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36 in 36: A Not-So-Final Final Fantasy Retrospective

Hey Choco-bros and Moo-gals to a list celebrating the 35th anniversary of what was famously Squaresoft's last-ditch effort to keep Sakaguchi and co. from knifing strangers for cash like a pack of destitute Tonberries. After saving the company (or at least giving it a stay of execution for a few decades before it got really into NFTs for some reason) Final Fantasy has gone on to enjoy many sequels and spin-offs and even if playing thirty-five games from the same franchise sounds like an absurd number it just so happens to be the exact amount that I've spent any considerable time with. Hell, and these are just some of the ones that got localized.

For each game I've attempted to narrow down what it was they introduced to the franchise or otherwise did to set themselves apart, followed by whatever memories I could pull from the ongoing degradation of my mental faculties. (I'm just kidding around! I'm still as sharp as a... uh, one of those umm... hmmmm... oh. Oh no.)

The plan, though not one I'm particularly committed to, is to keep updating this list with another Final Fantasy game each time the anniversary rolls around. Future candidates include the promising Final Fantasy XVI and the latest in the always reliable rhythm series Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line. (There's a few other older possibilities too, such as the mobile/3DS picross game Pictlogica and Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates.)

List items

  • December 1987

    Significant For: Starting the whole shebang.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I got here late, playing the Dawn of Souls remake for GBA, but I guess what sticks out most is that Final Fantasy was still in the mindset of being a Wizardry pastiche with an entirely player-created party of no-name jobbers. The franchise would eventually return to voiceless cipher characters but not for many, many more years.

  • December 1988

    Significant For: Heavier characterization and a level-up system based on actions performed rather than arbitrary XP milestones.

    A Mento Memory Memento: It's the game where you smack yourselves in the shins for hours to increase your defense. This was also the closest the series got to a graphic adventure game, using keywords to further conversations and finding smart ways around fighting unbeatable odds. It's the only mainline non-MMO FF I couldn't bring myself to finish but maybe I'll give it another whack someday. My shin, I mean.

  • December 1989

    Significant For: Starting the divisive SaGa franchise.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Not technically a Final Fantasy game but was branded as one overseas so I'm counting it. I appreciated that they got weird with the first GB spin-off: your party consisted of mutants, robots, and monsters along with humans and each race had a different development system for character growth. SaGa wouldn't get any less strange from there either, though I'd argue it didn't get any more playable either.

  • April 1990

    Significant For: The Job system.

    A Mento Memory Memento: This is another one I played after the fact, with the much more accommodating 3D remake for DS. Having those versatile class-switching mechanics was such a coup for the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole for the many different ways you could tackle the game's encounters but having to constantly switch over to the right mage class to shrink everyone to access certain towns and dungeons really got old.

  • June 1991

    Significant For: Starting the less-divisive Mana franchise.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Also technically not a Final Fantasy but also was branded one overseas so I'm also counting it, also. Seiken Densetsu 1, or Secret of Mana 0, or Trials of Mana -1, was a pretty deep action-RPG kinda doing the Zelda exploration and dungeon puzzles thing on top of that. It was an impressive package for a GB game. Thankfully, you no longer need to stare at a tiny lime screen to play it these days: it's part of that recent Mana compilation.

  • July 1991

    Significant For: Considerably more confident story-telling and characterization. Moon shit.

    A Mento Memory Memento: This was the first FF I really fell in love with, if not the first SNES RPG I played, and I recall getting floored by the dramatic deaths of certain characters throughout the story. I also remember adoring its soundtrack: a common strength in FF games to come. I also want to say that III had summons but IV was when they started personalizing them all, with you having to negotiate with them for help.

  • October 1992

    Significant For: Being the first FF game built specifically for westerners. Dumb westerners.

    A Mento Memory Memento: My actual first Final Fantasy game, as it was the first to be released in Europe. Very simple genre-onboarding type that had a bunch of ways to cheese it if you were really impatient. Presentation was still good though—the silly monster designs really lent the game the lion's share of its easygoing personality—and I'll go to my grave saying it has the best soundtrack of any SNES Final Fantasy.

