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CRPG Collection

How to play Ultima VI in 2023

Ultima VI: The False Prophet, released in 1990, remains a timeless classic that continues to be enjoyed in 2023 (and beyond).

Though the last in a loose trilogy of Ultima games (4, 5 and 6), Ultima VI is easy to recommend as an entry point for players new to the series. Developed for the IBM PC and with the luxury of 256 colour VGA graphics, the visual jump from the earlier Apple II-developed games is drastic. Also, Ultima VI removes the first-person dungeons and two-scale maps and instead presents one coherent, consistent world, making it much more palatable to modern players.

However, as is to be expected of a game that is almost 35 years old, it can be inaccessible in some ways. This article aims to get you settled into the world of Brittania as painlessly as possible.

Screenshot of Ultima 6 title screen
Screenshot of exploring a castle in Ultima 6

Tips for getting started

Some things that might be useful to know to make your first sojourn into this world more pleasant:

1. Play on Nuvie. Ultima VI ran on MS-DOS, which doesn’t exist on modern PCs, so when you download it from GOG or somewhere similar it will play in an emulator called DOSBOS.

However, there is a better solution, and that is to play Ultima VI through Nuvie, an engine for playing Ultima VI on modern systems. If you’re playing this classic CRPG in 2023, Nuvie will make your experience a lot smoother, without changing the game.

After these tips I’ll explain how to set up Nuvie, so skip to here if you’re ready to get started.

2. If you want your companions to help you in a scrape, switch to battle mode. Otherwise, they’ll just scratch their heads while you all get pelted with throwing axes. The keyboard shortcut is B. Sometimes they are shy about attacking, but you can fix that by changing their behaviour in their stats screen. Change to “Control” to manually command that character on their turns.

I put this one here because when you start the game you’re dropped straight into a battle.

3. Answer the copy protection questions. When that battle is over, your first instinct will probably be to talk to the king you just saved. That’s Lord British. But he’s not very welcoming, insisting that you take a quiz before he will say anything useful to you. This is Ultima VI’s piracy protection. The answers were contained in the manual that came with legitimate copies of the game. If you bought your copy from GOG, you can download this “Compendium” digitally, which you should do anyway because it’s a beautiful booklet and delves into the lore of the game. However, for the sake of getting past Lord British’s questions, just find the answers on Ultima Codex, the main Ultima Wiki, here: https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Ultima_VI_copy_protection 

4. Find out what to do next by talking. You get information out of people by typing in keywords while talking to them. A good place to start is with the NPCs “name” and their “job”: this will usually lead to other key subjects, which will be highlighted in a different colour of text. This game will not make things easy for you if you aren’t listening to what people say and seeking more information by interrogating other people on the same subjects. Take notes, because the game won’t do that for you either. It’s pretty hands-off, in this regard and others.

On this topic, a good place to start your enquiries would be to ask Lord British about the orb you found in the game’s introduction. You’ll want to figure out how to use it to cut down on travel time in the game, but you might want to leave that until you understand the geography of the world a bit better.

Talking to Lord British about the Orb of Moons in Ultima 6

5. Controlling other characters and their inventories. The number keys switch control to other characters, also giving you access to their inventories, so you can carry more loot and keep it better organised. The avatar’s backpack will be full before you leave the castle, so knowing this immediately will save you some frustration. Press 0 to switch back to the default “party mode”. 

6. Embrace the old-school interaction method. Ultima VI doesn’t have a context-sensitive button that allows you to do everything from pick up items, to talk to somebody, to open chests, to read a sign. In fact, these actions are all separate buttons (or keystrokes): get, talk, use, and look. When you choose your action, you then target something with it. It’s a bit of a habit change, but when you get used to it you see some advantages, like how you can talk to everyone in a bar without leaving your seat. 

7. Learn these keyboard shortcuts. You can play this game entirely with the mouse but it’s quite a bit slower this way. I feel my clicking finger could get tired. Learning the keyboard shortcuts will make your adventure smoother. F1, F2 etc switch to the inventory of party members, and F10 brings up the full party screen with the time of day indicator. Crtl-1, Crtl-2 etc bring up stats screens. 

Setting up Nuvie

Nuvie adds, among other many other things:

  • An in-game settings menu for audio, visual and gameplay tweaks
  • Enhanced and modernised controls like drag-and-drop for items
  • More comfortable default key bindings and the ability to customise key bindings
  • Overhaul of save/load system
  • Convenience features like automatically using keys on doors becoming 
  • An option for a UI overhaul similar to the style of Ultima VII

Step 1: Download Nuvie

Download Nuvie from this page: https://nuvie.sourceforge.net/?page=downloads 

Choose the official release binary for your operating system.

Step 2: Install Nuvie on your computer

Nuvie Setup program

Install Nuvie anywhere you will find convenient. You can install it directly into your Ultima VI game folder, but the official documentation suggests you install Nuvie somewhere else and copy your Ultima VI game files into the Nuvie folder, which we will do next. 

Step 3: Move Ultima 5 game files to the Nuvie folder

3.1 By default, Nuvie looks inside the Nuvie folder for a folder called ultima6, where it expects to find your Ultima VI game files. That folder doesn’t exist yet, so make it. Your Nuvie Folder should now look like this:

Make new ultima6 folder in Nuvie folder

3.2 Find your Ultima VI game files, wherever you installed the game. If you have installed via GOG Galaxy, you can find the game files with this option in your game library:

Finding Ultima 6 game files via GOG Galaxy

3.3 Copy all the game files…

Copying the Ultima 6 game files

3.4 …and paste them into the Nuvie ultima6 folder.

Step 4: Tweak the config file (if you want)

Some settings are changed by updating the text in nuvie.cfg, which is a file in your Nuvie installation folder. Most of the settings you will be interested in for playing Ultima are found in the <video> section (for general Nuvie display options) and in the <ultima6> section. 

The Nuvie config file in Notepad

Even if you don’t make changes now, keep these settings in mind in case you want them later. 

For more guidance on the config file, check the Nuvie documentation.

Step 5: Start playing Ultima VI

Welcome to Britannia!

Ultima 6 introduction screenshot
Categories
JRPG Collection

How to play Final Fantasy

Everything you need to know to choose what game to start with

So, Final Fantasy has caught your interest. Who can blame you: with Final Fantasy 14, the MMORPG, outperforming World of Warcraft, and the hype for the single-player action-RPG Final Fantasy 16 at a high, it’s natural you are curious about this storied franchise.

But Final Fantasy is a weird franchise. It’s big and complex and has been around forever. In that time it has developed its own set of conventions that fans understand but aren’t always intuitive to new players. 

In this article, we’re going to get you up to speed as painlessly as we can. We’re going to show you all the quirks that make this series special, then demystify them so you can pick your first Final Fantasy game and maybe fall in love with these games like we have. 

If you want to skip the background info and know which game you should play first and why, click here.

Contents

Why play Final Fantasy

For over 35 years, the Final Fantasy series has been leading videogames in fully realised fantasy worlds, beautiful music and cutting-edge visuals. It has memorable characters that have become icons, and stories that deliver twists and emotions in equal amounts. And because it recreates itself with almost every instalment, it is a series that is almost impossible to get bored of.

Who plays Final Fantasy?

It is impossible to know how many fans the series has worldwide, but it is probably tens of millions. Here are a few numbers for illustration: 

  • According to mmo-populations.com, Final Fantasy 14 has over 40 million players. 
  • Probably the best-selling game in the franchise is Final Fantasy 7, the original PS1 and PC versions selling over 10 million copies. 
  • For a more recent bestselling  game, Final Fantasy 15 also sold over 10 million copies
  • The r/FinalFantasy subreddit has 400k subscribers
  • The Square Enix YouTube channel has 300k followers.

