There's no doubt that the Final Fantasy series is one of the most popular — if not the most popular — JRPG series of all time. The franchise has sold a total of more than a 130 million units worldwide, making it one of the most successful long-running video game series ever. The stories of Cecil, Terra, Cloud, Squall, and Tidus (among many others) have become fond memories in the minds of the players who've been with the franchise since its heyday. However, it's no secret that the age of turn-based RPGs has been over for a long time, and now people can actually look at the relationship that Final Fantasy shares with the JRPG genre and analyze the overall effect the franchise has had on the development of the aforementioned genre.
There's no doubt that Final Fantasy has contributed to the growth of JRPGs outside Japan in a monumental way... but it can also be argued that this long-running franchise had also sowed the seeds for the genre's demise as well. Ever since the popular and well-received release of Final Fantasy VII, the franchise has been slowly spiraling downwards when it came to its popularity and took its parent genre down with it as well. There are a ton of reasons why this has happened, and in this list, we'll look at the 15 major reason how Final Fantasy has absolutely ruined the JRPG genre.
15 The New Games Are Mediocre AF
One of the major reasons that fans have cited for the decrease in the popularity of the Final Fantasy franchise is the general dip in quality that's painfully noticeable in the latest titles in the series. Comparatively, the early games were constantly redefining how stories could be told in video games.
The latest titles in the franchise, like the original release of Final Fantasy XIV and the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy (to name a few), showcase none of these impressive qualities. Instead, these titles have either tried to innovate on tired gameplay system (and failed miserably in the process), or they've simply attempted to emulate the elements of other, more successful games to varying degrees of effectiveness.
14 The Final Fantasy Brand Eats Other Games Alive
The JRPG genre is chock-full of some of the greatest games of all time. Titles like Chrono Trigger, the Persona series, and Earthbound are legendary titles in their own right... but unfortunately, they don't get the recognition they deserve since most gamers tend to think of only one franchise when the JRPG genre is mentioned. It doesn't take a genius to guess which one.
A series with 15 main titles (without counting the insane number of spin-off titles it has generated) is bound to get its fair share of recognition. Final Fantasy's looming shadow has caused other (better) franchises to flounder.
13 The Overload Of DLC And Microtransactions Have Corrupted The Genre
Final Fantasy is (or in this case, was) known for having epic 50+ hour stories that spanned various worlds, timelines, and eras. The sheer scope of each game that had been released was mind-blowing every single time... but right now this tradition seems to be over.
Instead of providing us with all the content from the get-go, Square Enix has adopted the model most gaming publishers are notorious for right now, and have started including a ton of DLC and microtransactions in their products in order to rake in more cash. In fact, the main story of Final Fantasy XV can be completed in just around 25 hours, which is just plain sacrilege when it comes to a Final Fantasy title.
12 Uncovering Hidden Secrets (Some Of Which Are Crucial To The Game) Is Almost Impossible Without A Walkthrough
There are a number of hidden secrets in most of the Final Fantasy games that are a great find — either providing more context to the events of the story or giving you with a cool item or spell that can be quite invaluable. The problem is that these games have way too many vague secrets like this, and finding all of them in order to feel satisfied with your overall gaming experience can be quite a chore.
Don't get me wrong — figuring out secrets in games can be quite a rewarding experience. But it's the sheer volume of these secrets that can wear down on the player over time. This is doubly true when they include crucial plot information like in Final Fantasy VII.
11 Grinding Can Be Necessary (And Is Never Fun)
Remember the superbosses we were discussing earlier? Well, if you really want to take them on, then prepare to slay thousand of enemies, because you will need to do a boatload of grinding in order to reach the highest level (which for the most part is Level 99) possible in order to even stand a chance of winning against them.
This is not the only time when a JRPG player might need to grind in order to pass a particular section, and it can become an absolute chore at times. There are guides and tricks in order to facilitate an easy grind, but the fact of the matter is that grinding should not be an essential part of the game to begin with.
10 People Tend To Ignore Just How Empty The World Map Is
Accessing the open world in any Final Fantasy game for the first time can be a great experience. However, don't expect it to last for long — the world is just an excuse for you to move from one location to another while it provides the illusion that you're actually traveling through vast continents and what not.
The truth is that these world maps segments are absolutely bare segments of land, differentiated through different terrain colours and nothing else. There's also the frequent random encounters one has to deal with while roaming this boring landscape, which — as we all know — is a ton of fun.
9 Most Characters Have Cliched Anime Personalities
For a game heavily reliant on its story and characters, the treatment of the latter has been fairly questionable in the Final Fantasy series. While there has undeniably been a number of great characters that have provided memorable moments throughout the course of the franchise, it's only a minority who've left such a mark on fans.
The majority of Final Fantasy characters range from generic, boring, dumb, useless... and sometimes downright irritating at times. At least the previous games allowed you to choose your characters so that you could ignore the ones you didn't like, but in the latest Final Fantasy, you have no such option — meaning that you have no other choice other than to just bear with Prompto for a major chunk of the game.
