What if Final Fantasy never left Japan?

[Vern5]

For the sake of argument, let's say I used my evil powers of theoretical thinking and went back in time and prevented Final Fantasy from ever being sold overseas. Other games by Squaresoft would be shipped but Final Fantasy would never see any audience other than the Japanese for years.

With this in mind, how would today be different? There's a whole demographic of Final Fantasy fans but, deprived of Final Fantasy, what game would these people gravitate to? Without the presence of Final Fantasy, what JRPG series would rise to become the most popular in the western world?

 

[derdeutschmachine]

They'd probably latch on to something else. Either that or some dedicated pirates would figure out how to translate it and release it online.

 

[Evil Tim]

Surely it would increase Microsoft's dominance still further; Excel would have handled the massive tables of semi-meaningless numbers, while Word or Notepad played host to the original Sephiroth / Cloud slashfic as well as every single one of the others.

 

[cryogeist]

well if i wasn't playing final fantasy tactics
i would be playing fire emblem more XD

 

[moretimethansense]

Probably Dragon Quest, if it even got translated.
They'd also probably have taken longer to use polygon based graphics, and they may possibly have used less pre rendered cuscenes.
Mostly I just think there'd be les of them on the PS1&2 JRPGs owe a lot to FFVII no matter how you slice it.

EDIT: less translated that is, most of them would've still been made.
Though thinking about it Final Fantasy itself would probebly be a bit different as well.

 

[mireko]

Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, MegaTen [small](yeah, unlikely)[/small] or Tales I suppose.

On the other hand, it would mean 90% of the people who ***** about JRPGs on this forum would either be completely unfamiliar with the subgenre or be forced to whine about a completely different franchise. I'm not sure how that would work out.

[sub]Or is that roughly what is happening right now? Replace FF in the question with any JRPG franchise that never caught on, and that's more or less the level of discussion here.[/sub]

 

[Defense]

RPGs would probably take a bit longer to become a popular genre, and there would probably be much less JRPGs in America.

The most popular JRPG series would be Kingdom Hearts if it were localized of course, along with Xenosaga as the Cinematic RPG experience.

 

[Legion IV]

Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, MegaTen [small](yeah, unlikely)[/small] or Tales I suppose.

On the other hand, it would mean 90% of the people who ***** about JRPGs on this forum would either be completely unfamiliar with the subgenre or be forced to whine about a completely different franchise. I'm not sure how that would work out.

[sub]Or would everything stay the same?[/sub]

Wait so square can still publish games?

I dunno i'd probably be depressed and not as much of a full gamer the way i am now. FF is my fav series..

So much hate on FF its annoying it really is.

 

[MercurySteam]

The series wouldn't try anything new (kinda like it is now) and be the same game over and over only difference being is that no one would complain about it.

 

[Defense]

I STILL wouldn't be playing it.

Sorry, never gotten into, it's WAY too late for me to jump in. And I don't really want to either.

The series isn't connected though, save a few nods to previous games with character references.

The series wouldn't try anything new (kinda like it is now) and be the same game over and over only difference being is that no one would complain about it.

lolno. The series keeps changing between titles, saying that the recent titles don't change is absurd, especially considering how drastically different XII was from XIII.

And this is Square we're talking about, not Nintendo.

 

[Chibz]

Well, if FF wasn't released outside Japan we wouldn't ever get some truly amazing games (FF1-6, tactics) but we also wouldn't get some utterly trash games (FF8 and up). We'd also miss on the one mediocre title, but who cares?

 

[Gladion]

I STILL wouldn't be playing it.

Sorry, never gotten into, it's WAY too late for me to jump in. And I don't really want to either.

The series isn't connected though, save a few nods to previous games with character references.

The series wouldn't try anything new (kinda like it is now) and be the same game over and over only difference being is that no one would complain about it.

lolno. The series keeps changing between titles, saying that the recent titles don't change is absurd, especially considering how drastically different XII was from XIII.

And this is Square we're talking about, not Nintendo.

Fanboyism disguised at its worst, ladies and gentlemen. 10 points for effort, though.

OT: The world would have another series of (better) JRPGs to play. No loss, I'd say. Maybe Koudelka would've been more popular and I'd be playing Shadow Hearts 13 right now. Wishful thinking...

 

[Chibz]

And this is Square we're talking about, not Nintendo.

Final Fantasy: A group of androgynous teens try to defeat the mean ol' empire.

Fanboyism disguised at its worst, ladies and gentlemen. 10 points for effort, though.

OT: The world would have another series of (better) JRPGs to play. No loss, I'd say. Maybe Koudelka would've been more popular and I'd be playing Shadow Hearts 13 right now. Wishful thinking...

Now be fair, Final Fantasy USED to be good. It's just not so good anymore.

 

[Defense]

Fanboyism disguised at its worst, ladies and gentlemen. 10 points for effort, though.

OT: The world would have another series of (better) JRPGs to play. No loss, I'd say. Maybe Koudelka would've been more popular and I'd be playing Shadow Hearts 13 right now. Wishful thinking...

How is that fanboyism?

Final Fantasy: A group of androgynous teens try to defeat the mean ol' empire.

You and I both know that it's not what the series is about.

 

[Chibz]

You and I both know that it's not what the series is about.

Every game I played past 8 was that, or some alteration of it. FF HAS to be about the story now, because it sure as hell isn't about the subpar gameplay.

Well, I GUESS FFX had some stupid thing about Sin and the most annoying twat that I wanted to die (Tidus).

Now that I think about it, without FFT we wouldn't have had a release of a far superior tactical RPG game/series: Disgaea. And THAT would be a huge loss...

 

[Defense]

You and I both know that it's not what the series is about.

Every game I played past 8 was that, or some alteration of it. FF HAS to be about the story now, because it sure as hell isn't about the subpar gameplay.

Well, I GUESS FFX had some stupid thing about Sin and the most annoying twat that I wanted to die (Tidus).

Now that I think about it, without FFT we wouldn't have had a release of a far superior tactical RPG game/series: Disgaea. And THAT would be a huge loss...

X was about Sin, like you said. XI and XIV are both MMOs, so they don't count. XII is politically driven since it's part of the Ivalice Alliance, so you're right there. Final Fantasy XIII started out fighting the evil government, but it evolved into a plot about defying the fate given to them.

And I always thought Final Fantasy was more about character than story.

 

[Chibz]

And I always thought Final Fantasy was more about character than story.

Well, they're doubly damned there. Final Fantasy characters tend to be either bland and uninteresting, or like a dozen nails screeching across a chalkboard. The few times they DO manage to interest me with a character, he's not the main and takes the back seat to the far less interesting lead.

 

[Veylon]

Now that I think about it, without FFT we wouldn't have had a release of a far superior tactical RPG game/series: Disgaea. And THAT would be a huge loss...

Actually, FFT itself was based off of Tactics Ogre. And by "based off of", I mean that Square hired the very same team to make a very similar game. So Disgaea could've been inspired by TO instead. Maybe the Ogre Battle series would've gone on to fill part of the Final Fantasy niche.