Final Fantasy Fanboy

Ok, the first gaming review on my blog, through truly this isn't a proper review, more of a brief history. The Final Fantasy Series of games has been around for almost 30 years from its first incarnation in 1987. The name "Final Fantasy comes from creator Hironobu Sakaguchi as his last ditch effort to enter the game industry and kept due to the games success. While the majority of instalments are stand alone games with their own characters and plot lines, recently the company, Square-Enix; formally Squaresoft, has branched into releasing direct sequels. Certain names and creatures can be found throughout the franchise such as Cid in his different incarnations and the Malboro creature.  While I have played the majority of FF games, here I'm going to list my favourite in order and my thoughts on some of the others, though I won't go into great detail and plot points, just impressions I had while playing.

Number 1. Final Fantasy VII

Admittedly this was the first Final Fantasy games I ever bought and played, so that may cloud my judgement somewhat, but it was the game that got me into the series.

I can remember being in Secondary School (High School) and some of my friends raving over the review of a new game in a magazine. Upon investigation it turned out to be FFVII and my first impressions were not good. The pictures showed what appeared to be pre-rendered painted backgrounds with blocky, basic polygon characters, and having played games such as Tekken, where the characters looked more realistic and the surroundings were 3D, this was a bit of a disappointment. I have to admit I didn't really pay much attention to the actual review itself, just glossed over and looked more at the pictures. However, I can remember being in a store and seeing this game in its Platinum Edition (selling over 400,000 units with a year) maybe just over a year later, and with a price tag of £20 I though why not. Best purchase I ever made!

I immediately forgave, what I thought initially were sub-par graphics when I viewed the first cutscene and then delved into the storyline. FFVII was the first RPG game I had ever played and as a first it change my outlook on gaming in general. Never had I played such a game with such an involved and all encompassing storyline and it hooked me from the get go. An immensely powerful bad guy, the struggle against a monopolising conglomerate, and the internal struggles and development of the characters. I must admit that when one of the characters died I did shed a tear (and not the last time either).  I'd guess that while classed as sci-fi/fantasy, I would class FFVII as Diesel Punk, with the mixture of modern life, airships, magic , and sword play. With the World Map, you could go exploring, visit new towns and after progressing through the game, visit secret locations and gather Ultimate Weapons, the most powerful spells and learn more about the backstory.

To this day, even though I have finished the story multiple times, I haven't yet fully completed every section and addition boss.

Number 2. Final Fantasy X

This game was the reason I purchased a PlayStation 2. Having played three previous games in this series I was seriously looking forward to this instalment and from the moment I loaded this game into my console I wasn't disappointed. With superb graphics and the first game in the series to utilise voice acting it wasn't just that, that made this game my number 2. It was the interaction between the characters and the underlying love story between the title characters Tidus and Yuna.

Compared to FFVII, FFX is set in a more post-apocalyptic world that has elements of Steam Punk but is set in a Religiously control world, with an all seeing deity, prayer and taboos. With the addition of the BlitzBall minigame that you only had to play twice during the story, you could play when and wherever you wanted, buy new players, trade and advance through the league, it added much more gameplay time. However, this instalment removed the World Map and felt at times a lot more linear than previous games. There were still all the secret locations and such but these were now located within previously visited areas. But while this diminished some of the gameplay effect, it was the story that kept me coming back and wanting to see what would happen next. Again I have finished this game multiple times but only to about 95% completion.

Number 3. Final Fantasy VIII

From the absolute joy of FFVII, buying FFVIII was a no-brainer. I can remember running out to the store on Boxing Day to buy this and playing it all day with short breaks for lunch and dinner. I remember playing from about 11am until 4am at which point I completed the first disc. That is not to say this was a quick game to play, we're talking essentially 16 hours of continuous gameplay with 2 thirty minute stops for food. Stored on 4 discs compared to FFVII 3, the graphics were a vast improvement to its predecessor. Set in a modern/futuristic setting, the backgrounds were again pre-rendered painted backdrops, but the beauty of them and the attention to detail were outstanding (at the time). Similarly to FFVII, this instalment contain a navigable World Map with secret areas for finding extra summonable character  (Guardian Forces, GF's), additional backstory areas and a crafting system to improve weaponry instead of just buying upgrades. It also intoduced a Salary system where the player no longer had to grind to collect currency to buy items, it was paid to you by your employer (Balamb Garden). But regardless of all these new features and old, it was the story that kept me interested and coming back to it. Like the others I have completed this game multiple times, but this time to 100% although admittedly with cheats codes adding additional ultimate spells, that while in the game coding, were not normally accessible to any character good or evil, playable or not. So it doesn't really count does it.

