History of Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

As Final Fantasy moved through the PS2 era, it also found a welcome home on portable markets through the Gameboy advance and digital services.  Today, we take a look at the successor to the Final Fantasy Tactics game and return to Ivalice with, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

Ignorance is Idiocy. AKA, Use it or Lose it

Well, crap, it's been over a month since my last post.  Life has basically given me a swift kick to the nether regions in this absence, but, hey, I'm back with more insight into the wonderful world of video gaming.  Enjoy.

Ignorance is Idiocy.  AKA, Use it or Lose it

            In the current era of console and even PC gaming, there is little that holds more power than a sequel.  Sequels are signs of success and comfort for many gamers, as they bring back stories and game concepts that enraptured players from the start.  Sequels are not free money...however, they almost always have an audience, no matter how small.  They do not need to prove themselves in the same way that original property does.  A Bioshock sequel, no matter how poor, has a greater audience by far than an original property which uses the same concepts, even if it is superior.  However, in this era of sequels, there is a disturbing trend.

My thoughts exactly.

            Halo.  Call of Duty.  Far Cry.  All of these games are, in their own right, very well made and with a specific audience in mind.  They cater to gamers who enjoy war games and in sequels offer them more of the same.  They have proven themselves.  However, countless other games mimic and copy the successes of these titles, but without even a modicum of the same originality, polish, or passion.  In fact, as sequels keep going into larger and larger numbers, many gamers collectively grown because there is stagnation.  They do not bring back great gameplay or tell epic stories, it is merely more of the same.  A game such as Fracture or Turok copy from the Halo formula in hopes of cashing in on its success, but ultimately glut the market.  Ironically, however, this glut is not, in and of itself, the trend I was speaking of.  What I refer to is the tendency to ignore one's own property in favor of chasing after someone else's.

Damn right

            Let us return to my previous example.  The original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was a Nintendo 64 game about a time traveling and dimension hopping Native American warrior, equipped with outlandish weaponry fighting aliens and dinosaurs with everything from probes that bored into enemy skulls to magic tribal arrows fired from a regular bow.  The newer version of Turok rips off countless things from Halo, such as regenerating health, guidance markers, character archetypes, etc. It makes Turok a space marine, removes his interesting character traits, and gives him samey, boring weapons.  It is essentially, a clone trying to cash in on a previous game's fans.  No different from the atrocious Golden Axe: Beast Rider game for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 or the mediocre Altered Beast game for the PS2.  They take the original game's concept and completely alter it to fall more in line with modern trends, hoping that name value alone will sell titles, ultimately creating a generic experience with a thin veneer of the original coating the property.

Believe it or not, this is the good one.  This is the FUN one.

            And that is really the biggest shame of all.  Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was not a smash hit, however it garnered a cult following and earned a sequel on the Nintendo 64.  However, many of the fans probably felt betrayed by this new game, which used name value only to try and sell its property.  This is one of the bigger problems in the game industry.  Ignorance.  Many companies either forget what made their titles superb and beloved in the first place in favor of following modern trends.  Or worse, game companies forget that they even own said properties and leave loyal fans who are willing to pay money out in the cold.

Say it ain't so!

            There are a number of examples for this.  So many it is actually quite depressing.  Capcom is perhaps the most egregious offender.  Capcom is often known as the house that Megaman built.  However, when Keiji Inafune left the company, so to did much of its love for the blue bomber.  Megaman has been around for over two decades, yet lies almost completely forgotten of late.  The main series, Megaman X, Megaman Zero, and the countless spin offs are things of the past.  New Megaman games are practically nonexistent past 2010.  There was talk of Megaman Legends receiving the third game which fans had craved for almost a decade, however it was canceled at the last moment.  Capcom is letting the franchise that built them die.

Capcom...with all due respect...are you out of your damn mind?!

