So what IS Final Fantasy?
Put simply, a decades-old franchise spanning myriad universes (albeit with a few common threads along the way) with multiple characters doing their best to triumph over evil (which usually takes the form of an empire). Best known for its focus on storytelling and - as the series progressed - beautiful graphics. Every title brings something new to the series, whether that be via the consistently changed-up battle system, the overall tone and mood, or just how cute the chocobos are.
What follows is a very simple overview of the various titles. Clicking on the capitalised title will bring you (where there are links) to a better, more in-depth review of the game in question, once I get around to refreshing my memory and writing them.
Please note all entries on this page will contain light to moderate spoilers, as well as attempts at being funny, and a few too many swear words.
FINAL FANTASY (1987)
the fantasy... is final
Well, well, well...
- 4 mysterious warriors of light appear in a kingdom where the princess has been kidnapped.
- the final boss is defeated within 15 minutes and our objective is complete!
- except it's not, because the big bad was so pissed about being dead that he went back in time to kill you before you killed him.
- only a handful of jobs appear, archetypal of traditional tabletop games.b
- white mages use fucking HAMMERS as weapons, which remains the coolest thing they've ever had.
- ported over the years to multiple systems (sometimes featuring a fancy upgrade, sometimes not), including the PlayStation, GBA, and mobile systems.
- White Mages use fucking HAMMERS as weapons. Bring back THAT fashion accessory.
- later got something of a reimagining as Stranger of Paradise, considered the Dark Souls of Final Fantasy, which sure is a statement that I (and multiple others before me) have typed
- despite being the original title, it's missing a few key elements that get added in later. There's no chocobos, no cactuars, no moogles. Just you and your homies against the world.
- also the shop music fucks supremely.
FINAL FANTASY II (1988, 2004)
the fnatasy... happens again
And you didn't tell us this earlier why?
- a group of kids escape their village from being razed to the ground and join a resistance faction in opposition to the Evil Empire.
- we follow these kids as they work to put an end to the Emperor and his legions of hellspawn.
- The Evil Empire will be a standard from hereon out.
- introduces a variety of temporary characters, all with their own unique identities.
- the main cast can be levelled up as you see fit.
- Hating on FFII's levelling system is a rite of passage.
- also got a variety of ports and remasters. in the GBA port, an additional story was introduced which follows dead characters along their second journeys in heaven and hell.
FINAL FANTASY III (1990, 2006)
The One The West Didn't Get
Arc is raptured while the rest of the party is unimpressed, colourised (2006)
- a JP-only release until the DS remake, when it was translated for the first time into English.
- we need a return to roots around here! Back to the original drawing board!
- a group of 4 children share in crystal-born powers and leave their tiny village to find the rest of the world is smothered in darkness.
- by helping out, they slowly restore the light, until they're able to finally banish the source of all evil: a cloud
- zero save states in dungeons and limited phoenix downs, the last title to keep you from saving inside towns and punishing you for dying.
- introduces Even More Jobs, including brand new styles of fighting, and upgraded classic jobs.
- white mages get Even Better with the addition of cat-ear hoods.
FINAL FANTASY IV (1991, 2007)
20+ ports, remakes and remasters just isn't enough
Oh, Golbez. Never change.
- we're really starting to codify some tropes now! We've found our groove and we're sticking with it!
- over the years, IV has received well in excess of 20 ports, remakes and remasters. The most notable of these was the DS remake in the same style as III, which turned everyone chibi.
- it's hard to be truly sorry about the war crimes when your main guy is just so pinchably cute.
- we feel bad about doing being naughty and have an attack of the conscience, so we try and make everything right again.
- making everything right includes being told to climb a mountain and come back prettier than ever.
- fuck this, let's get in a mechanical whale and go to the moon!
- turns out a moonman has been blasting the earth with Fuck You vibes for years, which makes people do Bad Things. We get to go to the moon in a mechanical whale and cleanse the place with some sage. And swords.
- and then the moon flies away to save everyone from further woe.
FINAL FANTASY IV: The After Years (2008)
the sequel no one really asked for
Of course you have blue hair and pronouns.