Number 4. Final Fantasy XIII

Well now, a bit controversial this one. A lot of people don't like 13 and for a number of reasons, none of which apply to me. I think this is a great game with a really good storyline, and as with FFX and PS2, it was the reason I bought my PS3. With similar turn based battles but with timing more dependant on each character, battling in this game was more interesting. A left over from 12, you could now physically move the characters around the field of battle just by using the directional pad without expending turns, and adding the Paradigm Shift system allowed you to change roles mid battle making them more strategic and sometimes requiring specific combinations to effectively take down a boss. Obviously the graphics here are second to none, and the theme is most definitely sci-fi/fantasy here, but has similarities with 10 as to religious persecution and deities. Deities while mechanical in nature, providing and caring for all their subjugates, also provide the ability to bestow magic upon individuals. Like the others previously, this has a great play length and the only reason it isn't higher on the list is...... The other stories are better, simple. 

And Number 5. Final Fantasy IX

This was the last in the series released on the PlayStation and took a little journey back in time. The battle mechanics returned to pre-PlayStation era by the reintroduction of job roles, Thief, Summoner/White Mage, Black Mage, Warrior etc. This made the game a little more tricky to play as you now had to plan battles before hand instead of just wading in. Unlike 7 and 8 which had a feel of the modern to them, 9 went medieval but with touches of Steam Punk and also moved from more realistic graphics to a more cartoonish feel. Similarly with the previous 4 titles, 9 had a great story with loveable characters, an evil antagonist and a beautiful world upon which it was set, including a World Map and all the extra bits and bobs. However, while I really love the story in this one, it is only Number 5 in my list due to its length. While still on 4 discs like FFVIII, is feels a lot, and I mean a lot shorter, even with its hidden areas and another Card Game. Now this is one Final Fantasy I have played to 100% completion and this time without cheating. Admittedly that was using a game guide on my third or fourth play-through. I still have it today on disc, though no longer have the console to play it with.


Currently I own the vast majority of Final Fantasy games from 1 to 13: Lightning Returns, with the only exceptions being the online versions 11 and 14, the second Dissidea instalment and Before Crisis (due to not being released over here). While the earlier games where good, they aren't really as noteworthy as the five I have listed here. Final Fantasy VII changed the meaning of RPGs with it's release and set a high new standard for games ever since. It remains to this day once of the best selling titles of all time and is now a part of the Final Fantasy VII Collection, encompassing 2 prequels, a movie sequel, a game sequel based around Vincent Valentine and set after the film, an HD Remaster and finally, FINALLY, due 2019 in a bundled Episodic format. Hopefully with virtually everything included that was in the original. However we do know that the Remake will have some differences as the Square-Enix President said at E3, that there was no point releasing the exact same game twice with the only difference being graphics etc. So here is hoping.

 Lastly Final Fantasy XV has been a long time in the making. Originally set to be released along side FFXIII in 2006 and titled Final Fantasy Versus XIII but for reasons unknown was withdrawn and put on the back burner. However now due for release at the end of September 2016 on PS4 and XboxOne, I cannot wait to get my hands on it. Watching the trailers in 2006, the game looked futuristic; yet still sticking with the elements of swords and armour, it looked exciting and flashy. 10 years on and the trailers look even better. From all the promos and trailers I've seen, you can manually drive around the inclusive World Map. There are places to visit galore and real-time events as you drive past. The graphics as expected are astounding, from water and fire effect to just simple distant backgrounds. I honestly cannot tell you how much I want to have this game right now or how excited I am to be able to get it in a few short months! Also there will be a movie to coincide with the game called Kingsglaive. Hopefully it will be just as good as Advent Children.

HOWEVER...... will the storyline, and the length of the story compare to the previous title and provide hours and hours of play time, and by that I mean actual story length not added extras and DLC that come later.

A lot of games nowadays are spectacularly graphically beautiful, have multi-player, upcoming DLCs and all the accoutrements, but are extremely lax in the story department. The number of times I have bought a game and finished it that same day is sad to say quite often. Why can't game designers take a leaf out of the Final Fantasy book and get some longevity into their stories. I can remember looking at my play time on my FF games and seeing in excess of 80 hours, now combine that with school, work, (a life maybe) and your looking at months of gameplay just to finish the story and thats not including all the rest of the secret areas.

Am I a Final Fantasy Fanboy? Yes and with great reason to be. Are they the only games I play? God no, because that would be boring. No matter how much I love these games, you've got to have variation. I absolutely love the Assassin's Creed games, the Lego games (the kid in me), strategy sims like The Settlers, and online games like World of Warcraft. Do I sit in and play games all day? No, I go to work, I read, write, watch TV and movies and socialise.

For me, a great game is represented by its story. It's what keeps pulling you back time and again into it's clutches and gives you some accomplishment instead of winning the league for the umpteenth time on Fifa (uber boring!)

As to stories, I will be doing a write up of why Final Fantasy VII has such a good story and what it entails on my Short Stories, Poems and Words blog at bhyravaughsshortstories.blogspot.com in a few days, so please subscribe, follow (or what ever you do) and leave some comments and feedback for me. Only with your help can I grow as a blogger and post out some good stuff you people to read.

What are your top five games? Top five/ favourite Final Fantasy games? Let me know!

See you soon.