            To be fair, if a franchise has outlived itself or grown stagnant or had a satisfactory conclusion, it may be fair to allow it to rest.  The Shadow Hearts series created a nice little timeline for itself and ended with a satisfying conclusion, having only  one spin off that was mostly inoffensive tacked on at the end.  However, Megaman fans still cry out for sequels.  And Capcom ignores them.  It is not only Megaman, however.  Breath of Fire, a staple RPG series from the SNES era into the Playstation 2 era has withered and disappeared, last seen as a poor PSP port of the third game in a series of five.  Other series get drowned before they have a chance to flourish.  The Okami series had room for sequels, but after just one it seems a lost cause to hope for more.  The same can be said of Viewtiful Joe.  This habit of abandoning the properties that make game companies money is baffling to me.  There are fans.  Megaman has fans.  Breath of Fire has fans.  Viewtiful Joe has fans.  Yet save for cameos, these series remain dormant.  To release a game with one of these names would guarantee at least a few thousand sales, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, which is more than many original properties can guarantee.  So, why not revive them?  Gargoyle's Quest was a series which only lasted for three games, but which disappeared after the SNES era.  Why not bring it back?  Fans remember.  And fans are loyal.  Not to companies, often enough.  Capcom has proven to be quite ruthless with on disc and frivolous DLC releases, lock out procedures, and policies meant to enrage their own customers, but fans are loyal to games.  If you make them, they will come.

It's been almost 18 years since Firebrand's last solo game.  Isn't it time for a comeback?

            However, like developers following modern trends, game companies seem bound and determined lately to forget what made them so successful to begin with.  While not as apparently blind as Capcom, Konami has let Castlevania rot, of late.  Castlevania has always been popular in its 2-d iterations, yet there has not been a 2-d release for years, unless you count the storyless, rehashed multiplayer fair that is Harmony of Despair.  Instead, the closest thing we get is a "reboot" called Castlevania: Lords of Shadows, which is more interested in stealing ideas from God of War and Shadow of the Colossus than rewarding the loyalty of fans.  True, it had unique ideas and was a fine game in its own right, but it is following the trend of cramming what sells into any game with fan recognition.  And this is a terrible idea.  Betraying fans means losing potential sales in the long run.  Sales in the long run are everything for game companies.  Short term sales are needed to keep it afloat at the moment, but to have any longevity, game companies need to think in the long term.

Remember when you made games like this, Konami?  Fun, colorful, insane games?

            Perhaps worse than sequels which betray the concept of the original, however, are sequels that only aim to tease the fans, rather than placate them.  Franchises often build up a large shared universe, with rules that must be followed.  Even the disconnected Final Fantasy series has many elements in common, such as the character Cid, summoned beasts like Bahamut, and monsters such as Tonberries, Behemoths, and Ahrimans.  However, trying to copy these elements into a bastardized version of a game may only enrage fans rather than placate them.  They ask the question "Why isn't this in the world or in the style that I know and love?"  And when that question is asked, the game is already lost, no matter how fine a product.  Suikoden Tierkreis is a fine example of this.  It is not a bad game on its own merits and stays true to some of the styles of the Suikoden series, however it is set in an alternate universe.  There are none of the alliances or relationships, none of the recurring characters or elements, and no continuing story from previous games.  This is almost like a slap in the face to fans of the series, who wait patiently for a new iteration to a favorite series of theirs only to be rewarded with something that looks similar, plays similar, but isn't what they want.  It is akin to trying to buy a Halo game but coming out with Turok.  All the elements are there, but it is still lacking.  This plays into ignorance of what made the game in the series enjoyable to begin with.

What don't I see here...ah, right, Tierkreis.  Take the hint, Konami.

            In that same vein, I must reluctantly point out that Square Enix has followed a similar pathway.  Final Fantasy has seldom been a sequelized property.  Each new game has additional numbers beside it, but each is its own story.  The games have evolved with the times, keeping a strong story, music, and gameplay that the fans have recognized.  However, Square, after its merger with Enix, ignored all that and started fresh.  Final Fantasy 11 and onwards have followed the gameplay of MMORPGs and while financial success has followed, it has been with even more bloated development costs, critical pandering, and the scorn of long time fans.  If you wanted to make a new game series, why not make a new game series, rather than enrage fans?  The point I wish to make to all game companies is to ignore your properties, either what made them good to begin with or to ignore them entirely, is rank stupidity. 

Go back in time ten years.  Would ANYONE have thought this was a Final Fantasy game back then?

