Before I begin, let me make a few things clear. First off, I do not hate Final Fantasy, Japanese role playing games or the beautiful nation of Nippon. In fact, one of my fondest video game memories is missing the school bus because I was mucking about in the Ice Caverns instead of watching the clock. I’ve never missed a Final Fantasy game since and I have always found something about each one that was fascinating. But after slogging through roughly 30 hours of Final Fantasy XIII, I came to a very hard realization: Final Fantasy is broken, and it needs fixing.
Sure, the game has sold well enough – more than a million copies sold in Japan and North America, according to figures from USA Today. However, FFXIII is also the lowest rated game of the series on Metacritc, falling behind such divisive entries as Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII. Those two games are also relatively recent, and also garnered lower than expected review scores.
Simply put, Final Fantasy is Square-Enix’s flagship title, and it’s been slowly sinking over the years. Here is how to right that ship, and keep it afloat for generations to come.
5. Ditch the annoying tween characters
There was a time when the archetypical young man/woman character on a mission to discover the nature of love and responsibility was not annoying. That time is long since past. With the advent of voice acting and fully-realized graphics, tweenaged characters have become almost as annoying as their real-life counterparts. Now, instead of a blob of pixels whining in skippable text about mommy and/or daddy issues, we get to experience it in full, usually unskippable, cinematic glory. Playing through Final Fantasy XIII was like watching an exceptionally dumb group of 6th graders run around trying to save the world with tears and boomerangs. Characters like Hope, Vanille(FFXIII), Penelo and Vaan (FFXII) completely ruin every scene they’re in because frankly, kids aren’t even interesting to other kids. Everybody wants to play as the badass soldier with nothing to lose and a big-ass flaming sword. Nobody wants to play as a 12-year old with a desperate desire to grow pubic hair and a really nifty pair of short pants.
4. Bring back exploration
Final Fantasy XIII was the world’s first corridor RPG. The first 25-30 hours of the game happened on a completely straight map, with zero exploration throughout. After what seemed to be an extremely long tutorial, the game did allow for a tiny amount of freedom, but it was too little, and way too damn late. While the series has always been a linear, story-driven experience, players have always had some measure of freedom along the way. Final Fantasy I-IX all had airships that players were given direct control over, and each had massive overworlds that allowed for much exploration. In fact, without poking around the four corners of the map, players would miss out on rare treasures, hidden story elements that fleshed out the world and, in some cases, entire characters. That has slowly been eaten away over the years, to varying degrees. In Final Fantasy X and XII, the airship was just a method for quick travel. In Final Fantasy VIII, most of the characters were introduced right away. In Final Fantasy IX, the rewards for exploring were sparse and unfulfilling. Each of those games was responsible for stripping away a part of the exploration that made the best entries in the series stand out. The ultimate distillation of that poor game design is Final Fantasy XIII, which had no exploration until almost the end of the game. Final Fantasy XV needs to have an open, cohesive world with rewards for explorative players, because a RPG without it is like a first-person shooter without ammo – pointless.
3. Create a side series for the DS or Wii Ware
At this point, it’s clear that Square-Enix is far, far more concerned with creating a pretty looking game than a fun one. Even the most strident fan would agree that the best part of FFXIII was the visuals. With so much focus on that aspect of the series, everything else that made Final Fantasy a (gamer) household name has taken a back seat. Clearly, that trend is going to continue…at least on the HD consoles. The solution to that is simple. With the massive amounts of talent under the Square-Enix roof, there has to be somebody interested in pressing their own thumbprint on the FF series. Take those individuals, give them the tools to develop on the smaller, but very profitable, DS and Wii systems and let them create. Hikari no 4 Senshi or Final Fantasy Gaiden, has taken some of these ideas, but not nearly far enough. Gaiden has been marketed as a spin-off, rather than a proper game in its own rights. It also was restricted by an adherence to the idea that the game had to be ridiculously simple. While older FF games were simple, they were never mind-numbingly boring. This proposed series would be a full-fledged Final Fantasy, just on a different platform. A series exclusive to Wii Ware or DS, done in the style of the classic games with the proper team behind it, could let Square-Enix have its cake and eat it too. It could still create experimental, high-definition games while still appeasing the fans of the more traditional versions.