Reasons for Final Fantasy’s popularity

Games in the Final Fantasy series have regularly been trailblazers for more complex stories and more advanced graphical fidelity in video games. It found worldwide appeal because it helped introduce Western console players to Japanese RPGs. 

The series is also known for its music and characters, which linger in people’s minds long after they have finished the game.

Moreover, as a long-running series that has released games consistently since 1987, this series has had a long time to build up a following. 

What you need to know

A series of standalone games

The first thing to understand about the Final Fantasy series is that all of the major numbered [jump link] games exist in their own universe, with different characters and unconnected stories.

There are direct sequels in the franchise, such as Final Fantasy 10-2 (a sequel to Final Fantasy 10), but other than these rare cases you can play any major games in the series without having played any others.  [optimse as answer tag]

Common elements of Final Fantasy

Or, How to spot Final Fantasy in the wild.

Though the games do not share stories or even worlds, there are themes, ideas, visuals and more that recur across the series and make a Final Fantasy feel like a Final Fantasy game. 

Chocobo from Final Fantasy 6 sprite

Chocobos: Bird-like mounts, most commonly yellow. Introduced in Final Fantasy 2. 

Moogle from Final Fantasy 9 artwork

Moogles: A race of cute magical creatures with pom-poms on their head that say “Kupo!” They fill various roles across the series. Introduced in Final Fantasy 3. 

Crystal from Final Fantasy 3 render

Crystals: Large magical crystals that play a role in the story, sometimes named after the four elements.

Bomb monster from Final Fantasy 5 sprite

Monsters: Bombs, tonberries, cactuars, malboros and behemoths are some of the more iconic recurring foes, though there are many more. 

Summons: Powerful creatures that can be called into battle, several of which appear in almost every game, including Shiva the ice queen, Ifrit the fire demon, and Bahamut the dragon. Introduced in Final Fantasy 3. 

Jobs/Classes: Combat roles like black mage, white mage, red mage, dragoon and thief have associated design elements across the series. Introduced in Final Fantasy.

Spells: Mages across the series have pulled from a common pool of spells with shared naming conventions, where suffixes like “-ara” and “-aga” indicate more powerful versions of spells (eg. Blizzard, Blizzara, Blizzaga in order of power)

Equipment: Weapons like Masamune and Ultima Weapon are found in multiple games.

Music tracks: Though the games do not generally share music, there are a few exceptions that appear in many games, such as the chocobo theme. In particular, Prelude (or Crystal Theme) and Final Fantasy (or Main Theme) are in many games in the series. 

The Roman numerals

Not everyone learns Roman numerals in school, and being a Star Wars fan will only take you up to IX = 9.  This method of numbering can make distinguishing the major Final Fantasy games a bit of a challenge for new fans. For clarity, in this article we’ve named the games with Arabic numbers, but here are all the titles in both formats:

Title (Roman Numerals)Title (Arabic Numerals)
Final FantasyFinal Fantasy 1
Final Fantasy IIFinal Fantasy 2
Final Fantasy IIIFinal Fantasy 3
Final Fantasy IVFinal Fantasy 4
Final Fantasy VFinal Fantasy 5
Final Fantasy VIFinal Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy VIIFinal Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy VIIIFinal Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy IXFinal Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy XFinal Fantasy 10
Final Fantasy XIFinal Fantasy 11
Final Fantasy XIIFinal Fantasy 12
Final Fantasy XIIIFinal Fantasy 13
Final Fantasy XIVFinal Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy XVFinal Fantasy 15
Final Fantasy XVIFinal Fantasy 16

Start with these games

We’re going to get into the weeds on this in a minute, and when you’ve read the next few sections you should feel more confident picking a first game for yourself, if you want. 

However, to give you the quick answers:

  • We think, for the average person, the best starting point is Final Fantasy 10. It is an extremely popular and accessible starting point, a gripping story, and hits the perfect balance of experimenting with the formula while being true to the series’ identity. 
  • In some ways, Final Fantasy 4 is where the series “became itself”, and features all of the hallmarks seen in the rest of the series. A great place to start if you want a historical perspective but don’t want to go all the way back to Final Fantasy 1 (which you might consider archaic). 
  • Final Fantasy 7 is the first 3D game, so a good place to start if you don’t want to play something 2D, and absolutely a historical landmark mark not only for the series, but for Japanese gaming in the West, JRPGs, and gaming as a whole. Don’t miss it. 
  • Final Fantasy 14 is an MMO, so is not the “standard” Final Fantasy experience, but it is extremely good. Plus, being an absolutely dominant force in the MMO market, it is probably the most popular introduction to the series these days. It also looks a lot more modern than the other starting points mentioned here.

A brief history of the series

The first eleven mainline games were all developed and published by Square.

Final Fantasy 1 to Final Fantasy 6 are 2D games released first on Nintendo hardware. 1-3 were originally released on the Famicom (NES), and 4-6 originally released on the Super Famicom (SNES).

Only Final Fantasy 1, 4 and 6 were released in the US, and 4 and 6 were renumbered as 2 and 3. So if you ever hear somebody refer to Final Fantasy 6 as Final Fantasy 3, this is the reason. It also means that Final Fantasy 2, 3, and 5 were not originally released in the West and so fewer older fans have the same connection with those games that they do for the others. 

After this, Square moved the franchise from Nintendo systems to Sony systems, partly as a result of the Playstation using disks over cartridges. 

Final Fantasy 7 to Final Fantasy 10 use 3D graphics and were released first on Playstation consoles. 7-9 were released originally on the PS1, and 10 on the PS2. 

Though many of the games in this era are beloved bestsellers, the most successful one up to this point was undoubtedly Final Fantasy 7, which was often held up as one of the best videogames, or one of the best videogame stories, ever made. 

Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1 was the most significant spin-off released during this period. 

All of the mainline games up to this point were traditional, turn-based JRPGs. After Final Fantasy 10, each game mixed up the formula more than ever before.

Final Fantasy 11 was the first MMORPG of the series and was followed by many expansions. 

The first movie in the franchise, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, was released in 2001. Its inability to recoup its costs became a pivotal moment not only for the franchise but for Square as a company. 

Financial difficulties was one reason Square merged with Enix to create Square Enix.  Exix were the publisher of the Dragon Quest games, Final Fantasy’s main competitor in the JRPG market. 

In the years following the merger, some changes in the series can be identified. 

Starting with Final Fantasy 10-2, sequels and prequels to the stories of mainline games became a regular part of the franchise. Sub-series were made to expand the worlds of mainline games, including Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 (new games in the world of Final Fantasy 7) and Ivalice Alliance (new games in the world of Final Fantasy Tactics). New mainline games, starting with 13, were introduced as multi-game or multimedia projects, subseries in their own right. 

After 10, each mainline game would reinvent the formula, resulting in games that are more diverse than ever before, being separate not only in their story but also in their mechanics. Final Fantasy 12 removed battle screens and took inspiration from MMOs, whereas 13 brought back battle screens but entirely overhauled ATB and class systems from older games to make something unique. 

Final Fantasy 14 was a second MMO that was a critical and commercial failure but was relaunched as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and became a massive success. 

Final Fantasy 15 was the first mainline game to feature action combat. This direction continued with Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16.

And that pretty much gets us up to date! 

But that only covers the mainline series. By our count, there are about 100 original Final Fantasy games. 

How many games?!