            Many games have fans slavering for a sequel.  The Legacy of Kain series, which Square now owns, ended after five games with several plot lines unresolved and a canceled game to follow.  If fans were shown that they still matter with a collection or a finale, then it would doubtless be at the very least a modest success.  However, the time for sequels and franchises passes quickly.  Legacy of Kain as a series was released in the 1990s and held power into the early 2000s, but has been dormant a long time.  Many of the voice actors who provided the performances that made it so memorable are either dead or growing too old to wait for a sequel.  The same is true of any franchise.  There are still many who yearn for Megaman, for the old Final Fantasy games, for Gargoyle's Quest, Breath of Fire, and Suikoden.  However, these gamers are getting older.  They are doggedly staying loyal to old favorites or they are moving on with their lives.  If Capcom, Konami, and many others do not move soon, they risk losing the power their franchises once had.  In twenty years time, the name Megaman may be worth less than nothing, when in the 1980s, it sold games without a second thought.

Time is running out for this Legacy, sadly.

            Many game companies have horded rights to franchises or sequels through acquisitions.  Through mergers, seizures, and purchases, many of these companies have a large library of names that they simply ignore.  And some defunct companies, like Quintet, have great titles that are fondly remembered whose rights could be bought for a pittance.  However, if these rights are shelved and sat upon, waiting for their value to appreciate, then eventually...they will stop being worth anything at all.  An Action Comics #1 is worth a great deal these days...but only to those who are willing to pay for it.  If the companies wait too long, people will give up hope on a Megaman 3...or build one themselves.  And then where will Capcom be?  They will have lost fans and by extension, lost sales.  Worse, they will be hated by their fans for not being more faithful to them, the people who pay their bills.

Hording rights is like hording comics.  They're only worth a crap if someone actually wants to pay for them.  Wait too long and eventually...no one will care.

           In the world of game development, modern trends can be useful.  Showing what is possible and what is profitable, they can be a great way for smaller companies to follow the big boys while still making something that is theirs, something special and enjoyable.  However, ignoring past successes just to chase modern trends is utter folly.  When it comes to game franchises, names, and sequels, you need to either use it...or lose it.

Cult Followings: Working With the Fans

There are a number of things in the game industry that confuse me to no end.  Perhaps at the top of the list is the Mother series in Japan.  It is a quirky 16-bit RPG series that has gained a huge following in the U.S.  While I have yet to play it, I know a great deal about the series.  While it did see a limited release in the west under the title Earthbound, it seems odd that games like Infamous are getting a re-release collector’s edition less than four years after its initial release, but this quirky series is left by the wayside.  The fans are there and have made themselves known to Nintendo, so why? 

17 years and Nintendo still remains silent on the Mother/Earthbound series

Nintendo claims that there might be legal repercussions based on musical ques and names as the reason for the game Mother 2 or Earthbound not being re-released.  However, this doesn’t stop Mother 1 or Mother 3 from being released as part of a compilation set or on the Virtual Console on the Wii or 3DS.  Yet, Nintendo continues to be silent on this series.  One of the arguments for this is that these games are text heavy RPGs that would require too much time to translate and adapt to the U.S.  And that is a fair complaint.  I understand that a lot of great RPGs and other uniquely Japanese games weren’t released because of translation issues.  Translating the Japanese text and mannerisms to make sense in English would cost a great deal and take a huge amount of time.  However…why doesn’t Nintendo use the fan translations?

This is the only way to play Mother 3 in English...so why doesn't Nintendo just reach out to the fans for the translation and schedule a release of the game stateside?

Here is the meat of our subject today.  Fan power.  Gamers who love games will go to all manner of extremes for them.  Fan fiction, fan art, fan translations, even fan mods and fan sequels.  These extensions of popular games are uniquely tailored to their audience and will thusly appeal to them, more often than not.  The biggest hurdle to these fan creations being released for profit is the threat of legal action from the company that owns rights to the original.  However, what if the game companies, instead of threatening legal action or trying to shut down or ignore these fan communities and fan creations, tried to make use of them?  Market them legitimately?  In fact, mods, or fan created additions, to PC games are how many gamers get jobs in the industry.  Showing they understand the tools needed to make games by adding on to games they already know and love.

And some of these fan creations show real time, effort, and dedication.  Many games never reached the shores of the U.S. because of time, money, or apparent lack of interest.  However, fans who had imported the games loved them so much that they wanted to share them with others and took to translating them.  Many fan translation or localization groups have put forth work purely out of their own interest with no hope of profit.  This is how the Mother 3, Bahamut Lagoon, and the original Final Fantasy 2, 3, and 5 translations were released.  However, fans can go even further.  One intrepid group of young hackers put games from the Satellaview, a Japanese only satellite gaming service, online for all to enjoy, with the caveat that if they were contacted by Nintendo or other companies and asked to remove them, they would.  They also stated that if the games were released stateside, they would take down their website.  What makes this remarkable, however, is that not only was the Satellaview released only in Japan, but many of the games for it had holes in the code which were meant to be filled by the satellite broadcasts.  So, these hackers not only translated the games, but filled the holes in their code, retooled their controls, added in the old music from the broadcast, and released it, for free, so that others could enjoy it.

