Final Fantasy: A Retrospective
Part 3 – The PSone Years: Final Fantasy goes mainstream!
Tags: Final Fantasy XII Categories: Features, PS2 Features
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Oct 25th, 2006
After two hardware generations of loyalty to Nintendo (and don’t think Sega didn’t try to lure SquareSoft over to the Genesis and, later, the Saturn – albeit unsuccessfully), when Square announced that they were leaving Nintendo’s fold and the forthcoming N64 system in favor of developing for Sony’s upstart, CD-ROM-based PlayStation system, it came as a shock to many. Nintendo loyalists cried traitor, Sony executives rejoiced, and outside-of-the-industry analysts wondered what the heck all the fuss was over.
Keep in mind that even though the Final Fantasy series had been a company-saver for Square, and a decent, though not spectacular, seller in the US, it was only in Japan where the RPG genre was seen not only as a mass-market money-maker, but a cultural phenomenon. So, many outside the gaming industry didn’t understand what the dust-up was over Sony snagging exclusivity with the top RPG maker in Japan when everyone knew, at the time, that previous console wars had been won on the strength of their platform titles, sports titles, and fighting games – never RPGs.
That’s where Sony had some foresight; they believed that if more people became aware of RPGs, the genre could evolve into a mass-market mover-and-shaker. And for their part, Square was definitely lured by the vast storage space of the CD-ROM format, compared to the relatively tiny space available on N64’s cartridge format.
Of course, those trucks of money Sony backed up to Square’s warehouse probably had something to do with it, also. Sony’s commitment went beyond developer-luring, though, when the company devoted a then-industry record amount of advertising dollars into pushing the game to the moon and make their investment pay off in console sales. Of course, if the game itself hadn’t been good, none of that wouldn’t have mattered. Fortunately, SquareSoft was coming off their most successful Final Fantasy to date, one that laid the blueprint for what was to come.
Final Fantasy VII (1997 JP/US/UK)
To some degree, it has been argued – and not without merit – that Final Fantasy VII is merely second draft of Final Fantasy VI. Every game element that worked well in Final Fantasy VI showed up again in Final Fantasy VII, only there was more of it.
Mini-games provided some variety in VI when they made their FF debut? VII was loaded with ‘em. The opera scene was emotionally moving in VI? VII was loaded with heart-touching moments, a move that marked Final Fantasy moving away from strictly action-based storylines to a more complete form of character-driven storytelling. The anti-nuke allegory was compelling in VI? VII removed the subtlety. The touches of steampunk were well-received in VI? VII was full-on steampunk fantasy in William Gibson mode.
Everyone who knows Final Fantasy knows the story of Final Fantasy VII. Cloud Strife is the main character of the tale and begins the story as a man out for profit as part of the military group SOLDIER, but soon shifts in motivation to become a person concerned with saving the world from Shinra Corporation and, ultimately, from the power-mad Sephiroth.
Along the way Cloud crosses paths with eight others, including a lovely pair of ladies by the names of Tifa and Aeris. The love triangle that develops is a classic because, like all great love stories, it is decided not by anyone involved but through the tragic hand of fate.
In much the same way that Roy Thomas (stepping in for Stan Lee) helped Peter Parker decide between Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane Watson by taking the choice out of his hands, so too did Square ultimately rob Cloud of a choice, and the decisive moment is often cited by many as one of the first scenes in a videogame that actually made them shed tears.
Strong on story, Final Fantasy VII was another example of the series overbalancing the game in favor of magic. The materia system played a central role in FFVII and made nonmagical, physical combat a bit too mundane and underpowered. Also, aware they were now shooting for a mass audience around the world and not just in Japan, Square dumbed the game down a bit, reducing the challenge level throughout, except perhaps for the end-boss battle.
Yet more than the love story, more than the easier game play, more than any other element, what really made Final Fantasy VII a success was the “wow” factor of the game. Boasting some of the most eye-popping full-motion video ever seen in a videogame at that time, the cinematic storytelling took center stage. It’s unfortunate that the FMV was used almost exclusively in most promotional materials, since the actual in-game graphics were nowhere near as advanced, and the unfortunate bait-and-switch left some folks with a bitter taste in their mouth that they’ve never gotten over.
Still in all, Final Fantasy VII is definitely one of the top three Final Fantasy games of the mainline series, and certainly the most pivotal in transforming the series from a niche genre game into a mainstream cultural phenomenon. It also helped Sony make their PlayStation console the clear winner of the console war from then on, leaving the N64 and Saturn in their sales dust. (Of course, a couple other titles, like Tomb Raider 2 and Gran Turismo also played a hand.) Whether you put FFVI, FFVII or FFX atop your personal list of favorites often depends on whether you’re an SNES, PSone or PS2 convert to the series.
Final Fantasy VIII (1999 JP/US/UK)
When the reaction to the death of Aeris came in on Final Fantasy VII, it inspired Square to focus on a new storyline truism: Love sells. That was something of a revelation to the developer, who was accustomed to assuming girls were not much on the mind of the preteen boy audience they were used to catering to. But Final Fantasy VII made it clear that on the less-censored, more adult market the PlayStation was drawing, love was a legitimate theme. More importantly, it helped draw more female gamers to the RPG genre than ever before. Out of this mix of influences was born Final Fantasy VIII.
