The Downfall of Final Fantasy.

[OzDok]

This is a rant. Care not for rants? Look elsewhere.

Square Enix has become nothing more than a corporation. The Final Fantasy series is now nothing but a cashcow, pushing out remakes and spin-offs with plots that 11 year olds could think up. The only decent thing to be found in a Final Fantasy game now are the Graphics.

Final Fantasy was named because it was Sakaguchi's last game before he was about to be fired. From that, it has turned into something designed for ONE THING - to make money. The quality of the game matters not, the fun matters not.

Take the "Compilation of Final Fantasy 7". Final Fantasy 7 was the series' biggest commercial success. So some people got to thinking, "Why not cash in on all those hungry fans out there? They'll pay anything for a disc with the name Final Fantasy printed on it!".

There are currently 6 titles in the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7. Then there are 2 spinoff titles FROM SPINOFF TITLES.

Then another Square Enix employee logged onto the internet. He saw a big banner saying "World Of Warcraft". He said to himself "Genius! A way to make EVEN MORE MONEY!" Squeenix jumped on the bandwagon and pumped out an MMORPG. They didn't even have the decency to keep it out of the main line, they gave it a number.

Fast forward a few years and Squeenix notice that their subscription figures for their MMORPG have fallen. So they get to thinking on how to milk more money from it. "I know!" one employee said, "Why not remake it? We're doing it with everything else - lets do it with this!". And they all agreed, labelling it Final Fantasy 14.

They remade their MMORPG - their primary source of money - before even finishing their Fabula Novus compilation. They released a Final Fantasy 14 before they had even finished with Final Fantasy 13.

As far as I can hear on the grapevine, we have yet another episode in the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 to look forward to. And then a spinoff of that too.

The only solace I can take in this is that FF5 and FF6 have been left alone for now. Moderately. They've both been remade for both the PS1 and the GBA. That's 3 versions of both of them.

Square Enix have gone beyond a joke, they are deliberately labelling shit and sending it out, knowing that the label Final Fantasy will instantly make it a commercial success.

Sakaguchi has left, Uetmatsu has left, half the original staff moved with Sakaguchi to Mistwalker. Nothing of the original Final Fantasy exists.

The Fantasy is over. But it certaintly isn't Final. This state of affairs is going to go on forever, with the same recycled storylines being used over and over, and the same androgynous main characters recycled over and over, and the same final boss battle with 3 stages recycled over and over, and the same "SuperBoss" with 100 Million HP that isn't difficult at all, just long.

DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA.

 

[GalaxyFlare]

I hope you have other things to say besides this, and that you joined FFF in celebration of the Series and not just to bad mouth our favorite game series(mostly)? sure its taken a dive, but what you said there is not new to anyone who has been paying attention to the series for the majority of the last 10 years.

Kudos for having the balls to come out swinging.

Make a welcome thread next time Tinman.

 

[OzDok]

Just something I had to get off my chest to a majority of fellow players. I still enjoy the series, it just kinda gets ruined when they make shit and stick a number and a name to it without understanding what it does to everything that shares the name.

 

[CerberusAdept]

Whilst I agree that the overall quality of the series has been in decline from X onwards, I've still found something that I've enjoyed about all of the games (bar XI, and I won't even touch XIV).

The biggest deviation from the tried and trusted format, is XIII, and there are even bits of that which I like.

Personally, I think we just need to get over the fact that Square's golden era (VII-X) is over, and has been for a long time. Once you come to terms with that and start looking at newer games on their own merits, I actually found that they weren't that bad.

Re cash-ins, I guess they're caught between a rock and a hard place - Personally, I'd love another game around the world of VIII. People obviously felt the same about VII, and seeing as that's the series' flagship game, it's developed its own mini-series. Do they take it too far? Probably now yes. I didn't mind the stuff that sits around VII, but X-2 was not only a blatant cash-grab, but they ruined the ending to X IMO. It had much more of an impact as it was, but then X-2 undermined it.

That being said, Square are a business, and they can release whatever they want. We just need to be strongwilled enough not to go out and buy every single product just because it's got the FF moniker to its name......

 

[OzDok]

Whilst I agree that the overall quality of the series has been in decline from X onwards, I've still found something that I've enjoyed about all of the games (bar XI, and I won't even touch XIV).

The biggest deviation from the tried and trusted format, is XIII, and there are even bits of that which I like.

Personally, I think we just need to get over the fact that Square's golden era (VII-X) is over, and has been for a long time. Once you come to terms with that and start looking at newer games on their own merits, I actually found that they weren't that bad.

