Final Fantasy is one of the biggest names in gaming. Having first been released to the world in 1987 as a last-ditch effort to save game company SquareSoft (now Square Enix), it earned the "Final" half of its title. Everything wants to be like it, and every broody, spiky-haired male game character gets immediately related to the iconic Cloud regardless of if he wields a sword or not.

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A lot has changed since that initial game, including massive budget increases, otherworldly storytelling, industry-defining graphics, and some of the most iconic characters in video game history. Some of these changes have been for the better, while others have not. In some cases, whether a change has been positive or negative comes down to individual personal opinion and is far from objective.

10 Pixel To CGI Makes For Gorgeous Graphics

Final Fantasy Reno

There is nothing wrong with pixel games. In fact, many of them are still timelessly gorgeous in their own ways. Final Fantasy may have had a shaky transition from pixel to CGI given the limitations of the time, but that doesn't mean that they don't now have some of the prettiest graphics in the industry.

The best part is that even in the new Final Fantasy VII Remake, the characters still look and feel like the characters they started out as— only this time, they aren't a strange collection of polygons that barely fit into their world.

9 Battles Are No Longer Turn-Based

Final Fantasy 7 Chocobo And Moogle

The older games were turn-based RPGs but in more recent years have moved away from that. Battle menus are often front and center with little to no transition from the overworld and into battles depending on the game.

They rely a little heavier on the player's individual skill than before, a trend many modern games are going with. They still typically have their own little battle gimmicks which attempt to set them apart, such as FFVII's Limit Break system which keeps things a little more special to the franchise than might have otherwise been the case.

8 More Emphasis On Open World

Final Fantasy XV cast

Modern gamers love open world games and they have made it clear to the franchise that they want to see more of it. It wasn't handled the greatest in FFXV according to some fans, but FFVII was definitely ahead of its time with its limited open world so fans know they could pull it off.

Choices are starting to have consequences, there are alternate endings to some of their games, and a heavy emphasis on exploration is present which the oldest of the games didn't have. The good news is they keep their worlds vibrant which reduces the annoyance of the grind.

7 More Cinematics That Blend In Better With Gameplay

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Cloud

Final Fantasy VII tried so hard to give the world breathtaking visuals that the software of the time just couldn't handle. That meant that the cutscenes and the gameplay were stylistically very different.

Nowadays the unplayable cutscenes are at movie-quality, with the actual gameplay suffering very little from the transition back to playable. Sometimes it's not even all that noticeable if the system it's being played on is up to the task. It has really put the industry up to a standard, at least as far as cinematic transitions go.

6 Characterization Tends To Be Lacking In Newer Games

Final Fantasy Lunafreya

Something long-running, untouchable franchises have a problem with sometimes is they get complacent. They try so hard to keep going with what works instead of using their status to push the envelope and deliver something new and out of the box.

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Final Fantasy was hit with a double-whammy, as they have achieved the ultimate success in video game history and cemented some of the most iconic characters into the world. This just means that now they have to compete with the impossible force that was Final Fantasy VII and its legendary cast when producing new games, so they instead try too hard to play it safe and it really causes many of their characters to fall flat.

5 The Worlds Are Becoming Massive

Final Fantasy 15

Along with the shift to a more open world style of game, the worlds within the Final Fantasy franchise are getting absolutely massive. The overall playtime to complete the story might be going down, but the potential for tons of exploration and vast distances traveled is steadily increasing.

That also means that they need to keep filling up the world with more things or else it's just going to end up a long, grinding mess of a disaster. It was something that FFXV sometimes struggled with, leading to too much time just driving around in a car with the guys.

4 Less Fantasy More Futuristic Cyberpunk

Final Fantasy XV

When the franchise started out, it was consistent of very clear, fantasy-based stories. There were dragons and monsters, swords, shields, and other high-fantasy sorts of plotlines.

As time goes on there is more and more of a trend to force the games into something more futuristic and cyberpunk. It has become the prime example of the Magitech genre, but even the magic seems to be trying to fade away into the lifestream.

3 Trying Too Hard To Appeal To The Masses

Noctis And Lunafreya Cropped

Final Fantasy XV changed direction so many times due to constant changes in leads and it tried too hard to appeal to masses who were going to buy their game anyway by trying to ask the fans what they thought they wanted in a Final Fantasy game.

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But perhaps the studio will learn from its mistake of throwing its games between directors and taking in too much fan input. Once FFVII rolled around, it started feeling like the games had to start putting in more dark and gritty elements or suffer the fate of FFIX and be considered too childish. Perhaps the studio will learn from its mistake of trying to keep up with current trends and go back to starting the trends like they used to.

2 Sephiroth Is Unsurmountable As A Gaming Icon

FFVII Trademarks Sephiroth

Sephiroth is one of the most iconic names in video game history. He was introduced as one of the rawest villains ever at the time and has made it so it's impossible to have a dark-clad silver-haired male character without him immediately appearing as a potential influence. Any cruel game villain with a complex, tragic backstory will forever be compared to him.

The problem is that Sephiroth first appeared in Final Fantasy VII, and the franchise has been trying to live up to their own standards since with little success. It has gotten to the point they are trying to compete with themselves instead of following in his success and actually designing well-made characters and games with complex themes. They even keep dragging him through various spinoffs and shoving him into cameos in a desperate attempt to collect on his legacy.

1 There Are Some Ambitious Design Choices

Final Fantasy 15 Monster

Even if the games are taking a more realistic approach in more recent years, they still have some breathtaking designs for their characters, monsters, and settings. They just keep ramping up the creativity as they try to confine themselves to more realistic rules to fit in with modern styles, which just make for more and more creatures that have that wow factor the series has always been good at producing.

Outfits get both subtler and wilder at once, monsters feel part of the world and outlandishly amazing, and the architecture of buildings is to die for. They spend a ton of time with their designs, leading to some of the most amazing things anyone is ever going to have grace their gaming screens.

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