Final Fantasy Future

I read a brief news piece over at EGM about some comments from zipper-obsessed Tetsuya Nomura and I had a stronger reaction to it then I was expecting. At this point, I could care less about an FFVII remake, really, but I'd love to see Final Fantasy restored to its previous glory.

In the piece, Nomura asserts that new Final Fantasy games "must overcome the older games and break away."


In response, the writer, Matthew Bennet, asserts "people loved the old games and seem to hate the new direction."


I had to take a moment and think about this. Final Fantasy, I believe, has changed forms drastically several times, and it is always timed with a shift in platform, which brings new technological advances to the series.

The basic tenets of the series were established in the Famicom days, with Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3. The basics of the combat system, the narrative approach, and even creatures like the Chocobo were identified and defined in these early days.

Final Fantasy 4, 5, and 6 saw the series migrate to the Super Famicom, and many purists argue that this is the point at which the series' storytelling abilities really blossomed. Many of these same purists also argue that either 4 or 6 was the best ever, and that the world has since been in decline, all games suck now, and nothing in life can ever be half as meaningful as these games (plus Chrono Trigger) ever. Ever. I exaggerate, somewhat, but so do these sad souls.

Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 brought the series to a new console manufacturer in the form of Sony. As a sidenote, this is also when Nintendo took one look at being successful by giving consumers the best product possible and said, 'Ah, fuck it.' They chose cartridge over optical and have been way behind the technology curve ever since.

Anyway, FF7-9 harnessed the optical format to bring a more cinematic appeal to the games, and moved from sprites to polygons. The series spread to the masses, and the fanboys wept crystal-shaped tears.

About this same time, we saw the brand start to spread out to other platforms as well, with releases on the GBA, cell phones, PC, as well as re-releases of older games on PlayStation.

Final Fantasy 10, X-2, 11, 12, and VII - Dirge of Cerberus continued the series on the PlayStation 2. FFX brought voice-acting into the series in much the way that a plane crash delivers passengers to the ground, and FFXI brought the series into the MMO space in a way that perplexed all but the most dogged of masochists. Dirge of Cerberus experimented with bringing the brand into shitty action games that feature terrible controls, while FFX-2 was the first-ever direct sequel in Final Fantasy history (and yes, I still think it's better than FFX). FFXII, meanwhile, showed that it was possible to drastically change up the series' mechanics and make a great game.

Then, Squenix astonished everyone by making the series multi-platform for the first time, and Final Fantasy XIII (and its direct sequel) were both released for PS360.

Oh, and Final Fantasy XIV released to PC and managed to actually be worse than FFXI, which is an accomplishment heretofore unimaginable and most unwelcome.

This overlong recap is presented to illustrate a point, which is that the series changing direction is not new. The problem we've had this century isn't that the series has tried to change, but that Squenix chased out the core talent, namely Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yasumi Matsuno. Sakaguchi is the father and was the main scenario guy on FF1-9, and you can tell. Matsuno was the father of the Tactics branch and the main creative guy behind FFXII (though he was ejected before the game was completely done.) Sakaguchi and Matsuno were both  shown the door, and that's the first problem. Yes, I'm sure other folks could step in and make us actually care about characters, but they don't seem to be trying.

Tetsuya Nomura has risen steadily at Squenix over the years. He's their main character designer now, on (I think) all of their Japanese RPG releases, and man, I am tired of his designs. Yeah, the asymmetrical zipper thing was interesting the first fifteen times I saw it, but now ... ugh. Bored now.

I wonder, at times, if there's on overemphasis on presentation with Final Fantasy now, and a total lack of regard for rich and compelling characters.

If you're not quite on the same page with me here, please do the following: play Lost Odyssey (Sakaguchi) on 360, then play FFXIII on PS360, and then get back to me. Lost Odyssey is the best Final Fantasy game I've played since FFIX. Final Fantasy XIII ... had its moments, but none of the characters elicit any feeling from me (except for Hope, who I kept hoping someone would 'accidentally' kick over a railing.)

Another aside - Japanese publishers: listen to the English voices of Tidus from FFX, Hope from FFXIII, and that awful Canadian from Resident Evil Code: Veronica, and don't ever do that to us again. Thanks.

The problem with Final Fantasy isn't with changing approaches or design, it's with the characters. Sakaguchi and Matsuno both developed strong personalities in their characters, and built interesting relationships between them. The casts from both FFX and FFXIII were 'blah' to the extreme, and show a lack of proper development. Both of those games focused tremendously on new technology and features being brought to the series, but were painful in terms of storytelling. Tidus would go down as the worst Final Fantasy protagonist ever, if not for the emo douchebag, Squall.

What's interesting about each of those characters is that it seems like their personalities were put in place in order to explain their appearance, as though the whole character was built from the character design, instead of having a character design that complements what the writers established.

It's almost as if a character designer has too much clout, and that story and writing is being treated as secondary ... hmm ...

But what do I know?

Final Fantasy XII shows that the series can not only handle change, but excel with it. What the series is missing is human relationships. It's a rich and compelling series, and can easily be restored to its former glory, but they need to change the approach.

Or maybe bring back Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshitaka Amano, and Nobuo Uematsu? Just a thought.

What say you?

Blaine
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