Re cash-ins, I guess they're caught between a rock and a hard place - Personally, I'd love another game around the world of VIII. People obviously felt the same about VII, and seeing as that's the series' flagship game, it's developed its own mini-series. Do they take it too far? Probably now yes. I didn't mind the stuff that sits around VII, but X-2 was not only a blatant cash-grab, but they ruined the ending to X IMO. It had much more of an impact as it was, but then X-2 undermined it.

That being said, Square are a business, and they can release whatever they want. We just need to be strongwilled enough not to go out and buy every single product just because it's got the FF moniker to its name......

Pretty much my thoughts. If there had been ONE spin-off from FF7, I wouldn't have minded. The fact that there are 6 titles in the Compilation, and a spinoff of a spinoff, makes it clear that it has nothing to do with pleasing the fanbase and just an attempt to grab money.

The problem with Squenix is that they know that they have a fanatic fanbase and they exploit that. They don't have to put any effort into a game to make it a success anymore, like they did with the first 9.

Also the golden era was I-IX. X is more or less optional. Based on quality remember, not commercial success x]

 

[DarkShadow]

I absolutely agree man,SE have been a bunch of fuckers.....I dont know who to blame though. Tetsuya Nomura seems to be one of the the only decent guy who's still there,but he isn't giving us nothing other than beautiful characters.

From what I hear the only FF thats probably been a sucess is Crisis Core but that a handheld game nothing big,the rest have been shit(even though I did like FFXIII,most didn't so it was shit overall I guess).

The remakes there doing as well are for pre-historic games as well I don't see anyone playing them unless they are a hardcore FF gamer (and there arent much nowadays ).

And another thing aside from FF,is they develop millions of games at once mostly handheld,which slows down the production of games.
I'm just hoping Versus comes out amazing as in on the same levels as X and VII.....If its not I'm not sure how long I'm gonna be an FF player.

 

[Ayumi Hamasaki]

While it is all true, it's also true that businesses exist to make money, and SE is a business. Most successful businesses are going to be more about making making money, then being loyal to their product, or respecting it's integrity.

People often complain about Square doing all this, and then at the same time, they go out and buy pretty much everything that gets released. If people in general don't want more remakes, then stop buying them. Square isn't going to release games that are losing them money.

The other thing is that it doesn't really bother me. And in the CoFFVII's case, I actually prefer one of the spinoffs to the actual game itself. And I adore FFX-2 too for that matter. Both games were probably made more for money than to respect the title that spawned them, but to be perfectly honest, I don't really care.

Rereleases are a good thing. If they didn't exist, then I wouldn't have played a majority of the older Square games, which meant that I would have missed on some great and memorable moments. I don't have a NES or SNES. And I don't like to play games like FF on my computer in an emulator. It's not the same as playing them on a console. So I'm glad that they keep getting rereleased, so that newer generations of fans get a chance to play them, and enjoy them as much as I did.

In the end, it all comes down to people, not necessarily you, but people expecting Square to release a new Final Fantasy only if it's in the main chronology (numbered) is just being unrealistic. Also, I'd point out that Square hasn't milked Final Fantasy to the extreme that other games have been milked. There is FF merchandise but I haven't seen nearly as much as there is for other games series like Halo. On the same note, I don't see Square releasing very many novels with Final Fantasy in the title, and they only released one anime, I believe, and one movie based around it.

So that's hardly even milking.

/endmyrant

 

[Harlequin]

They didn't even have the decency to keep it out of the main line, they gave it a number.

This I agree with. Call it FF Online or some shit like that but keep that trash out of the main series. All these spinoffs too, they're not fan service - if anything they're just there to abuse the fan base they worked so hard to get.

The only solace I can take in this is that FF5 and FF6 have been left alone for now. Moderately. They've both been remade for both the PS1 and the GBA. That's 3 versions of both of them.

I can understand ports. There's nothing wrong with porting the game so we don't all have to dig out our SNESes.

Sakaguchi has left, Uetmatsu has left, half the original staff moved with Sakaguchi to Mistwalker. Nothing of the original Final Fantasy exists.

The Fantasy is over. But it certaintly isn't Final.

That's exactly the problem, the desire to actually make something of worth has gone completely and it's been replaced by a hunger to farm cash from their fans.

 

[Mr. Gorilla]

Then another Square Enix employee logged onto the internet. He saw a big banner saying "World Of Warcraft". He said to himself "Genius! A way to make EVEN MORE MONEY!" Squeenix jumped on the bandwagon and pumped out an MMORPG. They didn't even have the decency to keep it out of the main line, they gave it a number.

