What Happened to Final Fantasy?

An analysis of Square-Enix' internal struggles as well as a comparison of every Final Fantasy game. Today, I take a look at what happened to Final Fantasy, a series that was once so popular, but has been losing steam with games like Final Fantasy 13.
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Intro created by: / wanyodos
Theme song created by: / @michirin9801
Footage from:
7th Saga- SNES Drunk
Dragon Quest - NEScardinality
Dragon Warrior VII - World of Longplays
Final Fantasy 1 - World of Longplays
Final Fantasy 4 - SaikyoMog
Final Fantasy 6 - yoshiyukiblade
Final Fantasy 7 - World of Longplays
Final Fantasy 9 - Downard Thrust
Final Fantasy 10 - Maggie Mui Longplays
Final Fantasy X-2 - Shirrako
Final Fantasy 13 - Shirrako
Final Fantasy Type 0 HD - Inferno
Lost Odyssey - OmGReUp
Ultima IV - Mattchat
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord HoFPG Hall of First Person Games
Songs Used:
Final Fantasy Origins - Prologue Theme
Final Fantasy 3 - Battle Theme
Final Fantasy IV - World Theme
Final Fantasy IV - Mystic Mysidia
Final Fantasy IV - Chocobo Theme
Final Fantasy VI - Terra's Theme
Final Fantasy VII - Anxious Heart
Final Fantasy VIII - Blue Fields
Final Fantasy VII - Holding my Toughts in my Heart
Final Fantasy VIII - Slide Show Part 2
Final Fantasy X - A Fleeting Dream
Final Fantasy Brave Exvius - Moment of Recall
The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra - Final Fantasy IV Main Theme
#FinalFantasy #FinalFantasy15 #WhatHappenedToFinalFantasy #FinalFantasy7 #FinalFantasyVII

[@acerodons6036]

Some say he is still reading off ff titles to this day.

[@theironfist23]

It's incredibly heartbreaking to see what has become of this series. At one point in my life, it was THE greatest franchise I ever experienced out of any game, movie, TV series, etc. Final Fantasy used to be the undisputed king. I'll always treasure the first time I went through 7 through 10, it blew me away unlike anything else in the world and will most likely never experience greatness like that again in gaming.

[@st1ka]

I know how you feel, I used to OBSESSED about this series and then it just radically changed. It didn't feel like Final Fantasy any more. The games are better now than they were during the FF 13 era, but they still don't feel like Final Fantasy

[@ico128]

27:25 Never thought I would see a Final Fantasy game where the main characters sit on cheap ass plastic garden chairs.

[@aldrinmatosinos9460]

My friend, this is the most profound and the most exact thing I've felt for Square throughout the history. It's true after FFX, the series reached their downfall because of the new management and all, that's why I feel sad for Sakaguchi-san and his works became meaningless now, due to how disappointing most recent titles has protrayed the brand than of of the titles he had handled. You really cannot replace a man's magic of passion for his works, I can tell you that. 😣

[@aldrinmatosinos9460]

@@st1ka I agree. I will try to have one and play it. Even though there are some criticisms about it, but its ratings are quite good enough. And I love its art and content already, and what's even more great is that Nobuo Uematsu did the scores there too! You really can't replace the brotherhood that the two have. 😊

[@aldrinmatosinos9460]

@@st1ka Yeah... I haven't got an update of him after the report that he needs to rest from doing scores for FF7R. I hope he's okay now...

[@Popp1092]

You’ve done a lot of excellent research. As a Final Fantasy fan I am very impressed with all the work put into this video. Nice job, you’ll definitely have a new subscriber!

[@Jeganthry420]

Final fantasy X was last great one in my opinion. It saddens me to see the direction final fantasy has taken. FF got me into rpgs. Everything I loved about the series that drew me in, doesn't exist anymore. I'm still a huge fan of the classics but not today's games.

[@st1ka]

If it helps, you can check out Lost Odyssey. It's pretty much the real final fantasy 11

[@Blue-cc7qw]

I don’t think there’s a company that has disappointed me more then square. Squaresoft was pure talent. Under enix merger it went to crap. 16 looks good because Nomura realized he sucks and handed it off to someone else

[@st1ka]

At the very least, it does seem like 16 might be great. I'm actually genuinely excited for that one.

[@fleetquest]

Can we get a video of you just reading out all the Final Fantasy titles with this music? This is the equivalent of that moment when Barrett lists out all the Bahamuts in Final Fantasy VII Machinabridged.

[@wreday720]

Great video dude, I come back to this video every so often because its complete facts. Things have just gotten weirder too, we've got an ff battle royale game, souls-like ff origins and a strange FFVII remake/sequel/alternate reality/official fanfic. I still love how weird this series is but goddamn its I wish the quality could be consistent sometimes. 16 looks very interesting though, and 14 is quite fun

[@st1ka]

aww thank you! I remember at the time this was one of those videos that took a TON of work to research haha

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

X was the start of the downfall. As soon as they got rid of world map/exploration, and the characters and stories were much poorer.

[@st1ka]

I have to agree. I loved the music and combat, but the lack of world exploration was sorely felt.

[@Jenovi]

Really dang good video! You really knocked it out of the park. I’m really blown away at how good your videos are and how underViewed they are. FYI Blue Dragon, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest had Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame design the characters.

[@TheGunmanChannel]

I think this is your best video yet St1ka. I know it's not a popular opinion but I totally love FF13. In fact, I love all the FF games I've played, I still need to play a few of them but some I've visited multiple times.

[@Dusty_B]

Disagree with your opinions on XIII as it honestly isn't that bad once you get into it and get the hang of the battle system. The music isn't classic Final Fantasy, but even most people who don't like 13 can admit It has an amazing soundtrack overall. It doesn't feel like a true Final Fantasy, but neither do Final Fantasy 7 or 8. 7 and 8 are way more Sci-Fi feeling than Fantasy, much like The Spirits Within was. They are fantastic games, but they don't really feel like the ones before it. A reason why FF9 was highly praised as a return to form. At least part 6 was Fantasy and Sci-Fi balanced really well together. You really should play XIII-2 it is really well done. I haven't played XIII-3 myself as I didn't really care for the demo. Overall great video. It was really informative and the time flew by.

[@ultimaweaponxiii]

i heard that xiii-2 ends on a cliffhanger, is that true

[@harounalkanderi5128]

I showed my younger brother the video, he's a FF7 fan, he cried.

[@francescosmith7859]

This is a really interesting and informative video. You do excellent work in narrating these history videos (recently watched the Brazil Phantom video). My last FF was 8 but I've heard from friends the newer games have really lost a lot but the number of FF games created! 83 FF games! That's bonkers and outside of not playing FF10 it doesn't seem like I've missed much.

[@st1ka]

Yeah, I love FF, but even I have played nowhere near the full amount of FF games out there. It's just insane.

[@elderozone]

I'm so glad I found this video and I'm even more glad to see that more people feel like this. All magic has been lost but we still cherish the classics, thank you for making this

[@st1ka]

To be fair, I do like the newer games, but they don't feel as lovingly made as the classic games :\

[@MugenLord]

I'm 35 years old, born the same year Final Fantasy was created. I always knew about the series as a kid but didn't play FF until FF7 Launched and been a fan since. I decided to go backwards to see what the other titles were about and FF4 was the first that I played when it was remastered for the PS1 which was bundled with Chrono Trigger. That old game made me fall in love with the series even more. I am happy to see in this video that FF4 is one of the games that was responsible for the series popularity in the west.