2. Find a new art director
Of all the ideas presented in this article, this is the one least likely to occur. For more than twenty years, there have been two designers responsible for the look of Final Fantasy – Yoshitaka Amano and Tetsuya Nomura. Both have done excellent work (though I personally prefer the work of Amano to Nomura) but it might be time for a change. The visuals of Final Fantasy XIII are gorgeous, but the art design is a complete mess. There were monsters with neon tubing attached, summons that are also motorcycles and hot rods, and areas of the world that change abruptly just to show off a new piece of scenery. It’s not necessarily bad, but it’s the visual equivalent of an overproduced pop song. There is so much going on that the main focus is lost. The same can be said with the character designs, though those have always been very busy, FFIX notwithstanding. I’d really like to see what a new character and world designer could do with FFXV.
1. Show, don’t tell
Of all the most grievous errors of Final Fantasy XIII, the RSS-feeder that served as the main storytelling device was the worst. One of the most basic rules of storytelling is “show the audience, don’t just tell them about it.” This rule was not just broken, but completely shattered by FFXIII. Instead of letting players see the wonderful city of Wherever, the game designers thought a couple of poorly written, trickled down paragraphs telling them about the wonders would suffice. If I’m hungry, I want to eat a sandwich, not just read a food review that explains how tasty a Reuben is. In previous games, if there was a city or location that was brought up in game, players could go there. Not in FFXIII. Gamers had to rely on descriptions of all the wonderful places in the world that they weren’t allowed to visit. It was as exciting as reading a travel brochure. The updates to the in-game RSS feed also explained the emotions of the characters in scenes that had already played out. You shouldn’t need to do that, especially in game with so many resources behind it. In Final Fantasy VI, 16-bit sprites were more than capable of showing surprise, sorrow and excitement – it wasn’t necessary for the game to explain that. FFXIII failed in that regard. For a game that was supposed to be 90 percent story-driven, their implementation of the narrative was completely wrong. FFXV needs to ditch the RSS feed completely and go back to relying on the in game storytelling to weave the tale.
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Brock Landers
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Normally I’d probably jump on the bandwagon to bag out the ‘tween’ characters, I am a girl who is easily pissed off when I have to put up with annoying characters but I found that Final Fantasy 13’s young characters were far from annoying; which even surprised me. I found that, although hope dwelled upon his mothers death and blaming Snow for it, he quickly grew up and ate a can of cement, he stopped bitching and starting getting down! Vanile I found (I feel the same as Penelo) were inquisitive young women who kept the mood of the group up. I find that without these girls, the game would be a bunch of boring mono-toned adults complaining about what to do next. I find that before ditching ‘tween’s they need to ditch the personality-lacking silent jerks and the overly rebellious-without-needing-to-be characters. For the latter it seems they did that halfway through Final Fantasy 13 (in terms of how Hope changed) But I dislike seeing protagonists like Squall and Cloud who just have nothing interesting or worthwhile to say or do, they’re possibly the most boring characters that could be chosen as lead roles.
Also, as far as FF13 goes, what’s with the linear storyline? Did they think it would be a good idea to rob players of the potiential 200 extra hours of playing time with additional things and more exploration? (Mind you I’m getting close to 500 hours on FF10) This game feels so soulless. ;_;
You’re an idiot.
I’m sorry but all these characters are broke as fuck!!
Oh opinions are idiotic? Did I call the article writer, Mike, an idiot because our opinions clash? Take your trolling elsewhere.
I disagree with Ok — you are clearly not an idiot. Your views may differ from the majority of the population that the FF series has traditionally appealed to, but your opinion is completely valid.
