Wired: Final Fantasy Isn’t Dying. It’s Already Dead

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Poetic.Injustice

Member
Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I think I’m gonna call it: Final Fantasy is dead.

It’s hard to pinpoint an exact time of death on this one, but at some point during the last decade the world’s foremost Japanese role-playing game series keeled over and kicked the bucket, and now Square Enix is pretty much just defiling the corpse.
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What inspiration, if any, will breast-jiggling simulator Lightning Returns pass down to a new generation of game creators? Somewhere along the line, Final Fantasy lost the plot. Original creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is long gone, and if he attempted to pass the torch to a new generation they dropped it, let it go out in the dirt and kept running anyway. The 2001 game Final Fantasy X wasn’t that bad, but the next game after that, the awkwardly-named Final Fantasy X-2, decided that what the series needed was to take all the female player characters, give them skimpier outfits and make them into J-pop stars.
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And it was pretty much all downhill from there. The Final Fantasy hydra has many heads, and it’s not just the console games that are continuing the legacy of the series. But everywhere you look, it’s bad news. The original version of the Final Fantasy XIV massively multiplayer online game was so poorly received by fans that Square Enix shut it down and rebuilt it from the ground up, at what had to be an exorbitant expense. And once the new version comes out, even if it’s good, it’s still going to be an MMO with a monthly fee in an era dominated by the free-to-play model. On mobile platforms we’re getting games like Final Fantasy: All the Bravest, critically excoriated as a naked gameplay-free cash grab.
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http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/07/final-fantasy-is-dead/

Before anyone uses this image.

fb0.jpg
 
Toriyama wanted for murder.

I don't think FF is dead, but XIII, XIII-2, Lightning Returns and the failed release of XIV have not helped. It has been a colossal failure of a generation for Square.
 
I'm with Chris Kohler on this one. That image of Lightning pretty much sums up my disgust of the franchise. This is coming from someone who grew up loving the 8-bit through PSX era FFs.
 
Kyoufu said:
Toriyama wanted for murder.

I don't think FF is dead, but XIII, XIII-2, Lightning Returns and the failed release of XIV have not helped. It has been a colossal failure of a generation for Square.
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Shit ain't even out yet

What's it like in the future?
 
I think, regardless of how good you consider FFX-2, it did set the absolute worst precedent for the series ever. Here they are, before FFXV has even released, and they're already talking about FFXV-2. Fuck off, SE.

I think it speaks volumes of the state the series is in that, here, at the start of a new generation, their premier mainline Final Fantasy being announced in conjunction with the new consoles is a game they announced before the PS3 launched. Holy christ.
 
That bent over picture of Lightning flashing her tits made me do an about-thread bail out

It's pretty fucking awful
 
"breast-jiggling simulator"? That's not entirely fair.

Final Fantasy is now a misguided trainwreck of a series... a mere shell of what it was, but that's independent of some cheesy costumes.
 
I actually think the series was okay until FFXII
FFX-2 was a welcome comeback of the job system with an interesting twist.
FFXII was one of the best JRPGs I played storywise.

FFXIII however was a mess. The gameplay was great but everything else fell flat. Bad characters, bad story... I reeally did not care about the sequel and i dont think i will care about lightning returns.

One should also mention that the sideseries (FFT, christal chronicles) were neglected
 
I was a massive Final Fantasy fan in the 16bit days and PS1 era. Wasn't too fond of FFX but Loved FF12. After watching FF13 trailers I didn't even consider buying the game. The franchise is pretty much dead to me at this point.

I think Kohler is right here. FF6 and 7 were serious, epic games that tackled serious themes. Now they're making a game with boob physics.
 
I actually just bought xiii-2 in anticipation for Lightning Returns. I haven't played any of the current gen Final Fantasies, but I think LR and XV both look really cool.
 
Other JRPGs have already stepped to fill in that niche this generation anyway, FF could come back with XV but for me I've already moved on.
 
Goto and Toriyama were talking about Lightning's cup size and jiggle because they were asked about it in that interview. They didn't bring it up.

Chris also states: "But if in 2013 this is what a Q&A session about Final Fantasy has become, then any claim that the series once had something approaching mainstream respectability done gone and caught the train out of town." He's using one interview and casting a very wide judgement about the franchise because of it. Meanwhile, there are literally dozens of perfectly normal, non-boob-centric interviews about Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy XIV, XV, etc.

Concludes with: "At this point, it’s tough to see a path back to relevance for Final Fantasy, if the caretakers of the series are spending their creative cycles thinking about the particulars of breast physics." Yes, I'm sure all they are thinking about are breast physics. They go into work every day, work 12 hour days and do nothing but think about breast physics. Give me a break.

This is a poorly thought out, inaccurate hit piece based on someone who got all flustered a dev dare talk about sexuality of the characters in his video game when asked about it. I expect way more from Chris.
 
With a fantastic "A Realm Reborn" less than one month away claming something like that really tells alot about the writer.

Embarassing article.
 
Been dead to me since I first saw X. Hoped it was coming back to life with XII but that didn't work out very well.
 
The franchise itself isn't dead, but the FF8 team. (The guys responsible for 8, 10, and 13,) shouldn't be let anywhere near the franchise ever again, EVER! Honestly, I'm surprised Square hadn't learned their lesson on this after 8, though I suppose 10 wasn't too bad.

I'm enjoying FFXIV ARR however, and I have reasonable confidence in XV.
 
Kohler's fatalistic 'console gaming is dead' era, following hot on the heels of his 'Brave New Nintendo Empire' era.

Final Fantasy 13 and its spin offs are terrible, no doubt. Hopefully they bomb and Motomu is removed from the premises, but you know what? XIV: Realm Reborn is the most enjoyment I've had out of the IP since... FF12 I guess, and Vers..ahem... 15 looks like some great times.

I hated both X and of course X-2, so I already went through the FF is dead to me phase.
 
I don't think Lightning is the problem. More like the way her story is milked. And more like the way Square Enix handled their projects. The long delay of Final Fantasy Versus XIII... no Kingdom Hearts III this generation... The Final Fantasy XIV no-one-asked shenanigans...
 
Weird how we can warp the definition of "dead" to whatever we feel like on any given day.

I wish F-zero was only as dead as final fantasy, etc.
 
Granted its a lifeless husk of what it used to be, but thats a different argument.13 sold pretty well didn't it? Like 5+ million copies. That doesn't sound dead to me.
 
1 good game is all it takes, not sequels to a villified main game. Will FFXV be that game? I have my doubts, but a series is never dead as long as there are new games coming out that show potential, which XV does.

mesmerMAN said:
FF12 was the first nail
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I'd say X. XIII simply continued down the path X started taking and simplified it even further, XII was a different beast altogether. A glorious beast.
 
Kyoufu said:
Toriyama wanted for murder.

I don't think FF is dead, but XIII, XIII-2, Lightning Returns and the failed release of XIV have not helped. It has been a colossal failure of a generation for Square.
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It really has. Putting out some solid handheld games wasn't good enough, either. SE didn't just drop the ball - they stood dumbfounded as it rolled off the court.
 
You know game journalists and critics always give the games an 8 at least.

It's like when people relaized 3D Sonic sucked or something after some years
 
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