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Reading the latest news regarding Squenix's next major release FFXII, I felt an acute sense of foreboding as the release date keeps drawing nearer. Suddenly, I'm no longer excited about the prospect of gaming through yet another Final Fantasy RPG.
GASP! The Horror!!
As anyone who frequents RPGamer should know, FFXII is decidedly different from its predecessors (FFXI not included for obvious reasons). Squenix has boldly decided to adopt Vagrant Story's Real Time Battle esque system, turning their latest cash cow into a Zelda style adventure. Hey I'm not complaining, Kingdom Hearts brought me hours of guiltless fun and Link proved over a decade ago that RTB systems made for awesome games.
I guess this editorial touches on the more for lack of a better word, emotional side of gaming. I'm fairly sure FFXII will end up as another blockbuster platinum selling hit and no doubt I'll eventually buy my own copy except this time, I'll just be playing a generic Real Time RPG that happens to be good. Gone are the times when I gleefully popped in the latest FF cart/disc and spent the next dozen hours glued to the tube.
The change in FFXII's gameplay will dilute my FF role playing experience. Note this has absolutely nothing to do with how good the game actually is. While I accept gameplay tweaks and RTB systems, I would have preferred if Squenix left their main franchise alone instead of tweaking it beyond what is recognizable of an FF game.
Of course there will be multitudes of people disagreeing with such a statement and I fully understand that Squenix needs to keep innovating their games to ensure the majority of their fans are happy to keep donating cash into their bottomless coffers. But ignoring the usual aspects how people rate their RPGs (plot, characters, gameplay), I played Final Fantasy because it was a simple affair. A menu pops up, I choose my action, and the sequence plays out. There are hundreds of other worthy RPGs out there but the reason I haven't tried all of them other than the lack of time is because those games had some twist to their battling formula that made battles a slightly complicated affair. Its great for gamers everywhere as they provided much needed variety in RPGs. When I wanted something different from Final Fantasy, I turned to Xenogears & Suikoden and whiled away hundreds of hours of my life. And when I yearned for simpler menu interfaces again, there was always Final Fantasy.
I fully support Squenix for coming up with new ways for gamers to experience their games but I had hoped their new innovative games would fall under other naming conventions. Kingdom Hearts could well have been called Final Fantasy: Disney vs. Square or even FF10.5 and it would have still been a great game but it would have meant KH would have been an 'official' FF game. It wouldn't have a simple menu system that I could fall back on whenever I wanted a simple RPG experience. While FFXI is a great game in its own right, it plays so fundamentally differently from its predecessors that I kept asking myself why they didn't name it FFOnline instead? Hordes of people would still sign up and profits wouldn't take a dip. And I would have been content with the fact that when the next officially numbered Final Fantasy came around, I could count on playing an RPG the way I was accustomed to.
I can't speak for everyone but I know for a fact that people generally dislike change. Change represents progress, but it usually involves people having to change a fundamental part of their lifestyle. People develop a comfort zone and relinquish within that area, knowing that when change occurs, they still have their comfort zone to fall back on. Change is good, but it has to be gradual, giving people an option to fall back on if the change isn't welcomed immediately. If a developer produced RPGs with consistent fantasy themes throughout their franchise that got you hooked and suddenly adopted a futuristic setting in their next game, sure fans would still play and enjoy it as a game but if the developer consistently adopted futuristic plots, where does one turn to for a fantasy themed fix and what if no other developers create RPGs with fantasy themes? Force yourself to like futuristic settings? That's harsh.
I can no longer convince myself that in the multitude of RPGs available, I can always fall back on Final Fantasy for a good round of simple classic RPGaming. I will continue playing RPGs of all sorts, enjoying them for what they're worth and ultimately feeling satisfied. But once the 'refreshing change of pace' wears off, and I yearn once again for something familiar, there'd be nowhere left to turn other than back to the older games unless Squenix or some other developer makes another RPG that uses that same gameplay system that got me hooked on RPGs in the first place. Even the most open minded objective RPGamers out there will have a special affinity for something particular, and will rue the day when all developers cease to make RPGs with an element of that special something.
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