Sony and Square Enix developing live-action Final Fantasy TV series encompassing the entire franchise
Aux Features Games
Here’s a bold endeavor: Sony Pictures Television is developing a live-action Final Fantasy TV adaptation with Japanese developer Square Enix, one that won’t focus on one specific game, but rather the entirety of the 30-year old franchise. This comes via Variety, who, despite having no official details on the show’s story, say that the word on the street is it will tell “an original story set in the fantastic world of Eorzea,” the setting of the series’ 14th installment.
Eorzea, however, will serve as a hub for “a blend of new familiar faces” from “across the franchise’s long history.” Variety reports that one of them will be Cid, which is hilarious considering just about every Final Fantasy game has a different, distinctive character named Cid.
The series will reportedly “explore the struggle between magic and technology in a quest to bring peace to a land in conflict,” which, duh, this is Final Fantasy. Also expect to see airships, chocobos, magitek, and beastmen—there’s no mention of moogles, to which we offer a stern “kupo!”
Give us Shadow or we riot.
30 Comments
How about Square just work on making a Final Fantasy game that’s good. Maybe one with a tun based combat system?
How about you give a chance at the FFVII remake that blends real time and command-based actions? We’re in 2019, turn-based didn’t age well, except for games whose entire art direction and concept is meant to be old-school. Final Fantasy doesn’t look back, it moves forward.
How about you give a chance at the FFVII remake Final Fantasy doesn’t look back, it moves forward.
I don’t even care about the FF7 remake, I already played that game back in ’97. But when the get around to making 16 a back-to-basics approach would be smart because they’ve been flailing since 10 as far as I’m concerned.
The problem in FF isn’t the battle style and gameplay, it’s the way characters and stories are approached, where they keep giving us major plot points that happen off screen. If they can give us a compelling story with relatable characters everything will work out a lot better. The gameplay in 15 is what salvaged the horrible story approach and helped me finish the game. By comparison, if every FF played the exact same as they had for the first 10, but the stories of 13 and 15 still exist just the same, they just become boring grinds that feel 10x more unsatisfying. Just look at Final Fantasy Record Keeper where essentially you get to play through major moments of EVERY FF in the original style. 😴
While I’m basically okay with the move away from turn based combat (I really enjoyed the combat in 12 and 13), Dragon Quest XI proves that turn based still works.
Totally hear you, but I have really been enjoying the mini-renaissance of turn-based games (though many meet your criteria of being purposefully retro!) from XCOM and Hearthstone a few years ago to the more recent Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, Divinity Original Sin, and others. Keep ‘em coming I say. On the other hand, excited for the FF7 remake and ready to embrace the updated systems as well!
I’m down for anything that’s not a bunch of guys standing in a line taking turns to spring forward, hit an enemy, and spring back. With occasional breaks for five minute animations.They got it right in Final Fantasy Tactics, so why did it take them so goddamn long to get rid of the most dogshit combat system in the world? Just because something is based on early home computers with 16k of RAM not being able to handle keeping track of the positions of multiple characters in 1983 doesn’t mean you have to venerate it like a goddamn religion.
I always liked the SeeD Academy set up from Final Fantasy VIII. I’d like to see them incorporate that in series. And Blitzball from FFX. I’ll be keeping my eye on this.
There are soooooo many ways this could go wrong ><
We’re finally getting the Red Mage origin story we’ve been waiting for since 1987.
Around season 3 the party realizes they aren’t strong enough to take on the final boss so they will spend the next 2 seasons on some god-forsaken island endlessly fighting the same boring enemies to level up.Sounds riveting.
Only two seasons fighting the same boring enemies? The Walking Dead wants you to hold its beer.
Cactrot ho!!
“The series started off with promise, with action-packed set pieces and a compelling story, complete with an evil overlord, an unstoppable empire at his command, and a ticking doomsday clock for his master plan to come to fruition. But about halfway through the run – right around the time when the main cast gained access to the airship – all of the characters suddenly began behaving entirely differently. Instead of pursuing their one and only hope to stop the end of the world, this formerly driven group of freedom fighters, displaced nobles, haunted veterans and magical messiah figures began devoting inordinate amount of time to card games, sports matches, gambling and racing. Entire episodes would revolve solely around helping total strangers with seemingly pointless requests, ferrying items back and forth across the globe, and even seeking out beings of enormous power hidden away in the furthest corners of the world solely to pick fights.”
THE WORLD IS COVERED IN DARKNESS
This could work so long as they take their time and put together a really top-notch hairstyling department.Also actors, writers, whatever.
Just hire cosplayers and gothy j-rock bands, none of this costumers that are basically just stylists nonsense.
I could get into this. FFX was my favorite, aside from the fact that I wish you could skip the story part. Never played FFVII, but sure as hell loved FFIII on SNES!! Glitches galore!
If they don’t get one actor to play “Cid” and keep him the same the entire thing will be a failure.
Finally, they’re pulling the trigger on the connected universe stuff that’s been brewing since FF5’s gilgamesh showing up in other games looking for Bartz. Will it be good? Eh probably not.
It’s too bad Square doesn’t have any Final Fantasy games with rich narratives and beloved characters that could be mined for an adaptation.
Those, and also 13.
Making a TV series out of Final Fantasy is like novelizing Nuts For Butt Nut Sluts 17 or releasing a book of Fred Durst’s poetry.
But what about Blue Dragon? Jk no one cares about that.
I can’t wait for the Chocobo racing spinoff that gets cancelled after half a season of watching the stars digging everywhere for greens.
Make a Xenogears show! Season 4 can be getting up the Babel Tower.
This sounds like Final Fantasy filtered through Kingdom Hearts. Hopefully that means each season will have a subtitle stuffed full of random punctuation and nonsense.
Crystals + Gaia + life-energy + chocobo + confused protagonist + summoned ancient gods descending from the heavens to wreck hilariously disproportionate levels of planetary obliviation against alarmingly small and unassuming enemies + spiky haircuts + Phoenix Downs = Boom, Final Fantasy show.
Too bad at least half of the Final Fantasy games are actually terrible.Oh come on, you all know it’s true. This series has always been great hit or huge miss at even the best of times, with particular emphasis on everything bad about the franchise being aimed squarely at the entire latter 50% of them, (but not exclusively)For every masterpiece Final Fantasy like 3, 4, 6, 7, or 9, there’s been an awful, nearly franchise-ruining turd like Final Fantasy 2, 5, 8, 10, 13, and 15.