What Happened To Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy seems to lose fans every generation and with each new anthological entry. The Daily Dorks discuss the strange case in their newest episode of Pass The Salt.

[FallenAngel1984]

"Final Fantasy seems to lose fans every generation and with each new anthological entry."

And it gains new fans as well. It wouldn't continue to be as successful as it currently is if you glossed over that basic fact.

[Soulst0rmer]

I loved Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Random but true.

[_-EDMIX-_]

That was an amazing gem!!! I really want that game remastered for the switch or for PlayStation 4.

[EatCrow]

It was a good co op experience. I did wish the whole carrying crystal thing wasnt there.

[alstruck]

Well, they are still making weird spin offs.. but on smartphones

[Godmars290]

"Its popular because its popular."

The series has gone from being an involving tale, as best as could be done in 8 and 16 bit, to an intricately detailed setting - with the same 8/16 scale as far as story telling is concerned. Less so because graphic have overvalued story. Story has become compromised by graphics with the devs leaning evermore on series lore to compensate.

That's is what pulls in new fans, the weight of the lore. The same deal with the Star Wars prequels becoming accepted by younger generations.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Soul

It's a nice game.

@ God

These franchise's variety is what attracts more fans. The diversity of the series is games bring many people into the brand. KH1 for example introduced me to Final Fantasy and FFX-2 was first game in the series.

Other people can be brought in with the spinoffs, Ivalice titles, Bravely series, Kingdom Hearts, etc.

[Godmars290]

The franchise has gone from defining character classes into characters, Tifa is a monk/martial artist, Cecil the black knight who goes on a side quest in order to change class to Paladin, Vivi the black mage, to character classes being interchangeable and meaningless.

Its not FF13 or FF15 that crates new fans, its FF4 through 7.

[Nu]

Square tried to westernize and failed because it ceased to have the RPG elements of old.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Nu

Failed? Not even close.

- FFXIV is one of the most successful & high quality MMOs currently on the market.
- WoFF is a great title for new and old school fans alike to enjoy.
- FFXV was the fastest selling title in the franchise for a time.
- FFXII: TZA is showing amazing sales worldwide & is a quality remaster.
- FF's spinoff franchise Kingdom Hearts continues to garner success.

Final Fantasy continues to gain large success in many ways within the western market. You know what hasn't? Dragon Quest because unlike Final Fantasy, its traditionally stuck with the elements of old school RPGs. Some western consumers may like that, but it's an undisputed fact that FFs willingness to change and reinvent itself has allowed it to be the bigger franchise worldwide.

[DragonKnight]

"You know what hasn't? Dragon Quest because unlike Final Fantasy, its traditionally stuck with the elements of old school RPGs."

That isn't why. Persona has been doing well whilst "stuck with the elements of old school RPGs."

DQ hasn't done well because it was never marketed well towards the western audience. It was always a niche Japanese game that you had to look for. Enix never put the attention on it that Squaresoft put on Final Fantasy, and as SE that trend continues.

[Derceto]

Right. XIV's whopping ~900K subscribers make it such a beast of success.

FF XII: Watch the Game Play Itself, is another example of high "quality" from SE.

FF XV is also the fastest forgotten title in the franchise.

Get your head out of your a**.

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Dragon

Persona hasn't been doing as well as Final Fantasy though. And Persona doesn't stick so closely to old school concepts as Dragon Quest.

It's hard to market such a traditional series to a mainstream audience. DQ is doing better now than it has in the past(especially when it was just Enix handling it) and it still isn't as big as it could be.

@ Der

- It's been reported that FFXIV currently has one of the highest active userbases for an MMO. And it just had a superb expansion pack.

- Not really. FFXII is designed so that you can't breeze through everything with a set Gambit. Only the ignorant really believe such a ludicrous notion is true. FFXII is also a highly praised game once again.

- FFXV is not forgotten. Do you see how many updates it's gotten?

Actually get a brain before you respond. It seems like you'll randomly bash anything FF related to make a dumb point

[indysurfn]

I would call going from having 35-60 penetration to 1-6 percent failing.

[indysurfn]

All you people that hate on FF1-9 always mislead with lies like labbeling turn based as OLD SCHOOL!

How could the older kind of game (ACTION RPG) call the one created after it OLD SCHOOL? There are three fingers pointing back at you when you point the finger at turn based and say old school.

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT:

1984 ACTION RPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

1987 final fantasy TURN BASED
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

[AspiringProGenji]

Dragon Quest is a bad example because it is not on the same league.