XI came before WoW, though.

They've both been remade for both the PS1 and the GBA.

More like ported.

But yeah, the state of the series is pretty shitty. FFXIII, while not the worst game ever made, was a wasted opportunity that spawned a game with little to no depth, FFXIV is an abomination that Square-Enix are completely fucking retarded for trying to save instead of letting it die (With the god-awful launch and the number of fans they've lost, shouldn't WoW: Cataclysm's success have been the final nail in XIV's coffin?), and they need to quit whoring out FFVII (The Compilation is doing nothing but ruining VII's universe).

 

[Shaissa]

Well it is true that XIII and XII have gotten a lot of bad vibes from Final Fantasy fan's let us look at the facts here.

When has Square ever tried to do the same thing twice with Final Fantasy?
I call Final Fantasy there play toy (not as much as the Saga series was, but thats different.) Final Fantasy is one of the most looked at things that companies try to compete with when they are making RPG's.
With that, comes lots of pressure from Square to develope new things into the series, stuff that may or may not work. Recently the stuff they have tried (XI-XIV) havn't been... praised upon (Although XIII did get lots of good reports from people that don't like the FF series that much.)
We just have to remember that Final Fantasy isn't just one type of game that gets remade over and over again. Each time they make a Final Fantasy it's going be somthing new and original(for the most part) and well I do admit they went a little crazy with FF7 series.... they did it with new ideas and spins.

Now I'll admit I didn't like the FF7 sequels or prequels too much, but Final Fantasy is an ever evolving machine. If you want constant for the most part I'd say try Dragon Quest series, that seems to play almost the same no matters what game you pick up. And lets not forget that Square has the Chrono series (which is dead sadly) the Star Ocean series (I think is dead but not sure.) and Front Mission series that they work on too, oh and also Kingdom hearts.

So although I understand your frustration, you just have to remember that Final Fantasy is ever chaning never the same, so right now there are things in the series you don't like, it's ok Square isn't going be perfect, but there not going give you the same game twice (what I mean is there not going make FFXV and its going be the same is VII or VI or II.)

 

[Soltharn]

I daresay the company has sacrificed quality for quantity for a fair few years now. I lost my faith in the series back when I first heard about the Kingdom Hearts thing. I mean, really...Disney characters fighting against Sephiroth? A lot of fans have lapped it up, but I found the concept idiotic.

The company still pumps out decent games, but there just isn't as much love and care put into the development...and it shows. Hell, I'm still discovering new things all the time in the earlier FF games, whilst the newer titles and spinoffs remain linear.

 

[Jamesy]

This is a rant. Care not for rants? Look elsewhere.

Square Enix has become nothing more than a corporation. The Final Fantasy series is now nothing but a cashcow, pushing out remakes and spin-offs with plots that 11 year olds could think up. The only decent thing to be found in a Final Fantasy game now are the Graphics.

Final Fantasy was named because it was Sakaguchi's last game before he was about to be fired. From that, it has turned into something designed for ONE THING - to make money. The quality of the game matters not, the fun matters not.

Take the "Compilation of Final Fantasy 7". Final Fantasy 7 was the series' biggest commercial success. So some people got to thinking, "Why not cash in on all those hungry fans out there? They'll pay anything for a disc with the name Final Fantasy printed on it!".

There are currently 6 titles in the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7. Then there are 2 spinoff titles FROM SPINOFF TITLES.

Then another Square Enix employee logged onto the internet. He saw a big banner saying "World Of Warcraft". He said to himself "Genius! A way to make EVEN MORE MONEY!" Squeenix jumped on the bandwagon and pumped out an MMORPG. They didn't even have the decency to keep it out of the main line, they gave it a number.

Fast forward a few years and Squeenix notice that their subscription figures for their MMORPG have fallen. So they get to thinking on how to milk more money from it. "I know!" one employee said, "Why not remake it? We're doing it with everything else - lets do it with this!". And they all agreed, labelling it Final Fantasy 14.

They remade their MMORPG - their primary source of money - before even finishing their Fabula Novus compilation. They released a Final Fantasy 14 before they had even finished with Final Fantasy 13.

As far as I can hear on the grapevine, we have yet another episode in the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 to look forward to. And then a spinoff of that too.

The only solace I can take in this is that FF5 and FF6 have been left alone for now. Moderately. They've both been remade for both the PS1 and the GBA. That's 3 versions of both of them.

Square Enix have gone beyond a joke, they are deliberately labelling shit and sending it out, knowing that the label Final Fantasy will instantly make it a commercial success.