[@st1ka]

Oh FF4 was a massive stepping stone for the franchise.

[@willmistretta]

The true creators get pushed aside and talentless upstarts not content to stand on the shoulders of giants shit on those shoulders instead. Tale as old as time.

[@willmistretta]

@@st1ka I can see that. I will say that he's never been involved *as a director* with any game I've really cared for, though.

[@Koops2245]

Thank you for this thoroughly educational video!! My gaming upbringing was on the Nintendo 64 which probably lead to me missing the best of FF, experiencing the oddities, and hearing about the worst from the community. With Sephiroth’s inclusion in Smash Bros., I’ve finally decided to play FF7 and dive into the golden era of FF. Videos like yours really help.

[@st1ka]

I'm glad I could help. Looking back I do have some issues with the pacing of this video, but oh well ^^

[@Koops2245]

@@st1ka Have you, by any chance, seen JonTron’s “Malkovich’s Gaming Guilty Pleasures” youtube video?? Ha, I think he was inspired by your narration.

[@st1ka]

@@Koops2245 Oh but isn't that video like super old? I wasn't making videos around then yet xD

[@Koops2245]

@@st1ka Oh yeah, that video was from... 2010?? ...or was it 1990?? JonTron has dabbled in time travel, as you can see in his Final Fantasy videos. That must be how he copies you before you do anything. Cheers, looking for to your new videos.

[@st1ka]

@@Koops2245 haha. Thank you! ^^

[@elizabethchint6485]

I will still never understand why they gave Final Fantasy 13 a trilogy.

[@st1ka]

I have heard FF13-2 and Lightning Returns are better than 13, but man, after how bad 13 was I had no interest in playing them lol

[@st1ka]

@@illustramantic How popular were the 13 sequels in Japan?

[@st1ka]

@@illustramantic wow, I was so not a fan of her lol

[@dudemcguy1227]

It's mostly because the first FF13 cost them a lot of money to develop on PS3. Because they decided to build a new engine (crystal tools) to use for the game. The engine wasn't even finished when they started making FF13. So they had to build the game and engine alongside each other with is very slow and inefficient. So overall it took them much more time and money to make FFXIII than other FF games that came before. Since Sakaguchi left the company they have been very profit driven, so the company decided to make 2 sequels to FFXIII so they could re-use assets from the first game to make some money back that they overspent on the first. You can really tell because FFXIII ends on a happy note, and they had to ret-con that happy ending to start FFXIII-2. It was a decision based on greed by the company suits, not the writers/artists.

[@st1ka]

@@dudemcguy1227 I'm hoping FF 16 is a return to form for the series. If nothing else, it at least looks like it's not taking place in the fabula nova crystalis universe, which is a step in the right direction.

[@felipefarias3285]

I consider FF X as the last true FF. FF XII is great, but feels like the beginning of something that never continued. FF XV is good, but messy and doesn't feel like FF. (XIII is horrible and I've never played the online ones)

[@felipefarias3285]

@@st1ka tnks, I'll check it out- I've never played it before

[@Blazemoth]

Same, the battle system change at XII was what did it for me, finished the (very weird and poorly written) story and thought to myself "this is barely a FF game", after I played about 6 hours of XIII I just knew FF was gone, and never coming back.

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

Na X was the start of some issues. IX was the last true great.

[@harounalkanderi5128]

Final Fantasy franchise becomes like McDonald's, cheap quality in a high quantity.

[@harounalkanderi5128]

@@st1ka Sadly, it is.

[@Blazemoth]

This explains what happened after 10 and why the franchise now seems like it's made "for cool kids".

[@st1ka]

Oddly enough, the franchise now seems to be worth less than it was before. I think the issue is the current main Final Fantasy team doesn't really know how to make a FF game. And to be fair, I don't think the current games are bad, I just think they don't really feel like Final Fantasy. In many ways, they're closer to Kingdom Hearts.

[@Blazemoth]

@@st1ka The problem is that, there's a small very vocal niche of players that defend everything square does further confusing the company putting them in a path of bad decisions. for crying out loud, they applauded the fact that the FF7 remake didn't have turn base and was going to be episodic, have we gotten crazy?

[@st1ka]

I think people are applauding FF7 remake's combat because the modern Final Fantasy games has now built a new fanbase. One that has only known FF 12, 13, 15 and so forth. So it means they now have two fanbases which are often at odds with one another.

[@imtheonehero9305]

12 was good tho. It's widely accepted as one of the best ff games.

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

It really seems like people have lost their minds. Rip final fantasy and I blame these people along with square for its death

[@dudemcguy1227]

Great video. Very informative with great research and a good flow. That bit you did listing all the FF spin off games was hilarious! 😂 Only thing I kind of disagree with would be describing FFXIII as being 'universally reviled' for 10+ years. It's the most divisive game of the post-Sakaguchi era for sure though. But if you look at scores on Metacritic it has a 7.2 user score. Quite low for a mainline FF game, yet it has 1,700 positive scores, 480 mixed, and 600 negative scores. A lot of people really dislike the game and for very good reasons like you mentioned in the video. But there are also plenty of people who enjoy it despite it's flaws like myself. It's not in my top 5 FF games, but I did enjoy it. (And I've pretty much played them all, with FF4 on the SNES as my first). I think a lot of the people who like FF13 are reluctant to discuss it online because the people who hate the game absolutely HATE it with a passion and will let you know about it every time it's mentioned in conversation. It's gotten to the point where those who enjoy it don't like to talk about it online much because their discussions inevitably get derailed by those who despise the game. For some reason, those on the 'hate' side get very worked up and confrontational and have to 'prove' it's the worst FF game if anyone dare mention that they enjoyed it. It just gets tiring after a while if you can't discuss something you enjoyed without others jumping in to argue with you about it. For over 10 years now, this has led many people who enjoyed FFXIII to just keep that fact to themselves. Which left online discussion of the game to skew very negative and make it appear much more hated than it actually is. In reality it's a competent but flawed, 7/10 video game, that failed to follow up the masterpieces of FF6, FF7, FF9, and FF10.

[@st1ka]

Glad you enjoyed it! And yeah looking back I probably should have made it more clear that there was a good amount of people who did enjoy the game. Though I admit I wanted to focus moe on the negative reception to better convey how square Enix was fracturing its own fanbase ^^

[@sufamidan1006]

After X everything went to pot. That was the last FF I enjoyed.

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

After IX you meant

[@sufamidan1006]

@@brianlaudrupchannel nah, X was very good.

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

Holy shit final fantasy type 0 has a world map? I miss that so bad

[@chimeprince7366]

vid needs way more views, been feeling this way bout square for some time, completely different games, and now ff7 just proves how lacking they are creatively

[@st1ka]

I'll admit I haven't played the Final Fantasy 7 Remake yet. But I have been a little disappointed by Square-Enix for a while now...

[@sunnyshine762]

This is such an underrated video. Great job dude!

[@st1ka]

Thank you! :D

[@giantstingray]

The only silver lining to the current state Squarenix is they still have Yoko Shimomura. I may not play their games anymore, but her work is always a treat whenever a new KH is released

[@st1ka]

Admittedly, I am cautiously optimistic for Final Fantasy 16. At least it doesn't look like another game that takes place in the FF 13/15/Type-Zero universe

[@TheIntendantS]

A very interesting video on the franchise. While I do enjoy every game in the series that I've played, I do have to agree that it lost its charm after the PS1 days. My favorites in the series have always been 6, 7, and 8. And while the others (particularly 14) have their moments, the more modern games don't capture the same feeling from SNES and PS1. I'll still play the games as they come out, but I'm more excited about the 7 remake and 8 remaster than I am about any potential 16.