The truth is that the FF series has been in a decline since FFXIII. Square Enix is trying to hard to appeal to the west that the series is losing its roots. With all that hype and the long wait no wonder it was a fast selling game, but the game was still average at best

You know what JRPG series is consistent and gets new fans with every installment while keeping the old fans happy? Persona! Thr series keeps growing with each installment

Go Check on reddit, youtube, and any Persona 5 related forum and you will hear a number of 1st timers saying nothing but good things about it. I'm one of them! Persona 5 didn't need to lose its roots to appeal to newcomers. It did it by staying true to its roots and being a good game. It is even more awesome to see fans spreading the word on the net. I don't see FFXV players do that. You either see people that are ok with it, or more who are not pleased with it. I don't doubt that by appealing to the west they get new fans, but for how long they stay? And what about the old fans? Yeah, they keep losing them with every new installment. Sales only mean money to Squenix obviously, but to the fanbase this means nothing. Persona 5 gets more love with less sales by being a better RPG game

FF needs to go back to being Fantasy and an actual RPG

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Asp

Dragon Quest is the perfect example. It's ran nearly as long as Final Fantasy and it isn't in the same league because it isn't as willing to change. FFXV was also received better than FFXIII.

FFXV has sold better than FFXIII and it's going to continue on selling, so you really can't make the statement that it's been declining when evidence clearly proves otherwise.

Persona still isn't ever going to reach to Final Fantasy's status. FF will always have a larger fanbase.

I've seen plenty of people enjoy FFXV. Not only that but people on the internet aren't an exact representation of an entire fanbase. For example CoD: Infinite Warfare got one of the most disliked videos on YouTube, yet it still ended up being one of the best selling games of the year, even outselling Battlefied 1.

Final Fantasy is still an RPG series, nothing about that has changed.

[FallenAngel1984]

Yet you seem to be forgetting something blatantly obvious. Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy started in the exact same league along with Shin Megami Tensei.

FF's later success in the international market with FFVII allowed it to gain a larger budget. So let's not pretend that FF started out as a god among RPGs.

I'm using FFXV as a comparison since it's one of the main topics discussed in this article.

[alstruck]

They did a gamble with ffvii larger western marketing budget.. mostly because amazing western reception from ff iv, vi (or 2/3 at the time), and chrono trigger.. VII's success made them a ps1 rpg developer-publisher powerhouse

[FallenAngel1984]

@ kal

And FFVII was able to gain a large budget in the first place because of the success of the franchise in the 4th generation. The success of FFVII was able to dramatically shape the future of the franchise.

Dragon Quest was a bigger franchise with DQI-DQIV than Final Fantasy was with FFI-FFIII in the 3rd gen. However Squaresoft's flagship franchise started pull ahead in the international market with FFIV & FFVI. Enix on the other hand kept DQV & DQVI in Japan which stunted its growth and worldwide appeal.

Thanks to that success Squaresoft was able to put in more resources into FFVII compared to what Enix did with DQVII and the way each respective franchise was handled later on is history. In fact DQVII most likely even got a localization in the first place because of the prior success of FFVII.

@ alstruck

Indeed. Not to mention that that Super Mario RPG also helped raised the awareness of the Final Fantasy brand during the 4th gen while Dragon Quest was entirely absent to western audiences that entire gen.

[Princess_Pilfer]

No, actually. If we exclude the MMOs, FF sales have been on a downward trend since FF10 (technically since FF7, but considering FF7s really high sales it's more of an outlier.) This trend didn't stop untill FF15, and if you read reviews of 15 they almost universally say the story is half missing or outright bad and the game is carried by the gameplay and characters, which means it got mass appeal not for being a good FF game, but for being (yet another) open world action game.

[Godmars290]

Yeah, agree with kalkano, with FF13 Square had proof that story didn't matter, and with FF15, which had other hang ups and delays, they put in as little effort. Leaning on franchise fandom, they're only going to get worse. If such is possible.

[DragonKnight]

People are equating their own personal opinion to say the series is successful or a failure when the numbers are what you should look at.

FF has been on the decline because it has forgotten what the second F stands for. Each new FF game is more just Japanese Sci-Fi with Western graphics obsession.

Excluding the MMO, the last proper Fantasy title for FF was FFV. FFVI is where the reliance on sci-fi aspects started seeping in and FFVII is where it really took off. From then onward the Fantasy element kept consistently being reduced.

The franchise puts less reliance on deep storytelling. It favours on-rails progression and flash. Coincidentally just like a shooter.

[BigC6391]

@Dragon So what is your opinion of IX then? It's very much Fantasy focused. My favorite actually. :)

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Dragon

Do you even Final Fantasy?

