Sidequest #6 - The Truth About Final Fantasy

With Final Fantasy versus- I mean FFXV finally becoming something other than extremely gaudy vaporware, I couldn’t help but notice the numerous fanboys across the interwebz getting all hyped up, hailing it as a “return to form” for the franchise (to put it saliently). This sentiment is utterly absurd. As someone who has had the dubious fortune of playing every numbered title in this franchise (other than the MMOs), after outgrowing the rose tinted glasses of youth, I can safely say that observing the franchises quality titles over the decades, there is no “form” to return to; there never was a “golden age.”

So to clarify where I’m coming from, here is a brief evaluation of each game in this franchise relative to the time they were released and with respect to how well each stands in 2015. I’ve grouped the titles according to five qualitative categories, and ranked them from worst to greatest. Because I’m looking at titles akin to Final Fantasy XV, we are only looking at the first game of each number (so, no FFX-2 or FFIV: The After Years) and the three tactics games as they have enough story depth and similar iconography to be counted amongst the numbered games.

The Baaaaaaad

#15 Final Fantasy III (1990)

Final Fantasy III is not only the worst title in this franchise, but a strong candidate for being the worst game I have ever played (Right up there with ICO and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). This is the last game of the first generation final fantasy titles (FF1-3), which unfortunately leaves it in the awkward position of containing the worst elements of its era (no conveyance, extremely limited characterization, basic turn-based combat, a dearth of modern conveniences like ways to escape a multi-level dungeon, among other things), as well as unrefined aspects of the era that followed it (poor level progression, middling dungeon design, etc.) And worst of all, it’s long, like over 20 hours long. It did not introduce anything to this franchise, nor did it refine anything that existed before it. It is an awful game that no person should have the misfortune of playing (or worse, buying) for anything other than academic purposes. The one redeeming aspect of it is its soundtrack, which though weak by Final Fantasy standards, has a few strong tracks like “The Rocking Grounds” and “Kurayaminokumo.”

#14 Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

Bad for almost entirely different reasons than FFIII, as this is a third generation (FFVII-IX) Final Fantasy game. The characters are amazingly terrible, inconsistent, and act with what can only be described as pants-on-head-retarded levels of randomness. The story is an incoherent mess with deus ex machina’s out the ass, and blatantly unexplained plot holes that somehow make the nonsensical story even less cohesive. The gameplay utilizes ATB combat, but has no strategic planning due to the speed at which the ATB gauge fills (read: instantly), easily abusable super attacks, and the completely broken junction system. It punishes one for making progress by scaling the enemies to the player’s level, but tying the player’s strength to weapons and junctions (i.e. your level doesn't improve your stats) which both can be improved through non-lethal means. And, at the same time, gaining levels is almost unavoidable due to random enemy encounters. The music is just plain bad with arguably five or so tracks in the entire 70+ song soundtrack being worth a damn. And the standard gameplay progression is equally frustrating due to the astonishingly poor camera angles and general lack of information it gives to the player. It’s bad (Really bad), but Spoony’s review/Let’s Play of the game at least manages to siphon some humor out of this train wreck.

#13 Final Fantasy II (1988)

It’s definitely not offensively bad like the previous games due to its short length, but boy does Square pull out all of the stops in pissing away all of the good will they had built from its predecessor. It has all of the same problems plaguing FFIII with the caveat that everything is smaller and by definition less annoying. However, its character progression is problematic because it rewards poor playing and punishes effective playing. How is that even possible for a game released in 1988 for the NES? By stupidly tying a character’s HP and defensive stat growth to how much damage they take in battle. I shit you not. If your characters are constantly getting their asses kicked, the game actually gets easier. But if you’re cruising through each battle, because you actually tried to play properly, the game's difficulty quickly becomes unreasonable. It’s worth mentioning however, that it has the best story and characters of the 1^st generation FF games (whatever that’s worth) so, woo? Still, avoid if possible.

The Mediocre

#12 Final Fantasy (1987)

Now, this is where things get weird. FFI doesn’t have any of the problems of the two games that came after it. It’s brief, but the game never drags. The world map is designed to funnel you from relevant location to relevant location, so you never get lost. The level progression is extremely basic, dependent on which starting class you chose and nothing more. The combat is classically turn-based. It is beatable with any party of characters, so the choice at the beginning is entirely up to the player. And the plot, while illogical due to a botched time travel component, is simplistic, but understandable. Really, the only reason this game falls into the mediocre category is because it's so old and influential that dozens, if not hundreds, of RPGs have aped its concepts and improved upon them in such significant capacities to make this game inadequate by comparison.

