History of Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy 5

Sorry for the delay in posting this, but I am not getting much editing done lately so I have to space out my videos.  I'm planning a presentation on how video games can be used as an educational tool, the Christmas episode of Video Game Growing Pains, and I've got a test in a few days.  Yes, even teachers take tests.

Anyway, enough complaining.  This week, we examine Final Fantasy 5.  It takes a little of the old, a little of the new, and makes an experience that, at the time, was wholly unique and utterly unforgettable.  Give it a look and see what makes this game so special.

Mind Games: The Good and the Bad of Psychological Warfare in Gaming

            Okay, so last week, while I was writing up my discussion on the goods, bads, and confusing elements of Dark Souls 2, I touched a little bit on my belief that the game was actually trying to engage in some psychological warfare.  I intend to go into that here, because, for what the game is trying to do, I think this type of mind game is actually pretty amazing.  Before we do, though, there are probably a few questions people might have about psychological warfare with games that need to be addressed first.

Yep, we're gonna be talkin about you today, Hearthstone...you and your MIIIIIIIND GAMEEEEESSSS

            Psychological warfare in a video game does not mean a psychological thriller, necessarily, like Silent Hill 2.  While there can be elements of psych warfare in that type of game, Silent Hill 2 and many games with a psychological bend are more interested on looking at the character they've given to the player and exploring their development in a nonlinear manner, showing their strengths, weaknesses, and growth through their actions and the world around them.  No, when I talk psych warfare, I am referring to when games perform something that does not affect story or the world they are in, but which elicit a particular response from a player that is contrary to what they know or believe the way things should be done.

Psychological thrillers and psychological torment is not the same as psychological warfare.

             Free to play games are probably the ones people might know best for psych warfare.  Free to play games operate under the idea that, a player goes into the game knowing full well that they DO NOT want to pay for it.  They want to get the maximum enjoyment out of the game as possible without having to spend a dime.  However, the way the game is built, it makes the game easier and ultimately more enjoyable if you will actually pay.  The game gives you the option to do what you believe is correct, but ultimately is trying to drive you towards something you don't want to do.  Hearthstone is a good example of this because it is subtle...it's not in your face about it.  It puts a 100 gold win cap per day on individual players, so they can't win more than 100 gold from matches per day, and gives them quests every day to win gold, which they can use to buy new cards or participate in the game's arena mode, for free.  However, 100 gold a day buys you one, count them, ONE pack of cards.  The Hearthstone store allows you to buy up to 40 at once...provided you are willing to pay real world money.  So, for a starting out player, who gets trounced by the guys wielding expensive cards...this is a real temptation.  It defines pay to win and wants to goad the players into spending, even though in their mind, they know that's not what they want to do.  This is psychological warfare.  It is trying to elicit an action from players contrary to what they might do in normal circumstances.  It aims to mess with your mind.

Behold the Hearthstone Store.  Funny how all the boosters above one cost real world money, huh?

            Now, free to play games are inherently at war with a player and that is our choice, if we agree to play them.  I deal with Hearthstone's frustrations and the psychological warfare because I like it and that is my choice.  However, like any great power, psych warfare can be easily abused.  Jim Sterling coined the term "fee to play" where a player pays a fee to buy a game, sometimes as much as 60 dollars, and then have the option of performing microtransactions and paying the game to give them more content that is behind a pay wall right off the bat.  This style of game tends to harass players into spending money rather than giving them the option.  It can never force them to, but it teases them, while still requiring them to pay, and this type of psychological warfare is pretty devious, because it tries to squeeze as much money from a single player as possible without enhancing the experience.  In truth, fee to play games are the worst kind of psych warfare because while free to play allow a richer experience if you are willing to put down a little money, fee to play negates much of your hard work, because you are paying to make a game you've already paid for easier and shorter.

Paying to make a game that you've already paid for easier and shorter...just seems kinda counter intuitive, doesn't it?  Or is that just me?

            With that outline on the basics and the negatives of how psych warfare works in gaming, let me move onto the meat of this discussion.  How psych warfare in a video game can actually be used to enhance the experience.  I'll start with a baseline example, then move into Dark Souls 2, as I think it's pretty amazing what they've done there. 