[@loudradialem5233]

Everything that rises shall fall. I made peace with this series. We need to appreciate what it gave us.

[@ayuloveappears]

Always loved that FFIII commercial, maybe my second favorite (behind the amazing Mortal Kombat II home version short spot).

[@ayuloveappears]

@@st1ka The one with the iguana: /watch?v=GBhm8kMVMVc

[@billa5830]

Thanks for your awesome analysis. I share almost exactly the same thoughts as you did regarding the downfall of the series. Since FFX, I had been hoping against hope that the epic storytelling will return only to realize that it’s pretty much impossible without Hironobu Sakaguchi. Final Fantasy without Sakaguchi and Uematsu is like Studio Ghibli without Miyazaki and Hisaishi, the heart and soul of the of the stories. Regarding your analysis of XII, although the narrative themes are there, its still not Final Fantasy. The elements of love, betrayal, hate and war are merely there as checklist items. The dialogue between the characters rarely go beyond exchanges of facts with each other, mostly on the history of Ivalice. The inner conflict of Ashe and her temptation with power was a very promising premise that was not explored at all! I could care less about the land and the lore if I don’t connect with the characters. The story began with a very promising epic opening of war between nations, betrayal and under the table deals. Vann is introduced with dreams of being a sky pirate, which is not exactly approved by Penelo. There is a resistance plagued with disagreement and wavering loyalty. All the right elements are there. It is heartbreaking to not see the story go anywhere. When dialogue scenes do come up, the characters will just begin to go into their back story, barely enough to whet my appetite and the scene will end. I could tell they wrote extensive backstories for the characters, but they decided to leave them out of the final game because they think its not important. Hence it failed to be “Epic.” XII was a clear indication that Square Enix has no clue what makes Final Fantasy special. I should have realized at that point that there is no turning back for FF without Sakaguchi. I really wished that Sakaguchi did not have film ambitions and just stuck with his element. So when forced to tell a story in a 2hr timespan when he is used to doing that in a 50hr game on top of being a first time film director, a disaster was almost inevitable. I walked into the theatre with very high expectations of the same epic story telling from his games… only to be sorely disappointed to see just some superficial thematic elements that is typical of Sakaguchi stitched together by a throwaway storyline. Can an epic story be told in a 2hr or below time frame? Most definitely (Lion King comes to mind)… and Sakaguchi should not have directed it leading to his departure from SE… and we would still be playing some really Epic FF games to this day.

[@billa5830]

@@st1ka Yes indeed. Its so unfortunate that the Lost Odyssey is the only other story driven game from him after Square and an Xbox exclusive to make things worse. Its so unfortunate that he made one mistake after another. Xbox was pretty much a brand new platform at that time and going exclusive on it will almost guarantee low exposure for Lost Odyssey.. pretty much a nail in the coffin for his JRPG career. I still havent played it... and maybe I dont want to experience final fantasy badly enough to buy a console just to play it. Hope they will release it on the PC eventually

[@bringbackmy90s]

After the good '90s EVERYTHING went downhill - games, movies, you name it

[@Wallyworld30]

Well, the Internet got a hell of a lot better since the 90's. I'd bet that they are related.

[@blues4509]

I'm just now getting into Final Fantasy as a series starting from the beginning thanks to the rereleases on steam and always hear of the decline. Now I at least know it starts after FFX and it's due to a change of development teams and design philosophy altogether. I can go into FFXII,XIII and XV knowing what to expect.

[@st1ka]

To be fair I woudln't say the games past 12 are terrible (well, 13 is awful, but the rest aren't). Just that Final Fantasy used to be ahead of the curve during its peak period. Whereas today, it's a series with ups and downs and is now either on-par or surpassed by other JRPG series.

[@blues4509]

@@st1ka Yeah I can see that. XV doesn't look horrible but the arpg angle is certainly something I prefer less than turn based. So that could play a factor in my enjoyment as well

[@Michaelpatrickwarren]

I'm so happy two of my favorite things, Borat and Final Fantasy, have finally come together.

[@dwhitaker86]

Well.... Type 0 and FFXV both seem like the same world as FFXIII because they were originally supposed to be...

[@dendedflip]

Nobuo Uematsu did along with Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka compose the music for FFXI. The game was also directed by people who had worked on FFI-III, and they used some ideas that they couldn't use in those games. FFXI is an epic story of love, betrayal, hate, war, and peace, set in the most massive world in the franchise's history. And it's story is far better the many of the classic FF games. FFXI is definitely an amazing game, and an even better Final Fantasy game.

[@st1ka]

To be fair, this video largely ignores the MMO games because I feel they do a good job at creating an MMO while still trying to adhere to Final Fantasy. The video was mostly focused on the single player games and Square-Enix itself ^^

[@myserinity4779]

FFXI will always be my favorite game

[@ZerotakerZX]

Wow. FF is kinda mainstream, so FF retrospects are kinda dull becouse they made for normies that don't care about details and developments. But not this vid, this vid is great. Passion project it is. I got the basic idea: Guch is gone and FF is just a name, not a game. But have you played Bravely? It's a FF spinoff with no FF in the title, but it sure playes like one. (like 4 heroes of light, to be exact, which is sequel to)

[@Wolfkaosaun]

Final Fantasy 13 hurt me......so much

[@st1ka]

Sadly, I feel 13 was just a sympytom of a much larger problem. :\

[@kirgahn]

Holy moly, we're on the same exact page. Really enjoyed the video, thank you for putting into words and facts my thoughts and feelings on the decline of the FF serie.

[@st1ka]

Glad I could help! Also, thank you for checking out such an old video

[@kirgahn]

@@st1ka I'm actually going through all of your videos. Your TOP games selection for various platforms are top notch and stand out from the rest, since you like to put stuff here and there that's uncommon. And you really go out of your way to find real hidden gems. I'm actually playing Ultra Core on my RG350 in bed before going to sleep thanks to your suggestions. Also, I enjoy your humor and the Portuguese/Brazilian perspective that can be found in your channel, as it adds a new point of view to my knowledge. Keep up the awesome work!

[@st1ka]

@@kirgahn thank you so much! I try :D

[@dangox3370]

if you ask me, what happened is the FF devs tried too hard to appeal to the masses who never liked the game mechanics that made JRPGs different. They desperately want to be counted among the big-wigs, to sit at the cool kids table of the western AAA game industry. It's pathetic. That's how it seems to me at least.

[@pineappleonpizza8128]

I fucking died at 27:55 had to use 3 phoenix downs to recover.

