Golden Age of Final Fantasy - Documentary 

Quick links - Final Fantasy 7 to 10 - 2:10 Final Fantasy 10-2 - 13:26 Advent Children and FF7 Spin-offs - 16:01 Final Fantasy 12 - 18:26 Final Fantasy 13 - 23:17 Final Fantasy 15 - 32:07 Golden Age Immersion - 34:38 Square Staff - 40:50 Sales Figures and Fan Polls - 43:54 Sakaguchi's Departure - 47:18 Final Fantasy VII Remake - 49:12

The fall of final fantasy was the departure of Sakaguchi and Uematsu.

"There was pain written on their pixels." That sentence is awesome.

As a Final Fantasy boomer this hits home so good.

This channel is a hidden gem on RU-vid. Keep making videos man, you're good at it. Persistence and consistency and you could make it big with this level of quality

Why doesn’t this have more views????? I appreciate your passion for this series.

Really enjoyed this, its rare to find a good Final Fantasy retrospective view that goes back to how we thought of games in the 90s and as each release came out. Good to hear it from another Irish dude too!

Basically the FF I to X, Squaresoft era. I agree with story, character, I add interesting world building/lore, beautiful OST and visuals, basically the complete package, that what makes most anime, movies and games, pieces of art. That's why I love Ghost in the shell franchise so much. They had that.

You get it bro. Final fantasy isn’t final fantasy anymore. It’s a hollow shell. With sakaguchi heading into retirement the return of that age seems unlikely. Nomura can’t write and wants to play metro fashion fantasy more then create unforgettable worlds. 16 looks interesting because Nomura isn’t there

I hope we can someday return to decent FF games. I might be blinded by nostalgia, but i honestly believe that FFX was the last true "Final" Fantasy. Every game since then has been a hollow shell, failing to capture past levels of greatness in the series. FFVI is my favourite, followed by FFVII and FFIV.

I'm shocked to see how many dislikes there are on this video after watching it. Excellent analysis on FF's fall from greatness and how it lost its ways. Subscribed 👍

Some additions/semi corrections : FFX-2 was planned and greenlit after Yoichi Wada took over after the removal of Sakaguchi as a direct respose to the merger with Enix being threatened by Squaresoft's recent economic issues. Those issues, far from falling at the feet of the spirits within, began when Sakaguchi demanded that FFX be delayed into the next fiscal year which put Squaresoft in the red on its financial reports for the first time in company history. Sakaguchi registered the Mistwalker trademark and begin planning his departure before The Spirits Within was even launched. This ushered in the Wada era of company policy that would finally break with Sakaguchi's strict "no sequels" policy. Many people seem to not know that the planned merger with Enix predates Squaresoft's financial woes and that the change in company policy was done to save the merger, not the reason why the merger happened. Sakaguchi's policy of moving on from titles and not creating extended universes was seen as a financially unsound policy and his butting off heads with other department heads is what lead to the desire to get rid of him, and the failure of TSW combined with the FFX delay become the pretext for removing him in favor of Wada which was the person responsible for FFX-2, the FFVII extended universe, the FFXIII trilogy etc.

This is your first video and it’s actually pretty cool.

I'm a bit late to this video but thank you for putting into words how I've been feeling with the franchise. I'm 28 now and fully experienced the golden age in all its glory - I still re-play these games even now. I remember feeling so excited for FF12 after playing FF10 and just found myself completely disconnected. The same thing happened after the FF13 release and then again with FF15... Oh well! Nothing will ever come close to the golden age games ❤️

Story and Charakter. I agree. Thats what Sakaguchi and Uematsu made best. I think it was a some kind of magic to the development of these games. Even Shinji Hashimoto, a very important man for Square, who was involved in many projects said years after this "golden age", in an Interviewe about FF IX that there was a kind of feeling during the development of VII, VIII and IX that was uncomparable . He said everyone felt that he was involved in a process of making something important. Sakaguchi said in an interviewe about FF VII that the story of the game was a kind of emotional processing of the passing away of his mother 7 years before. He also said that most other developers made stories so people would play their games. He made games so people would listen to his stories. I think most of developers dont make games in this way, especially not today.