Sakaguchi has left, Uetmatsu has left, half the original staff moved with Sakaguchi to Mistwalker. Nothing of the original Final Fantasy exists.

The Fantasy is over. But it certaintly isn't Final. This state of affairs is going to go on forever, with the same recycled storylines being used over and over, and the same androgynous main characters recycled over and over, and the same final boss battle with 3 stages recycled over and over, and the same "SuperBoss" with 100 Million HP that isn't difficult at all, just long.

DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA.

Jesus wept. Final Fantasy was originally made in the hopes of stopping the company going bankrupt and bust. It succeeded. It has always from day one had a similar basis of story building and theme; save the world.

This money = sellout is a load of bollocks. No money = no future games. Then again, you would be happy enough so you can pretend to be oldschool and sit and play FF6 I reckon.

 

[10th Doctor]

I can totally agree. (Though I actually enjoyed some of VII's spinoffs...). I wish they would put more thought into the games, maybe a little dash of love too, instead of greed. Unfortunately, I don't see it happening any time soon. Square-Enix has become a monster.

The devil makes spin-offs.

 

[Noize]

Guess you haven't played any other RPG's eh?

Recycled storylines. It's the same for just about every single RPG out there. Start off with the Main character, who one after the other meets other party members, then go about "saving the world".

Japan also has regular polls about what they like in regards to RPG ect aswell, so that's where these ideas probably come from, so you shouldn't bash the creators for appeasing the masses

The only thing that ticks me off is the legnth of the storyline. It seems to shrink eachtime they release a new game, which is dissapointing....

Not tryna bash your opinion, i do respect what yer saying by the way...

 

[Rydrum2112]

I am fine with spinoffs, if you go into the game knowing what to expect (like x-2) then you can enjoy the games. One problem I had with 13 was they pumped it up to be a "great" game and the battle within. When it was an average to good game, nothing more and the plot was lame.
I thought 12 was an just above a good game, and so yes there is a downward trend since I thought 10 was a great game. I hope that xiii-2 gives them a chance to correct their mistakes I will probably not buy the game untill I read lots about it and read the feedback of others.

 

[GalaxyFlare]

I think as a gaming society we were spectacularly unprepared for the dramatic shift in the ratio of Dramatic Story to Graphical quality, because when you think about it there is a definite divergence.

Starting from FFVII all the way to FFXIII.

FFVII Graphics: Adequate. Story: Amazing, Incredible, excellent, the bench mark

FFVIII Graphics: Improved, best of the Gen. Story: Great, interesting.

FFIX Graphics: same as VIII just old School. Story: Enjoyable, fun and entertaining.

FFX Graphics: Much improved, High quality. Story: Unique enough for most but it has its detractors.

FFXII Graphics: Beautiful, stunning. Story: This is the decline in most fans view, WTF were they thinking Story was adequate, poor Characters(Vaan)

FFXIII Graphics: Awesome no doubt the best yet possibly only bettered by FFVSXIII?. Story: ?????? again not good enough for the fans, enjoyable if you take the time to understand, but a god story tels its self it should not take effort.

There are to elements that l neglected to mention Gameplay & Characters, the point of this post is too highlight the deficient nature of story vs graphics over the decade.

This is a subjective post based on a mixture of what people have generally expressed about FF games of late and my own POV.

 

[Channizard]

This is a rant. Care not for rants? Look elsewhere.

-looks around-

Square Enix has become nothing more than a corporation. The Final Fantasy series is now nothing but a cashcow, pushing out remakes and spin-offs with plots that 11 year olds could think up. The only decent thing to be found in a Final Fantasy game now are the Graphics.

And even still the graphics could be better. SE was never the trophy holder for graphics, because with each game at that time released, there were others with same quality if not better graphics.

Take the "Compilation of Final Fantasy 7". Final Fantasy 7 was the series' biggest commercial success. So some people got to thinking, "Why not cash in on all those hungry fans out there? They'll pay anything for a disc with the name Final Fantasy printed on it!".

There are currently 6 titles in the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7. Then there are 2 spinoff titles FROM SPINOFF TITLES.

Well and that's only taking into account the main game titles. If you count novellas, OVAs, etc you have... 18. AND it's own phone.

Then another Square Enix employee logged onto the internet. He saw a big banner saying "World Of Warcraft". He said to himself "Genius! A way to make EVEN MORE MONEY!" Squeenix jumped on the bandwagon and pumped out an MMORPG. They didn't even have the decency to keep it out of the main line, they gave it a number.

TECHNICALLY, WoW came after XI.. but XI came after the original Warcraft games.. So, potayto, potahto.

