Today more than ever, it is not necessary to remark the importance of a videogame franchise like that of Final Fantasy. The saga has spanned entire decades and has directed the JRPG genre towards sometimes unprecedented shores, trying steep roads to renew itself and propose game approaches optimized to return an increasingly satisfying experience, and then finally arrive at what we have seen with Final Fantasy VII Remake. It goes without saying that here the online declinations of the franchise will be voluntarily ignorant, dedicating ourselves more to the titles that have proposed variants that have proved capable of consolidating the formula up to the recent novelties of the latest titles.
From pixels to 3D
The first six chapters of Final Fantasy benefited from one 2D pixel graphics always attentive to every single chromatic nuance, as well as in the suggestive settings proposed and in the key art always entrusted to artists who made real masterpieces in the first place of pixel art. All these magnificences were observed in the classic turn-based battles that for six episodes of the brand had become the cornerstone and strength of the franchise.
When it was decided to abandon the Nintendo road and rely on the power of the three CDs proposed by Sony and its very first PlayStation, the developers realized that all the experience gained in the field of pixel art would have been of little use with the arrival of modeling. polygonal. New hires in Square with young programmers started a revolution, always maintaining the turn-based fighting style, but offering a new perspective, potentially full of unexpected paths to take.
The success of Final Fantasy VII also benefited from this inevitable artistic and graphic boost. In a broad sense, FFVII was almost a sort of small prototype to then throw itself headlong into Final Fantasy VIII, another much loved title that pushed the graphics potential of the Sony home console to the maximum and so it was until Final Fantasy X, released on PlayStation 2 and representing the point where at Square they began to notice how in the evolution of the franchise there was a need for a drastic change and the revolution, in part, passed through a related product: Kingdom Hearts.
First signs of change
A shy hybrid showed up with Final Fantasy XII, at the time mistreated and little loved by the public, considered an apocryphal chapter precisely for the “almost” total abandonment of the turn-based combat system. That "almost" summarizes an experience where only those who have played the title can understand or perceive (and today this title has had the right dusting off thanks to the remastering of the Zodiac Age) the slow and gradual change: random encounters could have been happily avoided given that the monsters were visible in the vast map and in the moment of engagement, as well as switching between the different components of the party, there was the possibility to move around the enemies or even move away, gaining attack time.
The action in fact took place through time bars which, once loaded, allowed the character in question to carry out his attack; same thing for enemies. It was our concern to upgrade the time attributes to perform multiple attacks in short intervals. The same thing happened, with a few more tweaks, for Final Fantasy XIII. In this perspective, it is not surprising that these two titles are the ones that still today (except Final Fantasy XII) are little considered by the historical fans of the franchise.
Change the cards on the table
A first real change that eliminated time bars and approached the combat system miracles of the first two Kingdom Hearts was that little masterpiece of Crisis Core (Behind was Tabata, the one who took and saved the Final Fantasy XV shack). Released on PSP and included as a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core while maintaining the calls of the tactical menus for which to organize actions, spells or special attacks, it was a title devoted to direct action, without shifts or various breaks, a first approach to fighting on instinct.
We have a real practical example with Final Fantasy XV, another title from the first Nomura management that subsequently passed to Tabata, an experience that is inspired without filters by the spectacularity of the clashes seen and experienced in the Kingdom Hearts saga, always looking for a right mix of genres by inserting the classic pause within it for management of support objects. Added to this are the possibilities of combo attacks with other party members.
Final Fantasy VII Remake on the attack
With Final Fantasy VII Remake , excluding the possibility of facing the game in the classic mode, the style that Nomura and his team offers us is that of real-time battles. Even from the demo that we have all had the opportunity to test it was made clear that a minimum of organization in facing the battles will be necessary. Change your posture during combat to access new and fearsome swings to inflict on enemies on duty, combine limit attacks with other party members and assign each of them a direct and specific summon. all this without forgetting the free possibility of switching characters to adapt to the different battle modes, in particular in the boss sections that will present several phases.
From the dawn of the franchise to today, a lot has changed in the combat system, always and only designed to keep up with the times and not to remain anchored to a style of play that for many users today could be obsolete or anachronistic. Titles of this genre are not lacking in today's panorama, some also replaced by genres such as turn-based strategy, but Square has never done without similar declinations with Final Fantasy Tactics or other experiences often released on mobile; last among these, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, always turn-based and built with cute pixel art. The projects related to Final Fantasy, therefore, in addition to the canonical episodes, are many, all in need of great attention as regards the combat system, but also capable of making these battle sessions never banal but always exciting at the right point.
