Final Fantasy 1-6 are a collection of games all to themselves and the beloved icons of the "old-school" fans of Final Fantasy. It is after these games that the first great schism in the franchise is recognized.
Final Fantasy 7 was really the last great hurrah, but remains equally controversial among gamers as to what its true worth is now that it has aged.
Final Fantasy 8-9 were unique follow ups but even despite a backlash towards the WTFness of 8, both held together as interesting additions to the franchise in hindsight. It is after these games that the second great schism in the franchise is recognized.
Final Fantasy 10 was the beginning of the streamlining and casual-ization of the series, from this point on the franchise would embrace a new style of androgynous character design, recycled character designs (basically Tidus & Yuna as the main characters in every game), glam frilly worlds and an over all sense of superficial, sometimes forced, Final Fantasy-ish ambience. 10 was a good game, but not a great game, it seemed in some respets more casual than the previous final fantasies however at the time it was forgiven as yet another unique contribution to the franchise, people did not yet know it would be the harbinger of things to come.
At this point Square began whoring out franchises and experimenting with sequels. Final Fantasy 10-2 graced us with charlie's angels girl power while we watched the international special edition of Final Fantasy 10 never get released here. In these duldrums they also started rehashing their most successful game, Final Fantasy 7 with a plethora of spin-offs that drew equal criticism from the fans.
Final Fantasy 11 was released with almost a hush whisper of befuddled anticipation, a Final Fantasy MMORPG that was numbered? The fans were outraged to be quite honest, rightly so. And even though it allegedly was a good game, its utter dependence on other (often uncooperative) players and utility of early online gaming handicapped the game's success and potential. All in all the only really long lasting contribution 11 has offered the franchise is a legacy of Mithra porn on the internet that continues strong until this day.
Final Fantasy 12 was released to much anticipation, especially given its roots in FFTA, and while the community tried to convince themselves it was a good game and tried to defend the controls and system, in about six months time there was no one left to kid themselves this was anything but an exercise in creating a game that played itself. The story, phenomenal, the characters, interesting, the problem, the characters (namely the two main starter characters) had about a much to do with the ongoing story and world around them as you the player outside of the game did. While gambits allowed the game to eventually play itself it at least gave you the option to take a nap while "playing" the game. As far as the fantasy aspect this could have passed for steam punk more than anything else given how hard they tried to keep the majority of races of FFTA basically out of the game. According to Square the merchandising disaster of FF9 prompted them to think no one liked anthropomorphic characters in their main series games and after FF11's mediocre reception they did everything they could to keep non-human characters out of FF12 as main or playable characters. Fran of course (of the viera, the most human of the races in FFTA) was kept as the token savage of the group and while FF12 did introduce new races in addition to those in FFTA they were all kept as extraneous to the main events and story of the game and your party as possible. While the reasons vary, everyone can at least agree the game was a dissapointment. Again, the special edition of this game was spared western audiences for reasons still unknown much like FF10 and the Kingdom Hearts games.
Final Fantasy 13 seems to be following up a dark downward trend though many fans still hold out hope for it. The peppering of the game throughout all the platforms via spin-offs and add-ons does cause worry for me, though there is really little else known about the title so far. The game of course continues on the stylized unchanging artistic trend of FF10-FF12 but the jury remains out on whether that will be a negative factor for this game or not.
All in all the series can be divided up as such...
Final Fantasy's "Old School" Golden Age
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy's "Mainstream Appeal" Golden Age
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy's Age of "Streamlining", Casual experimentation & Genre blurring.
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X2
Final Fantasy VII-Dirge of Cerberus
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XII