Fast forward a few years and Squeenix notice that their subscription figures for their MMORPG have fallen. So they get to thinking on how to milk more money from it. "I know!" one employee said, "Why not remake it? We're doing it with everything else - lets do it with this!". And they all agreed, labelling it Final Fantasy 14.

Yeah, this was quite disappointing. Call it XI-2.. call them Online/O-2 (actually that has a bit of a ring to it).. but WHY waste two mainstream numbers on online games? Especially when the latter is fairly close to the former in including races, classes, etc so much so that they wanted XI and XIV users to be able to coexist in a way by importing characters or accessing maps or whatever the shit.

They remade their MMORPG - their primary source of money - before even finishing their Fabula Novus compilation. They released a Final Fantasy 14 before they had even finished with Final Fantasy 13.

Yah that sucked cox.

As far as I can hear on the grapevine, we have yet another episode in the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 to look forward to. And then a spinoff of that too.

That we're aware of. Nomura mentioned that the VII Comp will go on until it's 20th anniversary.. or 25th.. Pretty sure 20th though. So we have another 6 years at least for them to push out a new title, either EC (post DoC) or VII: Re... or both.

The only solace I can take in this is that FF5 and FF6 have been left alone for now. Moderately. They've both been remade for both the PS1 and the GBA. That's 3 versions of both of them.

For now. There's been talk and hype about remakes for the 3DS.

Square Enix have gone beyond a joke, they are deliberately labelling shit and sending it out, knowing that the label Final Fantasy will instantly make it a commercial success.

Well heck ya, why not? They're a company. If they can get away with it, why not?

DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA.

THE TRUTH IS I NEVER LEFT YOU.

 

[LadyHermes]

Since Final Fantasy 10 its all gone to shit, seriously.

FF12 ) I went out of my way on release day to get the game as I was that excited. Now Im like ''fuck I went out to buy THAT?''
FF13 ) Seriously it was pretty and all and at some points I did get the storyline eventhough there was no explination WTF half of the terms they used were, but honestly. I didn't even remember half of it because I think I was too busy looking at the pretty background.

And now they are making more and more. Like some companies its all about the branding man. This is a pure example of raping the fuck out of peoples eyes and ears with more FFs for them to cater to people and make more money to make more games to rape peoples eyes and ears with....

 

[Fear The Reaper]

In my honest opinion it's not a bad thing them branching out to create different spin off's etc. of main line FF games, but the only time I think they crossed the line slightly was with FFXI because it was such a shocking game and didn't have the same emotional characters and storyline etc. that I have seen in every other FF game I have played.

If im honest I think they should have titled FFXI, Final Fantasy Online I (FFOI).

The compilation series that FFVII has become is a great thing, for it has expanded the knowledge of original FFVII fans and brought in new fans with things such as the FFVII:AC and FFVII:CC.

Although I was an original FFVII fan I can see why some people may be drawn into the FFVII franchise after watching the movie or playing Crisis Core. For although they are all good they all metaphorically interlock to create a history of the way the world FFVII is set in has changed and progressed even after the lifestream tried to take back half of the planet.

If they where to expand on every game in the FF series then that would destroy what has made the FFVII series so special. As it was the first game to have several "expansions and prologues" made to explain the history and future of the world after the events of FFVII.

All in all it wouldn't surprise me if Square think that they could make good money expanding each game in turn to create a multi-platform compilation for each of the games released so far.

.FTR.

 

[OzDok]

Jesus wept. Final Fantasy was originally made in the hopes of stopping the company going bankrupt and bust. It succeeded. It has always from day one had a similar basis of story building and theme; save the world.

This money = sellout is a load of bollocks. No money = no future games. Then again, you would be happy enough so you can pretend to be oldschool and sit and play FF6 I reckon.

If you'd noticed, I've played and finished all the numbered FF's with exception to FF3, being unable to find a decent translated ROM of it. So you can keep your pretentious opinion and look elsewhere to feed your ego. And yes, companies are there to make money, but a company that cares makes sure that their games are quality before production. Like BioWare for example.

To everyone else - I'm not so much annoyed about FF12 and 13. At least with those games they were trying different things which turned out not to work, as annoying to the fanbase as it was. The countless and un-needed spinoffs is what really bugs me. I have no doubt that this compilation of Final Fantasy 7 is just building up to a HD Remake of FF7.

To the person who mentioned Kingdom Hearts - I don't really mind KH. I always thought it was pretty cute for Sephiroth the murderer and serial arsonist to be in the same game as Goofy. Even though it's mind-numbing to be told by someone that Squall's real name is Leon =.=