Final Fantasy is a franchise that I have grown up with in more ways than one. To the casual observer this is just an endless stream of JRPGs full of grinding, collecting crystals, and swirly graphics, but for those of us who grew up with the series from it's infancy it is so much more. One friend of mine actually learned how to read by playing the first Final Fantasy (so I wasn't kidding about the infancy thing).
Born out of a shared nerddom, Final Fantasy gave us all the things that we wanted and loved growing up. Magic, technology, ninjas, cute pets, funny songs, suggestive 8 bit dancers, Star Wars references, and most importantly both a feeling of being needed and a feeling of being loved. As a child, that came in the form of being an adult, banding with your friends to destroy a legendary evil (FF 1-5). As a teenager, that became the form of a teenager rebelling against an oppressive and evil father figure and a strong importance in love (FF 6-8). This time period got mixed in with Japan's own teenage years where the youth were rebelling against the government which caused their economic crisis of the nineties. In our twenties we craved nostalgia, care free fun, and the acceptance of those that we rebelled against before (FF 9-X2). Here is where I became lost in the world of Final Fantasy, because in FF 12 I was no longer the snot nosed kid seeking attention and adventure. Sure the game was fun, but I just never got into it because I couldn't relate to any of the characters (also I just couldn't figure out why that annoying brat was on the adventure in the first place...he didn't know anyone from the get go, he had no special power, he was just really annoying and no one had the guts to say "get lost kid").
Then came FF 13. Obviously the draw of insane graphics was the catalyst, but that can only keep me playing so long. The gameplay, while at first overly simplistic, became frenetic and fun in later levels. But the thing that really kept me going was the serious and matured relationships in the game. I could talk at length about all the levels of the different relationships, but that's not what this post is about, it's about how I myself relate, and the relationship that really struck me was that of the father who lost his son.
Father son relationships are not new territory for games, but the seriousness and focus that this game placed on that relationship was unexpected. More importantly, the effect that this section of the storyline had on me was shocking. I cried...many times...like a little girl... And I wondered why? Surely it can't be the story telling was better than other games, because the star crossed lovers barely plucked at my heart strings. It was then that I got the idea for this post and realized that not only had my priorities changed to protecting my children, but that Square Enix was growing up too and realized this. Even more impressively, they took advantage of the multiple characters and actually made all four time periods of Final Fantasy I mentioned above, plus one. With the cast of FF 13 we have the adult whose goal it is to destroy the legendary evil (Lightning), the youth rebelling and seeking his love (Snow), the happy go lucky seeking the approval after the wrongs of the past (Vanille and Fang), and now the father protecting his son (Sazh).
Writing this I am struggling to think if these concepts were presented in any of the previous games together, and while I think some elements were (Berret could be considered a father figure to some degree, and Zidane is a rebel), I don't think that all of these are presented as eloquently all to once. Now I can't say that FF 13 is my favorite of the series mainly because of the early weakness of the battle system and the painfully linear gameplay for the first half of the game, but I will say that it is one of the most cohesive, well paced, and interesting story lines of any Final Fantasy so far.
But where was my point? I think that FF 13 actually represents a rather interesting growth in the world of video games in that they not only recognize, but also embrase the fact that their gamer base from days of olde are now parents who still want to game (and have the disposable income to do so). Most other companies take the path of abusing nostalgia or collapsing game experiences into neat little downtime chunks so you can get back to taking care of your family quickly. Square Enix took a different path, and for that I love them even more.
BTW: the distinction of my favorite goes to a tie between FF 6 and FF 7.
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