The "final fantasy feel"

[Mirage]

I hear people talking about how new games often lacks this "feel", but I have yet to see anyone actually describe what this feeling is.

What exactly is the "Final Fantasy feel"? Is there even such a thing?

I challenge you to describe a feel that is consistent through most of the games, up to at least FF10, where most people start saying that the feel is gone.

[Shauna]

I would also like to know. People say the same when you ask why they didn't like FF: Spirits Within. "It just doesn't feel like Final Fantasy!" they say. I just... don't get what it even remotely means.

If you removed the FF staples from any of the games, would you not just be left with a generic turn-based RPG? Feel free to tell me I am wrong, I insist you do, really. xD

[Mirage]

TSW was just a bad movie in general. Being a Final Fantasy movie had little to do with it .

In my opinion anyway.

[ShinGundam]

[theundeadhero]

I'll describe that feel after you accurately describe how it feels to be in love.

[Formalhaut]

I'll describe that feel after you accurately describe how it feels to be in love.

The Final Fantasy feel for me has got to do with two things.

Story and Music. I have loved every single FF that I've played, and no matter what the gameplay was like, for me the two consistent things for me was the story and music. The music has always been good, and the story sans VIII has always engrossed me.

[Mirage]

So good music and good story = Final Fantasy feel.

Does that mean that other games with good stories and good music also have the final fantasy feel?

[Fynn]

I think it's the nostalgia filter at work here. When people think some games were better and can't think of a logical argument, they say it's about this "Final Fantasy feel", yet none can actually accurately describe what that means

[Mirage]

That's half of what I was getting at with this thread :3

[FFIX Choco Boy]

I agree with music and story. There are even some games that are NOT Final Fantasies that have the Final Fantasy Feel to them. Even if certain mechanics in the game are DRASTICALLY different, a story that makes sense, and an amazing music score with the "flavor" of FFI-IX (and kind of X, for a few songs), accurately describes the Final Fantasy Feel to me. The first Breath of Fire, up until the ending, which was the worst ending I've ever experienced in video game history, had it. Dragon Quest games have it. Golden Sun and GS 2 had it, though GSD didn't. Final Fantasy Tactics, TA, and TA2 had it. FF Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicles, VIII, XII, XIII, X-2, and XIII-2 didn't have it, while FFX had some of it, but not all of it.

Like has been stated before, though. I'll describe what the feel is like when you can describe what love actually feels like.

[Bolivar]

^ Exactly, we're talking about a "feel" and intangibles are naturally difficult to understand.

To me, there's a certain way the story progresses, there's particular things you have to do to explore and move the game forward. There's also certain sensibilities in the art and sound design, even after Nomura and Minaba took the reigns as character designers. The game design from FFI-IX was largely homogenous. You walk on a miniature world map, talk to NPCs in towns and other locations, delve into dungeons and fight random encounters in a battle screen that mostly looks the same. The story involves a group of (mostly) orphans who stop an ancient evil of the past from returning to destroy the world.

I don't think it's nostalgia. When I played FFIX, even though it employed a radically different art style, it felt very much a continuation of what Square was trying to do with Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Final Fantasy XII, although one of my favorites, didn't accomplish this feat.

[LGman]

The Final Fantasy feel people are refering to is the creators actually trying to do a good job at making a good RPG. FF8 isn't a final fantasy game I enjoyed but it didn't seem like it just made just for pretty graphics and to fool people into buying it. There is a feel to it and if your going to argue semantics then there is no point in discussing it because I'm sure you can argue that tell the cows come home. I'm not interested in a boring semantics arguement but I will tell you if they actually would have gave a decent effort in the last two final fantasy games instead of trying to make them look pretty then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[ShinGundam]

The Final Fantasy feel people are refering to is the creators actually trying to do a good job at making a good RPG. FF8 isn't a final fantasy game I enjoyed but it didn't seem like it just made just for pretty graphics and to fool people into buying it. There is a feel to it and if your going to argue semantics then there is no point in discussing it because I'm sure you can argue that tell the cows come home. I'm not interested in a boring semantics arguement but I will tell you if they actually would have gave a decent effort in the last two final fantasy games instead of trying to make them look pretty then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

That doesn't make any sense to me, so a good effort = FF feel? but if that is the case then what sets FF feel apart from any other good RPG? I mean don't tell me FF feels like Dragon Quest or Golden Sun or YS or Suikoden or Tales of. Also, FF fanbase is diverse to point it is possible to find people liking the less recommended games (FF2,FF3,MQ,FF5,FF8,X-2,12) than highly ones (FF1,FF4,FF7,FF9,FF10).

[Mirage]

The Final Fantasy feel people are refering to is the creators actually trying to do a good job at making a good RPG. FF8 isn't a final fantasy game I enjoyed but it didn't seem like it just made just for pretty graphics and to fool people into buying it. There is a feel to it and if your going to argue semantics then there is no point in discussing it because I'm sure you can argue that tell the cows come home. I'm not interested in a boring semantics arguement but I will tell you if they actually would have gave a decent effort in the last two final fantasy games instead of trying to make them look pretty then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

I don't think there is any actual "feel" that is shared between a large amount of final fantasy games. Most of them are entirely different in visuals, battle system, music and storytelling. There is much more of a common "feel" between for example Star Ocean games and Tales of games than there is in Final Fantasy. Between all the main series Final Fantasies, the biggest similarity between most of them is really just Nobuo Uematsu's music, and references to older games through enemies and weapons. Honestly though, some of the best music in any FF to me is stuff that wasn't actually made by him, so I don't mind too much that he's not doing a lot of FF music anymore.

The good graphics of the last two games is not the cause of the poorer quality of them. That's just crazy talk. Do you think the storywriters will intentionally write poorer stories just because SE hires a few more graphics artists and programmers? Most of FF13 and 13-2's failings were due to poor decisions, not lack of resources.

By the way, if you don't want to argue semantics, you might be in the wrong thread

[Bahamut2000X]

Well I had a more significant post planed out, but pressed one wrong button and it got lost. So, my summary of what makes an FF?
-A big immersive world that you get to fully explore, none of this "A few areas only" crap recent FF's throw at you.
-A diverse cast of characters from different walks of life and their own quirks.
-There's generally crystals or something similar to them.
-A villain who attains great ancient power, or is an ancient sealed evil, or some sort of other powerful and cryptic antagonist.
-Prophecies/legends are also present many times.
-A grand epic journey where the heroes journey and come together for the common cause to save the world from the impending evil (I'd argue the most important point for any FF is this one right here).

These are the general points I think most FF's in general have (of course give or take 1 or 2 points). As a general rule I use FF4/9 as my template for the Final Fantasy feel, as I consider them the 2 most Final Fantasy games out there (and unless I'm mistaken Sakaguchi himself even states FF9 he considers the most Final Fantasy style game of the franchise).