  • December 1992

    Significant For: The Job system. Only better now.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Like the rest of the western world at the time, I only encountered this one thanks to a booming emulation and fan-translation scene. The stories are becoming a little more out-there now—Alternative dimensions? Werewolves? Evil tree gods?—but that's part of this game's off-beat charm. These days the game is regularly run as part of a charity event that randomizes which jobs you're able to use, so it has a remarkable shelf life for a game Square didn't originally bother to localize.

  • April 1994

    Significant For: The ambition of its scope and that mid-game twist.

    A Mento Memory Memento: It took three attempts to finally beat VI because each time I underestimated just how massive this game is, and how it turns into this big open-world thing with lots of threads to pursue after the mid-point. They really stretched what the SNES could handle to its absolute limits. A 16-bit technical showcase in addition to being one of the best FF narratives (and ensembles) in the series. I also vividly recall spending way too long learning new monster techniques with Gau in the Veldt and then barely using any of them.

  • January 1997

    Significant For: The jump to 3D and finding mainstream appeal, if only temporarily.

    A Mento Memory Memento: It took a while for me to get into Sony's ecosystem, so I first played this on PC instead. I don't recall the keyboard and mouse control scheme to be the most intuitive thing ever conceived but the game carried this popular mystique around it at the time that really made you want to play it and take copious notes about the lore. They weren't kidding about it taking things to the next level: it did for console RPGs what Super Mario 64 did for platformers.

  • June 1997

    Significant For: An incredibly elaborate character development system and narrative both.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Still my favorite Final Fantasy game of all time. The tactical depth of its combat engine, tempered by its Tactics Ogre origins and enhanced by the adaptable Job system, made it the gold standard that no other tactical RPG has yet to meet since. Knocking someone off a cliff with a charge move into a pool of water and then zapping the water with Bolt magic for extra damage is the kind of environmental trickery most strategy RPGs are ill-equipped to handle short of something like a Divinity: Original Sin.

  • February 1999

    Significant For: The plot. Or the losing thereof.

    A Mento Memory Memento: For all its faults, VIII might be the most memorable game in the series. I can recall almost every story beat just because how odd an authorial choice half of them were. It's honestly not even the most narratively bizarre Final Fantasy either (that would be Lightning Returns), it's just got this very eccentric personality that continues to endear it to many from its script, its direction, its sequence of events, a nonpareil soundtrack, that super addictive card game, and the draw system with the many ways it can be exploited. A game where enemies drop no money, gaining levels can actually screw you over, and if you need to buy something you have to ace a multiple choice exam first before your floating highschool with an alien overlord in its basement will spot you the cash.

  • July 2000

    Significant For: Somehow being even more "Squaresoft Does Disney" than Kingdom Hearts.

    A Mento Memory Memento: IX is pretty delightful overall but beyond that great system where you learn new skills from using weapons and armor there's not much about it that really stands out. I think the writers did rediscover the franchise's humanity a little after VIII—in the sense that you can understand any character's motivation in IX—but its reputation as this shrinking violet entry is well earned. Even so, it's still well appreciated by a select few who consider it the best. Gotta admit, I don't there's been a Final Fantasy character as sympathetic as poor little Vivi.

  • July 2001

    Significant For: Revitalizing the old ATB combat system, the hugely involved and versatile Sphere Grid, and giving itself a tail a mile long.

    A Mento Memory Memento: So when I say tail I mean this game can keep going and going in the end-/post-game, what with all the monsters to hunt and superbosses to take on. That's not even including those ultimate weapon challenges, which range from unpleasant to nightmarish. If you just play the game like a normal person, though, it's super accessible and maybe still the best for introducing new people to the franchise with its relatable tale of the dangers of religious dogma, having to live up to impossible expectations, and spiking volleyballs at Godzilla.

  • February 2003

    Significant For: Adding several new layers to the Tactics formula, almost none of which work.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I realized I expected too much of a portable rendition of FFT (though, amusingly, the version of FFT people are most familiar with now is probably the PSP remaster) but FFTA really rubbed me the wrong way with its restrictive rules—potentially making once indispensible members of your party completely useless—and an isekai story that dithers on whether or not this world is real and if certain characters are justified in burning it all down for their selfish desires. It's also just a shadow of the mechanical complexity of FFT, but given the limited space on a GBA cart I can understand (but not accept) why.

  • March 2003

    Significant For: Dresspheres and J-Pop mostly. In a more meta sense, SE breaking the seal on doing FF sequels due to financial necessity.