#11 Final Fantasy V (1992)

This is like, “meh: the game.” The story is extremely predictable (even for my eleven year-old self) with any potentially interesting characters (really, just Faris and Galuf) avoiding any interesting or controversial development. The villains are a bit less conventional (which is something!) than those of FFI-III, especially the mound of awesomeness that is Gilgamesh. The job system is actually functional and doesn’t take a thousand years to make progress in like in FFIII, but it has very little depth compared to future iterations and other games of the time *cough Dragon Warrior 3 cough*. And the game somehow still isn’t as long as FFIII, which in this case is good, because the story is so damn bland. I wish I had more to say about it, but there really isn’t much to comment on. It’s okay. Just okay. 

#10 Final Fantasy X (2001)

I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for this, but FFX really leaves much to be desired. The characters aren’t anything to write home about, other than Auron, who is mostly just a stereotypical badass old guy and Tidus who is so annoying that one would do so to warn the village children. The story has yet another time travel element to it, that doesn’t make any sense (logically, thematically, or within the context of the game). The sphere grid is actually a pretty terrible way to level up in that the visual component only obfuscates the fact that it’s a damn straight line for each character, and the difficulty could completely go out the window at multiple points in the game after finding white magic/black magic spheres through basic exploration. Lastly, blitzball is one of the worst (mandatory) mini-games in this franchise by virtue of being easy as hell to break (step 1: jecht shot, step 2: run behind goalie, step 3:?????, step 4: PROFIT!), and potentially being impossible to participate in if you start too late.

The conditional turn-based battle system is really its only saving grace, but considering that you’ll be using it for 95% of the game, that’s kind of a big deal. It’s basically a simplified Final Fantasy Tactics-esque turn-based battle system where each character has an individual turn, but without a grid to move on, so you are just acting and don’t have to think about positioning. It’s more complicated than any of the ATB systems previously utilized, and makes strategic thinking and planning possible. What’s more, there’s a lengthy sidequest with astonishing rewards and challenges that ties the game’s weapon customization with the combat in a noticeable and engaging way. In short: it’s fun. After you’ve conquered it once, you definitely don’t need to do so ever again (which makes the decision to re-release it twice questionable, to say the least), but it makes the game not-terrible. I managed to sink over 100 hours into this game so, clearly something was working (and it sure as hell wasn’t the story, voice acting, or linear map design).

#9 Final Fantasy XIII (2009)

It’s basically the same problems and strengths as FFX, but magnified. The story is somehow more terrible (and FAR more melodramatic) than it was in FFX. The linear map design and character progression were both cranked up to eleven, and joined by arbitrarily segmented mechanical character progression. And, the mini-games have even less depth than those of FFX (though I’d actually count this as a positive).

However, the voice acting is unquestionably better. The characters are marginally better in that they at least leave something of an impression (negative though it might be) and their outfits aren’t patently ridiculous. But, most significantly, the combat is even better than FFX’s and is easily the most challenging and tactically demanding among the numbered titles of the series (the Tactics games are in their own league). Unfortunately, the last few optional hunts are the only places in the game where all subordinate systems are wholly utilized in the combat; the game is only at its best after most of it has been completed. And one can’t ignore the difficulty of gathering materials for items (see: the bullshit that is Adamantite farming). I like the combat and friggin’ awesome music enough to rate it higher than FFX, though I wouldn’t fault anyone for reversing their positions. All things considered, they’re pretty much the same game. This one's just newer............and shinier.

#8 Final Fantasy VII (1997)

No, it is not the “greatest game evar” nor is it even the best in its own damn franchise. But it’s not a bad game. Unfortunately, it only earns it’s “good” status because of how great the materia system is, and sure as hell not for its battle system, music, characters, story, gameplay progression, or graphics (which are respectively arranged from middling to terrible)…yes I am still calling it “good,” despite all of its distinct RPG mechanics being god awful, and personally hating this game and its fanbase. Don’t judge me.

The materia system allows one an insane amount of character customization allowing one to not only freely arrange a character’s abilities, but their stats as well. The junction system of FFVIII technically allows for this same capability, but unlike the junction system, Materia has greater limits imposed on it for the majority of the game and doesn’t require one to perform mind-numbing menial labor to acquire. It still runs into the problem of making every character a little too malleable and distilling their individuality down to their barely consequential base stats and limit breaks, but considering how many of the characters in this game are optional or just insufferable, that’s more of a backhanded point in this game’s favor.

Unfortunately, it’s also pretty long and the side quests just masticate time (see: Gold Saucering), and in order to not gradually die of seething rage at the absurd stupidity of the narrative, you kind of have to turn your brain off and just pay attention to the character customization, which is never a ringing endorsement for a game, but dammit, the materia system is really well put together...but then again, it takes way too much work to gain enough AP to fully utilize the syste- you know what, it’s a "meh" game and worse than everything else in this tier (and maybe FFII); I can’t in good faith call this steaming pile of mediocrity “good.” Let it be known that I at least tried to see things from the community's point of view.

