Final Fantasy
The Last of the Legends;
If you have been a member of this online community for very long, you've heard about Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy is a series of highly acclaimed and very popular role playing games. What's a role-playing game? It's a type of videogame based more upon character development and plot than it is upon killing stuff. Most RPGs take place in a fantasy setting, generally a Middle Ages, save the princess sort of thing.
Final Fantasy has had many incarnations. Each storyline is independent from the rest, except in the case of FFX-2, but there are some similarites throughout the entire series. Summoning magic, and summoms, remain pretty much the same. Moogles and Chocobos are an old standby. However, the characters and storyline change with each installment. If you were wondering, it's called Final Fantasy because Square was going bankrupt before they released it. It was to be their last game.
After the Final Fantasy became a hit, Square followed up with Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III, the latter being the most elusive of titles stateside. The latter also introduced the class system, while the former gave us the white haired quasi-feminine villain we all know and love. Still, these were for the most part, traditional fantasy settings, mainly revolving around a legendary set of crystals.
This continued onto the SNES with Final Fantasy IV, released as part 2 in the US, one of my favorite installments of the series. It let you have five characters in your party, rather than the currently fashionable three, and helped introduce the Reluctant Angsty Hero that the series has become so famous for. For those of us living outside of Japan, it was the first game with a real storyline and characters we could care about. It also introduced the Active Time Battle system, which became a mainstay in later Final Fantasy games.
The fifth installment returned tot he crystals in a big way, focusing less on the plot and more on the superb gameplay. The class system offered a unique and interesting experience when it was bestowed to us Yankees a few years after its original release.
When Square set out to make Final Fantasy VI, they wanted to create a masterpeice. The storyline was almost operatic in nature, the score matched, it featured the largest cast of characters that any Final Fantasy has sported, to this day. The game introduced a darker storyline, a more technologically developed world, a bold attempt at open-ended gameplay and the themes of both suicide and renewal. That, and the villain was a crazy clown gone wrong, if you can believe it. Of course, with the dream of greatness came the attempt at universiality, and the gameplay was considerably easier than that of say, Final Fantasy IV. Characters were only slightly specialized, and each character could learn all the spells in the game.
This tendency towards modernity and brilliant storylines was further realized in Final Fantasy VII. This game marked the end of Square's alliance with Nintendo, they switched to the Sony platform, proportedly because it better suited their artistic goals. The story was yet more modern, with evil corperations and a dark slum where no flowers grew, and again, the hero had more than his share of problems. This was the game that brought Final Fantasy into the main-stream America- and introduced RPGs to a generation.
With the success of Final Fantasy VII behind them, Square ventured further into the new school, with an even angstier hero with a possibly more unrealistic weapon. Final Fantasy VIII sported amazing graphics and FMV sequences, and a story of true love and dark magic. For all its old themes, this was the most modern setting, in my opinion- they drove cars, for goodness sakes, and cleanliness to me is remeniscent of modernity. Midgar wasn't very clean. Final Fanasy VIII remains one of the series most popular titles.
After the plunge into the new school that was the eighth fantasy, the company decided to bring back some of the original elements of the series for the ninth. This included the crystals, a high fantasy setting, and Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer for I-VI. This game had an absolutely wonderful sense of humor, and several easter eggs for longtime fans of the series.
With Final Fantasy X, the series switched to the PS2, and it featured a complcated asiatic setting of both fanatics and machines. The story revolved around a summoner Yuna and her love for Tidus, a boy from a past that doesn't exist. They try to defeat the monster Sin, a giant monster who attacks villages. Holy Judeo-Christian parallels, Batman!
Final Fantasy XI was an online game where players could choose their own adventure, and at the time of this writing Final Fantasy XII was soon to be released. There has also been one direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy X-2, and four sequels and prequels are underway for Final Fantasy VII. There have also been several games released with the Final Fantasy name not in the series proper. These include games like the highly regarded Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. Characters from the games have also appeared in Ehrgeiz, a fighting game, and Kingdom Hearts, a Disney crossover.
Most people have a different Final Fantasy and the question of which is the best is a highly debated topic among gamers. I think each have their merits and dismerits. It's a matter of personal taste, if anything, and I really reccommend all the games. RPGs age much better than most genres, and each Final Fantasy has something unique to offer.