- 17 years in both real time and game time, the world is once again under attack!
- originally released as an episodic mobile game. Later released in its entirety and remade in the same chibi style as IV's remake for the DS.
- after the events of IV, everyone went off to live their lives. We now follow the next generation, the son of Cecil.
- a new moon appears. This will affect the trout population.
- All our friends are heads of state, so don't worry about what that means insofaras ruling the world. Don't worry about it! We're not the baddies anymore!
- Probably! the moon coming back brought with it a new lunarian menace, which includes young girls and moon meteors.
- golbez gets his fat tits out the entire time, which is 100% integral to the plot.
FINAL FANTASY V (1992)
enough expository banter - for me, it's loose plot overview time!
If maidenless behaviour was a job, Bartz would be the first Elden Lord about it.
- considered one of, if not the foremost, humourous entry in the series for its early-game goofs and iconic lines.
- the main party consists of a wanderer and his pet chicken, a princess, a pirate, and Luke, I Knew Your Father.
- the ultimate evil this time masquerades as a tree, with nihilism as its core concept.
- once again, the world's crystals are weakening and the world with it. Blessed with crystal power, we're able to attempt to fix this. It goes disastrously.
- the Crystals that govern the world's energy have been weakening and are being destroyed, so we go investigating. We don't do a very good job of it, all things considered.
- we unlock ultimate sealed weapons, defeat a bunch of demons, and go into a void rift to put some weedkiller down and get things back to normal.
FINAL FANTASY VI (1994)
suplex THIS
Can you imagine if you had to do this every day?
- gave us the first (kinda) (sorta) (maybe) female lead in Terra, who became the MC rep in a way that Locke never really did. Later realised fully by Dissidia and cemented her in this position.
- A Long Time Ago In A Galaxy Far Far Away - wait, wrong franchise. We start doing a War Crime that goes wrong, and promptly start fighting against evil in the name of good.
- another game, another Evil Empire. This one features steampunk aesthetics and is headed by the Insane Clown Posse.
- this world's resistance contains such members as "a military general is forced into opera", "guy who kept his dead girlfriend's body on ice for years" and "the twin of a king (who owns a castle that can go underground) who put himself in exile after losing a rigged bet"
- the laws of physics are subject to a little wobbling, which goes about as well as you might expect.
- once we've gathered up the scattered remnants of our friends in the dying world, we ascend a tower to fight god.
- oh shit, here we go with the beginning of the Really Truly Epic Final Boss Themes, featuring multiple parts (but sadly, no Latin chanting) for multiple boss stages.
FINAL FANTASY VII (1997)
oh shit the shareholders are gonna suck our cocks for this one
You're laughing. Palmer just got hit by a truck and you're laughing.
- finally having moved away from earlier consoles, we can now do wild things like have MULTIPLE DISCS and FULLY 3D FMVS seamlessly integrated with regular gameplay
- the first truly "modern" setting, which changes the Evil Empire into an Evil Globocorp, and us resistance members into an ecoterrorism group.
- featuring such iconic hits as "bullied into crossdressing to get into the sex palace of the local mob boss", "there's an alien with no head and a whole eyeball in its titty", and "fifty thousand hours lost to the chocobo square"
- skeletons in our closet force us to migrate north and then take a long nap in The Soup.
- blowing up a giant incoming meteor with nukes does not work (surprising nobody at all). Giant railguns ARE, however, effective against eldritch beings.
- the world is saved with a truly open-to-interpretation ending: we may never know if humanity perseveres after everything. Maybe we truly were the monsters all along, and with our death the planet might finally know peace. Nature reclaims all and leaves one with a sense of understanding, melancholy, and serenity.
- psyche this cash cow was so popular they made it give birth and then milked the calf dry, too
CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII (2007, 2022)
oh, you thought we were done?
It's the obvious answer.
- follows the most minor of NPCs from the original game from humble beginnings to tragic downfall.
- ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE
- introduces more characters on Globocorp's side of things (and muddies the waters a little regarding the original timeline and actual occurrences), and reintroduces some familiar faces
- retroactively gives the famous Sephiroth friends: the original owner of the Buster Sword, and a theatre nerd.
