My Completely Erroneous Opinion: Best Final Fantasy Game

Hey everyone, Head Pirate here.  I hope you enjoyed “We Should Stop”.  I've been working on smaller, more periodical type articles and it’s been going over well, so here is another to share with you.  Should the positive response continue into the New Year, I hope to put together a release schedule of 2 to 3 small themed pieces a week)

I spend a lot of my time debunking popular opinion in “against the flow” or fact checking it in “In Perspective” but in My Complete Erroneous Opinion it’s time to look at what I think; the opinions I hold that are not simply different or unpopular, but are flat out wrong.

The Best Final Fantasy game

Every time a new Final Fantasy game comes out, everyone talks about the glory that is Final Fantasy 7.  But I don’t think it’s the best Final Fantasy game ever made; it’s not even in my top 5!  So below are 5 games in the series that, in my completely erroneous opinion, are better than Final Fantasy 7

Number 5: Final Fantasy Adventure

Long before Pokémon, at a time when I still though Game & Watch was the cutting edge of portable entertainment, this GameBoy classic offered limitless hours of adventure, monster catching, and is the first GameBoy game I can remember that bothered with a story.  It somehow took what was lovable about the original NES classic and gave it infinite replay value, back in a time where that wasn’t really a thing.  After 23 years and countless games, this is still one of the most memorable and enjoyable Final Fantasy games I have ever played, and that’s good enough to land it in my number 5 spot.

Number 4: Final Fantasy: 13-2

I don’t understand why this game gets so much hate.  It was a huge improvement over FF13 and added the exploration, open world, side quests, and switched to a non-liner format; everything the fans were asking for.  The visuals were ahead of the times, the soundtrack was varied, memorable, and appropriate*, and game play was improved in every possible way.  It was also very true to what makes Final Fantasy what it is … but these points are better covered in my number 3 entry, a game which in itself defines the series and perfectly captures its uniqueness.

Number 3: Final Fantasy X2

No I’m serious.  Look, Final Fantasy is more than just a great RPG, and it does a lot to define itself as something different then Dragon Quest, Shin Megami Tensei, Tales, or any of the dozen or so similar series.  Final Fantasy games have a clearly identifiable theme; a coming of age or end of innocence story revolving around crystals and a chosen one.  Equally important is the way the story is told; focusing on the importance of connections between people and the different roles everyone plays in how the events unfold.  It’s a world where not everyone gets to be the hero, and some of the main characters might need to make the ultimate sacrifice before the end.  The games often shifts the characters you are playing to force you to see another side to the same conflict, or to experience an unforeseen consequence to your actions.  Final Fantasy can also be defined by a strange balance between the critical and the absurd; one moment you’re fighting the Lord of Chaos in an almost futile attempt to prolong the end of the days, the next your singing in an opera or betting on Chocobo races in the middle of a floating city.  If you could quantify what makes a game “Final Fantasy” then X2 is without question the most “”Final Fantasy” game every made.  It focuses exclusively on the things that make Final Fantasy what it is.  This game in itself is the unforeseen consequence and the change in perspective from X, which is why it’s the first true sequel in the franchise.  It was an experiment in stretching that core experience of storytelling over two games so even the mechanics could shift to aid the change in paradigm.  For all the questionable ways this changed the gameplay and mood of the first game, I think it worked perfectly in doing exactly that.

Also, dresses!

Number 2: Final Fantasy 14 online:  A Realm Reborn

The vocal monitory of gamers are known for hating at lot of thing, but perhaps none have a higher hate to lack of merit ratio then the online play being added to traditionally single player experience.  No matter how often the publishers try to explain how budget based on sale potential and human resources work, they continue to belief the only way to add multi-player is by taking something away from the single player.  The cardinal sin of online play is when a single player franchise decides it wants to build an MMO, an offence Final Fantasy has imposed on its fans not once, but 3 times with FF11, 14, and “A realm reborn”.

FF11 was underwhelming, but came at a time when MMOs were all the rage and we were more willing to forgive.  Besides, we had just come off the X and X2 high, so it’s not like we had gone a long time without a great Final Fantasy game to play.  14, on the other hand, was given to us not only after the poorly received 13, but at a point where MMO saturation had reached a critical mass; every MMO other than WoW was falling, we had gotten Star Wars: The Old Republic instead of Knights of the Old Republic 3, and we just found out Elder Scroll Online would get to us before the next single player game in the series.  Worse, the game itself suffered for a serious case of the suck; content without context and activity without any fun.  In a surprising move for a publisher (less surprising for a Japanese publisher to be honest) Square acknowledged the game was garbage and invited everyone to keep playing it for free until they made a new one.  2 years later we got “A realm reborn” and it delivered.

