Great article, and I couldn't agree more:

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantas … 2700.phtml

Couldn't agree more for the most part. I tend to just play the main series games. I won't touch the spin-offs, remakes or MMOs just the core ones which to the most part keep the franchise fresh for me. Haven't even bothered with XII, but I think IV,VI,VII,VIII and IX are great games.

Yep, have to agree. Although I can't judge the recent ones as I haven't played them. The very first FF I didn't finish and last one I ever played was X-2. I did play a little bit of Crisis Core but it very quickly just reinforced why I stopped playing - linear path followed by battle, linear path followed by battle. That DS game with the badges (not a FF game) was the same thing so I wonder if that's a nice rut Square Enix have found themselves in. Still, to me, it barely makes a game.

FF has given me so much. I have no ill will towards the series and some of my favourite gaming times were playing Final Fantasy. But I find I have little desire to try the new ones. They require such an investment in time that they aren't the type of game I'll just take a punt on.

I pretty much agree.  All this Agito Dissidia Type-0 Fabula Nova Crystallis shit needs to stop, as well as releasing MMO games and calling them Final Fantasy, for god's sake Square just name them something else.  I don't play the spin-offs, MMOs, or numerous FFVII sequels but I still love the main series, up to and including XIII (and X-2!).  I'll agree that the magic of the PSX and SNES era is pretty much gone and that the new games are getting progressively worse.  I liked X more than XII, XII more than XIII, etc.

It's similar to what Capcom is doing to Resident Evil.  The original trilogy on PSX and Code Veronica on DC/PS2 were such classics but then we got RE4 and RE5 which strayed too far from the first games.  Not to say they're bad but they just don't have that same magic that the originals had, and they too are getting progressively worse, RE5 being my least favorite of the main series.  The spin-offs like Outbreak and Gun Survivor, light gun games like Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles, the upcoming 3D games on the 3DS, and of course the embarrassing film series, it's just too much.

Whatever happened to a new game in a series being released once every 1-3 years?  Lately we're seeing 3+ games in a popular series come out in just a year's time.  If a series has more than two games in development at any given time, that's a big sign that trouble is brewing.

When this reviewer compared Square-Enix to George Lucas he pretty much hit the nail on the head.  Square-Enix will continue to make Final Fantasy games and spinoffs as long as the market keeps supporting them.  I tried to lookup numbers on the sales of FFXIII and all I could find was 6.5 million sold by March after release for an argument with a friend about FFXIII-2.  In all honesty, I will probably buy XIII-2 and the other spinoff simply because they will be visual and aural spectacles if nothing else.  You also have to take into account that Square-Enix dumped ALL of their resources into Final Fantasy XIV IP and it COMPLETELY TANKED, so you will see some very dry spinoffs because they're going to pump them out simply to recover money from the disaster that was XIV.

We will continue to see them as long as there is a demand for them.  And there will always be a demand for them. See: Star Wars.  I can't wait until they redistribute all the Star Wars in 3d in the movie theaters for extra revenue (:rolls eyes:)

Comparing FF to Star Wars is accurate, if completely bloody obvious since the series has been inspired by it for years now.

I don't know what's up with all the weird naming, but this is probably Nomura's idea of "cool".
I'm personally not bothered by it (why be bothered by a simple title?), and it's at the very least a fresh break from all those game titles that have "Dead" "Dark" "Shadow" or "War" in it.
I also agree with the_miker that the MMO series should not have been numbered entries.
FF Online would have been a perfectly adequate title.

I personally thought FFX was one of the best games in the entire series, and X-2, although completely inane, still worked pretty well as a game.
XII was solid, but a bit dull (Xenoblade does a similar thing, only a billion zillion trillion times better), and FFXIII, yes, was just stupid. Contrary to the majority of the world, I do not declare the series (or even the entire JRPG genre) dead just because XIII was poorly designed (blame that idiot Toriyama ((not Akira)) for that).

Mr. Sterling points at the upcoming games and says they all look the same to him, but that's complete nonsense, unless you talk purely about character design. It's been long-known that Nomura has rather...samish...design for his characters, and since he seems to be in charge of design for all 3 upcoming FFXIII titles, yes, I suppose that's a good reason for at least being put off visually, but the games themselves look (and I'm sure will play) completely differently (look at vsXIII and Agito and then tell me that they're the same games). Christ, we haven't even seen anything of XIII-2 so it's pointless to comment on it anyway (although I'll accept comments on superfluousness).

I personally hope they learned from the mistakes they made in XIII (but high sales probably will not clue them in on the fact that there was anything wrong in the first place), but only time will tell.

Agree with every word, I mean look at my signature.

And no, I didn't just change it to that either... it's been that for a few months now.

This series has long needed to be put out of its' emo misery. I don't understand why they didn't stop making Final Fantasy when Sakaguchi left.

Well, scratch that...I can sum it up in two symbols why they keep pumping games in this 'series' out and both are on the same key: They did it '4$'.

I didn't even know FFXIV was out yet.

eh... people can complain all they want.  but what it comes down to is - they keep makin' it - people keep buyin' it.  Simple as that.  It works so just make more.  profit

Actually, I remember reading a interview with Sakaguchi where he expressed his disappointment that Square Enix seemed intent on drilling the Final Fantasy well to the bone. I know Sakaguchi and The Spirits Within debacle was the beginning of the end for SE, but I long for the days before that implosion that has led us to where we (well they) are now.

Like I've said before, I feel a lot better - and have more respect - when I see the Squaresoft logo when booting up a game compared to the Square Enix logo.

