Latest news with #FinalFantasies
The Age
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
After 30 years of guns and gore this franchise is turning to story
Anyone who hasn't thought about the video game series Doom since the mid-1990s might be surprised to see the latest trailers for Doom: The Dark Ages, which is launching next week. id Software's seminal shooter series has maintained its guns, its gore and its blend of sci-fi and satanic vibes that helped propel it to massive success decades ago. But it also has knights, shields, a massive pilotable mech and what appears to be an epic and cinematic tech-horror-fantasy storyline. It's not the only legacy franchise to have ballooned from an all-action gameplay experience to something that – at least in part – is presented like a Hollywood blockbuster. Look at recent Tomb Raiders, Final Fantasies, Sonics, Zeldas and even Street Fighters. And especially look at the recently delayed Grand Theft Auto 6, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest and most expensive games of all time, despite the series' humble beginnings. It's not that there's no longer a market for more focused and exclusively playable experiences; those are furnished in essentially all genres by smaller-scale games generally by smaller teams, and sold at a lower price. Or players simply return to the originals; all the old Doom games are available, packaged with new maps and running in high resolution, on current platforms. But new games in these massive tent-pole franchises operate on a different level, as marquee releases for major corporations, costing many years and millions of dollars to make, and being sold for more than $100 a copy. Each one needs to be different from the last. And, importantly, bigger. The world of Doom was reset in 2016, with a new game that emphasised brutality and heavy metal music but also brought back a lot of 'video gaminess' that had been shed in the dour 2000s. Yet through that game and its sequel, 2020's Doom Eternal, director Hugo Martin has built an entire narrative framework linking the superhuman demon-fighting protagonist (referred to as The Slayer) to earlier games, and charting his path through hell and back via several dimensions and centuries of warfare. Just as in Marvel movies, progressing the plot has become almost as integral as the action and spectacle, and in The Dark Ages, Martin is embracing on-screen storytelling in a way Doom never has before. 'As much as we like [ Doom Eternal ], there's never an intention to just create the same experience but with new weapons. As a trilogy, we think that it's going to be much more satisfying for players to be able to play each game and know that each one kind of stands on its own, as its own unique experience,' Martin said.
Sydney Morning Herald
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
After 30 years of guns and gore this franchise is turning to story
Anyone who hasn't thought about the video game series Doom since the mid-1990s might be surprised to see the latest trailers for Doom: The Dark Ages, which is launching next week. id Software's seminal shooter series has maintained its guns, its gore and its blend of sci-fi and satanic vibes that helped propel it to massive success decades ago. But it also has knights, shields, a massive pilotable mech and what appears to be an epic and cinematic tech-horror-fantasy storyline. It's not the only legacy franchise to have ballooned from an all-action gameplay experience to something that – at least in part – is presented like a Hollywood blockbuster. Look at recent Tomb Raiders, Final Fantasies, Sonics, Zeldas and even Street Fighters. And especially look at the recently delayed Grand Theft Auto 6, which is shaping up to be one of the biggest and most expensive games of all time, despite the series' humble beginnings. It's not that there's no longer a market for more focused and exclusively playable experiences; those are furnished in essentially all genres by smaller-scale games generally by smaller teams, and sold at a lower price. Or players simply return to the originals; all the old Doom games are available, packaged with new maps and running in high resolution, on current platforms. But new games in these massive tent-pole franchises operate on a different level, as marquee releases for major corporations, costing many years and millions of dollars to make, and being sold for more than $100 a copy. Each one needs to be different from the last. And, importantly, bigger. The world of Doom was reset in 2016, with a new game that emphasised brutality and heavy metal music but also brought back a lot of 'video gaminess' that had been shed in the dour 2000s. Yet through that game and its sequel, 2020's Doom Eternal, director Hugo Martin has built an entire narrative framework linking the superhuman demon-fighting protagonist (referred to as The Slayer) to earlier games, and charting his path through hell and back via several dimensions and centuries of warfare. Just as in Marvel movies, progressing the plot has become almost as integral as the action and spectacle, and in The Dark Ages, Martin is embracing on-screen storytelling in a way Doom never has before. 'As much as we like [ Doom Eternal ], there's never an intention to just create the same experience but with new weapons. As a trilogy, we think that it's going to be much more satisfying for players to be able to play each game and know that each one kind of stands on its own, as its own unique experience,' Martin said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Final Fantasy series has sold a whopping 200 million copies, while the Pixel Remaster reportedly outsells FF16 with 5 million copies
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Publisher Square Enix has announced that its beloved JRPG anthology series has passed a major milestone as more than 200 million Final Fantasies have been sold over the last 37 years. "The Final Fantasy series has now sold over 200 million copies across the globe," the publisher announced today, "Wherever you joined us on our adventures, thank you." Those sales account for a whopping 16 mainline games (22 if you include numbered sequels and the recent FF7 remakes), alongside countless mobile spin-offs, strategy pivots, orchestral rhythm tappers, fighting game experiments, and much more. Squeenix's recent Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster "series" has also moved more than five million copies after receiving staggered multiplatform ports across PC, mobile, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox. The Pixel Remaster bundle includes the series' first six classic outings with a much shinier coat of pixels slapped on top, though each game is also available to buy individually, so I'd be curious to see how those sales were split. I'd guess some (FF4 and FF6) probably fared better than others (sorry, FF2). To coincide with the major milestone, the Pixel Remasters got a new patch addressing minor bugs across all platforms. Final Fantasy 3 now also has a handy accessibility feature allowing you to adjust the "rate that character job level increases" if you'd like to cut down on the grinding. Pixel Remaster's success is so nice to see because turn-based, non-Pokemon JRPGs were almost an endangered subgenre two console generations ago. Now, the collection is seemingly a bigger hit than the spectacle-stuffed Final Fantasy 16, which reportedly has only managed to sell 3.5 million copies. Maybe that multiplatform strategy is finally bearing fruit. Either way, Final Fantasy's updated numbers puts it in very exclusive company, as only the likes of Mario, Pokemon, FIFA, Call of Duty, and a few others can boast of such success. For now, why not reminisce with the very best Final Fantasy games of all time?