Yep, there are about 100 original Final Fantasy games! It depends on how you count them though. To get this number, we didn’t include ports, compilations or remasters, but did include spin-offs, remakes, and smaller games that are not full-scale JRPGs. [optimse as answer tag]

A few games are in a grey area, such as the Pixel Remasters, that look and play differently than the original games. However, we still choose not to include it in our count. We did include the remakes of Final Fantasy 1 and 2 for the Playstation compilation, as we considered them to have passed a threshold to be counted as new games, and full remakes such as Final Fantasy 3 for the DS and Final Fantasy 7: Remake are also considered by us to be new games. 

However you choose to count them, there are rather a lot of games in this series. Let’s try and make a little more sense of these. 

Mainline series

There are 15 mainline Final Fantasy games. When fans talk about the mainline series, they mean the games that count up in ascending order from the original game: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy 2, Final Fantasy 3, and so on. The latest was Final Fantasy 15, which gives us 15 games. 

This excludes games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, which are considered spin-offs. More about them in a minute.

What makes mainline games special is that they introduce new worlds and characters, and tend to have the largest budgets (and sales) of any other Final Fantasy project of its time. They tend to be the games that push the series forward the most.

Eventually, direct sequels to the mainline games were produced, leading to games with titles such as “Final Fantasy 10-2”. These are also sometimes considered part of the mainline series, but not always. Take Dirge of Cerberus, a third-person shooter that continues the story of the mainline game, Final Fantasy 7. It has very different gameplay from the original game, so people are comfortable calling it a spin-off. We will list the sequels separately.

As you can see, it is down to some interpretation. But here’s a fairly typical list of which games are considered the “mainline Final Fantasy games”:

TitleRelease Date
Final Fantasy I1987 Dec
Final Fantasy II1988 Dec
Final Fantasy III1990 Apr
Final Fantasy IV1991 Nov
Final Fantasy V1992 Dec
Final Fantasy VI1994 Apr
Final Fantasy VII1997 Jan
Final Fantasy VIII1999 Feb
Final Fantasy IX2000 Jul
Final Fantasy X2001 Jul
Final Fantasy XI2002 May
Final Fantasy XII2006 Mar
Final Fantasy XIII2009 Dec
Final Fantasy XIV2010 Sep
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn2013 Aug
Final Fantasy XV2016 Nov
Final Fantasy VII2020 Apr
Final Fantasy XIV2021 Dec
Final Fantasy XVI2023 Aug

Sequels and prequels

The Final Fantasy franchise resisted sequels for a long time, choosing to create new worlds with new characters with each new game. This changed with Final Fantasy 10-2, which reused the assets of Final Fantasy 10 to tell a sequel to that story. 

Since then, stories that spin off from mainlines titles have become a common element of the franchise, and some games have even been announced as multiple-game series from the start. We have also included expansions to the MMO games.

TitleTypeRelease Date
Final Fantasy X-2Sequel2003 Mar
Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the ZilartExpansion2003 Apr
Final Fantasy XI: Chains of PromathiaExpansion2004 Sep
Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VIIPrequel2004 Sep
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VIIPrequel2006 Jan
Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht UrhganExpansion2006 Apr
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant WingsSequel2007 Apr
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VIIPrequel2007 Sep
Final Fantasy XI: Wings of the GoddessExpansion2007 Nov
Final Fantasy IV The After YearsSequel2008 Feb
Final Fantasy XIII-2Sequel2011 Dec
Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of AdoulinExpansion2013 Mar
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIIISequel2013 Nov
Final Fantasy XIV: HeavenswardExpansion2015 Jun
Final Fantasy XIV: StormbloodExpansion2017 Jun
Final Fantasy XIV: ShadowbringersExpansion2019 Jul
Final Fantasy VII: The First SoldierPrequel2021 Nov
Final Fantasy XIV: EndwalkerExpansion2021 Dec

Remakes

Final Fantasy games are regularly ported and remastered for new systems, but sometimes the franchise goes a step further with full remakes that substaintially change the visuals and mechanics.

TitlePlatformRelease Date
Final Fantasy IWonderSwan Color2000 Dec
Final Fantasy IIWonderSwan Color2001 May
Final Fantasy IIINintendo DS2006 Aug
Final Fantasy IVNintendo DS2007 Dec
Final Fantasy VII RemakePlayStation 42020 Apr
Final Fantasy VII: RebirthPlaystation 52023 Dec

Sub-series

There are a few groups of games that were given unique branding to distinguish them as their own sub-series. This extended beyond videogames, as these subseries also included films and short stories, such as the second movie in the franchise, Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children. 

  • Compilation of Final Fantasy 7
  • Ivalice Alliance
  • Fabula Nova Crystallis

Spinoffs

All games with Final Fantasy in the title that are not considered mainline titles (subject to interpretation) are spin-offs. 

Some spin-offs become Final Fantasy sub-series, or even entirely new series without the Final Fantasy name.

The first spin-off was The Final Fantasy Adventure, which is also a great example of a spin-off that became a new series. It was known as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden in Japan, but for the next game dropped the Final Fantasy moniker and became the Seiken Densetsu series, which in the West was called the Mana series. The first game using the Mana title was Seiken Densetsu 2, or Secret of Mana.

Another notable early spin-off was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, which is best remembered as an attempt to make an RPG that was accessible to new players, but ended up disappointing Final Fantasy fans for being easy and shallow.  

Like Mystic Quest, most spin-offs keep the Final Fantasy branding, even if they become their own series. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, for example, was conceived as a Final Fantasy game with a co-op focus. It spawned sequels, each with its own subtitle, leading to games with long names like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates.

The following tables is dedicated to spin-offs that feature original characters. For the spin-offs that focus on the heroes introduced in mainline games, look at the crossovers section below.

Here are the major Final Fantasy spin-offs:

NameRelease Date
Final Fantasy Adventure (Final Fantasy Gaiden)1991 Jun
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest1992 Oct
Final Fantasy Tactics1997 Jun
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance2003 Feb
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles2003 Aug
Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift2007 Jun
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates2007 Aug
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King2008 Mar
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time2009 Jan
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord2009 Jun
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light2009 Oct
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers2009 Nov
Final Fantasy Dimensions2010 Sep
Final Fantasy Type-02011 Oct
Final Fantasy Tactics S2013 May
Final Fantasy Explorers2014 Dec
Mobius Final Fantasy2015 Jun
Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius2015 Oct
World of Final Fantasy2016 Oct
Final Fantasy Awakening2016 Dec
Final Fantasy Dimensions II2017 Nov
War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius2019 Nov
Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier2021 Nov
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin2022 Mar

Crossover Spinoffs

Perhaps inspired by the success of crossover games like Super Smash Bros, Square Enix created the fighting game Dissidia. It was the first time existing characters from mainline games had come together to share a story.

Since then, Final Fantasy crossover games have been released regularly. This category includes Theatrhythm, a series of rhythm games that use Final Fantasy music, as well as a number of gatcha games where players summon characters from across the franchise.

NameRelease Date
Dissidia Final Fantasy2008 Dec
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy2011 Mar
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy2012 Feb
Final Fantasy Artniks2012 Nov
Final Fantasy: All the Bravest2013 Jan
Pictlogica Final Fantasy2013 Oct
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call2014 Apr
Final Fantasy Record Keeper2014 Sep
Dissidia Final Fantasy NT2015 Nov
Dissidia Final Fantasy Omnia2018 Jan
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: All-Star Carnival2016 Sep
Theatrhythm Final Bar Line2023 Feb

Spinoff Series

As you can see, some spin-offs have sequels and become their own subseries. Here are the major spin-off series along with the number of titles that have been released in those

SeriesNumbers of Games
Crystal Chronicles6
Dissidia4
Tactics4
Theatrhythm4
Dimensions2
Brave Exvius2

Which are the best Final Fantasy games?

