A Look Back at the Historic Final Fantasy
Sqaure-Enix's Classic Franchise is Still Going Strong
Final Fantasy is the fourth best selling franchise in the video game industry, with over 80 million units sold. Hironobu Sakaguchi, working for Squaresoft (Square-Enix now) was the mastermind behind it, with the release of the first Final Fantasy for the NES in 1987.
Where is it now?
Since then, eleven other games have been created bringing the total to twelve, with Final Fantasy XIII currently in development for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. It’s deceiving in how the franchise works as none of the twelve are related in anyway. They only share common elements, such as certain names and places.
Due to Final Fantasy’s critical acclaim in the West, some of the earlier games in the series have been released again, either as a simple port or with a brand new makeover. The first two games have been re-released on the PSP and the Game Boy Advance, and the third and fourth games have been completely remade for the Nintendo DS (Final Fantasy III had never been released outside Japan before).
Several of the main twelve have been more received than others, pushing Square-Enix to create sequels or prequels for them. The four notable ones are the seventh, tenth, twelfth and thirteenth entries:
- Final Fantasy VII was expanded into several more games through the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. This includes 4 extra games, an anime and a feature-length movie. The compilation is supposed to end once Final Fantasy VII reaches its 20th anniversary in 2017.
- Final Fantasy X-2 was a direct sequel, with the surviving heroes searching for Tidus, the main protagonist from the first game.
- Final Fantasy XII was also continued with Revenant Wings for the DS, which moved away from the general RPG system to a strategy game.
- The unreleased Final Fantasy XIII has three separate games coming out as apart of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series. All of them are in the same universe, but they are not associated with each other. The main game is an RPG style game, while Final Fantasy Agito XIII is an online mobile game, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII is more action based – very similar to another Square-Enix franchise Kingdom Hearts.
Along with these are numerous spin-offs which are not connected to the main twelve at all. These include the Tactic and Chocobo games, but perhaps the more recognised spin-offs are the Crystal Chronicles games for Nintendo, with games for the Gamecube and the DS, and a third game being produced for the Wii.
More than a game...
Many video games are turned into films, and Final Fantasy is no exception. The first movie was Final Fantasy: Spirits Within, which flopped badly at the box-office although the CGI was highly praised. The second was Advent Children, part of the Final Fantasy VII franchise. This was a straight-to-DVD film and was received a lot better than Spirits Within.
Discussing Final Fantasy in its entirety would take so long, it would be better to just go find any game in the series and play it. If you haven’t already, you have to ask yourself why. With incredible soundtracks, top-notch graphics and storylines that are better than most Hollywood films, Final Fantasy can hook you from the moment you start it. What does the future hold for this landmark franchise? We’ll just have to wait and see – it’s bound to be brilliant.
Jenova from FFVII
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