Poll: Final Fantasy: Fantasy or Sci Fi?
- Thread starter FrozenLaughs
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I like when technology channels magic. It creates this idea of a force that is capable of anything but when used in the right methods it becomes anything from a power source to an amplifier, or if someone doesn't use tech for their magic it lets them show things like materialisation or transmuation. It's the only way I could justify Waka having one of the most powerful weapons in the game be a bloody vollyball.
In general it is either Fantasy or a form of sci fi while some have been Fantasy with Steam punk. The series has no definitive form since it changes from game to game.
Of the listed options, probably the first one.
But as is heavily stated, they're prettymuch all fantasy, even if they're delving into steam/cyberpunk. FF1 had the space station before they remade it into a castle in later versions. I'm a little hazy on 2, and never played 3. 4 had a giant doomsday robot, prettymuch everything in the Tower, and you flew off on a spaceship to fight evil aliens at the end. 5 again gives another techy flying city, alien planets with forcefield generators, and assorted battles with missile firing enemies, and a superboss mech in the last dungeon. Six saw mechs with lasers and missiles all over the place (sure, they were magic-powered), the empire capital was a giant robotic city, and full fledged future factories. Nine also had a spaceship in it, along with the trans-dimensional alien bad guys.
But as is heavily stated, they're prettymuch all fantasy, even if they're delving into steam/cyberpunk. FF1 had the space station before they remade it into a castle in later versions. I'm a little hazy on 2, and never played 3. 4 had a giant doomsday robot, prettymuch everything in the Tower, and you flew off on a spaceship to fight evil aliens at the end. 5 again gives another techy flying city, alien planets with forcefield generators, and assorted battles with missile firing enemies, and a superboss mech in the last dungeon. Six saw mechs with lasers and missiles all over the place (sure, they were magic-powered), the empire capital was a giant robotic city, and full fledged future factories. Nine also had a spaceship in it, along with the trans-dimensional alien bad guys.
it's not the setting, but the story, which is something that has been hit or miss 7-10, and utter shit 12 an onward.
so, both for me.
so, both for me.
I am completely amazed by the people that say that all the games are fantasy and no Sci Fi. I never expected that kind of response at all! There is so much science in the later titles (7+) going on all over the place.
Why do we divide steampunk into a different category than sci fi?
Why is machinery and technology powered by magic *not* considered sci fi? If magic is a natural element of that world, isn't it the same as being powered by anything else? (Nuclear, solar, geo, hydro etc)
This is so interesting.
Why do we divide steampunk into a different category than sci fi?
Why is machinery and technology powered by magic *not* considered sci fi? If magic is a natural element of that world, isn't it the same as being powered by anything else? (Nuclear, solar, geo, hydro etc)
This is so interesting.
Fantasy.
Playing VII, I was first put off by the sci-fi setting (having, after all, paid for something called Final Fantasy VII), but the game soon blew my mind completely, and eventually I even came to appreciate the unorthodox approach.
None the less, the greatest FF game I have ever played, is IX. Only when I saw IX's lush, green landscapes and magnificent medieval architecture, did I realize how inherently depressing VII's polluted wastelands had really been. I still love VII, but I can't help feeling that IX is what FF should be.
It might very well be that IX is simply a more optimistic and uplifting game, story-wise, too. Both protagonists feel severely maladjusted, and they both discover some incredibly alarming truth about themselves, but the key difference is that Cloud tends to let everything get him down (to his credit, though, he never actually feels like giving up), whereas Zidane remains happy and optimistic throughout, taking everything in stride until-
-and even then, he's back to normal in no time.
That said, the green grass and blue skies is what really sets the mood. IX is simply a feelgood-game, on a level that no other FF has approached for me, and without the fantasy setting, I really don't think that would be the case to the same extent.
Finally, from a non-nostalgic point of view, I think ANY change to the modern FF formula would constitute a major improvement, INCLUDING changing it back to more traditional fantasy settings!
Playing VII, I was first put off by the sci-fi setting (having, after all, paid for something called Final Fantasy VII), but the game soon blew my mind completely, and eventually I even came to appreciate the unorthodox approach.
None the less, the greatest FF game I have ever played, is IX. Only when I saw IX's lush, green landscapes and magnificent medieval architecture, did I realize how inherently depressing VII's polluted wastelands had really been. I still love VII, but I can't help feeling that IX is what FF should be.
