The irony here is palpable. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Square-Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase spoke about the future of the Final Fantasy series, including the concern over the amounts of games coming out under the franchise name as of late. Here's what he had to say:
"Well, when it comes down to it, it's up to the fans' needs, and we don't feel that there's actually a certain number that we should stop at," he says.
"But each Final Fantasy series has a lot of unique characters, and a world, and we receive lots of feedback from fans, saying, 'We want to see more of this character!' or, 'We want to see more of this situation!' So, we take those into account, and try to create new side stories based on that. So we're not necessarily conscious of a certain limit that we have to stop at."
In other words, as long as it's financially profitable, no end is in sight. I suppose there's nothing wrong with that, but it does make the whole "Final" thing kind of moot. Producer Shinji Hashimoto commented on that concept as well:
"The term 'Final' in the title doesn't mean 'last,' but the teams behind it see it as a term for 'ultimate,' and as long as there are creators that are wanting to make Final Fantasy games, we will probably keep going."
Being an outspoken Square-Enix fan, you would think I would take this as good news, but I find myself thinking of Sonic and Mega Man, both being series that I feel eventually got tiresome because it was too much of the same (although Mega Man 9 is definitely a step in a unique direction). The recent releases under the Final Fantasy name seem to be exploring a lot of different genre ground (action, strategy RPG, etc), so it looks like they're doing it right, but I can't help but worry a bit that the potential to beat a dead horse is there, somewhere.
[Thanks, Joe]
Contest:
1:40 PM on 09.03.2008
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I'm also very afraid that the letters Kitase and staff are listening to are the ones written by obsessed and starry-eyed fans who have no concept of objectivity and write horrible fan-fiction about said character(s) in said situation(s).
Seriously, what ever happened to the Squaresoft that was trying new things, being expirimental. Now all we see are rehashes and re-releases(and yet they're only now gonna re-release Chrono Trigger!? AND WHERE THE HELL IS MY SEIKEN DENSETSU 3(aka. Secret of Mana 2)!?)
(Damnit, I said I wasn't going to write a monthly musing for this month, but this post is starting to set me off on it.)
"Final Fantasy was developed during Square's brush with bankruptcy in 1987. In a display of gallows humor, director Hironobu Sakaguchi declared that his "final" game would be a "fantasy" role-playing game, hence the title.[8]"
Have you ever heard that euro tale called The Emperor's New Clothes? Right now SE are the clothes sellers and the hypnotised FF fan the Emperor.
While some of us liked those clothes for a while, (myself included), many of us see that the regular changing of clothes is good for body, mind and soul.
SE, you stink right now, FF are the clothes that need changing real bad. So jaded are you buy the smell of fanboy letters, funk and money, that you can see the real big picture.
True, just like Sonic and Mario, FF seriously needs a break. I fear that because of the smell of fanboy bucks, Square will continue to not innovate like they once did, and push out the FF boat. Such a shame and the very reason I now look to Atlus, Spike, Mistwalker, Nippon Ichi etc for something different. On top of those developers, western developers are now mounting a significant challenge with Mass Effect (while not perfect), Fable 2 etc.
Don't bullshit us Square. If Atlus can create totally new stuff like Trauma Center and do Persona series too, you have no excuses. We applaud you giving fans what they want, but there needs to be balance in your work.
How I yearn for the Square, that created such hits like Chrono, and convinced me to make the rpg leap. Like old Bravo Team's Kenneth J Sullivan from RE, they are a mere shadow of their former selves.
Why stop something that makes millions? It's a business....
I really have no desire to see the franchise killed or anything though. They developed a strong underlying framework that has yet to turn out a game worse than "not that great". Even FF X-2 was decent enough and was more of a blight on the FF franchise and a rather moronic premise than a poorly made game.
If that's what they've resorted to, then I hope this is the final Fantasy.
Like any developer, Capcom will naturally build on the IP, everyone does this in the industry. The trick is juggling the fine line between drought and overkill of any IP. Capcom are masters at this, giving us stuff we want (SFIV, XBL, PSN games etc) but not relying only on those old IP. At the same time, Capcom are smartly outsourcing, creating Bionic Commando, Dark Void etc. Sega are wisely also following this new thinking.
Square are stuck in the former model, where building upon established IP constantly has them trapped in a vicious cycle. They fail to create and push new IP enough (just look at the poor advertising for TWEWY on DS for example). Its almost as if Square are scared of creating new IP without the FF name on it. Such lack of vision might only end up hurting them.
On top of that, many Square actions leave me baffled, like selling the FFXIII demo (pure greed, as demo are supposed to be free, so that you spend later on the game) or not releasing FFXIII on 360 in japan (even a made to order system would be better than nothing, for 360 japanese gamers, this is a total cock block so Sony get their way with the PS3 cut, and a degree of japanese favouritism if you will).
I've lost a lot of faith in Square, strangely in a similar way like I have with Nintendo, that while their games are usually good and cool, i want something different that they fail to provide anymore (they once knew how, but have lost their way, a thing called variety).
To finalise all I can say is that unless Square buck up their ideas, I'll be skipping their games. Never thought I'd ever say that.
I am just saying its silly getting worked up over a title. The games barely have anything to do with each other at all, its like complaining that Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, and the other Mistwalker one are all part of a series that won't die.
'Kingdom Hearts' is currently undergoing the same 'label creation' treatment with three games being in production right now (and we all know 'KH3' is coming).
But, with three next-gen jRPGs ('TLR,' 'SO4' and 'IU' - albeit only one is being made in-house) and three new DS IPs ('Nanashi no Game,' 'Sigma Harmonics' and 'TWEWY') I think the company is turning things around a bit.
just die already, how many japanese fanboys are going to keep buying thsee things?
It is worse than all the kida buying USA pop star music.