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FFXIII Trilogy Gets Retrospective 16-bit Trailer, And We Tear Up

Heading into February's launch of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , Square Enix has decided to give us a story recap.

After all, the upcoming title marks the end of a complex trilogy, so we could all use a refresher. That recap trailer is below…weren't expecting that, were you?

As you can see, it's a 16-bit (albeit high-def) retrospective video, which spans eight minutes and reminds us of two things: Firstly, the story arc of the trilogy in question, and secondly, that at one time in history, the Final Fantasy franchise did look like that. FFVI springs rapidly to mind. There's something so cool and yet, so very, very sad about this trailer.

It's designed to help promote a franchise that has, for all intents and purposes, gone into the toilet. And yet, the video's manifest intent gives way to its latent intent, as it only reminds us of when the series wasn't in the toilet. When it was just starting to rule the world. When its name was on the way to becoming legendary.

For me, it's just tough to watch.

Final Fantasy Hero Comparison: Where Does Lightning Rank?

Square Enix has now dedicated three games to this heroine, so where does she rank on the all time Final Fantasy list?

I think Lightning started out relatively strong in Final Fantasy XIII . Granted, for the first half of the game, she came across as a one-dimensional bi***, but she got much better during the second half. I still say Fang and Vanille sort of stole the show at the end but even so, Lightning's appeal did increase over time. Thing is, FF prides itself on producing strong, sympathetic protagonists who we identify with in some way. I've had difficulty sympathizing with Lightning.

It doesn't help that the writing has become so convoluted, I'm not sure even the developers know who or what she is anymore. She was almost nonexistent in FFXIII-2, where she wasn't even a playable character (unless you beat her in combat, which I did). Yeah, she was still part of the story but let's face it, that narrative focused almost exclusively on Noel and Serah. As for Lightning Returns , that game appears to be a colossal piece of donkey crap; that's based on my demo impressions . Then again, maybe because it's only Lightning this time around, she'll have a chance to earn her spot in franchise history.

Still, I'd really hesitate before comparing her to the likes of Cloud, Squall, Terra, Tidus, etc. Even Zidane and Vaan were better in my estimation.

Editorial: When Does Final Fantasy Cease To Be “Final Fantasy”?

That's a fair question isn't it?

Whenever you think Final Fantasy began to take a downturn it's hard to get away from that conclusion, at least from the perspective of a lifelong fan. Maybe it was the MMO style battle system of FFXII , maybe it was the automatic battles of FFXIII , or maybe it was the loss of series staples like a world map, towns, full party control, lack of a coherent story, etc.

I could probably go on all day but for the purposes of this article I'm wondering just when these games that are coming out with the Final Fantasy name on them cease to be even remotely worthy of the name bestowed on their predecessors. Maybe it has already happened for you, or maybe it's about to.

This editorial comes hot on the heels of E3 and some new disturbing revelations about the future of the series that at one time could do no wrong. Before proceeding to that though I think we have to deal with the elephant in the room, the not so epic, not so RPG-like conclusion to the beleaguered Final Fantasy XIII series. While the first might have slipped by as a not so stellar entry in a beloved franchise (hey this happens in every series right?) Square-Enix decided to push the envelope right off the desk. They followed it up with a sort-of sequel that was plenty of fun but narratively challenged, disorganized, and repetitive. As if that wasn't enough the game was plagued with DLC that you had to buy in order to see the whole story.

And now Lightning Returns is in the pipe. I'm not seeing any news outlets raving about how great it is during their E3 floor demo, in fact the general consensus seems to be that it is a somewhat recognizable party-less experience with a couple of new tricks. So I must ask, what is Final Fantasy without a party?

Now we have the news that Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been unceremoniously renamed to Final Fantasy XV and I hope you can excuse me if I say that that is the ultimate cop out move. Let's face it, they knew that with all the resources put into the XIII saga and the XIV MMO that if they kept it up at this pace we wouldn't see a real Final Fantasy XV for a further five years or more after the release of Versus , which could place it into the PS5 generation.

I'm still looking forward to FFXV but with the full on action battle system inside a main entry I again must ask, is this really “Final Fantasy?” Even XIII could have been somewhat considered a command based game. Will FFXV even be an RPG in any sense of the term? Is it “Final Fantasy” if it isn't an RPG? Sure we've had Final Fantasy spinoffs like Dirge of Cerberus , but they were spinoffs for crying out loud and Versus was meant to be another of them.

Lastly, that disturbing news I mentioned above. Square-Enix has, in a moment of continued tone-deafness, come forward to say that they plan to continue the story of Final Fantasy XV with some type of sequel or sequels. The first FF sequel was of course FFX-2 , though many considered it a kind of spinoff. The fact of the matter was that FFX was a self-contained story that did not require you to play the next game to get everything out of it. That has always been the case with this series. Even as Square-Enix has gone back to add in bits and pieces to portable titles and such you never lost anything from those original experiences. Since the story of FFXIII-2 has almost nothing to do with the story of the original you can even say that XIII was self-contained to some extent. Now we are told long before the release of FFXV that that game won't even attempt to continue the old tradition of having a single epic tale encosed in one game.

