I have played and enjoyed the franchise ever since Final Fantasy 7 on the PS1 and have gone back to play every other mainline game and many, many spin-offs. Everything about those spoke to me as a gamer: the over-the-top anime stories and characters, the turn-based combat that didn’t require any arcade skills, and the amazing artistry of the visuals and soundtrack.
Some of these elements still exist in the modern games but I already felt them start to get away from me after Final Fantasy 12, when the focus moved firmly onto action-based battles and sci-fi settings mixed with a lot of real world elements. The fantasy, for me, was becoming less interesting and less identifiable as the franchise I knew. And then I saw the new Final Fantasy 16 trailer.
I’d already seen the reveal trailer last year and had concerns, but the new gameplay footage confirms to me two things: the battles are completely action-based and the setting is so Westernised it’s barely identifiable as Final Fantasy. It just looks like a generic Tolkien-esque world mixed with Game of Thrones and a million miles away from other Japanese made fantasy settings, like Final Fantasy 9.
The wild invention and uniqueness of that game stands in such sharp contrast to Final Fantasy 16, which I don’t think anyone would identify as either Final Fantasy or made by Japanese developers if they were just looking at the raw footage without any logos.
I feel that’s important. If a game doesn’t look or feel anything like the franchise it’s supposed to be from then what’s the point? You might as well call it something else. But they won’t because the name Final Fantasy sells, and yet Square Enix seem to be against making anything that actually represents that name.
The only thing that might give it away is the inclusion of creatures like Shiva, Odin, Bahamut, and Ifrit, but they’re portrayed in a generic enough way that they could be anyone. They also don’t really fit with the rest of it anyway and look like they’ve been shoehorned in order to convince fans this really is a Final Fantasy game.
It’s fine though, I’m not going to complain. Or at least not in the angry, entitled way some gamers seem to. If turn-based Final Fantasy games with weird fantasy settings aren’t going to make their money back anymore then so be it. If I was in charge of Square Enix I’d probably make the same business decision.
What I wish they would do though is create some decent alternatives. All their attempts to make an old school Japanese role-player always come out as these weird, fossilised relics like Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy, with their ugly HD-2D graphics and their fetishisation of the past. That’s not what I want.
What I want is more like an alternative, evolutionary path. Like, what would have happened if Final Fantasy had stayed a turn-based series and didn’t get obsessed with sci-if? That’s a very different proposition to ‘Let’s just make a pretend SNES game’.
My idea would be more expensive than these other games, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be mega budget. A good old fashioned AA game would be fine. Something that wasn’t just trying to repeat the past but also wasn’t desperately trying to copy other games that are popular in the present
Joseph King
>I don’t recognise Final Fantasy 16 as the franchise I used to love You are late as fuck. Things were going downhill starting with X, the last Squaresoft game.
Benjamin Nguyen
>WORDSWORDSWORDSWORDS
Ethan Cruz
Barry thread
Joseph Torres
>the inclusion of creatures like Shiva, Odin, Bahamut, and Ifrit, but they’re portrayed in a generic enough way that they could be anyone. i am speaking unironically: kill yourself, it's the only way you'll be happy again.
>Final Fantasy 16, which I don’t think anyone would identify as either Final Fantasy or made by Japanese developers if they were just looking at the raw footage without any logos. youtu.be/NLEpIBBzJHc?t=17 >it's final fantasy youtu.be/KZRpUmu7dAs?t=37 >absolutely is final fantasy youtu.be/6_re_qJlZMc?t=15 >oh shit is this final fantasy
Owen Gonzalez
Looked like Final Fantasy to me from the moment I watched the reveal trailer.
Gonna preorder it for my PS5
Keep seething OP ;)
Christian Foster
Final Fantasy is dead. It is only Tranny Fantasy now.
OP is pretty based and how I feel. Though Ill lap up this shit and give squenix a rimjob while Im at it when it releases.
Adam Cox
>I have played and enjoyed the franchise ever since Final Fantasy 7 on the PS1 If you didn't start on the famicom and play every game as they were released, your opinion doesn't matter.
Elijah Rogers
Final Fantasy went from a RPG series into action games. Just play the other Square turn based games.
> Like, what would have happened if Final Fantasy had stayed a turn-based series and didn’t get obsessed with sci-if? probably something like divinity/pathfinder
Evan Thomas
Lol inb4 dragon quest is ruined by this shit for XII. Lol only low budget, low effort mock snes turn-based games for rest of eternity.
Gabriel Davis
The craziest shit to me about this whole turn-based vs action RPG argument is that it was obvious that SE were always seeking out something more interactive for FF. I mean shit like ATB and Gambit are already more diagonal to action RPGs than the are to turn-based RPGs. People acting shocked and surprised that the moment action RPGs gained a decent popularity base they moved on are genuinely irredeemably retarded.
Sebastian Mitchell
>FF7 baby thinks a medieval setting means it's westernised
Isaac Rivera
>ugly HD-2D graphics and their fetishisation of the past i agree with this deeply
