Final Fantasy: Beginning, Impact, and Future

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new blog series I would like to introduce to N4G: Beginning, Impact, and Future. The purpose of this blog series is to look at a franchise's beginnings, its impact on the industry and fans over the years along with its current status, and analyze its future. We will also be looking at what its strengths are in regards to its success. This is HonestDragon bringing you one of my favorite franchises of all time: Final Fantasy.

There is not a single gamer who cannot say they haven't heard of Final Fantasy. Heck, I'm pretty sure to one extent or another every gamer has played a Final Fantasy game. It's like Pokemon or Super Mario. You were willing or coerced to try it. Even if it was just to try it out temporarily on another person's console or handheld, I'm sure you have experienced or been exposed to the series. If by chance you weren't, the influence of Final Fantasy is felt across the entire industry.

Originally created by Hironobu Sakaguchi who was working for Square in the 1980s, he took stock in developing a fantasy role-playing game in 1987. He drew inspiration from other series like Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda. He titled the game Final Fantasy. Despite popular belief, the name Final Fantasy did not come from a time of the company's woes (which were thought to be filing for bankruptcy). Rather, Sakaguchi-san clarifies that he was entering a point in his video game career where he had mixed feelings about staying in the industry or to go back to school to pursue other interests. This uncertainty came in the form of his titling the game "Final Fantasy". It was his make or break game to determine his future in developing video games.

Thankfully, the game caught on and sold incredibly well. The success also did, in turn, aid some financial problems for Square, but it wasn't as bad as many people thought it to be. It certainly wasn't as bad as having to file for bankruptcy. Sakaguchi-san went on to develop a sequel and thus start up Square's interest in keeping the series alive. They kept up production, but had the series remain independent in that each installment is unique and follows a different Final Fantasy universe. The main things that would be worked on would be visuals and new gameplay mechanics.

While that remained true, the core elements that kept gamers flocking back to Final Fantasy was its gameplay and incredible storytelling (and on a personal note, I love the music). Final Fantasy's Active Time Battle system consists of the player controlling a party of characters and fight enemies who are encountered in the world at large in an almost chess-like inspired mechanic. As the series progressed, the battle system evolved and changed with each new installment. Sometimes you had four available party members or three. Sometimes there were characters who had dedicated classes that had their own specialties. Sometimes you were able to help your team with how often they attack or add items that increase the times they attack.

On top of the battle system, each Final Fantasy offers a vast world to explore. This is where their work with visuals came in. You could traverse the landscapes on foot, via vehicles, the well admired airships, or the fan favorite chocobos. Crossing open plains, large oceans, or in the open skies lent intriguing displays of graphical prowess. Gamers were and are treated to fantastic wonders of both nature and technology in the various Final Fantasy worlds. Even the enemies look amazing with their own styles that just seem natural to the universe at large.

The gameplay and visuals are just part of how much of a success Final Fantasy is and how influential it is to the video game community. Take me, for example. It was because of a good boost from Final Fantasy that I am pursuing a career to write scripts and plot designs for video games and comics. My exposure to the series came in the form of Kingdom Hearts and then playing Final Fantasy VII. I only knew of Kingdom Hearts until my friend from middle school told me about the connection of characters in Kingdom Hearts being in Final Fantasy VII and letting me borrow his copy.

Final Fantasy VII was my first experience with the series and it certainly was a treat. The strengths of story, gameplay, music, and visuals are easy to see in Final Fantasy VII. I really enjoyed the game. I loved the combat, visuals, and story, but what truly marked VII for me as a great game was its narrative and characters. I found myself caring about what happened. Between the characters and music (made by Nobuo Uematsu), the game impacted me greatly. I continued to play through VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XII.

I was taken beyond what my then growing ambition to write was because of these games. I knew what I then wanted to do: make epic and incredible stories. Even then, I'm not the only one who grew inspired from this series. I have seen that the influence of Final Fantasy has affected people in the industry (particularly indie developers and recently Ubisoft) as well as many people who attribute it as inspiration for their own work (whether it's writing, art, music, or cosplay).