No, we are faced with a game that does not have an ending and then some inevitable DLC or sequels that just keep on stretching things out. Is this right? How much can a series change before it ceases to even be the same series?

Perhaps the most terrifying thing about all this is that Final Fantasy was always able to reinvent itself with every new entry and long time fans will forever be left hoping that somewhere just around the corner there will be a reinvention that finally makes our fantasies come true.

Related Game(s): Final Fantasy XIII , Final Fantasy XIII-2 , Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy Versus XIII

Okay, Let’s Just Pretend Lightning Returns Doesn’t Exist

I've decided to be completely indifferent for the time being, and optimistic for the future. In all honesty, it's really the only way I can remain sane.

Right now, here's my suggestion for all you hardcore Final Fantasy fans who feel slighted (and maybe even downright abused) at the announcement of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII , the game that focuses more on action and institutes what sounds like a ridiculous time clock:

Just pretend it isn't there. Seriously. Let's not complain because quite clearly, that doesn't do anything. Square Enix doesn't listen and worse, they have no intention of listening, so why get a hernia over something we can't change? Besides, let's not forget that this is the "Final Chapter" in the Lightning Saga, so they can't do this to us again. At the very least, they have to start over the next generation with Final Fantasy XV . Right? Speaking of which, we should probably not put much faith in Versus XIII , either. Too much of a leap of a faith.

With a new generation comes fresh hope. We put the past generation behind us, try to forget the mistakes game makers have made, and look to the future. Many designers have reinvented themselves with new hardware, and there has to be a chance for Square Enix down the road. I'm going to cling to that. Lightning Returns might turn out great, I don't know. But for now, I'm just going to pretend it's not there…and I suggest you do the same if you're really upset.

Is Lightning A Big Enough Fan Favorite For A Mini-Series?

Honestly, I really think it's inevitable that Final Fantasy XIII-3 will become official very soon. The evidence is all right there, I say.

Therefore, it's accurate to call these FFXIII sequels a mini-series of sorts; a series within a franchise, if you will. But we've never really seen this in the Final Fantasy world before; we had FFX-2 (but no FFX-3) and even then, main character Tidus wasn't playable in the sequel. Only Yuna and Rikku returned, along with new character Paine. So the question is this- Is Lightning a popular enough protagonist to have the staying power?

I mean, I usually try to have my finger on the pulse of FF nation, and I'm not sure any die-hard fan of the franchise would place Lightning at or even near the top of their "most beloved hero" list. She actually annoyed the crap out of me in the first half of FFXIII, as she seemed completely one-dimensional to me. She did, however, get a lot better in the second half, although I still found it odd that in many respects, it could be argued that the true heroine of that game was actually Fang. That being said, Lightning was much better in FFXIII-2.

She wasn't even playable (unless you took her down in the Arena or you got that Lightning DLC) but at least she was more of a bad-ass; she was a goddess, for crying out loud, and she really sort of came into her own. The story wasn't fantastic, unfortunately, but the character of Lightning did take a few necessary strides forward in terms of solidifying her role and personality. But this is just me; does the rest of the FF fanbase really want to see Lightning again in a new title? Or are they going, "hey, if you want to make a sequel, make freakin' FFVII-2 and bring back Cloud!"

I admit to being a much bigger Lightning fan now than I was after FFXIII. I'm just not sure if others feel the same way.

Related Game(s): Final Fantasy XIII , Final Fantasy XIII-2

Square Enix Will Outsource More For Large-Scale Development

A lot of companies are outsourcing these days. …it's just a little disheartening to hear that Square Enix will do it with Final Fantasy .

As many know, the development time for Final Fantasy XIII was long and arduous, and it cost more than the publisher would've liked. FFXIII and FFXIII-2 director Motomu Toriyama said at the peak of development time for FFXIII, there were over 200 people working on it and in short, with that large-scale development team, they didn't use their time very well . Said Toriyama:

"How do you communicate to everyone in the department what the drive of the game is? We decided we needed to create more practical milestones, not story-based ones."

They realized they "needed to apply more Western technology and production techniques" as time went on, so when it comes to large-scale projects in the future, Square Enix will tackle them a little differently. Basically, it won't be a 100% internal design process; outsourcing will allow them to hit their targets faster.

"We are also thinking that we will not do large-scale internal development any longer. We have a lot of great creators in Square Enix, but for larger-scale development we will be doing more distributed and outsourced development to reach our targets on time."

They'd go for a monthly milestone form of development, where they've got goals set for each month and they "decide the core of what we need to do, and plan for that." And even though development for FFXIII-2 was smoother and faster, Toriyama believes they could still improve. As it turns out, they didn't have time to implement all the fixes and changes the fans asked for after FFXIII.

I have no reaction. Outsource? Yeah, sure, go ahead. Whatever.