The series always had some form of sci-fi since the beginning. Let's not forget how FFI featured time travel and FFIV had you travel to the moon.

Not to mention that Final Fantasy has ALWAYS had western elements ever since FFI with its setting & mythology. FFX was the first title to predominantly eastern iconography and influences.

You're basically complaining that each new Final Fantasy is just more Final Fantasy.

Even the titles from FFI-FFV were drastically different from one another. So it's impossible to say what is or what isn't "proper." And the fantasy elements were very apparent in FFIX and FFXII.

The series has always frequently changed things up in various aspects. So making general sweeping generalizations is ridiculous and doesn't account for each title's individuality.

[Godmars290]

"The franchise puts less reliance on deep storytelling."

Not really. More like sensical storytelling. Stories that introduced and took you through a world. Which is why FF4, 6, 7 and 10 often stand out as they do. Also why FF8, which introduced the guy funding Cid and the Academies but never showed where he came from, sticks in my craw as much as it does - one of many reasons in fact.

Why FF9 doesn't seem to get the recognition it should have is just beyond me.

Anyway, with FF12 "the World" got condensed into a group of European countries, and FF13 were only the notes for a proper games presented as a whole one because to technical incompetence and unfamiliarity. Same goes for FF15.

I mean, how is it that people forget that many things were changed between the decade it was first announced and when it released?

[FallenAngel1984]

@ Prin

What point does that prove? That still doesn't negate the fact that mainline FF games still end up one of the best selling games. FFXII & FFXIII sold a lot as well as FFXV.

And if you want to talk about downward trends like they absolutely mean something look at the bigger picture.

- No 3D Mario game has outsold Super Mario 64.

- No other Pokémon game has sold as well as the the Red/Blue or Gold/Silver. Diamond/Pearl comes in third with every other title beneath it.

- Kingdom Hearts has been on a downward trend since the beginning since no other game in the series has yet to outsell KH1.

- For the longest time no Tales of installment managed to outsell Tales of Symphonia until Tales of Xillia arrived. Now no other game in the series has yet to outsell Xillia.

I can bring up plenty of other franchises that also had downward trends, but my point has already been made. Many of the best franchises in gaming have had downward trends, but that doesn't make the following titles any lesser projects for not being the new best selling title in its respective series. Each franchise is still able to retain its old fans while gaining new ones as well.

[Mr-Dude]

Best FF is still FFVIII for me, loved that game. Played it over and over again when it came out, have some good childhood memories about that game. I loved FF9 and 10 and 12. But I hated FF13, and after playing FF15... well it was okay. Not the best FF, but okay.

[Becuzisaid]

I love that game also, not sure what's got me stuck to it though. I recently played through the point in the game where you travel to Timber and talked with Rinoa for the "first" time, and she compliments you on your dancing, and Squall gives some line about how you have to learn new skills and blend in to your environments, so learning to dance was preparing him for the battlefield. Such bad writing.

But I still love that game.

[ecchiless]

The dance scene is epic, i remember the first time i play the game and i was like this cant be real, theres no way they can do that kind of cgi, love the story, also my favorite ff game, i love the square soft from those times, great games in the PS, xenogears, chrono cross, final fantasy 7-8-9, vagrant story, parasite evil 1-2, brave fencer musashi.

[k2d]

FF lost three things for me; a not overly convoluted, good plot;
challenging combat where you have to think on your feet, and;
Nobuo Uematsu.

[Shin-Zantetsuken]

FF8 is my favorite FF too! It was my first FF game and I love it with all my heart. The locations, soundtrack, graphics, characters, gameplay etc. is my favorite. I just loved wandering around balamb garden, Winhill, Balamb City, or Fisherman Horizon with the soothing soundtrack playing in the background. Making every monster life miserable with a bad breath by Quistis and then ending it with a shockwave pulsar was my favorite past time. Triple Triad is my favorite minigame ever and played it for hours!

[RedDevils]

Same here like that one than 7, to me 8>10>9>7>12 >15>13

[moegooner88]

For starters, games used to launch with complete, worthwhile stories.

[InKnight7s]

Final Fantasy was going tooooo high starting from VI till XII then XIII happened and again(XIII-2) and again (LR). XV was just ok but no!! it had potienials it shown as full deep game. Versus looked, sounded, placed and presented alot better than XV.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Well you actually don't really know what Final Fantasy Versus was for all you know Final Fantasy 15 is exactly what that game was going to be give or take a few scenes.

