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[SuperLupeRap]

Final Fantasy used to be my favorite series ever and till this day FF9 is still one of the most amazing pieces of entertainment I've experienced all medias combined. IMO what made FF special was the feeling of losing yourself in an incredible adventure and story.

For whatever reason ever since FFX they seem to TOTALLY disregard making a coherent and interesting story and focus instead on flashy action/RPG like combat even if the entire game universe makes no sense.

Any explanation at what's the logic behind this direction? Is it that current FF players are a different crowd from the PS1 days or do they really believe that a good story and universe won't sell?

 

[Gavin Stevens]

Belts. Everything is belts. Story is way down the list, after belts, boobs, and annoying voices.

 

[B_Boss]

I haven't played a full FF game since 9. I couldn't stand 10 and haven't really cared for them since 9 sadly...

 

[Armorian]

When I played FFXIII I was like "WTF?" when characters casualy used terms like l'cie, fal'cie, pulse etc. without any real explenation. You have to go to datalog and read lenghty texts to make any sense of the game world. In FFX pretty much everything was explained in cutscenes/dialogue.

FFXII story was pretty basic and rushed in last 1/3 of the game
FFXV story is not bad, but full of holes without DLCs

 

[caffeware]

 

[Cao Cao]

Maybe developer changed.

 

[GymWolf]

To me the last one with a good story was ff9, not 10...

But people said to me that ff14 with the expansion has the better jrpg story of this gen...

 

[mcz117chief]

Most people agree that FF XIV has a great story (I haven't played it). As for me Final Fantasy XIII-2 has the best story out of all the FF games that I played. The only one that comes close is Type-0 but that game is just pure Lovecraftian insanity so it is hard to quantify it as "good", it really depends what kind of stories you like. X's story is ok. I liked the characters way more than the story. Even World of Final Fantasy has a more interesting story than X for me.

 

[KiteGr]

The team that makes them change.

Yasumi Matsuno was originally supposed to direct ff12 and wrote the original story, but he was forced to step down due to health problems. He clearly had a plan, as he was originally planning to break the taboo of Japanese rpgs and make the protagonist an adult. SE had none of it, and we ended up with Van. Along with the changes his successors made, we ended up with the trainwreck we have now.

 

[Garnox]

New leadership and the Enix merger.

X was the last Squaresoft game and under new management they released the first big Square-Enix title, which also happen to be the first direct sequel...FFX-2.

To me that's when it all changed. No longer did they just focus on and craft a well put together single game. Spin offs, sequels, and spreading themselves too thin with too many projects was their undoing.

 

[sublimit]

I think FFXII also had the potential to have a really good story if Matsuno hadn't left the project.

IMO FF as a series is more character driven than story driven and their problem is either they are trying too much to make the characters appeal to Western audiences (without knowing how) or because thanks to the more realistic graphics they are forcing them to become overly serious in tone to the the point they become almost pretendious and convoluted.

I think FF needs to return to more simple stories and characters like those of FFIX with a sense of humor and charm. But i don't think this will ever happen in the main series because they seem to be interested in more and more photorealistic graphics something that also restricts the tone of the stories and characters into more "serious" ones. The fans and current market trends are also to blame for that.

 

[demented waffle]

11 had the best story telling in the series IMO.

 

[TeamGhobad]

I agree, FFX is an amazing game. X-2 was just stupid fan service. Never played ff12 but all the reviewers at the time said it didn't feel like a FF game in terms of scope or story. What changed? I think High-Level story writers from Squaresoft left.

 

[Dis]

After the merger some people left
Director of FFXII left during dev
FFXIV 1.0 was heavily outsourced iirc and tanaka left too

I think the company was trying way too hard with ff13 vs13 agito13
Whats that bias thing called? like when u invest too much but u keep investing to save it. But it ends up even bigger mess.

FF15 was cut up way too hard way too many scenes from trailer (im not talking vs13) did not make the game
And tabata got lucky with Crisis Core and agito 13 being ported because maybe i think we where thirsty for squeenix

Nice avatar btw

Ohh wait and also Yoichi Wada the company ceo wanted to re-use assets
Thats why X-2 happened. iirc and maybe thats why 13x3 happened?

 

[ValiantTraveler]

XII's story is undercooked due to Matsuno leaving mid-development, but it still has lost of great story beats (any scene with Balthier or Vayne) and is well worth playing the game for.

As much as I regret the direction Square has taken after X, I'd like to check out the story in XIV one day. I believe Naoki Yoshida is the only current employee capable of bringing back FF to its past glory, if only a little, but Square is stuck with VII Remake and still unaware of what it does wrong.

