I’m an avid watcher of all the live game shows we get in a year. After the death of E3 the list has slowly expanded to include a host of 20+ events a year to watch (and that’s just the “major” ones). I’m sure I’m in the minority and most people will read write-ups or watch the TikTok clips of the trailers that come flooding in the following day. There was a comment in yesteryear that E3 was the gamer’s Superbowl, though, and that spirit is why I enjoy watching it all live.

(We’re getting to Final Fantasy I promise)

The keystone reason to watch these events is the “one last thing”. No matter how good or bad a games show has been you know you’re getting that “one last thing” before the credits roll, and when you watch live you’re one of the first people to know what the surprise is.

It’s a venerable spot for the likes of Elden Ring, a Hideo Kojima game, or, apparently…Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

Final Fantasy 7 is its’ own series now, apparently

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not enamoured with the Final Fantasy 7 remake series (yes, to the unitiated this is a series that is a remake of a single game in the same way The Hobbit got made into a trilogy in film), but I was happy enough having the initial announcement of Part 3 being the “one last thing”. As soon as I saw the Square Enix logo I knew that’s what it was and stopped caring, but I respected that this announcement is important enough for those who care.

The problem is they did it two more times. At time of writing Final Fantasy Revelation has been the “one last thing” at 3 different games shows, completing sapping any lingering respect I had for the series. By “the series” I mean the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, not Final Fantasy as a whole.

I wallowed in dissapointment and was sick of hearing about this damn game, but then I played the demo for another upcoming Final Fantasy game: Final Fantasy Resonance, and while it did make me hate the idea of Final Fantasy 7 Remake even more it also renewed my excitement for games outside of that self-pleasuring nostalgia bubble.

Final Fantasy Resonance embraces anthology like FFXIV and Final Fantasy Origin do

Final Fantasy Resonance is a HD-2D hybrid with 3D animations and models at specific points. It’s a game that couldn’t have been made until now, and is distinctly “aware”. There’s dialogue that approaches fourth-wall breaking, there’s characters from the entire series’ present as summons (sorry, Visions) and of course the music gets the honour that FFXIV and Final Fantasy Origin did: Remixing the originals.

Resonance is an original Final Fantasy story, but one that admits and accepts the anthological nature of the series in a way only the MMO (FFXIV) and third-party spin-off (FF Origin Stranger of Paradise) have dared to do. This “fan service” by including previous game’s heroes isn’t all the game has though, it’s a coherent Final Fantasy story that uses the wider series as a tool to make something new.

This is exactly what made Final Fantasy Origin my favourite Final Fantasy, and it’s taught me that I love Final Fantasy when it’s self-aware, anthological and experimental.

Final Fantasy 7 remake series is none of those things.

Final Fantasy Remake Series is outliving its welcome

I couldn’t argue with the vision behind the remake at first. In fact, I respected how balls-y the first and second parts were. Just to keep people in the loop, Final Fantasy 7 Remake doesn’t remake the original as it was. It is the story of Final Fantasy 7 but with the extra ammendum of time-travelling reality-changing…stuff. For one, part 2 is done and Aerith is still alive…

I thought that was neat. It shows they aren’t relying on milking nostalgia. At least, I thought it did.

But more DLC came out, more expansions, more parts, and now with the over-marketing of Part 3 into my brain from all these shows I simply lost faith. I don’t beleive this could all be being done for any reason than milking the audience’s love for Cloud dry. The characters are great and worth loving, but not worth diverting so many resources to that Final Fantasy 7 becomes it’s own series.

Learning from the past and repeating it are different

Final Fantasy is unique because the same core ingredients can create such vastly different games. Final Fantasy 7 remakes are no longer different, and the promise of more of them after part 3 is the final nail in the coffin for me.

If I could at least look at Part 3 and go “Well it went on a bit, but it’s complete now and is actually kinda cool” I’d let it go, but the fact the director wants the Final Fantasy 7 remake series to continue after part 3 is just too much. All that time trying to make Final Fantasy 7 interesting again could be going into making Final Fantasy 17, then 18, then 19. The more Final Fantasy games they make, the more risks they take, the richer the entire multiverse becomes.

If they spend all their time remaking and remixing the past, even in good examples like Resonance, then in 10 years time the past they’ll be looking back on won’t be looking at them. They won’t have beloved characters from the last 10 years, because in the last 10 years all they’ve done is look backwards.

Dare to be different and we might find the next Cloud, the next FFVII

They could’ve taken the negative feedback on 16 and gone forward, but instead it made them pine for the days they could do no wrong. I would love for them to realise what they have. They are in a unique position to be able to add to a historied franchise but without any lore to clean up, or characters to be faithful to.

An anthology is an anthology because each game is creatively independent. Where’s Final Fantasy 17 the time-management RPG in the style of Persona? Where’f Final Fantasy 18 the back-to-roots turn based RPG? Where’s Final Fantasy 19 the one where they made every model hand-drawn and displayed like Paper Mario?

These games wouldn’t be the biggest RPGs to come out that year and wouldn’t take 10 years to devlop. They’d be on a cheaper, faster cycle like the originals were. Not every one of them would be the best game that year, but neither was 15…neither was 16. I’d take a bi-annual Final Fantasy release that keeps the anthology alive over a big-budget nothingburger like FFXV ended up being.

To me, Final Fantasy is at its best when it honours itself by being different, by iterating, by experimenting. The way that Final Fantasy 7 Remakes are currently honouring the series is an altogether less creative and altogether more self-indulgent way.

Here’s to seeing Final Fantasy 7: Reconstituted Beef at next year’s not-E3…