Finally got around to watching this, I wanted to do it months ago but forgot to do so until now. It was overall incredibly well scripted and edited and it made me reflect on my own experiences with these games which I really appreciate. Great job!

It's absolutely breathtaking how amazing this video is. You will definitely see more subscribers with good content like this. I completely agree with you on Square changing the bombing mission. I pray the remake can live up to the original game, which had memorable characters who were flawed and engaging. I'm 18 years old now and I never got to experience the golden age of Final Fantasy. But recently I was taken on a journey when I managed to get my hands on a ps1 and FF7. The games graphics meant nothing when the story was so compelling with many complex characters and depth to the plot. The bombing mission serves as a perfect grey area for our heroes. The fact that they changed that is super concerning.

Nothing will EVER beat the original VII

As a lover of the early games in this series, this is documentary is spot on. SE would be wise to heed the insights here. This is what final fantasy is and should always be about. It seems obvious that every attempt to make final fantasy more like something else is when they miss the mark. This is my impression of FFXVI trailer as well which seems like its trying to ride the GOT wave in narrative and aesthetic. The beauty of FF is its originality, depth, character, and story. You cant master those by immitation. Well done on this. I look forward to more content from you

amazing content! the end of the golden age for me was Hironobu Sakaguchi leaving: he recognized talent and put them into the right place. for example tetsuya nomura, an amazing character artist who did most of the golden age FF designs, but as a director of a final fantasy game like FF7 Remake? the same with Advent children, the story and writing is a mess...

People saying 'why no IV, V, Tactics etc' should bear in mind that none of those games were originally released in Europe. (Or, as far as I'm aware, anywhere outside Japan or North America) By his accent I'm assuming Orion grew up in Ireland, and for those of us in Europe, FFVII was not only our first Final Fantasy game, it was the first Final Fantasy game we were even capable of playing. 'Golden Age' is going to be by definition subjective and I took Orion as embracing that in this video. At any rate to me and a lot of people like me, the games before FFVII are usually emotional non-events because we played them (if we even did) out of their era, much later on. The nostalgia just aint there.

Great video, man! "I can confidently say with the fullness of time Final Fantasy X has one of the greatest stories in videogame history. I can say this because of how it makes me feel". Never related to anything more. Looking forward to your future videos. :)

One thing that is never mentioned is pacing. In the older games you went from location to location quickly. Nowadays you spend 3 hours in a linear copy paste dungeon. So boring.

I remember when I was in Infantry basic training. On long ruck marches i would hum the songs from FF 8, 7, and 9. Before it was over people was humming balamb garden and didnt even know it. 😂

Phenomenal video my dude....Ive been meaning to make a video on how moving to fully 3d environments has killed the epic scope of final fantasy games..hopfully i can get round to it...but i enjoyed your work

Real great job, dude. We heard about you on Reddit. I'm so engrossed by your movie here I'm finding it hard to get back to reading what I was reading! Thanks! MITM

I remember going into Wal Mart when I was young to pick up FF7 but the employee talked my mom out of buying it for me because he said "it's really hard, even adults are having a hard time progressing". Ended up getting it months later and beat it in about 2 weeks, played it daily. Still my favorite FF game of all time.

Great video! I couldn't agree more with what you said here. I grew up in the 90's and I feel lucky to have been there when these classics were coming out. I just ordered the Pixel Remasters today and I am planning on making a run through from FF1-FF10. I just discovered your channel and will be going through your library. All the best.

I agree with you totally, FFX has one of the best stories of any medium period. I felt for all the characters from Tidus to Yuna and even sin. Amazing game. I played FF X2 imidiately after 10 and I hated it, it was su h a huge departure from X story wise and game play that I just could not stand it

The only hope I have for remake part two and going forward is bringing back Sakaguchi.

Fantastic documentary, thank you for talking so in-depth about narrative!