            I find that most old school JRPGs invoke just a little bit of psych warfare, so let's start with them.  Final Fantasy 5 has an area called Gil Turtle's cave, where you fight an INSANELY tough monster called Gil Turtle every few steps in a long, straight, one square corridor that there's no way to go around.  Now, you don't have to do this.  The area is completely optional.  However, what's interesting about it is that the game keeps the camera pulled just far enough back that you can't see the end of the corridor from the overhead view.  You don't know if there's treasure in there, or if there's nothing at all.  However, there's this compulsion to know, since this cave is right next to one of the big cities we've been using as a base for the last few hours.  More than that, in JRPGs there's this knowledge that if you fight a boss, you will ultimately get a powerful reward.  So, players might waste time dying against the Gil Turtle monster or spend a lot of money trying to get equipment specially made to beat it or devote time to leveling up skills they think might help.  Even though in the back of their mind, they know they ought to either move on and come back later, or just ignore it, since they're not strong enough or what have you.  The game teases you with possibilities of what is hidden and so we persevere and find...nothing but money.  And not even that much money to begin with.  Frustrating, perhaps, but we did this to ourselves.  Final Fantasy 5 goaded us into the cave and into fighting Gil Turtle, sometimes as many as a dozen times for the very unlucky, just for money, but we're ultimately the ones who gave into it.  However, let's look at this from the other perspective.  I just gave you an example of how good psych warfare makes a game frustrating, but from a separate perspective, it can also force players to get better and start thinking more strategically.  For example, some players discovered that Gil Turtle was an undead and took damage from the bard spell requiem and holy magic, making the battle much easier if you have those who can cast it.  Also it was discovered that Gil Turtle largely uses physical attacks, so if you have a knight protecting players, or a spell that gives them evasion, it's doable without much risk.  However, no matter which perspective you take, you have to admit that your experience was drastically changed by the game's use of psych warfare.  Maybe it made you a better player, maybe it gave you a feeling of accomplishment for beating a hard boss...maybe it just taught you not to be so obsessed with treasure that you risk your own life...either way, it created a unique experience for you.

Get used to this screen...it's gonna happen A LOT.

            That, I believe is the power of psychological warfare in gaming.  It can alter how we decide to play games and give us a unique experience.  Heroes of Might and Magic does this in a very simplistic way, putting a large stack of enemies in between a player and great riches.  They know they probably won't beat the enemies at their current level, so they focus on building an army to get the riches...only to have their opponents take them apart because they were focusing on the monsters guarding the treasure instead of their true enemies.  It's a way of messing with the player, and possibly teaching them a few harsh lessons.  Either way, it alters the way we play games based on our own weaknesses as humans(greed makes us want treasure, curiosity makes us explore areas we shouldn't just yet, impatience makes us play sloppy, etc.) and ultimately changes how we experience a game.

That demon is guarding sooo much treasure...if only I had a dimension door...

            Now, I want everyone to understand that what I am about to say is purely speculation on the part of Dark Souls 2.  I don't know if this is the case, but I believe it to be so based on the game design.  Alright.  Now, in Dark Souls 2, you have a hub town.  This is where you level up, this is where you strengthen your recovery items, this is where you upgrade and buy items and weapons, this is where you are safe.  Problem.  You have to warp back to it for any of this, and that takes you out of combat, breaks the flow of the game, and puts you behind a loading screen.  I heard many players during the beta talking about how it was an issue for them.  About how the original Dark Souls allowed them to repair items at a bonfire, level up at a bonfire, improve recovery items at a bonfire, all taking only a minute or so and just like that, they were back in combat.  This new system seemed frustrating and baffling and I felt the same way...at first.  However, I realized after several painful deaths involving the loss of over a hundred thousand souls(the in game currency and experience points), that the game was messing with me.  You see, all those benefits to the hub town?  They're supposed to be inconvenient to get back to.  Not so inconvenient as to make the game frustrating, but juuuuuuussssttttt inconvenient enough that you don't want to go back to them from the middle of battle, even though you KNOW you should.  This is where the psychological warfare comes in.

Quaint little town, isn't it...it's a trick!

            In the original Dark Souls, one of the rules of gameplay was to spend your souls as soon as you got them, level up often, never wait, because death was right around the corner.  However, that mantra changes a little bit when you're taken out of combat and put behind load screens, short as they may be, because it's no longer easy to spend souls quickly and efficiently.  You  have to warp back to your home town of Majula, talk to the Emerald Herald NPC, talk to others to see if they have new wares in or to fix items, it completely takes you out of the "YEAH, I AM KICKING ASS" mentality for players doing well or the "MUST GET SOULS BACK/MUST GET REVENGE" mentality of players doing poorly.  And most players don't want to lose that mentality.  They're having fun, so they don't want to stop, even though, in their mind, they know they really should, because they're carrying a lot of souls they could use to level up or buy/improve items.  And this...this is where the game gets diabolical.  I believe that the hub town and the NPC who you have to level up with were all intentional.  The developers were trying to wage psychological war with players to try and get them to act recklessly, because everything in Dark Souls 2 is surmountable if you are careful or if you're open to experimentation.  However, neither of those is conducive to the fast pace of an action game or the impatience of many players.  So, they get sloppy and die.  And when they die, they lose A LOT of souls.  Why?  Because it was just a little too inconvenient to go back to Majula and spend them. 

