Every now and then, a title comes along that simply changes the game. We’ve seen it countless times throughout the years with Call of Duty, Fortnite, Halo, Gears of War, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and so on.
When that happens, there is always the trend of the game that’s going to be “the next X game.” From the mid ’90s onward, that game to beat was Final Fantasy. While it didn’t create the JRPG, it most certainly has been the most successful and popular JRPG series for the longest time.
This prompted other developers to try their hand at creating the next Final Fantasy, and while some were admirable efforts, to this day, no series has really come close to creating the magic that Final Fantasy has.
We’re going to check out some of these valiant attempts to become the next big thing in JRPGs.
Our criteria is not necessarily bad games, but rather games that attempted to become a legitimate series that could stand toe to toe with the behemoth of Final Fantasy and ultimately never had that kind of staying power.
10 The Legend of Dragoon
We Have Final Fantasy 7 at Home
In the late ’90s, pretty much everyone was trying to steal the thunder that Final Fantasy brought year after year. Yes, in those days, we got one Final Fantasy game per year, not every half decade, and what a glorious time to be alive it was. But it also meant that there was little space for the competition to try and pick up the slack.
The Legend of Dragoon was one of the more memorable ones to try and do it. Armed with a spiky blond protagonist, a brunette-haired love interest, a silver-haired villain and a shocking character death midway through the game, it seemed like the game hit all the notes that made Final Fantasy 7 so iconic.
While I do have a soft spot in my heart for the game as it did some very cool things with the combat and story, the rest of the gaming world didn’t feel the same. This was supposed to be the next big JRPG series, but it just didn’t catch on as the new generation of gaming was around the corner and the frankly ugly presentation it had was just so behind the times – especially behind Final Fantasy – that it didn’t hit the way Sony thought it would.
It failed to become the next Final Fantasy and instead, became a bit of a cult classic that people look back on fondly today.
9 Lost Odyssey
Too Late In The Game
Lost Odyssey is a great game by many metrics, but so much of what it’s doing is trying to mimic the Final Fantasy formula. It had the mysterious protagonist with amnesia, the warring magical nations, the twists, the turns, and the music. It’s not a shock, because the minds in control were previous creators of the Final Fantasy series itself.
But this was 2008. Everything was changing in the gaming world. Open worlds were becoming more and more popular and the turn-based, random encounter-laden JRPG was something that was being actively shunned in the gaming community to the point that it almost felt xenophobic.
Lost Odyssey was a casualty of this rhetoric. It just felt like more of the same, and while its unique, timing-based combat system and legitimately great writing and visuals were all a standout for sure, it just did not become the mega hit that Final Fantasy was. I’d venture to say that if Lost Odyssey came out today with zero changes to it, it would become a far bigger hit than it was in 2008, and that says a lot.
8 Lost Soul Aside
A Wayward Soul
Lost Soul Aside has had one of the more tumultuous journeys in recent memory. It all started 10 years ago in the mind of one inspired individual: Yang Bing, who saw a trailer for Final Fantasy 15 and said, “I want to make that.”
Funnily enough, he was inspired by a game that also had a 10-year journey of pseudo cancellations and reboots, so in that way, Lost Soul Aside emulated Final Fantasy 15 perfectly. Unfortunately, in many other ways, the game did not become what it was supposed to be.
Lost Soul Aside was built up to be the next Final Fantasy, with huge production values, sharp graphics, and an over-the-top combat system reminiscent of Final Fantasy 16. There were designs for this to be a sprawling adventure with an open world, cities to explore, and all the trappings you’d expect from a triple A title.
But something went wrong with the development at some point. The open world plans were scrapped, the story shortened, and ultimately what we got is a character action game with some fantastic combat and boss fights, but little else to support it. It’s a shame because the combat really is 10/10, but the story, the voice acting, the enemies, and the villains are just painfully uninspired.
The game starts with an underground revolutionary group fighting to take down a big empire. My first thought was, “Boy, they sure do like Final Fantasy!” But weirdly enough, that plot is dropped almost immediately, and instead, an alien invasion takes place and the plot goes so far off the rails it barely resembles the same game in the opening minutes.
