Some of the best Final Fantasies are not called Final Fantasy
That’s the truth, sorry, I don’t make the rules.
Has the (main) Final Fantasy series had some problems in development, mechanics, feel, game-y feeling? Yes it has, but the big , capital-T Trouble is twofold:
The gaming media tends to oversee the bad way more than it sees the good, and
Some of the best Final Fantasies of the last decade have not had the title “Final Fantasy” and have not been on consoles.
Here’s an old joke running in some circles. If you ask
Seriously, look at it. Many of the best ideas of JRPGs of the time went to Chrono Trigger and not to FF VI (the one released in North America as Final Fantasy III). The time travel, the music, the design, the characters, the many nooks and crannies that are invisible unless you go look for them, the multiple endings… I’m not saying Final Fantasy VI is a bad game it has a killer story and interesting cast but I’m saying that the best
It wasn’t just the world though; Pokemon battles were now in full 3D with a moving camera, as they were in the days of games like
Pokemon Stadium or
Pokemon Colosseum. Seeing a moving creature during battle (and in 3D if you turned the slider up on your 3DS) was an absolute revelation at the time. Finally, the mainline
Pokemon games felt like I was there.
The next biggest change is, of course, the addition of the new Fairy typing. I remember crying heresy like so many of you when a new type was announced to be added for the first time in four generations; about 30 minutes into playing