Probably the most annoying thing about the tween duo of Hope and Vanille is not their backstory, it’s their incredibly irritating voice acting. Having Vanille in your team means having to put up with ridiculously girly sounds ever other second while you have to suffer through watching her run like a retarded person. And every time Hope is hit in a fight, he’ll break down in a half-sob, half-whine that’s really pathetic.
And personally I did not mind the linear first 12 chapters, because it forced me to focus on the main story which is pretty decent. In other FF games I usually go side-questing as soon as I can and as a result completely forget about the story, so here it was nice to really have to pay attention. However, I was expecting a bit more of chapter 13. There is just one zone to explore, basically, and the only side quests are the mission. So yeah, too little too late.
Wow, I must admit dude, you bring up some very valid points.
Lou
http://www.anon-resources.at.tc
Excellent article, though I have some thoughts…
1. Show, Don’t Tell: You make a good point, though I think you’re missing the mark on the true problem inherent to the issue of “show, don’t tell.” That issue, is character. Final Fantasy VII, maybe VIII, was the last Final Fantasy to have any character that you could call relatable. Without the ability for the audience to relate to a protagonist with a concrete and clear goal from the outset we’re unable to project ourselves onto the character and relate in any kind of human fashion. When you have a solid character even the most mediocre of writers can still create a compelling narrative that is naturally acted out through the protagonist.
2. Ditch the Tweens: This one I think simply goes back to the issue of character. While characters like Cloud or Terra might not have been tweens they were whiny and emo but still had a goal and were relatable on a basic human level. In Square’s DS outing of The World Ends with You there were the same tweeny-bopper characters, yet they were relatable because of a goal that they tried to accomplish like any kid would. This kept a bizarre concept and loopy narrative together under the stewardship of a whiny, but relatable, main character.
3. Bring back exploration: I half agree with you on this issue. The problem most gamers have with the current generation of Final Fantasy games is the amount of time that needs to be invested into them. A linear main narrative is still needed to keep the characters focused. However, if you confine gamers to that linear path the only character that experiences any kind of growth is the main character, and the last time I checked we play JRPGS for the diverse palette of characters that grow and change with our main character. I think Squaresoft’s Chrono Trigger probably accomplished this with the highest degree of success. Though it had the advantage of the magic of time travel you still had a set of unique and memorable characters that changed dramatically through exploration in the game. The growth of the characters however, was never hindered if you simply followed the main narrative. Chrono’s death pulled our heroes together in a dramatic moment that left the characters, and the player, feeling like they had legitimately lost someone close to them. Square needs to return to this kind of broad character exploration in favor of their more recent trends.
4. Create a side series for the DSi or WiiWare: …why? Save that for more original and experimental titles like the The World Ends with You.
5. Find a New Art Director: First off, neither Amano nor Nomura have ever been art directors for Square-Enix. Yoshitaka Amano originally was the character and title designer up to Final Fantasy VI and provided titles for the remaining Final Fantasy games and some concept for FFIX. Tetsuya Nomura has been a character designer since Final Fantasy VII and is the conceptualist and director of the Kingdom Hearts series. Isamu Kokuryou was the art director for FFXIII. Please fact-check before publishing.
That being said, this is another issue part of a larger dialogue in Japan. Many in the manga, anime, video game markets feel as though moe (you know, that stylized drawing that is inherently adorable beyond all levels tolerable by human constitution) has gone a long way to ruin Japanese artistic media. Whatever your position is on the argument itself, the issue with Square is that moe doesn’t belong in a serious Final Fantasy game. It completely alienates non-Japanese audiences (like FFIX did) and puts an impassable wall to how relatable the characters are just because they become this bland pastiche against one another. A new approach toward art in general is needed in the Final Fantasy series, and the shiny graphics just make this point all the more noticeable.
- O
Thank you for taking the time to write that. I would’ve preferred you to write this over Darnell.
That was rude? It takes a lot of energy and thought to put out written opinions. I sure hope you never spend hours of writing, brainstorming, and editing to have somebody one-line your comments with – “Thank you for taking the time to write that. I would’ve preferred you to write this over Darnell.” You’re a jerk of the lowest caliber. Lowest – like the scum that neglect to thank you when you’ve saved them from a burning building.
