Why are Final Fantasy games not connected?

[Abrsoftech]

Hey FF fans. I know Final Fantasy games share common elements like chocobos, moogles, summons, and thematic ideas. But I've always been curious why the main numbered games are almost always set in completely different worlds with unrelated stories and characters.

What's the design philosophy behind making each core entry a fresh start rather than building on previous installments? Just wondering about the history or reasoning for this. Thanks.

 

[Shagger]

The only person truly qualified to answer this question is the game's creator Hironobu Sakaguchi as well as possibly other people at Square Enix. If I were to guess, it's just simply for creative reasons and to help with longevity of the series.

Let's be honest, sequels with matching lore and characters are by thier very nature creatively stifling despite thier apoeal. Having a new setting, lore and characters every time can open up more ideas and potential for stories that a direct sequel could not. And for such a long running series, it just makes sense to not have a massive backlog of games for people to play just to be "caught up" with events whenever a new game comes out.

 

[makoyyy]

They actually are, with our wallets