Therefore, it is only as recent as 2006 that my attention finally fell on Final Fantasy. I knew little of the series beforehand: I knew it was on the SNES as well as the Playstation, and beyond seeing a lot of promos for FF8 upon it's release, inspiring many upon many fans and seeing some figurines of FFX/X2 & thinking Yuna looked kinda hot, my knowledge of FF was limited.
Five years later, where am I at?
I'm not sure but that doesn't stop me writing a retrospective on Final Fantasy!
So today, I'm going to take the time to write about the FF games I have played and share my thoughts on them. It may have been done before but in my mind, I like WRPG's and I encountered my FF games well out of order. Should make for some interesting reading? Let's find out!
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Final Fantasy X
This is where it all started: This was the very first FF I ever played.
I'm not sure what set me off into the weird and wonderful world of FF: I did know, however, that when I finally got enough money to purchase PS2 I needed some games to go with it. Recognizing Yuna, I picked up FFX and, for a while, I played it at the expense of the other games.
Granted it wasn’t the best place to start explorations with FF but for some reason it was quite an entertaining game. The graphics were gorgeous, the music was equally glorious, the plot was compelling, the sphere grid was fun to use and it was generally fun to go around and bonk some heads. Plus the romance between Yuna and Tidus was actually one that was worth following all the way through. Like many people who played FF7 on the PS1, this game introduced me to the conventions of the JRPG and revealed to me how it was a very different beast than the AD&D rules I had been accustomed to through playing WRPGs.
So does the first time you encounter something leave the greater impression? Not so in this case. Now that I’ve played other FF games, the flaws of FFX become glaringly obvious: The game is awfully restrictive on where you can go, the minigames are horrifically tedious, the voice acting is plain awful, and running back and forth over the same strip of land just to find some baddies to level up is no fun at all.
Looking back, it may have been great at the time, and indeed certainly still holds some degree of appeal, but there’s a lot it’s older brothers did better. But still, ya gotta start somewhere and for an introduction to the series, I’ll give FFX that much.
And to wrap this up before moving on, seeing the rather unflattering things FFX has to say about religion, I wonder if Christopher Hitchins would like this game?
Final Fantasy IV
I should at this point stress that my encounters with the FF games are all out of order but this was more or less by accident: It just happened! That being said, it may seem a tremendous cultural shock going from wonderful PS2 graphics/sound to antiqued SNES graphics/sound but I was still willing to take the plunge: I heard IV was one of the best of the series so it would be interesting to see if the game lived up to such claims.
And you know something? It was actually quite fun to play. The graphics were bright and colourful (and in retrospect unusual for a FF game), the characters where charismatic and fun to watch (except, of course, Edward, the patron saint of useless RPG characters), the setting is truly a diverse and well-realised world. Best of all, while FF4 may be ahead of other games, at the time, in telling a story it still is quite aware it is game and requires a degree of interaction from the audience. Furthermore, it’s interesting to see how many ideas this game had – interesting when you consider which ideas have endured throughout the series right to the present day.
Mind you, there were some frustrating moments: Maybe it was me but whenever I wanted to go around trying to level up my party, FF4 seemed reluctant to let me do so: I would be levelling up smoothly for a while before the game would suddenly decide to slow down the progression dramatically. Thus the levelling-up would stop being fun and instead become laborious. It was if the game wanted to tell it’s story so badly, that doing something I wanted to do was simply not on. It’s interesting to note how certain modern games seem to be repeating the same mistake, with placing story over gameplay.
Grumbling aside, FF4 was good fun, being certainly worth coming back to have a bash and a game that has aged quite well. From a historical perspective, it is interesting to note that this game was putting forth a formula that many of the FF games have been utilising ever since. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Final Fantasy VI
Many people deem Final Fantasy 6 as the best in the series – I myself consider myself one of those people. Of course, it will never reach the level of popularity its successor achieved but who cares? If people aren’t willing to take the effort to track down this gem among gems of a game it's their loss. Nothing to do with me
So what can I say about FF6 that hasn’t been said before? What makes FF6 work is that it has a good degree of heart. Playing it now, it strikes me that Square knew that the SNES was nearing the end of its lifespan so they went all out: They drew all the elements that worked in its predecessors together. They had the biggest cast ever assembled for a FF game, each with their own back-story, quirks and personality. They had a story that didn’t hold back, had some surprising twists and really defined the word ‘epic’. They pushed the graphic capabilities of the SNES further than they had ever done before. They ditched the colourful palettes of the previous five games in favour of a grim, dark theme. They got Nobuo Uematsu to produce some unforgettable themes, particularly the haunting Terra Theme. They even achieved a milestone for gaming by writing the only opera ever conceived for a game!