[@st1ka]

Haha I completely forgot I made that joke

[@NinjaKIngAce]

I've not played much Final Fantasy, but as a Paper Mario fan, I can weirdly relate

[@st1ka]

I've never played Paper Mario, but it's a series I'd like ot get into

[@NinjaKIngAce]

@@st1ka I'd recommend starting with the first two games, if you can find them, as they still hold up. If you have a Wii U, you can download the 1st game from the Virtual Console, but the 2nd game, The Thousand-Year Door, which most consider the best in the series, has never left the GameCube. Both games are turn-based RPGs, kinda like Final Fantasy, but more simplified. (Actually, if you've ever played Super Mario RPG for SNES, the gameplay and tone are pretty similar) The 3rd game, Super Paper Mario, is also really good. It was a bit divisive, as it completely changed the gameplay, but the tone is on point, and most agree that it has the best story in the series. The 4th game, Sticker Star, however, is terrible. It's not a bad game, but the tone feels off, the story is non-existent, and the gameplay is completely different. The sad part is they were originally going to give it the same gameplay as the first two games, but they scraped that version, because the game producers wanted to do something different. I've admitably not played the two newest games. I've heard that Color Splash is better then Sticker Star, in terms of tone and story, which isn't saying much, but the gameplay is the same, just with extra steps. I've heard The Origami King's actually pretty good, in terms of story and tone, but the gameplay, which is once again completely different, is a bit divisive. I'd also like to recommend an indie game called Bug Fables. It has a pretty similar tone to Paper Mario, and the gameplay feels like a natural evolution of the first two games

[@st1ka]

@@NinjaKIngAce Thank you for the recommendations! I'll try to check them out when I can! :D

[@Tazer_Silverscar]

"Not counting ports or direct emulation re-releases" - Uh, Origins is literally that. All that changes is a menu to divide the games in the disk's partitions. Also expansions of the FF15 MMO should not be regarded as their own game because you need the base game to play them - they are literally stretching the length of one game. I also disagree with modifications of minigames that were in previous games. International versions shouldn't count either, because it's essentially the same game with slight tweaks (the disk version of a patch). So 83 is a bit much. Your argument about the worlds of Type-0, 13, 15 etc feeling the same is because that was the point of the Fabula Nova Crystalis project (of which 15 was originally a part as Versus-13): - Lightning is also in Type-0 as Seven - Noel and Noctis look almost exactly the same - Sarah looks a lot like Lunafreya. The appearance, and pretty much everything about 15, hasn't changed since they planned it back when they announced that project. So technically, when 13 bombed, they really should have looked at it to see what they did wrong, instead of trundling along like there was no problem.

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

Never knew if mist walker. Interesting.

[@Tanukitsune2]

Wow, I had no idea there were THAT many Final Fantasy titles! Just how many are mobile only? XD Yeah, modern FF games don't feel the same, although I haven't tried Octopath Traveller or Bravely Default, which are supposed to be more classic?

[@Sawngawkuh]

Tetsuya Nomura didn't have that much control over the franchise as a whole. It was mainly just the crappy FFVII expanded universe that he and Kitase had a lot of creative control over. Matsuda helmed XII (before being taken over by Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa after Matsuda left the company), and both X-2 and the FFXIII trilogy were by Toriyama. FFXV's a bit spotty, since it was initially a Nomura-headed spin-off that wound up being shelved because SE wanted to devote resources and manpower to other projects (like fixing FFXIV), and then restarted mostly from the ground up as FFXV as a Nomura and Tabata joint production. But then Tabata got full reins over the project while Nomura was moved to direct FFVIIR, alongside Hamaugchi and Toriyama. I won't say Nomura is a top tier creator (especially when it comes to writing), but blame shouldn't be placed on him for the likes of XII, XIII, and most of XV's post-Versus XIII woes. Those are all the product of Square-Enix higher ups not managing anything right for a long time, causing good creative people to leave the company and let Nomura take all of the blame for productions he was barely a part of.

[@st1ka]

To be fair my criticisms weren't against Nomura but rather Square Enix itself. I always felt like Nomura never really wanted to make FF games? At least to me I think he'd rather be making his own series or Kingdom Hearts and he was kind of forced into his role

[@Sawngawkuh]

@@st1ka I think, initially, he did have an invested interest in doing the closest thing to a FF title, being Versus XIII in its original form. But then the issues with the company started happening where there were engine troubles, and the aforementioned XIV revamp taking away his people, preventing progress on the game. At that point, he was just in it to help out with the restart before moving to VIIR. Within that messy period, Nomura was more interested in being involved with spin-offs like Dissidia than bothering with XII or XIII much (betond doing character designs for the latter).

[@st1ka]

Yeah that does make sense

[@KarmaSpaz12]

This hurts...I just hope XVI goes in the right direction. It seems one of the original creators refused to play past the introduction of XII and I thought that was a snub. Maybe if FF had ended and another brand had been put in its place sooner there wouldn't be internal problems but people would still want new FF games. FF7 Remake has real time and turn based options and I think going forward that will be the standard to please both turn based and real time fans.

[@st1ka]

I haven't played the FF7 remake, but I have heard good things about it. With that said, it seems that going forward this will indeed be the new formula.

[@st1ka]

@@illustramantic I've heard very good things about FF 14, but... God... I just do not have the time to play an MMO lol

[@st1ka]

@@illustramantic Oh I can imagine... I just need time D:

[@franciscor390]

What happened to Final Fantasy? Tetsuya Nomura happened.

[@toddolsen4604]

Disagree with a lot of it. No mention of Kitase. Which I believe it was a mistake to promote him to being the main producer of FF. It should have been Ito. If Ito had been given that producer role instead of Kitase FF would have turned out much differently. When Sakaguchi was asked who at SE can save and redeem FF as a series, his answer Hiroyuki Ito.

[@st1ka]

That's actually a good point. I have to agree, Ito would have been a good choice. But to be clear, the point of the video was more about how the economical decisions from CFOs and other higher-ups who care little about the end product affected final fantasy. It wasn't so much a look at who should be running Final Fantasy, but rather, how non-creative people ruined it.

[@G.L.999]

I'm on board with any FF game(s) coming to Nintendo Switch. However, keep FF13 away from the Switch. I hated it when I played it on PS3 when it first launched and I would hate it on Switch!

[@st1ka]

FF 13 doesn't even feel like a Final Fantasy. It's basically just a dungeon crawler

[@G.L.999]

@@st1ka Exactly.

[@binglee8000]

Well if there is any upside for final fantasy is that is some slow down atm and Square-Enix needs better planing and vision

[@akiinmoonlight79]

FF is still a strong force in the gaming Industry and all the games are still consistent, i mean some of the best and most influencial games or all times are Final Fantasy games !. but i admit FF 6 up to 12 was the golden era of the jrpg genre also FF14 is so strong now, with a playerbase of 16 Million registered players. it is literally the best mmorpg right now with the Shadowbringers expansion getting huge praise for it's extremly good Story and masterfull music ^^

[@akiinmoonlight79]

@@st1ka tbh yeah you are right look at FF15 canceled dlc's and a lackluster story ... i mean it's a great game and i loved it for what it was ... but more for what it could have been ( a masterpiece but no...) the (like you said) lack of direction did this game no justice at all. also i think the fact that Square enix's Business division 2 (who only did FF spin offs like FF type-0 and FF 7 crisis core) where totaly in-expierinced in such a great task of creating a game like F15. i have more Faith in the FF7 Remake, it is beeing developed by many of the old legends. some are back for this project like Uematsu who s in charge of remaking the music, Tetsuya Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase are also on board as director and Producer and the orginal scenario writter Nojima will flesh out the Original Story (idk of even Sakaguchi is involved in any capacity... ) alone he scope of the remake is insanely huge and the team seems Passionate about it ... i think you can see the depth and all the personality in the trailers for the remake... there is much love in there°~° AND Square enix knows they can't fuck up this remake or their done ! at the end i guess we just have to wait ^^

[@akiinmoonlight79]

@@st1ka btw i love this video :3 ~ you did a pretty amazing job. keep this level of quality!

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

Final Fantasy does not really have an identity anymore. It even changes genres.

