For the record, I’m a lifelong fan of Final Fantasy. I fell in love back in the SNES days and fell in love all over again during what I consider the franchise’s elite run on the PS1 (FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FF Tactics). I’m hardly the only one.
Heading into the previous generation, if you had told me I wouldn’t buy the latest entry in the legendary series, I would’ve laughed. Hard. Had there been special Collector’s Editions back in the day, I would’ve bought one for every new FF release. I fully expected that Final Fantasy XIII would be yet another masterpiece, one I would not only enjoy, but treasure.
But something happened. And inexplicably, it kept happening throughout the generation: Square Enix decided to cater to a new audience by – apparently – abandoning the fans they’d spent decades accumulating.
The epitome of nonsense
I’m no publishing executive. I don’t know all the nuts and bolts; I’m not privy to the ins and outs of a giant company like Square Enix. Hence, I won’t stand atop a soapbox and lecture because in truth, the answer could be clear and obvious from a business standpoint. Rather, I’ll put on my look of complete and total consternation and reserve the right to say: “I don’t get it at all.”
I understand the need to appeal to a wider demographic. The gaming industry expanded so rapidly that it became full-on global very, very quickly. Japanese developers and publishers scrambled to keep up with the Western explosion. In fact, many will claim they fell behind and stayed behind. Evidence for that argument is found in the industry’s prestigious awards; Japanese-centric titles don’t pull in a fraction as many awards as Western-developed games. Not recently, anyway.
That being said, if you’ve got an established, revered franchise, why would you assume that all those fans would suddenly abandon Final Fantasy to go play Call of Duty? Why would you further assume that those who do play shooters would have any interest whatsoever in Final Fantasy? There was a period of time last generation where every single interview I read with a Square Enix representative, “Call of Duty” was mentioned. Multiple times. Why? What does that have to do with anything?
Yes, it’s the biggest name in gaming. But you have a franchise that everyone, gamers and critics alike, love. Why on earth would you change it to the point where it’s virtually unrecognizable to those fans you worked so hard to obtain?
The downward spiral
It’s not that FFXIII was bad. It’s not that FFXIII-2 was bad. It’s not that the upcoming Lightning Returns will be bad. It’s that they don’t qualify as top-tier AAA productions, in my mind. Worse, they don’t really qualify as role-playing games. Oh, I suppose they do in the most technical sense of the term, but there’s no denying the influx of more action-y elements. They “streamlined” FFXIII’s combat mechanic; I call it ‘dumbing down.’ They got some of that depth back in the sequel (and they opened the game up), but they forgot about the story. Lightning Returns has a few RPG elements, of course, but why are there shades of Devil May Cry? Why?
I ask that a lot, don’t I?
I’m not saying you had to keep the series turn-based (although I will forever maintain that it could’ve worked); I’m just saying you needed to retain the core of the franchise. You threw it away for the sake of appealing to a different group of people. I get attracting new customers, but I don’t get ditching your legions of faithful customers to go for new ones. By the way, this downward spiral of which I speak is also represented in the sales numbers. From FFXIII, the games have sold less and less. A lot less, in fact.
So, FFX/X-2 HD Remasters = Our Saviors… ?
I’ve often wondered what might happen if these Remasters actually outsell Lightning Returns. I mean, like I said, I’m no business executive. But if I’m sitting in a board room and I see a chart, showing the sales numbers of a certain product line, and I see such numbers, I’m flipping out. “Shinier versions of 13-year-old games sold more than our latest product?! What the hell are we doing wrong?” You couldn’t possibly misinterpret that message, could you? Isn’t it screaming that what the fans wanted all along is what Square Enix threw away?
Then again, the company doesn’t seem to view the alarmingly shrinking sales of the franchise as a red flag. I’m not even sure Square Enix execs are conscious. This is well beyond a bitter old fan complaining that things have changed, that a company just tried to “adapt to a shifting industry.” This is written in black and white, in sales figures and online, in the form of overwhelming community backlash.
If the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remasters really do outperform Lightning Returns, I wonder if Square Enix will look at Final Fantasy XV (which looks more action-oriented than ever) and go, “Uh… wait… maybe that’s what we’ve been doing wrong.”
But I’m not holding my breath.
Published: Jan 13, 2014 11:43 am