Zelda on the Satellaview, in English, available to the masses, all thanks to fans

No matter what anyone says about copyright violation or piracy, one has to admire the passion involved in projects like this, where dozens of people spend their own time, without pay, to share the games they love with others.  However, I personally believe that this is an untapped resource for game companies the world over.  Rather than re-releasing some games as many as five times, Square-Enix, why not look at some of your older properties that have gained a cult following but were never released in the west?  If the fans have done their work right, you could offer to buy their translation from them and release your old game to the west, but at full price on a new platform.  It would require some quality control and play testing, but the lion’s share of work necessary to make it viable for a western release would already be done.  However, even given such a unique opportunity to work with fans, most game companies do not cooperate.  In fact, some go out of their way to destroy the hard work of fans.

Most fans respect the wishes of the game companies and agree to shut down their work if they are asked.  And some companies, like Nintendo, agree to look the other way so that the fans can be fans.  However, many game companies take one look at a promising project and immediately shoot it down.  For example, a 3D remake of the critically acclaimed Chrono Trigger was being made by fans and the company who owned the rights to it, Square-Enix, threatened them with litigation if they did not cease and desist.  This effectively killed the project.  However, think for just a moment.  Square-Enix has a propensity for re-releasing their popular titles.  Recently, Chrono Trigger was just re-released for the Nintendo DS.  So…why not simply work with the fans instead of threatening legal action on them?  Buy them off and have them continue their work.  Square recently released a 3D remake of Final Fantasy 3 done in house, a process which had to be unbelievably expensive.  So, if a group of gamers who loved the game are working to create the exact same thing, but are doing it for free…then buy them off and have them continue their work.  Don’t simply waste all their time and effort by threatening legal action.

This is what Chrono Trigger would look like in 3d...if it hadn't been shut down.  Yeah...thanks for that, Square-Enix

Fans of video games, like fans of almost any property, can have an unbelievable drive, love for their medium, and a power to change it.  However, too often, game companies see them as the problem, not the solution.  In my opinion, game companies have forgotten that fans are the force which keeps them profitable.  Without the fans, they are nothing.  Yet, every day the gaming world is outraged at some new form of on disc DLC or DRM which locks players out of games they paid for, or online passes.  Game companies treat gamers more like thieves or free money than lifelong friends.  And that is a major problem.  Fans will continue to love games, regardless of the companies, but if companies don’t understand and respect the power of fans it will hurt them in the long run.  Before being acquired and merged with Activision, Blizzard, for example, knew how to treat fans.  After releasing Starcraft, Blizzard encouraged its piracy to a degree.  Burn a copy, share it with friends, and then they might go buy a copy themselves, or at least share the popularity of the game with their own friends, who might go buy a copy.  While this kind of policy changed after their merger, this should prove that fans have power.  And fans want to be friends to game companies, even if the reverse is not true.

Blizzard used to just spread the love.  Then Activision happened.  And now we get online passes.  Progress...?

And it is curiously true that many times, fans orchestrate the biggest changes in the gaming world.  Gamers modding Half-Life created the incredibly popular Counter-Strike mod that has become a mainstay of Valve’s and which has seen several sequels and spin offs.  Importers who picked up Demon’s Souls, even though it wasn’t planned for a western release showed Japanese developer From Software that there actually was a market for their game in the west, convincing them to release it and its sequel, Dark Souls, in the west.  The Defense of The Ancients mod in Warcraft 3 became so popular that it even spawned an entirely new genre of game, the massively multiplayer online arena fighter, which has one sequel in the works and at least a dozen competitors.  The highly publicized Operation Rainfall brought awareness to the titles Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower, and helped them get out of Japan, into Europe, and eventually to U.S. shores.  Fans have an incredible gift for changing the industry and game companies need to start respecting and making use of their fans, like partners, rather than treating them like thieves trying to take a piece of their pie.