I understand how easy it is to get trapped into this thinking of unknown, but you need to get over that you don't really even know what that game was for all you know it's story was probably just as bad as what the final story is for15 even the writer confirms that the vast majority of the story is what the original actually was.

Cuz it's starting to sound like lots of people want to live in this fantasy world where vs had this story in their mind that was the greatest story in gaming that simply because you're creating that in your mind you're never really seeing with the final version is so your assumption in regards to Fantasy is that it is exactly what you want when in reality it likely is almost exactly what 15 was in the first place we just don't have enough information to really say that vs story verbatim was going to be better than 15 simply because you don't even know if you're simply referring to the exact same story in the first place.

So it "looked" better, how do you know it was going to be better?

[InKnight7s]

Well according to SE developers statements and their trailers the game changed alot they removed one whole character and create an whole different one, they changed the settings, they scratch whole city location and its fightings, they removed alot of gameplay elements, made the game less deep and less dark, changed the tone, changed cloth designs and influences, changed the engine, changed the whole name, changed the logo story, Nomura isn't the director assuming that you now directors vision change the whole thing and are really differents. They even said and insist that FFXV took 3 years development and Versus development isnt included. Most of points that I mentioned above are facts not opinions.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@ink-except you actually don't know what those elements would have actually been in regards to execution to say if it was better or worse.

No one does.

In the concept at nomura created is still actually Final Fantasy 15 which is actually been confirmed by the current director in the current producers of the game.

ie it turned into Final Fantasy 15 nomura was still part of the development and still controlled the concept of the game.

Mind you it is an opinion not a fact that some of those elements taken out made the game less dark because you don't even know how much of that was even in the game to actually say the entire game would have been dark in the first place.

So when you're saying they made the game less deep and less dark exactly how tdo you even know the entire game 100% was going to be this dark game in the first place? Are you sure you're not just talking about one scene you saw?

My problem is a lot of this assumption is based on people who never actually played Final Fantasy Versus it's a literally you guys running on Fanboy emotions and writing fanfiction for a game you never played.

[MadLad]

Still enjoyed 9 and 12 the most. Never even touched the 13 series, and am waiting for 14 to hit steam.

[ShadowWolf712]

I think you mean 15. 14 is on Steam.

[MadLad]

You're right. My bad.

[Becuzisaid]

14's not on steam??

[_-EDMIX-_]

Exactly I've never actually played the 13 series and I would admittedly say I've given that game no real chance so I'm Square remasters all 3 on PlayStation 4 I might consider giving it a go.

Many people on the site of actually confirmed to me it's not really that bad the story might be pretty terrible but they told me the gameplay is pretty fun.

That rumor is still going around about Square making this big final fantasy collection that's Final Fantasy 1 through 10 lol

It wouldn't shock me and it sounds more believable.

[Yohshida]

The most milked franchise in gaming.

[Becuzisaid]

Call of Duty would like to speak with you.

[Godmars290]

Wold think it would have to get in line behind Madden.

[Yohshida]

How many ff games are releasing this year, 4? Only one cod per year

[_-EDMIX-_]

@vide-why would you count a remaster as a new release?

I don't understand? Were they never to improve on their older games in remaster them for fans?

Lol

Ok pal

[MeteorPanda]

How is a series that is built from the ground up at each entry milked? Im actually offended on their behalf, holy hell you kids just fire off the most retarded things in comments

[Yohshida]

So its okay to milk it to death? Look at 2016 alone :

Mobius Final Fantasy
Final fantasy explorers
Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius
World of Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy XV

[Shin-Zantetsuken]

Nah... each game is different so how it can be considered milked. There is no continuity among them (except for the sequels like X-2 and XIII-2 etc.) It is just a brand name that releases different and new RPGs under a single title.

[Yohshida]

Its just like uhm... A franchise????

[RedDevils]

They milking the name.

[Yohshida]

The Name is the franchise

[DragonKnight]

Mario says hi.

[MeteorPanda]

You do realize square exix has multiple teams and studios yeah? And funny enough yur examples literally prove my point... None of these games are similar at all and have something for everyone.

[Yohshida]

Looks like some people dont understand what a franchise is

[Hozi89]

Pretty soon SE will remake all FF games...can't wait for 8 and 9.

[Godmars290]

You'll be dead by then.

Your grand kids will be dead by then.

I mean, not like the - first part of - FF7 remake is out or even has a release date.

[FallenAngel1984]

We're still waiting on just the first episode of FFVII Remake. Lord knows how long it'll be until we get all the episodes to get the full experience.

So don't get get your hopes up for FFVIII & FFIX to receive a similar treatment.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Well from what it sounds like Final Fantasy 7 team it's likely going to have that same team start to work on Final Fantasy 8 remake or even 9.

