We first got into the Final Fantasy series 13 years ago when we traded a copy of “Medievil” for Final Fantasy VII – having never heard of the game and the fact that the series was ten years old at that point couple with our serious dislike of that Skeleton we figured we were getting a better deal – we’ve never looked back (not even after Final Fantasy X Part II)
Final Fantasy kicked off our love for all things RPG; we’d played our fair share of role playing games before Square’s series – everything from Zelda to Time. It wasn’t until we played Final Fantasy though that we found a series that we could sink in our teeth into and ever since then we’ll play anything that has RPG tagged onto it! Nothing will ever beat a good Final Fantasy adventure though!
The series has changed so much since it began in 1987 with the creation of ‘Final Fantasy’ by Hironobu Sakaguchi and over the last twenty three years we’ve seen everything from the graphics, music, characters and stories revitalise and grow as the players and developers have and new technology becomes available. We take a look at the evolution of the games from the very first Final Fantasy released in 1987 to Final Fantasy XIII released in March of this year.
There are some things that don’t change that much when it comes to the games, certain themes still exist in the games too, ‘good versus evil’, surmounting inner turmoil and overcoming adversity. More importantly however is the fact that despite running for more than twenty years and countless spinoffs, the spirit and heart of Final Fantasy that excites, drives and challenges us to complete the game and stop evil fro succeeding has never been lost.
Of course we wouldn’t be talking about the evolution of the games if things hadn’t changed and grown so here are our three favourite things about the series that are always…evolving!
Protagonists
Don’t ever let anyone tell you there is no difference between Cloud Strife or Tidus! The protagonists of the Final Fantasy games are often said to change very little, only their physical appearance changes while the personality stays the exact! Complete bogus! Any fan of the games can tell you the subtle and major differences between every one of the protagonists!
When the series first kicked off in 1987, you played as the four ‘Light Warriors’ and it isn’t until Final Fantasy II that a ‘main character’ really appears with the role of Firion being that of the protagonist. Down through the years we’ve taken on the role of Vaan, Zidane, Squall, and Bartz to just name a few.
Following on from Final Fantasy II, character development became one of the essential elements in any and all of Squares games. Each one of the protagonist we played was usually brewing with inner turmoil or personal issues that they needed to overcome if they were ever to unlock their full potential. Cloud Strife is perhaps the most well known for his case of personal demons, struggling with his identity, tormented by his short comings, he snaps under the pressure and descends into madness barely recovering from his mental breakdown.
We’re not ashamed to admit that we’ve learn a lot from strength of the characters from the Final Fantasy games, ok they wield huge swords and have the ability to cast magic but they still face real problems (not just ancient evil ones) and struggle with some of life’s harder lessons, like loss, love and faith.
Systems
If the graphics are the flesh of the Final Fantasy games then the systems are the bones. It is pretty easy to see how much the graphics have changed down throughout the years, just stick on a copy of the original Final Fantasy and then stick on Final Fantasy XIII. The real deal comes in the systems, random monster encounters, battle systems and more importantly the levelling system.
All of the Final Fantasy games use an EXP (experience) and/or an AP (ability points) system, you earn either AP or EXP after defeating monsters and bosses and these are then spent increasing your characters skills or magical abilities.
In Final Fantasy each character had a class or ‘occupation’ (Fighter, Black Mage, White Mage, Thief, Red Mage and Black Belt), earning experience increased a characters level (with level 50 being the max) and increasing your level strengthens your characters attributes. This system of occupations was tweaked for Final Fantasy V with the Job system.
In Final Fantasy VIII, you assigned your characters with a Guardian Force (a summon) using the Junction system and by doing so they were then able to use abilities. The ability to use Magic had changed quite a bit in VIII as well, rather using MP (magic points (a resource needed to cast spells)) characters had to ‘Draw’ spells from enemies which could be put in stock and used later on. The levelling system also got a new feel, rather than the amount of EXP rising as you levelled, it was capped at 1000 EXP to reach a new level.
In Final Fantasy XIII the ‘level’ system was dropped and replaced by the ‘Crystarium’, battling earned characters CP (crystarium points) which were then used to climb the system unlocking further abilities and powers as well attribute bonuses.
Eidolons/Summons/Aeon
One of the highlights of the series, the Summons are part and parcel of the Final Fantasy series ever since the ‘summon’ command was introduced in Final Fantasy III, with eight different summons available to use. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, a Nintendo DS spin-off has the most amount of summons available for use, with 51 ready to be called into battle once acquired.
Two weeks ago beta testing for Final Fantasy XIV began and we’ve less than two months to go until it gets its release. For anyone who isn’t aware Final Fantasy XIV will be Final Fantasy’s second MMORPG. It is set for a PS3 release, March 2011 but no word on a Wii or Xbox 360 release.
With his departure from Square Enix in 2004 many felt that the games would wither without Hironobu, after all the man is responsible for selling over 80million games but the fact of the matter is that Final Fantasy is still growing stronger (Final Fantasy XIII is the fastest selling game in the series and has sold over 5.5 million copies so far) and we really can’t wait to see where the future of Square Enix and Final Fantasy will take us and the future generation of consoles and gamers.
So you think you know your Final Fantasy? Then if you fancy getting your hands on a Retro Goodie Bag, just answer the simple question below and you could be todays lucky winner! All correct entries will be entered into our draw for that awesome Sega Mega Drive!
What is the name of the main heroine in Final Fantasy XIII?
a) Raine
b) Thunder
c) Lightning
E-mail your answer to info@the-arcade.ie for a chance to win!
