The Final Fantasy Renaissance

Final Fantasy is one of the most legendary video game series of all time, however, the franchise really struggled in the PS3 and early PS4 generation, but now the series is back and arguably better than ever.

With the divisive Final Fantasy 13 trilogy, the horrific launch of the MMO Final Fantasy 14 and half-baked launch of Final Fantasy 15 after a decade of development, the series was looking very shaky in the mid-2000s and early 2010s.

The mainstream perception of the series was very poor with most gamers seeing it as long past its prime.

Even many fans believed that the series would never recapture it’s PS1 glory days.

But Square Enix realised this and they knew they had to change.

The legacy of the Crystals

In the time of the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2, Final Fantasy was one of – if not the most – legendary RPG series in the world.

Alongside Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7 redefined what video games could be for general audiences and showed off that video games can be cinematic and can tell amazing stories.

Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9 were both very popular in their own rights as they made small changes to 7’s gameplay while framing the narrative in entirely different settings.

The series jump to the PS2 was brought by Final Fantasy 10. It had industry leading graphics as well as the introduction of voice acting to the series.

Final Fantasy 11 was an MMO available on both PC and PS2 that did well within the MMO space but, due to the genre, did not experience massive mainstream success.

Finally, Final Fantasy 12 took a lot of influence from the Star Wars series and was again very successful, though not as universally loved as previous entries.

This pattern of success after success, on top of the already well-received original six games, made Final Fantasy a household name and was the only JRPG many gamers knew of.

A lot of what makes the series successful is how each games changes and is different from the last while still being undeniably Final Fantasy. 

The franchise was on a winning streak that few other game series could match.

This streak would end however with the advent of the PS3 generation and the reveal of Final Fantasy 13.

Falling from the light

Final Fantasy 13 was revealed in 2006 with an infamously messy reveal trailer featuring an incredibly messy and cluttered UI.

This mess distracted from the cool ultra-sci-fi aesthetic and badass new female protagonist Lightning.

Alongside the reveal of 13 was the unveiling of the ill-fated Final Fantasy Versus 13.

This double-barrelled reveal showed that Square was going all in on the 13 sub-series before it had even released.

This decision would prove to be a big mistake for Square.

Upon its release in late 2009, Final Fantasy 13 would sell well but it would not review well as players criticised the game’s odd combat system, extreme linearity, and Lightning’s stern and aggressive attitude.

None the less, Square greenlit two squeals in the form of Final Fantasy 13 2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13.

Both titles sold significantly worse than the original as their stories were regarded as very weak even though the gameplay was much improved.

13 2 was a particularly strange game as the story and marketing centre around 13’s protagonist Lighting, even although she only appears in the opening.

Meanwhile, Versus 13 would suffer an even worse fate as it spun around in development hell and eventually the projects director and key visionary Tetsuya Nomura was removed from the project, causing him to refocus of Kingdom Hearts.

After seven years of minimal communication, Final Fantasy Versus 13 finally reappeared at E3 2013 looking significantly less atmospheric and bearing a new name: Final Fantasy 15.

While things were turbulent with the 13 saga, things were even worse for Final Fantasy 14.

The MMO was revealed in 2009 and released in 2010 to near universally negative reception.

The release was so bad that the president of Square Enix had to issue a formal apology, suspend subscription charges for the game and replace the director.

The new director, Naoki Yoshida, had experience with MMOs and decided that 14’s state was so poor that a 2.0 version would need to be developed from the ground up.

14’s release did massive damage to the reputation of the Final Fantasy franchise and this, alongside the struggles of the 13 games, would mark the series darkest hour.

Hollow Success

In 2015 and 2016, Final Fantasy seen a lot of success through the announcement of the long requested Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the release of Final Fantasy 15.

However, neither of these successes would last as while Final Fantasy 15 became the fastest selling game in the series by far, reviews and word of mouth were not great as they called out the game’s empty world and disjointed story.

The fact that fans had been waiting over a decade since the reveal of Final Fantasy Versus 13 to get their hands on the game made the launch state even more disheartening.

Meanwhile development had to be scrapped on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake as the work done by an outside support studio was not up to standard.

With the franchises reputation spiralling downward, Square Enix made the call not to move on but instead to look back and fix their mistakes.

This decision may well be the key thing that saved the franchise’s image.

Redeeming Themselves

Firstly, with Final Fantasy 15, DLC was developed for each of Noctis’ companions alongside an array of patches and free updates.

This all culminated in the release of Final Fantasy 15: Royal Edition.

Royal Edition bundled the game and all DLC together, and included a whole new final chapter with a fully explorable city of Insomnia, an alternative version of the controversial chapter 13 and various other features such as the unleashed Armiger.

These changes went a long way to making the Final Fantasy 15 experience more filled out and whole.

While the game still has a lot of issues it is leaps and bounds better than the original version and has amassed a lot of very dedicated fans that love the story of Noctis and friends, flaws and all.

A second season of DLC was planned for the game but was scrapped before most of it could be released.

The unused story was reworked into a book entitled Dawn of the Future: Final Fantasy 15.

Meanwhile, development of Final Fantasy 7 Remake was moved internally under Square Enix’s Creative Business Division 1 team.

The game would be heavily monitored and given utmost priority as Square understood just how import a remake of a game this legendary would be.

The remake development team feature many members of the original Final Fantasy 7 development team including director Tetsuya Nomura, legendary character designer and director of the Kingdom Hearts series, and co-director Motomu Toriyama, director of the 13 trilogy.

With development fully under Square, the team looked at the popularity of Final Fantasy 15’s real time action and decided to combine it with the original Final Fantasy 7’s ATB system to create and truly unique combat system that was utterly perfect for the game.

