With the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XV some time this year(we can only hope) I thought it'd be a good time to discuss the future of Square Enix and the difficult trial it's been to get them there with the Final Fantasy series, which I'm no longer convinced falls under the RPG genre anymore.
From slow gameplay driven by plot, to the more fast-paced MMORPG that has losers blaming most of their problems on lag, it's no shock that Final Fantasy has definitely evolved over the 28 and a half years since it's creation as Hironobu Sakaguchi's all or nothing gamble at a successful game. It's eventual critical success helped put Square on the market for the many years to come, giving fans plenty more games to play, spanning over several platforms(25, and yes I counted...).
With the evolution of video games comes the necessity of innovation for developers as they need to meet the demands of their fans to maintain the ability to keep their fans loyal. While this is a necessity for most of the games out there, Final Fantasy is one of the exceptions to this rule overall because of it's origin.
Final Fantasy has been known to many fans as a timeless masterpiece because it paved the way for a new genre of games commonly known as RPGs. The simplicity of the menu-based system allowed for Sakaguchi to focus on the story and world itself to essentially capture the players in an interactive world. It strayed away from the modern setting of games with high paced action and played out like a digital book the player experienced first hand. Players were driven to explore the world around them and interact with the story.
With the later installments, Sakaguchi continued with this tried and true method, creating success after success with future installments. Each new game had more elements in there that captured the players even more. What went from a simple story with nameless protagonists had stemmed into full playable stories of characters going through dangers in order to save the world. Nevertheless, the story drove the players to continue playing the games and it was what essentially kept them playing.
With the dawn of bigger and better technology brought forth the desire to evolve gaming as we know it. Mario went from computer generated sprites moving along a 2D setting with the N.E.S and the S.N.E.S to a 3D environment, revolutionizing the way games were made with the Nintendo 64 and so forth. This inspired the trend of games breaking the third dimension, fundamentally changing the way games were played. Final Fantasy also followed suit as it also evolved from the usage of computer generated sprited to rendered models that progressed along a more detailed background that was drawn out in its seventh installment of the series. This change essentially revolutionized the RPG genre as companies now had more freedom to expand their worlds, giving players more to see.
It was Final Fantasy VII that ultimately brought Square to the top of the charts. With the development of the next gen console capabilities of the Playstation, Final Fantasy VII broke out of its classic 8-32-bit style graphics to a new stronger and more upgraded form. Utilizing high end hardware, Square was able to break their old limitations with previous games to give players an absolutely stunning world to interact with. They utilized computer generated models combined with stunningly drawn backgrounds to showcase their game's full potential. I often refer to FFVII as the Ocarina of Time of the series, comparing it to Nintendo's legendary series Zelda, because both games did the exact same thing for their franchises. Both Square and Nintendo ultimately changed the way their classic games were played. While Zelda broke away from it's classic style completely with Ocarina of Time, FFVII showed that their graphics could ultimately enhance the storytelling experience allowing players to really dive in deeper than what previous games could allow them to. While I'm not arguing that the graphical improvements ultimately made the game better, these upgrades were definitely a big boost to the franchise's capabilities at creating games. This was arguably the beginning of the repeated trend Square attempted to showcase better graphics over anything else.
With the creation of Final Fantasy XI is where I argue Square began losing track of it's roots for the franchise altogether. XI was Square's attempt to jump in on the online market with a game that could potentially break ground for the company to expand. While I'm not one to argue the ability to expand the company, there isn't a need to use the franchise's name to do this. Many fans did jump into Final Fantasy XI thinking it would count as an official segment of the franchise only to be disappointed by the fact that it was simply an MMO. While I personally enjoyed the game, spending many years of my life playing it, I very much disapproved of the fact that Square was using their star franchise to market the game when they could have simply made it another title entirely. Utilizing a franchise name to experiment on a different market can be off putting for several gamers.
The saying "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" comes to my mind a lot with the discussion of Final Fantasy XII. After FFXI this was arguably the biggest change the franchise has seen, ultimately stepping completely away from turn-based gameplay with a heavy focus on active time. This became an issue with playing with speed and stress, as opposed to simply using your wits. The game essentially forced you to play with the A.I unless you were determined to spend even more time manually inputing every command yourself. While some will argue that they're willing to because they are determined, it shouldn't have to be as frustrating to micromanage one's team as badly as FFXII makes it. The game's overall tedious nature of gameplay left me unable to complete the lackluster story, forever to collect dust on my shelf as I put other games ahead of it.
And now we come to the last of the single player titles that Square Enix had created to this point. What can I say about this installment that hasn't already been said? Final Fantasy XIII is arguably the worst title in the franchise and a chaotic mess of a game. It's only redeeming quality was its soundtrack and graphics. Square decided to essentially eliminate the need to control your party as a whole and merely change around their jobs to your presets. The chaotic battle system left many unable to really grasp how to play as it contained a rather difficult learning curve. Square, I know you want to branch out to new gamers, but this definitely isn't the way to go about it.
Final Fantasy XV is where I have a large problem with the series overall. Inspired by the huge success of Kingdom Hearts, Square wanted to synthesize this success with their 15th installment, originally named Versus XIII. Kingdom Hearts, albeit an unofficial Final Fantasy spin-off, isn't an official Final Fantasy title. Turning the strategic combat of a turn-based RPG in a hack and slash style game cheapens what made Final Fantasy the success that got it to the top and honestly feels like Square is simply trying to find a way to refresh the series. Kingdom Hearts worked as a game, because it stood out from the traditional content Square Enix was producing and made it's success on its own. Having Final Fantasy ride the coattails of this other game doesn't help but cause more confusion overall as now Final Fantasy doesn't fall under the standard RPG that it used to be. You can't even control other characters besides your own. Square should have just started fresh and made a new series hack and slash that could have won fans over rather than butcher the originality that was the series as a whole.
With the large amount of changes the games have seen overall since the tenth installment of the series, I can't help but realize that Square doesn't know what they want from their series any longer. Branching out from the RPG setting to a more action oriented game utterly crushes the reason why people play the games. Square seems to merely be using the brand name to get their game out there without actually keeping any of the other elements that made the series loved by many. Why feel the need to change what made a series so great? While RPG's weren't essentially a big selling point with many gamers, the whole point of playing Final Fantasy was for the story, and less with the gameplay. With all this being said I can't help but worry over the next several titles in the franchise and what direction Square is going to take with their star pupil. Thanks Square, you've definitely lost a faithful customer over here.
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