With a theme and characters that focused on a perfect mix of the serious, the cute, and the absurd, it feels just like a Final Fantasy game should.  The single player focused plot-line does a great job of giving you the heroic feeling missing from most MMOs as well as something to do when you were alone, while cut scenes and character interaction build real connections between the player and the world around him (although you have to suspend disbelieve a bit and not question how these characters had the same deeply personal relationship with everyone else in your party).  Beyond that it’s just a great MMO that constantly motivates you to play and rewards you for doing so.  For that, FF14RR deserves praise on every level; it’s a great single player Finial Fantasy game, it’s a great MMO, and its’ the first time a game has given us both without completely messing up one or the other.

Number 1: Bravely Default

Are you honestly going to argue that because a game doesn't have the words “Final Fantasy” in the title, we should ignore its crystal focused adventure where you use X-Potions and Ethers while casting Fira or Esuna and switching jobs?  I don’t think so.  Bravely Default is more a Final Fantasy game than half the numbered sequels, and flawlessly strikes the balance between what we expect from a modern video game and what our nostalgia demands of the series.  Add to that an incredibly strong end of innocence story, fantastic characters you can’t help but care about, and a half naked fairy that follows you around FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER and you have, without question, the best Final Fantasy game ever made.

Although I like to encourage intelligent and thoughtful discussion with most of my blog posts, in this case feel free to flame me about how wrong I am in the comments below!  I already know that.  Or tell me about your opinions that are way out there.

* Gas ‘em up with the greens and let him go Stand back, stand clear as he puts on a show So cute yet fierce, is he from hell? I cannot tell, yet I don’t even want to know So you wanna be a trailblazer? Kickin’ dirt like a hell raiser? Take the reins, but don’t react slow It’s time to feel the force of the chocobo

So you think you can ride this chocobo? Got Chocobucks? You better put them on this chocobo! Saddle up, if you think you can ride in this rodeo Are we in hell? I don’t know… to the dirt, let’s roll! You’re loco if you think you’re gonna hide this chocobo Everybody’s gonna wanna ride your chocobo It’s choco-loco style in a choco-rodeo Gonna ride him straight through hell in this chocobo rodeo! Yeah, let’s ride!

We Should Stop: Calling Steam DRM

(Hey everyone following me on IGN.  First, I just wanted to say thank you.  I also wanted to apologize for not being as active over here as I would have liked.  Some real life stuff got in the way, but I’m hoping that I’ll be back when a vengeance and frequent updates very soon.  This is the first in a new series I’m going to be running every week or two.  My monthly “against the flow” will also return within the next few days)

In We Should Stop, The Head Pirate looks the things we all say and do as gamers, and picks apart the things we all do but really shouldn't be doing.

Nothing New

The only thing new about DRM (which stands for digital rights management) is the “D”.  All video games, whether they come on a cartage, a CD, or you download them from the internet, are software and software ownership has always been an inherently tricky thing.  When I (read: My Parents) paid $40 for Super Mario Brothers for the NES it sure looked like I was “buying” something.  I had a physical copy that came in a nice box and I could trade it, resell it, or do anything I wanted with it.  However, unlike my 10-speed BMX bike or my sweet racing car bed, there was something different about my NES cartridge. I didn’t understand it at the time but it was very easy for me to make a copy of the software on the cartridge.  Because of this, when Nintendo sold it to me they needed to be clear they were not transferring ownership of the code itself and that I was simply licensing the software for my own personal use.  I was expressly forbidden from reproducing it for profit.  Simply asking nicely (and having me agree to a mostly non-binding EULA) wasn’t the only tool Nintendo had to keep people from re-selling games however; there was a small chip in the NES that would detect unlicensed or duplicated games and prevent them from running. This is how, way back in 1983, “Rights Management”  for video games was born; a physical system that managed the end users right to use the software on NES cartridges, as well as developer’s rights to publish games on the system.

