So I have been looking into the Strange rpg a lot recently and the idea of a recursion based off of the FF games came to mind.
What are the constants of the FF franchise? For example chocobos, the summons, Cid.
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Older and newer Final Fantasy have differing constants. If you look at 3 - 7 & 9, you'll get a different feel than 7, 8, 10 + sequel, & 13 + interminable sequels. 7 is kind of a crossover point, having features reminiscent of older games, but also introducing the angst driven character type which becomes the norm for newer games.
Older Final Fantasy had: at least one character of unique origin (last of their kind, secret alien, etc.)
Often guided by prophecy
Save the world
And yes, chocobo and summons
Newer Final Fantasy tends to have: a focus on individual character motivations and resolution.
Optional hard mode boss fights.
Save the world.
Often guided by angst or personal motivations.
And finally chocobo, usually summons as well.
One other difference, Cid is mostly an older game constant, while sequels are only a newer game occurance.
Cid
Chocobos
Fire, Ice and lightning magic
Cure, Cura, Curaga
magic names based on rank:
Base = -e
Middle = -a
high = -ga
Holy
Ultima
Meteor
A range of weaponry
Airships
Eidolons (in some form... "summons") since... 4 if I remember correctly
Ivalice is a pretty common land name (but not absolute, just common)
There's almost always one young girl in the group of characters.
Magic tends to be divided into white magic (healing, protection) and black magic (blasting), along with whichever other types they decide to add in a given game.
Earlier games opened up the PCs to a sandbox earlier in the game than later games. For example, you couldn't truly go wandering around in FF X till halfway through the game, upon reaching the Calm Lands, and more when you get your airship. FF 13, not till you were 3/4 of the way into the game.
Airships are a common phenomenon.
There is often a theme that a previous civilization had superior technology and as such, you can find examples of it (e.g. airships, machina, Weapons, etc.).
Someone always has truly outrageously bad hair in your party (Cloud, Zell, Wakka, Sazh).
Monsters as well
Behemoth, Goblins, Bombs, et al, are in every game I can think of.
One other difference, Cid is mostly an older game constant, while sequels are only a newer game occurance.
I thought there'd been a Cid in almost every game so far. Not always a party member, but he's there. Headmaster Cid Kramer in VIII, Regent Cid Fabool in IX, leader of the Al Bhed in X, haven't played XI but I know he's in there, in 13 he's a boss, Doctor Cidolfus Demen Bunansa (there's also Al-Cid Margrace, but he's not the "official" Cid of the game). XIII has Cid Raines, who doesn't appear in XIII-2, but does reappear in Lightning Returns. I know he's an NPC in XIV, and in XV, though I don't know what capacity yet.
As for the spinoffs and non-mainline of games... Orlandeau's first name in the original Tactics is Cidolfus, the Judgemaster in Tactics Advance is Cid Randell, Tactics A2 has him as a clan leader, Cid Aulstyne is the primary antagonist of Type-0, as of My Life as a King he's started appearing in the Cyrstal Chronicles games as well (Mogcid in MLaaK, Lilty Cid in The Cyrstal Bearers), and he pops up in various ways in The 4 Heroes of Light, Mystic Quest and the Dissidia Games. Not going to bother going into the mobile games and the various weird things like Theatrhythm, but he's in a lot of them as well.
Only main series game he wasn't in was the original Final Fantasy, and the re-release renamed a character Cid just so that he was there.
There seems to be a split between FF1-7,9 and 8,10-14 as was noted above.
8/10 had more closely held relevance to the earlier ones than anything 12 and after. The entire ADB system changed to be more like a real time idea rather than the more turn based idea of the past.
Crystals used to be a major item in almost all the FF games, but it's not as much a focus in the later ones.
The four elements (plus at times summons, time, red mage, and others) were also focuses of the earlier games which have not really been a focus of the new ones.
Currently playing FFV on my tablet, forgotten how fun it can be, as well as how annoying at times.
