Finally Fantasy!

In this column I'm going to tell you a bit about the series of games called Final Fantasy which is getting its 13th (!) installment coming next year (except for Japan where it is currently out). What is the secret about this successful series of games and what has kept it alive this long? Hopefully this will help you by shedding some light on what this Final Fantasy is all about. I myself have had the opportunity of getting to know the world of Final Fantasy quite well due to a friend of mine being a great fan. I’ve learnt to appreciate the beautiful in a single player RPG experience and what it means to people. I’m going to try to guide you in on some basic knowledge about a gaming company and its game that were to revolutionize the whole RPG genre.

Squaresoft is a game developer known by many. Even the not so hardcore gamer might know a bit of the company’s history and the man behind it all; Hironobu Sakaguchi. Who today is one of the most praised game developers of all time; he's the man behind the Final Fantasy series which seem to never end. When the idea of Final Fantasy was born, Squaresoft was on the edge of bankruptcy. Sakaguchi had one last chance to come up with a game idea that was to save the company. And so he did, ironically he named the game "Final Fantasy" as he believed that this was going to be his last game. When looking back now though, we know that this wasn't going to be the case at all.

Sakaguchi successfully managed to bring Squaresoft back on its feet, the first 5 games in the Final Fantasy series got mixed critic but they served their purpose by keeping the company alive. It was first when Final Fantasy VI arrived that Squaresoft were to have their major breakthrough. With an extraordinary story and amazingly designed characters by Yoshitaka Amano, FFVI would take the world with storm. And not to forget is that one of the most praised video game music creators of all time, Nobou Uematsu supported with a stunning soundtrack, like he had done for the previous games. Tunes from tracks like “Terra’s Theme” and “Dancing Mad” is still being hummed on by fans and the tracks are played at big orchestral concerts. FFVI was also a good example of what a game would look like when it had achieved what was called “Pixel Perfection”. So FFVI was going to be an instant classic. In 1994 the PlayStation where to take over the console market and Squaresoft decided to release their next installment; Final Fantasy VII in 3D on the PlayStation and not on the Nintendo64, due to a higher need of memory than what the Nintendo64 cartridges could provide. Squaresoft did now leave Nintendo, the company that had helped Squaresoft back on its feet from an almost inevitable collapse several years earlier.
So, if FFVI was their major breakthrough then this game was to be and had to be the game that were going to put Squaresoft in the history books forever. A lot of money was put in this project and Squaresoft were back in an almost exact same position as they were when the first games in the series were released. Luckily though, the game was a hit.



Even today there are people claiming that Final Fantasy VII with its 40 hours of game play is the best game ever made. Something that you noticed right away when you played FFVII, was that it didn’t look like a Final Fantasy-game at all. Instead of taking place in a medieval time, the game was taking place in a futuristic/modern world with cars and trains and other modern technologies. It was a brave move from Squaresoft, but thanks to a great story, fantastic gameplay and an engaging battle system, they did succeed with FFVII. Many have cried tears of despair and happiness playing FFVII and even though you haven’t played it you’ve most likely encountered the names Sephiroth, Aerith and Cloud Strife in some form over the internet.
Final Fantasy VIII, IX and X followed with even more praising and Squaresoft had during this time grown into being one of the biggest game developing companies in the world, also making an impact on the hard to please western market like other big game developers from Japan such as Capcom, Konami and Namco and many more.
After the release of Final Fantasy X, Hironobo Sakaguchi took the decision to leave Squaresoft to form his own company, Mistwalker with financial backing from Microsoft Game Studios. This was to reduce Squaresoft’s financial capital. Which ultimately led to that Square would take the step to join forces with another big Japanese RPG game developer, Enix.

Enix were the creators of Dragon Quest, another famous RPG saga which had the unfortunate timing of co-existing with Final Fantasy. The series were even so, immensely popular, especially in Japan where Square and Enix where to battle against each other throughout the whole 90s'. Dragon Quest was never really intended to take over the western gaming market, that was instead what Square managed to do with Final Fantasy, and so Enix was going to stand in the shadow of the big brother Square for quite some time. Mentionable as well when talking about Enix for the RPG liker is that Enix is the developer of Valkyrie Profile, another great RPG that has formed a series on its own. Square and Enix became Square Enix in 2003, and they continued the Final Fantasy series without the creator of it, Sakaguchi. Nobou Uematsu stayed to make the soundtrack for Final Fantasy XI, the first Final Fantasy to be an online experience (Final Fantasy XIV has actually been unveiled as a new online game). It was received with mild critic and the lack of Sakaguchi was visible. But even without him, Final Fantasy XI was to be an ok game, enjoyed by many. After the online-based Final Fantasy XI, the company began developing the 12th installment of the franchise. Final Fantasy XII was released in 2006/2007 and was received with mixed feelings from both critics and gamers, due to different factors. Even though, it sold very good and received a 40 out of 40 score in the Japanese videogame magazine Famitsu.


[center]Square + Enix = Success?[/center]
As Square Enix has yet to prove that they can really make an epic RPG without Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy XIII is going to be one hell of a show down. Square Enix has during these last years managed to release two other big RPG games, The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery. Many claimed that both these games were a blatant failure for the company. Full of clichés and huge problems with frame rates The Last Remnant were to fail on the simplest things, even the battle system was terrible. Infinite Undiscovery was ok but didn't really succeed in compelling the gamer with bad character design and lousy voice acting. It's far away from being an epic RPG. They were both way below the average game that Square Enix usually releases.

During this time Hironobu Sakaguchi released the not so well received Blue Dragon and another game that has been widely discussed, Lost Odyssey. Lost Odyssey was the game that would prove Sakaguchis superiority in making RPG's that would enchant the player holding the game control. Lost Odyssey featured many things that could be related to the older beloved Final Fantasy games that Sakaguchi worked with. However Lost Odyssey was criticized for being too reactionary with an outdated battle system and boring characters. Many did enjoy the emotional storyline and beautiful musical score by formerly Square-employee Nobou Uematsu though. JRPG’s hasn’t really managed to compel the western market the way it did back in the 90’s. People has agreed that “it was better before” mostly driving at the fact that Japanese game developers tries too hard with making the JRPG’s something it shouldn’t be. They often lack what was essential and most important back when the classics came out.

Therefore the hype is currently enormous on the next installment in the Final Fantasy series. The fans are thirsty for a new game that won't be forgotten in centuries, something new, but still a game that will be as revolutionizing as Final Fantasy VII was. In this clip, the release date is shown, as well as comments from people behind the game. And they promise a lot.

Final Fantasy Dated - Clip from Gametrailers.com
(Yes, this is a couple of weeks old, and the game has already been released in Japan, I wrote this column before that though)

From what has been shown at E3 this year and other exhibitions one can tell that FFXIII will be an amazingly beautiful game, if it really does shine as brightly as it does in trailers. All we can do is wait and hope.
Can we really expect a new JRPG that will revolutionize the RPG genre one more time? Can we please hope that the stereotypes that have flawed all recent JRPG’s will be gone and that we once again will get to experience a game which will make an impact on us?

Time will tell if Final Fantasy XIII is going to be the RPG everyone has been waiting for.

Perhaps, this will be the Final Fantasy that Hironobu Sakaguchi once thought of.

Notable; after this columns finalization, Famitsu, possibly the biggest video game magazine in Japan reviewed Final Fantasy XIII and graded it on their 0-40 scale. They gave the game a 39/40. Epic? Well, Nintendogs for the DS received 40/40… So I know that I’m at least going to wait for it to be released here before I’ll judge it.

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Thanks goes to Robin “Raven” Cocks for help with fact research.