I hope this team gets another chance because if given the budget and the proper direction, there could be something special in this series.
7 Forspoken
Square Enix Hits An All-Time Low
Forspoken feels like a Final Fantasy game in its atmosphere, its story, its graphics, and even its combat, but it’s the biggest proof there is that a game is far more than just the sum of its parts.
Forspoken was the favorite punching bag of 2023, in a year that saw Final Fantasy return to form just months later with Final Fantasy 16. The biggest problem is, without a doubt, the writing. While this had the makeup of being a huge new series that could possibly take the Final Fantasy flag and run with it, the writing immediately made sure that was never going to happen.
It is cringe at best and hilariously awful at its worst, and an insufferable main character certainly did not help matters much. While the combat eventually grows to become something quite fun to play around with, the enemies were incredibly boring, the boss fights far too long, and everything felt a bit too cinematic for its own good. It was like they were trying to mix Final Fantasy and Game of Thrones tone, and what came out was something that just felt wrong.
Final Fantasy 16 would ironically do the same thing later in the year but to great success, so it goes to show you that even if the formula and the parts are largely the same, that secret sauce lies in the development team at the helm. While the effort was clearly there with Forspoken, and despite a decent DLC, we won’t be seeing this one become the next big thing anytime soon.
6 Bravely Default
Preying On Your Nostalgia
In 2014, the JRPG was somewhat in the doldrums, with the golden age long past and the future of gaming leaving the turn-based games of old in the dust.
So along comes Silicon Studios with the backing of none other than Square Enix to try and revive that feeling of old. Bravely Default does everything in its power to remind you of the classic, early ’90s Final Fantasy games, from the art style, to the tone, to the attacks, and abilities in combat.
It’s trying to make you remember the good times, and it actually succeeds in a handful of ways. The combat in particular was a lot of fun, with an interesting risk and reward system that made you think about how to go about each battle.
So what stopped this from becoming the next Final Fantasy? The platform it was on. It was released on the 3DS which, while a successful handheld platform, forgot about the fans of Final Fantasy, who likely had moved on from handheld gaming at that point.
They forgot who the Final Fantasy audience was. They were onto PS4 at that point, and there was no love shown to them. It wasn’t a good enough game to be a system seller, and ultimately, while it would spawn a sequel years later, it’s one of the easier to forget Final Fantasy clones.
5 Xenogears
Existential Fantasy
Xenogears sits comfortably in my top 5 games of all time. In fact, it started out as Final Fantasy VIII, but the developers were told it was too dark and that they would be going a different direction.
That spawned Xenogears, which was initially intended to be Episode 5 of a 6-part series. But that never happened. The development was rushed, leading to the infamous disc two disaster in terms of the gameplay and storytelling, but none of that stopped the game from being a success.
It was darker than Final Fantasy for sure, but the writing was fantastic, the characters felt real and incredible depth wise, and the story itself has yet to be topped in any medium in my opinion.
It also had a fun combat system that involved making your own combos in real time as well as giant mech combat as well. It’s just a fantastic experience, and one of the biggest misses in Square Enix’s illustrious history is not letting the development team finish the series.
It really could have been the next Final Fantasy in terms of popularity and global appeal, but instead, it’s the biggest “What if?” in gaming history. Of course, the team behind it would leave shortly after and go on to form Monolith Soft, making the Xenosaga series and eventually, the Xenoblade Chronicles series, which uses many themes from Xenogears and has in fact become this generation’s Final Fantasy.
4 Breath of Fire
A Breath of Fresh Air
Breath of Fire came out in 1993 at a time when Final Fantasy had already begun to take a hold on the JRPG market, but it would take a few years in between titles from there on out.
Every time a Breath of Fire title came out, a Final Fantasy game was either just released or just around the corner to the point that when the series finally called it quits by 2008, Capcom said that it simply wasn’t profitable to try and compete in the RPG market as only certain series would sell.
