Maybe modern Final Fantasy isn't the problem. Maybe it's me.
Reading a post about why FF16 got so much backlash from longtime fans made me realize something. I don’t actually think modern Final Fantasy is bad. It’s still a fantastic franchise with millions of fans. The games are polished, ambitious, and clearly resonate with millions of people. I just don’t think I’m the target audience anymore.
Growing up with the older Final Fantasy games, I filled in a lot of the blanks myself. The characters already had voices in my head. Their personalities lived somewhere between the dialogue boxes. The low-detail visuals left room for my imagination. As the series became fully voiced, more cinematic, and more expressive, that space gradually disappeared. Instead of imagining who these characters were, I was shown exactly who they were supposed to be.
That’s not inherently worse. In fact, for many people it’s probably better. I realized this when I watched Advent Children or played the FF7 Remakes. The characters felt so different from the versions I’d carried around in my head for years. I honestly think that if FF6 got the same treatment today, I’d probably have the exact same reaction. I’d be thinking, “Wait… was this character always this anime-like?” or “I never imagined them delivering lines like that during battle.”
So maybe people like me are sometimes criticizing FF16 for the wrong reason.
Maybe we're not reacting to FF16 itself.
Maybe we're reacting to the loss of the space where our own imagination used to live.
Does anyone else feel this way?