Real Talk By: Zombie Zac

What does it mean to be a Final Fantasy fan in 2017? I kept thinking about that question as I played the latest entry in this long-running series. Even as the end credits rolled, I still didn’t have a solid answer. While Final Fantasy originated on the NES, most people will say it was FFVII on the Playstation that hooked them. By the time the PS2 became the dominant platform, games were changing, budgets increasing and turn-based combat was definitively a niche genre. After Squaresoft merged with Enix the series would zig-zag between attempts to modernize gameplay and capitalize on popular gaming trends. With the success of Ultima Online, then World of Warcraft, Square Enix released a MMO game in the Final Fantasy universe to decidedly mixed results. It became clear that Final Fantasy had in many ways lost all sense of direction, and also split it’s fanbase across the divide of games and years in between. Continue reading “Final Fantasy XV Review: An Epic Divided”