- what if we held hands and Goblin Punched Minerva in the crystal caverns?
- Hey... would you say... I became a hero? one million tears shed forever and ever
- remakestered between the release of Remake and Rebirth for modern systems with fancy new graphics and an updated voice cast. I'm sure this refresher being put out at this exact time means nothing at all.
DIRGE OF CERBERUS: FINAL FANTASY VII (2006)
oh, you thought we were done?
Not... really?
- set 3 years after the original game, and 1 year after the film (oh, you thought this franchise was game only?), we now assume the role of Vincent "vampire" Valentine in an over-the-shoulder shoot-'em-up.
- Globocorp is revealed to have always had an underground bunker filled with supersoldiers, which is now my problem. All of these people are certifiably insane and want to end the world again.
- we did our damndest to stop that from happening before, so let's do it all over again! While angsting over our ancient love life.
- we turn into a giant fucking bat and stop a light show from happening. The end.
- Not to be content with his role as Genesis, Gackt also does the credits song. It's kinda baller a bit.
BEFORE CRISIS: FINAL FANTASY VII (2004)
oh, you thought we were done?
"You are without doubt the worst Turks I've ever heard of." "But you have heard of us!"
- Japan-only mobile game, never to be released to the West, until...
- not to be content with playing as the baddies in Crisis Core, this time we assume the role of a Secret Service member. Pick your favourite weapon or portrait and go stop those pesky ecoterrorists!
- once upon a time, a cute girl had magic put into her, which is later taken out of her and turns into something truly untranslatable from early noughties mobile graphics to text.
- as with Crisis Core, familiar faces return aplenty in a somewhat episodic nature.
- marries its own lore with both the original timeline and the events of Crisis Core to create a behemoth truly so terrifying to sit down and map out.
- but so as not to muddy the waters too much, everyone disappears at the end (but is totally there helping by the time the original credits roll, promise!)
FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS (2023)
OH, YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE?
Yeah, and I want to be a millionaire.
- a mobile gacha game ported to Steam with chibi overworld models and fully rendered (in the manner of Remake) battle models.
- you know what gacha means: cute new outfits!
- Episodically released chapters supposed to cover all prior released titles in the Compilation (including, incredibly, Advent Children). At time of writing, only a few chapters of the original story, Crisis Core, and First Soldier have been released.
- bro I am not giving FS its own category. Suffice to say it was the prior mobage that didn't even last a full year before being EOS'd and shut down for good, which just bodes so well for this title, doesn't it?
- FS follows the story of a younger Sephiroth and his rise to fame during the conflict with Wutai, and his connections with other Soldier members Glenn, Matt, and Lucia.
- these new Soldiers are named after food items. You have no idea how much I wish that wasn't true.
FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (2020)
there ain't no gettin' offa this train we on
SOLDIER boys make do.
- "haha we might remake ff7" "nah we won't it'd be too expensive" "lest?" "nah jk lol" "lest???" "lol psyche"
- after about 15 years of that sort of thing, Remake finally exists! The first part of a trilogy of retelling, Remake extrapolates the introductory Midgar sequence of the original game into around 40 hours of gameplay with expanded scenes and both new and tie-in characters appearing.
- originally touted as a proper remake, it's not a proper 1:1 of the original game. The timeline is attempting to fix itself via Spooky Ghosts, but we're the Ghostbusters and haven't got time to be railroaded into doing the same things again.
- Makes plenty of nods to other Compliation entries which delights the older fan but puzzles the newer ones. You mean I can find out more about Leslie and Kyrie in a book? What sort of nonsense is that?
- The DLC, Episode INTERmission, introduces us to Yuffie and new character Sonon as they infiltrate Midgar to do what Yuffie does best - steal materia. INTERmission is its own brand new story and brings back DC antagonists Nero and Weiss, because the world was lacking more of that sort of thing.
FINAL FANTASY VII: Rebirth (2024)
howling and hollow
- Gonna have to wait and see for this one, chief
FINAL FANTASY VIII (1999)
oh yeah we got other numbers to get back to
Life, uh... finds a way.
