Future Final Fantasy

[Masamunemaster]

With all of the talk about FFXV and Type-0 coming out left and right I began thinking of what I would like to see in future installments.

One of the biggest things I want to see is another ship in next gen graphics. On the open seas with a rough Cid yelling at all of the crew members, then out of nowhere a giant sea snake pops out of the crashing blue waves and slithers on the deck. Out from the crew quarters comes the heroes with weapons a blazing, looking for what was causing such a ruckus. As the beast begins the assault on the ship our heroes rush in the dragoon jumps to the top of the mast and begins to crash his spear into the belly of the beast. Right before it hits and the others rush in the screen goes black......

What would you all like to see in the future of most of our favorite franchises?

[Randy]

I really just want them to return to the old formula. World Map with separate locations and then turn-based battles.
I think that formula really worked for them and I never quite understood why they felt that better hardware insisted that they change the formula. As for the battles, the problem is there are so few ways to do battles with multiple characters (which I feel does add to the story as it invests you more in them as a team). The only 2 ways to do team battles I can think of are either the traditional turn-based or the kind of real-time turn-based (i.e FF12, Dragon Age, Xenoblade Chronicles)

[Leigh]

I personally feel that all they need to do is actually hire a decent scenario writer. Get a good author who can actually build a decent storyline and set of characters for once. But I expect they'll continue to fall back on anime-tropes and Japanese cringe worthiness. "Ganbatte!" And stop with crystals...they're not all that interesting. Flash Gordon and Superman films were 30+ years ago.

[Fox]

Make them look worse.

I know on its own that sounds stupid, but I have never and will never give a damn about graphical fidelity in my Final Fantasy games. Art direction is important of course, but when you start bragging about your real time puddles and cloth physics... come on. Final Fantasy XII's character models were not as good as X's. It's CG sequences were not as good as X's. It's audio quality was not as good as X's. But the art direction and writing were so good that it didn't matter in the slightest. By all means make a pretty game, but don't concern yourselves with "pushing the boundaries" or being "the best looking game of its generation".

The other side to this of course is make sure your art direction and writing are actually good enough to support that approach. But the focus on fidelity we've seen since XIII points to an attitude problem where there is too much time and effort being put into stuff that really doesn't matter. It'll be interesting to see whether or not XV has fallen into the same trap.

In terms of gameplay, I'm not too bothered actually. The only thing really bad about XIII's game design was the horribly linear environments. The actual battling, strategy and customisation was pretty strong. Obviously everyone has their individual preferences, but I don't think any of the primary Final Fantasy titles have actually had poor gameplay. Whatever systems they've gone for have been interesting and executed pretty competently. When we think back and complain about XIII, the battle system is rarely the problem. It's all about the story and characters. Or lack thereof.

[Electroshock Therapy]

With all of the talk about FFXV and Type-0 coming out left and right I began thinking of what I would like to see in future installments.

One of the biggest things I want to see is another ship in next gen graphics. On the open seas with a rough Cid yelling at all of the crew members, then out of nowhere a giant sea snake pops out of the crashing blue waves and slithers on the deck. Out from the crew quarters comes the heroes with weapons a blazing, looking for what was causing such a ruckus. As the beast begins the assault on the ship our heroes rush in the dragoon jumps to the top of the mast and begins to crash his spear into the belly of the beast. Right before it hits and the others rush in the screen goes black......

What would you all like to see in the future of most of our favorite franchises?

Actually, I would really love to see a nautical Final Fantasy. I know most (or all, I don't know) have a sea ship, but it's not used extensively enough to make the game feel very nautical. Think Wind Waker, but Final Fantasy.

[Loony BoB]

I personally feel that all they need to do is actually hire a decent scenario writer. Get a good author who can actually build a decent storyline and set of characters for once. But I expect they'll continue to fall back on anime-tropes and Japanese cringe worthiness. "Ganbatte!" And stop with crystals...they're not all that interesting. Flash Gordon and Superman films were 30+ years ago.