The Gooooood

#7 Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003)

It’s different in a way that’s actually good. Unlike all of these other entries, it’s a tactical RPG, meaning you actually have to move your characters around in combat. Also unlike every game I’ve reviewed thus far, this one actually has a pretty good story, imagine that! The protagonist, a boy named Marche, finds he and his friends trapped inside of a fantasy world crafted by a socially awkward boy at his school. The kicker is that none of his friends nor his formerly parapalegic brother want to go back home, except for him.  So, he has to fight his way through all of them, all the while confronting his deeper psychological reasons for choosing one reality over the other. Depending on your philosophical leaning, one could easily view Marche as the antagonist, which is pretty much unheard of in this franchise, and equally rare for a kids' game. It won’t completely redefine your existence or anything, but it’s quite compelling.

And to help, the gameplay is pretty solid, (albeit occasionally exceedingly punitive) as well. Since this is a tactical RPG, you move your characters individually along a grid and need to come up with strategies to defeat your opposition. It’s not particularly challenging, classes aren’t balanced all that well (illusionists, ninjas, and assassins), and there are no difficulty options, though it will force one to at least think for the first half of the game. A solid entry in the franchise, though it’s not numbered and wasn’t made by the normal Final Fantasy team (Matsuno ahoy!), so it isn’t indicative of Square’s talent in ‘03.

#6 Final Fantasy IV /FF2 (1991)

The story and characters are great (maybe even classic) for the time, but the newly introduced ATB system and modified approach to dungeon design left a lot of room for improvement, leaving it smack dab in the middle of the ratings list. It deserves its title as being one of the greatest games for the SNES and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone accepting of older game design. There's not much more to say really, it's perfectly solid.

#5 Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (2007)

The story is noticeably worse, but the mechanics are way tighter, than its predecessor. Although, it’s also worth mentioning that many of the non-essential quests all have their own storylines which are more engaging and emotionally charged than the main story. Regardless, like its predecessor, one will still end up spending the overwhelming majority of the game performing non-story related activities, so the improved gameplay and character progression go a lot farther towards making it something grand. It’s still not all that tough, even on hard mode (which the game actually has unlocked by default), but it will make one sweat in the earliest and latest portions of the game, so I’d call its difficulty options at least partially successful. Bear in mind, however that this is surprisingly not a Matsuno game, though some of his team apparently worked on it, sooooo it's also not representative of this series’ quality.

The Grrrrreats

#4 Final Fantasy IX (2000)

This is my first Final Fantasy game and one of my favorite games of all time. The story (a surprisingly deep, yet uplifting, exploration of existentialism wrapped in a veneer of comedy and drama) and characters are both fantastic. The dialogue is amusing and makes both player and non-player characters memorable. The gameplay is a slower more methodical ATB style combat that naturally adjusts to the player’s familiarity with it by gradually speeding up over the course of the game. Character progression is tied to items and is inherently balanced in that each character has their own implicit class with specific, yet useful capabilities. The music is fantastic, and visuals are some of the best of the Playstation console. I have absolutely nothing of significant import to complain about in this game.

The only reason FFIX doesn’t quite earn a “classic” label is the mini-game Chocobo Hot & Cold. It’s not that bad once you’ve made it out of the starting zone, but my god is it random and time-consuming. Normally, I wouldn’t count it against the game (since it’s a mini-game), but extreme progress in it is required to fight the game’s super boss, which can be a serious damper on fully exploring this game.

The Classics

#3  Final Fantasy XII (2006)

People often call this game the love child between The Lord of the Rings and the original Star Wars trilogy. There’s an evil empire and ragtag bunch of rebels fighting against it, a magical macguffin that needs to be taken across the globe to stop him, and a Han Solo-esque sky pirate with his trusty not-an-animal companion. However, these are nothing more than oversimplifications at best. The “evil emperor” is a skilled politician who genuinely believes that a fascist regime is better than each country having its own sovereign rule. The macguffin that gets taken across the world is not actually required to save the world. And the sky pirate actually has some depth to him beyond that of Han Solo’s impossibly cool persona (father issues, a fear of commitment, feeling of alienation from the world, etc.) and doesn’t need a love interest to be three-dimensional. What’s more, the story explores both the political and supernatural conflicts and histories of Ivalice in such a way that breathes life into a potentially static world.

There’s a common and well-placed complaint that two of the protagonists (including the one who supposedly represents the game) are entirely superfluous to the plot. And it’s true, one could write the story exactly as is without Vaan and Penelo at all and almost nothing would change but a few specific bits of gameplay. However, because they are superfluous and not actively detrimental, this isn’t a major flaw, just an unfortunate annoyance forced in by Square Enix, due to Matsuno’s hospitalization (yes, this is a Matsuno game by the way).  It is absolutely worth playing just for the story, and stunning audio-visuals, but the gameplay is amazingly solid to boot.

