5 Final Fantasy spinoff genres we somehow haven't seen yet

Final Fantasy isn’t just 30 years of RPG epics. This thing is a cash cow, even though not every attempt to spin things off has been well-received (or even remembered). Lately we’ve seen announcement after announcement of Square Enix shutting mobile games down, ostensibly signifying the end of a particularly obnoxious revenue stream. So what’s next? Out of curiosity, I took some time to think about the long history of Final Fantasy spinoffs, and noticed some odd genre omissions that one would think were easy targets over the years. Instead of doing yet another board game, why not try one of these? What could possibly go wrong?

First-person… Stuff

While I wrote just “first-person,” what I really meant was a first-person shooter. There have been third-person ones like Dirge of Cerberus, but never anything like a FPS-style game which is a little surprising considering how much material there is. But I left it open a smidge more because I’d also love to see Square Enix get super hardcore and do a Wizardry-style first-person dungeon-crawler using its central IP. Indies like Dungeon Antiqua have proved there’s sauce in that concept.

Musou/Warriors/Heroes/Whatever

Musou isn’t a genre as much as it is a series, but there are Musou-like games from outside the Omega Force/Koei Tecmo camp. But even so, Square Enix and Koei Tecmo are obviously homies, and even Dragon Quest got a couple of legit “Warriors” games. How has this not happened with Final Fantasy, especially with the Dissidia in-house crossover style already established? This is borderline criminal, but I reckon it’s also the most likely to actually happen in the coming years.

Dance, like literally, with your feet and those weird safety handles

I’m stretching a little here, since Theatrhythm is totally a thing, alongside Groove Coaster, so Square Enix has the music/rhythm thing on lock already. But, I still feel like it’s weird Square Enix’s generational hubris hasn’t ever led to a balls to the wall, shameless, Dance Dance Revolution-style arcade platform all about actually getting your feet twisted up trying to dance with a video game. Especially now that we’ve seen Cloud Strife lay the foundation in Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Puzzle/Match Game/Tetris Attack ripoff

I had to triple-check this one. How is it possible that, after years and years of digging the mobile gaming mines until nothing is left, we never saw a simple tile-matching game with Final Fantasy branding taped on it? Even Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has a tile-matching game. That’s crazy! Square Enix sort of dipped into puzzle games with Pictologia Final Fantasy, going after the Picross sickos out there. But how does Monster Hunter have a cutesy match-3 gimmick and these fools haven’t slapped a Moogle on one yet? Boggles the mind.

Horror/Spooky/Thing for streamers to inauthentically shriek at

Between a certain divisive section in Final Fantasy 15, and aspects of Stranger of Paradise, we know Square Enix is capable of being scary. Something resembling Resident Evil or Alone in the Dark, but set in the Final Fantasy universe, would be a fascinating experiment to say the least. Heck, why not throw a Tonberry into Dead by Daylight or something first to test the waters? Maybe the creepy undead ones from Final Fantasy 16’s last DLC would be a good fit, for example.

How’s that for some food for thought? If you’re still hungry, you can check out some strange ways Sega made Sonic the Hedgehog edible. I’m doing lists now! Feel free to let me know if you’re having fun, and if so I’ll keep finding new weird and cursed ways to talk about video games aside from reviews.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.