- another modern-style entry, this is the first (but not the last!) game explicitly about child soldiers and the aftereffects of war.
- as war academy graduates, we get thrown into the world to help antifa and rack up presidential kidnapping charges - normal, everyday things. This goes about as well as you might expect.
- we're thrown into political prison and upon busting out break into a military facility to stop a retaliatory bombing. This also goes about as well as you might expect.
- compounded trauma and science-magic experiments have been taking a toll on our memories, and with the help of our long-lost big sis we episodically relive the roaring 20s of our cringefail father.
- we also go back to the moon (well, the ISS) to get the head of antifa out of a coma on the suggestion of our childhood orphanage matron, and then do our best not to get erased from existence in the far future as we fight half of the power of god.
- but most important of all: we play a shitload of cards and collect every magazine about UFOs we can get our grubby little mitts on.
FINAL FANTASY IX (2000)
pump the brakes on that modern crap
The eternal mood.
- abandoned its predecessor's modern settings and went back to a more fantastical nature with somewhat SD-style models and a world of sentient animal-like creatures and dubiously-human-at-bests.
- a group of theatre nerds is state-sponsored to do a kidnapping, which ultimately pulls a few regions into war (but not for the reasons you might expect).
- the owner of THE most loadbearing hips you ever did see and his pet dragon commit several acts of attempted genocide and then upon learning he is not immune to death, throws the biggest hissy.
- we grapple with personal identity and our place in the world from multiple perspectives. Is it fair for us to be killed for another population to survive? Sources point to no.
- at the beginning of all time, Yoda puts in a guest appearance in his best Exdeath cosplay, confusing the internet for years to come. "What is Necron?" thread locked after 23482342 replies
- the moral of the story? Eat as many frogs as is physically possible..
FINAL FANTASY X (2001)
woah, this shit's on PS2!
HAW HAW HAW
- "The FF of 20 years ago is no longer FFI. The FF of 20 years ago is FFX." sentences devastating to read and absorb
- with another hardware jump, we can afford to do things like fully rendered backgrounds instead of static images, voice acting, and for the first time ever - change composer.
- local sportsball icon and child abuse survivor has his home destroyed by a giant penis whale and is promptly isekai'd into the far future, where no one dresses appropriately.
- we join a cute girl and her gang on religious pilgrimage. The penis whale is still terrorising the world, and she's trying to stop it.
- despite leaving room for Jesus, we still score. After she gets hitched, no less!
- a dead man wants to destroy everything to stop the cycle of death and suffering, and then dies again.
- surprisingly absolutely no one, the church has been the one perpetuating this cycle for milennia, and with the head forcibly made to abdicate, we can finally get around to Hot Girl Summer.
FINAL FANTASY X-2 (2003)
God's dead? Imaginary boyfriend? Fuck it, lesbian roadtrip!
Like, just in this moment, or more of a general sentiment?
- what's that? X-2 was the first proper sequel in the series? Beat that, Compilation of FFVII!
- greatly and unjustly derided for having an all-female cast and dress-up visuals for the job system which, for once, has some integration with the story.
- Hot Girl Summer consists of putting on a pop concert and having our identity stolen. Previously a good girl, Yuna has decided to pick up pistols as a hobby.
- she and her closest buddies go off hunting old camcorder footage, which leads to finding out about the end of the world her imaginary boyfriend came from.
- another dead man wants to end the world, this time via giant mecha-moth, controlled by a keyboard.
- features multiple endings, dependent on a percentage-based completion run. The "perfect" ending has the imaginary boyfriend become real again. In all cases: Hot Girl Summer continues.
- Last Mission is a mini-sequel in its own right. The girls get back together for one more bash, and take part in a roguelike dungeon together, culminating in the knowledge that the real fun we had was the friends we made along the way.
FINAL FANTASY XI (2002)
still going strong
Shhhh!
- I'll get around to playing this one sometime, I promise!
FINAL FANTASY XII (2006)
did you perchance know that shitposts CANNOT BE WRITTEN IN JAGD!?
Woe, malboro be upon ye.