As far as my opinions: I think he was spot on. SE needs to drink full glass of testosterone and stop making p*ssy tween characters. It embarrasses me for ever saying I was a fan of FF.. “hehe” ..
FF10 was the first time I was pissed at FF. It got rid of airship exploration. No doubt 10 was a masterpiece, but it was the first time FF started to appeal less to me. I want a ship, a boat, a big map that I can explore. “Wow, that island has super hard monster, ‘cool!’ When I grind up, I’m gonna head back to kick their asses for causing me to have to repeat the last 2 hours because I forgot to save and I went to this island and got wiped.” ahhhhh, I love that!!
As far as the art work, I simply agree that more much effort and focus should be placed on over all experience. I’ll look past simple water texture and no hair movement if the game experience is fun. I’ll even look past no camera control, too! There wasn’t camera control 1-10 and it didn’t dawn on me until I picked up XII and for some reason, I’m supposed to care about that now?
IMO, someone needs to team up and bully out Yoichi Wada, then Karate chop ‘Enix’ off of SE and put Soft back on — V like the guy below says V.
15 hours in. I’ve been disappointed with FF starting with 10. Taking my airship away was the first and major strike. It only got worse with 12. It was the first FF that I did not finish. I thought the story was a pile of crap. The battle system in 13 is garbage. For me 10 has been the best hybrid of the old style and the new style. Of course like mentioned in the article the linear storyline is just stupid. I want to explore and take my airship out and do cool things.
Take out Enix and replace with Soft
its a japanese game and culture, a expressive cute spunky teenage girl is nothing to complain about. i don tlike the whiny dudes tho.
if u want a testorone filled, sam worthington clone go play a western game, with ugly character design nobody remembers or cares about
Come on mate. That was a terrible response.
“Go play a western game with ugly characters that no one remembers or cares about”
Why dont you tell me the last squareenix game you played that was actually good.
And then I’ll tell you how even most games from EA today are better than it.
Internet Drive By
Fun fact
Victoria Jackson was the first woman on TV to be called a cunt.
I think you’re mostly right on the money. I don’t really get your point about handhelds or Wii ware aside from I guess you like handhelds and Wii ware. Fair enough, but the platform isn’t the issue here, it’s the fact that they stripped the series down to what they thought were the essential pieces, and failed miserably at even that.
I’m also tired of this prototypical insane time period where society has fighter planes, lasers, and space ships, but people fight with swords, daggers, sticks, boomerangs, and their bare hands. Which has bugged me about FF12 and 13, and I really don’t see any way around it. Yeah I know, FF6, 7, 8, 12, 13 all had this in common, but felt egregious in 12 and even more so in 13 because of the level and acceptance of technology.
Square needs to spend a little less time thinking of new, retarded Latin phrases for their upcoming game cycles and get back to the basic ideas that make RPGs fun, and that made Final Fantasy the most fun for so long. I think they need to rethink their strategy if they want critical success and not just commercial success. I have a feeling they’ve sold out to the mainstream and the completely hollow and shallow experience of FF13 was the result of that.
Final Fantasy needs serious help. I might rent Versus or wait to find it used, depending on what I hear about it.
This is such a bad game I can’t stand it. Shitty linear plot, with a bad story to boot. Worthless auto battle making the player obsolete. Numbers flying all over the place so you really can’t tell how much damage your doing at any givin moment. No more levels!!!! No exploring!! Those fucking shallow emo bitches they call characters!!!! FUCKING TRANSFORMING SUMMONS(which are insanely corny)!!! I’m so angry I cant even continue. Good day.
This article and all the comments need to be force fed to Square-Enix and, really, most game development corps these days.
absolutely totally agree with points 1,2,4, and 5.
Especially point 5, how I hate playing a tween as a main character…
Final Fantasy has been dead for a long time. 9 was the end of the series as far as im concerned. I havnt played FF since X.
