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Forums - Sony - Why are the final fantasy games so good?

Onimusha12 on 11 July 2008
Riachu said:
Onimusha12 said:

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

People should stop bashing this series just because it is mainstream.

 

Who was bashing it becasue it is mainstream?

 



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puertoecuanama on 11 July 2008

the final fantasy games are good cause lightning is hot...lol

sorry man, i cant answer ur thread seriously cause ive never played the final fantasy games.



                 


 

Staude on 11 July 2008
viewtiful_jon said:
The franchise as a whole isnt amazing, but there are some stunning games amongst them. FF7 when it was released was the best RPG I played, not looking back its ages terribly and games like Secret of Mana have once again took over it. Some games in the series were just terrible FF9 for example.

After FF9 I have so much hate for the main series which is a shame as 10 was ment to be fantastic and I refused to try it, but I am looking in to the Chocabo game on the Wii as it looks like it adds something different.

Damn, you really missed something. Go grab ffx for the ps2 now ! XD .. no seriously, it's the best ff game i've played.

 

Also incase someone else hasn't said it already, each ff game has their own story in their own universe. They usually arent connected. The only connected games are FFX2 (10s sequal) and Versus FFXIII which is another story in the FFXIII universe.

 



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HideoK on 11 July 2008

My hardcore final fantasy history may help you understand a little insight on why they were so good.

First off FF games are known for their story, music, battle system, great cast of playable characters, graphics (at the time of release) monster summons, world exploration and a fantasy universe make these games so memorable. Oh and usually over 100 hours of gameplay if you do everything so you really get your money worth.

The best Final Fantasy in my opinion is FF7. It was the first PS1 game I owned, first FF I played, and I still consider it to be my favorite game all-time. I'd say it got me hooked on video-games and made me the gamer I still am today. I was absolutely blown away. I remember being 40 hours into disc one and thinking OH MAN I still have 2 more discs... how long is this epic game!? The characters and story were unique and very likable and the the materia linking and battle system very engaging. In 1997 the game was also cutting edge in terms of graphics, FMVs and even had orchestrated music. I did everything there was to do in this game. Over 100 hours of gameplay here.

Final Fantasy 8 was a bit of a disappointment after all the hype 7 created. I raced through 8 in less than a week so that didn't help either. It was still a fun game. Keep in mind it was also cutting edge at the time in 1999. Magic combat in 8 was weak since you had to go around Drawing magic from all the enemies to just save because it made you not want to use them in order to boost your stats. All I did was attack and summon. Also you could get very far in the game without leveling up since enemies stayed around your lvl but bosses had a minimum so one of my friends got into trouble this way and couldn't finish the game. I had the opposite with trouble on regular enemies with everyone at lvl 100. I did everything there was to do in this game including collecting every card in the triple triad card game. Over 100 hours of gameplay here.

Final Fantasy 9 I felt came close to topping FF7 early on with the great cast of characters, but with a final boss in the game that you didn't get to know or care about (same as 8) hurt the game a lot. Seems to be someone higher up pulling strings. No FF boss has been as evil, foreboding, and persistent throughout the entire game as Sephiroth in FF7. Going back to the series roots of more fantasy cartoon-like characters was a charming touch that a lot of people like about the series. Also the combat using weapons to permanently learn abilities through them was excellent. I did almost everything there was to do in this game. I know I missed one of the optional bosses in the library of the town that gets destroyed by bahamut. I need to go back and play it! Put over 100 hours here too.

FFX and FFX-2 and FFXII attempted to follow the same recipe but got worse with each one for me.
They lost the over-world map exploration and had a linear map that everyone followed. I still enjoyed 10 for it's story and battle system, a true turned based combat where enemies wouldn't attack until it was there turn. This made for a lot more strategy and planning of each attack which was very cool. Controlling monster summons were also pretty cool. I also liked the story with Sin being a persistent enemy, 2nd best to Sephiroth IMO. The switch to voice acting actually hurt a bit and took away from the imagination. Auron was good though. I did everything there was to do in this game 'got the one who conquered all' and filled up my battle grid completely with max 255 stats on a lot of stuff. 50 hours to beat and over 100 hours of gameplay to get everything.

FFX-2 was the least appealing to me with the girl power overtones. The combat system was still fun and you could stop an enemy from attacking you mid-animation if you were quicker to hit attack. Weak story really hurt though. I think I did manage to make it to 98% complete with about 65 hours so it was on the short side too.

FFXII was also disappointing to me. Cast of characters was kind of generic. Never did I want or feel the need to do anything but hit "X" to attack (and pause to heal) I'd let my characters automatically attack by assigning gambits. The game was on auto-pilot for me and battles just end so much faster with regular attacks than going through a command list. I think it was my least enjoyable final fantasy.
I beat the game but did not do all the extra hunter quests. I did get to fight Yojimbo and his dog though which is pretty far into the quests. Can't remember how many hours I put in.

I have high hopes for a return to glory with Final Fantasy XIII but for me the series has been on a downward spiral since FF9. I always worried that the series may tire itself out with too many games but I'm still hopeful b/c each series is a final fantasy for a new set of characters. No game has ever had the same characters except for the spin-off sequel X-2.

Best in order for me:

FF7
FF9
FF8
FF10
FF10-2
FF12

Never was able to get into the previous games FF1-FF6. I tried the Anthology but the graphics gave me a headache and I just couldn't get into it. That's probably the case with many people for FF7, 8, and 9 today so perhaps its a good time to remake FF7 for a new generation of gamers!



HideoK on 11 July 2008

Nice assessment Onimusha 12! I agree with the mainstream appeal, streamlining, and casual turning.
Played Dirge of Cerberus but being an action shooter and not a number FF game I didn't include it. I'm still hooked on everything FF7 related to this day. Crisis Core was worth a play through as well and Advent Children needs to be bought again, this time on blu-ray and the 'Complete' version.

A FF7 remake would be awesome! Although it's probably best if they stick to making new games cause some people might not want to play a game they played 10 years ago just b/c the graphics and sound are upgraded. FFXIII's darker tone is also very appealing to me.