The biggest redemption however came from Final Fantasy 14.

Reborn from the ashes

Final Fantasy 14 was undoubtedly the worst launch in series history and one of the worst MMO launches of all time.

Almost nothing in the game functioned well with horrific technical issues, awful sluggish gameplay and graphics that were dated at launch.

The only redeeming factors about the game were the lore/story and the music.

Documentaries on the development of 14 show that the biggest issues with its development were terrible communication and a refusal to look at what the rest of the MMO industry was doing well – instead, they done it their own way.

Due to the launch state Square were forced to offer a public apology, freeze subscriptions, and assigned a new director: Naoki Yoshida.

Unlike the previous director, Yoshida had experience working on MMOs, particularly on Square Enix’s own Dragon Quest 10. He was also an avid MMO player in his free time.

Yoshida was able to implement many positive improvements to 14, however, it would never be enough and so they made the decision to start over again.

In November 2012, Final Fantasy 14 was shut down alongside an in-game event where the world was almost destroyed by a calamity.

The game was dark for around ten months until returning in August 2013 with the 2.0 version known as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn.

A Realm Reborn was received significantly better than the original version of 14 as every aspect of the game had been improved upon and a lot of influence had been taken from western MMOs, particularly from World of Warcraft.

The story even incorporated the calamity that ended the original version of the game and uses that event to tell many of its best stories.

A Realm Reborn was popular with fans old and new for the two years it ran until the launch of the game’s first expansion Heavensward.

Heavensward received a lot of critical acclaim upon its release for its amazing narrative that riveled most traditional Final Fantasy games which, alongside the expansions myriad other additions had, brought in even more players.

The next expansion, Stormblood, was released in 2017 to further success but what really brought 14 to the peak of the MMO industry was its next expansion Shadowbringers.

Shadowbringers received overwhelming positive praise for everything from its narrative, gameplay, music and atmosphere.

Shadowbringers alsofeatured an antagonist named Emet-Selch that has become a massive fan favourite to the point he has won several fan polls beating many iconic villains such as the legendary Sephiroth.

This expansion cemented 14 as a legendary Final Fantasy title and a pillar of the MMO genre with a narrative that no other MMO even comes close to matching.

Towards the end of its lifecycle, Shadowbringers briefly become the most played game in the MMO genre and is consistently Squares most profitable game.

14 has went from strength to strength since A Realm Reborn. The 2020s look like they will continue to be great for the game and the series as a whole.

Newfound glory

So far, the new decade has been very good for the Final Fantasy franchise with every release seeing massive commercial and critical acclaim.

2020 seen the release of Final Fantasy 7 Remake which was received with near-universal acclaim and massive sales.

The changes and expansion to the original Midgar section made the game a fresh experience for fans new and old.

Meanwhile the controversial new narrative arc added by the presence of the Whispers has ignited a lot of discussion online and kept the game relevant in the years since its launch.

Next 2021 saw the release of Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, the cinematic conclusion to the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga that had been unfolding for the last ten years.

Upon release, Endwalker was so popular that players were having to wait hours to log in before they could play.

The situation got so extreme that Yoshida was forced to stop selling the game for a few months so existing players could experience the expansion, a level of success that is completely unprecedented in the genre.

The reception to Endwalker’s release was once again universal acclaim to the point the expansion was the highest rated PlayStation game of 2021 on Metacritic.

2023 finally saw the release of the next numbered mainline game in the form of Final Fantasy 16.

Developed by the same team as 14, the game uses a real-time action combat system inspired by the Devil May Cry series.

The game is very cinematic and story focused with over 20 hours of cutscenes included.

The game reviewed very well, becoming one of the highest selling PS5 exclusives and a true system seller.

Final Fantasy 16 is a massive departure from series tradition which, while upsetting some existing fans, has brought in a whole new audience of dark fantasy fans.

Finally, 2024 has seen the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Rebirth has reviewed exceptionally, becoming the highest rated Final Fantasy game in almost two decades.

This series of mammoth successes reflect how Square Enix’s approach of giving control to talented directors and developing exceptional internal teams that listen to feedback and observe what works in the industry has worked out exceptionally on all fronts.

Even as Square Enix struggles with a lot of their big new projects, such as their Marvel games, Final Fantasy is better than ever and keeping the company in the black, thanks especially to Final Fantasy 14’s subscription model.

Forge Ahead

Final Fantasy is one of most iconic video game franchises of all-time and one of the biggest strengths the franchise has is its ability to change and grow.

No two mainline games are the same; they have different settings, combat systems, aesthetics, and tonnes but still, they are all unmistakably Final Fantasy.

Growth and change are part of the very essence of the series and sometimes, like in the mid-2000s, that change doesn’t quite work – but that’s okay.

Each game being different means that if something doesn’t work then it can just be left behind.

The diverse nature of the games also means that the fans have diverse expectations which Square is now catering to with the fantastical and joyful 7 remake trilogy, the dark vengeance fuelled 16 and the hopeful and adventurous 14.

The late 90s and early 2000s are regarded as the golden age of the franchise, but I would argue that this new era may be even better.

The series looks to be jumping from strength to strength with something for every player.

For both fans new and old, there has never been a better time to jump into Final Fantasy and its legendary tales of heroes and villains, adventures and tragedies, chocobos and moogles.

Final Fantasy is almost four decades old and shows no sign of slowing down so, despite a few bumps along the way, I can’t wait to see the next four decades worth of tales in the light of the crystals.

Featured Image Credit: Square Enix.