[@technozombie789]

2 things I have to say: Mystic Quest, although not a great game, is under appreciated. In some ways it is a blend of Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda. If they had made a sequel and expanded on the realtime aspects like using the claw the same way you use the hookshot in LoZ, it could have been a great game. Final Fantasy 11 is the most "Final Fantasy" of any Final Fantasy.

[@st1ka]

Oh Mystic Quest is great. I loved it back in the day. Sure it has some flaws but I liked it ^^ I will admit I didn't get into the online games because I feel an MMO is a different beast than a single-player game. I mostly wanted to focus on the singleplayer series ^^

[@technozombie789]

I can understand that. In case you don't know FFXI has what is essentially a single player storyline, you just do battles in a group. Some private servers are basically easy mode if you wanted to experience the story you could do it alone and quickly

[@st1ka]

@@technozombie789 Oh I did not know that. What about Final Fantasy 14? I've been wanting to get play 14, but I feel I don't have the time to play an MMO :( It's especially worse if I don't have the time to make friends or meet groups online. Is there a server or shard for FF 14 aimed at people who would prefer to play alone?

[@technozombie789]

@@st1ka I'm not as familiar with 14, the private servers for FF11 are open source projects, if something like that exists for 14 I doubt it's very far along. You can play 14 for free now up to level 60 or something like that if you just wanted to try it out. 14 by it's nature is less group oriented then 11 was.

[@st1ka]

@@technozombie789 Thank you for the info ^^

[@Z1ng1s]

Downfall began after that disastrous movie and FFX. FFXIII is one of my favorites, but it had vicious development hell... And it's not the greatest. FFXV is ok.

[@st1ka]

It wasn't so much the movie, as it was the fact that the original creator was discredited from his own company after that. :\

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

Final Fantasy The Spirits Within was a really bizzare project. It had no relation to Final Fantasy at all, no chocobos or nothing. Just a bad sci fi film.

[@juanpedrogarcialopez3586]

About what you said in the video about FF13 : 1. The "love" that Square describes is what happens with Snow and Serah, besides that he keeps saying "Serah" every 3 minutes, Snow fights all over the story untill the final part to complete her focus because he loves her. And you can't see the development of the love between Snow and Serah because she is frozen in crystal. So why include her in the main story about lu'Cies since she is no more a lu'Cie and being crystallized, in my opinion. 2. The "peace" is clear to see at the end so I don't know why did you say that is no peace. 3. Another "nostalgic" that keeps focusing on the negative points of this game, the linearity. Well, you may like it or no, depends of yourself, but Square said : The game is like that because if it was open world, you may not follow the story because you can go out to do other missions that have nothing to do with it. I don't know, Square things xD. 4. The story may be confuse to understand, I agree with that. 5. In my opinion, this game feels like a FF game. May it doesn't have the impresindible elements of FF but when you play FF10 and then this, you know that the director is the same, I felt FF13 as equal as FF10. 6. Analysis in 1 minute and 40 seconds about the most criticized game in the entire franchise? 7. For me, this was like a breath of fresh air, new graphics, combat mode and story because a company like Square must evolve not as, for example, FIFA, the same game every year.

[@st1ka]

As I mentioned in the video: 1 - You don't see the love between Snow and Serah. All you see are flashbacks, but you don't experience them yourself. The closest you get to that is Sazh and the love for his son 2 - If you only peace at the end, it means you never actually see it. Experiencing peace means going through cities that AREN'T in war and experiencing peace first hand. A game having a good ending is not the same as experiencing peace.

[@juanpedrogarcialopez3586]

@@st1ka In point 1 I mean the struggle that Snow does for her, not scenes. And in point 2 you're right, I admit it.

[@Blazemoth]

Why did they have to change the combat just to please people that are not fans nor will they ever be, this "appeal to a broader audience" bs is getting out of hands.

[@st1ka]

To be fair, I think the combat change stemmed from the change in teams rather than a conscious decision.

[@Ramsis-SNES]

8:58 Compare that to Suikoden II's tagline: "Experience an Epic Tale of Warfare, Magic, Friendship, and Betrayal" (source: www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/16315-suikoden-ii-playstation-back-cover.jpg ) ^^

[@Ramsis-SNES]

@@st1ka What happened to Suikoden though :-/

[@Ramsis-SNES]

@@st1ka Very true. Anyway, great video about Final Fantasy! :-) I too feel that the series sort of ended with FFX. Also, I had no idea about that insane amount of sequels/spinoffs Square-Enix has put out over the years. O_o Just silly ...

[@Acriz.]

As I always like to say, I am one of the 5 people who actually liked FF XIII. But, oh boy, does the game make it hard to be liked. The tutorial part of the game last until the end of chapter 10. That's roughly 20 hours into the game, and 10 hours after most people quit the game for good. After that you have a much more open game and access to all mechanics and all characters, but far too late unfortunately. To make matters worse, a lot of the animations and design decision are questionable and make for a really rough gaming experience. For example the fact, that if your party leader get's downed, it's game over, who thought that was a good idea? And you ahve no direct control over your other party members. XIII-2 fixed some of that and smoothed out the paragon shift animations. QA really slept on that in XIII. The themes of the game are too overwritten. Hope's loss of his mother is a good setup for character motivation and grows, but it takes so many turns in so many grueling cut-scenes that, with one streamer we dubbed the Lightning-Hope chapters, 'The adventures of Thunder Cunt and Bitch Boy'. That would have been better if more succinct. The main story on the other hand was completely lost and unclear. Once I realised, that it is basically a story about suicide of godlike creatures, it grew on me, but they did their best to obsfuricate those themes until the very end. In the end, the game is rough and has tons of wasted potential, and yet, I like it.

[@rasaanshakur9491]

Square-Enix merger was bad. Nomura ran the company into the ground.

[@skasere1]

12:44 Square Enxi?

[@st1ka]

Yeah, that one slipped by me sadly :(

[@zylowolf7919]

@@st1ka it's okay. There's people who call them Squeenix. XD

[@st1ka]

@@zylowolf7919 Haha, yep, I've seen that :P

[@IkariLoona]

Uematsu did compose for XI - most of the tracks in it were composed by Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka, but when it's time to pay homage to the series music and actually cover every mainline entry, most of the time the people making the choice, which probably will not have played the game nor be aware of the actually meaningful and impactful tracks in XI, will pick Uematsu tracks like Ronfaure (the zone immadiately around one of the starter cities, San d'Oria) or Memoro de la Stona (from the opening). You can do better in your research - e se tiveres dúvidas pergunta que eu tenho parí uma década de experiência com o XI, o que é coisa que não se vê entre muitos que dizem cobrir a série FF mas depois ignoram o xI ou ficam-se por ler sobre ele na Wikipedia na diagonal.... Anyway, all FFs are different, starting from the major differences between I and II, and in many ways XI and XIV take after I and III in major ways like using player-named/defined characters, and XI's overall story as a whole has major parallels with III in particular and subtle nods and parallels to several other games before it - to say nothing of the fact that early computer RPGs sin part served as a way to automate the processing of stuff like combat mechanics compared to the messiness of handling it by hand in the group-oriented pen-and-paper format, at the cost of having pre-defined adventures instead of one co-created by players and a DM (in this way I'd rather define most of what we call RPGs as "stat-em-ups") - in that light, FF1 was a console take on the concept, and upon discovering Everquest Sakaguchi saw a way to make it a group-based game he could apply the concepts of FF to (to your definition I'd add or tweak something about dealing with mortality, which covers the Garland time loop, the Emperor's takeover of Hell, Xande's breakdown, and so on and so forth...). One of these days I'm going to have to make a video about the extent to which XI belongs in its own series, I think, because overviews like this generally fall short...