@Godmar-lol. I mean Kingdom Hearts randomly got a release window so something tells me they might be waiting for Gamescom or even PlayStation experience to announce the first part of Final Fantasy 7 I don't really know what marketing deal they have with Sony.

Regardless you would have to consider that the people working on Final Fantasy 7 are not even the same team that work on the main Final Fantasy games so it is very likely that they could work on Final Fantasy 16 while having another team work on Final Fantasy 8 remake.

@fall-it has nothing to do with how long it's going to take it as everything to do with if it's going to make Square money I mean seriously reread your comment and realize just how strange it sounds.

As a real estate agent I work with investors all the time and there's many times where there's projects being started in which their projection date is three or four years so for the most part I sign a marketing and the listing contract that last 5 years that only gets extended automatically if the development is not complete for me to list and Market those developments.

Mind you when I first did this I even thought how strange it would be to waste so much time waiting yet when the development was complete I literally got over 10 closings over the period of like a week

So I don't really need to explain to anybody that knows anything about the real estate industry just tell massive such a deal actually is, that deal literally launched my real estate career as before that I only did maybe three to four closings a year, yet I was closing 10 or 11 properties in one week in regards to new developments in total I think I ended up closing like 27 properties from that deal

Do the math.

I'm getting 3% of a $400,000 house.

So is it going to take three or four years to see the completion of those developments before I get paid? Of course but you're also trying to suggest I should just not do it because it would take a long time lol

Ummmmm ok

Are you seriously not mathematically understanding that to a business it's irrelevant if they're actually making positive money? If Final Fantasy 7 ends up successful and they make their money back of course they're going to get a team started on Final Fantasy 8 because it is showing there is a demand for these older titles to be remade.

I mean understand that the developer that built that Community took years but he made Millions from the deal....

So what? You could have suggest that he doesn't make more money because it takes a long time? As opposed to what exactly?

Seriously help me understand your logic behind this it just doesn't really make any sense the amount of time it's going to take is really not that relevant as compared to the money they're going to make

With Final Fantasy 7 remake inevitable success I could almost guarantee you they're going to remake Final Fantasy 8 in 9 easily.

[Hozi89]

I agree. S.E. will make more than enough money because they know die hard old school fans will bite and they have a hell of a younger audience now waiting to swallow up anything they throw at them.

[Tross]

Series rot? If any series can bounce back it's FF though, and while we're on the subject, FF doesn't have to be locked to any one ongoing storyline or game mechanic (other than being an RPG series). I think it's just reached a point where old and new fans can't agree on what makes a good entry in the series. At least it hasn't fared as badly as Resident Evil in that regard as mechanics are part of why the old school and the new school has been at war since at least 2004. Besides, FF has done really well for a series that has reached 15 main entries plus various sequels and spinoffs. I'm sure we haven't seen the legit "Final" Fantasy, and won't in the foreseeable future.

[Elda]

I've played them all since the SNES but my favorites are 10,13,15 & 8.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I absolutely love Final Fantasy 10 that's easily in my top 5 favorite Japanese RPGs ever made!

Unfortunately never played the 13 series and I'm definitely warming up to giving it a chance if Square remasters it.

Even if they don't I'm pretty positive getting them used on PlayStation 3 is going to be pretty cheap.

Wow no love for Final Fantasy 9? Lol I would say the only thing I didn't like it Final Fantasy 9 was the leveling up the grinding took so damn long in that game it was ridiculous.

[Elda]

All you need to play is FF-13,imo 13-2 & 13-3 are a waste of time.I enjoyed FF-13 immensely the production & the soundtrack is amazing! You can buy it used for 5 or 10 bucks for the PS3,I still own my copy. I think it's also on PS Now.

[Elda]

Please pay Dragonknight no mind & try FF-13 on your own accord.I have been back & forth with him about FF-13 since it was released & everytime when someone is replying to me about the game on a positive note he always makes it his business to interfere & put his negative views to try & sway the person to not play the game because of his negative experience & other folks have chewed him out before for this..Again it's linear & it has some flaws but in my opinion the game is fun & to me I overlook those flaws with gameplay,production & the soundtrack & if you still have a PS3 you can get the game dirt cheap.I would say to anybody that likes FF games should play all FF for the experience.I haven't played the mmo's & I didn't like FF-13-2 or FF-13-3 but again don't let me sway you from trying them you may like them is all I'm saying.If you decide to..do enjoy!

