Final Fantasy Eras

[Wolf Kanno]

For me, the eras come down more to the behind the scenes stuff and who is creatively in control. Largely because I feel it paints what the games released in the time frame feel like. The only entry I go back and forth on is FFXV, since its development started at the beginning of one era and is associated heavily with FNC before getting turned into an official number title in what feels like a very different era. Part of me feels the end of the third era really happened with FFXIV ARR being officially released.

As for XI, the MMOs are always annoying to place, but I lumped it together with the Golden Age since it's development and release largely fell into the era and it one of the projects Sakaguchi was excited for. Not to mention, it was a huge success for Square and the franchise. X-2 feels more like the first major shift for the franchise, since it's the first sequel, the first official game under the SE banner, and the first one largely developed without Sakaguchi's input. The third era is largely marked for me as an era where SE designed titles with the intent of EU type content, so Ivalice Alliance, Compilation of FF, and the FNC largely define this era for me.