[@IkariLoona]

@@st1ka The genres are about as different as between FF1 and FF13 or FF15, and most people haven't played 11 to be able to tell by themselves how different they feel... it's understandable if they don't want to try and put in the time due to perceived differences, it's justannoying to see blank statements and lack of research on the topic when the information is out there.

[@IkariLoona]

@@st1ka Fine, use FF2 or FF8 as examples, they different a lot from the others mechanics-wise in different ways, between the lack of levels in one and the drw/GF system in the other compared to regular levelling and skill acquisition in most others, which which XI's mechanics are more closely aligned, especially to the likes of FF5.

[@Tidewater_paddler]

Lost Odyssey was such a great RPG.

[@st1ka]

Oh man I LOVE Lost Odyssey

[@speroentertainment6990]

Did he just say magic was useless in FFXV? Lol

[@st1ka]

Healing magic was useful, but the rest? Yeah it kind of was. How often did you have to use elemental magic in 15?

[@speroentertainment6990]

@@st1ka anytime I want to dispatch a huge group of enemies that are all weak to a certain element or whenever I'm fighting enemies that eat up physical damage. Gotta get those fatty A+ time rankings and some free AP my dude. If you synthesize magic well, you're talking some 9999 quintcast stuff. I fail to see how that's useless when fighting high level daemons.

[@speroentertainment6990]

@@st1ka I understand though that 15 doesn't play like the older FFs. I was just surprised that you said magic was useless in that game lol also 15 doesn't have specific healing spells, you have to make Healcast spells, so either way, you were making offensive spells. But I get what you're saying on how it doesn't play exactly like the older games.

[@MrRed424]

Its funny how dragon quest seems to be able to find and keep its charm and personality. The game that didnt make it big(at first) in the west outlasted at the end.

[@st1ka]

I'll admit I don't know too much about the Enix side of things, but it does seem like Square-Enix treated Dragon Quest the way it was meant to be treated. Final Fantasy on the other hand has been a mess for years now. At least it seems he FF 7 remake is the first game in years that people are generally enjoying

[@MrRed424]

@@st1ka I heard ff 14 is doing well though it actually has good stories

[@Cheerfuljochan]

I firmly believe that Final fantasy is strong in FF14 since Yoshi P understands the franchise a lot better than the regular heads. It does feel like a FF game in both story and feel but ofc its not a regular FF game so I get the idea of not bringing it up. What I mean is that there is hope with the FF14 writers lol.

[@Cheerfuljochan]

@@st1ka Aye I understand that time is hard with mmo's, personally I mostly only go for the story and some sidequests. To be honest this game has a thought out world and uses well established classic FF lore to give something familiar yet fresh for an FF fan that is tired of where the series has been going recently. There are actual villains, classic jobs and characters with proper arcs and satisfying conclusions that you care about, heck in Heavensward (the first expansion) the game got me to tear up over one scene because of how well it had been built up to that moment. Although not gonna lie that FF14 starts slow with the story, think of it more as the first two episodes of an anime that builds up the world. There are quite a few interesting bits here and there but the story doesn't really pick up until it gets to A realm reborn endgame. However, once it does it never lets up lol. The best tip timewise is to play only one class through the story and do mostly main story quests, the game is balanced so that you should get enough xp to get to most of the main areas + story relatively quickly with the xp given.

[@tomenza]

Poor Mist Walker.

[@gamemelodies9665]

I agree with you on most points except ffxiv shadowbringers, the last great ff game I played is the reason why my faith in ff is not 100% dead. I'd consider it on pair with old squaresoft games in all aspects (yoshi p is great.) I get depressed thinking about when the game core was indeed final fantasy and the great times I had with the game back then (everything, from music to combat to story.) After X... I'd say XII actually, because matsuno is a great ff director and did an excellent job keeping the core of the game intact (he made tactics.) series completely went to shit. I feel so sad I'm getting the ff vibe more from opera omnia, a mobile game, than main line ff games released in the last couple of years.

[@st1ka]

I fully admit I haven't played 14 much, mostly due to the time required to properly play an MMO, though I'd really love to play 14. With that said, I mostly kept 11 and 14 out of this video because I feel the MMO games are mostly doing their own thing and it seems like they were mostly unaffected by Square-Enix's management issues with the exception of the disastrous FF 14 launch

[@brianlaudrupchannel]

Final Fantasy X was the start of the downfall of the series. Don't understand the praise it gets

[@ultris07]

Wait, so you're saying that when we originally got Final Fantasy IV it was dumbed down!? Geez... How petty... On a side note, I liked XII, but found the world kind of boring, kind of hard to explain why, but I do know, that the story wasn't great. I do like the combat, since it reminds me of Chrono Trigger, where enemies were on screen and you could engage or disengage at leisure. Also the music was a very mixed bag. Won't go into much more, but suffice to say that I enjoyed XII, and wish that I had kept my copy. XD can't return to what it once was is a very profound statement. And I agree, but that's not gonna stop me from doing my thing and trying to make a classic Final Fantasy. Also... Really you cut off that fantastic Final Fantasy IV overworld theme instead of a fade out... OOF...

[@ultris07]

@@st1ka I'm not far on my project, and it'll probably never be complete in my lifetime, but I believe what I am doing is exactly what S.E. needs to do in this modern age.

[@Zicconnuts]

@@st1ka I don't actually know how the characters in US version were handled regarding abilities (since I played the fan translation of the japanese SNES/SFC version and a euro release of the GBA port/remaster), but I know Cecil had a Dark Wave attack that did physical damage(I think(?)) to all enemies at the cost of some HP, and that was the only ability he had when you controlled him. Twin mages Palom and Porom could cast twin spells (what spell you cast is based on which twin you get to select the command for). Yang had kick which did physical damage to all enemies. Cid had Beep/Libra. Edward (the "spoony bard") could hide. Those are the ones I can remember regarding abilities. I don't know how magic fared though. Funny part is Square did release an "Easy mode" revision of the game for japanese audiences with the same downgrade in difficulty the US got, and changed the appearance of the final boss completely. Which is actually the last boss in the bonus dungeon in the GBA version, also why he got "EG" in the name in addition.

[@Zicconnuts]

* Rosa could pray to restore small amount of HP for no MP with variying success rate. Almost forgot that one.

[@ultris07]

@@st1ka I can slide some images into your DMs if you have discord.

[@ultris07]

@@st1ka XD your discord link is broken my man.

[@routergod2253]

The series needs better director's than tetsuya nomura

[@Amir_97]

@GG gang 11 Tetsuya Nomura was a major staff member during the development of ff7 and ff8, so I guess you think those games are the worst final fantasies. Plus he never directed a final fantasy game before. FF7 remake is the first and he is besides Kitase and Nojima the only original staff member left of the 90s.

[@ultimaweaponxiii]

@Amir_7 he was also the director of xv for roughly the first eight years of its development his replacement worked on the game for two years

[@formula091]

Not a fan of MMOs and mediocre ARPGs, FF has completely lost me

[@st1ka]

Sadly the series has kind of lost its way

[@asdfghjkllkjhgfdsa8725]

Rip final fantasy.