[slappy508]

I liked 13 and 15 too! 13 was the first one I played and my introduction to the franchise (other than watching my friend play 7 at his house many years ago) so I didnt have any expectations for the game, but I really enjoyed it. Didnt like 13-2 and Lightning returns though, mainly because it just compliated the story even more for me. i've also since played World of Final Fantasy, it was okay. Currently playing 12 and loving it! Id be open to playing the older titles if they remake them, looking forward to 7!

[DragonKnight]

@EDMIX: For your own sanity, do not play 13. Trust the overwhelming negativity that game has received. Don't play it unless you want to be disappointed.

[Elda]

You've been saying this about FF-13 for eons now,because you didn't like it stop trying to stop someone else for trying something they may like or may enjoy.Let him be the judge,the only folks complaining how bad it was are folks like you on theses sites not really knowing how much the world really like the game or not.The game sold almost 9.7 million copies as of today & was received well by critics with a Metacritic score of 83.Your bashing is 7 ears old now it's time to give it a rest.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Lol I mean I've avoided that game like the plague for so many years but a lot of people are telling me it's really not as bad as I might have assumed.

I'm at a Crossroads.

I mean I'm okay with fun gameplay as many told me the gameplay is pretty fun but the story is terrible but that's sort of how I felt about Final Fantasy 12 in the gameplay of that game is one of my favorites in regards to final fantasies.

But then again Final Fantasy 5 had an amazing job system but that story was just god-awful.

This is one of the few times I'm seriously on the fence on a 50/50.

I mean I could purchase it on five bucks on PlayStation 3 and I'll probably give me a good 50 to 60 hours, but it's like I haven't even started several other games that I have unopened. Lol

I think I'll probably buy it and only play under the circumstance that I've already completed the majority of the games that I've purchased this spring.

I think if I go into it not really giving a crap about the story I'd probably be okay just having fun with the game play.

I mean I've done that with the majority of the Kingdom Hearts games and had a blast lol

I mean seriously who the heck really knows what's going on in Kingdom Hearts? With the black organization and "nobody's" and all this other crap going on lol

I think I'm willing even if it's to some degree to ignore some of the stories inaccuracies.

[DragonKnight]

@elda: "You've been saying this about FF-13 for eons now,because you didn't like it stop trying to stop someone else for trying something they may like or may enjoy."

And you've been saying FF13 is your favourite for eons now. There's no accounting for taste. In case you didn't notice, the majority of conversation about FF13 is how terrible it is, because it is. You take that personally and so defend YOUR decision any time someone talks down about it. Learn to separate yourself from your buying habits and you'll be happier.

"the only folks complaining how bad it was are folks like you on theses sites not really knowing how much the world really like the game or not."

You mean the majority of people? Yeah, you'd be right. Most people hate FF13 for very good, lengthy reasons.

"The game sold almost 9.7 million copies as of today & was received well by critics with a Metacritic score of 83."

Wrong. The game hasn't even broke 6 million in sales globally.

http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

You're confusing an inferior game with a superior one, FFVII

http://www.vgchartz.com/gam...

Try again. And critic scores are useless, they don't score any game in existence accurately. Especially when they consider a 7 to be average.

"Your bashing is 7 ears old now it's time to give it a rest."

Your praise grew old the very day you typed the very first word in a post of praise for this game. The game sucks, get used to it.

@EDMIX: The gameplay is not fun. You will spend the majority of the game in auto-battle because the game was purposely designed to have as little player interaction as possible. I'm not even kidding about that, Motomu Toriyama said it himself. He has this idea that player interaction kills the story. Those few battles you're not in auto-battle mode are either a sharp, planned difficulty spike (meaning you don't get to increase your level until the story says you can, but the enemy is still much stronger than you), or incredibly tedious.

The story is garbage. Utter garbage. If you think FF12 had a bad story (and it does), FF13's is much worse. The characters are all forgettable. The only character most people enjoy is Sazh and he's still just a supporting role. If the game ever reaches bargain bin price, maybe then try it out, but I'm telling you you will not like it. It is a very low quality experience whose only claim to high quality comes in the visual design and maybe the music, though even that is forgettable.