That’s an excellent question, and a really tricky one. Every game is somebody’s favourite. Plus, different games rise and fall in popularity over time. But we’re here to give answers. If there were only 10 gold stars to give out to games in this franchise, we might suggest a list that looks like this:

  • Final Fantasy 4
  • Final Fantasy 5
  • Final Fantasy 6
  • Final Fantasy Tactics
  • Final Fantasy 7
  • Final Fantasy 8
  • Final Fantasy 9
  • Final Fantasy 10
  • Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7
  • Final Fantasy 14

With this list, we are trying to distil the impossible-to-measure “common feeling” about the game among fans, based on informal conversions in fan communities as well as public surveys. You might say we are trying to emulate a popularity contest.

“The classics” have a lot of weight in this sort of list. Though Final Fantasy 4 and 5 are both important and beloved, a new player might find them less compelling than more modern games in the series.

Nonetheless, this list gives a great selection of games to play if you want to understand what the franchise is about and what makes it great. It tells you what the best the franchise has had to offer over time. 

This does not mean that the games not on this list can’t be excellent, nor that playing a game on the list is a guarantee of a good time.

And the best-selling ones?

It’s impossible to give exact sales numbers, but here are the current estimates as calculated by VGChartz:

GameSales (VGChartz)
Final Fantasy 1020.8 M
Final Fantasy 714.1 M
Final Fantasy 1510 M
Final Fantasy 89.6 M
Final Fantasy 137.71 M
Final Fantasy 127.71 M
Final Fantasy 95.83 M
Final Fantasy 7 Remake5 M
Final Fantasy 33.86 M
Final Fantasy 63.81 M

Notes: Final Fantasy 10 includes the sales of the Final Fantasy 10|10-2 collection.

In addition to these sales numbers, some estimates put the number of active Final Fantasy 14 players at 40 million+, which would almost certainly put it at the top of this list. Square Enix has confirmed that 14 is the most profitable game in the series.

Final Fantasy genres

Final Fantasy games have featured a range of combat mechanics and game structures, starting as semi-linear adventures with strict turn-based combat. Soon, a real-time element was introduced into the battles. As the series got more experimental, the game structure varied from highly linear to open-world, and the battles were more strategic in some games, and full-on action in others.

The mainline series changed slowly, whereas spinoffs turned Final Fantasy into everything from an RTS to a multiplayer fighting game.

Here are the mainline games and a selection of the spinoffs along with their battle mechanics, which are explained in more detail below:

TitleBattle System
Final Fantasy ITurn-based
Final Fantasy IITurn-based
Final Fantasy IIITurn-based
Final Fantasy IVActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy VActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy VIActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy VIIActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy TacticsTurn-based strategy
Final Fantasy VIIIActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy IXActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy XTurn-based
Final Fantasy XICooldown-based
Final Fantasy X-2Active menu-driven
Final Fantasy Crystal ChroniclesAction
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VIIThird-person shooter
Final Fantasy XIIActive menu-driven (in-field)
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant WingsReal-time strategy
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of FatesAction
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VIIAction/menu-driven hybrid
Final Fantasy IV: The After YearsActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a KingCity-building
Dissidia: Final FantasyFighting game
Final Fantasy XIIIActive menu-driven
Final Fantasy XIVCooldown-based
Final Fantasy Type-0Action
Final Fantasy XIII-2Active menu-driven
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIIIAction/menu-driven hybrid
Final Fantasy XVAction

The Turn-Based Final Fantasy Games

In the early Final Fantasy, combat took place in turns. You choose your actions (physical attacks, spells and item usage) from a menu, your character performed that action, then the your opponent, usually a monster, would have their opportunity to fight back while your characters stood still.    

Turn-based is closely related to the “ATB” games.

The Action-Time Battle (ATB) Final Fantasy Games

One way to describe ATB is a menu-based battle system with cooldowns for each character and enemy after they act. “Real-time turn-based” also gives the right idea. 

In practice, it looks and feels very similar to turn-based, but enemies will still get their turns and attack while you are choosing your commands. It was introduced in Final Fantasy 4 and was used in all mainline Final Fantasy games until Final Fantasy 10. Many spin-off games also used this system. 

The Action Final Fantasy Games

The series added real-time elements early on but has only made the jump to full-on action gameplay on occasion. It is becoming more common, though, and now multiple games in the mainline series have thrown away the menu-based battles and have combat in the style of an action game. This has caused consternation for long-term series fans.

The MMO Final Fantasy Games

The two Final Fantasy MMOs are mainline, numbered Final Fantasy games: Final Fantasy 11 and Final Fantasy 14. As well as fitting into the “mainline” bucket, they also deserve to be discussed in their own category. 

What makes these games different is that you explore a world that is filled with thousands of other players across the world, and you can join up with those players in multiplayer parties to take on the game’s challenges. Both of these MMOs require their own subscription. They each have multiple expansions, which add up to huge amounts of content that will take much longer to play through than any other single game in the series. 

We already mentioned the sub-series and the Final Fantasy Adventure/Mana games which turned into their own series. Here are more games that are not part of Final Fantasy but do have connections.

  • Kingdom Hearts has Final Fantasy characters as NPCs and even bosses. 
  • Chrono Trigger is not part of the Final Fantasy series but was made by Square. It is common to hear people joke that Chrono Trigger is their favourite Final Fantasy game. 

Conclusions

Phew! If you’ve read this far, you’ve seen that the Final Fantasy series is big and multifaceted, but you’ve also learned that there is a core of mainline games that push the series forward as well as the vast number of spin-offs that take the series in other directions. 

You have a better understanding of each of the games in context, and you won’t be completely in the dark when people are talking about XIV this and VII that, because you have the context. 

The context isn’t everything though, and the way to learn more is to start playing. Good luck and have fun!

Categories
JRPG Collection Screenshots

Final Fantasy VII Screenshots

This is a collection of 20 high-quality screenshots from the Playstation JRPG Final Fantasy VII.

They were taken in RetroArch and the Beetle PSX core, with no shaders.

These are simply shots from my last playthrough that I found interesting. It’s not a comprehensive look at the game, and most pictures are either from early on or very late in the game.

Feel free to use these screenshots on your own website or in your own project. If you do, we would greatly appreciate a link back to Great Adventures Review.

Categories
Commentary

100+ studies show action games improve perception, attention and multitasking

Instead of simply accepting video games, is it time we encouraged them?

A metastudy has been newly published by the journal of Technology, Mind and Behaviour that gives a very strong indication that playing action games strengthens some mental functions.

It was found that:

AVGP [action video-game players] were observed to have superior cognitive skills, on average, compared with individuals who engage less in video game play. 

Effects of Action Video Game Play on Cognitive Skills: A Meta-Analysis

The data used to reach this conclusion came from 104 studies that have been published over the last 20 years.

The types of cognitive skills tests where action game players had the biggest advantage were:

  • Perceptual (spot something accurately and quickly)
  • Top-down attentional (stick with a goal to find a target)
  • Spatial (such as mentally rotating objects)
  • Multitasking (switch between goals with less performance sacrifice)

Though it may seem intuitive that a session of playing games might “warm up” a brain, and mean better results in a test taken immediately afterwards, this study avoided looking at only short-term effects:

In line with our focus on long-term training effects (as opposed to acute physiological arousal effects), the training had to be equivalent in both experimental and control groups in terms of duration (minimum 8 hr) and number of sessions (minimum 8 days) and posttest performance measures had to be performed at least 24 hr after training.