You'll stay by our side until hope withers, eh?  We shouldn't take your words lightly, Emerald Herald.

            In many ways, this is a better difficulty scaler than anything.  You see, the game is only hard if you're reckless.  If you don't spend souls as soon as you know you have enough.  Because you'll lose them.  Samuel Vimes in Terry Pratchet's "Night Watch" once said, "I have to get lucky all the time.  They only have to get lucky once," in regards to people trying to assassinate him.  The same mentality applies here.  You have to keep being lucky, because no matter how skilled a player, eventually there will be a mistake.  The enemies only have to get lucky once...and that's devious, because it lets you know the status quo...that all your assets are in this hub town...but then encourages you to ignore it at your own peril.

You're wise beyond your years, Sir Samuel.

            Even the rewards for the game encourage this to an extent that is rather shocking.  There are two items in Dark Souls 2 that are based around this same principal of making the players go against what they know is proper.  Illusory Ring of the Conqueror is awarded to players who beat the game without dying.  Illusory Ring of the Exalted is awarded to players who beat the game without using a bonfire.  Now, dying to experiment with different play styles or strategies and using the bonfire to heal and warp are cornerstones of Dark Souls 2...and encouraging players to get these rings by ignoring them is playing a bit of mind games with them.  You can only get these rings if you go against the game design and against convenience, as the inability to use a bonfire, for example, means you cannot warp or repair items and have to walk everywhere and deal with broken weapons at a regular basis.  It also means you cannot easily get rid of your souls via leveling up.  Yet, the game encourages players to try this...it is setting them up for failure, but it is a failure that they themselves could easily stop if they just did what they knew was the right choice.  And these rings?  They only make the item you're holding in each hand invisible.  Useful for PvP perhaps, but hardly worth the effort.  Yet some players are already working towards them.  This is what leads me to believe the game is messing with players.  It is more difficult than the original Dark Souls, but only if you let it get to you.  Let it get into your head and ignore the warnings.  This is psychological warfare.

I hope the ring was worth all the psychological warfare you subjected yourself to.

            Now, there are plenty of examples of varying degrees of psych warfare at play in the games industry.  I've only scratched the surface.  There are plenty of ways to mess with someone's mind.  Conditioning, for example.  In Pandora's Tower, you grow closer to Elena because the game conditions you to, with the relationship meter and the fact that she will do things for the player if they talk with her.  She can improve your items, give you buffs or healing tools, or many other things.  However, if you just want to play the game, she's a bit of a barrier, as you need to talk with her regularly...however the game is trying to convince you she is not a barrier and condition you to like her.  This happens, A LOT with games.  Some do it well, and I do believe Pandora's Tower does it well, others, like Final Fantasy 13, do it poorly and just make the character an annoying anchor around your neck.  However, ultimately, that brings me to an interesting question I asked myself while playing Dark Souls 2.  Is psychological warfare in a game beneficial to the player?  Is it "good?"

What can I say?  I'm a softie for Elena...

            Now, that's not an easy question to answer.  Some of it is clearly ripe for abuse, such as in free to play games.  Dungeon Keeper on mobile platforms abuses it's psychological warfare to try and bully, harass, and goad the players into spending real world money.  The NPC guide of Dungeon Keeper mobile actually says, "Who says money can't buy time?"  Now, with this level of abuse, especially in the fee to play games that Jim Sterling has outlined like Dead Space 3, psychological warfare is a bad thing.  It is meant to squeeze money out of players.  It does not serve the game, it serves the publisher.  In this case, I'd say psychological warfare is something to be wary of and try to be aware of as soon as possible and avoid.

This is psychological warfare in gaming at its absolute worst.  Manipulating the players for the profit of the publisher.

            Along that same note, I want to say that I consider psychological warfare to be completely different from brain washing.  Many games, some with political messages, some with ideological messages, or what have you, will try to brainwash its players into thinking a certain way.  This isn't warfare, it is programming...and that's just despicable, in my opinion.  Good players will agree or disagree or make their own decisions about how a game's views and agendas play out.  You can like or dislike the extreme racist views of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite because it doesn't necessarily play them out as good or bad, just a product of the times.  However a game made specifically to convince a player that their beliefs are wrong or invalid and that the beliefs of the game designer are right and thusly they need to change how they think?  That's not a game.  That's a piece of trash.  Most of the time, you don't see games like this sold commercially, because no one will pay money to be talked down to and have their beliefs belittled, but it is something to keep in mind for certain freeware games or for game design in the future.

