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Presenting Gametrailers' new series: Star Wars Retrospective

by Griffin McElroy { Mar 9th 2008 at 4:30PM }

If you were like us, you obsessively pored over every installment in Gametrailers' Final Fantasy Retrospective. Mixing one part nostalgia and one part detailed biography, it was one of our favorite (and one of GT's most viewed) online video series ever. You can understand our elation, then, when we heard they would be doing another retrospective on yet another major facet of geek culture -- the Star Wars Retrospective.

Based on the trailer above, we assume it will follow the same format as their first retrospective, chronologically detailing the history of all ninety-some video games that take place in the Star Wars universe -- from the good, to the bad, to the ... well, you know. The first chapter of the ten-part series drops this Saturday -- to help pass the time, why don't you tell us about your favorite midichlorian-infused LucasArts adventure?

Finality with Final Fantasy retrospective: Part XIII

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 3rd 2007 at 10:33AM }

This week GameTrailers.com ends their epic Final Fantasy retrospective by going over what it takes to make a Final Fantasy game. The rules to create a FF game worthy to be part of the Roman numeral series are pretty loose, but GT does their best to go over most of the minutia required for an installment in the franchise. Crystals vs. spheres, three party members or four, what role should Cid play? These are the hard questions SquareEnix has to sit down and answer before starting a project.

Go ahead now and enjoy the last retrospective. If you missed any of the episodes they are linked below for easy reference. If you decide to go on a Final Fantasy retrospective today it'll only take a few hours to watch them all. We're looking forward to GameTrailers' next (significantly shorter) retrospective series tackling ... well, they won't tell us. What would y'all want it to be?

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part XII

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 26th 2007 at 2:55PM }

OK everybody, the Final Fantasy retrospective is almost over, so soak it up while you can. This week, GameTrailer's retrospective episode looks back at all the Final Fantasy remakes. Yes, it takes 14 minutes to go through them all. The most interesting part of this episode is the significant portion of time spent explaining the language translation issues that have haunted the series since its inception.

Next week, in the final episode of the Final Fantasy retrospective, GameTrailers will cobble together an original Final Fantasy game from scratch, utilizing the elements necessary for a "Final Fantasy game." This ought to be a joyous bundle of clichés. You know Cid has to be in there somewhere.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part XI

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 10th 2007 at 11:26AM }

GameTrailer's Final Fantasy retrospective finished looking at the Roman numeral games in the franchise weeks ago, but there are still many titles to cover that have the Final Fantasy name attached to them one way or another. This week they move into the Final Fantasy Legend, The Crystal Chronicles, and the Kingdom Hearts saga.

Let's just skip past the Final Fantasy Legend games because those aren't really Final Fantasy games (although what really is?), they were just given the name to capitalize on the Final Fantasy brand in the west and are actually the Saga series. Next on the list is the endearing Crystal Chronicles. If the GameBoy Advance required multiplayer were done today using the Nintendo DS, it really wouldn't be such a big deal considering everyone and their mother has a DS that could link up wirelessly with the Wii. The smart man's modern Gauntlet, Crystal Chronicles really is a great multiplayer experience if you have the GBAs. Finally, the retrospective covers Kingdom Hearts, where the peanut butter of Final Fantasy meets the chocolate of Disney. Kingdom Hearts now stands alone with its own separate world and rules to continue down its own path as more additions to the series are guaranteed to come along.

Next week the Final Fantasy retrospective will cover all the remakes of the Roman numeral series we've seen over the years.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part X

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 26th 2007 at 8:30AM }

GameTrailers moves beyond the Roman numerals in their Final Fantasy retrospective and into the peripheral media with the Final Fantasy name attached to it. Some of it good, some of it Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. One of the more interesting parts about this episode is all the Chocobo games, many of which never made it to the States. You'd think if there's anything that Americans would gobble up it's games with big cute yellow birds -- we've been watching one on PBS for decades. Next week the retrospective covers the successful spin-offs of Final Fantasy like Crystal Chronicles and Kingdom Hearts.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part IX

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 18th 2007 at 10:01AM }

GameTrailer's Final Fantasy retrospective chugs along into the last of the playable Roman numeral series: Final Fantasy XII. Actually this episode is more about the world of Ivalice -- all of it. At around 25 minutes long, you might as well grab a drink and some popcorn before you start this episode.