- chronologically the first entry of the Ivalice Alliance, a self-contained, low-to-moderate fantasy-based mini-franchise within the broader realm of FF. Ivalice occupies a world of political maneuvering, tactical battle decisions, and overwhelming tragedy.
- Setset immediately postwar in occupied territory. In our bid to steal from the occupying forces for fun (and maybe for profit as well), we meet a couple of criminals and get swept up in their escape, which leads to us meeting a deposed-presumed-deceased princess and captain of the guard.
- the princess wants her country back. This is far easier said than done, especially when her nearest and dearest believe in her country more than her as a figurehead.
- Is revenge "good"? Ask yourself this, and other questions, like "should I put rocks in the engine", "are people who talk to themselves out loud morally compentent", and "is it really necessary to buy a permit to wear a hat"?
- ACAB includes Judge Drace, as much as we wish it wasn't so.
FINAL FANTASY XIII (2009)
it's been 15 years, and they finally let us have another female MC
It's where the plot's hiding.
- once again, we go back to a modern setting with hyperfuturistic elements. The first main numbered title to be cross-platform (if we ignore the MMO), XIII was the first to be released on XBOX systems as well as PlayStation.
- featuring the first true female lead of the series, who kickstarts the plot with a little kickass train action.
- Lightning goes from cop to criminal in the space of an hour, and we spend a fair amount of time avoiding the army with our new friends
- the groups split into duos and make their own ways trying to stay one step ahead of the law, routinely failing until the only choice is to flee to the second world below the hovering orb we've been living in all this time.
- the pope goads us into returning and getting stronger to crash the mini-planet and take control of our own fates again. having succeeded at this, everyone turns into diamonds, and then uncrystallises in quick succession.
- and everything thereafter was fine :)
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 (2011)
wait, another sequel?
Twink on bear on twunk violence in the club.
- everything was not fine.
- in the sequel we follow Lightning's sister, notably absent from the original title (though a driving force behind a large chunk of it), as she tries to follow her now-disappeared sibling.
- we do this in the form of time-travelling with a guy who fell out of the sky, and a rodent that can turn into a weapon.
- turns out Lightning got stolen by a goddess to act as a knight-protector in a realm outside of human knowledge. She fights an eternal battle against our time-travellnig buddy's old pal while we hop across decades and centuries fixing problems.
- a new planetoid is built to house humanity and protect it from mass destruction, and a torrent of energy from the goddess' realm floods the world with her death.
- oops
LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII (2013)
shit dude she sure does
More like Mhogivelze, amirite?
- half a milennia later, Lightning wakes up under the thumb of a new god and serves him as a saviour of mankind.
- this title leans harder into the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos than the other titles, though bits of it were hinted heavily at previously. The last entry of the so-called Lightning Trilogy.
- over the course of 13 days (haha, get it?), we are tasked with saving as many souls as possible in order to shepherd them to a new world that god will create for us. All our old friends make appearances in varying degrees of importance.
- also, Chocolina is there.
- when the world ends, Lightning refuses a new vocation as the goddess of death, and kicks god's ass in his own domain
- every saved soul is reincarnated in a new world where we can finally be at rest.
- (except the novellas say there's still wars that happen so like, sure, whatever)
FINAL FANTASY XIV (2010)
WOW killer
Surprised this wasn't enough to repel the Garleans, TBH.
- the second MMO in the series. After the roaring ongoing success of XI, the producers decided to do it all again... with disastrous results.
- a combination of nigh-impossible-to-render-on-standard-machines models and a stubborn refusal to move with the times led to Legacy really truly failing on a level that was previously unheard of for the FF series.
- over the course of a handful of months, the existing story was concluded as well it could, with a new team being brought on to close out Legacy and work on the next iteration of the game at the same time.
- well-known for being shut down with a bang - in-universe, the world's moon descended upon a battlefield and exploded, changing the course of history both within and without the code.
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn (2014)
WOW killer... but for real this time
Altogether, now! Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime...
- set 5 years after the resolution of Legacy, in the same universe, with many of the same characters reappearing.
