Great video feature going on at Gametrailers.com discussing the franchise and each game. Here are the first 4 segments (I think there will be 12 or 13 in all IIRC): <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=22250"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=22250" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> This one is about how Final Fantasy got started, the first game in the series, and how it compared to other games/RPGs of the time. <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=22650"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=22650" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> This one is about FF2 and FF3 IIRC. <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=22905"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=22905" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> This one is about FF4 (or FF2 in the US) and FF5. <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" id="gtembed" width="480" height="409"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=23185"/> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <embed src="http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=23185" swLiveConnect="true" name="gtembed" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="high" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="409"></embed> </object> This one is dedicated to FF6 (or FF3 in the US). The next one will feature Final Fantasy 7, and should be uploaded early next week.
Thanks for posting this. The fist one brought back some long forgotten memories of my favorite NES game growing up.
That's awesome. FF6 might be my favorite game of all time. And the retrospectives from gametrailers is very well done. I watched the Zelda one and thoroughly enjoyed it, and that's a series I've only played sparingly.
Close for me, too. That video took me back- mode 7 graphics on the SNES, baby! I may have to dig it out and give it a spin.
Yeah, Square did make that game, although it was for the SNES actually. They reference it a few times in some of these videos IIRC. For a period of time in the mid-to-late 90s, Square made a bunch of awesome games (not just Final Fantasy). They haven't quite been able to put out as many quality titles as they used to (and that's including all the games coming from the Enix side of the company).
I don't know about that. Enix has some pretty nice rpgs: Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile comes to mind. The truly memorable non-FF games I remember were the two Chrono games and Xenogears. Anything else I'm forgetting? It's kind of nice to watch some of the history regarding the older FFs. I started with FF7, and played the older ones more as a distraction while writing term papers, programming, etc. That sometimes I forget just how "grand" these games really were at the time they're made.
FF7 started the RPG fascination for me. The only thing that annoyed me so much was the lake crossing in the beginning in pursuit of Sephiroth and that stupid water serpent that kept tracking and fighting me when my characters had weak life points and hit points. Eventually worked out that you needed a Chocobo to cross that stinking stretch of water regardless whether the snake was there or not.
I wasn't necessarily trying to make a Square vs Enix debate since I do agree that Enix put out some great games as well during that time (although FWIW, I think Square's output was a lot better). I was mostly trying to contrast Square's output then to their output in recent years (or even the combined output of Square and Enix). Vagrant Story also came out during that time period (although may have been 2000...mostly referring to late SNES and PS1 stuff), and that may have been Square's best game of the period (not IMO, but a lot of people loved it...not enough bothered to play it though). That game, the two Chrono games, Xenogears, and the FF games of the time (including FF Tactics) were probably the best of the best of Square's output during that period (and maybe the top 5-10 games they've ever made), so maybe they were the only "truly memorable" games. But they had a lot of other nice games that were really good too. Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve (personal favorite of mine...didn't care for the second one though), and Tobal all were released during that time, and I think they all reviewed well IIRC. A few other games I've heard of but never played may have been good too (Bahamut Lagoon, the "SaGa" games, Front Mission, etc.). I think I enjoyed (or would have enjoyed) just about every game in this paragraph, and of course I'm not counting anything from Enix's side. Nowadays, Square just doesn't put out as many games, and some of the ones they do aren't that good (looking at you, FF7 DoC). The only good games I can think of in the last 5 years or so from them are the FF games (probably not nearly on par with the FF games from the 90s though, and probably not quite as many) and the Kingdom Hearts games. Maybe the Front Mission games too, but as I said, I never played them. If you throw in the Enix stuff, you'd get one release in the Star Ocean franchise, another in the Valkyrie Profile franchise, a few Grandia games, and Dragon Quest 8 if I'm not missing anything (all of them got solid reviews though IIRC). They've tried some new IPs, but they've mostly been really bad (Bouncer, Driving Emotion, Drakengard 1 and 2, etc.) or decent at best (Radiata Stories and maybe some of the Fullmetal Alchemist games...not sure if this counts as new IP though). Of course, I can understand why this is happening (more time/resources needed for games, people leaving Square-Enix to form/join other companies, new IPs being risky to make, etc.), but I still kind of miss the good-old days.
That's funny, I have a copy of vagrant story that I still haven't gotten around to. I think it's the only psone game that I own that I have yet to really sink my teeth into. Square+Enix doesn't churn out as many games as they used to, but they still produce some of the best games out there. Their support for the ds is one of the main reasons I'll end up getting one sooner or later.
ff9 is awesome. I was lukewarm to it at first, but imo, it is a masterpiece and my favorite psone ff.
Yeah, they're still my favorite developer/publisher, but I'm just a little sad to see how the overall quality of their products has gone down, especially the new IPs. I used to just search for games with the Square logo on it, and there would be a good chance that I would end up loving the game; nowadays, I can't even be sure that a game with the name "Final Fantasy" in it won't suck. BTW, I'm assuming you were referring to SE future support for the DS, and not so much the games they've already released? Granted, I haven't really spent much time with the games they put out, but the few they put out so far didn't really get great reviews IIRC. I expect that to change with Revenant Wings, DQIX, the DQ/FF remakes, etc., though. I almost want to pick one up just for the FF4 remake. And I really enjoyed FF9 as well. I should probably play it again sometime since I have forgotten bits and pieces of it. Actually, I wish Square-Enix would put the PS1 games on the PSN. I wouldn't even mind if they raped us a bit with the prices.
Wow! Thanks for posting this! I often wondered things like: "How can they call it final fantasy when it's had so many sequels?" "How can they make so many sequels off of one story?" (they don't) "Why can't I figure out what the overall story is?" (because the story is entirely different every time) This really clears things up!