Racist and insane as it may be, at least Columbia isn't trying to brainwash you into believing it's right...or if it is, it's doing a damn crappy job of it.

            HOWEVER...when a game doesn't try to brainwash or belittle a player?  When it doesn't have microtransactions?  When it is actively trying to make the player experience the world in a different way?  I actually think these types of mind games enhance the titles more than hinder them.  I freely admit to allowing myself to be taken in by the conditioning of Pandora's Tower and really growing attached to Elena and...that made the game better for me.  Playing Final Fantasy 5 and getting stuck in Gil Turtle's cave actually gave me some perspective onto how brutal some of the secret bosses could be and helped me work through strategies on how best to defeat other secret bosses, like Omega and Shinryu, which I did.  And in Dark Souls 2...I have to admit, it made me be a bit more aware of my actions.  I knew that the risk I was taking was stupid, sometimes, but it enhanced the thrill of the game when I did it...and it also made me feel smart when I chose not to, spent my souls in Majula, and died moments after going back to battle.  It taught me how to better play the game.

I praise the sun for this victory!

            Thing is, it takes work to put psychological warfare into a video game without microtransactions.  It takes work to design Gilgame's cave to make it so difficult to pass through but so easy to avoid.  It takes work to try and condition players to like characters, even if it fails, like with Vanille in Final Fantasy 13.  It took work to make Dark Souls 2 function the way it does, with an NPC to level you up and a hub town behind a loading screen to spend your souls at.  And why do all this work if not for the benefit of the players and the experience?  I know that some people might get a little iffy about being played or having their mind messed with, but in most games, psychological warfare is actually meant to enhance the experience.  Recognizing it actually kind of changes the game too, because you can choose to be taken in by it or to play it without being messed with, further enhancing a game's replayability or it's value.

            Psychological warfare in games isn't meant to program you to think a certain way, even though conditioning can make you look at characters more fondly...the point of it is to enhance the experience for the player so that they will buy the sequel or recommend the game to others.  If a game tries to overstep that bound and doesn't serve the player, that's when we have a problem.  That's why I have such disdain for games like Dungeon Keeper mobile or other fee to play games.  Because they don't want to enhance the game for the player...they are there to serve the publisher or some other party.

            Let me close out by saying that you don't need to recognize psych warfare to enjoy a game or to be swayed by it into playing it differently.  In fact, if done well, it should be very hard to recognize indeed.  However, it is a very interesting little look at how some game designers go out of their way to make a game better by trying to understand how a player will think and then work against them or with them(in some cases) to try and make the experience more unique and fulfilling.

Where Did Final Fantasy Go Wrong? A Fan's Analysis

            Well, this is going to get a few people angry.  Anyway, this discussion came about because recently I've been replaying Final Fantasy 5, which is a criminally overlooked part of the series.  It, along with other older Final Fantasys and certain games from yesteryear, are a breath of fresh air compared to the modern industry.  However, the thought occurs to me that we could face a very real possibility of a FINAL Final Fantasy.  Square has abused the franchise to a surprising degree, milking it for all its worth while overlooking what made it great to begin with.  More worrying is that other companies, good companies with strong games and smart designers, seem to be following their example, hoping for similar sales numbers.  Level-5, for example, maker of excellent action RPGs on the PS2 such as Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2, and Rogue Galaxy, recently released the incredibly frustrating, poorly controlled, and much delayed White Knight Chronicles games and the beautiful, but flawed, Ni No Kuni.  They're ignoring some of the same aspects of game design that Square is, and with disastrous results, at least from this fan's perspective.  During the PS2 era, Level-5 was a name I trusted.  I would pre-order any game with their label.  Now, I dismissively wave them aside, because they've lost my trust.  Same with Square.  So, to see how we got here, I want to examine where Final Fantasy went wrong.

A reminder of times gone by.  The glory days of Final Fantasy are long gone.

            Before we discuss where Final Fantasy went wrong, though, we need to outline what made it such a seminal series for RPG fans.  This can be broken down into four main categories.  Graphics, Music and Sound, Game design, and Storytelling.  These four aspects of the game series are what enraptured fans.  First, let's examine why that was the case, then, we'll examine how Square dropped the ball.