    A Mento Memory Memento: This felt like a DLC campaign before I knew what DLC was, reusing much of the original game's assets with a disjointed story that attempts to tie up FFX's loose threads while creating many more besides. I did appreciate the return to ATB combat and that math-based coin mini-game sure was an interesting concept, and going fully shoujo genre with FF was a bold decision worthy of merit to some degree. I'm not sure many women preferred this sequel over the original per se, given there's very little Auron in this one, but maybe they still appreciated the effort to make a fully female-led entry.

  • August 2003

    Significant For: Introducing local multiplayer to what was a staunchly single-player-only franchise (MMOs notwithstanding).

    A Mento Memory Memento: Being the recluse I am, I played through this whole game solo and, to be fair, not having to make someone be the designated bucket-holder does alleviate any guilt I might've otherwise had. I distinctly recall how much the game was built for replays: each level had something like three rewards, each permanently increasing stats, so having the option to return to an earlier level for the gains to handle the harder, later ones made some amount of sense. I also remember it being darn cute.

  • March 2006

    Significant For: An immense open-world structure that immediately threatens to sideline the story.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I had a great time with XII and is probably the last FF game in the five-star territory for the ways it smartly wraps in a lot of MMORPG tech the developers picked up from their time developing FFXI while cutting much of the overly grindy chaff those subscription-based games necessarily have to deal in to keep players hooked. Story's a bit all over the place beyond its shameless riffing on Star Wars and the disputation around who actually counts as the protagonist is a bit weird (I'm a Never-Vaan myself), but that massive world to explore with so many little dead-ends and optional zones really blazed a trail for the likes of Xenoblade and Elden Ring to follow.

  • December 2006

    Significant For: Being a FF game built specifically for kids, getting them hooked on chocobos while they're still young.

    A Mento Memory Memento: What little I can recall from my time with Chocobo Tales is how ADD-addled it felt, introducing and then quickly moving past a different dozen mini-games and micro-games with a foundational card game battle system just about holding everything else up. It did seem like a game perfectly suited for a portable device: I've not been a big fan of RPGs on portable platforms because they're a genre I want to sink into and immerse myself in for many hours at a time, and a tiny screen and a system that hurts your hands to hold for too long is hardly conducive to that approach, but Chocobo Tales found that right balance of short-term and long-term objectives to make it work.

  • April 2007

    Significant For: Finally introducing RTS to the FF franchise, long after its more patient TBS brother.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I wanted to check out this FFXII sequel because I was still interested in that world and the characters, but I'll admit to bouncing off Revenant Wings after a few hours due to the stress I always feel with any RTS game that demands a lot of simultaneous plate-spinning and a near-omniscient situational awareness of the playing field. Since the story mostly revolves around Vaan and Penelo—easily the two least compelling FFXII characters—I wasn't too torn up over not seeing it through to its conclusion.

  • September 2007

    Significant For: Being a prequel that fills in a few FFVII-related gaps while working towards figuring out the strengths of the portable format.

    A Mento Memory Memento: The Zack Fair game always had this Buster Sword of Damocles hanging over it, since you knew how it was going to end due to how significant that event is to FFVII and to Cloud's development specifically, so it's curious how the writers worked their way to that pivotal moment and gave us a clearer sense of who Zack was and his motivations, making that foregone conclusion all the more painful to face. The combat, too, followed the lessons of Chocobo Tales and FFTA by being mission-based, ideal for the smaller sessions that befit a portable system and the way people play them (say, during the commute on the morning train or over a lunch break or recess). The Gackt character remains a total mystery: both what his plans are and why he's there at all, besides the stunt casting for extra clout.

  • October 2007

    Significant For: Being a mild improvement over its predecessor at the cost of being less memorable, an issue a lot of sequels to divisive games tend to encounter.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I remember the utter relief in not having to worry about law cards or the endless bounty mission structure, but truth be told this DS sequel didn't leave a very strong impression overall. Pretty sure I liked it though, if that's any consolation.

  • March 2008

    Significant For: Embracing the new "downable game" market with a gameplay-light yet oddly compelling "tactical delegation" simulator.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I really grew attached to the idea of being the NPC King directing the erstwhile playable heroes to their next destinations, using the gains from their progress to enhance your kingdom, hire and train more adventurer types, and consider the safety and well-being of those in your employ. I've found I'm really into any fantasy RPG that puts you in a role normally occupied by the CPU, whether that's the blacksmith, the innkeeper, the merchant, the King, or what have you. Neat idea and well-executed, if a little limited due to its tiny downloadable game nature.

