Wark Digest #128 - The State of Final Fantasy
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week we’re taking a bit of a break from the normal routine. As we stand halfway between major releases in our beloved franchise, let’s look at the road behind us and the road ahead, to assess the state of Final Fantasy in 2023.
This week’s newsletter is 1976 words, a 9-minute read.
The State of Final Fantasy
It’s been a big year for Final Fantasy. In some ways it feels like a tide has turned for the franchise, while in other ways, things feel as tumultuous as ever—a real “best of times, worst of times” situation.
Instead of the usual point-based outlook I use here each week, I thought we’d break from the norm a little and take stock. We’ve just rode the wave of a mainline game release, and after the holidays we’ll be caught up in another huge release—so let’s center ourselves with an earnest discussion of how the last few years have been for Final Fantasy, and what lies in store.
Out of Darkness
If you’ve been with the franchise for a very long time, you probably know how rocky the 2010s were for both Final Fantasy and Square Enix. The genre as a whole struggled in the PS3 era, and FF was not spared the troubles of developing in HD. Final Fantasy XIII had a mixed reception, Final Fantasy XIV was a bit of a disaster when it first launched, and Final Fantasy XV morphed out of a stalled spinoff to become a… stalled mainline title. Even the long-awaited remaster of VIII didn’t quite stick its landing. For a while, mobile games seemed like they could eclipse “proper” game releases.
Final Fantasy VII Remake was a light in the darkness at E3 2015, until it disappeared for a few years and became another punchline for Square Enix fans. Once Remake did resurface with genuine progress, however, it was like a shot of adrenaline. After a refreshingly controlled pre-launch media campaign, FFVIIR sold very well, especially given the conditions around its actual launch. It won over both critics and consumers—not universal acclaim, of course, but a commendable showing for a remake of such a beloved title.
Around that same time, FFXIV began its ascension with the launch of the Shadowbringers expansion and continued to thrive as players sought online interaction through 2020—and of course, FFVIIR’s success didn’t hurt its appeal either. By the time its next expansion, Endwalker, launched in late 2021, the once-dismissed title managed to unseat the long-reigning champion of the genre, World of Warcraft, in terms of player count.
At last, it started to feel like there was some hope on the horizon, that we might see a return to form.
The Last Few Years
Final Fantasy XVI has been Square Enix’s guiding star since the curtain began pulling back on it in 2022—it’s a main, numbered entry, after all. Through yet more mobile games and the extremely unconventional Stranger of Paradise, everyone’s eyes were eventually pulled back to the enigmatic new take on the series.
We’ve broken down the game’s reception in this newsletter since it launched: a respectable 87/8.1 with critics and users on Metacritic, meeting SE’s modest sales projections, etc. As an exclusive, it’s become a weapon in the neverending “Console Wars, and the debates about “how Final Fantasy it is” will be raging for the foreseeable future. Realistically, I don’t think it’s going to take home many medals from The Game Awards next month simply because of the sheer competition it’s up against in this absolutely stacked year, but that’s not necessarily the game’s fault.
All told, it probably saw the most steady launch of any mainline game since FFX, since everything from the online FFXI and the unconventional FFXII has been met with a mixed bag of criticisms. (But of course, we’ll have more on that soon with the results of the survey we recently ran!)
Now FFVII Rebirth’s marketing campaign has stepped up in a major way. I’ve been taken aback by how many interesting snippets they’ve shown in trailers or demos so far. So much of Remake was still shrouded in shadow at this point in its pre-release cycle, by comparison. However, as the second installment in this project, Rebirth can cut loose a little, and not play its cards as close to its chest. It looks extremely promising and could possibly outperform FFXVI in most departments.
Square Enix’s Bigger Picture
Some new stars among the dev team have emerged: Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida’s reputation has solidified, while Naoki Hamaguchi (director, FFVII Rebirth) and Hiroshi Takai (director, FFXVI) could take up pioneering the series once some older staff retire. Tetsuya Nomura has scaled back his obligations at last, while brand director Yoshinori Kitase seems to love his current position.
It’s also been heartening to see the return of Hironobu Sakaguchi to the larger community, even if it’s only to participate in retrospective interviews or talk about his FFXIV addiction.
Outside of FF, Square Enix as a whole is still experiencing some growing pains. Takashi Kiryu has taken over as CEO, replacing Yosuke Matsuda; time will tell how well he performs, but it was time for Matsuda to step aside regardless.
The studio practically gave away most of its non-Japanese studios, including Crystal Dynamics and Eidos, to Embracer Group… who have promptly proven that they’ve “embraced” a few too many acquisitions lately. While it’s probably for the best that SE is no longer associated with some of the IPs and disasters associated with those studios, they also didn’t gain much from losing Tomb Raider and the rest.