As a result of the spark I had for writing, it led me to develop critical and creative thinking when I am done with a game or movie. Which brings me to the one entry in the series that I deem my "regret buy" of the seventh generation: Final Fantasy XIII. I realize that there are people out there who genuinely like or even love this particular game. For me, though, I just cannot help but be dismayed at how far this game fell with both its storytelling and gameplay. Which believe me, I hope is a far cry for Final Fantasy's future, but its present isn't looking too great.

Believe me when I say that I don't want to rant, but XIII plays a vital role in where Final Fantasy is now. When I first booted up Final Fantasy XIII, I was very excited. The opening sequence and title sequence did have a very Final Fantasy feel to it. The music was there, the visuals were there, and all I had to do was play the game. That is when I noticed what happened to the gameplay. I played through twelve hours of XIII only to be met with ridiculously powerful enemies, multiple tutorials that still kept going into the twelfth hour, a confusing battle system that took me forever to understand, and restrictive linear environments. What happened? Have you seen Final Fantasy XIII? Because I could have sworn that's what I bought.

You would think that would be enough to drive me senseless. Not really because I found two more reasons to punch myself into unconsciousness. One being the cast of annoying characters that I have nicknamed the "misfit Final Fantasy team" as they all seem like rejected Final Fantasy characters that were stuffed into a single game, while barely any of them are likable and all lack character development. Two, the story makes little to no sense. The idea of plot is that you weave facts about the characters and universe into the conversations and action. Final Fantasy XIII fails to do this.

The neighboring example I can give of this would be Medal of Honor: Warfighter and its story. You don't know why you are being shipped off to any end of the globe, you don't know who some of the characters are, you don't know why you are fighting one random group or another, and the end result is you not caring. That's how I felt with XIII at the twelfth hour. I put my controller down, ejected the disk, and proceeded to offer it up to any of my friends who were willing to take it off my hands.

As it stands, XIII is not the most popular part of the franchise and it appears that Square-Enix knows this. Yet, despite knowing of the flaws and concerns raised by fans, the company seeks to try to push this idea that XIII is still a good universe. The third (yes third) entry into the XIII installment is nearing. Lightning Returns is that game and Square-Enix is doing everything in their power to make the game appealing to fans, including increasing Lightning's bust size and giving Lightning costumes from Final Fantasy VII characters.

As if that's not enough even with the growing absurdity that is the XIII series, DragonKnight recently put up a blog showing a walkthrough on Youtube that reveals the ending to Lightning Returns. I won't spoil anything, but if there was any iota of thinking that the XIII series hasn't jumped the shark, then the ending of Lightning Returns proves it. Without a shadow of a doubt, the XIII franchise is an indication of Final Fantasy's broken present, but not its future.

The future of Final Fantasy lies with Final Fantasy XV and the online MMO A Realm Reborn. I was a part of the beta testing for A Realm Reborn and it was really something. A lot of the game reminded me of Final Fantasy XII through it's visuals and gameplay, which is a good way of keeping it basic. The world is huge and the cross-play between PC and Playstation owners keeps the community alive and gives the world a good sense of population. It really felt like the game was indeed finished (especially given the condition XIV was released in before).

Of course, we have Final Fantasy XV making its debut in the new generation of consoles. The little taste shown from E3 and the information we have shows promise. It looks well polished and the gameplay seems unique. Although, it was interesting to see that the title went from Final Fantasy Versus XIII to numbering it XV. I'm unsure if it was just the development team's idea to further distance their game from the XIII franchise or it being a gradual transition since the development of the game was taking so long.

Without a doubt, the series had a great beginning and continues to have a lasting impact both within the industry and beyond. I think that the future of Final Fantasy will be better than how the present is currently. With 1.5 million registered players on A Realm Reborn and eager anticipation growing for XV, Final Fantasy seems to be back on track.