The Final Fantasy franchise is certainly not lacking when it comes to fans. There are plenty of gamers that have been playing it for years and will stick with it no matter what. Many fans, however, have been questioning the future of the franchise of late and have been dissatisfied with the most recent Final Fantasy games.
So what does the future hold for this essential franchise, especially as how it relates to the next generation of consoles and the PlayStation 4?
Going Back to Its Roots
For a lot of fans, Final Fantasy VII was the be all, end all of Final Fantasy. I know that for me, Final Fantasy VII was the game that made me stand up and take notice of the franchise. I was obviously aware of the franchise before that, but VII was the one that EVERYONE was playing.
So needless to say, a lot of fans have been clamoring for a remake of Final Fantasy VII. Some have even suggested a sort of reboot of the series with a focus on the plot, characters, etc. of FFVII as the basis of it all.
Square Enix Has Other Ideas
Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has heard these cries from Final Fantasy fans, but he's not quite yet ready to look into a FFVII remake. Speaking during a Q&A session with Square Enix shareholders, Wada said that they're not going to even consider a FFVII remake until they can make a game that is better than the original Final Fantasy VII.
In a roundabout way, this is pretty much Square Enix's CEO admitting that all the Final Fantasy games following FFVII were not as good as VII. Whether this is his opinion or him merely following the critical reception of the games is anyone's guess, but the admission itself is huge.
Critical ReceptionSo exactly how did these various games perform when compared to Final Fantasy VII? To be sure, the comparison of subsequent Final Fantasy games to FFVII - and finding them lacking when doing so - is not based purely on the overall mood of fans when browsing message boards and the like.
Let's take a look at some critical scores.
Final Fantasy VII had a solid score of 92 among critics when it released back in '97. After that, Final Fantasy X and XII both ended up in the low 90s as far as score among critics is concerned. Moving along, Final Fantasy XIII received a comparatively abysmal score of 83 and Final Fantasy XIII-2 did even worse at 79.
To be fair, these scores aren't the worst out there. But when you're talking about the Final Fantasy franchise you have to expect a better performance.
The Future: Final Fantasy on the PS4
So with Yoichi Wada saying Square Enix isn't going to remake Final Fantasy VII until they can outdo it with a different Final Fantasy game, we have a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, they're actually TRYING to make a great game, with FFVII as the baseline. They recognize that, and that's something.
On the other hand, the fans of FFVII that want a current- or next-gen remake aren't going to get it anytime soon.
For my dollar, I'd love to see a remake or even just an HD upgrade (which plenty of older games are getting right now) come out for the PlayStation 4. It could even be a launch title. It would be huge and get plenty of people's attention.
All that's left now is to convince Yoichi Wada and Square Enix. What do you think?
Update - March 10th, 2013 -- New Final Fantasy Announced For PS4!
As previously reported, Square Enix was on-hand at the Feb. 20th unveiling of the PlayStation 4 and while the presentation mostly focused on the technical aspects of what the company is doing with the PS4, it did bring us one piece of news: the company is making a new Final Fantasy for the PlayStation 4.
Square Enix did not mention if this game was to be a remake of a past Final Fantasy, an existing game in a current Final Fantasy franchise (such as FFXIII-4), a spinoff of the brand (such as Final Fantasy Tactics) or a new iteration of the series, which would be Final Fantasy XV. Square Enix did mention that they would unveil this new game at E3 2013.
We will bring you news on this new Final Fantasy for the PS4 as soon as it is available!
Article by - Brett Huffman
Insert Date: 07/07/2012
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Comments
RIP FFVII
Platform Stop
Just pay attention
FF Versus XIII
That
Time/ Win or Fail
squall
FF Vesrus13 => XV