 

[bigol]

FF X story was well told, was impressively directed by 2001 standards, but it was not particularly good, nor characters were well written except for Yuna and Auron.

Yet i agree that things went even worse with latest Final fantasy games. What is changed compared to FF X is every mainline FF had troubled development. FF XII, XIII and XV all had to be rewritten, or reworked in significant ways, let's hope XVI won't have the same issues.

 

[Quasicat]

I played through XII and enjoyed the political stuff that was there. Played the XIII games for a dozen hours or so each and fell off of them hard. I really should give XV a try, but I’m afraid I’ve moved on from liking Final Fantasy. I love IX and VI, but VII is my favorite one in the series.

 

[Northeastmonk]

At the time, around release, every Final Fantasy does itself very well. It’s over time that you realize which game left a lasting impression on you.

I finished X during its PS2 launch week and I’ve never really had a push to replay it. It was good at the time and I worry that the overall quality would sour my nostalgia. X-2 felt so weird because it wasn’t what I expected. XII was excellent, but you can’t focus on changes so much. It had a great cast, music, and plot.

XIII was alright. I think XIII-2, LR, and so forth was when I stopped thinking they were amazing “must own” games. I imported XIII and finished it. Then I saw XIII-2 and LE. I thought they over did it. LR’s time mechanic sounded awful. XV was just boring to me. I got bored with running around and the characters were awful. I don’t care about the guy cast at all.

I think I also miss the feeling of VIII, IX, VII, VI, III, and etc. the characters from XIII onward haven’t given me a good lasting impression. I’m more excited for the VIIR than anything new from Final Fantasy. I honestly don’t think they can outperform their work from 1-12, but who knows? I’m super impressed by what I see in VIIR (then again that’s a Remake).

 

[sublimit]

FF X story was well told, was impressively directed by 2001 standards, but it was not particularly good, nor characters were well written except for Yuna and Auron.

Yet i agree that things went even worse with latest Final fantasy games. What is changed compared to FF X is every mainline FF had troubled development. FF XII, XIII and XV all had to be rewritten, or reworked in significant ways, let's hope XVI won't have the same issues.

FFXIV had a similar fate yet it was (eventually) well received by the fanbase.

 

[sunnysideup]

no last good final fantasy was final fantasy 9

Square turned to shit when they mergered with enix. When they where squaresoft every damn game was awesome.

 

[-Arcadia-]

This. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the creator being forced out, and the series taking a dramatic drop in quality, happened at about the same time.

 

[JimboJones]

no last good final fantasy was final fantasy 9

Square turned to shit when they mergered with enix. When they where squaresoft every damn game was awesome.

Except FF2, that game was hot doo doo

 

[Fuz]

 

[Fuz]

Most people agree that FF XIV has a great story

GUESS WHO DIDN'T TOUCH THAT GAME!

 

[Vawn]

Ugh, FFX is one of my least favorite Final Fantasy games. FFXIII is the most similar to X and does pretty much everything better, even if it's still not great.

FFXI, FFXII and FFXIV are all fantastic games. So, I don't agree with your premise of this thread. FFXV is a far cry from what I want from the franchise though.

 

[Aion002]

They decided to pursue graphics above story, characters and content.

XII showed signs of this and XIII was the beginning of it, now XV is Square-Enix 101 on how to do a pretty game that is a mess.

XIV is excellent now but started as a terrible game.

 

[SantaC]

FFXII story was ok actually.

 

[Psykodad]

To me the last one with a good story was ff9, not 10...

But people said to me that ff14 with the expansion has the better jrpg story of this gen...

FF XIV ARR story was good and enjoyable, but they stepped up their game starting from Heavensward.

If you don't mind the subscription fee, FF XIV is highly recommended.
Easily the best FF since FF IX.

 

[Fbh]

At this point I don't know anymore.
I used to think the decline of FF was simply because Square went to hell as a developer, specially after the merger with Enix. But then I look at this gen and Dragon Quest XI was great, Kingdom Hearts 3 isn't my thing but fans seems to have liked it, everyone praises FFXIV not only as an MMO but also for its world and story.

It's like the problem is specifically single player mainline Final Fantasy.

 

[SantaC]

I dont remember why the story in FF9 was seen as good? Kuja was meh, and the final boss came out of nowhere.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Stories have been ok. Even 13 had acceptable story. They floundered with delivery.

 

[E.T. Waifu]

I dont remember why the story in FF9 was seen as good? Kuja was meh, and the final boss came out of nowhere.

