Final Fantasy has been a long-standing series for Square Enix ever since it saved the company back in 1987. But after 25 years, it feels as if the end is near. Ultimately the series has been in decline since 7, or at the very least X. VIII had major storyline problems that people call out to this very day, X-2 is extremely japanese, and XII's story falls apart near the end. In 2010 came Final Fantasy XIII, a story that, by and large, most people didn't like. I thought it was okay, but ultimately suffered from pacing problems as well having a hard time conveying information that should be thrust upon you in the first 4-5 hours, instead of at the halfway point. The story also had some questionable characters, well scratch that, most of them were questionable. The only good character that was understandable to a lot of people was Sazh, a father looking for his son who had become a L'Cie, or a slave to a God. After having his son turn to crystal in front of him for fulfilling his focus, Sazh has to wonder if he should carry on or not. He's ultimately the best the story has since it feels like he doesn't belong there.
The rest of the cast tries to find out what their mysterious focus is from the Gods that imprisoned them, but are dicks and won't help them. It ultimately boils down to 'save the world or become an evil monster.' But from there it's mostly terrible dialog that prevents most from caring about anyone since it just ends and still leaves you wondering why they spoiled the game's ending on the game's logo. It was ultimately a disappointing game, but left nothing undone and you felt closure at the end of it...until 2 years later when Square Enix decided that you needed more Final Fantasy with XIII-2, the sequel no one really wanted. The focus of the plot revolves around Serah, Lightning's sister, who gets magic anime clothes at the beginning, time travelling around with Noel, a boy who's from the end of the universe and stole MC Hammer's parachute pants. Needless to say, time travel was not handled well here. Instead of trying to have events that shape the past and future through gameplay events, the game's writer decided to go the Metal Gear Solid 4 route and have one single thing be the answer to everything. This game's answer to the Nanomachine is of course the Paradox.
I don't really think there's much more to be said than that, but there is. A villain, tied to Noel's past of course (or would it be future in this case, I'm not sure) is trying to kill the Goddess Etro and end all Paradoxes, which will coincidentally destroy the world. The premise isn't bad, but everything that goes on in it is terrible. The story and dialog are terrible, while the gameplay mechanics two steps forward but with one step back (focusing on multiple enemies, the leader dying doesn't equal game over and limited paradigm options), with a poorly optimized frame rate, in addition to loading times that are frequent and through the roof. While the game feels like a true episodic release given a lot of rehashed material such as character models and music, it still feels relatively cheap. I don't think the game's bad, but it definitely feels like Square has forgotten what made Final Fantasy great in the first place.
A story saved Square Enix. That story's name was Final Fantasy. A story is killing Square Enix. That story's name is Final Fantasy.
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