It might very well be that IX is simply a more optimistic and uplifting game, story-wise, too. Both protagonists feel severely maladjusted, and they both discover some incredibly alarming truth about themselves, but the key difference is that Cloud tends to let everything get him down (to his credit, though, he never actually feels like giving up), whereas Zidane remains happy and optimistic throughout, taking everything in stride until-
he gets his soul ripped out by a major villain and then learns that he exists only to destroy the world, along with everybody he ever knew and cared about
That said, the green grass and blue skies is what really sets the mood. IX is simply a feelgood-game, on a level that no other FF has approached for me, and without the fantasy setting, I really don't think that would be the case to the same extent.
Finally, from a non-nostalgic point of view, I think ANY change to the modern FF formula would constitute a major improvement, INCLUDING changing it back to more traditional fantasy settings!
Everybody has their own idea of what sci-fi really means, and where to draw the line between it and fantasy. Personally, I say that sci-fi is, by definition, fiction based on what impact more advanced science would have on the real world, as seen in The Invisible Man and similar stories.FrozenLaughs said:
Accordingly, in my opinion, ALL the FF games qualify as fantasy - BUT, I can see how people might disagree (we are, after all, talking about two distinctly different KINDS of fantasy, one of which I happen to prefer, so I decided to reply to the thread according to the principles presented because I'm here to contribute to the thread, not argue semantics!)
The thing that holds them all together (and I this is why I like Final Fantasy even though I'm critical of several of the recent entries) is that even though the OP has the fantasy/sci-fi split right... 1-6, 9, and 12 are ANIME fantasy and the rest are ANIME sci-fi. The comparisons don't hold up as well to literature or movies... but it's does when compared to anime. And that's fine by me. I had to vote sci-fi on the poll, because in order my preference is 8, 7, 1, 6, 10, 9, 5, 4, 2, 3, 12, and 13. But there was more than a little anime steampunk in 5 and 6. I could make an argument that 7 and 8 (more 7 than 8) are as much steampunk as sci-fi. Meaning that would be my preference as opposed to sci-fi.
Now see, another post that separates steampunk and sci fi as two different things?
It's not scifi if it's powered by magic, but it can still be steampunk, even if it's not powered by steam. Yet steampunk is it's own category, and not sci fi, despite the inherent pseudoscience of it. That's a very interesting circle of logic.
Why do we seperate them? It's another interesting distinction in this discussion.Kyrian007 said:
It's not scifi if it's powered by magic, but it can still be steampunk, even if it's not powered by steam. Yet steampunk is it's own category, and not sci fi, despite the inherent pseudoscience of it. That's a very interesting circle of logic.
I was going to point this out as well, that all the FF games are actually fantasy. The difference between the categories is the the earlier installments were more "High Fantasy" in a classical sense (castles, dragons, wizards, etc) where as the later installments became more of what I like to call "Cyber Fantasy" with the futuristic settings, weapons, enemies, etc.nohorsetown said:
That said, I prefer the earlier installments. Those were the ones that I grew up with so those are the ones I'll cling to. The shift from High Fantasy to Cyber Fantasy is, in my eyes, a bastardization of the franchise and largely why I stopped playing FF games.
Well I prefer VII,VI,X and IV over the others so there you go cant say I really care whether its fantasy or sci-fi or Steampunk or whatever other labels you want to attach to it as long as the games enjoyable for me.
Here is a snippet from the Wikipedia page about Science Fiction: (an interesting read)
"Science Fiction is like pornography, you can't always describe it, but you know it when you see it. "
I find it very interesting that people see and play the games, and their minds make the distinctions like "science-fantasy" and "cyber-fantasy" and similar terms, without going straight to "sci fi" like my mind does.
I wonder, does that come from being dedicated sci fi fans/readers? Maybe a dedicated fan if the Fantasy genre? Are some of you so engrossed in either genre that any fantasy in the mix automatically skews a game towards the Fantasy genre?
Most of the series range in their exposure to the above list, with I think 8 being the strongest. Another interesting quote from Wikipedia, on defining Sci Fi:
"Science Fiction is like pornography, you can't always describe it, but you know it when you see it. "
I find it very interesting that people see and play the games, and their minds make the distinctions like "science-fantasy" and "cyber-fantasy" and similar terms, without going straight to "sci fi" like my mind does.
I wonder, does that come from being dedicated sci fi fans/readers? Maybe a dedicated fan if the Fantasy genre? Are some of you so engrossed in either genre that any fantasy in the mix automatically skews a game towards the Fantasy genre?