The sphere grid from FFX was thrown into the nearest trash compactor in favor of the legitimately non-linear license board and flexible weapon arrangements, which allows players to shape their characters however they like. This led the original game to suffer from the late game issue of having each character become a little too similar, but thankfully this was rectified in the director’s cut version of the game which forced one to choose one of twelve “jobs” for each character as soon as they joined the party. This provided each character with a wholly unique license board while retaining the freedom of progression of the original game. And finally combat, exploration, and side quests all dwarf anything ever seen in the series thus far by enabling one to program each character to follow a set of “if, then” macros to help automate the combat (though unlike FFXIII, one could still manually control each party member whenever they liked). It’s nearly a perfect game marred only by the existence of Vaan and Penelo and limits of unlocking gambit slots.

Normally, I’d point out that because this is a Matsuno game, it isn’t representative of Square’s abilities, but Vaan and Penelo were solely crafted by Square and went against what Matsuno had planned (the Aragorn-like character, Basch, was supposed to be the protagonist), it actually demonstrates Square’s poor writing capabilities consistent with FFX and FFXIII releasing around this masterpiece.

#2 Final Fantasy VI/ FF3 (1994)

For many western gamers alive during the SNES era, this was the last JRPG they ever enjoyed. I don’t think any explanation I can offer would suffice in explaining why this is not only one of the greatest RPGs ever made, but one of the best video games ever made. So for those with a day to kill, here is an in-depth look at why FFVI is so fantastic. Enjoy.

#1 Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)

This is the game I regularly cite as my proof that video games can have great stories with meaning. It recently occurred to me that the story is a close approximation of a medieval version of The Godfather I & II...from a different perspective, with a touch of the supernatural, and explorations of religion and class- okay maybe it's not quite like The Godfather, but it's just as good. I won’t spoil anything specific, but would strongly recommend that if you haven’t yet played this magnificent piece of history, it is currently for sale on the PSN store. Unlike most other Final Fantasy games which feature some form of gameplay-story segregation, all story events take place in the same engine, if not during the combat, making it one of the most progressive games of its time.

The music is solid and graphics are serviceable, however there’s an odd technical quirk where the game slows down whenever a special ability animation is initiated in combat. Since all of them are slower however, its virtually unnoticeable as a technological issue, and comes across as a distinguishing component for abilities. Oddly enough, the gameplay is actually fairly challenging in this title and demands some careful planning, but the difficulty is wildly erratic, and one can quickly grind out levels through skirmishes to nullify it entirely.

Also, unlike the previous two tactics games, this is purely a Matsuno product, produced when Squaresoft proper was working on Final Fantasy VII, and clearly demonstrates the vast gulf in competence between Square and Quest (Matsuno’s team). Since this isn’t a numbered title, FFVI is technically the best main line Final Fantasy game, but looking at the series as a whole, this is the game that rightfully deserves that title. And like FFVI immediately before it, this is also one of the greatest games of all time.

Drawn Conclusions

So let's take a head count (minus the Matsuno games): there are 3 unequivocally awful games, 5 lackluster games (one of which is laughably hailed as the greatest RPG ever made), 1 good one, 1 great one, and 2 of the greatest games ever conceived. A 4-8 track record isn't exactly what most would call good. Especially not for what is supposedly one of the greatest RPG franchises of all time. And this is of course, not counting any of the sequels, which, with the exception of FFIV: The After Years, FFVII: Crisis Core, and FFXII: Revenant Wings, are astoundingly terrible as well.

As is also apparent, both the best and worst games of this series have vast distances of time between them (excluding FFVI and FFT) and often contain different gameplay styles and systems (exactly like FFVI and FFT). So if it wasn't obvious yet, the golden age of Final Fantasy is undoubtedly a myth. This does, however, explain why Square Enix hasn’t been able to produce another amazing Final Fantasy game in recent years; there is no single game to look to that would be applicable in the modern era; there's no template for them to follow, no glory for them to chase after. The only consistency they can glean is that the graphics have always been “cutting edge” (though several PS2 games sure gave FFXIII’s textures a run for their money) and the music was always appropriately impactful.


 Unfortunately, looking at FFXV’s most recent gameplay videos and trailers, the visuals appear to be the only things Square is getting right, as the combat is still floaty as hell relative to other action RPGs on the 360 and PS3. So, I’m not holding out much hope. Anyway, hopefully these extremely oversimplified explanations have demystified some of the hooplah surrounding this surprisingly middling franchise.