sceptical about the "new" FFs

August 17, 2007, 9:23 PM

ok, i'm sure everybody agrees the "older", and even some of the newer FFs are amazing pieces of art.. personally, i think all of them, up untill FFX-2(included) were amazing pieces of art, even art amongst art

i disliked FFXI
i disliked FFXII
i disliked DoC

to start out, graphical they look amazing, no doubt, however, graphics isn't everything

musicwise they were rather on average, if i look at FFX and FFX-2, musicwise they were so darn amazing, especially their main soundtracks(to zanarkand and memory of lightwaves for each game respectively)
i found the others too beepy(FFXI and FFXII), and didn't work well imo

storywise.. too much cold war, not enough emotions
an RPG is where you have to place yourself into your character, this is impossible if characters don't build a strong emotional bond..
an MMORPG lacks this automaticly, FFXII didn't really have that..

if i look at FFX, jezus, these people were best friends.. there were even lovers among them.. emotions are GOOD

another thing... drama, drama is needed, it strengthens a story, having a person die, or leaving him or her heartbroken, having the player him/herself feel emotions of happiness and/or sadness is good, or makes a story more solid and makes it more as if it's an RPG
no emotions is just making it a normal adventure game, not an RPG

there were moment i almost cried of happiness when playing FFX, and there were moment i cried of sadness, this created a certain bond between myself and these virtual people, being the reason i love them so much(on a healthy fanlike way)

i never had that with the FFXII characters, i admit, i haven't played it a lot, but when i played FFX, i already felt that bond between the characters when i compare it progressively

battle systems, a major part in the FF series, all battle systems are great, untill FFXI, ofc, it's an MMO, and a turn based system doesn't work there, nor do random encounters
FFXII had the most horrible battle system ever, your PS was doing all the work while you were yawning half as sleep because the movements you characters made were boring and you barely had to press a button
FFXIII is also going to use something like this, but at least we're going to get more interaction, which is a big plus, and i am looking forward to it, but i'll never be able to forget how amazing the turn based random encounters were

i hope SQ doesn't make the same mistake with later FFs.. because it will certainly leave me with an empty spot in my heart because i'll have to quit following the FFs, and play something else(Suikoden and Wild ARMs coming to mind) more actively, which still have these things in their latest game(s)

and it would be really sad, because i know SQ is amazing at creating games, and the FF games are amazing as well, and it would be very sad to let such a great line of games going to waste because the newest ones can't even match the "lesser RPGs" that aren't considered "as good" as FF

i know not many people would care.. but i had to let it out..

flame if you want, it'll only end you up with a forum ban or suspension..
thanks if you don't flame

start discussing

August 17, 2007, 10:47 PM

The Franchise is pretty much dead to me, I don't like how they make so many sequals and side FF's. I think it's just SE's cow now and they don't care about FF franchise unless it makes them money. I miss Square Soft :(.

August 18, 2007, 3:59 PM

Well, your three examples all have reasons for the lack of emotion. First, you have FFXI, an MMORPG. By design, you can't plug in a ton of emotion when you're dealing with thousands of players.

Next, you have Dirge of Cerberus. Vincent is the lead, and is a rather emotionally-dead character. Sure, there are some undercurrents within him, and in DoC those do show up, particularly whenever the subject turns to Lucrecia. If he were to be a "heart on his sleeve" type guy all of a sudden, it would only give fanboys another reason to hate the game.

Last, you have FFXII, which was developed by the Ogre Battle, FF Tactics et al team who are known for making great strategy games, but story is not where their strength is. Their reinventing the battle system is fine, but the bulk of the story should have been handled by someone outside the team. The characters, the world and everything were great, but I agree, it lacked emotion and drama.

So, I wouldn't count put the best days of S-E behind them because of these games. I agree, Square has yet to top FFX in terms of overall quality, but I certainly don't think it's impossible.

August 18, 2007, 4:03 PM

FFXI, Thousands of players.

FFX, thousands of people play that?

Difference, NONE

August 18, 2007, 4:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finnegan III

FFXI, Thousands of players.

FFX, thousands of people play that?

Difference, NONE

The obvious difference is that X is 1 player game and XI is an MMORPG with thousands of players AT THE SAME TIME. MMORPGs aren't games designed for story, just for action. They can be quite fun like World of Warcraft, but other than that.

As for the thread starter's post, I can't comment on FFXII and DoC because I haven't played them. I decided that I wouldn't play them until I played earlier FF's like X, VII, and others.

August 18, 2007, 7:00 PM

unless i'm terribly wrong here, i did say it's normal there ain't much emotions in FFXI because it's an MMORPG, but that's where the first mistakes gets..FF shouldn't have gotten an MMO, at least not in the form of "FFXI", more like FF:<insert random heroic name> and should've kept "11" for a single player game..

August 18, 2007, 7:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Finnegan III

FFXI, Thousands of players.

FFX, thousands of people play that?

Difference, NONE

that doesn't prove a thing. how is playing a game with thousands of people and playing a game by yourself, that thousands of people play the same thing?

August 19, 2007, 4:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orichalcon

that doesn't prove a thing. how is playing a game with thousands of people and playing a game by yourself, that thousands of people play the same thing?

Because the way the two are built are completely different. For a single-player experience, Square and most other developers (most often) build an intricate and (when we're lucky) emotionally-charged story to keep the player entertained and keep them moving forward through the otherwise tedious acts of level grinding and dungeon-crawling.

The online philosophy is based entirely on COMMUNITY. Always has been. It's about interacting and working together with the thousands of other people who share the same world with you, and are kept busy with the hundreds of quests both major and minor. Basically, online, you're making your own drama while being guided by an overarching story or subquest. Sure, there are some plot lines created by the developers that might involve some emotion, but the difference is that it's impossible to craft a story with the level of character detail (as in FFX) when dealing with tens of thousands of otherwise anonymous players.

August 22, 2007, 11:45 AM

I've stated a few times already that Final Fantasy IX was the last Final Fantasy game that I really enjoyed.

August 22, 2007, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orichalcon

that doesn't prove a thing. how is playing a game with thousands of people and playing a game by yourself, that thousands of people play the same thing?

Well um, unless they release a different edition for every single person who buys FFX then I'm afraid we're all still playing the same game