Effects of Action Video Game Play on Cognitive Skills: A Meta-Analysis

As this research looked at many studies, there were many different methods for measuring the traits. To give an example of one, a method for measuring “top-down attention” is an object tracking test, which looks like this (try and follow the dot that starts green):

The authors looked at studies that took different experimental approaches: some observed existing players and non-players (cross-sectional study), others gave subjects action games to play and compared the results to a control group (intervention study). The positive relation between playing action games and performance in the cognitive tests was observed in both types of study

My thoughts

I was impressed with the breadth of this research, and the conscientiousness of the authors, who take pains to keep the data reliable and to avoid publication biases and outlier statistics.

There is more I would like to see studied in this area. Do videogames build resilience to failure? What skills do strategy and puzzle games improve? How does game difficulty (perceived and objective) affect the outcomes?

Naturally, I am also curious about what undesirable traits are increased by playing videogames, and where an ideal balance might lie.

What next

Some will read this, pat themselves on the back for their wise choices in gaming material, mouth “I told you so” to the world, then play another round in Dustbowl. But I don’t highlight this research so that gamers can bask in the glow of group superiority. 

Rather, it makes me curious about what roles games might play in benefitting society in the future.

The typical perception today is that games, while an acceptable use of leisure time, are still basically unproductive. This research suggests to me that an hour of videogames is sometimes better than an hour without videogames. 

We recognise the importance of reading and physical education in human development, and parents and schools make time for these activities. Is there room for the right games, deployed in the right way, in schools?

If that is taking things too far, instead of treating games purely as unproductive leisure, can we say that, sometimes, videogames are a form of exercise too? 

My mind is open to these possibilities, though I think it will be a long time before they are considered seriously.

If you’re interested in the positive outcomes of playing games, here is a recent podcast on the subject:

The surprising effects of video games with Ash Brandin (TED)

Categories
Oddworld Collection

Games like Oddworld

The special traits we are looking for 

People fall in love with Oddworld for different reasons. The gorgeous, cinematic vistas and character animations. The non-human characters and the bizarre world they live in. The sense of humour. The messages about environmentalism and corporate greed. The mix of real-time puzzles and tense chase scenes. A unique range of abilities including possessing your enemies and leading other characters with speech commands.

Best picks!

All the 20+ games on this list have a one or more of the above traits and are good games besides. Our top picks have several of the above traits as well as being amazing games. So if you’re an Oddworld fan, any of the following five is likely to be a game you fall in love with.

1. Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori approaching Mt Horu in Ori and the Blind Forest

Abe’s Oddysee is packed with high-resolution natural environments and tense chase scenes. The Ori games nail these qualities too: the layers of detail in Nibel forest are unique among 2D games today, just as Abe’s Oddysee’s scenes were in 1997, and the escape sequences will have you gripping your controller as if there is a Scrab behind you.

The cat-monkey-spirit-thing Ori, like Abe, is a vulnerable character who scurries through woodlands and ancient temples to save his land. His game doesn’t have much dialogue but it does tell a good story. It can be light hearted and charming and it can be dark, errie and threatening, and that’s a combination that any Oddworld fan will appreciate.  

Here’s a one minue clip that shows off some of what Ori and the Blind Forest has to offer:

2. Psychonauts, Psychonauts 2

If a psychedelic colour scheme seems like a hundred miles away from the tones of Oddworld, don’t judge it yet. The strange worlds of Psychonauts exist in the minds of the strange characters, and that level of strangeness can’t fail to tickle the fancy of an Oddworld players.

Other than all that, it’s a creatively designed platformer, has a great sense of humour, and a story that will keep you gripped.

Mind-control is a key tool in Abe’s arsenal, and it is much more deeply explored here, with the main character Raz delving into the psyches of various characters where he is threatened by figments of their anxieties, ambitions and past traumas. 

Here’s an quick example from an early cutscene:

3. Another World

Here’s a game that inspired Oddworld! Both Another World and the first two Oddworld games feature challenging puzzles and tense platforming chases that require precision and timing. The games share atmospheric and otherworldly locations, like the eerie alien planet of Another World and the oppressive factory of RuptureFarms in Abe’s Oddysee.

What makes this predecessor to Oddworld even more impressive is that almost ever scene is unique. Challenges and obstacles are very rarely repeated, making the game feel timelessly cinematic. Oddworld takes you to another world, and so does Another World.

Even in this clip from very early in the game, you can see where the level designers of Oddworld were getting some of their ideas from:

4. Inside

What blows me away about Inside, something that few games have managed since Oddworld, is how it makes you feel like you’re in a fully 3D world despite having entirely 2D mechanics. In Oddworld, the camera would seamlessly disconnect from the screen and fly over Mosiac Lines or whichever location you were in, in an FMV sequence that showed off the breadth and detail of the world in which your adventure takes place. Inside also indicates depth, also by clever use of the camera, lighting and background elements. It all looks totally natural. 

The boy from inside hiding from a foe

The gameplay of Insider revolves around puzzle solving and platforming that require creative thinking and precision, similar to Abe’s Oddysee. Both games also have a dark and oppressive atmosphere, with unsettling locations and characters that keep players engaged. Neither game is afraid of a cynical ending, either. 

5. Trine series

There are two game franchises that do detailed 2.5 better than any other, and those are Oddworld and Trine. The latter game’s fantastical setting, with its castles, caves, and forests, creates a sense of wonder and immersion similar to Abe’s Oddysee and Exodus. The aesthetic of both games is utterly charming and that draws players in.

The Trine party cross a bridge passing a waterfall

Both games feature challenging puzzles and platforming sections that require creativity and problem-solving skills. Trine allows players to switch between three unique characters with different abilities. It’s not quite the same as leading Mudokons to safety in Oddworld, but the party-based puzzle solving has a similar ring to it.

Even more

There are 10+ games below that we think have a good flavour of Oddworld to them. For some, this was based on their mechanics, for other on their visual design, and others on their sense of humour. In all cases, we have linked to somewhere relevant (usually the Mobygames page) where you can get an impression of what that game is like.

Classic cinematic platformers

The first two Oddworld games were part of a genre called the cinematic platformer, which most people consider to have started with Prince of Persia in 1989. The first designers of Oddworld were inspired by these titles, and the ones we have selected here

Modern eerie cinematic sidescrollers

It’s not like cinematic platformers stopped being made. Here are newer examples that capture the feeling of creeping your way through an oppressive enviroments, leaving you at risk of Rupture Farms flashbacks:

Single-screen puzzle sidescrollers

Many of the early cinematic platformers were described as “single screen” meaning that the screen did not move with your character, but was static until the player reached the end of it, causing it to scroll. In other worlds, the world was make up of a sequence of “single screens”. Here are some more extremely well designed puzzling adventures in this style: 

Worlds full of strange characters

Point and click adventure games can rival Oddworld in well developed worlds, empathetic characters and comedic writing. Not all of them are as strange and fantastical as the following, though:

Wild cards!

These ones might seem to have only tenuous similarities to Oddworld. Nonetheless, they are great games and they might be the new experience that you are looking for. After all, Oddworld was nothing if not novel!

Played one of these that stood out to you as especially Oddworld-y? Another game you think deserves to be on this list? Let us know in the comments.

Categories
JRPG Collection Monster Taming Collection

What is Jade Cocoon

An RPG about the coexistence of humans and nature, with a cocoon master who traps monsters in a cocoon.