Both of these things strike me as valid things. My list starts off with the former thing.

- The storylines are getting worse lately, even if the original concept was alright. Get a foreign fantasy author to help write a storyline.
- Don't read too much into criticism. Make your changes slower. Don't live on knee-jerk reactions as you'll never find the sweet spot in the middle if you keep overcompensating.
- Bring back airships and traversable world maps. There is no excuse here - if you could do it on earlier consoles, you should be able to do it on later consoles.
- Give us villain(s) that we can grow a hatred for. Make them do terrible things. Make them known to you early in the game, and make them the obvious final boss all the way through to the very ending (in other words, actually make them the final boss).
- Give us villains with personality. The personality of the main cast has been pretty clear recently but it's been some time since I really felt personality coming out of a villain. Can the villain tell jokes? Does the villain have quirks? Give them flaws, perhaps even make us sympathise with them.
- Don't be afraid to do the unthinkable. Sazh shooting himself. Hope turning into a Cie'th. Imagine how this could have really made an impact for FFXIII. This kind of thing should not be shied away from just because you don't want to lose a character. Dare yourself to kill off your most loved character.
- Build a fantasy world, not just a fantasy story. Spira was arguably the most beautiful world SE ever created as it was full of fantasy. Repeat that!

[Leigh]

Give us villains with personality. The personality of the main cast has been pretty clear recently but it's been some time since I really felt personality coming out of a villain. Can the villain tell jokes? Does the villain have quirks? Give them flaws, perhaps even make us sympathise with them.

What was wrong with Mecha-Pope?!

XIII was great. Kinda like if Vatican City goes off its mash in 2600AD.

[Loony BoB]

I enjoyed XIII. Despite this, I felt nothing towards Barthy. He was just a standard villain. I could write villains that way. "Laugh arrogantly at characters, treat them as if their cause is futile, talk yourself up every now and then, be ruthless, blah blah blah." Just so boring.

[metagloria]

With all of the talk about FFXV and Type-0 coming out left and right I began thinking of what I would like to see in future installments.

One of the biggest things I want to see is another ship in next gen graphics. On the open seas with a rough Cid yelling at all of the crew members, then out of nowhere a giant sea snake pops out of the crashing blue waves and slithers on the deck. Out from the crew quarters comes the heroes with weapons a blazing, looking for what was causing such a ruckus. As the beast begins the assault on the ship our heroes rush in the dragoon jumps to the top of the mast and begins to crash his spear into the belly of the beast. Right before it hits and the others rush in the screen goes black......

What would you all like to see in the future of most of our favorite franchises?

Actually, I would really love to see a nautical Final Fantasy. I know most (or all, I don't know) have a sea ship, but it's not used extensively enough to make the game feel very nautical. Think Wind Waker, but Final Fantasy.

How about a submarine too, for the first time since V and VII? We all get psyched about a possible world map, but my goodness, imagine a massive underwater world to explore. Like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, but Final Fantasy.

[Leigh]

I enjoyed XIII. Despite this, I felt nothing towards Barthy. He was just a standard villain. I could write villains that way. "Laugh arrogantly at characters, treat them as if their cause is futile, talk yourself up every now and then, be ruthless, blah blah blah." Just so boring.

I'm still not quite sure what I played through when I look back at XIII. I must have forgot to put the subtitles on, because I still have no idea what was really going on. :P

[Loony BoB]

I could dig an entirely marine world for a future FF game.

[Masamunemaster]

I would love an underwater world, submarines would be another big shift I would love.

Bob brings up such a big hit for me also, make it to where we would sympathize with the villains. That makes a game a lot better when we have to feel sorry to kill them.

[Bolivar]

I really just want them to return to the old formula. World Map with separate locations and then turn-based battles.
I think that formula really worked for them and I never quite understood why they felt that better hardware insisted that they change the formula. As for the battles, the problem is there are so few ways to do battles with multiple characters (which I feel does add to the story as it invests you more in them as a team). The only 2 ways to do team battles I can think of are either the traditional turn-based or the kind of real-time turn-based (i.e FF12, Dragon Age, Xenoblade Chronicles)

This is how I feel. While I thought XIII was a good game and XII was a great game, I liked the classic winning formula a lot more. What I enjoyed about FFVII and X is that they didn't do away with it completely, they instead leveraged new technology to enhance its immersion and make it do things that were impossible for the older games.