  • December 2008

    Significant For: Trying to get in on this crossover fighter business in a way that made sense for Final Fantasy and its recurring mechanics, and almost succeeding.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Remember when SE made a Final Fantasy Super Smash Bros. but gave it a really awkward combat system where you had to alternate two different types of damage for some reason? And it kinda didn't work? And then made like another three sequels anyway? I do, vaguely. I always wished I liked the core combat more in this because the crossover narrative and franchise lore collectathon stuff is the kind of shit I'm into.

  • January 2009

    Significant For: Balancing a traditional single-player narrative with the Crystal Chronicles multiplayer format.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I only beat this game recently so it's still fresh in the memory, and as someone who grew up on isometric action-puzzle games I clicked with its format almost immediately. It can be a little uneven in spots, especially with its difficulty and some annoying puzzle formats (like using water to douse fires, since it can be hard to accurately aim in isometric view) but I imagine it'd be some chaotic fun with a team working together to solve those puzzles and fight bosses efficiently.

  • October 2009

    Significant For: Giving the team who worked their asses off to make FF3 palatable for modern audiences their own Final Fantasy game for all the ideas they didn't get to use.

    A Mento Memory Memento: The 4 Heroes of Light definitely feels like the figurative special cake Marge baked for Homer to ruin in order to spare the real one for Maggie's birthday, in that so many of its hit-or-miss concepts probably wouldn't have worked for the FF3 remake. It's an otherwise very similar game that does some harsh inventory limiting and has a heavier emphasis on elemental superiority and equipment micromanagement. It's compelling (and tough) in its own way, but the busywork its unique mechanics introduce can make it a bit of a slog (and its boring maze dungeon designs don't much help either).

  • November 2009

    Significant For: A very different tone—more like a comedic madcap adventure—and a whole lot of physics puzzles.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I should give Crystal Bearers another shot. I made a lot of progress before finally ditching it after I got completely lost with it, but it's a game built for moments more than a contiguous plot that's easy to follow. Like Chocobo Tales it feels like a series of mini-games and funny ideas the developers had barely held together by an overarching plot. Definitely very unlike any other FF game out there, and one that really suited the Wii's offbeat personality.

  • December 2009

    Significant For: Proving that the mainline FF games could have the biggest budgets in the world and still fall flat.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Like many, I was put off by several of the decisions FFXIII put into its story and characterization, keeping the cast separated for almost the entire run as they went off on their own little adventures of varying quality. Then you have The Tube—the incredibly restrictive railroaded progression of the game, in stark contrast to the vast openness of XII and XI—and it felt so much like you were going through the motions rather than finding your own fun. It is saved somewhat by a really slick combat engine employing "paradigms"—instant mid-battle class changes for the whole party to befit certain stages of a fight, like going all Healers right after a big damaging boss attack—and a typically great soundtrack.

  • October 2011

    Significant For: Providing console players a glimpse into the chaotic nonsense that are the mobile FF games.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Rapidly introducing fourteen playable characters named for playing card numbers and very little else afforded by way of character development, and then dropping them into a war story that quickly falls off the rails made for a very bewildering time. Like Crisis Core it goes for a mildly repetitive mission structure ideal for shorter bursts. Really all I can focus on is the bizarre, apocalyptic, self-sacrificing way the game comes to an end.

  • December 2011

    Significant For: Bringing back stories based on convoluted time-travel paradoxes—which were there from the very beginning—in a major way.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Abandoning the cast of FFXIII to focus on a quickly side-lined secondary character and a new hero from the end of time is only the first of many curious decisions that went into this XIII sequel, but I'll have to admit to finding this game fascinating beyond those reasons alone. Jumping around in time solving paradoxes and finding all sorts of ways the world of XIII might change in the future was an exercise in meta tomfoolery which struck me as particularly ambitious and daring at the time, in part because so little of the prior worldbuilding is treated as sacrosanct. It's taking something that wasn't quite working out and going completely wild with it, and I have to respect that moxie from a developer and franchise that wouldn't normally go for such a risk with something so high budget.

