My Opinion on the Final Fantasy Franchise and Which Direction It Should Go In

            Square Enix’s flagship franchise has been the target of bias and hatred since the release of Final Fantasy XIII. Of course, the series has had its detractors ever since it took off with Final Fantasy VII.

            However, despite repeated fan complaints, Square continued to release more Final Fantasy XIII games, creating a whole trilogy around its protagonist Lightning. To be honest, XIII itself was well made title; it’s clear that effort went into making it. Where it fell short was story and linearity, both of which are arguably intentional decisions. Some may like the story, and others may despise just hearing the characters speak. The same applies to its linearity.

            XIII-2 and Lightning Returns were meant to fix these problems, but ended up being cash-ins to the original game. They fix those issues, yeah, but it came at the cost of creating more problems. For one, I found the story and cast to be bland and forgettable. No one had the development that the first XIII’s cast did. As for the battle systems, I personally found them somewhat fun. Battle gameplay is arguably not what’s wrong with the series. The gameplay in the trilogy can be thought of as a modern, streamlined version of the gameplay of older Final Fantasies.

            I personally believe the series needs more gameplay innovation while staying true to its RPG roots, as well as a more memorable plot and cast. However, Final Fantasy XV’s battle system is a complete departure from previous entries, which will understandably alienate long-time fans of the franchise. However, character customization may be possible, though Square has yet to release any info as of this post. I say this mainly because of XV’s protagonist, Noctis Lucis Caelum, being able to use a variety of different weapons, though he lacks the proficiency of the characters who specialize in one weapon. This leads me to believe (this is kind of a stretch) that you’ll be able to train to eventually decrease or outright eliminate the weaknesses Noctis has with his weapons. Either way, it’s evident that Square Enix intends to take the battle system in a more cinematic direction, judging from the gameplay footage we’ve seen so far.

            This just leaves the plot and cast. Part of the reason I enjoy the plot of Tales games is because they subvert and deconstruct typical JRPG clichés. The Tales series also sometimes tackles darker subjects, as seen in Abyss and Symphonia. If the Final Fantasy series can adopt that approach in story writing, it may make for better entries. I’m not saying that Final Fantasy should merely copy the Tales series’ formula, however. I want to see unique, yet believable, characters in a story that takes a different direction from the franchise standard. Heck, Square was certainly capable of good story-writing back in the old days as shown by games like Xenogears, though the game’s writer Takahashi left the company roughly 2 decades ago.

            Square also needs to stop “milking” their games. I can understand sometimes releasing a sequel for a few of the more well-received titles, such as Final Fantasy IV and X, but making a whole trilogy is going a little too far, especially when XIII was subject to fan backlash to begin with. I think the series in general needs to stay fresh. How long have we gone without a mainstream title in the series that brings us to a different world? Since the release of XIII, not counting XIV (an MMO), it’s been over 4 years. And Final Fantasy XV has yet to receive an official release date. Although developing mainstream titles may take longer now due to requiring more resources, Square can somewhat mitigate these issues by releasing spin-offs or non-Final Fantasy games (Dragon Quest, I’m looking at you). Instead, they released Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. I’m not saying these are bad games, but they’re sequels to a game that was met with large scale fan disdain. To make things worse, each XIII sequel sold even less than its predecessor did. Neither XIII-2 nor Lightning Returns were able to come close the millions of copies that XIII sold. What’s even more glaring is that Bravely Default, a game that Nintendo had to step up to localize because Square Enix refused to, did better than Lightning Returns. And from what I’ve played of it, it’s most likely because the game has the classic Final Fantasy charm that was lost back during the PS2 era.

            So overall, Square needs to: improve their story writing, innovate gameplay while remaining true to the series roots, and to release more original titles during the wait for the next mainline Final Fantasy to prevent a repeat of the stagnation the XIII trilogy caused. It’s been a long time since I played a Final Fantasy game that I thoroughly enjoyed. Judging from the info I’ve heard about Final Fantasy XV’s premise, this could be the chance to redeem themselves and the series. In my opinion, Square can’t afford to screw this one up, or they’ll lose even more faith, my own included.