            Graphics: Final Fantasy has always focused on graphical fidelity to a degree.  Even during its time on the NES, it tried to be a powerhouse of graphical design, using complex sprites, a varied color palette, locations that were relatively unique at the time, and a style distinctive from other games of similar design, like Dragon Quest or Phantasy Star.  As the series gained steam and moved on to the SNES, this not only meant crisper, more detailed graphics, but an improvement in how they were used.  Character sprites could now emote to a huge degree, showing shock, concern, anger, disgust, etc.  Mode 7 was also a popular feature for giving certain sections, like traveling via airship or on chocobo in Final Fantasy 6 a distinctive feel.  The graphics served a purpose of not only making the game prettier, but also of making it more unique and distinctive and allowing the characters to connect to the player on a visual as well as narrative level.  There was a lot more, "Showing" instead of "Telling."  When Final Fantasy came to the Playstation, there were some graphical hiccups, with the blocky style of Final Fantasy 7.  However, it still offered, at the time, gorgeous cut scenes, a distinctive style which, love it or hate it, has not been replicated since, and a more varied range of movement for characters.  They could wield weapons outside of combat, stand awkwardly, slump in place, etc.  There were a range of emotions that could be told through body language.  And this trend continued through Final Fantasy 8 and 9.  The graphic styles were distinctive, the cut scenes beautiful, and the characters emotive.

From the very beginning, Final Fantasy featured colorful worlds that pushed the limits of its platform

            Final Fantasy 10 is where I argue that the series started to get lazy.  I did still greatly enjoy Final Fantasy 10, however with the advent of voice actors, emoting became less important, and so the voices, which could often be quite annoying, became more apparent as opposed to how character models could be used.  That aside, the graphics were still quite good and allowed a much more interesting array of monsters and summoned beasts to be called upon.  This is true through Final Fantasy 11 and 12, which each had distinct styles and graphics which were quite pleasing to the eye.  Cut to Final Fantasy 13 and its sequels.  The graphics here plateaued, in my opinion.  They were as gorgeous as they could probably ever be and didn't really need improvement.  The character models are painstakingly detailed, the environments crisp, and even the style of monsters was varied too, giving them a more mechanized look, even if far too many enemies were just soldiers in drab uniforms.  However, I personally believe that the characters lost much of their ability to emote due to the game's over abundance of cut scenes, which basically plopped a pre-rendered mess into the game at certain points, but graphically, there shouldn't be that many complaints for the game.  From a purely aesthetic standpoint, Final Fantasy started out attracting players with a more graphically engaging RPG experience on the NES and this trend continues to the present day.  Square does, if nothing else, create beautiful graphics.  However, they have reached a plateau where they may not be able to wow us with graphical design any more and will need to find a new way to attract players, either through interesting graphical styles, like Final Fantasy 9 or 10, or by allowing the characters a wider range of expression.  Not just facial expression, but full body expression.

Even if body language has fallen by the wayside, Final Fantasy remains a gorgeous series with graphics that never fail to impress.

            Music and Sound:  Music from the Final Fantasy series is iconic.  It is soul stirring.  Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have been brought to tears by themes like the "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" from Final Fantasy 6 or "Eyes on Me" from Final Fantasy 8.  And this has warranted dozens of full symphonic tours.  If graphics were the body of the series, music was the soul.  It moved players and that is one reason the older games are remembered so fondly, even though their music was limited by the hardware of the time period.

This music was burned into my brain from childhood.  I replayed Final Fantasy 6 at least a dozen times just to linger on this sequence and this score.

            I do not believe, personally, that any one series should be defined or held up by a single person.  Games are built by teams, after all.  However, Nobuo Uematsu, the composer for Final Fantasy 1-11 deserves personal mention.  While the series has been helmed largely by Hironobu Sakaguchi, most often uses Yoshitaka Amano or Tetsuya Nomura for graphical design, and has had a slew of other directors, animators, etc.  Uematsu was an integral part of the series.  Music from Final Fantasy 1-11 ran the gambit of light hearted and fun, to heartbreakingly tragic, to almost scary.  The music appealed to gamers on an emotional level and kept them gripped from beginning to end.  And, as the series moved from NES to SNES to Playstation, the music improved, as the sound chips and tools available to Uematsu improved.  Even now, he is recognized as one of, if not the, greatest video game composer of all times.

This man was the soul of Final Fantasy and his departure from Square crippled the series.