This funny little fan mod spawned an entire sub genre of MMO games

If game companies would open themselves up to fan assistance they would not only find strong potential employees, but might actually get to release some games they would not be able to otherwise.  For example, Vanillaware recently had to cancel the western release of a game called Grand Knights History, due to “lack of resources to localize.”  However, what if fans stepped in and agreed to work with the designers to get this project done?  Some wouldn’t even ask for payment, so long as the game was released.  Fans can be a powerful boon for small companies that need assistance and can be loyal followers for stronger companies who already have their footing, provided they don’t alienate their fans.

Yeah, this ain't making it stateside anytime soon

Perhaps the biggest issues preventing gamers and companies from coming together are legal concerns and profit concerns.  This is frustrating, because gamers are more than willing to lend their hand to help make something they want a reality, but game companies have their own interests to protect.  Legal concerns, such as the rights of the fans making the game vs. the company would be a problem and if any materials or resources, such as the game engine, levels, or characters, were used in other projects by the fans, there might also be a need for litigation.  Game companies are very protective of their assets, most of the time.  And there would also be the issue of compensating the fans for their work and whether or not their work turns a profit for the company.  Game companies, especially the big ones, like Square-Enix and Electronic Arts, have to protect not only their own profit margins, but cater to their investors and shareholders, which would make any project with fan assistance a hard sell, as investors are naturally skeptical of people not on their payroll and who they cannot properly penalize should something go wrong.

Pretty much how game companies feel if a product bombs...and we want them to approve fan games?

            I really do believe that with the right business model, any number of game companies could use work done by the fans and turn a profit, for both themselves and those who worked on it. NES Reproductions, for example, has managed to make a fair profit by releasing fan translated NES games for sale directly to gamers.  They can do this because the copyright on the games and the technology is usually long expired, since the NES and Famicom were released almost thirty years ago.  This kind of business model takes the work of the fans and turns it into something that can be bought and sold for a profit.  If an independent party can do it with properties that have passed their expiration date, imagine what a game company still holding onto the rights for almost a dozen retro titles never released in the west could do.  I have a vision that I’d like others to indulge in for just a moment.  Say, instead of making reproduction cartridges with fan translated or altered games on them, game companies created a digital service, like Steam?  Then, took old games like the Mother series, Bahamut Lagoon, Sweet Home, or any number of other titles they still owned and released them at a fair price, like 10-20 dollars?  If they used the fan translations and gave a cut of their profits to the translators, that’s a tidy amount they had to do basically nothing to make.  Granted, this kind of business model would require a digital distribution service and would take time to set up, but it would go a long way in discouraging emulation and piracy.  As it stands, emulation is the only viable way to play English language copies of games like Mother 3 or Bahamut Lagoon for most people.  However, if the game companies made it easier to get these games off their service, perhaps with a sale or two and built in rewards just to sweeten the pot, emulation would practically die out overnight.  This happened for countless Wii owners who found games they used to emulate on the virtual console for a fair price.  The Extra Credits crew have said time and again, if you provide a better service, people will use that rather than piracy.  Convenience is the key.  A service like Steam or the Wii’s virtual console caters to fans and makes it easier to get the games they want.  Emulation has a lot of legal and computer based issues.  However, when emulation is the only option, then that is what people are going to choose.

How many people would give their left foot for this game to be released overseas legitimately?

            Regrettably, this kind of business model may never see the light of day.  There is a lot of red tape involved in some of these dealings, such as giving proper credit to the fan translators, ensuring they get fair compensation, the compromise between game companies who have had their properties tampered with and the fans who only want to bring old favorites to the masses, and countless other problems.  Most game companies don’t want to adapt to make use of their fans.  And the sad thing is, unlike some of the other issues discussed here, they don’t really need to adapt.  Fans will continue translating, making unofficial sequels, modding, etc. as long as it gives themselves and other gamers joy, while companies will either tolerate them or crack down on them so long as they feel their rights are threatened.  If a company cracks down, the fans may just make the game an original title and release it as an indie game on Steam or some other digital service.  So, while there isn’t really a big loser if these two sides stay separate, I feel that it is a huge missed opportunity for the developers and publishers to foster relationships with their fans that benefit everyone.  Even if fans keep on being fans and companies keep on being companies, imagine what they could do if they came together to work on something they loved?  We could get a third Chrono game, translated versions of games that were never released stateside, genuine fan feedback on changes made to try and modernize old classics…the possibilities are limitless.  Well, even if it’s never meant to be, we can all dream, can’t we?

Dare to dream, people.  Dare to dream.