Yup, I stopped playing after the 1 CD. The characters are terrible, the CGI is nice and all, but it means nothing when to what is happening in the story makes no sense and does not make you want to be involved in the story. Not being able to explore the world, that is what made the games in the paste so great, eg (FF3) a great example. And please stop telling us what to do, over and over.
First ever rating FINIAL FANTASY 13 = 5/10
I’m a hardcore FF fan. I was gonna buy the PS3 and just 3 games only FFXIII; FFXII VS; FFXIV. After all I’m reading I’m thinking not to.
I started playing FF with VII which I will forever recall as the best ever, since than I played them all and I consider all of them good (some better some worse) until FFX. I think FFX was the last good FF. I actually love FFX, dunno why people hate it so much (yeh Airship sucks and so does the voice acting) but it has great story, characters and world, I mean blitzball is just awesome. It’s very complete. I played over 400 hours and I’m far from over. Than all of a sudden every FF after wasn’t as good. Why?
WHY?? How about Hironobu Sakaguchi? I’m amazed no one referenced him so far. His the heart and soul of Final Fantasy and in my opinion the reason why FF really started sucking after FFX and until if ever Square decides to get him back it will never ever be the same again. (It’s funny that he saved Square from ending 20 years ago, and that the reason he quit was because he nearly drove it to bankruptcy with FF Spirits Within).
FF will never be the same without him on board. Hironobu and Nobuo are the biggest assets Final Fantasy ever had.
You’re the the new generation of FF gamers that didn’t get experience the wonder that was the US FF2/FF3 (Japanese 4/6). Many FF gamers are still riding on the high of FF6, which was just an absolutely amazing JRPG, maybe the best ever made (not counting Chrono Trigger).
FF7 was a really bug jump in the series graphically and certainly changed the formula. While I agree that 7 was a great game (though not as good as the earlier ones), I think that 7 was such a huge hit that square become affixed on that style. They made suppositions about which facets of 7 were successful, namely graphics and a grand scope, and were mistaken. Really it was the characters, atmosphere and dark, interesting story that made 7 what it was. The fans didn’t help the issue because they were going to buy the next FF game no matter, square saw no real fluctuation in their profits.
If you look at the full range of games starting from 1 to now, all of which I’ve played, you recognize a downward arch in potency, the latest of which finally let the series fall into a non-A game. I’ll agree that 10 was a bit of an exception, but it too had its problems.
I disagree, the new generation are the XII’ers. They’re the reason XIII even has support. I think the VII generation has been fans of the franchise long enough to be called family.
I agree that SE saw the success of 7 as a result of newly pioneer CG cut sceens, humongous scale, and lets not forget the big fancy summon sequences. They clearly missed the fact that the game could’ve been done on the SNES and have been just as good. The only the thing the CG, etc. did was bring in the new gen of players. I would also like to say that 6 was my favorite forever, but at some point 7 finally edged it out. Now, I pray for a remake. I don’t think SE is bad for making a pretty game. I just think they need to read these boards and realize “Oh man, we messed this up. We gotta fix it, and we’ll start with the remake of 7 everyone has been begging for!” And for everybody who will say I’m a 7 fanboy…. I would just as much love to see ff6 remade with 12 graphics and a few bonuses. just leave the stories and gameplay alone, and update the visual. I even find the choppy translation charming. In fact I blame fanboys (who would buy a terd if it were the limited edition Final Fantasy Terd) for enableing SE to perpetuate this crime against real fans. I learned how stupid it was to be a fanboy back when 7 came out on the playstation1. I swore that nintendo was the greatest game maker ever and that no matter what the 64 would blow the ps away when it came out. I was a complete and total dumbass. But at least I can admit it now and If I don’t like something, I can admit that too. And the new generation are the 12ers or maybe the 10ers. fanboys: be real to what you really like. stand up for what’s right in FF and don’t let SE tell you what’s good. It is our responsibility to not buy stuff that sucks!
