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Re-reading some retrospectives about the series I always remember Pitchfork's interpretation of this game as being the culmination of what the staff felt FF had been up until that point and I feel this statement somewhat resonates because I feel there is a clear difference between the first five entries and then the rest of the series. What are your thoughts?
Yes, but would we be saying that if FF6 had followed a more traditional formula? Would the same thing be said about FF4 if FF5 had been the one to break the mold. Such comments would only make sense if right from the beginning of the FF5 development process they knew FF6 would be a departure from the typical formula.
Well VI is a departure because it's the first title to really be run by the new generation of Square employees with the older staff taking on more of a supporting role. It's accidental that FFV came to embody the older games, well until IX and to a lesser extent XII did the same.
I think FFV being the last game to recycle the assets they'd been using since FFI really contributes to that feeling. But yeah, in many ways it is the last "traditional FF" and each one has a completely different identity after that.
When I think culmination I think as either a concerted effort to make the final piece of a legacy. So I wouldn't call it as a culmination of the classic FF formula more than to say that every FF game is the culmination of every FF game that came before it.
FFV was very much an older game.
It really depends on what the player in question considers the series' defining characteristics. Someone who thinks FFVII is the most iconic game in the series would find themselves in very unfamiliar territory playing FFV.