“Final Fantasy” is where is all began. RPGs, I mean. There were RPGs before Final Fantasy; plenty of them, in fact. But Final Fantasy is where it all began for almost everyone playing RPGs. The first installment to the now heroic series gave us a select group of characters, a world, a mission, several enemies, and an array of different spells and skills; and since then, not much has changed. Given the nature of the series, and the nature of the world around it, it was only a matter of time until “Final Fantasy” made the jump to the MMORPG format, and at the time, we couldn’t have been happier.

It just made sense, really. “Final Fantasy,” in one way or another, gave birth to every other MMORPG out there. The same principles—characters, world, skills, enemies, missions—make up the foundations of every single MMORPG on the market today. They even went the extra mile, and retained many of the advanced features made famous by the previous titles, such as the job system that allows you to level up a class individually, and change it at whim, and a storyline with memorable characters and cutscenes littered throughout. They kept many of the now legendary enemies and bosses, allowed players to ride Chocobos, featured a fully fleshed and near limitless crafting system and even a player-run economy.

It’s not even limited to the PC. You can play it on the PlayStation 2 or the Xbox 360, and connect with players from all other platforms. In theory, it was a concept that couldn’t fail, and in Japan, it didn’t. The rest of the world, however, didn’t find it all so appealing. It wasn’t the features that led to its failure, nor was it the nostalgic landscapes, memorable monsters, or the ability to choose your class on the go and combine them together for greater results. No, it was the implementation of it all into a world that just didn’t feel right. It was the boring combat system, the gigantic cities that could take up to twenty minutes to traverse, the irritating chat box that felt like a chore to navigate at even the best of times, the incredibly hard and totally random enemy encounters. It was an overall issue with the fluidity of the game, the ebb and flow of progression, and the inability to feel immersed due to the issues mentioned above.