Developmental Success, Challenges, and Weaknesses of Final Fantasy

[Shorty]

Can you believe that there are (almost) fifteen of these games? Not including branch-offs like Tactics, Type-0, Dirge of Cerberus, and mini games like Theatrhythm, etc. Including some of the most wildly successful and memorable games ever created and a couple of vastly popular MMOs. Fans have been complaining for years that it's dying and slowing down - I'm one of the ones with this opinion. Despite my feelings, though, it is stupidly incredible how successful this series has been, considering its rocky start.

What are some challenges that you think the creators have overcome in developing this series? What are some weaknesses you have observed as the games have progressed? How do you feel about and what attributes would you apply to the success of this series? Do you think it has a good ride left in it, or do you feel as if it is skating on thin ice? Why do you think it has lasted as long as it has?

Let's talk!

[Wolf Kanno]

This is kind of a broad topic but let's see what we can do.

In terms of success, I feel the series has done a great job with the technology handed to them. Sometimes this is a weakness but when you think about how FFXII was delayed so long because the development team was trying to create an MMO style world using just the basic PS2 hardware and not rely on the HDD periphial that Sony had not supported as much as Squenix had hoped. When you think about that, it's pretty damn impressive what they have been able to do technologically even all the way back to the NES games. I mean the audio/visual leap between FFII and III is pretty staggering.

Weaknesses... well there are a bunch but the big ones in my mind are their poor development ability. It just seems to me that since they reached the PS3, the companies ability to develop a console game has kind of hit a brick wall The last three numbered FFs all have development hell stories attached to them and had huge development periods that really stole the games thunder and the series momentum and I'm pretty sure once FFXV gets released, we will eventually hear about its own troubled development hell issues.

The other issue is that I feel SE has a creator problem as well. They lost a ton of important people between the late 90s and mid 2000s who were largely responsible for for the companies greatness in the 90s. What talent they have left is largely being squandered. Kitase has been promoted to corporate levels and I just don't feel like he's been as strong as an executive producer as he was as a director. I also feel that since Toriyama is allegedly his protege, he has given him far more power than he was ready for. I pretty much have no faith in Toriyama as director of the FF series. He has yet to direct a game I like and stories from other staff members show that he's incompetent at management and somewhat overbearing. I think the only thing keeping me positive about XV is that he isn't working on it in any major capacity. Hiroyuki Ito pretty much made the series famous with his game design but seems to have disappeared from the frontline. Last I checked he's working on cell phone games. He said he would work on a new FF if the president ordered him to but instead they have him working on side projects. Kawazu is largely keeping a low profile only emerging when he gets to promote his SaGa franchise, and Tokito seems more content working on smaller projects like cell phone games because he really dislike the development culture of the bigger titles. Nomura is surprisingly the only guy over there making great games who has actually been around since the "glory days". I also feel the writing of the series has slipped, I know SE can still write powerful plots but it just seems like the FF series get them because I feel the writers are either brow beaten by the director (like Daisuke Watanabe described working on the plot of FFXIII) or the writer kind of gets full of themselves and feels they can do no wrong like Kazuhige Nojima who pretty much created the plot cancer in Kingdom Hearts, and most of the plot of the Compilation of VII.

Fortunately, Hajime Tabata is starting to get more recognition. Even though I strongly disliked Crisis Core, he really impressed me with Type-0 and I often feel his real issues is that he's overly ambitious but keeps getting saddled with making games for systems that can't handle what he has in mind. Now that he's co-director of FFXV, he may get a chance to prove his chops. Naoki Yoshida has also done a phenomenal job turning around FFXIV so it seems like we're finally seeing some new talent emerge that might be able to bring the company out of its rut. Ultimately, I feel SE needs to downside it's development studios and maybe reunite some of its old creative talent in order to really start nurturing the new up and coming members. Course maybe I just want Ito in charge of another numbered FF...

How the series has lasted so long is because they always made quality products and they use to challenge themselves by not really looking back, I feel that part of the reason the companies image has faltered is because they have forgotten this principle. While the FF series may not always be what I feel is the best RPG of the time, I can't deny that most of the games (except XIII) have always had a better overall quality than its competitors. The series made some stellar games, not all of which were called Final Fantasy, but for awhile there in the beginning of the RPG craze in the mid-to-late 90s, Square had no real equal and really did just keep batting out exceptional titles one after another and I think that reputation and the devotion it created among its fans, has largely kept the series afloat even in this time period where the media, the company itself, and the fans are asking themselves what happened to Final Fantasy? I do feel the series has better days ahead of it unless new unforeseen developments derail it, but I can honestly say that I have a better feeling about FFXV than I did with FFXIII. If the company can get over its 6+ year development cycles and re-connect with what people really want out of them like Bravery Default is proving, then the company can probably turn themselves around this console generation.

[black orb]

>>> Is not surprising FF has not died yet, is the main franchise of a multi million game company. Is like the Mario games I guess, those games are terrible now (in my opinion) but they keep spawning and making some money..

[Bolivar]

They've struggled since the merger to find a corporate identity and like all Japanese developers, the HD generation dropped them in a creative quagmire. Most of the talent is actually still there or collaborating in a freelancer capacity but they need a leader like Sakaguchi who will translate that talent into great games.

Square has always been on the cutting edge of technology and digital art and the advent of optical media (CDs) allowed them to rise above their equally lauded peers and transcend the expectations of what video games could up to that point accomplish. IMHO PC and western developers missed the plot on what they actually did, so I feel like a lot of the games that came out in last gen's ecosystem were operating under pre-PS1 design philosophies.

What I'm getting at is that Square has always been ahead of the curve and they have a long list of titles that will always champion that fact. They have actually published a lot of good games over the last few years, but they need leadership to get back to the dominant powerhouse they once were.

[Ayen]

I'm not sure if it contributes to the success of the games, but Final Fantasy has a unique advantage of getting to be a different game in terms of characters and stories with each main number entry that comes out. And as evident by all the spin-offs and sequels, the main number entries can be a series in and of themselves. But even through all the different worlds, characters and stories it maintains enough of the brand identity to be recognized as a Final Fantasy game.

The biggest change happened when they went from medieval to steampunk and it hasn't slowed them down. If anything it only made the games even more successful and can switch back just as easily without hindering the franchise much. I can't think of many game series that has that kind of flexibility. You can be fighting with swords, shields and Kings in one game and then have Presidents, technology and guns in the next and most wouldn't bat an eyelash. If anything they'd welcome it with open arms.

[Mirage]

Not sure if vastly popular is how I would describe ff11