If FF12's combat was animated more bombastically, it'd've been a hit! It just felt slow.

Incredibly poignant and lovingly made documentary. Thank you for putting into words my own feelings about those Golden Age titles and my ever dwindling excitement for each new main title. Having fallen completely in love with FF7 back in 1998 after getting the PS1 for Christmas in 1997, i was blown away by its engaging characters, story, stunning music and CGI. I was beyond excited for FF8 and was bursting to play on Christmas Day in 1999, feeling so lucky to put the first disc into the console to play for a couple of hours. I became obsessed with it and fell in love with those characters just like I had with FF7 but it was new and different, which I loved. I restarted those games time and time again to relive key moments. FF9 was another memorable experience. It felt a world away from the previous 2 titles, but I nonetheless fell for its charm and beautifully constructed story. I rushed to buy a PS2 so I could get FFX on release day and was blown away by its huge leap in graphics and once again fell in love with the array of characters and story. FF12 was a let down for me and one one I struggled to get into. I do want to revisit it now that I am older. I never played FF13. FF15 I enjoyed for a while but became bored with the constant driving and slow repetitive griding to learn the battle system. I need to go back to finish it as I lost interest in it. Over recent years, I have started playing each title in order beginning with FF1 and working my way through them all, most recently with FF10, so I hope to have played every title in full eventually. I too just wish to see a return to the more simplistic games over yesterday. With a shift in focus from graphics to incredible, deep storytelling, without the overly complex and convoluted plots that detract from the main story. It is so achievable with the right direction and heart. I believe it will happen one day.

I agree with all that you have said as much as I love 7 remake I would be happy to go back to a classic turn based style better story less emphasis on looking pretty

"Its fractured release meaning we won't fully realize Square-Enix's triumph or failure for years to come." Well, you were wrong about this one. They failed so spectacularly that we didn't even need to wait.

The first time i played FFXIII i knew It was over. Also, FFX was the start of the downfall.

Fantastic documentary. Many thanks 😺.

This video is amazing and I haven't even played a Final Fantasy game before.

The sphere grid was so well done, it is the inspiration for path if exile - the most critically acclaimed arpg of all time. It's skill system is also basically materia.

Great work! You feel about the games the same way I feel!

Keep creating content like this and your channel will surely grow! Great video!

Most of us in the 30 to 40 range stopped hoping jrpgs would go back to their roots and moved on to Western rpgs. I for one have no regrets. Jrpgs still havnt gotten good again, and western rpgs keep getting better and better all the time.

I thought crisis core was a pretty good spin off title that game really made Zack one of the best characters in FF7

Wow. Amazing video. Seriously awesome. This should be on Netflix

THIS IS A GREAT VIDEO FOR FF HISTORY only 23k views deserves more

Great video!! No time travel in FFX.

I'm just looking forward to Final Fantasy 27

Am not goin lie i think I rewatch this way to much

I totally share your sentiments about the story and characters being number one. I gotta admit I'm not even the biggest gamer, but when I was a kid, I would get enough enjoyment out of even watching my friend just play it because I was immersed in the story like it was a movie. His step-mom would even say, "hey X, let Y play," and I'd be like nah it's alright, just because I was so locked in to thinking about the world of it all.

excellent video however final fantasy 4 and 5 should be included in that golden age too. VII remake was great and XVI looks promising so here's hoping we're back to the good ol days.

Classic Age Era - (FF1-FF3) - 1987 to 1990 Golden Age Era - (FF4-FF10) - 1991 to 2001 Merger Era - (FF11-FF12) - 2002 to 2008 Dark Ages Era (FF13-FF15) - 2009 to 2019 Silver Age Era (FF16, FF7R, and other future remakes of classic games) - 2020 to present

So awesome! Well done! Totally agree with you!

Nicely done, man. Great documentary!

Dude this is super well done.

This is absolutely awesome very well thought out.

Awesome video, i was actually quite moved by it.