Edit:

Anyway, I have most of the old FF's (I just got the NES cart of 1 the other week) I care about up to X... I know I need the PS1 Origins package but beyond that I pretty much have FF in my collection "squared" away. Anything else on top of that would just be ports of games I already have.

personally i agree that FF is burnt out, and i will probably never give a second thought to playing a new one.
but when I think about their target market age,, they could be my kids (thankfully i just went the route of bunnies which beg for treats instead of cellphones, the car, and your credit card).

I think every STC veteran here will speak nothing but praise for the FF games on SNES. but we have to concede that those were nearly 20 years ago.
if there was cross-generational agreement on things it would probably make the world explode. I could care less what 18 year olds like today, and they probably care less about what I liked 18 years ago. we agree to disagree, so i see no sense in giving a shit about who gives a shit.

I'm probably the ugly duckling in here, but I still am interested in those new Final Fantasy-titles, even if the Star Wars-comparison is spot on. But then, fanboy is a fanboy, even if you're just slighty over the fanboy-mark.

Though, I would like to see Nomura finally getting rid of belts and zippers and tone down the emo-angst. Still, would want to be able to finish XIII someday, seemed pretty interesting after I got the gang together (- that spear lady).

This. I just read the article and nearly got whiplash from nodding and agreeing to this whole thing. FFVII = great game, very enjoyable (aside from the ending), easily one of the best FF's in the series and one of my fondest memories of playing an RPG. Nothing else was needed, especially not almost a decade later and after the original producer had flown the coup. Somehow, I prefer the unfinished ending to anything I've seen that explains what happens after the damn meteor gets stopped.

It is frightening to think that FFVI could have shared a similar fate, with random shit being retconned into the main storyline. Make way for Final Fantasy VI: Legend of Umaro (just to pad his backstory), Final Fantasy VI: Locke's Treasure Hunt (a puzzle game for the DS), Final Fantasy VI: A Night at the Opera (Singstar-esque, trying to bridge FF fans and Queen fans together...features the entire FFVI cast doing "Bohemian Rhapsody") and Final Fantasy VI: Painting with Relm (using the Wii Tablet).

Interesting you should say that; aside from some ports, not even remakes, FFVI has yet to be used as spin-off fodder.

But give S-E a little credit:

IF they wanted to make an FFVI spin-off, it'd be a prequel called: Terra's Magitek Rampage. It'd be about Terra's career as a hypnotized slave soldier, and it'd be a third-person shooter, with her fighting the empire's enemy nations, rebels, and mowing down civilians;

and then would be the emo-angst about how she's doing all of it against her will; I imagine seeing a scene of Celes listening to Terra brooding, and possibly either sympathizing with her, reprimanding her, or trying to rationalize why she's fighting for the empire.

The ending of that game would be Terra being freed by Tritoch, and being woken up by Arvis in Narshe, and seeing Locke.

It COULD work, so long as they didn't try to force any additional details into the story, like Terra turning on Kefka at one point, and trying to kill him. Well, maybe that might be a scenario in the very beginning, before they try to fit her for a Slave Crown, or when a Slave Crown prototype malfunctions.

But remember, she was taken from her parents as a baby, there's no way she could've learned that the empire killed her parents and destroyed her home, until we learn that in the original FFVI.

There would be a lot of irony - between what Terra's been taught to believe, and what we know is true; they could really cover the topic of brainwashing and propaganda with this story line.

...

That said, I quit FFXII maybe 3 hours in, and I don't plan on playing FFXIII, unless someone wants to lend me the game and system for free. Also, cheat codes would be nice. FFXIV? No dice. I just don't do MMOs; don't have the money to burn.

When S-E was releasing different games in a sub-series between different consoles, like FF Tactics Advance on GBA, then a FF Tactics port on PSP, and then FF Tactics Advance 2 on...what console was it on?! And then the FF Crystal Chronicles spin-offs, FFXII Revenant Wings...the Kingdom Hearts spin-offs...I just couldn't keep track, and I just couldn't care anymore. Of course, those were all on DS and PSP anyway, and I didn't have those consoles, and I wasn't going to get them just for those games.

FFVII Advent Children, I must confess, I enjoyed; just seeing what the characters were supposed to look like in much clearer CG was cool. FFVII Dirge of Cerberus, the additions they made to the story were ridiculous, and raised more questions than they answered, but the gameplay itself, BEST. THIRD-PERSON. SHOOTER. I. HAVE. EVER. PLAYED. And I didn't really care for Resident Evil 4. So There. And keep in mind, I'm lousy at FPSes AND third-person shooters. The aiming system in Dirge of Cerberus was just so spot-on, without actually aiming FOR you.

You know that this pretty much nullifies your opinion on anything you'll ever say from now on, right?

Joking aside, I actually rather liked DoC as well. Not great, but pretty decent. Kinda monotonous though...

And it is indeed quite perplexing that Squenix has left FFVI, one of the most critically acclaimed games in the series, completely alone so far...

Was FF6 as popular in Japan as it is in the West?

I'm pretty sure it was, yeah.
It consistently ranks high in lists of favorites at least.

Shhhhh! Don't give them any f--- ing ideas! Like they need any.

Still, I can't rate leaving VI alone as the biggest mystery surrounding Final Fantasy. I mean there's the whole idea that they won't hit the easiest easy button of them all and just remake FF7 already. Not saying I want them to remake it, but it's amazing such an idea hasn't become a reality yet.

They are obviously aware that there's great demand for it, but they keep making excuses like it would take too long or cost too much money.

Maybe they're just saving it as a last resort. That is my guess.

When all else fails, give the fans and the stockholders exactly what they want.

They'll get around to it.  Next is a polygonal FFV for 3DS I imagine, to be followed by VI.

If they would actually produce a decent new arranged soundtrack to go with their remakes for a change I'd be pretty excited about it.

You know, I actually played VI after I played VII (VII was my first) and I actually liked VI more despite the fact it lacked all the glitz and glam of VII.