Can Square Enix Take Back what was theirs with Final Fantasy XIII?
Well, it’s that time again. Time for RPG gamers to forget about making any social plans for the next few months, time for the casual gamer to become a little more than casual; it’s time for the release of Final Fantasy XIII. The game is finally being released in the US on Tuesday, March 9th. It has been a while, hasn’t it? Coveted as the most anticipated Final Fantasy to date, this one in particular is going to be very important for the series as a whole. This is the first full installment of a Final Fantasy game in this generation of major consoles. The last (numbered) Final Fantasy was on the PS2. In this absence, many RPGs have come up and really kept us busy. Games like the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age: Origins, Valkyria Chronicles, and even the Mario & Luigi RPGs on the DS have each picked up the slack while FFXIII was being developed.
However, Final Fantasy had been starting to lose its luster by the time FFXII came out. People seemed to become less enthusiastic about the games as the series kept adding installments. Most gamers would consider Final Fantasy X-2 to be the low point of the entire Final Fantasy franchise. While I do know people who enjoy the game; it just doesn’t feel like a Final Fantasy; it feels closer to a Hannah Montana RPG with the pop singing spells. Square Enix brought it back to good by using the world of Final Fantasy Tactics as the setting for FFXII, but there was still something missing. Gamers are looking for the next Final Fantasy VII. We need to be able to stop looking back 12 years for what most consider to be the best Final Fantasy game ever! It’s time for Square Enix to blow away the competition and retake their throne as the best RPG developers around. Do you think Final Fantasy XIII is going to live up to the hype and impress us like Final Fantasy VII did? Better yet, are you ready to let go of the past and embrace what could be the best Final Fantasy to date?
I’m really excited for FFXIII. However, I don’t think XIII will impress us like VII, even if it ends up being a better game. But I could be wrong. One of the reasons I say it won’t be as successful as FF7, is because that game was a turning point for the whole industry. It was the first RPG for many gamers and made such a great impression on a lot of people. Since then, JRPGs are a regular mass consumed genre of games, and while there’s been some tweaking done here and there to innovate JRPGs, they haven’t changed THAT much. But, based on a lot of reading, XIII seems like the freshest game of its kind in years, but will it be enough to wow the masses? Since people are so used to a standard form of these kinds of games, it’s also very possible this will get a backlash for being too different (if it is as different as Square-Enix is making it out to be).
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“Games like the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age: Origins, Valkyria Chronicles, and even the Mario & Luigi RPGs on the DS have each picked up the slack while FFXIII was being developed.”
Besides Mario & Luigi none of those are even rpgs x_x. You couldn’t think of any actual rpgs? Also why “EVEN the Mario and Luigi RPGs”? Is that surprising to you? Bowser’s Inside Story is both the best RPG and the funniest game I’ve played for years.
Anyway besides that, I think Square-Enix has completely lost sight of what fans are interested in. From what I’ve heard the new game is trying to be more like FFVII. Aspiring to be like a great game isn’t a bad thing but I don’t think they’re really looking at being something new.
The traditional rpg is pretty much dying because many people prefer either action rpgs or strategy rpgs (tactics) and those genres are fairly popular, especially in Japan. Whereas in the west people are having a good time with rpg elements in first person shooters like Bioshock. If you ask me, to make a traditional JRPG in this day in age is just like saying you’ve given up being creative and what you were doing before was good enough.
On a separate note without series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi I wonder if they’ll ever meet the expectations of fans. His last main game in the series was XI and he quit not to long after X-2 was released. I don’t know if his absence has effected the quality of the development team, or if maybe he left because of the direction SE was taking. Any way you look at it, it’s rarely good when the creator of a series leaves.
Despite claims that they’re trying to innovate I guess I’ll believe it when I see it. Seems to me that it’s going to be the same old thing with a twist here or there that they can claim is a complete game changer, even if it’s not. I don’t see the Final Fantasy series changing significantly anytime soon and because of that, I can’t imagine them ever regaining the kind of admiration they once had.
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Dan Reply:
March 6th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
The raw basis of the RPG genre is that you control multiple characters instead of being limited to one. The use of action and strategy game elements gives the genre new life, and gamers a reason to keep playing. Think of all those great hack’n slash titles that utilize RPG elements like inventories and level systems. It’s a two way street.
The absence of the original creator could mean a few things – of course the “feel” will be at risk, but this does give other creative minds more freedom. When you control a project for that long, you see yourself begin to cramp its growth.
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From the reviews out thus far, it looks like that XIII isn’t living up to the hype, which might not be feasible to begin with. I think one of the biggest reasons why VII stands out for so many people, myself included, is the nostalgia factor. How many times shave you had fond memories of a game, only to go play it years later to realize that it really isn’t that great? VII was a very solid game with a great story and likable characters, but it was also probably one of the FIRST really solid RPGs a lot of us gamers, now in our twenties, played. Editors who are older, when they like to count down best FFs, like to give the medal to VI for alot of the same reasons. Unless XIII or any of the ones to come after it really do something new and groundbreaking, I don’t think they can ever get to the level or true greatness. We all have just played enough to feel like its all been there, done that territory.
Nonetheless, I’m stocked to get XIII and am sure it will be entertaining.
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