            And when Uematsu left Square, Final Fantasy lost its soul.  Square still owned many of the popular themes Uematsu created, such as "Victory Fanfare," "Mambo De Chocobo," "Prelude," and "Final Fantasy."  However, Square took to retooling or just ignoring these themes after Uematsu's departure, with few of them used in FF 12 and none, save for the Chocobo theme used in FF 13.  And that theme is so bastardized it's barely recognizable.  I will not say that the music got significantly worse after Uematsu stopped composing for Square, however it never stirred or gripped players like it used to.  It was passable, competent even, however the music lacked the soul and emotion Uematsu gave it.  Instead, Square has chosen to use more modern pop themes, the most used theme from Final Fantasy 13 being "My Hands" by Leona Lewis, an X-factor contestant.  Nevertheless, these themes COULD have held a place in the series if paired with Uematsu's music as a nice counterpoint, however as it stands, they feel like crass replacements.  Musically, Final Fantasy has become boring.  And if Square ever wants to recapture the previous soul, they either need to contract Mr. Uematsu to compose for them again, since he is now an independent composer, find someone who can create similarly evocative music, such as Yoko Shimomura or Akira Yamaoka, or stick with themes they already posses.  Final Fantasy will not get better if they ONLY use old music composed by Uematsu, but it may at least slow the degradation.  However, musically, it can't get much worse.  Bland is even worse than offensive at times in video games because it is forgettable.  At least offensive music sticks with you. 

I cut Final Fantasy X-2 a fair bit of slack, but that was a one off.  We didn't need pop music or bland themes in every game thereafter.

            Game Design:  Here we come to the key part of Final Fantasy.  Game Design.  The series is well known for starting off using turn based combat, then an active time battle system, and after many tweaks, a system not unlike those of MMOs.  Looking back at the original turn based combat, it was very stiff.  Battles progressed slowly, but that was because each character needed to be assigned a move, then perform it, then enemies did the same.  The active time battle system improved on this by speeding up combat.  Enemies and players could now have their turns intersect and whoever was fastest got to move first.  It allowed a great deal more excitement and tension in combat.  Then the shift to an MMO style took control away from all but one character, while still retaining the basic features of the active time battle system.

Say hello to the Active Time Battle System, staple of the good Final Fantasy games from 4-10.

            Ignoring combat for a moment, game design also had a great deal to do with how players experienced Final Fantasy.  Starting out on an overworld which allowed for non-linear exploration, players were given a path, told to follow, but allowed to deviate to find hidden treasures, new monsters, or just goof off and play with their abilities.  There were distinctive divides between overworld exploration, town based exploration, and dungeons.  Dungeons were dangerous and had plenty of enemies, but also lots of treasure.  Towns offered players a chance to buy items, hear rumors from NPCs and become immersed in the world.  Overworld exploration was the bridge between these two segments, giving the player the feeling that they could control where they moved not just in towns or dungeons, but everywhere.  This general structure would remain consistent with the series from Final Fantasy 1-10.  However, after Final Fantasy 10, the series tried to wean players off these features.  Final Fantasy 11 only gave players one character to control while still allowing them to have a non-linear world and job system to explore and play with.  Final Fantasy 12 still only had players controlling one character and made the game more linear, but the world was large, interconnected, and had branching paths which led to hidden secrets.  Final Fantasy 13 only had players control one character through a linear 60 hour hallway.  Even when the game supposedly opened up for exploration, there was very little in the way of secrets, hidden treasures, or anything really interesting to find.

The MMO style of gameplay was not a good fit for Final Fantasy.  It robbed us of our freedom.

            What I want to make clear, however, is that linear exploration and changes to combat are not, in my opinion, what hurt Final Fantasy design wise.  The series has always been ready to explore and experiment with different styles of gameplay.  What irked me most was the general lack of control players had after Final Fantasy 10.  Control is what Square took away from players since Final Fantasy 11 and the series has never been the same.  Players controlled between 3 and 5 characters at a time before Final Fantasy 11, were given free range to explore wherever they wanted, and a wealth of other options were made available to them, from weapons and armor, to spells, summons, and personal abilities.  Final Fantasy 11 reduced the game so that each player controlled only one character.  To a degree, this made sense, as it was an MMO and the job system and constantly changing world allowed players to explore and experiment without the game getting stale.  However, Final Fantasy 12, which was not an MMO, also only gave control of one character to players, even though a party could have three characters and a guest.  The characters not in use by the player were AI controlled and had to be given orders beforehand using a series of logic loops called gambits.  While frustrating, at least these gambits gave players some semblance of control and Final Fantasy 12 had secrets to be found, like hidden summons, dungeons to revisit, bounties to hunt, etc.  Final Fantasy 13, however, was the nail in the coffin.  Only one character out of three could be directly controlled.  The others were handled by the computer.  While there is an illusion of choice, as you can select individual commands in battle, the computer is smart enough that if you hit auto battle, it will basically do what is necessary to win/survive.  There is some control in party layout, as each character has a few "jobs" with different abilities, however it all comes down to auto battle in the end.  Worse, players are given a 60 hour linear hallway to explore, with no secrets, no branching pathways, no towns, nothing that is not scripted.  It is like playing a 60 hour movie.  There were some attempts to restore control, like when players are allowed to explore for the first time some 40 hours in, but by then it was too late.  Gamers had already resigned themselves to the hallway.  Final Fantasy 13-2 seemed to understand this to a degree, and there are more places to explore nonlinearly, but the game still only allows control of one character at a time.

