The Final Fantasy games, like most RPGs, have upheld the tradition of immersing that one person, the player, into the game entirely. Trying to sink two people into the sixty hour plots simultaneously might be spreading themselves too thin, surely.
But multiplayer in the series stems ten years now, since 2000 when Final Fantasy IX was released. Sure, it wasn't advertised at all and it wasn't a well-developed feature, but it was a step in the right direction. You can assign characters to controllers port 1 or 2 through the configuration menu so that a second player can share your party. It's a basic system, but it latches onto an idea that is synonymous with the new-age Final Fantasy fans. A lot of them grew up watching the games being played by an older sibling. The same story over and over:
"I never played Final Fantasy VII at first, I just watched my big brother play it."
When Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles first appeared on the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2004 it was very well received. It allowed four people to take part in the action, but they had to play using Game Boy Advances, instead of Gamecube controllers. Despite these heavy requirements, the game still ended up selling well over 1 million units and Square Enix naturally thought they were on to a winner.
This lead to Square Enix making the game into a franchise, which started with a prequel in the form of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. It appeared on the Nintendo DS, and like its predecessor, it allowed people to join together to play the game, this time using the Wi-Fi capabilities of the DS. However, its sales didn't manage to stack up to the original game, with it selling just over 600,000 units worldwide.
When looking through a list of Square Enix games that have been released or are in development on their official Japanese website, it was actually quite surprising to see how things have changed so dramatically in one generation. Squaresoft, Enix and then Square Enix were all strong supporters of the Playstation 2 and other home consoles such as the NES and SNES. However, this generation has seen a stark change in Square Enix's process and they've gone completely against their strategy for the previous 20 years.
For the first time, Square Enix has chosen to support hand-held consoles over the home console and they have shown their support mainly by backing the Nintendo DS to extreme proportions. According to Square Enix's Japanese website, Square Enix are majorly involved with 95 titles on nine different platforms. It was actually quite amazing to see that 54 of these (56.8%) were for the Nintendo DS. A further 13.6% of titles were also concerning the Sony Playstation Portable, which brings their total involvement to just over 70% of all Square Enix's activity.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time is a sound concept in principle, as it helps to meld two of Nintendo's best selling consoles together; the DS and the Wii. However, everything Square Enix have done so far just makes it seem like the cross-compatibility is nothing but a cash-in. Clearly it was originally intended for the DS, as the Wii version is just a port, and its rise from relative obscurity until a few months before its release probably didn't help to endear itself to gamers.
The Crystal Chronicles brand has managed to gain a fond place in the hearts of Final Fantasy fans, after the original Gamecube version had its multiplayer option which utilised the Gameboy Advance. Its success saw some spinoffs, which actually did pretty well, so when Echoes of Time was released in Japan semi-big things were expected, especially since the Wii version and DS could be played together over the internet. It all worked in theory, but the Japanese people showed that they weren't overly impressed by Square Enix's botched job, as while the DS version sold with respectable figures, the Wii version sold terribly.
As far as things go, 2008 was actually quite a busy year for Final Fantasy, but the majority of the coverage took place on the handheld consoles. While this is great, Final Fantasy (especially the main series) has always been known for pushing the graphical boundaries, and while the PSP and DS are fine pieces of hardware, they can't really compete with the might of the PS3 and Xbox 360.
That's where 2009 comes in. It's time for the big boys to flex their muscles and hopefully they will be given licence to do that this year. That still remains to seen though, as the 360 might not get its chance to shine dependant on release dates, but here's hoping anyway.
We've outlined the Final Fantasy games you should be looking forward to this year, so check out the list after the jump.
Although Jump Festa doesn't have the same kind of worldwide recognition as the Tokyo Game Show (due to it primarily being a Manga Expo), it has still pulled a few surprises in the past. However, Square Enix are notorious for using this event to show off world exclusive material and with Jump Festa 2009 happening on the 20th and 21st of December, now is the perfect time to take a look at what we should expect from Square Enix at this year's event.
First off, Square Enix have only confirmed that they will be showing nine games at this year's event, and only two of them are Final Fantasy related. They are Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time. This was expected, but it's quite surprising that they aren't using the opportunity to plug Dissidia: Final Fantasy even more, despite all the promotion that they have been doing.
Incase you are unaware, Dragon Quest X was announced for the Nintendo Wii earlier this week at a Dragon Quest press conference. Although Dragon Quest IX being on the Nintendo DS caused a bigger stir, this is still quite a statement of intent for Square Enix.
This move shows that Square Enix obviously believe that they will gain more profit from the next installment being on the Wii as opposed to the DS and it also means that they don't see the Playstation 3, nor the Xbox 360 in the same light as either of the aformentioned consoles.
Dragon Quest is a franchise which has little penetration anywhere outside of the Japan and even though Dragon Question VIII did a respectable job in attempting to change that, its popularity is nowhere near that of Final Fantasy on Western Shores. While this is quite obvious, what isn't so obvious is that Final Fantasy games still ship more copies in Japan than they do in North America or Europe despite having much fewer consoles in the region.
Much has been said recently about Square Enix turning their back on Sony, as in the last 6 months, Square Enix have seemed to shift camps and now appear to be courting Microsoft much more than anyone else. This is primarily down to the shock announcement revolving around Final Fantasy XIII, when at E3 earlier this year, Square Enix announced that it was no longer a Playstation 3 exclusive in North America and Europe.
Further rumours have been abound recently due to the Tokyo Game Show 2008, where Microsoft had its booth right next to where Square Enix set up. Comments from Yoichi Wada during his keynote speech also helped to ignite the fire, but the question is, where do Square Enix's loyalties actually lie? Is this all being blown completely out of proportion?
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