That doesn’t mean the Breath of Fire games weren’t good, though, because they were. They hit a certain old school itch that few games do, and though it may look primitive, the graphic style is also timeless, as are the unique stories told from game to game. It’s clear the game was made to contend with Final Fantasy, and in the process, it hit its own niche. It’s a much more anime type of JRPG that had a very cool combat system emphasizing combos and, of course, the epic dragon transformations that still look fantastic to this day.
This is one series I’d love to see make a comeback as we’re in the renaissance era of JRPGs. While Breath of Fire never hit the stratosphere, it still has its place in gaming history.
3 Star Ocean
Final Fantasy in Space
Star Ocean came out in 1996, which was right around the time that Final Fantasy would put a stranglehold on the JRPG genre and never let it go. Tri-Ace certainly did their best though. It was obvious it was trying to emulate the Final Fantasy-type story and setup on a sci-fi level, and while that was novel at the time, what was unknown was how hard Final Fantasy would veer into sci-fi in the near future.
Square was the publisher, so it was clear they were trying to fire up yet another franchise to churn out money, but this one definitely was a more niche product. Star Ocean does something much different than Final Fantasy though, and that’s full, real-time combat, which is something Final Fantasy wouldn’t enter into until 2016.
Star Ocean was definitely a success, but when we’re talking about Final Fantasy, we’re not just talking about success, we’re talking about global domination. Star Ocean wasn’t that, and although it would spawn 6 games throughout its 30-year run, that pales in comparison to the Final Fantasy machine.
While the remakes have got the series back on the map, we’re still waiting for another big-budget Star Ocean game to make itself a legitimate contender to the Final Fantasy crown.
2 Wild Arms
Fantasy Guns
Wild Arms decided to take a different route when attempting to become the next big thing. What if Final Fantasy had guns? The problem is that Final Fantasy 7 had been released just a few months before Wild Arms would come out, and it had guns too. So immediately, Wild Arms is a bit behind the ball.
Taking a look at the screenshot from the first game above, you can see how the deck was stacked against Wild Arms after witnessing the absolute cinematic splendor and graphical expertise that Final Fantasy 7 had, with its incredible CGI sequences and beautiful pre-rendered background.
I can tell you as a kid at the time, I saw this game and thought it was something from the Nintendo era, a relic, and was absolutely stunned to find out it was a new game at my local video game rental store.
Despite that, the game was actually pretty great. Despite its modest graphics, the story was fun and the combat was cool, with each character having their own weapon type and abilities.
The series wouldn’t really get the recognition it deserved until Wild Arms 2, which brought the series into 3D. But again, it was competing with Final Fantasy 9, which just gave us possibly the best game ever made at the time, so what hope did it really have?
The series would peter out shortly after, leaving another memorable body in the wake of Final Fantasy’s domination.
1 Skies of Arcadia
The Dreamcast’s Big Move
Sega knew exactly what it was doing when it gave developer Overworks the green light to make Skies of Arcadia. This was the big turn-based Dreamcast game that would take the crown from Final Fantasy. I remember it like it was yesterday; the game magazines hyping it up as the Final Fantasy killer, and the start of a new franchise that would take Dreamcast far into the future.
Well, that didn’t happen, as the Dreamcast came and went as fast as any major console in recent memory. But Skies of Arcadia was definitely a bright spot. It had everything it needed to take down Final Fantasy, from the flashy graphics to the fun cast, weird villains and great adventure-style story; but something was missing.
Final Fantasy had matured a lot by the time Skies of Arcadia released in 2000, but Skies of Arcadia felt childish in many ways.
The focus was on adventure and bright-eyed protagonists looking to make their mark on the world as rebels against an evil empire. It’s pretty standard stuff story wise, but the juice is in the gameplay. It’s got great exploration, fun combat, and really interesting ship battles as well.
The biggest hurdle it faced was simply being on the Dreamcast. That console was here and gone within two years, and while Skies of Arcadia would get released on the PS2, the genre had already passed it by. We would never get another game from this series, and though it reviewed well and has a decent fanbase, it’s just another Final Fantasy wannabe that didn’t have the legs to carry into the future.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
