The "final fantasy feel"

[maybee]

It's something that butthurt fanboys say to explain their hatred of all post-FFIX entries because OMG HOW DARE THEY CHANGE ANYTHING AND NOT MAKE THE SAME GAME FOR THE TENTH TIME AROUND, HOW DARE THEY TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT!"

See also:

-Resident Evil 4 and on is not Resident Evil
-Tomb Raider Legendand on is not Tomb Raider
-DmC: Devil May Cry is not Devil May Cry
-Metroid: Other M is not Metroid
-Mortal Kombat 4 and on is not Mortal Kombat
-Crash Bandicoot 4: The Wrath of Cortex and on is not Crash Bandicoot

I can't even...

Please tell me that your kidding right?! Resident Evil is not Resident Evil anymore. It's some try-hard shooter type game and don't me started on Ashley. The new Dante is a huge ass-hole and annoying Justin Bieber sounding ass. " Wow I gave somebody the finger ! " " I'm so KO0l and hip and such a huge rebel " ! Please. Metroid Other M COMPLETELY destroys Samus's character, and Crash 4 has horrible downloading times, bad storyline plot and terrible extra characters. What to say that the Spyro the Dragon change is good ? Or the Sonic the Hedgehog change has been good ? Yeah no. Change doesn't always mean good and these changes within the game are hated for a huge reason.

Example of a good change. Castlevania DS games with the Metorid like system.

Example of a bad change. Spyro the Dragon's recent game. Skylanders comes horribly into mind.

Change doesn't always equal good and change doesn't mean that those horrible nasty evil people who grew up with Final Fantasy 6 or Final Fantasy 7 dislike the recent Final Fantasy games, because their horrible evil memories are blinding them from the recent games or awful changes with some recent games. AKA- Nostalgic Fags.

Yeah I'm a little angry....

[Cloudane]

It's one of those things that's really difficult to narrow down to solid factual qualities when someone demands specific justifications for liking it (MLP, for those who like it, is similar. I can understand the comparison with love too).

I'd say it's a feeling of charm and excitement and that there's no single cause for it or even a small number of causes, but a wide, almost organic range of influences. Obvious ones are music, relate-able characters and story, but also a lot of little things that may even be subconscious. A "chemistry" or "soul" if you will.

[Bolivar]

It's something that butthurt fanboys say to explain their hatred of all post-FFIX entries because OMG HOW DARE THEY CHANGE ANYTHING AND NOT MAKE THE SAME GAME FOR THE TENTH TIME AROUND, HOW DARE THEY TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT!"

Not at all, I was crazy over FFX and still think it's a fantastic game to this day, but I still say that's when the feel started to fade. FFXII didn't have it at all, but it's still a badass game.

[Del Murder]

I don't think Final Fantasy has a specific feel in the sense that any game with that feel would be a Final Fantasy. Some of the common things that have stood out to me in the FF games are a sense of adventure and whimsy, along with strong characters and story. In addition, I don't think any FF is complete without a strong complement of side quests. In the later games, some level of customization in character stats or abilities is also a component.

[black orb]

>>> FF feel... Im not sure if such thing exist..
Crystals, chocobos, Uematsu music? is probably the closest thing..

[Bolivar]

^ What about orphans? a multi-thousand year old threat that is returning to destroy the world?

The first nine games having play distributed across a total of three screens: field, battle, and world map.

Magic casting has essentially always been the same. We also have a fairly continuous repertoire of spells and, later, summons.

There are also certain motifs which were required in those first nine games: game over screeen, world map screen, and town themes, with these conveying similar emotions across games.

And of course there's the signature victory fanfare of the first six games with similar themes in other games. Uematsu has also reused specific melodies throughout the series.

There's certainly a recognizable style to the character portraits that Amano and Nomura have done for their Final Fantasy characters, with Nomura even citing Amano as the influence for some of his characters.

We can talk about the similar layouts of the menus, the little glove hand, the cursor sounds, the pedigree of the battle menus. The world maps and character control worked the same way for the first six games and then the same way for the next three games. Battle control has always been the same throughout the series.

Of course you can find bits and pieces here in other series. That's not a valid argument. That's like saying being in first person isn't an element of First Person Shooters because there's been some WRPGs in first person.

But more than anything, this is about feel. The first nine Final Fantasy games made me feel a similar way when I played them, and it seems like a lot of other posters on EoFF had a similar experience.