Another trailer for Final Fantasy XVI can imply just one factor – one other wave of excruciating dialogue on the web about if an motion recreation with out playable celebration members and a distinctly Western-inspired artwork type is ‘true’ Final Fantasy or not.

Last evening, within the wake of a new trailer, I watched these discussions reignite in sure communities with a type of indifferent bemusement. Usually the sample is similar – any person says numbered FFs shouldn’t be motion video games, or have an artwork type this ‘bland’ (their phrases, not mine), and ludicrously recommend that, by and attempting to emulate a few of the different profitable RPGs from exterior Japan, FF16’s builders have bought out the collection’ roots. FF has been became simply one other WRPG, they are saying. “I would as properly go play Witcher as a substitute of this tribute act,” I noticed one genius opine in rage.

This is then adopted by the hardcore followers who virtually bleed elixir once you minimize them (within the case of FF16, typically the FF14 devoted who’d observe Yoshida to the ends of the earth) over-react reply with derision and sarcasm. And, truthfully – the entire debate is silly, and poisonous, and either side are proper, and either side are improper.

First of all, let’s say it out loud: Final Fantasy XVI is totally a Final Fantasy recreation. Whatever FF may ‘be’ to you personally, this new recreation is a legitimate interpretation of the collection. The reality is, there isn’t any one set of absolute substances that ‘makes’ a recreation a Final Fantasy – and that additionally occurs to be the collection’ best energy. 

When as soon as requested what makes a recreation a Final Fantasy title, collection creator Hironobu Sakaguchi jokingly mentioned, “blue text boxes.” While a gag, like several good joke it needles on the reality behind it. When Sakaguchi made this quip to Yoshinori Kitase in the course of the growth of FF13, there’d already been FF titles launched with out blue textual content packing containers – together with Sakaguchi’s self-professed favourite, FF9. Sakaguchi’s level right here was fairly apparent, then: if there have been any guidelines about what Final Fantasy ‘is’, they’ve lengthy since been damaged. Traditions have been discarded and revived. Nothing is simply too sacred. The collection is free to roam.

To put ahead a speculation, Final Fantasy isn’t anyone particular component. It isn’t being turn-based, or having ATB, or Chocobos, Airships, and Dragoons. It isn’t in regards to the summons – although they regularly seem. It additionally isn’t about blue textual content packing containers. But all of those components play a job. It’s a confluence of a number of these acquainted components and customary substances, somewhat than their absolute presence.

Take Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, as an illustration. This might be probably the most maligned piece of the collection, and the one followers most simply dismiss as ‘not FF’, an extracurricular oddity. But truly, in actuality, it’s FF to its core – no matter you consider the ill-fated movie’s high quality (I really feel it is the perfect FF film by itself deserves – do not @ me, AC followers). 

It has the superficial stuff – airships, a Cid, and a world that mingles fantasy, spirituality and science fiction in a way that doesn’t really feel too far divorced from FF7 and FF8 particularly. But most significantly, The Spirits Within’s storyline is steeped in thematic components which might be acquainted to a lot of Final Fantasy video games, most notably the protagonist’s prescription to ‘Gaia Theory’ – the idea that the planet itself is a residing organism that interfaces with the souls of its inhabitants – a daily theme in Sakaguchi’s work. Basically, I’m saying that Aerith and Aki Ross would get alongside famously. The Spirits Within is a really totally different kind of Final Fantasy expertise – but it surely clearly comes from the identical place as a lot of the remainder of the collection. 

Final Fantasy’s willingness to alter has at all times been its best energy. It experiments – generally for good, generally for in poor health – however the collection has at all times gone for it. This is a vital a part of its DNA – and FF16 is one other expression of that.

You may not like that its builders have clearly spent lots of time finding out Western fantasy, from Witcher to Game of Thrones, or that it’s an motion recreation, or that it doesn’t have playable celebration members, or that the FF16 characters and their outfits are extra grounded and reasonable – which subsequently makes them extra muted than we would maybe be used to from Tetsuya Nomura or Yoshitaka Amano. One may argue that by wanting elsewhere, it’s not as inventive – however to argue this might be to bury one’s head within the sand as to FF’s origins, the place it readily copied the homework of Wizardry and Dragon Quest, or how the collection’ MMO flip was impressed by an EverQuest habit. There’s countless examples of FF wanting outward to outline its future.

Whatever you suppose, FF16 is a Final Fantasy recreation. That standing isn’t as a lot to do with having summons or Chocobos or having Masayoshi Soken get away the acquainted musical motifs, both – it’s actually obtained by advantage of how its creators have caught their neck out and brought an amazing threat to do one thing the collection has by no means accomplished earlier than. This is precisely what Sakaguchi & his crew of upstart recreation growth punks would’ve accomplished again within the day, too. 

But let’s get one thing else straight, too. It’s okay to not prefer it. Not being into it’s not a capital offense within the fandom. Especially in case you actually just like the J in your JRPGs, it is comprehensible that this may go away a nasty style in your mouth much more so than the closely Witcher and Skyrim-inspired, however nonetheless aesthetically very Japanese FF15. This is a superbly legitimate factor to really feel.

Part of how changeable and wildly disparate every numbered FF may be means, inevitably, that generally, you’re going to be left behind. Maybe you don’t just like the setting, or don’t ‘do’ MMOs. Maybe the protagonist grates on you. These are the dangers that include being a collection that adjustments over time, and tosses every thing out for every new entry. It’s alright to have this opinion – and you’ve got a proper to specific what it’s in regards to the recreation that doesn’t click on for you. But perceive – it’s nonetheless FF. 

That’s truthfully why these debates are so foolish. Final Fantasy is so malleable that it’s troublesome to essentially say from trailers, or artwork type, or narrative tone what the collection actually is. It’s extra of a vibe, an angle, a set of values. But past that, followers equally don’t have the precise to fly off the deal with at individuals who aren’t feeling it. In the sooner days of the Final Fantasy fandom, within the harmless days of the web on the flip of the millennium, it felt extra understood that with this collection, generally, you simply wouldn’t like an entry. And that was okay. It didn’t make you much less of a fan. It simply meant you had preferences. In the trendy age, when all people is eager to go to conflict, marketing campaign relentlessly for manufacturers they deal with like sports activities groups, and discover fault over nothing, the talk is extra poisonous – and it shouldn’t be. 

If FF16 is your dream entry, each trailer and information replace is nice information. But if it isn’t, you shouldn’t concern – one thing totally different ought to be proper across the nook. That’s the promise of Final Fantasy – and it stays its best energy.