Longtime readers will recognize a trend about my gaming. Yes, I love JRPG's. For whatever reason, I enjoy running around beautifully rendered worlds with generic archetypes with insane hair and seeing the deepest points of the uncanny valley as I do so. And those who just even just scan through know that I have the softest spot for the Final Fantasy franchise. Evidence of this is found in my defense of the 13th entry and its successor and beyond. I still enjoy the games, despite their flaws. So you should know very well how exhausted I am.
I have completed every single player, roman numeral entry in the series. I have played a couple of the off-shoots. And here I sit, during the 25th Anniversary celebration of the series as a whole. A history of great games is past, and there are thousands of people noting a list of successes that has come as a result risks taken by a company so many years past. But among them, there is anger, distress, frustration cold and bitter over decisions made by the persons holding the reins. These people don't want the changes made in the series.
Frankly, I feel that they just want more of Final Fantasy VII.
And I'm only right about a few of those people, I'm sure. But let's face it, nostalgia is both the best thing about Final Fantasy, and its curse. The majority of the first nine titles are indisputably among the most important games in history. Very few fans really argue about the quality of these titles, and will usually agree to disagree about which is the best. For some, these are their favorite games. I wouldn't argue with them either. There is something very special about playing a Final Fantasy game, and I always look forward to a new entry in the franchise. Hell, I'm even looking forward to Square announcing Final Fantasy XIII-3 at the anniversary thing in Japan at the end of August. It's unique to the Final Fantasy franchise, and no other series gives me that feeling. There are many great games out there, but Final Fantasy does the trick.
So you can imagine my frustration when I have to see the constant bickering on the internet about a Final Fantasy VII remake being the sole savior to the franchise. That's short sighted. Square-Enix was correct to say that it would be the end to the series. They are trying to make a game that satisfies both their creative needs and bring long estranged fans back. Whether you like XIII and its sequel or not, they were trying to bring some fresh blood to the series. It's not perfect, but it's a motion for progress. The sales numbers aren't all that much lower from previous installments, but the sales of other franchises are much higher, and that bothers the number crunchers of Square. The quick trigger anger flood of the internet scares them with poor review numbers on aggregate sites like MetaCritic.
The voice of the internet is hurting the video game industry in an indescribable way. Everyone sees the first person shooter as the way to make money, or even the duck and cover third person shooter. Pair that six hour campaign with a decent multi-player with DLC every few months, and you have a temporary success. If not a shooter, a sandbox game so full of content that some gamers just run out of interest by the time the finale rolls in to surprise people that they have actually reached the end. 'Casual' games allow people to fill the five minutes that they are waiting for the bus or class to start. These aren't bad points in gaming, and these are all extreme examples, but they aren't the complete experience of video games.
Innovation is supposedly driving the industry, but stagnation is the truth behind that 'innovation'. So many companies are so driven to reinvent the wheel that they forget that the simplest things are often what people were drawn to in the first place. Let's bring this back to Final Fantasy:Final Fantasy VIII contains what is probably the most needlessly complex stat system I've ever seen in a Japanese RPG. Some embraced the change and made it through a story that definitely sits in the love-or-hate category, and possibly even shattered the games difficulty in the progress. They immediately called in a system reminiscent of Final Fantasy VI, and it worked much better in the long run. The Wii even relies on simplicity, which is why so many people are drawn to it. The WiiU hasn't proven itself, but it seems to want to incite simplicity, despite having the potential for extreme complexity. The reality is, at the end of the day, it's just another button to press, and that has always been the core of the experience. For all of their innovation, we have reached a stage that we are just finding slightly different things for those buttons to do. Adding in a RPG leveling system for the kills accumulated in multi-player was innovative, but it's not a wholly different way to play those games. You still kill people in an arena and collect weapons that are stronger and kill more people in the process. World of Warcraft built on Everquest, which, in essence, was the same thing that Ultima had been doing or past twenty years before it had released. No one reinvented the wheel. They just put it in a different spot on the car.
So when Final Fantasy XIII dropped and players found themselves doing something rather alien to other games in the series, they were upset. They were also upset by the story, but let's face it, Final Fantasy hasn't ever been perfect in that department. It's Japan. They have their themes that always show up, and it was full tighter because of that threading. Nothing was truly shocking here, though, aside from the giant corridor from Act I to the end of Act II. Enough people realized this to have a good time, and we even got a great sequel out of it. It's not perfect, it's not as good as the classics, but it's still a lot of fun when you allow yourself to enjoy it.
Final Fantasy XV is no doubt coming down the pipeline. Square won't let their most important franchise to die out. People's expectations are rather low. That might be a good thing, because the people who will jump in regardless will probably be satisfied that it's a decent game. There is also the possibility that the experience that they picked up working on the potentially FFXIII Trilogy will show them with a fresh and exciting experience. More likely, it's going to be another average entry in a series that used to excel on every occasion.
But speculation is something that is dangerous and exciting. I don't know whether to expect another sci-fi inspired entry or a return to traditional fantasy entries, but I do know think that the XIII battle system is done after the potential XIII-3. There is going to be a push for control over a complete battle party rather than the methods used in XII and XIII, which both had perks. I know there will be characters that I like, and probably even more that are annoying to ends unseen. I'd like to see a return to simpler times, such as in IX, where the equipment setup doesn't require constant modification and reading of the strategy guide to understand how to get a proper weapon in the end game. Some variation on classic character building and possibly another variation on FFX's sphere grids will possibly arise, and I'm okay with that. I wasn't iffy about FFXII's license board, but it was functional enough. The Crystarium was great, despite being a time sink once the other three classes opened up in the last act. Whatever comes, I'm ready though.
I'm not trying to sell anyone on Final Fantasy. If you hate Final Fantasy, there is nothing in this blog to get you to enjoy it. If nothing else, you probably either read it and think I'm an idiot, or are at least interested in what keeps people playing these games.
Nostalgia keeps us buying the new ones. Nostalgia makes us buy the remakes and rereleases.
Now, where is a series box set to commemorate that 25th anniversary?
Oh wait, we aren't getting one...we're getting a music game that does look entertaining, and a VII PC Port rerelease with achievements.
I guess Konami and Capcom are the only ones who know how to throw a good anniversary shindig.
http://castlevania.wikia.com/wiki/Castlevania_Best_Music_Collections_BOX
http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/23/capcom-celebrates-street-fighters-25th-anniversary-with-a-huge-collectors-box-set/
I think I need to make my own box...and since I'm teaching myself photoshop, this might be the best opportunity.
Check back soon for some photo editing notes and examples.
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