Here's a typical map from Final Fantasy 13.  A long hallway, with no branching paths, no exploration, no control.  This hallway was the nail in Final Fantasy 13's coffin.

            Final Fantasy was, at its core, a role playing experience and control is the heart of that experience.  You have to role play.  To feel like these characters are under your control and so their fates and yours are intertwined.  When you explore, they discover and when you make a mistake, they suffer.  Removing control essentially removes all elements of role playing from Final Fantasy.  A ROLE PLAYING GAME.  In previous iterations, job classes which players could customize to their taste were available.  Summons could be swapped, mixed, matched.  Skills could be learned and experimented with.  In Final Fantasy 10, the most enjoyable addition to the series was the ability to CONTROL summoned beasts, as well as swap out party members mid fight.  The level of control was staggering and it made players invested in seeing these characters succeed.  But, if control is removed and a computer can do the job of the player...why do we even need to play the game?  Where is the tension?  Where is the investment?  This is, in my opinion, the biggest misstep of the Final Fantasy series.  But not the last.

When it comes down to game design, control is the name of the game.

             Storytelling:  Storytelling is a prickly issue for Final Fantasy.  Despite how beloved the games' characters, stories, and twists are, they are also rather silly.  Nothing is too out there for Final Fantasy games, which frequently included steampunk elements, alien invasions, cloning, time distortion, dimensional travel, crossdressing, gods fighting mortals, etc.  I believe that one of the reasons people find the stories so enjoyable is because they were paced well, kept a decent mix between high tension and comedy relief, and offered a different story each time from what was expected.  True, many of the stories in Final Fantasy boil down to "Kill the evil wizard/swordsman/whatever" but the tweaks and twists added kept it interesting.  We dealt with something we knew, but in a manner that was wholly original to us.  How do you spice up a kill the evil wizard plot?  Throw him into the past so he can absorb ancient monsters to become a god and create a time loop.

Time Travel.  A sure-fire cure for boredom in a kill the evil wizard plot.

            Personally, I believe that the stories started to degrade in quality when voice acting was introduced.  It created a disconnect between player and character where if you didn't like a character's voice, that was too bad, you were stuck with it.  And while a player's imagination could fill in the gaps for a bad joke or an emotional moment in the previous games, from Final Fantasy 10 onwards, that job fell to the voice actors, and if they flubbed a line or made something awkward, that was how the story was.  There was no wiggle room.  As the games continued, voice acting was not the only problem.  Scripts generally became less coherent and focused more on melodrama rather than on actually telling a story that made sense and held together.  Worst of all, however, it would seem that the newer staff who replaced those working on the earlier Final Fantasy games, particularly the staff who worked on Final Fantasy 13, simply did not have a unified vision for the story they wanted to tell.  A number of times, there were leap of faith plot twists that were impossible to ignore, infuriating plot conveniences, and revelations that were head scratching.  Also, an encyclopedia was added to hammer out story details they couldn't bother to put in the narrative itself.  When you need an encyclopedia to explain a character's motivations or history, you are failing at storytelling.

This is not good storytelling.  This is the antithesis of good storytelling.

            What is truly a shame, however, is that most Final Fantasy games, even up to 13, had some interesting ideas to explore.  Interesting themes to be brought to light.  Final Fantasy 6, for example, looked into the idea of what would happen to the world if a capricious and nihilistic god ruled over it.  This outlook allow players to explore the issue of "if life is so short, so fragile, so fleeting, why bother?" and find some interesting viewpoints and reasons for why humans continue living.  Final Fantasy 10 examined how a world ruled by a corrupt theocracy could ultimately live in blind ignorance of the real monsters, even when it was being menaced by a creature the size of Godzilla as well as exploring the ephemeral nature of life and the power of dreams.  Final Fantasy 13, loathed though it is, looked at ideas of prejudice, how stereotypes and hatred can ultimately ruin a world, rotting it from the inside out, to where anyone associated with the accused are viewed as less than human by others and acts of brutality against them are deemed justified.  The true disappointment in Final Fantasy's storytelling was not that there were no good ideas.  The insane ideas and the deep themes practically made the story.  No, the true disappointment was in how poorly executed the story, and script, became over time.  They went from being a bit quirky and insane to almost totally nonsensical.