[@TheBeird]

Success. That's what made it great. And then shite. I love Final Fantasy 7, still my favorite, but it became the albatross around the neck of the series. If that's the right metaphor to use. I dunno. I should have read more poetry in my mundane life :(

[@TheBeird]

@@st1ka Very true. I'd also add that their obsession with realism was a contributing factor. Limits the imagination for a fantasy series in my opinion

[@Zicconnuts]

@@st1ka #NeverGoFullCorporate + #NeverGoFullEA & #NeverGoFullActivision

[@immanuel7925]

So...anyone Think Xenoblade Chronicles is almost final fantasy?

[@st1ka]

Sadly I haven't played it yet 😅

[@immanuel7925]

@@st1ka dude you need to! After watching this I can firmly say that Xenoblade is not Final Fantasy... but it's close in a lot of ways. It's a story of Love, Hate, War, Peace, Existence, and Betrayal in a massive dynamic open world. However it is active time RPG, so if it isn't your thing that's cool

[@michaelh4227]

So essentially the reason why Final Fantasy went downhill was because Square spent $100 million on a overly ambitious CGI film that bombed at the box office.

[@st1ka]

To be fair, I don't think the movie itself was the problem. More like, there was a rift within Square and the movie's failure was the excuse needed to kick out the original development team.

[@michaelh4227]

@@st1ka Yeah, but I do wonder what the series would've looked like if the movie was a modest success.

[@st1ka]

@@michaelh4227 I think the closest we'll ever see of that, is by playing Lost Odyssey :\

[@michaelh4227]

@@st1ka Well, it's how Sakaguchi would've evolved the series, but the series is more than just him. There are people who worked on the best games in the series who are still with Square and others who have left.

[@st1ka]

@@michaelh4227 very true

[@popcorn_showers]

I've learnt how corporate politics can lead to creatives being mistreated and losing their legacy. Now i know Nomura is not the father of the franchise

[@st1ka]

If anything, I feel Nomura is just as much of a victim. Yes he was given the helm of the franchise, but I don't think he wanted it

[@popcorn_showers]

@@st1ka That's interesting to hear now. If possible, could you link me to any articles or videos that explore this topic?

[@st1ka]

@@popcorn_showers Sadly regarding Nomura himself there isn't anything I can link to. Just that the Final Fantasy franchise changed so much under his helm. I do know that Versus 13 was meant to be the main project, but internal struggles delayed that game almost 10 years. And that basically every FF game under his wing all kind of look the same. I'm pretty sure he wanted his own franchise instead of being handed Final Fantasy. Additionally, he's no longer running FF. He's not directing or producing Final Fantasy 16 so it seems like he's been unofficially demoted.

[@popcorn_showers]

@@st1ka What a tragedy, both the consumers and the creators lose out in this instance. Corporate stuff huh? Hopefully the future is better. Thank you for the replies ;)

[@st1ka]

@@popcorn_showers Things do seem to be improving at least. The Final Fantasy 7 remake was well received and to be fair, I'm really digging the look of Final Fantasy 16, so hopefully things will get better. Though, with that said, I miss the turn based combat. :(

i don't know, you skipped the best FF in the decade so... fells like a nostalgia rant

[@st1ka]

You mean 11 and 14 or 13-2 and Lightning Returns?

@@st1ka 14, not 11, not lightning, 14 has become a phenomen and is not stopping or slowing

[@st1ka]

I didn't focus on the online games because I feel comparing an MMO to offline games is a bit like apples and oranges. It felt tangential to the video. It's also why I didn't really bring up the tactics games for example

@@st1ka is more like apples and the apple pie, actually. you can be all the tangential you want, but Final Fantasy XIV deserves both the name and the number

[@st1ka]

We'll have to agree to disagree

[@florielillywhite6286]

MMO entries in rpg franchises often lead to its demise. Most recently and the worst case scenario: Fallout 76.

[@Zicconnuts]

Fallout 76 is more a gimped Fallout 4 lead by a dev studio (Bethesda Austin branch - former Battlecry Studios) who doesn't understand how to use Gamebryo, or work around a game filled with years long amount of bugs and glitches of which they're not familiar with. As for an MMO it doesn't do a good job at that when you rarely ever meet another player in the game, and when you do you don't have much means for interaction other than "to kill or not to kill. An attempt on making a co-op Fallout 4 is more what Fallout 76 is (because people wanted a co-op Skyrim for years = Bethesda makes a Fallout 4 co-op, for people obviously asked for that), and still remains a terrible game for numerous of reasons.

[@Zicconnuts]

In the lines of a Todd Howard with some Peter Molyneux syndrome and some more: "Sometimes... ... It just doesn't work"

[@Zicconnuts]

@@st1ka Final Fantasy 14 Reborn is currently the most popular MMORPG at the moment, more popular than both WoW and ESO.

[@optimysticquest]

I think one of the biggest problems is the Final Fantasy disease, which was talked about around the time of FFXV’s development. Final Fantasy means something different to many people you would ask. FF was developed with the mindset of “seeking new challenges” and marking undiscovered territory. Anyone who played FF before VII would see that as the games went on. Final Fantasy VII feels nothing like the games before (especially 1-5). And since 95% of Square’s revenue came from Japan pre-FF7, the West just didn’t understand this development philosophy behind a game series. Most games that were popular in the west typically ran on a formula that didn’t experiment much. FF’s history is riddled with experimentation and risk-taking. And a common theme I see is that the series went downhill after Sakaguchi “left”, or also worded as “after FFX”, but there is a lot of misinformation out there regarding Sakaguchi’s involvement in the series. He only wrote 1-6, along with 9’s scenario. FF7 was written by Nomura, Kitase, and Nojima. Sakaguchi still served as a producer, and led the overall CG and movie-like production of the game. Sakaguchi still made the big decisions in the series up until his departure though-which included up to FFXII. He has claimed that the goal for Final Fantasy X was to make it a more seamless experience, blending gameplay, world, and story more closely together. So the viewpoint of removing the world map “isn’t FF” is flawed from the start. It’s actually the press interview for FFX that Sakaguchi hits hard that the definition and identity of Final Fantasy is treading new waters, doing new things, etc. Sakaguchi is the one that insisted and fought for Final Fantasy XI to be a MMORPG. That has been well-documented. It kills me when I hear people so easily disregard the MMO’s, saying they don’t count as mainline FF or something. That means you’re essentially disagreeing with Sakaguchi himself about what FF actually means. He also personally hired Matsuno to helm FFXII (supposedly after enjoying Vagrant Story). So the “feel” of FFXII not feeling like FF is not accurate at all. Sakaguchi envisioned this. Sakaguchi has also publicly shared his adoration for FFXIV, XV, and VII Remake. XIV is obvious if you’ve kept up with recent news of Sakaguchi playing it nonstop. FFXV he claimed as his favorite game of 2016 and stating it reminded him of the “spirit of the originals”. Even though I do believe Square has made mistakes with the series-mainly focusing too much on sequels, spin-offs, and reusing assets overall, the biggest problem I think with this situation is the fanbase building opinions off of false information and misunderstanding Final Fantasy’s developmental identity from the beginning.

[@st1ka]

Thank you for the correction though I do believe what most people mean by the original team leaving mostly relates to how the games feel different. Sure, even if he wasn't the writer, I'd argue being the producer means you still have a lot of creative control over the end product. Sakaguchi might enjoy games like 14 and 15 or even though he hired the people that would go on to make the next games, it doesn't mean that they followed his vision. As for the most part, it's very difficult for someone else to follow your vision no matter how well you together. :)

[@optimysticquest]

@St1ka what’s the vision that wasn’t followed though? He stated in press tours that FFXIV and FFXV’s directors had the challengers’ mindset, and that those games had the spirit he had while making the originals. My point of my previous comment is that the fanbase’s idea of what the spirit of FF is, is in reality different from Sakaguchi has said the spirit of FF to be.