Really though, there isn’t much I can say about FF6 because talking about game isn’t any substitute for actually sitting done and playing the damn thing. All I can say is that if lot’s of people dub a game the best game ever it’s usually for good reason.
I’m not for playing a particular game exclusively, I’m not one to shell out on merch, and I’m not one to canonise the people involved with making games. I’m for talking about a game I think is damn good. And FF6 is one of those games.
Final Fantasy IX
As a newcomer to this game, my understanding was that FF9 is the ‘Forgotten Child’ of the series. Some people may overlook in favour of defending the merits of VII, VIII and X, but that’s more likely to occur in the US. You see, I come from Australia – a land where the underdog is celebrated and anyone who has a go at something is acknowledged as a champion. Furthermore, I live by the principles of exploring and discovering things for myself beyond the influence of anyone else, and to give something to speak to me in it’s own words (acknowledge, whether positive or negative, beats being ignored any day). This should make me an ideal candidate to play FF9, right?
So, having completed FF9, it to me, represents a mixture of the good and the bad. Some heavy complaints have been aimed at FF9 and even I have to admit they are glaring – namely the cluttered script, the annoyingly high rate of encounters and the loading times. Me, I was playing this on a PS2 so the loading time’s didn’t bother me (maybe the game would’ve been more at home on the PS2 rather than the PS1?). As for the encounters, it bother me because I was having fun breaking heads – plus I’ve played worse (Skies of Arcadia being one such example) But yes, the script is indeed a mess. It’s a shame, because the first disc held such promise but the pace couldn’t keep up. There were some good ideas used throughout the game but some were swamped with clutter and/or didn’t live up their full potential.
But you know what? When FF9 does something well, it hit’s the bullseye. The party customising was great, the in-jokes/references were fun to pick, and the characters were an endearing bunch. I particularly liked Freya and I thought the story-book romance of Garnet and Zidane was quite charming. So yeah, Final Fantasy 9 got through to me and to that end, it’s a success.
Final Fantasy V
Another one of the forgotten children of the FF family. Being unreleased in the US during the 16-bit era, FF5 tends to be overlooked in favour of its more popular brothers FF4 and FF6. These days, it’s more likely to be dismissed by those weaned on the big budget monsters spawned on the various incarnations of the Sony Playstation. But for many people, it remains the ultimate iteration of FF’s greatest achievements: The Job System. And that reason alone is enough to play it.
Looking back at now, having played other FF titles, it seems to come across as being somewhat goofy: The script seems less serious and the music, in particular, seems nowhere near as the solemn tunes that came before. Both these elements ultimately contributed to FF finding its own destiny so it’s strange that they should be absent.
However, the real meat of the game lies in the job system: the ability to change Jobs throughout the game, mixing and matching abilities to adapt to situations and building up a team of completely unique characters. It was this formula that kept me going through FFX and, to me, is heaps more fun that going through a pre-determined role for the character (so to speak). It was this formula that made the grinding actually enjoyable and the story a lesser priority. Indeed, the Job system was so successfully pulled off in this game it makes me wonder why they haven’t managed to replicate it in many more recent FF games. Indeed, an emphasis on gameplay over everything else is something that makes you wonder why it doesn’t happen more often (FF12, take your License system and SHOVE IT!).
So, I came into FF5 thinking it had something of it’s own to say and found it be a goofy but ultimately very entertaining game. Chalk one up for the underdogs!
Final Fantasy VII
I’ve already spoken about my thoughts about FF7 so there isn’t much to add. So yeah, once I got past the hype, the intimidation and let the game speak to me in its own terms, I found it quite enjoyable to play. Which goes to show that it never pays to listen to hype.
It does seem a shame though that the phenomenal success of FF7 has kinda left its brothers in the shadows, struggling to reach a benchmark that can’t possibly be reached. And Squee Enix are milking that success for all it’s worth with spin offs. Sure people may shout and scream for a PS3 remake for as long and loudly as they like but will the thrill be the same? More importantly, wouldn’t that time spent wishing and hoping be better spent tying something new?
Final Fantasy I
And here, we reach the conclusion of this journey with, where else, the beginning. I recently downloaded this game for the Virtual Console and having an enjoyable time making my way through it. Sure, it looks nothing like the big budget extravaganzas that its younger cousins are. Sure the 8-bit graphics are hard to take seriously when compared to the behemoths residing on the PS3 and Xbox 260. Sure it had some ideas that just needed that extra bit of polish. Sure it was pretty much figuring itself out but DAMN, this is just a really fun game to play. Will this mood outlast the first few hours (as JRPG’s are wont to do)? Only time will tell…..
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