Moogles? I remember them missing from XIII, tough.
Earlier games opened up the PCs to a sandbox earlier in the game than later games. For example, you couldn't truly go wandering around in FF X till halfway through the game, upon reaching the Calm Lands, and more when you get your airship. FF 13, not till you were 3/4 of the way into the game.
I haven't played enough of the old Final Fantasy to make a comparison, but I don't know if you can say that the recent ones open the world later on.
XII opened up more than half of the map and a lot of high level sidequests about 10 hours into the game (post Tomb of Raithwall): the game was awesome from that point of view.While it's kinda a corner case because it is a direct sequel, X-2 opened up all of the world from the start. It seems that they're going for a open-worldish style for XV, too.
Moogles? I remember them missing from XIII, tough
With the moogles, even when they're not there as a race, they're usually visible in some capacity. In 7 they only appeared as a summon (Choco/Mog) and as part of the Mog's House minigame in the Golden Saucer. XIII I'm pretty sure there's at least one occasion where a kid is holding a moogle soft toy. XIII-2 of course has the major character one, who turns into Serah's weapon.
Moogles? I remember them missing from XIII, toughWith the moogles, even when they're not there as a race, they're usually visible in some capacity. In 7 they only appeared as a summon (Choco/Mog) and as part of the Mog's House minigame in the Golden Saucer. XIII I'm pretty sure there's at least one occasion where a kid is holding a moogle soft toy. XIII-2 of course has the major character one, who turns into Serah's weapon.
I don't recall any in 4, the earliest I remember them is Final Fantasy Adventure on the Gameboy, which was actually Seiken Densetsu (the first in the series that included Secret of Mana). Six featured Moogles, and Seven did as well (Don't forget the giant puppet one that Cait Sith rides). Looking it up, apparently they first appeared in 3, but I haven't played that one.
The only reference to them in Eight was the one you could play a mini-game with on the pocketstation. The game was pretty rubbish though.
First appearance was III I think. They were Doga's bodyguards. IV didn't have any, V had a village of them, VI they were pretty important. VIII had MiniMog as a Triple Triad card, and you could get a summonable version of the character. I thought they showed up more in VIII, but I realised I was thinking of the moombas.
One other difference, Cid is mostly an older game constant, while sequels are only a newer game occurance.I thought there'd been a Cid in almost every game so far. Not always a party member, but he's there. Headmaster Cid Kramer in VIII, Regent Cid Fabool in IX, leader of the Al Bhed in X, haven't played XI but I know he's in there, in 13 he's a boss, Doctor Cidolfus Demen Bunansa (there's also Al-Cid Margrace, but he's not the "official" Cid of the game). XIII has Cid Raines, who doesn't appear in XIII-2, but does reappear in Lightning Returns. I know he's an NPC in XIV, and in XV, though I don't know what capacity yet.
As for the spinoffs and non-mainline of games... Orlandeau's first name in the original Tactics is Cidolfus, the Judgemaster in Tactics Advance is Cid Randell, Tactics A2 has him as a clan leader, Cid Aulstyne is the primary antagonist of Type-0, as of My Life as a King he's started appearing in the Cyrstal Chronicles games as well (Mogcid in MLaaK, Lilty Cid in The Cyrstal Bearers), and he pops up in various ways in The 4 Heroes of Light, Mystic Quest and the Dissidia Games. Not going to bother going into the mobile games and the various weird things like Theatrhythm, but he's in a lot of them as well.
Only main series game he wasn't in was the original Final Fantasy, and the re-release renamed a character Cid just so that he was there.
Professor Cid was in my original Final Fantasy NES cartridge. He teaches you the language you need in the very last town you can visit, if you give him a certain table from the submerged temple IIRC. Found near the graves in the town of Melmond :)
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I'm incredibly saddened that several people have made several lists breaking up the games...and all of them have completely omitted XII as if it never existed.
Leaving off XI and XIV is understandable, but XII was a main series game!