Agreed, FF has been slowly dieing since FF7. Ever since that jump to 3D Square has been neglecting the parts that made the old-school games so good. I hope they get their act together. Also; where the fuck is my Chrono and next-gen Tactics sequels? It’s gonna take a lot for squenix to earn my faith back.
I have to agree with just about everything that was said by Ok and Sharky….everything. Cloud may have been emo bit at least he MIGHT have been a man with hairy nuts that had a great story…. Oh and he had real sexual tension issues , unlike that pussy Tidus. Still to this day I would much rather penetrate tifa or aeiris 32 bit asshole than deal with with these teeny bopper bitches with plastic smiles. I don’t understand how the CEO of square-Enix became the CEO, he should be fired by a CGI Sephiroth at the next board meeting. What they all failed to realize is that graphics don’t make a ball grabbing story. I havnt played a new ff game since FFx which I considered to b the worst fucking ff game I ever played. I am sure I would be singing another tune If I had playd ffx-2…. WTF. I actually just bought ff7 off of the pan network and I’m playing that game again… Even though I beat it w every boss and extra unlocked. Fuck u square-enix. If you want to get shit done and make some real money heed my word and hire me and I’ll make u all fat jap cats. I got my MBA in finance, I can read numbers… Call me, idiots
You forgot the fact that after every battle you back to full health. What is up with that. Don’t like this game, but still playing because I spent so much money on it. It’s too easy and too straightforward. I used to get stuck on bosses and have to go level up before trying again (oh crap, not Jenova again!), but not on this one… very disappointed.
think ya missed the biggest thing that I found needed to be fixed control over all 3 characters and not punished for trying to use whatever character mixes you feel like doing. Was BS of the game to force lighting hope fang as the roundabout do all and make all the alt crystarium tree’s cost triple the normal for all characters.
I agree with all these points. except the first one. I like playing as a Furry monkey-catboy or Vaan. It’s part of what makes Final fantasy fun. BUT I also want the badass guy with the sword in my party. FFXIII looks like it just decided to make everyone a tween. Which is boring. But having at least a couple of androgynous tween characters is part of what makes final fantasy different.
They should do another FF Adventures, so they can do a twist on the FF series, that would let them do another design or style of gameplay
Half the user reviews on Metacritic giving FFXIII a 10 are utter bullshit. How can you tell? The only people who will like this game are little kids and you know what, all the 10 reviews are written in perfectly complete sentences with no mispellings or grammatical errors. YAAAAAAAA, SURE.
I gave the game a 1, it sucked, luckily I traded it into gamestop towards GOW3, a REAL game that doesnt need fake reviews to prop it up.
I definitely agree on no.1
After about 15 hours of playing, I still didn’t understand what Cocoon, Pulse, Purge and all that jargon was about.
I had to literally sit for an hour and read all that crap in the datalog. What kind of game forces you to do that?
Best part of the game is when one of the characters almost shoots himself in the head. Too bad he’s the only likeable character in the game. Should have been that annoying Hope douche.
And what is with these Australian accents? I actually live in australia and find it quite offensive that they would make us Australians seem as retarded as Vanille. She talks and acts like someone who should be in a school for special needs.
this article has some good points (except the wii ds stuff those systems are crappy, downloadable games are avaliable on other systems or a good psp game would be a good first)
@ another poster: ff7 was not the start of the downfall of the series
the merger with enix was, all the ps1 squaresoft games are awesome
ff7&8 are the best out of all square games.
anything after ff10/kh is terrible i didn’t buy ff13 because i couldn’t finish 12
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I honestly didn’t have a problem with the game, or it’s linear nature. In fact, after trudging through almost completely open games like Mass Effect I found it refreshing. I also thought the “RSS Feed” was more of a recap of events. I learned everything I needed to from listening to the characters in the game, and learned a great deal more by reading the datalog.
Also, if you want the overworld map to come back, just play FF:XIII Versus coming out this winter.
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