Cash Milking, if defined per word, cash means money and milking means getting someone’s milk, put those definitions together, it means getting more money from a certain a franchise who has something more to milk. If you still don’t get it, here are three words for you: Final Fantasy VII.
First story, if I would rank the plots with the previous FF games, I would rank its story as third, the first being FFVI and second being FFIV. Why third? It is simply because the other two overpowered it. FFVI is about a rebellion against an empire who uses machines infused with magic as their weapons, while FFIV is about redemption of a knight. You would say, those plots are SOOO common. Here is my answer why FFVII is my third in terms of ranking. FFVII’s story took 2 games for you to better understand the story and one movie for you to have a proper conclusion. Plus, if I would put the file size of those three games, FFIV would size to 100+MB of space based on the NDS remake. If FFVI will be remade for the PSP (In which I wish would happen), its size would be about 1GB and if I add the total size of the 3 discs, 1 UMD and 1 DVD, that would be an estimated total of 4.1GB.
In short, you would spend a lot of money for you to appreciate FFVII not just that, because of the popularity of FFVII, they decided to make more games and have frequent appearances on Kingdom Hearts due to the popularity. Wow. This is madness considering the fact that Sakaguchi-sensei wants every FF game as a stand alone game per number.
Now the characters, I will only rant Cloud and Sephiroth. Cloud in some instances felt like an empty slate. There are instances that he is entertaining (Remember the scene were he dressed up as a girl?) but in some instances, he felt like ah, OK? So what he wields a giant sword? He lacks some personality! If you counter that he has personality, remember that he overdosed in Mako when Zack died and then, had some of Zack’s personality and memories. In short, Cloud was a sketchpad at the entire duration of FFVII. About Crisis Core, that is the only time we see Cloud as Cloud. Not Cloud as Zack’s clone or Zack’s memoir.
For Sephiroth or what most fangirls like to call him, Sephy. He is a lame villain. He just wields a long sword; has long silky silver hair and killed a flower girl. Wow. Part of his achievement as a villain is to kill a flower girl? His reason? So that he will be the last member of their race. How shallow. If I would compare it to the epitome of FF villains, Kefka, Seph is light-years away from Kefka. Why so? Because Kefka has no tragic past, and all he does is to destroy everything. He is sadistic and nihilistic and has god-like powers… and Seph wants to acquire those.
Now, why does Sqaure-Enix keep on creating more FFVII merchandise, games and even create an updated version of Advent Children? It is because of these two. Even though they are just shadows of the other known, badass characters of FF, because of their look, those rabid fans want more of them.
Because of the attempt to create another FFVII, it ended up with FFXIII and based on the reviews that I read on the internet, the gameplay sucks. Oh well, FF really got derailed after its creator left Square-Enix. I think they should give FFVII a rest and plans to FFXIII into an FFVII-ish game into rest.
Another famous cash milked franchise is the Star Wars franchise. After the success of the first three Star Wars films, they decided to create an Expanded Universe. Nuff said. Because of this, the younger generation became fans of this said franchise. In own opinion, the Star Wars franchise has more to give unlike FFVII. For Kamen Rider fans, another well-known cash cow franchise is Kamen Rider Den-O. The story is a bit mediocre but because of the popularity of the Imagins, the show’s monsters, Toei continuously milks this show. Cho Den-O anyone? Most fans of the franchise disliked the show for its mileage and some fans think this show would never end. Even though Den-O concept was great (possession by the Imagins, trains, etc.), but it ruined the very foundation of what Kamen Rider is all about, a hero who can stand on his own and has its own personality. The only time I consider Den-O a Kamen Rider is when Ryotaro is on his Liner Form. That is the only time I consider him as his own man. Another instant that Ryotaro is worthy to be called a Kamen Rider is when he says that even though he has bad luck and clumsy, he will still fight for the sake of others.
To the conclusion, why is cash milking good? It is because it is fan service to the loyal fans of the said franchise. It is bad because that those characters are getting old and definitely needs to rest.