I loved this so much, thank you! Imo I think IV and V deserve a spot on the golden age list. they get forgotten but for me- Cecils transformation from an insecure, disillusioned dark knight to a confident paladin was iconic.

"Whatever happened to just retelling the story?" My thoughts exactly :(

Excellent video. I've yet to play 12, I'll get to that soon

So far, xiv is the best we have for modern ff right now

36:43 Honestly. I never thought FF8’s world was like that. But hearing it now really does make it more interesting now that I can relate to using Card Games to escape the Real World. Still, I can’t fully agree. Cause the world in FF8 feels less Fleshed out compared to FF6, FF7, FF9 & FF10. And 12…to some extent🫤 FF8’s Lore and World just feels Half-baked to me, more so than FF13’s, cause while FF13lore is a mess, it tries to explain the difference between L’cie and Fal’cie (as piss poorly as it can). FF8 doesn’t explain anything beyond Squall. The World is literally revolving around him by the end-point of the game. You only know about the Sorceresses (as characters). But the war, the God of the world, the Mythology, the World and how it was before - and Barely any detailed hints on it, sure a few rare magazines, but nothing really substantial! I get that the world sorta hit a “Dark Age” where no recordings or Historical Records exist. But then you have Esther! That Damn city! Like that Place has more than enough room for a Library on the Sorceress War and it’s History!

Yet another person who fails to give Hiroyuki Itou his due when mentioning the key people behind the golden age. Kitase is only solely responsible for 7 and 8. He was co director of 6 with Itou, who also directed ff9 and FF12, and 10 was directed by Toriyama - though kitase was closely supervising. Ito is one of the most important people responsible for this series best titles, and invented the most celebrated battle systems. Kitase despite directing two of the best games, is also responsible for ruining the franchise with his poor management of it since sakaguchi passed the torch. Ito is the true hope for the series

Goddamit you did a great job mate! I couldn't agree more with what you explained! I kept wondering myself if it was nostalgia but I agree 100% is the way these games made you feel! They make me feel the same way years after I first played them...

Beautiful introduction

Lightning returns was pretty good Imo @5:55 hey! 8 is my favourite! - the fact they were all from the same orphanage was critical to the story. It's why the sorceresses power works to tie them to the past - she has to know them, even if they've forgotten her.

RIP your Reno prediction coming true

Them still doing playstation exclusives is what's killing the games. When will these companies learn to not do that with their best games, they are only hurting themselves.

Modern FF writing is robotic in a way that's hard to explain. Take FF XIII for example. In a normal story, a character who's a tough hardass like Lightning wouldn't be a tough hardass 100% of the time, it would just be a slant to their personality. How they respond to events would still be colored by a massive number of factors, making them feel dynamic and real. This is why FF VII has the best writing in the series. You can basically feel each character thinking and having an internal monologue, and some characters seem to think more like Tifa and Aerith, while others are more gung ho like Barret and Yuffie, but something complex is always happening in their heads, and they respond like real people to what's happening. In XIII this just isn't the case. Even when everything goes south, Lightning is still the confident badass, Snow is still the happy-go-lucky hero. They're not allowed to emotionally respond to whatever's happening in front of them, or have independent thought. They will only "develop" when the writers decide it's okay.

I think you were a little too harsh on FF12. I definitely agree that it was a mistake to make Vaan a main character, or to even include him or Penelo. But the other four characters were still great. The story, gameplay, and soundtrack were all great. I liked it a lot better than 10 and 8. I think 13 was really the first major plunge in the main series. (Or maybe 11, I wouldn't know because I never played it.)

Final Fantasy XI to me was mind blowing when it came out. That's my golden age FF game.

Great video! Keep it up, looking forward to the next 👍🏻

Hey man, saw your other video on FF7 fans...spot on, brother. You got a sub out of me. Keep going!!