The story centers around Squall Leonhart, a teenager studying the military and academic disciplines at Balamb Garden, hoping he has what it takes to serve in the SeeD forces. He is bound to encounter the alluring Rinoa Heartilly, another SeeD hopeful. An unlikely pairing at first, when the two of them grow close their devotion to each other will be tested beyond the limits of the mortal coil.
You see, the predominant message behind Final Fantasy VIII basically centers on the human cost of war. As such, FFVIII is the least magical, least fantasy-based installment in the Final Fantasy franchise. Set in a futuristic SF world, there is no innate magic ability in your characters; instead, a “draw system” is used in which you basically suck the energy out of your opponents and store it in order to perform spells. However, aside from Guardian Force summons, most of the magic in the game is woefully underpowered (save for healing-type spells), and usually you’ll get more bang for your buck my using physical attacks.
That stands in stark contrast to FFVII, in which magic was overpowered and physical attacks almost meaningless. The other unique element to FFVIII was the junction system, which was a weird twist on the jobs system. Gone are traditional concepts like armor changes and instead your ability to withstand punishment rests primarily on tweaking your abilities through this system. In fact, gone are a lot of traditional fantasy elements, replaced by planes, trains and automobiles! (Not a popular choice among series loyalists.)
FFVIII is a love it or hate it experience, but it does answer the question of what Square might have done if there had been a way to bring Aeris back to life, and the response is that although FFVIII is a much more powerful love story than FFVII, to this day it is still the tragedy of the Cloud-Tifa-Aeris love triangle that captivates and haunts Final Fantasy fans, while the tale of Squall and Rinoa, though much more emotionally honest and mature, remains largely under-appreciated. Guess it goes to show that sometimes storytellers know more about what the public wants than the public does.
Final Fantasy IX (2000 JP/US/2001 UK)
In Square’s farewell to the original PlayStation, Final Fantasy IX, the series took a sharp turn back it its fantasy roots for the first time since Final Fantasy V. Back were all the elements early fans of the series loved, including the stereotypically-dressed black mage character, a costume that, Final Fantasy Tactics aside, had been absent from the series since the SNES days.
Gone as well were the more realistic characters, replaced by the anime-style, superdeformed characters of Final Fantasies past. Banished are airplanes, rail systems and cars, which popped up in Final Fantasy VIII, to the great relief of traditional Final Fantasy fans. With their steampunk phase in full retreat, and a full-on fantasy setting restored, FFIX begins as a heady nostalgia trip that caps the series well at the end of the series’ third hardware era. Unfortunately, the nostalgia wears off about halfway through the game when it becomes apparent that FFIX is a mish-mash of elements from the last three games and it begins to feel more like a retread.
Love once again fascinates Square’s creative types in FFIX, although this time instead of the tragic love lost of FFVII or the undying romantic devotion of FFVIII, this time out the story is solidly focused on the concept of love based deeply in self-sacrificing friendship. The game focuses on Zidane, part of a group known as Tantalus, who kidnap the Princess Garnet, and a black mage by the name of Vivi.
Of course, anyone who’s seen Disney’s Aladdin will find the basic concept to be somewhat familiar; the rouguish boy (Zidane) and the royal gal (Garnet) hit it off despite him playing a role in her kidnapping and before you know it, they’re devoted to one another. It’s a sweet tale, but thin on characterization and the sort of deep, detailed plotting that had dominated the Final Fantasy series for three straight installments, from FFVI to FFVIII.
The item creation system takes the place of junctioning or materia, and the FMV gets mercifully briefer, but ultimately Final Fantasy IX comes off just a bit rushed – released only a year after FFVIII – and while the game is not deeply flawed, it’s also not deeply great. This is mostly because FFIX was never origianlly intended to be a full-on chapter of the series, but a side-story. Only late in the development cycle was it decided that the game would become FFXI.
The game also marked the return of Yoshitaka Amano as lead character designer, a role he’d held from Final Fantasy to FFVI. In FFVII and FFVIII, Amano was replaced by Tetsuya Nomura, and Nomura would go on to design characters in FFX, but Amano was welcomed back to the fold for FFIX for what was, in essence, a dedication piece to longtime series fans who missed Amano’s distinctive style.
Of course, what no one realized was that Square’s attention was perhaps a bit diverted, this time to the eye-popping hardware abilities of Sony’s PlayStation successor, the PlayStation 2. With visions of characters who can display on-screen emotion dancing in their heads, Square’s Final Fantasy teams were already focused deeply on their PlayStation 2 debut, Final Fantasy X.
Final Fantasy: A Retrospective: Introduction
Final Fantasy: A Retrospective: Part 2 – The SNES Years
Final Fantasy: A Retrospective: Part 4 – The PS2 Years
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Tags: Final Fantasy XII
Posted by Craig "American Idle" Hansen on Oct 25th, 2006 and is filed under Features, PS2 Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