[@st1ka]

@@optimysticquest well, for one thing, how about the fact the games aren't turn-based anymore? Or how the themes of the games changed?a quick glance at Lost Odyssey for the Xbox 360 provides a clear example of what FF12, 13 and 15 could have been. The writing quality deteriorated. The direction deteriorated. The fundamentals of the stories themselves deteriorated If you play Lost Odyssey you immediately feel as if you've started playing a different a long lost mainline Final Fantasy game. You play 12, 13 or 15 and it feels like a different series with the Final Fantasy name added onto it. I mean, I understand your arguments but just because Sakaguchi picked the team members or approves of their work it does not mean the direction of the series would have been the same regardless of his presence there. You seem to believe that just because someone picked their successors or is happy with their work it automatically means they would have done the exact same thing which is absolutely not true. The best argument we have of this is the fact that the series changed radically in Gameplay from FF12 onwards. An even better example is how divisive games like 12 was upon release and how divisive 13 and 15 still are to this day. Do I like the current Final Fantasy series? Yes. Do I believe it changed radically after the original team left? Of course, it's difficult to even dispute that.

[@optimysticquest]

@@st1ka that is only speculation to assume that’s what Sakaguchi wanted. There is clear documented evidence that Sakaguchi is the one that pushed for Final Fantasy XI to be a MMORPG. That is 100% proven. If his “vision” was for FF to only be traditional turn-based, this would have never happened. Sakaguchi also made a game called The Last Story that is a chapter-based Action RPG. The writing quality is objectively great in FFX, FFXI, FFXII, and FFXIV. I still think there is strong merit to the stories of XIII and XV, but my point doesn’t hinge on those games anyway. What is hard evidence you have (or quote) that Sakaguchi’s vision is betrayed? You first brought up the turn-based thing, and that proves my point. The fanbase’s view of Sakaguchi’s vision does not line up with the hard evidence, facts, and quotes from him. He was disappointed with FFXIII, but he has been quite clear about how XIV and XV coincide with his spirit and vision. And again, in terms of story writing, he only did 1-6, and 9’s scenario. I have multiple quotes from him and others stating this, and even more specifically that he did not write FF7’s story.

[@st1ka]

@@optimysticquest Alright let's address your points: "that is only speculation to assume that’s what Sakaguchi wanted." -> *Your entire argument has been based on nothing BUT speculation. You keep assuming that Final Fantasy would have been the same had the original team not left, when clearly that is impossible. If different people are working on a project, then the project will have differences. whether these are minor or not we'll never know for sure.* "There is clear documented evidence that Sakaguchi is the one that pushed for Final Fantasy XI to be a MMORPG. That is 100% proven. If his “vision” was for FF to only be traditional turn-based, this would have never happened." -> *Okay but I literaly didn't even discuss FF 11 in the video, so I don't see what pont you're trying to make?* Sakaguchi also made a game called The Last Story that is a chapter-based Action RPG. -> *The Last Story wasn't meant to be Final Fantasy though. Microsoft specifically approached Sakaguchi and they stated they wanted Lost Odyssey to be the Xbox's final fantasy * The writing quality is objectively great in FFX, FFXI, FFXII, and FFXIV -> *The writing quality it not objetively good in any final fantasy game. The writing quality is not objetively good in any video game, movie or book ever made. Now if you meant Subjetive, that's another matter.* What is hard evidence you have (or quote) that Sakaguchi’s vision is betrayed? You first brought up the turn-based thing, and that proves my point. The fanbase’s view of Sakaguchi’s vision does not line up with the hard evidence, facts, and quotes from him. He was disappointed with FFXIII, but he has been quite clear about how XIV and XV coincide with his spirit and vision. -> *Easy, the fact that the games changed the minute his team left. You keep bringing up quotes, but calling quotes hard evidence in this context is is just wrong. You're not proving the games would have been the same. Only that the changes don't offend him.* And again, in terms of story writing, he only did 1-6, and 9’s scenario. I have multiple quotes from him and others stating this, and even more specifically that he did not write FF7’s story. -> *As I stated before, many of the members of the original team left. Sakaguchi had the final say in his games. This includes making changes to the game's direction, writing and more. The mere fact that he could be in meetings means he had at least some level of creative control over the end product. I honestly don't understand your argument at all. You can't claim that an end-product would have remained the same if different people were involved. That is literally impossible. Not just in gaming, but in everything. Whether it's movie, book, games, marketing campaigns, company management, once the people change, the vision, execution and implementation changes. All your quotes prove is that Sakaguchi wasn't offended by the changes, but that does not mean he would have done the same.*

[@IMINSIDEYOURMUM]

Just like COD and Battlefield. Hell just like a good chunk of Triple-A games. Depressing. Just started 7, and plan to go through 7-X2, and all games in-between (numbered).

[@st1ka]

Yeah that's a good point

[@vincentgraymore]

Awesome documentary and great editing.

[@st1ka]

Thank you! I try! :D

[@MidnightBlackandVictoria]

Your absolutely right. You don't change a games genre and keep the name. Once the genre has changed, its not the same series anymore. They got away with this by saying its "evolved" to be more "cinematic and hyper-realistic". But thats BS. It hasnt evolved, it changed into the same types of action RPGs that other developers have BEEN making. And without its original genre of classic party-based tactical turn based style, it will NEVER feel like a "final fantasy" and it will continue to be some new spin off thing living off the name it earned in its glory days. People can say what they want, but just look at how popular the beta for the mobile game is compared to the disappointment videos about FF7 remake. Many say its because of the story, but with the exception of the ending, the story was fine. Real time combat does NOT work well with a party based system unless you dumb down all the Materia, types of links, numbers of weapons, ect. Whether people know it or not, that feeling of "somethings off" is mainly because they are playing a different game wearing the skin of the classic FF game. And because the mobile game is turn based and closer in gameplay to the old series, people are saying stuff like "THIS is the remake I hoped for"....Over a mobile game vrs a triple A one. And the moble game cuts out very icon parts and limits exploration. Thats how I know its the gameplay that has really turned most people away. And thats just sad.

[@PAINNN666]

as a 12 and Ivalice despiser I must say it's not a new World too. We see it in FFT and Vagrant Story. So even here not 100% follow to roots

[@niccololanzoni4538]

Thank you for the excellent work. I remember playing FFXII the first time. I was 14 and thought that maybe the magic was gone because I was growing up. That game never gave me the same emotional vibes as FFVII, VIII and X did. Although it looked great, it played and felt... Hollow. Now I've discovered why. I don't think FF will ever get back to its glory days. Still, the series name will live on in the memories of those children/teens who were lucky enough to experience one of greatest work of art of the homegaming era.

[@st1ka]

Yeah I miss the old team :(

[@Yugiohsachse]

FF8 was the best, 13 was terrible

[@st1ka]

13 was pretty bad. 8 was actually my first! :D

[@Renwoxing13]

The first and only game close to final fantasies golden age I have ever played is; VALKYRIA CHRONICLES!!! If that isn’t the absolute heart and soul of what Final Fantasy games should be.... then I have no idea what is!!!

[@st1ka]

I've yet to play that series even though I Own Valkyria Chronicles 1, 2, 4 and the remaster >.>