 

Final Fantasy 13 did have some amazingly powerful, moving character moments, exploring complex and mature themes...pity the story itself was so poorly told.

Conclusion:

            Looking at the data, it should be pretty clear what the major stumbling blocks for Final Fantasy are and why it's becoming less and less relevant to fans.  Graphically, there aren't really any problems.  Characters may not emote or use their body langauge as well in the HD age, but the series has always had a fairly high graphical pedigree and that's continued on into the current generation, with absolutely gorgeous vistas and backgrounds, interesting character and enemy design, and just tons of beautiful eye candy to amuse players. 

            Musically, the series lacks a strong hand to give it direction.  Uematsu provided that hand before and they haven't found anyone else to give it the necessary soul to match the onscreen events.  It hasn't become terrible overnight, but the slide has been gradual, with Final Fantasy 10-2 moving into more j-pop, Final Fantasy 12 trying to recapture the feel, but ultimately being a little forgettable, and Final Fantasy 13 being often times boring, annoying, or just confusing.  Why did they include an American Idol singer as a selling point?  Why license a song like that instead of having one made for the series by a strong composer? 

            From a storytelling perspective, the scripts seem to have gotten poorer and the over reliance on voice actors seems to be pushing scripts and dialogues into certain directions that ultimately make them less reliant on clever wordplay, body language, or situational context and more reliant on the talents of the VA.  This may be the world we live in, but you need a balance of those things, since not all VAs are created equally.  The nonsensical parts of Final Fantasy are, for the most part, fine.  The series has always had some goofy elements that don't make too much sense.  The important part is having a script which keeps players engaged until the game is over and they start realizing how damned goofy what they just played was.

            However, most importantly, Square needs to give players back control.  When you take away a player's control in a game, it stops being a game and becomes a movie.  Final Fantasy offered a huge amount of variety and control options until it hit 11, which limited it due to that game being an MMO.  After 11, though, all the single player games have been lacking in options.  Now, the norm is to only control 1 player where before a party of 3-5 could be under your control.  Restricting control is not a good idea, as it will remind players they are going through a very linear, scripted, and stifling experience.  Give players back the ability to make mistakes, since mistakes help us grow.  Give them the ability to explore, to talk to people, to shop, for god's sake!

Ironically Final Fantasy 13 sold very well...then, people realized it was crap and so sales dropped like a rock.

            And, there you have it.  They need a strong musical hand, a more balanced script that relies less on voice and more on context, words, and body language, and they need to give players back their control.  So, do I think Final Fantasy can recover from these pitfalls?  Well, it can, but I'm not sure it should.  Final Fantasy has always been a sort of industry standard for what an RPG is.  If people see this poor standard, they can at least learn from it.  Besides, Final Fantasy has already alienated a ton of fans, not just with flaws like the above in its main games but with numerous money grabbing schemes from its spin offs.  The brand is pretty weak right now.  It might just be better to start fresh, so to speak.  For example, Uematsu and Sakaguchi, both Final Fantasy Alumni, worked together to create The Last Story and Lost Odyssey, games which had a Final Fantasy feel, but which were not Final Fantasy, strictly speaking.  These games won over audiences with their graphics, music, storytelling, and above all else, their control.  So, a Last Story 2 or Lost Odyssey 2 might not be such a bad idea.  Start a new legend and let the Final Fantasy series have a break.  Better to let it rest in peace with over a dozen good titles than slowly wither and decay until there really is a "Final Fantasy."  And maybe someday, it'll be ready to come back.

 

It's possible that Final Fantasy has gone too far and will never be as it once was.

 

Even if Final Fantasy is gone for good, however, worthy successors have stepped forward.  The Last Story(Top image) and Lost Odyssey(Bottom image)

            Before I sign out, I would like to remind people that I am not an expert.  Just a gamer who knows what he likes, what other gamers like, and where the industry seems to be heading from my perspective.  This is just my opinion on what the hell happened to Final Fantasy.  Take it, leave it, or argue if you like.  Let me hear what you think happened.