Characters we care about
No one likes a cry baby.
Though they may have been ruined for us all by emo culture, Cloud, Squall, Terra, Cecil etc. were all examples of characters with complexity. Harbouring crossed allegiances, dark pasts and an often complicated sense of justice, these characters are loved by gamers the world over. The more extreme happy-go-lucky or mopey characters of Square’s arsenal haven’t faired so well. Zidane and Tidus aren’t so bad, but Snow and Hope are truly awful examples of character design. Get it right next time Square.
A story we want to follow
Because one clichéd character just wasn’t enough for this tale…
Possibly as a knock on effect from the unfortunately dull and one-dimensional members of Square’s contemporary cast of characters, some of the more recent Final Fantasy titles have seen increasingly more arbitrary stories. The first trilogy was a bit of a false start, and FF5 too offered gameplay over narrative, but all the other Final Fantasy games offered stories and scripts that blew the competition out of the water. 12 and 13, on the other hand, were stories I had to endure rather than enjoy. Let’s just hope Square can pull out something more gripping in FF15.
No direct sequel
In no way was this necessary.
Crisis Core worked well as a prequel to FF7, but the other direct sequels to Final Fantasy games have never quite seemed right. 10-2 managed to completely ruin the tone and sobriety of its predecessor in the intro movie alone, and 13-2 was little more than an apology to make up for the grave misdirections taken in FF13. The sequels of FF games have always seemed like an excuse to re-use assets or a thinly veiled attempt to make up for a poor core series entry. If Square can get FF15 right the first time, there should be no need for a 15-2.
Meaningful side-quests
Say what you want about the pace, Blitzball has some serious depth to it.
No I don’t just want to hunt monsters randomly, and fetch quests won’t do either. I want to get properly sucked into side-quests that have meaning and depth. Things like Blitzball, hunting the ultimate weapons, getting all the GFs in FF8 etc. The linearity of FF13 hugely detracted from this ideal and, though a better attempt, FF13-2 didn’t really draw me in to any of its secondary content. It’s time to make a change Square.
