When one thinks of the RPG genre, the first name that comes to mind is Final Fantasy. In 20 years, the series went from an obscure title from a company on the brink of extinction to one of the most decorated franchises in video game history. Each iteration and spin off has introduced gamers to new worlds, characters and stories that have the ability to hook gamers time and time again. With the next game in the series, Final Fantasy XIII, quickly approaching, let's take a look back at the evolution of the series that put RPG's and Square on the map.

At this point in the series’ history, Final Fantasy had become an undisputed juggernaut in the gaming industry. The technological achievements of both FFVII and disc based media as a whole left an impression that has yet to leave the gaming industry with their focus on advanced visuals and presentation. By the time Final Fantasy VIII was announced, the world awaited when it would finally become available for the public to experience. FFVIII had a tall order to fill, which was following up one of the most popular games of all time, so when 9/9/99 finally hit in the United States, fans were treated to an even more advanced visual marvel. Rather than try to re-invent FFVII’s wheel however, FFVIII attempted to make it into its own.

As seen in the game’s logo, FFVIII focuses primarily on the love story between the two protagonists of the game, Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly. Love wasn’t an uncommon theme in Final Fantasy, but one way FFVIII stood out was to have the primary focus on the game on this relationship. It’s clear to see from the legendary opening cinematic that gamers would be treated to plenty of action and suspense on top of the lovey dovey stuff. Squall and most of his party belong to a mercenary school called Garden. After graduating early in the game and becoming SeeDs, (or elite mercenaries within Garden,) the group takes on a mission from Rinoa and her group of rebels to liberate the small town of Timber. These series of events tie them up into an ancient war, and are forced to go against the powerful sorceress Edea with the fate of the world at stake.

FFVIII’s gameplay is fairly traditional for the series at its foundation. The ATB system and turn based battles are still the biggest focus at a glance. Even limit breaks make their return, but only when low on health like in FFVI. The major changes come from the draw and Junction systems. First, each character had to obtain magic from enemies and special points on the map by drawing them. Whether in or out of battle, party members could take magic abilities from either source and add it to their own arsenal. Acting much more like items than traditional magic, characters didn’t have MP, but a number of uses before the magic ran out instead. Magic also linked to the biggest new feature of all, the Junction system. By equipping a summonable creature, (called Guardian Forces, or GF’s for short,) each party member’s stats and abilities could be altered based off of how they are customized. Each character has blank command slots that can be altered by the player, so your Squall might be able to use magic but not items, where as Rinoa can use items at the expense of summoning GF’s. Actions such as attacking can be given different attributes such as potentially putting enemies to sleep or giving them elemental damage. This level of customization could be considered the most in depth yet, which was necessary compared to the other changes the game made.

On the surface, FFVIII doesn’t seem to have changed much besides what’s already been mentioned, but the biggest change was mostly behind the scenes. Leveling up gave GF’s and characters new abilities to play with, but leveling up for stat boosting never matters. Enemies throughout the game move up with you, so the party never gains a statistical leg up by spending hours of grinding. These mechanics forced players to come up with effective strategies instead of overpowering opponents, and placed a much bigger focus on finding new weapons. Rather than buying them directly, the team had to pay weapons merchants to synthesize items once the recipe was found in magazines throughout the world. Each weapon had new stats and limit breaks, which could give a huge advantage in battle. Unfortunately, most of these rare items used for synthesizing were obtained through the Triple Triad card game. Rare cards yielded the best items, but rules changed depending on regions and building a strong deck relied on taking opponent’s cards after defeating them. The problem is that opponents could do the same to you, and it is way too easy to lose your best cards. At least GF’s can learn an ability to transform enemies into cards, but it hardly feels worth it. The biggest problem with it was that even though it was a mini game, it was so essential in progressing through the game that people who didn’t enjoy it were forced to play through it. For better or worse, Triple Triad was the first major mini game that would play an important role in the whole game, though the later examples of Tetra Masters and Blitzball are much less frustrating. Some aspects worked better than others, (I’m a big fan of the performance and test based salary instead of every enemy dropping Gil from places I’d rather not know,) but FFVIII managed to subtly change the way RPG players approached their strategies.

FFVIII is clearly geared towards many new battle mechanics, but the story was also unique, if not strange at times. The game has its fair share of incredible moments, such as the dance scene after Squall and company graduate, the attempted assassination attempt on Sorceress Edea or Seifer, Squall’s brainwashed rival and friend, successfully killing the GF Odin. Watching Squall slowly come out of his every man for himself attitude and start to deeply care about his comrades, (and obviously Rinoa,) was a compelling reason to swap discs and keep the game going. The biggest standout moments however, are the shift in perspective between the main team and Laguna, Kiros and Ward. At certain points throughout the game, the party falls into a deep sleep and become these three soldiers fighting a war over a decade in the past. What this has to do with Squall and his struggle isn’t discovered until way later, but it directly involves the group and eventually intertwines the two stories. One of the more far fetched aspects of the tale were how all the characters grew up together in an orphanage run by Edea and Cid, the Headmaster of what would become Garden. Using the GF’s apparently clouds distant memories, so not a single character remembered that the nearly the entire group were childhood friends. Once these memories are resolved, it’s revealed that Edea was being manipulated by a sorceress with the power to control time. This Sorceress Ultimecia seeks to compress time and extinguish all life except her own, and it falls on the SeeD’s to stop her in the end. Seeing as how Selphie, Seifer, his disciplinary squad, Fujin and Raijin, and Squall all having prominent appearences in Kingdom Hearts, (with the latter essentially being the leader of the Square characters,) it’s clear that the story and characters have left a sizable impression. Overall, the unique aspects of the story and characters have stayed with FF gamers to the point where they have arguably become some of the most popular throughout the franchise.

While FFVIII was caught in the biggest shadow a Final Fantasy game had to follow, it did a pretty good job of standing on its own. The game had a much more military based storyline with some new features that stuck, (like deeply rooted mini-games,) and some that never saw the light of day, (VIII’s Pocketstation support was never seen in North America.) Feelings are mixed about the legacy this 8th installment brings to the Final Fantasy name, but it’s clear that it partially continued the trend set by the popular seventh game. Three member parties, a post-modern setting and a large focus on graphics, (the stand alone CG on top of the in game/CG mixed scenes were a huge accomplishment at the time,) were obviously standouts of VII, but what would follow is the return to the roots of the franchise in the ninth and final entry on the Playstation.