- you, a simple adventurer, are looking for fame and fortune and find that doing adventuring work is the best way to get that. Along the way, we meet a few curious strangers and agree to help them out.
- turns out we're a little special and can't be mind-controlled by the gods of the land. This is of import to our new friends, who ask us to help stop the gods from being summoned.
- in doing so, we meet a commander of the army that tried to end the world in Legacy. The army's expansion policy is best described as aggressive, and their latest plot underway, so it's up to us and our powers to put a stop to that.
- turns out the Evil Empire's probably being bankrolled by a guy without a shadow who goes "mwahaha" unironically. We give him and his mecha the smackdown, and exit to thunderous applause.
- following our success, a head of state is poisoned and the blame put on us. A friend offers us refuge in his isolationist home, which leads us to our first expansion...
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward (2015)
disregard the church, acquire draconic allies
Can I interest you in some sects, m'lady?
- the first title available on Mac computers. Picks up right where ARR left off, putting you at the mercy of Ishgard and under the protection of your friend's noble house.
- unfortunately, Ishgard is preoccupied with a thousand-year long war against the dragons of neighbouring Dravania (and the non-dragon sympathisers and heretics that agree with them) led by the local church.
- you accompany the world's foremost dragon-hater and also the world's foremost dragon-lover to attempt to talk the dragons down - failing that, we have pointy sticks and upwards of 50 levels of exp to jab them with.
- the pope doesn't want anyone finding out that maybe they were the instigators of the war all this time and flees to go become the Super Pope.
- our old shadowless scheming laughing acquaintance puts in another appearance as being the ones behind the pope's unhinged behaviour.
- a group of people that look just a little worryingly like us are doing evil deeds in our name. With god's blessing, we put them back in their own reality.
- with all the naysayers out of the picture, we can attempt peace, at long last! Peace comes in the form of a final showdown with the angriest dragon you ever did see.
- peace for Ishgard, anyway. We return home to stop another war from breaking out on the northwestern front in occupied territory, and march onward to the second expansion...
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Stormblood (2017)
say goodbye to TP cuz we ain't wipin' no more
Stupid sexy Roegadyn.
- we enter the previously inaccessible area of Ala Mhigo, under imperial occupation for the last 2 decades, and join forces with some good old fashioned resistance members. It doesn't take long for them be crushed under the boot of the latest foe, the crown prince of the Empire.
- in an attempt to undermine the Empire and divide its forces, we travel across the world to Hingashi, attempt to incite further rebellion in Doma, and along the way make nice with the many tribes of the Steppe.
- the plan works, for once, and we're able to force a full assault against Ala Mhigo to take it back with the help of our allies.
- this culminates in the universe's most romantic battle against a man who forced a dragon to consume his essence. Naturally, we follow this up with a musical number.
- after being betrayed by a would-be ally, our friends start dropping like flies due to the outward influences of gacha pulls. The world next to ours is calling! Time to get a move on, to...
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)
everyone loves the cubus
To me, to you!
- an almost-identical world to the one we're used to awaits us. It's been beset by tragedy - for once, not by overwhelming darkness, but by light instead.
- along the way we're joined by our latest antagonist, who tags along like a five-year-old who refuses to listen to the word "no".
- rebalancing the world's humours is the right thing to do and yet it makes us come down hard with the sickness (oo-wah-ah). Surely the only way to fix this is to go to the bottom of the ocean!
- down there we see the burnt-out husk of the civilisation before civilisations and retread a path through hell to prove that life is yet worth living.
- but good things can't just stay good, and we have to once more slam-dunk a guy without a shadow into a soul box and then throw away the key.
- "hey maybe those guys were onto something. Should we try and fix the issues they were trying to deal with?" "Forget about that, 2B is here!"
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker (2021)
moon's haunted
Me too, little buddy.
- with another confusing run of Nier-adjacent material under our belt, it's finally time to fix the rest of the world's problems.
- we can do this by going to the moon, of course. This time, the mechnical whale is only involved if you open your heart, mind, and wallet to the cash shop.
- well, we fucked it, so perhaps if we go back in time we can unfuck it.
- maybe not.