XI for me crowned it all - it really delivered on the premise of an online FF, having heard roumers since around the time of FF8 that they were planning on doing an online FF and all the things that could mean and lead to, had my imagination as a early teen running for years on end - and it probably cost me a gcse grade or two when it came out, but I wouldnt take back the hours I spent in XI - only go back and do them more efficiently... But for these golden year games VII/VIII/XI are hard to seperate out. All are fantastic and its a shame we just have this one generic art style for FF in the modern era which is kind of off-putting for me.

Wonderful video but all of your complaints about XIII just reminded me how much I loved it and now I gotta replay it 🥰

I love the final fantasy franchise, it would be exceptionally hard for me to pick out a favourite from all the ff games I own and played. However I don't play online so I can't say the same about ff online, i prefer single player, so I can explore all the open world myself

@15:00 yes, this. I liked spirits within but this is what killed it. This and the merger. Square and enix were no longer competitors and the quality dropped.

To me FFX is is where the series peaked in storytelling, and FFXII is where it peaked in gameplay. FFXII is the last FF game that felt like FF while still eliminating random battles. It honestly gets more shit than it deserves. To this day it's still my favorite FF game.... Maybe FF Tactics. I would kill for a new FF Tactics.

Sure, I liked ff10, but 6 and 7 were the best.

Very good video. You deserve more subscribers! I'm going to try and share your channel. Keep it up!

Won’t lie. We’ve reached the Copper Age pretty damn quickly when FF13 and it’s Sequels came around. Hell FF14 was close to putting the nail in the coffin, same for FFversus13/FF15. Hell I can’t forget that One Mobile Game that people Just want to forget. But I can’t, and I am here to be a Forever reminder of how bad it is! Final Fantasy: ALL THE BRAVEST! Need I say more about how Sh*tty the 2010s were during this early point in history?! I mean, it’s freaking Bad. Still, I say “Spirits Within” nearly killed Square. It wasn’t a bad movie. It was just not thought out, nor did it have The FANTASY in mind by the end of it. 😢 Still, I can forgive “Spirits Within” and FF15. I just can’t forgive the other games due to fact that -Greed- was the only Motivating factor!

To me FF XII is one of the greats but the story telling was too dry. You are definitely right about vann and penelo being irrelevant to the plot, and basch would have been a much better lead, but I don't think these failings detracted enough for it to mark the downfall of final fantasy. For me, that will always be XIII which failed on almost every level, as an RPG, as a story, as a world, it was terrible. As for the merger being 'square is held back by enix' I think it might be the other way around. I think Square was losing it's way before the merger and the merger kept them from collapsing. Square was always the one trying to break into the global market, into holywood. Combine that with doing a 180 from risk taking to risk averse and trying desperately to chase the money and we get modern square. Conversely, Enix is still being true to their Dragon Quest franchise, we don't see the same rot on their side of the company.

You can say Vaan and Penelo were foreshadowing the bleak future of FF franchise. Lol Someone in Square office, thought I love them so much, let's make FFXII sequel, with they begin the mcs and all future FFs mcs will be like them, F interesting/compelling characters, we need more eye candy and K/Jpop/Idol protags. And sadly, I foreshadowing the ☠️ of Persona, each Persona game will gain, even more popularity than previous one, until someone in Atlus will think, the same way, as the guy in Square. And the way that Persona is milked, we see hints of that.

12 shoulda been a 4 person party: Ashe, Balthier, Fran and Basch

I predict that16 will be the best game in the series since 10. I have no doubt in this

Great job dude👍

The problem is obvious, style over substance... The games have gotten more and more visually impressive... and the story/characters more and more empty... Even if you hated the Junction system of FF8 you loved Squall and Rinoa... and Laguna, and you cared what happened to them, can you say the same about Lightning or Noctis... I can't... They (Square) have forgotten how to craft characters we (the players) care about and a story we can get lost in. I have heard so much about how great the story in FF14 is, I love FF14, but the story is not great, its OK if I'm being generous, There hasn't been a great Final Fantasy since 12 in 2006 (yes I love FF12, I knows its DEEPLY flawed, and I agree that Vaughn/Penelo are terrible characters but if you accept them as vessels intended to give the player a way to experience the story, they work... Is it a good way to do things, no, but it doesn't ruin the story, at least not for me) its 2021 as I write this and I wonder if Square will ever make another compelling Fantasy... at this point I doubt it and yet I hope they prove me wrong...

