Final Fantasy Adventure: what could have been

[Bastian]

Because of the horrid downturn in the Mana games since the advent of "World of Mana" series . . . and the advent of the Crystal Chronicles series . . .

I've been wondering what could have happened to the Seiken Densetsu series had they continued with their original intent (Final Fantasy games done in an ARPG style) and their original title.

I think we would have had a much stronger series. As much as I love Secret of Mana and SD3, had they simply kept the "Final Fantasy Adventure" prefix and kept closer to the Final Fantasy series in content (if they were going to do summon's based magic, why not use FF summons like Titan instead of Gnome and Shiva instead of Undine, etc) I think the series would have had a clearer, more defined "world" and it would have been less likely to make such an unfortunate downward spiral.

Of course, it seems Squeenix realized just this when they created the first Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Just like FFA, here was an ARPG that utilized established Final Fantasy weapons and items and spells and monsters.

Unfortunately, I can foresee a similar downward spiral for CC . . . it won't be too soon before they drop the FF from their name. And just like the Seiken Densetsu series, one or two games after dropping the FF from their name, they will probably devolve into terrible gibberish.

[Del Murder]

Secret of Mana was one of my favorite games for Super Nintendo and I wish they repackaged that one with SD3 for Playstation like they did with the SNES FF titles. Maybe they will DS SD3 because I've never played it.

I tried the DS Mana game and was really put off by it. Oh well.

[Bastian]

Yeah, the DS Mana games are NOT very good. Secret of Mana is still my fav.

Crystal Chronicles is basically the new Mana. It's a Final Fantasy ARPG series. And it's getting a lot more attention and better games than the newer Mana stuff.

That's basically my thesis in this post. What if instead of splitting away from FF entirely the Mana games kept the Final Fantasy Adventure series title (which they dropped in Japan after SD3) and kept the games more FFish like in FFA. I bet that recent "Mana" games would be just as awesome as older ones had that happened.

[KentaRawr!]

I agree entirely. Something I liked about Final Fantasy Adventure was how the environment really played an important part of the gameplay in comparison to later titles in the series. In that way, the challenge wasn't merely fighting enemies that pop up ahead of you, but also navigating an area. If they had kept with that kind of a style, then that would've given them more chances to speak through the environment itself as the player explores it.

Edit: Well, I should mention that looking back at Final Fantasy Adventure, they didn't really 'speak through the environment' very much, except for when the robot was following you in the tower. And even then, that was a very direct way of doing that. The game was basically putting the story on a plate for you. o_o

[Avarice-ness]

World of Mana is just a squeenix sell out.

There were MANY years between SD3 and SD4/World of Mana series.

It's all about money, they tried to market the world of mana to mana fans. SD4 is based in the "world of mana", all the added lore bogged down a game with a simple and perfect world. (SD4 is about the coming of the first mana goddess, which is suppose to be GIRL's mother from FFA).

If they were smart, they'd put SD3 on the Wii, save what fans they have left. And make the non-fans become fans.

I'm a mana fangirl through and through. I've actually played through FFA and SoM more than I have FFVI. While the world of mana series hurt most mana fans, I accept the reason they were created. Money.

When the reason people are making games ISN'T because you want the world to participate in something you've put your heart into creating, games (no matter how great a rep) will sour.

[Bastian]

World of Mana is just a squeenix sell out.

I'm not sure I agree. I think Koichi Ishii really truly loved his creation . . . but he came up with absurd structures that he enforced on the World of Mana games, to their detriment. He said something like he wanted to make you feel your other senses or some such crazy thing, so he created that weird physics system used in Dawn of Mana and then a simplified version of it in Children of Mana. I think he was far too interested in IDEAS than the final game.

Had he tried to play Dawn of Mana objectively with that weird physics system, he would have realized it had NOTHING to do with Mana. Or someone on his team should have told him.

But oh well. He's gone now. Mana rests in the hands of no-one now.




There were MANY years between SD3 and SD4/World of Mana series.

It's all about money, they tried to market the world of mana to mana fans. SD4 is based in the "world of mana", all the added lore bogged down a game with a simple and perfect world. (SD4 is about the coming of the first mana goddess, which is suppose to be GIRL's mother from FFA).

If they were smart, they'd put SD3 on the Wii, save what fans they have left. And make the non-fans become fans.

I'm a mana fangirl through and through. I've actually played through FFA and SoM more than I have FFVI. While the world of mana series hurt most mana fans, I accept the reason they were created. Money.

When the reason people are making games ISN'T because you want the world to participate in something you've put your heart into creating, games (no matter how great a rep) will sour.[/QUOTE]

[Roogle]

The Final Fantasy Adventure and Final Fantasy Legend series were North American marketing strategies to entice others off of name recognition which was a bigger factor in selling games at that time.

Like Del Murder said, Secret of Mana was one of my favorite games. I think it would have been nice if the game was repackaged or remade with an emphasis on online play and multiplayer capabilities.

I think that the profitability of the series as a whole might not be as good as some of the other series that Square Enix markets, so maybe that is the reason that the direction of the series as a whole has changed? I am not familiar with the internal workings of the Seiken Densetsu series enough to speculate on the reason for its perceived decline in quality.

[theundeadhero]

Secret of Mana was the only one I really enjoyed and most of that was because a friend and I had a lot of great memories playing straight through the game in a day.

[Bastian]

The Final Fantasy Adventure and Final Fantasy Legend series were North American marketing strategies to entice others off of name recognition which was a bigger factor in selling games at that time.

Yeah . . . but in Japan the Seiken Densetsu games up to Legend of Mana carried the precursor: "Final Fantasy Gaiden." I was suggesting that "Adventure" be the NA equivalent.

I am not familiar with the internal workings of the Seiken Densetsu series enough to speculate on the reason for its perceived decline in quality.

Well, they started getting worse when the were outsourced to Brownie Brown (first happened with Sword of Mana). Regardless, the series creator and Final Fantasy alum Koichi Ishii remained the primary creative force behind them. Alas, his ideas began to focus on developing new quirky gameplay rather than focusing on what made the early Mana games great. He's since left S-E and now has his own developing company. Maybe S-E will put someone behind the series that remembers what made Mana games good.