Speaking of which, I want them to break down the barriers between cutscenes and gameplay which VII worked so hard to demolish all those years ago. I want to steer the motorcycle and pilot the submarine again, those moments are what made the story so much more memorable than it otherwise would have been.

I don't expect a return to turn based combat but I would like them to build on the foundation of FFXII. The Gambit system was the best implementation of a real time, command-driven combat system of any game I've played. I honestly can't fathom why they took such a giant step back with XIII. Now Type-0 and XV look to be unabashed action games. Kinda sucks I have to hold out hope for the next one to see if they return to games I want to play.

[Leigh]

We're never going to have a sequel-proper to what we call here 'The Golden Age of Final Fantasy' which was pretty much the PS1 generation. I think that the best we could possibly ask for now is that Final Fantasy becomes a great action genre. The best thing Square-Enix should, but won't do, is take the pressure off themselves by ending the franchise. A call for the end of Final Fantasy.

They need to take the pressure off of themselves caused by the legacy AAA title, spending so much money on a game that is merely adequate or average. It's met with lukewarm criticism from fans and then they have to spend time making spin-offs with crayoned in gameplay add ons. There's more towns in this one! Are they interesting and relevant? Er, no... Oh, well what's the point? Well dudes said they wanted more towns like t'old games...Y U NO APPY?! I can't help but feel that they just try to tack on every gameplay element that is in trend right now without it being the original intention of the game design.

"Wuts relevant these days peeps?" "Well open-world games are doing really well now, boss!" "What is our game like?" "A renaissance of wonderfully designed corridors, sir!" "Oh...well can we stick a giant empty field in the middle of it somewhere? That should satisfy people's exploration curiosity right?" "Y-yeah..err, I guess!" "Awesome! We're gonna make so much money from fans still living in the past. Like Sega! So des ne?" "Hai Hai!"

Diagnosis: Final Fantasy is like an old 70s hard rock band. They were fantastic in the past, and they're still touring today. But nobody is really interested in their new old man material, even if the recording and mixing equipment is better. Everyone just wants to hear the old songs. They've lost the edginess, and the singer probably has a few vocal nodules by now.

Treatment: Split up the band. Create a new band. Put some, but not too much money, in a game that is lovingly crafted that doesn't need 6 months to create one single cut scene.

[Electroshock Therapy]

No, I don't want them to make games like they once did. Why? Because they already made them. I'm happy they are branching out and trying new things. After all this time, developing "classic" Final Fantasy has probably gotten boring. And, really, not everyone thinks the new games suck or aren't "as good." I've really only seen that on FF forums from long-time fans. Newcomers seem to be more open.

I'm not trying to say older fans are close-minded. Seriously! I understand why the new games don't appeal. Many came into the franchise during the SNES and PS1 eras and fell in love with the series because of what they had to offer. I can understand if you're disappointed they no longer deliver those games.

I liken this to a long time band. Those who loved the band when they just started end up losing their interest when the band starts changing their sound. Fans want to the band to "return to their roots" whether the band want to or not. New fans jump right in to their discography and try out bits of everything: old stuff, middle work, and newer material. They don't have a vision of the "true" band, or what they want to call the "true" band.

I see the same thing with Final Fantasy or any long-time game series. Final Fantasy is taking a new direction. Older fans don't always like it. Newer fans don't seem to care as much. They come in, are fascinated, and just want to play the games. It doesn't always matter if it's old school or new.

Now, whether the game's quality is good or not is debatable. Because that's entirely subjective, I have no defense for that. But I don't think Square Enix should be considered to be losing their way simply because they don't make Final Fantasy like they used to. Because that's just it: they used to. They already made it, time to move on.