The final Final Fantasy (will it ever be final?)

[Fox12]

In any case FF13's story was actually its weakest asset, which is no surprise as its made by the same moron who made FF 10-2. Nomura, on the other hand, actually has some talent, but he hasn't released a major title since the PS2. He's also a touch too melodramatic, and tends to favor style over substance. The series isn't disapearing any time soon, but it's certainly pat its renaissance.

I have to really disagree with this. It wasn't the story itself that was it's weakest asset, but rather the way that they executed the story.

Bear in mind... I'm not praising it as the BeSt ThInG EvAR!!! - Just that the execution of it all was terribly poor and it really made the series suffer. Lost potential or some crap like that.

This is a fair point. Tho other FF titles had unusual stories, but they managed to pull them off because the situation was properly explained, and because the characters were good enough to get you through anything unusual. FF13 was a confusing mess, since they didn't explain the lore in game. It also had the (for me) annoying fantasy trope of making up words in order to sound exotic. This compounded the confusion, as I could barely pronounce half the words, much less remember what they mean.

https://xkcd.com/483/

I found the characters less appealing as well, but I suppose this may be more subjective. I think that if they made the plot more clear, and the characters had been better, it could have been a great game.

 

[Alhazred]

Final Fantasy is already dead, you just haven't noticed yet. All the people who made the series great have left; all that remains is an empty shell puppeteered by corporate machinery. JRPGs may have a second coming someday, but I hope that it will be a new IP leading the charge rather than Final Fantasy.

 

[Harleykin]

played a realy small bit of 7
almost finished 8
finished 9

i like 8 best. i can't get past 7's graphics nowadays even though i bought it on steam since i figured i might feel like trying "the best FF" as some ppl keep on telling me.
i enjoyed more characters in 9 then in 8 but still 8 kinda keeps on being my favorite.

after trying 10 i was like...nope i'll have none of this thank you.
"yay first FF with voice act.....OHMYGAWD"
since i alway play with my own music it's ok so let's go for some triple tr...OHMYGAWD

10's best features imo: lulu's design auron's everything.

and every single clip i saw of any other FF's dialog past 10 was me almost punching my screen. no human talks like that.
FF is dead to me but may all of you enjoy it i don't mind ppl having fun.

 

[Rattja]

They kinda lost me once they made X-2, they broke out of the "one game one universe" way of doing things.
I liked that none of them had anything to do with eachother, it was just one badguy, you got him/her and that's it, done.
Also I just don't like the stories they are trying to tell. I am terrible with names, and yet I am bombarded with all kinds of silly names, some they don't even explain. Like in 13, I sat for hours wondering "the fuck is a Fal'Cie"

Another thing I've realised is that in the old games there were no voice acting, so what did they fill the sound with? Oh yes, awesome music and theems. It also made annoying characters even worse as you now have to listen to them, and we all know that every game has to have at least one with you at all times.

Oh, and anyone noticed that they just stopped with the minigames? I really miss those. Hell I almost miss blitzball at this point, and that's bad...

I don't know if it's ending as much as changing into something else. I'll give them one last shot with 15, as it seems to be going in the right direction, we'll see.

I think if I ever make another attempt at 13 or the later games, I have to not think of them as Final Fantasy, but some other game.

 

[Kuilui]

Final Fantasy is what I grew up with and I basically loved all of them up until about FF 10, thats where I still kinda enjoyed it but it stopped feeling like Final Fantasy to some extent and I got 12 as a gift and I just didn't even care for it. Played it for like 5 hours and just turned it off and never looked at it again and that was the last new single player Final Fantasy I played. I tried the MMOs but I quickly grew bored of them. I still remember when squaresoft became SquareEnix and having a bad feeling that it was going to screw things up. Well it did, or maybe times just changed and I didn't bother to change with it.

To answer your question Final Fantasy will never end. Even if Square goes bankrupt someone else will buy the franchise. Doesn't mean it won't just be a stone people keep trying to squeeze blood out of but it probably will exist forever in one form or another.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I don't think Squeenix will ever let the franchise die even if it was selling abysmally they'd probably blame some other game for any financial losses they were taking. Plus they don't seem to be doing too poorly even if fans aren't that happy with the latest installments in the west, so the Final Fantasy machine will keep on a churnin'.

 

[Manji187]

We need a new champion. A new vision. A new fantasy. And...

...most likely a new company to provide all that.

Imagine how refreshing it would be to play a Final Fantasy like game made by competent people who really give a damn.

One day we may experience this miracle again.

 

[Requia]

The non-sequel nature of the franchise makes it too tempting to use. Somebody will put out FF games if not Squeenix then they'll license the trademark to a shovelware company. We may never see a good one again though.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Favorite Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy IX

What do I love about it?

Everything! The story, the characters, the dialogue, the atmosphere, the pacing, the settings, the spells, the amazing CG-backgrounds, the designs, the chocobo mini-game, the ability system, the equipment system and just all those little details that made of FF IX's world feel so unique.

What don't I love about it?

Well, the ending, I guess... I didn't like the way they wrapped up the arcs of Vivi, Freya and Amarant. Hell, apart from Steiner and Beatrix, most of the character endings were kind of a letdown (apart from Steiner and Beatrix). Also, maybe the battles are a tad slow for today's standards - even after setting the battle speed higher - but that's really nitpicking.

-

What I like most about the Final Fantasy series, is that the creators actually have the balls to do something fresh with every installment. "So, that materia system in FF VII, not bad right? Players loved it, critics loved it, but you know what, I got this crazy idea for another kind of system. Fuck playing safe, let's see what we can do with that!" Whether you like the changes they make or not, I can't help but respect the shit out of the fact that they are willing to push the boundaries of Japanese RPGs when it comes to gameplay and settings. Hell, even when they made a direct sequel to one of their games, they gave the gameplay an entire overhaul and it was one of the most entertaining combat/equipment mechanics ever (talking about X & X-2 by the way).

And then FF XIII happened... Still, I'm gonna give them props for trying something new, but the game was just dreadful. They tried something original with the story and setting, but it was executed horribly. The tried something new with the "automatic" battle gameplay, but it just didn't work. The tried something old put in a fancy new jacket with the paradigm/crystarium system, but they stripped away too much of the good stuff and replaced it with nothing but bright, shiny lights.

It felt kind of like FF VIII, but then without the redeeming qualities.