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Sunday, February 8, 2009

20+ Years of Final Fantasy

Back in '80s, Square was a struggling developer on the verge of bankruptcy. The games they were putting out just weren't bringing in the desired cash flow. It was decided that they'd put everything they had into one final game and it would be a fantasy title, which is where this series name originates from. On December 18th, 1987, Final Fantasy hit the Famicom and thankfully, did well enough that the game was translated and released on the NES on July 12th, 1990.

I've always found the history behind the Final Fantasy series to be a highly interesting one. What was thought to be the company's last game went on to become a mega-hit franchise that has lasted over 20 years.

What makes the Final Fantasy games unique is that each title feels different from the last. Final Fantasy III introduced the innovative job system, Final Fantasy V expanded it even further. The first few games only let you choose between a handful of party members, Final Fantasy VI let you choose between a total of 14.

Like the Mega Man games (another one of my favorites), the Final Fantasy titles have highly enjoyable music. The music has been primarily composed by Nobuo Uematsu, but other composers have also had a hand in contributing to the game's scores such as Junya Nakano, and Masashi Hamauzu. Just the same as Mega Man music, the game's music has enjoyed amazing remixes and arrange themes from the gaming community. Just check out OC Remixe's Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream.

The last Final Fantasy game I played the Final Fantasy VI on the GBA and I've been thinking of playing some games from the series again. I still haven't beaten Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy Tactics (I'm bit intimidated by the that one, to be honest), or even baught Final Fantasy XII. I always could play one of the games I've already beaten, but it would be nice to get more into some of the titles I'm less familiar with.

There really aren't enough good things I can say about this epic series. Here's to another 20+ years of it's existence.

3 comments:

Tommy said...

The Tactics I'm playing is the PSP remake, and it's definitely tougher than the one on Gameboy Advance.

What you'll need to do, is walk back and forth between towns to build up you levels, because one of the early level is just way too brutal with how black mages can mess you up...unless you're leveled higher than you would be normally without the walk back and forth thing.


FF 12 lets you keep moving during the fight and there is no flash of the screen to indicate a fight, rather, it's like WoW with aggro, i.e., get close to an enemy and it'll come after you, to an extent.

You'll keep auto-attacking until you make a command otherwise.

Sol (Frederick) Badguy said...

Didn't know that FF was set as the savior of Square.

Didn't play any of the series besides some parts in FF5 and a little of FF3 on my Gameboy, but I had a lot of fun watching them when my sister played them

If you don't own X-2 (10-2, not 12 as I used to think the number meant) leave it aside, it's long and your maximum attack reaches 1500 but the boss attack can reach 10000 HP points. And you have to have difficult fight's with all the Eon's supposedly dead in FFX

Unknown said...

This is the best series of video games all time in my opinion. Each installment always offers something better. My fav would still have to be FF4.