When will they actually end the Final Fantasy series? I know that capitalism is the driving force here, but you simply *cannot* shoehorn works that take years and tens of thousands of man hours to produce into the same market forces that guide beer or cheese. When does the series become less about the games and more about Square drowning in decadence? When you make 8 games in 10 years, you have to realize at some point that things cannot go on ad infinitum... and now that Square has diversified itself enough to survive creatively and financially without FF, why run it into the ground? If they don't stop it after IX or X, they should surely slow development to every few years or so, Miyamoto-ish timing.

Will they end the FF series? Sakaguchi is declaring FFVIII to be about "love". The more and more oblique these themes get, the less and less the series has anything to do with Final Fantasy gameplay. Look at the changes from the halfway mark of the series, not even at those from FF1, and see what remains true about the series. Different artists, different character designer, completely different design philosophy and style, many different translating teams, completely different battle system, etc., etc. Almost nothing besides Sakaguchi himself remains the same. Even magic points and treasure boxes are gone!!! Contrast this with character driver games like Nintendo's franchises, and you'll see much more room to grow when you have a foundation that stays true.

Should they end the FF series? Not if they slow it down. I hate, yes, I *hate* the new FF style, the utterly technological world with motorcycles, CG cut scenes, and little or none of the old playability. The series has become so big that it is a slave to its own reputation, each episode now trying to out-epic the rest. But, that being said, my personal dislike of a series is by no means reason enough to end it (although they *need* to translate it better in the meantime, regardless of theme, and write better characters/story lines). There is that obvious point: it sells, it gets adored, so stop? Well, why did Seinfeld end the TV show at #1? Why did Terrence Malick win critical acclaim for 2 early movies and summarily quit directing for 20 years? Why did Jim Brown retire while still the best running back in the NFL? Because things had changed so far beyond the original intent of these people that to keep up the same old guise would be nothing more than a facade for popularity.

A friend pointed out to me that the characters change every game, so the series is already more about change than any other. That is true, but the usual character changes have given way to everything almost completely new. Is that bad? Depends on your taste. Is that FF? Not really. It seems to me that Square is on the verge of something fresh, but still feels beholden to the old series and the old name. After a suitable ending, maybe FFX, I feel more and more like they should cut loose both and that Sakaguchi & Co. should finally move on.

Ed McGlothlin