  • February 2012

    Significant For: FF finding its own way to respect its musical legacy with a rhythm game custom-built to embody the franchise's strengths.

    A Mento Memory Memento: The original Theatrhythm was quickly supplanted by its more fully-featured sequel, but I recall at the time that I admired how the developers figured out how to make a rhythm game work within a very Final Fantasy framework of random battles and cutscenes. It also does some of the crossover collectathon stuff that Dissidia tried out, and I appreciated that I could stick to the tracks and games and characters that mattered most to me personally.

  • November 2013

    Significant For: If XIII-2 subverted the continuity of that setting, XIII-3 completely deconstructs it. Honestly the most out-there FF-related game I've ever played, and that includes VIII.

    A Mento Memory Memento: The benefit to making a truly bizarre sequel that throws out the baby with the bathwater is that I keenly recall huge swathes of this thing, from the way you can freeze the clock to complete time-sensitive objectives to making monster species extinct by fighting them too often to really everything about a story that turns Lightning into the second coming of Jesus leading the rapture for a world where reality itself is on the brink of structural annihilation that's full of bored immortals not unlike those of Zardoz. It had the same atmosphere as a MMO days before the servers were due to be shut down forever, and everyone's just spending that time reliving their favorite old memories and dungeon instances or putting out deckchairs to have front row seats to the end of everything. Such a strange vibe and a strange game, but rad all the same and a fine way to honor those that stuck with the XIII continuity for so long. (The soundtrack's really good too, especially "Death Game".)

  • April 2014

    Significant For: Being a bigger and bolder sequel that more accurately nails the objective they were going for with a FF rhythm game.

    A Mento Memory Memento: I tend to fall off rhythm games fast because the higher levels require a level of dedication and reflexes that are beyond me, yet Theatrhythm Curtain Call has enough going on in the wings that I was motivated to keep chasing better results whether because it meant increasing the levels of my preferred party members or unlocking new songs or characters or what have you. I exhausted almost all the content in this game because I just couldn't put it down (though I wish so many of the tracks weren't locked behind DLC).

  • October 2016

    Significant For: Being a more lighthearted crossover that turns everyone into Funko Pops.

    A Mento Memory Memento: The thing that struck me the most with this game, to the extent that I wrote a multi-part blog about it, is how it created a setting that could accommodate Final Fantasy heroes from many disparate games into the same continuity while retaining the personalities and traits and even major character moments they're known for. I think it could've been way more fan-servicey overall with more obscure lore drops given the huge amount of history to invoke, and the combat seemed a bit too deliberately simplistic to be all that exciting, but overall not a bad result for what I imagine was a very difficult juggling act.

  • November 2016

    Significant For: Reaching the end of a very cursed development cycle and just about succeeding as a mainline entry.

    A Mento Memory Memento: Sadly, though I did enjoy the first half of the game where it's just you and the boys bro-ing out and doing missions across an open-world setting, most of what I remember about XV relates to its biggest issues. That is, a thoroughly busted sense of pace and a story that seems either incomplete on purpose so they could sell you DLC and multimedia spin-offs to fill the gaps or by accident because the company ran out of time, money, and patience given how long this thing spent in development hell. That we got anything half-decent out of all that is a minor miracle, but Square Enix really screwed the pooch with their mismanagement. With FFXVI in safer hands, and XV now serving as a cautionary tale, I've confidence they won't botch things quite as hard next time.

  • March 2022

    Significant For: Having Final Fantasy embrace the game structure of their current biggest rival, FromSoftware's "Soulsverse", via Team Ninja and its experience with making similar games under the Nioh brand. Most recent FF games tend to be of a more action bent already, but this was the first attempt to deliberately make a game in that Souls house style.

    A Mento Memory Memento: For as flawed and in a hurry as this game regularly felt, and your feelings on the meta edgelord antics of Jack and his crew of generic bros (and, later, ladies) aside, Stranger of Paradise is actually a great deal of fun. It dispenses with the usual high difficulty curve of Souls, though with a few tricky bosses and situations here and there, by instead letting you go off on a power trip with its copious loot and Job systems to exploit. In that sense, it's much like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night in that you can absolutely break it apart with enough gumption and have a blast while doing so. Maybe my favorite spin-off after Tactics and the Theatrhythms?
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