Final Fantasy 12's Impact on the Franchise Is Bigger Than it Seems
Final Fantasy 12 was released back in 2006 to commercial and critical acclaim, earning several game of the year accolades and receiving particular praise for its innovative combat system, graphics, music, and voice cast. Particular praise was directed at the game for refreshing the franchise and moving away from established JRPG tropes, providing something new and innovative that resonated with players of the franchise. Final Fantasy 12 looked to revolutionize the franchise rather than revamp it — the impact of which is still being felt to this day through its legacy in the games that followed.
No Final Fantasy game is ever created equal in the eyes of fans. There are millions of players who are always either new to the franchise, or those with extreme nostalgia and fandom for each game that comes out. Coming off the heels of Final Fantasy 10, a game that was also well received, Final Fantasy 12 represented a paradigm shift compared to its predecessor. So many changes to the traditional formula were implemented that it divided few, but excited and impressed many — so much so that Square Enix seems to have taken the legacy of Final Fantasy 12 and used it as a baseline for the modern Final Fantasy games that have been released since.
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FF12's impact on the modern Final Fantasy franchise begins with how it developed a sprawling semi-open world, compared to what were typically linear and straightforward storyline paths for the franchise. Coming off the more cinematic yet confined world of Final Fantasy X, the world of Ivalice was a complete change in direction when assessing player agency twinned with world-building and art style. FF12's Ivalice
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