Kind of agree tbh.

 

[UltimaKilo]

While FFX was OK, everything after was garbage. Unfortunately for me, what I enjoyed the most out of FF games was the music and the story.

 

[bhunachicken]

FF12 wasn't too bad, but it should've been about Basch or Ash, not Vaan.

(I think it originally was, wasn't it..?)

 

[Belmonte]

Breaks my heart how great FFXII story could have been. It had the potential to be the best story FF ever if they didn't messed with Matsuno's vision.

 

[Fuz]

I dont remember why the story in FF9 was seen as good? Kuja was meh, and the final boss came out of nowhere.

This is true, but literally everything else was great. Characters, art direction, tone, musics, combat, world building... all amazing.

 

[BacklashWave534]

The father of FF left. Sadly, since then story hasn't been a priority. I would argue that FFX's story was just mediocre.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Final Fantasy X was good. It's my second favorite entry after Final Fantasy IX. Square Enix just predicted action-RPGs to be the next logical evolution of the franchise and to be fair it wasn't the only Japanese IP to feature more action-oriented combat. The series still focused on telling stories even if they weren't as good.

I don't believe that they only recently focused more on graphics because Final Fantasy X and XII clearly had good graphics for the time on top of the impressive cutscenes. I personally didn't think about the series decline until Final Fantasy XIII, mainly because people were freaking out about the game coming to Xbox 360.

 

[Bonfires Down]

I tried playing FFX but I couldn't stand it for more than a few hours. I think that adding shitty voice acting really highlights how ridiculous the dialogue is. The dialogue is probably not too different from FFVI and FFVII which I loved, but hearing it out loud just doesn't work.

 

[Deleted member 774430]

Most of the best developers there left. Sakaguchi left, MonolithSoft guys left,...

But to me really after FFX Square Enix shifted FF to be more appealing to western audiences and that's where i feel the quality started to decline in favor of something perhaps technically more impressive but also less unique.

 

[PSlayer]

I was baffled by how convoluted FF13 story was.

It took me like 3 hours and many cutscenes to understand that Fal'cie and L'cie where actually two different things.

FF10 was an alright game but to me it was the beginning of the nose dive as far as story goes. All the flaws FF13 had can be traced back to 10.

 

[Myths]

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

I dont remember why the story in FF9 was seen as good? Kuja was meh, and the final boss came out of nowhere.

Zidane's background is interesting as it also ties with Kuja (they are both Genomes created by Garland). The supporting cast (Vivi, Steiner, Freya etc) is also amazing. Overall, the story doesn't play out too differently from classic Final Fantasy games but there is plenty of depth and exciting moments throughout even if Necron came out of nowhere at the end.

 

[Raven117]

FF XIV ARR story was good and enjoyable, but they stepped up their game starting from Heavensward.

If you don't mind the subscription fee, FF XIV is highly recommended.
Easily the best FF since FF IX.

It really is this. Ffxiv is the game you are looking for.

 

[Whitecrow]

Anime, moe, and fanservice happened.

 

[Sub_Level]

IMO what made FF special was the feeling of losing yourself in an incredible adventure and story.

Sounds like FFXIV is for you. The main draw of that game for many is the characters and story. Hundreds of hours worth of story at this point.

Don't let the fact that its an MMO keep you from the best FF story to date. It has all the accompanying high fidelity visuals, music, and production value you've also come to expect from the series. And if you are a singleplayer guy, rest assured most of the content can be experienced solo. Whenever you need to do a dungeon or boss fight, the game can automatically group you with others. You don't have to set up a chat room, get a microphone, e.t.c. if you don't want to.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

This. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the creator being forced out, and the series taking a dramatic drop in quality, happened at about the same time.

Which is why the actual last good FF story was Lost Odyssey.

Lost Odyssey kicks ass.

 

[mcz117chief]

GUESS WHO DIDN'T TOUCH THAT GAME!

You!

 

[GymWolf]

FF XIV ARR story was good and enjoyable, but they stepped up their game starting from Heavensward.

If you don't mind the subscription fee, FF XIV is highly recommended.
Easily the best FF since FF IX.

I hate combat in mmorpg in general, so no amount of good story can convince me to play that game unfortunately.

 

[wvnative]

After FFX they just went through a prolonged identity crisis and didn't know how to manage the series and there were just so many issues with development of multiple games, financial issues after that first movie tanked etc.

I feel like they are on the right path though, and I feel like Final Fantasy VII is going to be the start of a new age for Square-Enix as a whole.