Katsuya Kondo, artist for Jade Cocoon (Interview)

Jade Cocoon in One Minute

Key points

This fondly remembered series started with Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu on the PS1 in 1991, which has one sequel. 

Jade Cocoon 1 Japanese box art
The Japanese box art for the first Jade Cocoon game

This eye-catching box art shows off the first thing that made people fall in love with these games, which is:

The art of Katsuya Kondō, a character designer from Studio Ghibli

Considered a top animator in the Japanese film industry, helping bring classics such as Kiki’s Delivery Service to life, the Jade Cocoon duology are the only games Kondo has lent his talents to. 

Jade Cocoon art book cover by Katsuya Kondo
The cover image of Katsuya Kondo’s Jade Cocoon artbook

In addition to the artwork, the first Jade Cocoon is loved by fans for:

Monster fusion based on dynamic merging of monster polygons and textures

The first monster selected to be merged contributes its shape, and the second monster contributes its texture, and additional modifiers also affect the final monster’s appearance.

The monsters that you fight with are therefore not ones that have been entirely hand-crafted by the developers, but ones that have been generated uniquely according to your choices.

To this day, this system of monster generation is something no popular monster raising game has attempted.

A rich fantasy world and an emotional story

Pokemon and Shin Megami Tensei games were set in the real world, but Jade Cocoon combines monster raising with a more traditional JRPG narrative and aesthetic.

Jade Cocoon running through grasss screenshot
Jade Cocoon watch tower screenshot
Jade Cocoon town central square screenshot
Jade Cocoon town navigation screenshot

This new combination was a stated goal of the development team:

We had two goals. One was to create an immersive story world, and the other was to provide compelling monster-raising gameplay. In this way, the game would be both stylistically and technically unlike anything else on the market.

Gaku Tamura or Shinya Kozaki, director and scriptwriter respectively (Interview)

The characters of Jade Cocoon start the game at the cusp of adulthood, and face life changes including marriage and undertaking dangerous work for their town. The people they meet are grappling with their own situations and pasts.

The story concerns the events of a single town and the surrounding woodlands, the perils they face and the suffering of the characters for the sake of their fellow townspeople. 

Clashes between the town and forest occur throughout the story, sometimes with tragic consequences.

If we pursue the theme of people and nature, we have no choice but to be conscious of “Princess Mononoke.” You can’t help but be affected.

Katsuya Kondo, artist for Jade Cocoon (Interview)

Exploring the forests of Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu

In keeping with the theme of humans coexisting with nature, forests are the dungeons of these games. They are rich with natural variety and detail.

These forests, where the majority of gameplay takes place, are where the player meets the monsters, called “divine beasts”, which can be captured in cocoons after they are weakened.

The monsters grow in size as they level up. They have an elemental attribute, be of the earth, fire, water or air elements (or a combination).

Here are four monsters, one for each element:

Divine beast Patalchu from Jade Cocoon
Divine beast Teramine from Jade Cocoon
Divine beast Mukhambu from Jade Cocoon
Divine beast Marrdreg from Jade Cocoon

The atmosphere the forests is enhanced by the music of Kimitaka Matsumae, who says:

The world of Jade Cocoon is a wonderland like Asia and Africa, so I tried using Asian and African techno.”

Kimitaka Matsumae, composer (Interview)

Jade Cocoon 2

Jade Cocoon 2 Japanese box art
The Japanese box art for Jade Cocoon 2

Jade Cocoon 2 was released in 2001. In Japan, it had a subtitle that can be translated as “Insect of Destruction” but lacked a subtitle for international release.

Both Jade Cocoon game have their own strenths and weaknesses, though they also have a lot of shared themes.

In general, these are some of the common views on the sequel compared to the first game:

  • Less focus on story, more lighthearted, questionable voice acting quality
  • Lacking dynamic monster fusion 
  • Adds a more interesting battle system where three monsters at a time take action, and in total a ring of up to eight monsters are brought into battle in total

Both games have an endless endgame dungeon called the Eternal Corridor where the player can continue to raise and fight their monsters to their heart’s content:

Series at a glance

Fandom

Even 30 years later, Jade Cocoon has remained in in the hearts of fans as a unique experience that other monster raising games have been unable to repeat. You can find those fans online in the following communities:

Similar Games

If you like Jade Cocoon, you will probably like:

  1. Persona 3, 4 and 5: “mature” JRPG stories with monster taming
Two monsters about to be fused in Persona 3
Two monsters about to be fused in Persona 3
  1. Ni No Kuni 1 and 2: “Studio Ghibli style” visuals in a monster taming JRPG
Categories
Souls Collection

Why Everything is Dark Souls

Every film wants to be a cinematic universe, and every game wants to be Dark Souls — according to some. 

The cynic inside us already has an answer to why: the games of From Software have a large, paying fanbase, and other studios want a slice of that pie. 

A manager who sits at least three floors away from the creative team (if not in a different office entirely) measures the correlation between different Steam tags and estimated sales, and concludes that if they can slap the “soulslike” label on the company’s next game, potential earnings increase by 74%.

A PowerPoint presentation may have been used to convey the message.

If the omnipresence of romantic teenage vampires was the telltale sign that the book market was riding on the popularity of Twilight, there are a few tropes in which we can see a dedication to the From Software formula in the videogame industry:

  • An intimate, close-up, over-the-shoulder third-person perspective
  • Weighty combat actions with a long wind-up, long recovery
  • Bonfires that save progress but reset enemies
  • A stamina bar that is drained by all actions, including dodges and basic attacks

It’s hard to deny: these things are common in action games where they were not before.

In God of War

God of War III vs God of War (2018)

God of War III
Before
God of War 2018
After

In Darksiders

Darksiders II vs Darksiders III

Darksiders II screenshot
Before
Darksiders III screenshot
After

In games by Team Ninja

Ninja Gaiden vs Nioh

Ninja Gaiden screenshot
Before
Nioh screenshot
After

Some studios seem to have built their entire business model on the trend

Lords of the Fallen by Deck13, also the developer of The Surge, another Soulslike.

Lords of the Fallen screenshot

New action games love to use Hidetaka Miyazaki’s masterpieces as a blueprint

Upcoming Black Myth: Wukong and Lies of P.

Black Myth screenshot
Lies of P screenshot

However, to me, this does not represent creative laziness, but creative passion. The altar that Miyazaki built is revered by creators as much as consumers. Developers have played Dark Souls, been inspired by naturalistic level design, eye-catching art direction, high level of tension and rewarding combat encounters.

If you’re not a fan of Souls, this might not sound so great. There are many elements of Souls that are like marmite: you either love them or hate them:

  • Backtracking
  • Unexplained mechanics
  • Save points that work like bonfires
  • Runbacks before boss encounters
  • No difficulty settings
  • Stamina management

But it’s not like every third-person action game is moving in this direction

Astral Chain screenshot
Astral Chain

My view is that the third-person melee action genre, a genre that I love, has been reinvigorated in recent years, and Dark Souls had a part to play in that.

Yes, there are more games out there that look like Dark Souls, but also more games in this genre in general. There might even be more diversity in the genre than ever before.

As a closing word, remember that trends come and go. I fully expect more studios to drift away from the Souls style within a few years.

…though, as these cycles go I, expect it will come back again. Love it or hate it, Dark Souls has cast a spell on the industry, and to get rid of it entirely is a challenge that goes far beyond Ornstein or Smough. 

Categories
JRPG Collection

Xenogears Screenshots

This is a collection of 75 high-quality (and hopefully interesting) screenshots from the Playstation game Xenogears.

They were taken in RetroArch with the crt-easymode shader applied.

