When did Final Fantasy move from medieval fantasy to futuristic Sci-Fi??? (1 Viewer)

[William Ward]

After seeing clips from the movie I began to wonder what happened to the FF franchise to move it from medieval fantasy similar to dungeons and dragons to a futuristic sci-fi genre??
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William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs

 

[Geoffrey_A]

Final Fantasy VII at a guess.
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Geoff
Now with Kung-Fu grip and realistic facial hair!

 

[cafink]

Final Fantasy VI (for Super Famicom) was the traditional midieval fantasy, while FF VII (for Playstation) moved the series to the "sci-fi" realm.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

Final Fantasy VI (for Super Famicom) was the traditional midieval fantasy

With power armour, power drills, and a demon train? Not quite.
Final Fantasy 4 would have been the last 'pure' fantasy, 5 started the transition, kinda, and 6 really mixed fantasy and scifi. 7 was scifi with some fantasy thrown in. 8 was pure scifi, where all the magic was scientifically explained. 9 went back to fantasy, with some 'magic science' thrown in. 10 I haven't played.

 

[cafink]

Fair enough, I may not have accurately described FF VI, but wouldn't you agree that FF VII was a marked change in style much moreso than any of its predecessors?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

VII was when it officially went from fantasy to sci-fi. Nonetheless, that doesn't make any of the games or the movie any less good (or great even). Many criticize FF8 for being pretty much total sci-fi, which it mostly is (a little fantasy is in there, but its based a lot on sci-fi for the atmosphere), but the game is still very good. The FF movie doesn't have dragons and magic and castles, which is actualy a good thing (it would have sucked if they were there) and it still came out pretty good (I loved it, especially because it had depth).
Any problems with the games usually stems from translation issues. Nothing more. The games are all great.
Back to topic, FF4 was total classic gameplay, FF5 became more industrial, FF6 was all about industrialism, FF7 was industrialism and sci-fi, FF8 was sci-fi futuristic, and FF9 is traditional with slight industrial. FFX is supposed to be a mish mosh of everything.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Yep, FF3 US had you walking around in power armor near the end. I would consider that to be the pivot point in my mind.
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Bombardment Society - Member

 

[William Ward]

Thanks for the replies. I'd only played the first one and wondered what happened.
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William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

I'll definately agree that VII went a bit more hardcore Sci Fi, and I'll even tell you why. It's a lot easier to render manufactured, boxy things in very few polygons than it is to render natural things, which tend to be more curved.

 

[Richard Kim]

Actually, FFIV did have sci-fi type elements as well as fantasy stuff. The heroes travelled around the world in airships, and towards the end, travel to the moon.
Not focusing enough on magic and swords and sorcery stuff was what disappointed me alot with the FF movie. As it was it was just another generic sci-fi action flick.

 

[Anthony Hom]

Boy that brings back memories. My first try at FF was FF1 on the gameboy. It was such a simple elegant game, pure RPC. I take it that the game is now much more than that.

 

[cafink]

Boy that brings back memories. My first try at FF was FF1 on the gameboy. It was such a simple elegant game, pure RPC. I take it that the game is now much more than that.

There aren't any FF games for the gameboy, that's a game from another series that Square USA retitled to make it more marketable.

 

[teapot2001]

I recently found a new trailer that some of you may not have seen before. I think it does a great job of representing the movie, unlike the other ones. Go to Link Removed and click on "new trailer."
~T

 

[Edwin-S]

The second trailer certainly seems to have captured the feel of this film much better than the first one. A lot of people say it is generic sci-fi and in a lot of ways it is but it still was a better science fiction film than most of the recent attempts. The ending on this film was certainly more believable than the stupid ending that marred "The Fifth Element". "The Fifth Element" didn't take it self very seriously though....unlike "The Spirits Within".
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[Morgan Jolley]

I think the trailer you are talking about is the trailer that has been around since July only on that website. I've had it for a long time.
I personally am happy that they pulled out the swords and sorcery stuff. It proved that they can make something Final Fantasy without that junk. They would have also made the film more specific in its audience. I think it came out VERY GOOD.
The film was a sci-fi film, but it wasn't like every other sci-fi film. It had stuff like deeper meanings, themes, thought provoking plot points, and even details about the ending that you need to find yourself. The film overall felt quite original and I really liked the ending. It was very bittersweet, which is what I felt at the end of FF9, and if the rumors are true, FF8.
EDIT: I thought I would elaborate on what the rumors of FF8 were. There are some rumors that one of the characters of the game is actually the main bad guy of the game, which would make the ending more bittersweet than any movie or game could ever be, especially since the characters are clueless to it (play the game, beat it, and then ask me and I'll explain if you don't understand me).
[Edited last by Morgan Jolley on September 29, 2001 at 08:14 PM]