- the only thing we can do now is use the moon as a rocketship to get away from the horrors. But first: let's kill god!
- and it might be fun to do our best NGE impression at the edge of the universe.
- not to be content with going to one parallel world, we take a quick detour to a second, which turns out to be Little Italy.
- we get our Ghostbusters on, and then after all this, it must be time for a holiday, right?
FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail (2024)
tacocat real
- To be updated once it comes out!
FINAL FANTASY XV (2016)
(thousand-yard stare)
(Record scratch) "So you're probably wondering how I got into this situation..."
- another day, another modern setting. XV began life as Versus XIII back in the bygone days of E3 2006. Behind the scenes, chaos: layoffs, rewrites and very little news asides from the occasional trailer (and eventually, the rebranding). accompanied by a bevy of side-materials, including an animated miniseries (Brotherhood), a CGI feature film (Kingsglaive), now-defunct mobile games (King's Knight, Justice Monsters) and playable demos (Platinum, Episode Duscae). Later also received a novella (Dawn of the Future), but we'll get to that in due time.
- the crown prince is off on a roadtrip with the boys before he gets hitched. The situation immediately crumbles: they have no money, their car's broken down, and oh yeah, his home's been attacked by the Evil Empire of the day.
- nothing for it but to keep moving forward and building up our cash reserves and armoury! And occasionally taking out military installments. You know, for the funsies.
- along the way, the six gods start waking up and giving us migraines because our fiancée is acting like a mobile alarm clock.
- Lunafreya succumbs to Top 10 Anime Betrayals disease and the world slowly begins a descent into ruin, with the nights getting ever longer and birthing goop demons. God forbid women do anything.
- our friends all have their own issues, including (but not limited to) blindness, imposter syndrome, and "the world is ending and all Noctis does is fish"
- might as well go home. We're promptly vored by a rock, which has the decision-making skills of a rock.
- 10 years later, the world is kill. Almost. God says it's time to wake up to fulfil destiny: die, and then fight your rival eternally in the afterlife.
- received 4 DLCs that elaborated on the stories of your companions and the big bad, because we couldn't have that in the main story, and then cancelled the others that were meant to come on stage in front of plenty of disappointed fans. These unfinished stories made up the novella.
FINAL FANTASY XVI (2023)
One of the "f"s in FF stands for Fuck
Rated P for Pubby
- developed by CBU3, the team behind the revitalised XIV. The first title in the series to receive a Mature rating.
- following a childhood of relative hardship, the first-born son of a ducal kingdom is forced to watch his home and family burn around him and is promptly given to slavery.
- one timeskip later, and an assassination-gone-wrong gives him a chance to flee the shackles. Other magical slaves live in a ruin; Clive throws his lot in with them while hoping to find more information on who was behind his brother's death.
- a chance encounter with a commander in charge of both higher magical power and the Evil Empire reveals that we're able to absorb said higher power and use it for ourselves.
- a second timeskip later and we're now leading the magical slaves in covert revolt where we can. This is not wildly popular within the wider world.
- some civil war and power-theft later, we learn that god's been after us all this time. Main Character Syndrome strikes again.
- refusing to heed the call leads to a pleasant seat on a romantic moonlit beach.
But not forgetting the non-numbered titles!...
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS (1997, 2007)
oh yeah, it doesn't just stop at numbers.
Now you're going to give me all your 'money'.
- the first entry to the Ivalice Alliance. An isometric active-time strategy game with diorama backgrounds and detailed spritework developed for the PlayStation in stark contrast to the semi-realistic sibling that released the same year (VII). Later remastered for the PlayStation Portable as War of the Lions.
- the youngest son of a noble house gives himself to mercenary work that brings him in contact with the church and an old friend after extreme tragedy changes his world view.
- a princess is kidnapped in the midst of a bloody civil war and sought-after by multiple people.
- the church hides a nefarious secret in the form of shiny rocks.
- born to fight red chocobos. Ivalice is a fuck. 423782934 Choco Meteors
- in a search for our kidnapped sister, we uncover the church's true motives and stop them at great personal cost.
- but hey, at least the war ends! We got that, at least!