I think I’ve officially outgrown Final Fantasy.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to love the series. Most people had their formative video game experiences with Super Mario Bros. I had mine with Final Fantasy II on the SNES. I remember begging my parents to purchase an obscenely priced Final Fantasy III cartridge for $74.99 at a specialty shop. I even had my relatives pick up an import copy of Final Fantasy V from a trip to Japan even though I knew no Japanese whatsoever. Hell, I was determined to learn kanji as a 12 year old solely to play that game.
Final Fantasy used to be the reason I chose a particular console over another. It was why I wanted the Super Nintendo, Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3. Each new entry in the franchise was an event. I would spend every free moment lost in the world of Final Fantasy until the epic tale was over.
It took me nearly five months to finish Final Fantasy 13. There were stretches of multiple months where I didn’t even touch the game. I eventually finished the game, but it took a herculean feat of self-motivation to do so.
What happened?
Part of the cause may just be a function of growing up. There just isn’t enough free time as an adult to engage on a 40-60 hour epic that has a glacially paced plot. As kids, we’re interested in maximizing the amount of gameplay time per game. Unless you were spoiled, your parents were just not going to buy you every game you wanted, so you had to make sure that you wrung all you could out of that Christmas or birthday present. Final Fantasies were a good way of ensuring that you always had something to do. Even if you had beaten the story, you could load up a save right before the last dungeon in order to take part in numerous side quests and, of course, attempt the ultimate goal of leveling your entire party to level 99.
As I grew older, I find myself caring less and less about the side quests and just focusing on completing the main storyline. Even that’s a chore in it of itself when it takes 40 hours to complete just the bare minimum in a Final Fantasy title, especially when it takes ten hours for the story to really “start.” That 40 hours of video gaming could be put towards finishing 4-5 God of Wars or Halos or Alan Wakes. It’s been more about the quality of a game storyline rather than the quantity.
The other cause rests solely on Square Enix’s shoulders. Quite frankly, the characters and plot of each successive entry in the series have become more and more derivative and forgettable. Can you remember all the characters from the last, say, 2 Final Fantasies? How about what they were fighting for?
I’ve written about Final Fantasy 13 earlier. It had some promise, but eventually ended up being predictable and hackneyed.
My only memory of Final Fantasy 12 (other than the fact that it was eerily similar to the plot of Star Wars) was this youtube spoof:
On the other hand, I could wax for hours on Final Fantasy 4‘s Cecil as he embarks on his epic journey of being a Dark Knight pawn to finding himself as a Paladin to discovering the true identity of his hated enemy Golbez on the moon. This game ended up on the friggin’ moon! You can’t get more epic than that, right?
How about Final Fantasy 6‘s build up to the end of the world in the game’s first act? The game starts off as a typical “rebel against the evil empire” storyline, but manages to draw you in with the characters. From the Robin Hood-esque Locke, to the mysterious Terra, to the honorable Cyan, to the estranged royal brothers Sabin and Edgar, all the characters were dynamic and interesting. Hell, you even get to play as a moogle for crying out loud.
Once you’ve spent 20 hours really bonding with the characters and fighting to the evil emperor, the game throws you for a loop by engineering an upheaval that leaves you in an almost post-apocalyptic world controlling just one character. When you meet the main characters again in the second act, they’ve all settled into new lives. It’s all the more powerful seeing them in new settings because you knew who these characters were before. Blowing up the world shouldn’t just plop your group tidily back on the beach ready to gallivant towards a final level. It should mean something. And it does in this game.
Maybe there’s only so much you can do within the structure of an ensemble fantasy epic. Maybe Square knows the well of creativity is dry so it’s trying to paint a new coat of 1080p Hi-Definition sheen over cookie-cutter characters and generic fantasy plots.
I call shenanigans. TV series like Battlestar Galactica and Lost have proved that it’s possible to write engaging, original character-driven epics in the modern era. There’s no reason why a game franchise with Hollywood blockbuster sized budgets can’t rival those shows in script-writing at least.
I’m not sure Square can figure it out, but if it ever does, I’ll be open to getting back on the Final Fantasy train. Until then, my free entertainment hours are going elsewhere.
That changes maybe good for you because it only means that you are getting mature and would want to explore other side of the world that would be meaningful to you. Just be thankful that you experienced the game and learned a lot from it, that I’m sure you have somewhat have applied in your real life.
I agree with you in many ways, though i loved the world and gameplay of FFXII i hated the story, and as i researched about it, the director dropped the project in the middle so the game feels as a broken unfinished movie much like, Parnasus.
either way, i know how it feels to see the series loose its charm, i felt amazed playing IX and seeing XIII almost made me puke.
to say the least i was angry when XIV was announced and turned out to be MMORPG which i hate, but i loved the art and world design overall yet i will never play.
so yeah you’re right, SE sucks and i won’t get anything from them until i get to feel as nostalgic and amazed as I felt when i saw the greatness of VI, IX and X.