While copying a NES cartage was “easy” the cost of bootleg cartridges and the hardware needed was prohibitive enough that it wasn't much of a problem.  That changed significantly when games on the PC started to get popular.  Anyone could easily make a copy of a computer game and distribute it on a floppy disk or CD.  While the cost of a single copy had gone down, the cost of mass production was still expensive enough to keep large scale pirating limited to organized groups.  Then the internet changed everything; now anyone with the time and bandwidth could mass distribute a game with minimal effort.  Something needed to be done, but what?

Thief prevention good, rights reductions bad

I’ve never met anyone who complains about how unreasonable it was for a store to expect you to make your way over to the checkout and pay for something.  Sure, they could just use the honor system and we could toss money on the floor, but we understand that there are some bad people in the world and this minor step is justified by the retailer trying to protect their investment.  This should be just as true for digital video games, and to me is the biggest area where we all get DRM wrong.  DRM is not theft prevention.  Thief prevention is the idea that you need to take some minor step to prove you've paid for a product at the store, and we all agree it’s pretty reasonable (or at the very least do it every day without much fuss).  In the 90s and early 2000s most games had some form of copy protection that required you to use a code wheel or a CD key to verify you had a legal copy.  This isn't DRM because it’s not managing your rights to the software but simply checking to see if you bought it.

DRM, as we know it today, started with Sony Music.  Beyond trying to stop people from selling illegal copies, they didn't like the idea of someone buying a CD, ripping it to a computer, and leaving the original in the car.  They saw a real potential for lost income.  In the past, if you had two children who both liked the same artists, you needed to get them each a CD.  Game developers loved this line of thinking and set about including software that would limit the number of times a game could be installed, would require an online check, or any number of annoyances to not just ensure the person playing the game had paid for it, but that the digital rights in the EULA were being followed to the letter*.  This is the DRM we all know and hate, and with good reason.  Instead of trying to prevent some people from stealing, companies had started to assume we were all stealing and they needed to limit our rights in order to mitigate the damage we could do with our ill-gotten products.  At its peak we saw games like "Spore" which only offered a single install for any reason.  Change your video card, format your PC, or even suffer a hardware melt down and you’re out of luck.  You need to go buy a new copy.

Failure to launch

Any time Steam makes its way into a conversation about DRM, the fault is always directed at the launcher.  Without it installed you can’t play your Steam games.  This looks a lot like DRM:  even though an offline mode is offered, you have to be online and install every game first before you can use them without being connected to the internet.  But Steam is a digital store front, and being online to buy the game is a requirement.  It’s like going up to the counter and paying for your product in a brick and mortar shop and is simply a method of thief prevention.  If you need to install the game again, you have to be online again in the same way you need to show a receipt in a physical store.  There is no attempt by Steam to limit the number of computers the game is installed on, no activation limit, or anything of the sort.  My steam account has active copies of games I only bought once on 7 PCs right now, and I can play them “offline” on all 7 at the same time.  Although I’m not doing anything illegal (they are all my PCs and I don’t use them at the same time) this is exactly the type of things DRM exists to prevent.  While there are games on Steam that require an online connection, or use 3rd party DRM, Steam itself is not the reason.

So why dose Steam have a launcher at all, and why is it required?  Turns out it isn't.  Valve offers a DLL to developers that helps them to a number of things, mostly related to updating games and adding supports for the Valve servers and Steam Workshop.  It’s an investment on their part; they know an old game is more likely to sell if it is updated to include modern resolutions and supports a game pad, they make more money the more copies that sell, but they know must developers are not going to spend the time and money into coming up with the code themselves.  Games that require this code require the launcher**.  Games that don’t utilize this code or other online features don’t require the launcher to run.

The final Word

DRM is a very horrible thing, and we all are right to oppose it.  We also need to be mindful of the message we send in opposition.  While it’s reasonable for us to reject any reduction in the rights we have when buying software, it’s also reasonable for the companies we are buying from to do what they can to prevent theft.  Steam is a digital distribution service that does what it can to keep people from stealing games, but does nothing to manage digital rights.  It’s not perfect, but it’s the best of two imperfect worlds.  By opposing it we are telling the music and gaming industry they are right; we are all thieves, and we want to be able to steal things.  We should stop doing that.

*And more so.  For the last 10 years EULA have been used increasingly to challenge or force users to forfeit long held rights like the “first sale doctrine” in the US with overwhelming success.  While most of the blame is with the music and motion picture industry, game companies are more than happy to take advantage of the latest legal wins.

**They require steam_api.dll to be loaded.  Although this is possible to do without the launcher present, for the sake of the average user this is a fair statement.