Then, of course, there have been debacles like the short-lived Babylon’s Fall, the troubled Balan’s Wonderland, the insider trading scandal with Yuji Naka, too much talk of NFTs, and a handful of tepidly-received attempts to revitalize other IPs. Yet, in an age where many other studios of their caliber have resorted to massive layoffs (including Bungie this week), Square Enix’s bottom line has been weathering the storm admirably, all things considered.
What’s Ahead
Of course, FFVII Rebirth will arrive at the end of February 2024, followed by FFXIV’s next expansion, Dawntrail, in the summer. The current roster of mobile FF titles will likely keep chugging along in the background—even Ever Crisis—and we’ll surely see some unexpected new titles announced along the way too. FFXVI is getting some form of DLC, and both World of Final Fantasy and Stranger of Paradise are contenders for sequels, lest we forget.
The sum of all this is, I feel, a pretty positive outlook for the future.
I’ve followed this series since 1999, before FFVIII dropped; I remember the “golden age” of RPGs and this series, and saw it beset by challenges ever since The Spirits Within sent investors panicking; I remember four years of back-to-back main series releases. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll see days like those again. Game development and the games industry have both become too big and too complex to replicate those conditions.
But, it’s pretty close. We have one unit working on FFXIV and FFXVI, another on FFVII Remake’s games, and other units like Team Asano working on other miscellaneous projects like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. The studio is reasonably prolific, even if their games aren’t breaking review scales wide open or printing money. Most of the main FF series is playable with relative ease on modern hardware, and a healthy dose of Square Enix’s other esteemed franchises as well, thanks to lovingly made remasters. A few blunders aside, the output from FF and SE has been better lately than it was in the decade prior.
We also have to be mindful that “Final Fantasy” has become a very broad umbrella. It’s a side effect of constantly innovating and dipping toes into new bodies of water: in time, you’re going to get results that look substantially different from what you’re used to. It’s evolution, and this is a series that has always evolved in drastic bounds.
For now, there are steadier hands on the wheel than FF has seen for some time. The company has recruited some genuine fans to helm new projects and is avoiding spreading them too thin. These creatives are being given the tools to succeed… and now we just have to hope that they do succeed.
It’s been a rocky road for the last decade or more, and the series’ creators cannot get complacent now or they will fall right off into the ditch. But, I feel pretty good about where that road is going… or at least, much better than I have for some time.
Cast Thundaga—It’s a Lightning Round!
Hamaguchi’s recent interviews continue to roll out, dropping even more teases for FFVII Rebirth:
Zack won’t be the only spin-off character to feature in Rebirth (though this seemed likely already, given Weiss’ appearance in Intergrade)
Each quest in the game was given two different “versions,” because the Cosmo Canyon section will cause a profound change in Red XIII—so there’s a “Red XIII version” and a “Nanaki version,” reflecting his shifting outlook
Players will start at level 21 because that is (apparently) the average level when players originally left Midgar—though I’d personally like to see the data on that one
Final Fantasy XVI songs have arrived in Theatrhythm Final Bar Line’s Season Pass 3
The FFXVI pack includes 11 tracks: “My Star,” “Hide, Hideaway,” “To Sail Forbidden Seas,” “Away,” “Control,” “Titan Lost,” “Ascension,” “The Riddle,” “Logos,” “Find the Flame,” and “No Risk, No Reward”
The pack is available either on its own, as part of the season pass, or as part of the Premium Digital Deluxe Edition
FFXVI gets its own page on the list of games, but unfortunately there are no new characters (and thus no playable chibi version of Clive’s bulging chest)
Is this the end of Theathrythm’s supplemental content? Only three season passes were announced originally, but there hasn’t been official word that this was the last set, so time will tell
Speaking of music, if you hadn’t noticed already, Square Enix Music has added the Piano Collection albums for FFIV through FFXV, plus Crystal Chronicles, to streaming platforms and YouTube
These official albums fill a huge void in the online catalog
Hopefully some of the spinoffs like FFX-2 arrive before too long, if only for the beautiful rendition of “Eternity ~ Memory of Lightwaves”
If I may be so bold as to venture beyond the confines of Final Fantasy for a moment, Square Enix released an excellent remaster on Switch and PlayStation yesterday: Star Ocean The Second Story R, a HD-2Dish take on a classic Enix title
This was one of many banger JRPGs released in English in the JRPG golden era (1999, to be exact), alongside the likes of Final Fantasy VIII
The remaster is a fantastic glow-up—I highly recommend it if you’ve never tried this “other” RPG franchise in SE’s roster, as it’s almost uncontestedly the best in the series
Around the Union
Speaking of Square Enix-brand blunders, our latest video is pretty on-brand. This week we’re examining “7 Games Cancelled In Less Than 12 Months!” Square Enix has developed a reputation/trend of cancelling mobile games within or near their one-year anniversaries. Join us we explore some of the more high-profile casualties—and keep an eye out for some red herrings in the process.
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Until next time, kupo!