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Final Fantasy was now a household name. Unfortunately, the success of it's most recent title would be followed by a steady decline in both game play and storytelling. The eventuality of this landslide would lead the franchise to the state it is in today; An afterthought to modern gamers, and a nagging scar in the minds of die hard fans.
Expectations were high for Final Fantasy 8. With the success of FF 7 still fresh in their minds, gamers rushed out to purchase this newest masterpiece, and within two days of it's release FF 8 was the best selling console game in North America. At this point in it's lifespan, graphical achievements had taken root in the forefront of the minds of gamers and in this respect, FF 8 was a phenomenal success.
The CG cut scenes were astounding. The first cut scene I remember seeing for FF 8 left two lasting impressions. The first was how amazing it looked. The second was how little it felt like a Final Fantasy game. Keep in mind it was a gut wrench reaction that would fade as I continued the game, but that first impression stayed with me and I came to the realization that, for better or worse, the franchise had changed
The game was by no means "bad", but there were certain issues that prevented it from being great. The biggest complaint was the "Draw" system. For the first time in a FF game, players were forced to leach magic spells from enemy opponents to be stored for later use, eradicating the more traditional act of learning spells organically through leveling. This system, more than any other, alienated gamers. The act was tedious and became a chore, breaking the natural flow of the game play.
Partnered with this was the "Junction" system. The idea of fighting, obtaining, and/or controlling magical creatures was no stranger to the Final Fantasy world, however, FF 8 took this idea to a new level and summoned monsters, i.e. Gaurdian Forces of GF's, became a staple in character customization. While this was a revolutionary idea at the time, it ultimately hurt the overall game play experience. Players were no longer improving their characters, but the GF's that were attached to them.
This effectively meant that, at anytime during the game, these GF's could be switched from character to character and anyone could be the parties mage, fighter, tank or any combination that was supported by the GF. A good idea on paper, this system took the focus off of character development and helped to emotionally distance players from the characters.
Back for a second time were "Limit Breaks", special attacks that varied between characters and could be used periodically. This system was introduced and made popular by FF 7. In FF 8, however, the attacks were accompanied by mini games, such as timed button mashing, that would determine the success of the attacks. Again, this helped to break the flow of game play and made combat feel more random and less strategic.
Game play aside, FF 8 was set in a fully developed world that combined future technology with medieval fantasy conventions. The city and landscape design offered the proper setting for a FF story to be told, however, the story itself was flawed. In this case the problem stemmed from a combination of complexity as well as over simplification. FF 8 proposes many new ideas to the universe and the story becomes convoluted with information that the audience is expected to accept and understand. The structural hierarchy of it's society is never fully explained and we are thrust into a world that we can't really connect with.
The game presents a world that exists exactly as it is, but is never presented properly to the player. While this helps to establish a realistic environment in some games, here we are simply traversing a world we don't fully understand, with characters we don't really care about.
This reality is made even more complicated by the curious mental connection between Squall and Laguna, two characters who have some sort of mysterious bond that isn't explained until the later parts of the game. While this connection is initially intriguing, the sporadic switching between characters causes yet another break in the game play and further distances players from an emotional connection. Simply put, we are given too much to care about and not enough reason to do so. Combine these elements with seemingly endless plot twists (who was the sorceress again?), and a story which relies a bit too much on time travel, and the whole game becomes an over complicated mess.
Designers ditched the futuristic setting that had become commonplace, for a more traditional fantasy based world. The game play was simplified and more accessible to a larger audience, yet maintained the traditions that we had become accustomed to. Graphically, the game looked great. Again the designers took a more simplistic approach and favored cartoon-ish charm over realism.
The game play was a huge improvement over FF 8. The "Draw" and "Junction" systems were a thing of the past, being replaced by the class system that we all know and love. Every character in the game has individual stats, abilities, and strategic roles. Steiner plows through enemies as a heavy hitting tank, while Vivi hurls black magic. Meanwhile, Zidane steals crucial items for the parties use. Every character had a role to play, and this made them unique.
The most significant improvement over it's recent predecessors was FF 9's ability system. Most of the games equippable items came partnered with an ability. This ability, whether passive or active, could be used by a character as long as that specific item was equipped. After gaining enough ability points, or AP, the character would learn that ability permanently.
This system allowed for deep customization options while urging players to scour their surroundings in search of that next great discovery. More importantly, this system felt organic and rewarded players for their patience. This level of customization and reward helps players to connect with the games' characters and immerse them in the world. It gives us the feeling that these aren't just video game characters, they are "our" video game characters.
While it seemed like Final Fantasy was getting back to it's roots, FF 9 had it's flaws as well. The character development was fantastic. Exploring the world and leveling up my team were fun, and discovering who these characters were was interesting, but there was no real driving force for the story. In this regard, the problem was the antagonists. Sure they committed awful acts and were generally bad people, but their motivations were never really clear. The villains were silly, fairly two dimensional characters and had no real goal other than gaining more power and controlling the world. It is a cliche plot device that works to move the story forward but is ultimately uninteresting.
FF 9 was an homage to earlier games in the franchise. In many respects it resembled earlier games both in design and philosophy. Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy franchise, has stated that FF 9 was his favorite of the series because it was his "ideal view of what Final Fantasy should be." While critics hailed the game as a success, the opinions of the gamers were mixed. New fans of the series were put off by the games old school charm, while hardcore fans felt the game to be a rehash of the games they had already played. In the end FF 9 was a solid game that simply failed make much of an impression with it's core audience and ultimately furthered the decline of the franchise.
FF 9 would be the last title of the franchise that would be released on the PlayStation. In the coming years Square would suffer a loss that would irrevocably change the series. There were dark days ahead for Final Fantasy and it's fans, and this crucial loss would result in the most over inflated, self indulgent game in the series.
Check back next time for the "Epic" conclusion of Why Final Fantasy Sucks.
Was the graphical design of FF 9 the right choice? Did you prefer realism, or old school charm? Please comment below.
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