Why all Final Fantasy games are different
Have you ever wondered why unlike pretty much every other game series there has ever been, every Final Fantasy title is new and different than the ones that have come before?
The Final Fantasy series is probably my favorite game series of all time. There hasn’t been enough Halo or Gran Turismo games yet, so Final Fantasy it is. One of the most appealing aspects of the Final Fantasy series is the way each game is different, with each having its own characters and world, and usually battle and leveling systems.
But why is this? Surely the obvious thing would have been to continue the story after Final Fantasy I? Square Enix executive producer Akitoshi Kawazu recently explained to Nintendo Power (via GameRant) how this came about, saying:
It wasn’t so much a personal decision as it was driven by the fact that the entire team had the mentality of wanting to challenge something new. Mr. [Hironobu] Sakaguchi who was leading development on Final Fantasy II, he said himself, ‘there’s no point in doing the same thing.’ That was intended to mean we should keep trying to create new things, but the other side to it was that he was not completely satisfied with the first Final Fantasy.
When Final Fantasy II was released, some people offered opinions like, ‘as long as you change scenario for RPGs, you don’t have to change the rest of the system.’ But I don’t think that the Final Fantasy series would be where it is today if we had followed that advice.
I agree. I don’t think the Final Fantasy series would have lasted this long and still been as popular as it is if that decision hadn’t been made at the time. It’s the series’ ability to evolve and adapt that has allowed it to mature in the way that it has. This also means that one duff game doesn’t destroy the series as a whole.
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5 Responses to “Why all Final Fantasy games are different”
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September 5th, 2010
Change is the FF series biggest strength, but it is also its biggest weakness.
For example 13 was not exactly the best FF game out there.
in fact most of us here have discuss our fav FF games before and we usually all come up with the same 4 games. 7,9,10, and 12
September 5th, 2010
Yeah I think you’re right. 7, 9, 10, and 12 were all really good. A lot of people love 6 also, but I’ve only played a few hours of a rom years ago.
I’m not putting too much hope into VS13. I’m taking a wait and see approach.
Gun Loco, seriously? WTF Square Enix.
September 5th, 2010
I dont trust Capcom and Square Enix this gen.
Although Capcom is still the best for fighting games.
September 5th, 2010
Capcom has begun to garner my respect for them again, because it seems they going back to its roots…fighting and action platformers, with the release of sf4, tatsunoko vs capcom along with re releases of mvc2 and sfhd, on top of annonced sd vs tekken crossovers and sf3 making a appearance…I’m in fighting gamer bliss..
And good matches roca
September 6th, 2010
@Roca
Capcom did a great job with Resident Evil 5. Even though I miss the good ol zombies and tight, confined spaces of Raccoon City, RE5 was still an awsome game.
Dead Rising was alot of fun too.
Square is… well FF13 is the first FF this gen and they did botch it up a bit. IT was enjoyable to a point, but just didn’t have the same old FF magic.
They did a few interesting releases, but seems like the majority of what they have done in the last 4-5 years is just re-release old FF games on DS or PSP.