The FINAL Fantasy

I've recently been going back to games that have been collecting dust on my shelf, those included being the Final Fantasy series, and playing them again (or finally beating them). As I'm looking at them as a series now, not just a drooling adolescent waiting for the next game in the series to hit the shelves of my local gaming store, I'm beginning to notice a few trends in them and their fans that are actually causing me to get a little cynical about the series.

First and foremost, I'd like to first point out that a large number of fans believe that Final Fantasy was an original idea (sometimes I hear them say it was the first CRPG [Console Role-playing Game] ever created). This is totally untrue and ruffles my feathers every time I hear someone say this. To begin, we need to remember that Live Action Role-Playing and Board Games were already popular past-times by the time gaming consoles came out, which were strong influences on these games, as were PC games of the same vein. The first influential CRPG was actually a game called Dragonstomper created in 1982 for Atari. This in turn led to a slow trickle of games spawning names such as Dragon Quest (1986, also known as Dragon Warrior in the States) and Final Fantasy (1987). Although these are relatively important titles in the CRPG world, they both borrowed heavily from a game series known as Ultima which was on the PC. Going by the biggest CRPG franchises, Final Fantasy didn't even come out until the same year the SECOND Dragon Quest came out.

Secondly, battles. I have to say that out of all the CRPGs I've ever played, no game has ever made battles so long and monotonous as Final Fantasy. You can argue all you want about how beautiful the spells are, but I don't really care after I've seen them 23 bajillion times. I just want the damn battle to end! It's even worse when you're fighting one possibly ever 2 minutes and each one is the same enemy with the same attacks just whittling away at your precious HP/MP! You can also argue with me that the older ones didn't have the fancy schmancy elaborate spell casting but then I urge you to look at this:
well look at that, instead of three monsters you get in the newer games, there are six. That means there's TWICE as many, which in turn means the battle is twice as long! In other words, what the older games lack in quality they make up for in quantity. Come to think of it...I can't think of any other form of activity where you watch the same exact actions repetitively like to you do in video games, specifically CRPGs...but this is a rant for another time.

Lastly, stories that are indepth and intriguing. Okay, this one is just a rant because I feel Final Fantasy is one of the worst offenders of 'tragic hero' motifs. You have Cecil, Terra (or Tina), Cloud, Squall, and even Tidus to an extent. They are all angsty, sad, unfortunate heroes that are in it for themselves (yes they are...don't lie to yourself). They feel more sorry for themselves and express it to others than any other characters I see. It's typically something you see in anime and has leaked it's way into video games. Final Fantasy is not the only offender, I realize this, however it is one of the biggest selling games with this tied into the plot. I have to say, for as "original" as people say these plots are, there is still such a trend in all of them that can't be avoided. I honestly don't mind the reoccurring plots of most CRPGs, that's why I play them. Just please stop saying it's original when it's not. Poor hero gets caught up in massive conflict, with a plot twist somewhere in the middle (usually the main villian changing somehow), and has to find himself along the way...there I summed it up...thank you.

Alright, so this is a really long rant about a really stupid topic. I just don't think Final Fantasy is as amazing as most people do. I AM really a CRPG fan at heart...I promise.