This is not a comprehensive tour of Xenogears, but it does feature a variety of areas including some from late in the game. To find out what makes this game worth playing, read my Xenogears review.

Feel free to use these screenshots on your own website or in your own project. If you do, we would greatly appreciate a link back to Great Adventures Review.

Categories
JRPG Collection

Evolution of Healers in JRPGs

Magical healers have had a role in mythology, religion and fantasy literature since forever. You’ve heard of Jesus of Nazareth? Total healer. 

We will come back to him later. In role playing games, healers were there even before computers. The first edition Dungeons and Dragons (1974) gave rules for three types of characters: fighting men, magic-users, and clerics. It is the latter that concerns us. 

The roster of curing classes expanded in the expansions. In Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk, the paladin made his RPG debut. In Supplement III: Eldrich Wizardry, we meet the druid for the first time. Rangers and bards also had restorative spells or abilities, to a lesser extent. 

These classes were the foundations for in early CRPGs. Thus in the Ultima series we find Dupre the paladin and Jaana the druidess, some of the earliest named healers in videogames. 

We can draw a line from these healing trailblazers to the world of JRPGs — starting, as many things do, with Dragon Quest. 

Moonbrooke: The start of an archetype? (1987)

Princess of Moonbrooke from Dragon Quest II

This female princess cleric establishes norms many other would abide by, yet most people don’t even know her name. 

At least, not a consistent one. She is known as the Princess of Moonbrooke, and in later appearances has the name Purin (after “pudding”), or Princessa in the west — usually. 

In the game she hails from, Dragon Quest II, her name is randomly generated, a holdover from pen and paper RPGs where parties were rolled, not pre-written.

What the game does tell us about her is that she is a princess of Moonbrooke castle, she is beautiful, and before she joins the party she is stolen away by the game’s main villain. And if that all sounds about right for a JRPG healer, well, we’re off to a flying start. 

The JRPG healer stereotype

In Moonbrooke we see a number of traits that make up the stereotypical main healer of a JRPG party. Such characters, which pop up all across the genre, have most or all of the following traits:

  • a young adult women with striking looks
  • with a kind and timid personality
  • with low physical attacking ability but high magical power
  • has royal lineage or some other destiny by birthright
  • is often the love interest for the male main character

How did this stereotype come to be? We’ll explore that, but first let’s look at some other examples that show that not all early JRPG healers fit into this box.

Minwu: The first white mage (1988)

Minwu from Final Fantasy II

The primary healing class in Final Fantasy is the white mage. The white mage has had a place in the series since the very first game, in which they could be promoted into a white wizard, who, though nameless, had a vaguely masculine look to them.

The first named white mange in the series debuted in the sequel, Final Fantasy II. Winwu is a very different looking first healer than Moonbrooke in Dragon Quest II — and why wouldn’t they be? In the context of the the non-prescriptive nature of Dungeons & Dragons character creation, which these games were inspired by, the ranks of clerics would be filled by all types of people with all backgrounds.

Winwu is experienced in battle by the time the party meet him. He is a mentor to the party and willing to lay down his life for the rebel cause. This committed and hardened character feels uncommon for somebody in his role. 

A battle medic needs to get their hands dirty; Minwu is one of the few healers in the series that makes us believe that he would.

Expanding casts (1990-91)

As the size of the casts of JRPG expanded — from a measly one in Dragon Quest (1986), to eight in Dragon Quest IV (1990) — games found room for multiple healers. In Dragon Quest IV, we see two very different, but equally traditional, archetypes: that of a paladin and a cleric. 

Kiryl from Dragon Quest IV

Kiryl: A paladin appears

Games and stories often feature a connection between healing and religion: the skill is the domain of priests. This connection is intuitive, as such professions centre on supporting members of their community. It is somewhat mystifying that fantasy communities do not have dedicated doctors, but only religious men moonlighting — but I digress. Let us introduce our first priest.

Kiryl is steadfast in his devotion to his god, which contributes to the main joke of his character: the tension between his physical attraction to Aylena and his commitment to purity. In battle, he is a paladin through and through, with access to the full suite of healing spells as well as buffs to defence and a firm sword arm. 

Kiryl is not the best practical choice of healer, though, because due to a quirk of the game’s AI  he prefers to cast instant-death spells. The better healer in the game is one of the twins. 

Meena/Porom: Yin and yang

Porom from Final Fantasy IV

The duality of white magic and black magic sometimes arises in the form of characters, too. In Dragon Quest IV we have Maya and Meena. One, a rambunctious, dancing mage, the other a reserved, fortune-telling healer. 

Funnily enough, a very similar dynamic appears in Final Fantasy IV with the twins Porom and Palom. In both games, one twin casts offensive magic and the other heals the party. 

Porom and her brother are just five years old, not typically a ideal age to undertake dangerous adventures. Magic is what excuses this questionable choice in companions. We can accept that magical aptitude can outpace physical development in this fantasy world. 

And though small in stature, Porom and Palom are both large in heart. Once again, the black mage of the duo is the unruly one, the white mage more calculating, but neither is reserved: Polom is quite willing, eager even, to clip her brother around the ear when he deserves it, and make decisions for the group, who trust her judgement. 

Porom is a reassuring early sign that healers can be proactive, full of energy, and take key roles in the story.

Rosa: The purest

Rosa from Final Fantasy IV

The other main healer in Final Fantasy IV is Rosa, the first female white mage to be introduced in the Final Fantasy franchise. 

Rosa’s character is simple and pure, denying ornamentation or complexity. She is the centre point on a love triangle involving the main character, Cecil, and his rival, Kain. She is not a princess, though is familiar with court life in her hometown of Baron. Her primary character traits are kindness and devotion to her friends (to Cecil especially). She rarely causes waves in the story except when she is immobilised by desert fever, or kidnapped by the villain — she is generally a passive character. 

Rosa does not challenge our stereotypes but sits comfortably within them. Not all love interests are active characters. Rosa plays her part adequately, and can be seen as the foundation for many similar characters for decades to come. She is an important character in the franchise history. though not the most exciting one. 

But now let’s try and answer a question: why “white mage” is a commonly chosen class for the female love interest?

Women and healing

Traditional ideas of femininity dovetail into the female healer archetype easily. The female physique doesn’t seem to fit a class that relies on big muscles, but there is no reason to disregard a magical class. On the same line of thinking, stereotypical female nature lends itself to a supportive role.

Princess Peach from Super Mario RPG

In 1996, we see these stereotypes in action. Princess Peach had been playable in an RPG before Super Mario RPG (1996). She could have become anything. A mage? A tank? But of course, Princess Peach is the healer. Resembling Moonbrooke and Rosa, she is a shoo-in for the role, ticking all the boxes of the stereotype.  

Thankfully, from the start we see examples like Minwu, or Myau from Phantasy Star (1987) — in which game the only female character had a more physical role in battle. The stereotypes were not widespread or rigidly adhered to, but they did appear to have some staying power. 

Cecil and Rosa: The cure couple

We’ve already seen how Final Fantasy IV contributed to JRPG healer lore, but there something important we haven’t even touched on yet: the main character is also a paladin, making a very rare example of both the main character and the love interest of the game being part of a healing clas. 

It’s not too uncommon for a main character to have some healing potential. It’s a good way to balance the early portions of the game, when you might not have access to all characters. Alice from Phantasy Star was another capable healer. But usually the balanced main character can delegate to a dedicated (and more capable) healer later on, allowing the game’s poster character to show off more of their offensive abilities (and take more of the glory). 

