Final Fantasy: Defining Classic, Why do fans like the older games better?
I think most of us are aware: many Final Fantasy Fans prefer the classic games over what's being released today. Typically looking at VI or VII as the gold standards the franchise should follow. But what made them better? "Deeper stories/characters" or "Better gameplay/designs" is entirely subjective and very vague. What made them more fun? What themes did they utilize in their writing then that's being ignored now? To answer this, I played through Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI in succession. Despite massive differences between the games, I still found a number of elements the three games share with each other. Some of these elements can also be found in Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger. This is just me looking at what the classics once did, and how modern entries ignored, misutilized, or on the rare occasion get right.
Also a disclaimer: This Marathon would mark my first playthroughs of each of these Final Fantasy's. I have virtually no nostalgia for this franchise.
PACING: Start linear, open later.
To various degrees, the SNES Final Fantasy's all told their stories in a linear fashion but will open up to the player sometime in the second half. The game tells you it's story first, then offers the player to explore its world. IV downplays this a bit by giving the player only a handful of sidequests, V offers a lot more to do, and VI goes nearly full open world. Chrono Trigger also provides the player with seven major sidequests after Zeal's destruction. What's important about these sidequests is that they are normally all offered to the player at the same time the last dungeon or even the final boss is accessible. These sidequests, narratively, will wrap up some story and character arcs while functionally giving them the tools to face the final boss with. However, this element is normally executed alongside...
ADVENTURE: Multiple world maps.
Did anyone else notice this trend in the SNES era? IV had an overworld, an underground, and the moon. V had two dimensions and a third map to explore when they merge. VI had the World of Balance and the World of Ruin. Finally, Chrono Trigger had multiple time periods to explore. I wouldn't say this is as important compared to the previous point, given that VII didn't do this. However, I believe this gives a game's world a sense of scale, arguably better than just offering a single huge map.
FFXV does have multiple world maps, but in it's progression uses it for the exact opposite execution compared to FFV's Merged World and and FFVI's World of Ruin. Whereas shortly after reaching the Merged World or World of Ruin, the game opens up. Once you leave the first world map towards Alyissia in FFXV, the open world closes off. This is also an element Bravely Default attempted but was kind of half-baked, with having multiple alternate dimensions but leaving little variations between them. WORLDBUILDING: Two major factions. Protagonist represents both.
Instead of providing convolution and introducing an unnecessary number of wars and ancient races, the social politics in the SNES Final Fantasy's are condensed into two major factions. They are metaphorically opposites, but not in morality. The main protagonist is normally a product of these two factions. Cecil is half Earthling and half Lunarian. Bartz father and mother each hailed from the opposite worlds. Terra is half human and half esper. And while not a protagonist, Aerith from FFVII was half human and half cetra. Their goal is to represent the potential unity of the two factions and potentially bridge the divide.
SETTING: Science Fantasy.
Even since Robots were included in FF1, the franchise enrooted itself into the Science Fantasy genre. 1, 2, 3, 9, 14 are High Fantasy first with a few sci-fi elements (if at all). However, XIII feels like a Sci-Fi with religious/fantasy elements shoehorned in while XV is an urban fantasy where the magic feels like an afterthought. IV, V, VI, Chrono Trigger, and VII had a balanced mix of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Some had more of one than the other, but they still had a healthy brew of both. From the Giant of Babil in the more fanciful IV to Espers in the more Steampunk-ish VI, both elements are major parts of the world. VILLIANS: Direct, but Memorable.
The SNES Final Fantasy titles loved to establish their villains as a threat to the player as early as possible and as effectively as possible. Cecil sensed corruption behind Baron's government before the game really started, Exdeath announces himself to the player before they even get to his world, and Kefka launches his magiteks at Edgar's castle less than an hour into the game. None of these villains are particularly deep, without any tear-jerking backstories trying to make them relatable. They are either evil for the sake of domination or destruction, yet they are memorable. Kefka is known for his Joker-like personality, Golbez and later Zeromus make their marks for their brute power and amazingly high vitality. Exdeath, who is arguably the most generic villain in the series, is memorable for his quirky concept alone... he's a freaking Tree. This can be seen as a flaw, but it can be a not-negative as well. Think of Disney villains. Back in the day, they were very much the same: simple but effective. Sometimes they even took more screen time than the main character. However, in the last decade the demand for more morally complex stories increased and Disney tried to follow. Giving more time to the protagonists, they had to reveal the villains much later into their stories. For the sake of keeping their movies the same length, they would often have a 'surprise villain' where pre-established characters announce themselves as evil shortly before the climax of the film. Unfortunately, immersion is lost when the villain has to completely change their persona when changing alliances. The best use of the 'surprise villain' trope is to make sure the personality isn't changed, but their threat to the protagonist increases. See Beauty and the Beast with Gaston, or Final Fantasy VI with Kefka. DUNGEONS: Gimmicky and Varried.
Final Fantasy XIII is often coined as 'Final Hallway XIII' as a knock on its linear level design. Unfortunately, older Final Fantasy dungeons are also very linear. However, the difference between a good dungeon and a bad dungeon isn't about how open it is, but how interesting it is to explore. A hallway filled with contraptions is more fun than an empty hallway, which I think is where the problem truly lies. It's not every dungeon, but older Final Fantasy games will sometimes throw an unpredictable oddball gimmick at the player to keep the journey interesting. IV had the Magnetic Cave, where no metal equipment could be used. V had a plenty of gimmicks like an underwater dungeon where time is limited, a mechanical ship that you travel using it's air vents, or a Pyramid with multiple gimmicks like moving sand, one-way doors, spikes, or windows where snakes jump out. VI had a river that you travel using a raft, a haunted train that allows for a lot of random events, and an abandoned mansion with living paintings. Dungeons could have more purpose than just a hallway to the boss. They utilized their themes to make exploring them more interesting, you can't just take one dungeon and skin it into a different theme, because the theme is rooted in the dungeon's design. This applies more to V and VI than it does IV. And I'll be honest, this is why the infiltration missions in XV stood out to me, since they were more than just dungeons both narratively and mechanically.
CONCLUSION Effective, easy to follow, and memorable. The increasing technology has Square Enix focusing more on technical and graphical impressments, or unnecessary depth to the gameplay and story. Obviously, a game is more than a checklist. There's probably a game that has all of this checkmarked, but failed in execution. That said, hopefully this essay can be used to understand what players want when they say the Final Fantasy franchise should return to it's golden-age roots.
Image Sources: Screenshots and promotional material from Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, VII, XV and Chrono Trigger. I don't have a capturing device yet, so I claim no ownship over these images.