[Elda]

You were right,it sold almost 7 million copies I was combining FF 13 & 13-2 sales.You & a few others are basically the minority that says the same BS over & over again,you saying critics don't know what their talking about & you do...LMFAO!! You really sound pathetic..you have some EGO that's delusional thinking your word & opinion is The Holy Grail!!.You & a few others say the game is crap but there are thousands,millions worldwide that enjoyed the game as I did,everything you've stated negative about the game is surely your personal grief & problem including it totally being your opinion first & foremost.The game has it's flaws but the game was received well worldwide.That's just like I personally think The Witcher 3 is a horrible game,I just couldn't get into it but because of my opinion it's not a horrible game to others at all nor do I go to every Witcher 3 post telling folks my opinion of The Witcher 3 like it's a fact.Edmx was replying to my comment & here you go "Debbie Downer" like you've done in the past telling him to not waste his time when clearly you don't have the slightest idea if this man may like this game or not.You need to stop thinking your opinion is the holy grail & the foundation of what FF-13 is when truly that is your opinion not a fact,what you may think something is for you may not be the same for others.What would have been a fair reply to Edmx is ...personally you didn't like the game but try it out & see if you like it or not but as always you think your word is bond but it's not.Like they say sometimes if you don't have anything nice to say you shouldn't say anything at all especially when 2 people are responding to something & the conversation was positive.I'm not the only one that has said this about you especially about FF-13 & other topics.I've read here on this site several times folks chewing you out about the same thing & maybe you need to take notes & apply.You really need to get over yourself.. "your opinions" are not facts they are what they are & that's your opinion,the quicker you start to comprehend that the better off you'll be because this is getting really old now including your same opinion....SMH.

[DragonKnight]

@elda: First of all, learn what the space and enter keys do on your keyboard, as well as proper structure while you're at it.

Now, moving on.

"You & a few others are basically the minority that says the same BS over & over again."

Keep dreaming that it's a minority. You know that it's not. Not only because you insist on continuing to defend a terrible game every chance you have, but this is no different than your stance on DmC, another craptacular game that you defend.

"you saying critics don't know what their talking about & you do...LMFAO!!"

That's exactly what I'm saying. Critics took off points from Ratchet and Clank for "too much variety." They called Crash Bandicoot equivalent to Dark Souls. The entirety of the Call of Duty reviews. There's a mountain of evidence that proves that critics don't know the first thing about a good game even if one is thrown at their face.

"but there are thousands,millions worldwide that enjoyed the game as I did."

And there are more than that that hate it. Fact.

"everything you've stated negative about the game is surely your personal grief & problem including it totally being your opinion first & foremost."

Everything I've stated is pure fact.

https://www.google.ca/searc...

Just have a read through some of these results and you'll see the common themes of what's wrong about FFXIII and that you are in the minority of people who actually like this terrible abomination of a game.

"The game has it's flaws but the game was received well worldwide."

No it wasn't. User scores all have lower averages than critic reviews. People HATE this game. So much so that FFXIII-2 was made to fix what was wrong with the first game and even that game sucked.

The rest of your comment is just endless yammering.

Final Fantasy XIII is a linear, boring experience with terrible characters, poor plot advancement, and terrible gameplay. The only people who like this game are people who like having control taken from them, extreme linearity, and don't care about having to read the story of the game within the game because the story is badly told it necessitated a log section. The entire cast of characters are Cait Sith from FFVII, meaning there is no reason to give a damn about any of them. And the antagonist situation is even worse.

Play this game only if you want to set the bar really low for future expectations of the franchise. This game is used to put people to sleep.

[Elda]

First hand Miss Crabtree I can write on this site how I please as long as I got the point across to you & you did knowing that you keep responding.You have nerve..who keeps writing what someone has stated to you already,there's no need to repeat my sentences because I know already what I wrote to you.I only read a few sentences of your BS novel & that was enough for me of hearing your same tired rhetoric.You are no professional critic on how games are supposed to be or how they supposed to be played just as your negative critique of FF-13 & DmC is nothing but your lame OPINION...get it YOUR OPINION.Your opinion will never ever be factual,that is why folks on this site is always lighting you up because you think you know it all when you know nothing but your opinion.If anything is boring is your continued negativity of saying the same BS about these games over & over when no one is trying to hear or read about what you think especially when it's always negative.Go somewhere else with that BS because nobody is trying to hear it. SMH.

[DragonKnight]

@elda: Miss Crabtree? You don't know your South Park characters too well do you?

I have to repeat what you say because your structuring is so terrible that it's necessary to be specific as to what I'm addressing. How you continue to function with such a poor grasp on basic literacy is a mystery that the world will never solve.

It may be my opinion, but it's also the opinion of the majority and it also happens to be a fact. Nothing I've said about FF13 is factually incorrect or inaccurate. The story is the very definition of linear, the characters are uninspired and unengaging, the gameplay was purposely designed to take player control out until necessary to give back control, the leveling is gated and inferior even to the previous champion of worst FF ever... FF2 (the real one, not the NA version of FF4), there is no central antagonist and the closest thing to it is about as "evil" or "antagonistic" as a piece of sandstone, the world design is bland, and the only thing good about the game is the visuals and some of the soundtrack. These are not opinions, these are truths about the game and you are in the minority of people who don't seem to care about these glaring design flaws and find pleasure in the tedious linearity and lack of personality in this game.

