3. An Involving Story
A part of me knows that it goes without saying that involving, emotional, stories are the backbone of not only the Final Fantasy series, but the RPG genre in general. However, this is also exactly why an involving story is a 100% must-have for Final Fantasy Vita, without it the game just wouldn't be able to connect with audiences and, I daresay, wouldn't be able to draw gamers in for the entire length of the game. Many fans of the Final Fantasy series were disappointed with Final Fantasy XIII because of its largely linear path through much of the game, but also because the story itself, whilst emotional, was unnecessarily complicated, whilst it also lacked a truly menacing villain, one of the strongest aspects of the series to date, with antagonists such as Kefka, Kuja and Sephiroth in particular holding a place in the hearts of Final Fantasy fans as the most memorable aspects of their specific series entries. This was alleviated somewhat with the introduction of Caius in Final Fantasy XIII-2, who was a complex villain that the story sorely lacked, but it could not fully atone for the fact that the story and mythology built around Final Fantasy XIII just didn't seem as strong as it could have been, which was especially ironic as Square Enix had pointed out that they planned for it to have the best story from the entire series. Maybe my memory is a little fuzzy, I did actually thoroughly enjoy the story at the time of playing through the game, but I would definitely not be inclined to suggest that it was better than many of the previous Final Fantasy games. The truth remains that if gamers cared as much about the plot as they were supposed to, there wouldn't have been as many complaints about the non-linear aspect of much of the game. This just adds weight to the fact that a Final Fantasy entry on Vita must have a strong story to keep gamers enthralled and playing further, as opposed to losing interest in the characters relationships and moving onto a new RPG series. This is especially true of the whole series now that the release ofNi No Kuni on PlayStation 3 is nigh, an RPG of which early reviews suggest an incredibly strong story, hardly surprising given that it has been developed by Level 5 and Studio Ghibli.