February's Together Retro Themes: Poll Closed - FF Spin-Offs

[Ack]

So, what are all of the Final Fantasy spin-offs? What can be included in this list? I'm curious what Noise feels is ok to play.

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=51873&start=110#p1122029

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=51873&start=139#p1122317




Edit: Spelling is hard, but linking is harder.

I appreciate the breakdown, but I was more curious if noise was cool with folks looking into stuff like Ehrgeiz or Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Wii U, where Cloud was a DLC playable character.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Srsly though - aren't there more than enough standard retro FF spin-offs to choose from without getting into the random "what abouts"?

[Ack]

Srsly though - aren't there more than enough standard retro FF spin-offs to choose from without getting into the random "what abouts"?

Sure, sure, I just wanted to check in with noise on what he feels. It's his month, so I wanted to hear his thoughts directly. As he's all for inclusiveness, it gives even more options than we've already talked about.

[noiseredux]

Srsly though - aren't there more than enough standard retro FF spin-offs to choose from without getting into the random "what abouts"?

sure there are. But...

1. What if somebody has played ALL of those 10+ year games and want to try something else for the month?
2. What if somebody is broke, but has another one of those games that Ack mentioned in their collections that they haven't played yet?

These are both hypothetical of course, but again, my own feeling is to garner participation. I know that I'm personally going to play the game that I'm in the mood to play. I feel no need to tell anyone "no dude, you can't play that game in my thread!" If anything I find it interesting to see what everyone with such different interests might choose to play from each theme.

[ElkinFencer10]

Just to throw in my unsolicited opinion, I think the purpose of this is definitely retro (which I would call Gamecube and earlier) and actual spinoffs rather than loosely-related-by-including-a-characters (honestly I wouldn't count Kingdom Hearts), but as noise mentioned, the idea is to build participation, so while I think those guidelines are important to stress, I don't think we really gain anything from waxing dogmatic about it.

[Exhuminator]

I don't think we really gain anything from waxing dogmatic about it.

On the other hand, the looser the restrictions and themes become, the less purposeful the event is.

[noiseredux]

I don't think we really gain anything from waxing dogmatic about it.

On the other hand, the looser the restrictions and themes become, the less purposeful the event is.

Unless the purpose (right now) is to boost the shrinking participation rate.

I'll be happy if the FF thread gets half as much action as the thread about which FF games we're allowed to talk about in the FF thread has gotten.

[ElkinFencer10]

What about the glorious "indie" game (that I haven't made yet) called Phynal Phantecee?

[Exhuminator]

I'll be happy if the FF thread gets half as much action as the thread about which FF games we're allowed to talk about in the FF thread has gotten.

No way man, arguing about video games is way more fun than merely playing them.

[dsheinem]

I don't think we really gain anything from waxing dogmatic about it.

On the other hand, the looser the restrictions and themes become, the less purposeful the event is.

By using the term "spin-offs" though, noise was deliberately opening up wider parameters for people to choose a game. If he wanted to more narrowly define player choices, wording could have been selected that accomplished that, instead.

The definition of FF "spin-off" is debatable, too. For example, your list didn't include Ehrgeriz, but the Final Fantasy wiki does list it as something related to the series in the same way that Kingdom Hearts is (which was on your list).

I suppose the question is what makes something count as a "spin-off"? For example, that wiki mentions that Super Mario RPG has elements of FF in it:

Culex attacks with four elemental Crystals that use elemental attacks, and instead of the game's usual 2.5D isometric sprites, they use static sprites that hover in place, more similar to Final Fantasy's sprite-based art style in the Super NES era. The battle used for the fight is a remix of the Final Fantasy IV boss theme, the victory theme is Final Fantasy's Victory Fanfare, and after the battle Prelude plays. After the fight is won, Culex hands Mario the Quartz Charm accessory (Crystal Charm in the Japanese version, another obvious allusion to the Crystals of the Final Fantasy series) and departs. Mario appears back in Monstro Town with the mysterious door completely gone.

Given that there was cross-development of FF and some of these other titles, I can see an argument that lots of non-FF games were ultimately "spun off" of the mainline FF series. I mean, the basic definition Google gives me of "spin off" is "a byproduct or incidental result of a larger project." That opens the door pretty wide for a large number of games.