Now, I have a lot of friends, a surprising number of friends who play games and either say they 1. Have never played a Final Fantasy game, or 2. They have no idea where to start the franchise. I mean, the franchise is HUGE. When I was a lad, we had Final Fantasy 1, and by the time I left Elementary School there was 2 and 3 hit around Middle School. I’ve been really thinking hard about this lately, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I love the idea of World of Final Fantasy. I already thought it was adorable, and it has a lot of crossover [since according to the game, the world of Grimoire is where all the Final Fantasy characters live] potential. Monsters from all the games will probably be visible, so expect Behemoths, Floating Eyes, Cactuars, Tonberries, the whole gang. But why does Square-Enix think this will be a good introduction to the franchise?
Because it has probably every major character in Final Fantasy! I imagine that they will be more true to their home game, unlike Kingdom Hearts 2, where they’re a little different [Looking at you, Y.R.P. . . ] and will help people find the characters they like. Sure it’s chibi/adorable versions of the characters, and they have their own reasons for doing what they do in the story, but I have the deep hope that they will be true to their original source material. Find the characters you like, and you find a new game to play! And there’s really no order to heed, except in very few cases. There are games that take place in the same universe/timeline, of course. Examples being:
- Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X/X-II
- Final Fantasy Tactics, XII, and Tactics Advance.
- XIII, XIII-2, XIII-3. What? I laughed.
I love this though. There are so many Final Fantasy titles that have been/are being remade, and now more than ever people have access to updated versions of some of the greatest RPGs of all time. Especially with the PS2 versions [X, X-2, XII] which come in the International Editions, which have new/improved content. Not all of these remakes are good though; Square-Enix, stop using mobile versions to remake/port, please. PLEASE. PLEASE. They all come out looking like garbage; shit. Pick a word. Lots of people have a favorite Final Fantasy though; typically it’s the first big one they played, like VII, VIII, maybe IV or VI. But whichever one you love, of course you’d want other people to experience that love too. Whenever someone asks me what game they should start with, of course I pick my favorites. But this could be a much better way to let them choose their own path.
Choose your own Final Fantasy. Square-Enix, kindly forward my royalty check to Bottom Tier.
Do you have a favorite Final Fantasy?
