It has to be said, that what Final Fantasy has meant to the RPG genre is both incidental and poetic. The series is amazing because it doesn't rely on keeping any similarities between games, and thus it is able to constantly test boundaries that push the entire genre forward.

If the series were a set of sequals, it would have been bound to the traditions of that series. As it is however, we are blessed with new takes every single time on the battle system. We're invited to meet completely new characters and explore entirely different worlds, and not simply embark on a different quest. We have relearn how to play the game, and determine what we want to accomplish. And all because the creators of FFII had the foresight to do something that had never been done in any series of any kind before it. They did what they wanted.

If the series had not doomed itself to finality with the very first game, it would not have been able to be reborn with each new edition. But it did, and so it constantly reinvents inself, pushing the industry forward, and simultaneously keeping old players interested while allowing easy access to new players.

And it was all because they never planned to make another.

Imagine James Bond, if in the first film, Bond had died. Perhaps we'd have had a new actor every movie, set in an entirely different realm. But regardless you would always know that it was going to be the best spy movie there was.

That's what Final Fantasy is. You can simply play one of them, you can pick your own favorite for whatever reasons you choose. You can play them all and enjoy the trivial similarities and compare and contrast the vast differences. You can enjoy how various aspects of the series have grown and matured over the years, and consider how characters, weapons, and enemies compare.

There's just no other series out there, whether it be in novels, film, comics, or video games, that quite compares to the essence of this series. It's just amazing, and it keeps growing. I love it.