glad this isn't another "Nintendo is doomed" stories.
His whole argument is that he didn't like Final Fantasy X-2, and therefore Final Fantasy Is Dead.
And golly gosh, what is the reason? It must be Enix because the merger happened around the time that FFX-2 sucked. You want some real evidence? Come on, he's busy trying to make a point here!
But maybe this is just the current state of affairs for Video Game Op-Ed.
"Final Fantasy, in fact, was what got me into computer animation and sent me haring off to art school; Final Fantasy VII came out when I was in high school, back when the only exposure that I had to video games (due to a sheltered life and a technophobic parental unit) was an extremely old SuperNintendo system with Mario 2 that I got when I was...five, maybe?"
He had the same video game system from the time he was five until high school (what? 9 years at the least) and in that 9+ years he can't even get the name of the game or the system he owned correct? Was it Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo or was it Super Mario 2 for the NES? I'm being anal but that was enough to make him sound like my mother or father do when they describe every video game system I own as a Nintendo.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
The answer is No. In fact, the quality is remaining quite high. Like it or not, the lowest points in the series are from a LONG time ago.
The thing is, that the FF team are VERY ambitious when it comes to what they do. They make very wide changes for every game. Trying new things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So I don't blame them for the misses. The harder you throw the more you can miss. But for the misses...and most of them were oh so close....
2J:A very clumsy level up system. Just didn't work at all. The biggest miss.
6:Yes, you heard me right. A wonderful game that fell apart for the second half of the game. The fact that the game is so wonderful for the rest of it makes it even more painful.
8:A broken combat system made most of the game a timewasting chore. (You can convert Tents to Curegas which you can junction for a near invincible amount of HP through most of the game)
X-2:A wonderful combat system, and the episodic nature of it..but yet...
Ok I'll be frank. The tone of the game was wrong. It tried to be light and airy, but frankly, it was just painful. It was too depressing. After playing through X, (best story of any of the games), watching the hidden depression of Yuna was WAY too much. way way WAY too much.
But I liked that X played like a pilgramage. It worked for that game. It felt way more personal than any other game in the series. As well, I liked the micro-level ups.
FFX isn't a love story. It's a story of revenge. Tidus is not the main character. The story is from his point of view, but the story revolves around Auron.
Auron's plan the entire story is to manipulate Tidus and Yuna, to make them fall into love, so that Yuna would be incapable of sacrificing Tidus for the greater good, destroying the church of Yevon and getting his revenge on Yunalesca, and fufilling Jecht's last wish.
The actual story is about the "fall" of Yuna, and how her rejection of her religion saves the world of Spira. It's more philisophical than a love story. Auron is the puppetmaster.
Spinoffs aren't a damn thing new.
Mario, who's often brought up, has been appearing in sports games for longer than some people on this site have been alive---yet no one gripes about NES Open, even when they bring up (GC or GBA) Mario Golf. Even beyond that, things like Dr. Mario or the truly wretched edutainment titles for the SNES featuring him are ignored by people hoping to improve their retro street cred at the expense of reality.
For that matter, -three seperate- unrelated properties have appeared under the Final Fantasy name in various places; the first SaGa series -and- Seiken Densetsu were marketed as such in the US, while the first SD also was marketed as "FF Side Story" in Japan; and then there's FF: Mystic Quest. All of these back in the idolized 8- and 16-bit eras.
Hell, Dragon Quest 8, in its Japanese release last year, managed to sell about 1 copy for every 30 Japanese citizens---this from a series with only one other entry since the SNES, but a huge pile of spinoffs ranging from top-down action games to monster-trading Pokemon clones to graphical takeoffs on Nethack during that period.
As for FF11, in particular...
Even ignoring the fact that the average pretender "oldschool" gamer's complaint is "WTF, why's it so hard, take so long to play, need play sessions so long, and have a loose mission structure? I want the old FFs back, where there was actually a challenge, a good amout of playtime, long dungeons without savepoints all over ruining the challenge, and it wasn't so cinematic!", the fact remains that over the past year, S-E's grossed about $90 million directly from it---that's more money than changes hands directly to retail stores, never mind their lower wholesale price, of a 1.5 million seller. Love it or hate it, you can't complain that it's harming the odds of putting more money into more FF titles.
Since 2002 he has been designing websites for various clients, often utilizing animated interfaces in Flash and Shockwave or creating branded 3D-animated logos. He is also currently working on several small indepenent animation projects.
Not exactly an expert or valued opinion in my book. Scary that one independent animators opinion on a few games he didn't like would spark everyone so much. Got a bad feeling this is the future of web marketing...
I've had a similar conversation with dozens of people of all ages. The question? What's the best spaghetti sauce you've ever had?
Many talk about various restaurants they've been to as having the second best. But the best is always the sauce their Mom made. Why?
Because it was the first they encountered, and it defined what spaghetti sauce was for them. All others fell short in one way or another.
FF fans are like that. "FFn is the best FF. After that, they series fell apart. FFn+1 and FFn+2 were crap. None of them are any good any more."
I suspect that, for the vast majority of these speakers, FFn was the first FF they played. All others will be compared to FFn, but come up short because they were different in many ways from FFn. And that's a good thing - I'd hate to think SE won't try anything new or different for FFXII because they'd never ever be better than FFn.
Give it up, folks. FFn isn't the ultimate FF. What appeals to you doesn't necessarily appeal to me. The next FF, and the one after that, will be very different from what came before, and from each other. Personally, that's why I like the series.