However, it’s unusual that the main character to be the party’s main healer. This trait is part of what gives Ness of Earthbound a unique flavour. 

Aggressive healers (1994-2001)

With Cecil and Ness, we saw healers taking more mixed, offensive roles. 

In Marle in Chrono Trigger (1995), we have a typical ranger, sporting a bow, a suite of healing spells, and complete with a feistier personality than any healer before her.

But why bring a crossbow when you can bring a gun? One of my favourite healers, Billy from Xenogears (1998), perfectly demonstrates how a character can be a “healer with a nasty bite”.

Make no mistake, he is kind, he is rational, and he is even a man of the cloth — a cleric in the most literal sense. On the other hand, he wields a pair of pistols like a cowboy, has a rather impressive damage output, and is certainly not afraid to take charge of a situation.

These are examples of healers becoming more active and less one-dimensional. The final examples in this article follow the same trend but take it in a different direction, resulting in one of the most popular healer subtypes.

A new archetype: the summoner

Garnet/Dagger from Final Fantasy IX

Once upon a time in the series, Final Fantasy summoners were an alternative black mage. Your summons were elemental bombs in a monster-themed wrapper. In Final Fantasy IV your strongest black mage, Rydia, was also your summoner, because why not: it’s roughly the same role. 

However, Rydia’s descendants in spirit, Garnet and Eiko of Final Fantasy IX (2000), took a totally different approach. They were a healer/summoner hybrid, allowing them to do massive damage as well as massive healing. That made them a bit of a safe, more alike with Tellah than Rydia.

This new archetype proved popular, and was repeated in the very next game, for Yuna in Final Fantasy X (2001). 

Up to this point, we have expected healers to have limited damage output, so giving them access to the most destructive abilities in the game is a pretty radical twist in itself.

But it goes a bit further than that: it gives the archetypical main female character something more to do in the story. Both Garnet and Yuna are similar in this respect, summoners in games where eidolons/aeons have more significance than in any game before. A very welcome change. 

Yuna from Final Fantasy X

Yuna: The healer-saviour

You don’t have to look hard to see that Yuna could be an analogue to Jesus. She heals wounds, she is a preacher of sorts, and she is instructed to die for our sins — literally, sacrifice herself to defeat a monster called “Sin”. Yuna also walks on water and guides people’s souls to the afterlife.

She entirely fits the healer conventions, too. She is a princess (the daughter of high summoner Braska), she is quiet, kind, devoted and beautiful. She is Rosa in all these respects.

What makes her interesting is what she adds on top of those conventions. She does fight against a potentially tragic destiny, and she does wield unimaginable destructive power. It’s the combination that makes Yuna such a compelling character, and one of our favourite healers of all time.

Conclusions

So we haven’t come very far in 2000 years, but we came quite far in 20. The role of healer in 1991 was one-dimensional, but over time hybrid classes were allowed to flourish and the characters become more complex and had a greater role in the story. 

Healers are as popular today as ever. One of the most popular characters in Final Fantasy XIV is Y’Shtola. One of the most popular characters in Overwatch is Mercy.

As long as there are games with combat, there will be a need for specialists to patch up our heroes. And sometimes, they are the heroes themselves.

List of Healers

These are the healers that appeared in this article. All are candidates for the best healers in JRPGs:

  • Princess of Moonbrooke/Purin/Princessa (Dragon Quest II, 1987)
  • Myau (Phantasy Star, 1987)
  • Minwu (Final Fantasy II, 1988)
  • Kiryl (Dragon Quest IV, 1990)
  • Meena Mahabala (Dragon Quest IV, 1990)
  • Porom (Final Fantasy IV, 1991)
  • Rosa Joanna Farrell (Final Fantasy IV, 1991)
  • Princess Peach (Super Mario RPG, 1996)
  • Ness (Earthbound/Mother 2, 1994)
  • Garnet Til Alexandros XVII (Final Fantasy IX, 2000)
  • Eiko Carol (Final Fantasy IX, 2000)
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Movies

What Avatar: The Way of Water did to me

Avatar 2 recaptures the magic of the first film without feeling like a retread — mostly. 

With the world of Pandora and the way of the Navi explained in the first movie, the sequel seems like the time to build on those foundations and tell a new, more complex story. 

I wanted Avatar: The Way of Water to do Star Wars: expand in a far flung, arms sweeping sort of way. Flamboyantly. Big space politics, new sentient species, strange ideas that are more than a step away from what we’ve already seen.

Instead, Cameron meanders pleasantly to a nearby island cluster, where the locals still have blue skin, but a slightly different shade of blue. 

If this sounds like criticism, wait until you see it in motion. The world of the water tribe is worth a film to itself. It is not with dramatic, superficial variety that Cameron is expanding his world, but in the aggregate of many meaningful details.

The lands of the Metkayina clan are sometimes less fantastical than locations from the first film, but as these suspended wicker abodes show, they are still exotic and beautiful. Image from Pandorapedia.

In a way, it is the opposite of Star Wars, where you can cross a billion miles in a second to meet a thousand interchangeable aliens. On Pandora, you leave your forest and the other blue people laugh at you for having a different shaped tail. Honestly, much more realistic.

Deeper fidelity, deeper sentimentality: those seem to be the goals of Avatar 2. Sully’s new children (some biological, some adopted, each with a personality of their own) make up the emotional core of the film. 

The multiple times I got choked up, the children were to blame. 

When the film took a few seconds to slow down and lovingly explore the details of the new environment, it was Kiri’s unique connection with this nature that elevated these affecting moments above similar scenes in other movies. 

When the danger ratcheted up, it was the heightened adrenaline of the children and the parents that totally encompassed me in the action. 

I’m a sucker for a family dynamic in films, and The Way of Water does it well. 

Kiri, one of the new generation of Navi. The fidelity of the hair, the subtlty of the expressions and body language — truely the most lifelike computer generated characters in a film yet. Image from Pandorapedia.

In some regards, Cameron doesn’t move far enough away from the first Avatar. In particular, the villain, Colonel Quaritch, who is no more interesting that he was in the first film. 

He learns the way of the Na’vi, which seems like a great excuse for a redemption arc. This would have left a vacancy for a new antagonist at the end of the film… but alas. This film, as did the previous one, resolves itself with a showdown between Sully and Colonel Quaritch. A good fight scene, but a tedious narrative repetition. 

Another disappointment is the scale of the conflict. The sequel starts well in this regard, jumping immediately into a new planetary war. But at the height of the third act, the stakes are no greater than Sully’s family, a few tens of water tribe warriors, and a school of large fish. 

I’m happy for a sequel getting more personal, but when the conflict is already similar to the first movie it is hard not to make comparisons. In Avatar, the fate of the whole forest was palpable. In this film, does the fate of the ocean hang in the balance? It doesn’t seem so. 

You would think it would be hard to care as much about the character on the right as the character on the left. You may be surpised. Image from Pandorapedia.

At the end, we are left with open conflicts for the next film to deal with. The sacred words of the water tribe state that “the way of water has no beginning and no end”. As a middle film in this franchise, that is unfortunately what this feels like. 

In the one-day complete Avatar five-film epic cycle, if The Way of Water hadn’t introduced new characters then it would have risked being skipped in marathons. That’s how little has changed in the broader conflict by the end.

But’s it’s not the franchise building that matters. It isn’t the climax that makes this film a worthy sequel and blockbuster. It isn’t the wit of the writing or even the plot, which frankly requires Sully to make some very questionable decisions. It is the slower second act, which once again transports us to a fantasy world that no other film has the ambition to attempt. Love it or hate it, Avatar did it, and The Way of Water did it again.