8 Final Fantasy XV Has Cemented The Fact That Turn-Based Battles Are A Thing Of The Past
Persona 5 might be a great game that utilizes the turn-based battle system to its full extent, but there's no questioning that this particular battle system has become absolutely archaic in the modern age of video games. Real-time battle systems are what's in right now, and Final Fantasy XV cast aside the series' tradition like they were nothing at all. Final Fantasy XV's combat is decidedly less strategic than the series' roots. Sadly, it's clear that this is the final nail the classic turn-based battle systems JRPG fans know and love. Of course, there will still be outliers — but wherever Final Fantasy goes the genre follows. It's devasting for fans of the once great Japanese Role-Playing Game genre.
7 The Stories Were Honestly Not That Great
Each Final Fantasy game is a standalone story, which is quite great since it allows developers the freedom to craft their own lore, world, and characters from scratch and create a standalone experience of sorts (which is why the sequels have always been met with disdain from a sizeable chunk of the fanbase).
However, this certainly doesn't mean that these stories are absolute epics. In fact, most of these tales have a ton of plot holes that players tend to ignore in order to focus on the big picture.
One of the reasons for this willful ignorance might be that...
6 Nostalgia Is A Powerful Drug
Gamers (and people in general) tend to remember things more fondly when it has affected their childhood in some way, and there's absolutely no doubt that Final Fantasy has been an integral part of many a gamer's childhoods. However, this certainly doesn't mean that this series is the greatest gaming franchise of all time — far from it.
Rather, it's the insistence of gamers to look at the end product through nostalgia goggles and selectively picking parts of the game that affected them, ignoring all the flaws in the process. And Final Fantasy indeed has a ton of flaws — you just don't hear many people gripe about it that much.
5 The Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy Wasn't The Best Idea
We've already talked about how sequels have broken the sacred rule of the Final Fantasy franchise. Final Fantasy X-2 was a completely unnecessary second part of a game that already had a pretty definitive ending. However, perhaps the strongest argument against these sequels would be the existence of the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy.
Final Fantasy XIII was one of the lowest scoring games of any Final Fantasy game ever, receiving a mediocre reception from fans and critics alike, which begs the question as to why Square Enix decided to develop two more games that would continue Lightning's uninteresting story. The end result was an underwhelming trilogy that truly propagated the downward spiral of pretty much the JRPG genre as a whole.
4 Its Terrible Story Structure Has 'Inspired' Many Other JRPGs
The plot of most Final Fantasy games aren't terribly innovative or fresh. However, given the medium Square is using, video games, Final Fantasy has always stuck to a formula that's known to work. What has inevitably happened is that most JRPGs follow a similar template, trying to Ape Square's massively popular series. The result is a myriad of games that all have the same cliches and dull plot twists. Anybody who's played any of the major Final Fantasy games will already have a vague idea of how the storyline will play out in these JRPGs. Guess what: most of the games have the same redundant issues.
3 Superbosses Are (Wrongly) Considered A Final Fantasy Staple
Superbosses have become a mainstay of most JRPG games, but there's no doubt that the most iconic of them all are almost exclusive to the Final Fantasy series. Bosses like Ruby Weapon, Omega Weapon, Ozma, Penance and many others are names that most gamers remember — either begrudgingly or otherwise.
Frankly, the fact that these superbosses even exist to begin with is a pain in itself. In order to defeat these behemoths, one needs to waste copious amounts of time leveling up and increase your stats strategically in order to get them high enough to even think about challenging these bosses. The actual final boss of the titles becomes a cakewalk once you defeat these superbosses, which kinda defeats the whole point of the game.
2 Square Enix Can't Handle Such A Massive Franchise
Square Enix has made a number of dubious decisions that have made some hardcore fans worry about the future of the franchise. We've already talked about the constant shoving of DLC and microtransactions down our throats, but the shady business practices that Square Enix has showcased does cast doubt over how they handle their IPs.
From forcing developers to include elements that don't fit into their vision, to utilizing rather shady pre-order practices to get more money, it seems that Square Enix is simply trying to see how far they can lower the bar before people actually decide to raise their voice against the publisher's questionable practices.
1 Its Mainstream Success Has Paralyzed The Genre COMPLETELY
Final Fantasy has always been at the forefront of innovation in the industry. The series pushed for voice-acting on the PS2, and disk-based media jumping from Super Nintendo to PlayStation. The series used to know no bounds.
Today, however, the series is staunchly locked in a work of wacky hair and belts-galore. Sadly, it seems like dozens of other JRPGs have followed in Final Fantasy's footsteps hoping to ride its aesthetic coattails and climb their way into the hearts of a mainstream audience. If Final Fantasy would take more risk, then perhaps we would see other games doing the same.