The world of Ivalice is actually playable in four games: Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced and Final Fantasy XII. The big question is how these four games and their respective worlds tie into each other, which the retrospective covers in the last section of this episode. There are more games planned to occur in the world of Ivalice as well. In the next episode of the retrospective they'll cover all the random Final Fantasy stuff like the spin-offs and movies.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part VIII

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 5th 2007 at 5:22AM }

GameTrailers does an excellent job looking at the bright side as they go over Final Fantasy XI in their continuing retrospective. Remember when the idea of Final Fantasy going online sounded like a great idea, the dream of an entertaining and epic masterpiece that would revolutionize MMOs forever? Boy, were we all smoking the Moogle dung hard back then! Final Fantasy XI, which should have just been called Final Fantasy Online, brought an online experience that seemed fine at the time -- until the World of Warcraft came along.

According to the retrospective there are still 4 million people playing Final Fantasy XI and enjoying its amazing grind and unforgiving gameplay. Actually, it'd be good to hear from people who are still playing what kept them involved all this time.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part VII

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 28th 2007 at 8:56PM }

The Final Fantasy X series on the PS2: Behold the summonings, the whining heros, and the fashion! Final Fantasy X followed the story of Tidus, a blitzball player who is ripped out of his dimension by his father's adventuring companion just as the city he lives in is destroyed by the indescribable Sin. When Tidus comes to, he meets the summoner Lady Yuna and they proceed to have their girlish infatuation with each other for the rest of the story. They defeat Sin and save Yuna's world ... and for the first time ever, that wasn't the end of the tale.

Final Fantasy X-2, love it or hate it, it was the first true sequel to a Final Fantasy story ever and it went all-out in breaking the traditional mold, but still gave nods to some series conventions. Three female leads, J-pop musical numbers and fashion, fashion, fashion! Many gamers dismiss Final Fantasy X-2 -- for obvious surface reasons -- but from a purely combat perspective, it's still more truly Final Fantasy than the the MMO-style combat offerings coming up in Final Fantasy XI and XII.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI

Continued →

Final Fantasy retrospective: Part VI

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 21st 2007 at 10:58AM }

With Final Fantasy VII -- and all the belly-aching that goes with it -- behind us, we move on with GameTrailers' Final Fantasy retrospective into the chapters of the Final Fantasy saga which attempted a love story and then a full-on throw back. Final Fantasy VIII brought us one of the single coolest weapons in gaming history -- the gun blade. It also attempted to have the most mature plot line of any Final Fantasy until that point.

Final Fantasy IX was a throw back to cutesy Final Fantasy as games started moving towards becoming definitively un-cutesy. FF IX was also the last game before Square wised up and decided not to vomit full video in what started to feel like every single cutscene.

Next week GameTrailers covers FFX and the ultimate fashionista game for all those little boys who are going to try out for Project Runway in a few years: FF X-2. Whether you loved or hated FF X-2, those fashions were fierce.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

Final Fantasy video retrospective: Part V

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 13th 2007 at 9:30AM }

And here's where Final Fantasy went mainstream: Final Fantasy VII. Multiple discs, video cutscenes, a memorable death, and something called a PlayStation, made this the break-out installment in the series. It even spawned numerous spin-offs and a movie. FF VII was also the game which got the Roman numerals back on track.

At this point we wouldn't mind seeing a PS3 remake of Final Fantasy VII, which haunts the system and gamers since that silly tech demo at E3 2005. SquareEnix is bringing Final Fantasy IV back around with a graphics update for the DS. Shiva knows SquareEnix isn't opposed to rehashes. Who knows, we could see a PS3 remake -- at least it would be a system seller.

See also: Part I & II, Part III, Part IV

Final Fantasy video retrospective: Part IV

by Alexander Sliwinski { Aug 6th 2007 at 3:25PM }

GameTrailers continues their Final Fantasy retrospective solely focusing on the last game in the series to get the Roman numeral mess-up treatment. Final Fantasy VI, or Final Fantasy III to the west, was the last game for the series in the 2D era, and the last Final Fantasy game in the numerical series we'd see on a Nintendo console. From here on in it was PlayStation all the way.

See also: Part I & II, Part III

Final Fantasy retrospective beginnings: Parts I & II

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 23rd 2007 at 7:50PM }

We definitely enjoyed the Legend of Zelda retrospective and we're happy to see Brandon Jones, who wrote, produced and did the voice-over for that saga, is back to tell the Final Fantasy series in the same style. Due to the madness of E3, the first episode of the Final Fantasy retrospective got lost in the fray. You can watch the first episode above and then as a special gift from us, check out the second episode after the break. The other eleven episodes are expected to come out weekly.

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