You do no one, not even yourself, any favours by lying and creating false positivity for objectively bad games. You are the kind of person that ruins gaming for everyone because you insist on saying bad games are good, on paying for bad games, and on rewarding developers for bad development decisions. You take your gaming purchases very personally and equate someone calling a game you like being bad the same as saying you yourself are bad, or at the very least stupid for purchasing a bad game. That's your flaw to overcome, stop projecting because I will call out the very glaring and obvious wrong of this game anywhere I damn well want to at any time I damn well want to.

[S-Word]

Square-Enix happened.

[TheOttomatic91]

What do you mean? The franchise still exists and is just as strong as ever. A large amount of the fan base (including myself) were left bitter after the FF 13 Trilogy but FF 15 brought back my faith in the series.

[_-EDMIX-_]

It wasn't The final one and it continued the fantasy.

[PhoenixUp]

What happened to Dragon Quest?
What happened to Shin Megami Tensei?
What happened to Tales of?
What happened to Pokémon?

Idk why single out Final Fantasy when it still produces quality titles.

[Blackcanary]

Final Fantasy is not going any where as long as it keeps doing well in Japan the game will never die.

Just wish SE would bring back and work on some other Square Soft games if it was possible and also do a Bouncer 2.

[NecoTehSergal]

What happened? tl;dr Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu left Square, losing a huge part of what made its music great - and Sakaguchi of course being the Grandfather of Final Fantasy left and started his own company, making such great games as Lost Odyssey and The Last Story.

Nobuo worked with Square here and there, but not as much as he had in his past.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I honestly don't see the original director at such a big deal because I personally liked lots of games in the Final Fantasy series that he did not direct after he left.

I mean seriously give you some respect to the directors that have made the other Final Fantasy games that still actually exist.

Those games are not made by one person it just seems a very disrespectful.

[NecoTehSergal]

Games such as?

Why give respect to games I don't care for, or that I view as bad or average? Just because something exists doesn't mean it's deserving of respect.

Well cry me a river, apparently giving respect and thanks to the Grandfather of Final Fantasy is apparently 'very disrespectful' because I didn't pay a ****ing homage to every single other person on the team who created said-games - Oh Lordy what shall I ever do! A person being CAPTAIN OBVIOUS tells me that Video Games like these aren't made by a Single person! I had NO idea! Gosh! Thanks for enlightening me! lmao.

[alstruck]

Agreed, after he left everything about ff as a video game franchise feel different.. back then he was the main producer of FF who knows everything and also gave Nomura a team to make KH.. Then the weird FF X-2, the troublesome development of XII, the overambitious XIII series.. compared to ps1 days, 3 big sprawling rpg in multi discs in 4 years with mostly unanimous fanbase, big difference.

With KH3 coming next year, XV still waiting for gladios dlc and the mysterious final dlc, DQ XI releasing, they are starting to be realistic about their ambitions for FF XVI

[Pennywise138]

Maybe they should just try making a modern turn based final fantasy. It's been like 15 years since a mainline final fantasy was turn based and that's also about the time the series started to become divisive among gamers. I think now is the perfect time with games like persona 5 reminding people that turn based rpgs still have a place in the industry.

[Relientk77]

Final Fantasy X was the last amazing one

[andrewsquall]

A new version of the game launched same day at launch on an Xbox console (FFXIII) and the critical reception the main long running series was known for has been lost forever. Its not the first time it has happened a franchise either.

[Derceto]

Enix happened to FF. Ending with controlling stake in the merger, this is the result 17 nearly 2 decades later.

Problem with the 'new fans' it garners, is that they aren't truly fans. FF is just the flavour of the month to them, and it gets dumped as fast as it was picked up.

[trouble_bubble]

Zodiac Age and Stormblood are reviewing very well. Stormblood's averaging 90. What's the issue?

[alstruck]

Stormblood is online, which means subscription, and a lot of grinding, and other mmo tropes.. I personally dont have the time and dedication for it. I read somewhere some guys really love XIV series, even said Heavensward and Stormblood are 2 of the best FF ever, storywise

[Tzuno]

It seems it changed to a more modern approach which is not a good thing in the long run.

[PiNkFaIrYbOi]

It is dying a slow and painful death.