Final Fantasy IX is perfect!

It's unfortunate that 6 days after you published this video, your thoughts on FF7R were proven true...

I think if you truly believe that the most crucial parts of Final Fantasy are story and characters, rather than discuss the merits of any specific Final Fantasy game, you would benefit more from learning Japanese and reading the original, untranslated, uncensored stories. One thing that I find very frustrating about discussing this series with English speakers is that they rush to criticize elements of the games that aren't present in the original Japanese release. Things like voice acting or stilted dialogue or poor writing. I often see people crticizing the original creators for these faults, when they of course had nothing to do with the localization of the games. I also get frustrated when I see videos like this one, that argue that the story of one game is superior to another in the absence of having read any of the original text of either game to have an informed opinion. In the case of this video I am making the assumption that you have not played any of the games in Japanese. If this is not the case I apologize and retract the following statements. If you did not play the games in Japanese, you don't know which game has the best story. I could tell you right now that Fuuketsu no Grimoire or Itadaki Street Portable have the absolute best storylines in the entire series. They don't, but you would have zero basis to form a counterargument. (Incidentally, the Japanese versions of both actually had better writing than I'd expected.) The ease with which monolingual people make sweeping statements and levy criticism about stories they have not and can not read is something I have grown to find quite distasteful. Especially so in the presence of numerous well-documented translation errors like the changes to character names in XIII. I'm aware of how bitter I'm being and of how I'm trying to fight a fight that was fundamentally lost about 35 years ago. And if you or anyone actually want to play an atrociously bad translation of Final Fantasy it's a free country and I have no right to stop you. But if you're going to criticize a story or especially an author, do me a favor and actually read the damn thing first.

Great documentary but leaving IV out was a mistake. Definitely the beginning of the golden age.

I do think FF12 has aged reasonably well. The Zodiac job system added a good amount of gameplay improvement and while the story is a bit convoluted and Vann/Penelo are just terrible I still find the Basch, Ashe, Balthier characters to be great and generally think the plot is enjoyable for *most* of the run, only really coming off the rails at the very end Its not really comparable to 6-10, but noticeably better than the other games since

Very good Video. Hard, subjective, nostalgic a sadly ..... true.

XII is my favourite alongside X. True I didn't feel the same joyous awe with XII, but loved the characters and the world.

Square screwed the remake up big time

Amazing video!

In my opinion the FF7 Compilation only muddied the legacy of the original FF7 with needless overcomplication, nonsensical retcons, and substanceless angst, diluting the themes of the original game and increasingly warping the characters' personalities well beyond the point of being ooc; perhaps the worst thing it did was take away the ambiguity of the original game's ending. Remake is a strange installment to talk about because I think it nails the characters' personalities (unlike Advent Children) but it's not...a remake, so the title is deceptive, and the way the story deviates from the original feels like bizarre meta commentary. Admittedly I don't have much experience with the FF series outside of FF7 and FF9, two games I love dearly - but what's going on with Remake feels like a microcosm of what's happening to the franchise at large in terms of being a departure from what it used to be. I'm not sure how much experience you have with the Dragon Quest series, but considering it's a franchise owned by the same company, yet unlike FF it still remains loyal to its traditional JRPG roots, I'd love to hear your take on it.

Really good vid, ffx all day

You’re mistaken about FFIX by the way, Terra is not another planet currently it’s inside gaia there’s no travelling to the stars at all. The party get there via the shimmering isles. When you go to places from Terra that are now in gaia such as ipsens castle notice the chests there are completely different, this them hinted at the fact.

I only got to play FF7, FF12, and FF15. FF12 was the best for me, being able to sink 250hrs+ on that game. FF15, on the other hand, was underwhelming.

Cant agree more.