Final Fantasy: A Series Of Gradual Decay

For those of us who are veterans to the series, the more recent installments have been thoroughly disappointing, and the installments that approach seem to be even more so. Some of us wonder where the series went wrong, where the company lost sight of their original dreams. This topic begins with a detailed explanation regarding each of the games, and through this, you should be able to understand the reasoning of a true veteran as to where they went wrong. If I am to understand correctly, the entire clan of SeeD is based largely on FFVIII, the worst installment in the series, which leads me to believe that the majority of the members are complete idiots. This is supported by much of what I’ve seen of the clan’s members. Prove me wrong, please. Any that may disagree with me on the matter, feel free to E-Mail me at your own risk of extreme humiliation.

I'll begin with the original Final Fantasy, for the NES. Few had heard of the series, or even the company, at that point. Players were, at that time, able to choose a party of four, with six classes available to them. (Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage, for those that don’t know.) This enabled the player to decide what their party members were, customize their party, and make choices based on their own preferences and desires. While it was by no means a very sophisticated game, it provided players with the innovation necessary to truly role-play. Where has that innovation gone since?

I’ll continue to Final Fantasy IV on the SNES, released in the US originally as FFII, and later remade on the Playstation by its original title of FFIV. Classes and spells were predetermined, and there was only a small amount of customization that one could give to characters. However, Square used this volume in the series to show players an alternative way to work with characters, and the predefined classes made a character more deeply missed when they left the party permanently. Final Fantasy IV contained a wide variety of important, beneficial sidequests that were of great help to players. As a plus, the original FFIV contained varying difficulty levels, so that the game could have more replay value, something many game designers today have so thoroughly ignored.

Continuing to Final Fantasy V, released, again on the SNES, in the US only as a remake under its own name, unless you count the illegal versions that several companies brought here. Similarly to FFIV, FFV provided a wealth of hidden items in every area, a wide variety of extremely beneficial sidequests, and a strong storyline that kept the player willing to keep playing. However, FFV also brought back a class system, where class changing could be manually done. Though the FFIV way had its advantages, and characters were more deeply missed, the FFV way gave gamers a way to fully customize every character, and play the game completely differently every time. Custom class changing added a never before encountered level to battle strategy, keeping the old innovation of choosing a party from FFI as well as the individuality of characters that FFIV had spawned. The series approached its peak.

Final Fantasy VI (SNES), released in the US as Final Fantasy III, and later remade on the PSX under its original title as part of Final Fantasy Anthology, was the true masterpiece of the series. It maintained everything the series had used to that point, and introduced new innovative ideas that allowed new levels of gameplay never thought possible. Not only did characters have distinct abilities that set them apart from other characters entirely, but were able to learn spells that made them fully customizable. The combination of individuality with customization had not yet truly been seen before, nor had the new levels of depth to which the storyline allowed gamers to experience. Though technology was added to the story, the idea behind it was that magic had to be stronger, something that the creators of the game had always lived by.

Spurred by Final Fantasy VI’s success, Square decided to add more of a technological society to its games. The popularity of their more recent installment also went to their heads, and Square left Nintendo to make games for the Playstation. Square’s arrogance began. When Final Fantasy VII was released, it was heavily advertised, and filled with ridiculous mini-games that had little, if anything, to do with the objective of the game. The storylines were made simpler to understand, deprived of quality and worth. Characters were, ironically, three dimensional in appearance, but one dimensional in personality (and lack of it.) Difficulty levels were reduced to allow ignorant idiots to the world of Role-Playing to have a chance at beating a game. Childish idiots sat back in awe at polygonal graphics, while the fans and veterans of the series suffered the first of many severe disappointments to come.

Final Fantasy Tactics, a Tactical RPG that few played, was not advertised. Ironically, it had the best storyline of any of the games, in an excellent medieval world, with customizable characters that retained individuality. After Final Fantasy VII, however, many of the fans from previous installments had left, and the “newbies” to the series did not care for complex storylines, cartoon graphics, and difficult battles. Many people had begun the series with FFVII, and did not understand what the original goal of the series had been. Though Final Fantasy Tactics was the best installment in the entire series, due to the corruption the series faced from FFVII, and lack of funding to the crew in charge due to working on the next installment, FFT was not able to sell, despite its perfect design, quality, and innovation.

FFT’s funding had been cut in order to provide funding for the next installment in the series, Final Fantasy VIII. This meant that the FFT crew could not afford good translators, and there were several translation errors, all due to the fact that funding had been cut in order to provide for Final Fantasy VIII. Final Fantasy VIII, excessively advertised, was a piece of crap. The storyline was horrible, particularly on Disc IV, when they were rushed to get to a deadline. There was almost no customization to characters, apart from adding spells to stats. Being able to cast magic was not a special trait for anyone to have, and the spells were weak and worthless, even weaker than an ordinary attack. How can it make sense for a set of nunchaku or a pair of gloves to hurt more than being burnt to a crisp by a fire spell? The original dream of the creators had been completely abandoned, completely forgotten, and left behind for the newbie ideals of flashy FMVs, idiotic mini-games, and pointless, unbeneficial sidequests. Hidden items had become an idea of the past, due to the fact that programmers now preferred to prevent people from ever finding any replay value in their games. Innovation, replay value, character customization, character individuality, and overall game value had become an idea of the past with this installment to the series.

Final Fantasy IX, despite being the upcoming installment in a decaying series, was a “light of hope” to me. (Most of you newbies are probably too new to the series to know where that comes from.) I had heard that FFIX would revive the original dream of the programmers, and again revive the old ideal gameplay I had experienced in Final Fantasies I, IV, V, VI, and Tactics. I was disappointed, but not nearly as thoroughly as I had been by Final Fantasies VII and VIII. The creators brought back a fantasy world, with strong spells, customizable and unique characters, and an amazing story. Yet, because the game was actually good, the creators decided not to advertise it. The series had become entirely corrupt, and despite my enjoyment of the game, I realized that there was no hope left for the series to return to its original ideals. I braced myself for the installment to come, and hoped that it would not be too much of a disappointment.

Final Fantasy X, unfortunately, was the second worst installment in the series, next to VIII. I expected this from the moment I found that the same people within Square that had made VIII would make X. The female lead again existed specifically to be the male lead’s love interest. Innovation was again replaced with idiotic mini-games, pointless side quests, and battles that lacked almost any form of strategy in them. I had lost all respect for the series, despite the fact that I’d clung to it since the beginning. People think these newer installments to the series are good, largely because they never had a decent role-playing experience before playing these awful games. Why are they still selling these games for $50? Because people that don’t know any better are willing to pay $50 for overadvertised, overhyped, horrible games. This is what Final Fantasy has become, a series of gradual decay.

If you disagree with me in any way regarding this post, you are wrong. If you still disagree, feel free to send me hate mail. I’ll not only prove you completely wrong, but leave you feeling humiliated at your own lack of any form of intelligence.

- Crescens

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