The New Thing

August 19, 2007, 4:47 AM

I love that the newer Final Fantasies have implemented the idea of different races in the various worlds as a new kind of staple for the series. It provides great variation and adds a bit of 'spice', if you will, that helps enhance the flavor and attraction of the games.

For X, I liked how could use the various races in the blitzball games, it was actually pretty good.

In XII, not so much, because I was half-expecting the player to be able to do much more with the various races, most specifically the bangaas, the Seeq, and the moogles, because you know....that would've been awesome.

Thoughts?

August 19, 2007, 1:02 PM

I like how different races have been incorporated too, it gives it more of a fantasy feel and makes the world more unique. I would have liked to see a Bangaa and Seek join our party in FFXII, but controlling a Veira was enough for me. since Final Fantasy seems to have a limit on One Creature per party per game. Although FFVI and FFIX are exempt to this rule. and FFVIII, since every character in that game is a creature of hell.

August 19, 2007, 1:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerith Gainsborough

Although FFVI and FFIX are exempt to this rule.

Freya is a Burmecian, and Quina is a Qu. Both races not of 'human' origin. That, or your post was un-clear enough for me to misinterpret.

I'm quite fond of having numerous races the player can interact with. Primarily because with each race comes a different personality and response, so it was interesting to talk to all the races through out XII in particular.
Bit of a pity you don't get much of a variation in a playable party, but if the game offered too much... the player would just be spoiled.

August 19, 2007, 1:12 PM

I said the general rule was that there was one none human character per game, FFVII - Cait sith FFX - Kimahri FFXII - Fran, while FFVI and FFIX are exempt to the rule because FFVI has Mog and Umaro and FFIX has Freya and Quina.

I think i prefer it if they DO have more than one non-human character - as it makes the party more diverse.

August 19, 2007, 6:18 PM

I agree with the above posts. I'm glad that they created unique races for each game - it certainly made the gameplay and storyline more interesting than ever.

I think out of all the series, VII was the most interesting when it comes to races. Nanaki was definitely unique enough (c'mon, he was a test, but seemed to be the most intelligent out of all the party), and Cait Sith was mysterious enough. Hmm, does Vincent count as a "different race"?

August 19, 2007, 10:37 PM

I love different races in an FF game. It helps make the story more interesting (such as Nanaki in FFVII, like Mitsuki said). It also adds variety to the combat since different races have different skills.

August 19, 2007, 10:43 PM

It's not uncommon for a Final Fantasy game to have several races but recent games have had many more than older games. I'm not really sure why that is. Maybe it's just my imagination but it doesn't seem to add anything to the games at all. I don't mind them but it seems like a waste. It's more like a distraction than an actual addition to the game itself.

August 19, 2007, 10:45 PM

Yes, it's interesting as long as they are involved in the plot, like Nanaki in FFVII. But I thought FFXII's extra races seemed like an afterthought, as if they creators only remembered half-way through that the world was supposed to be like the Ivalice of Tactics.

FFX did it pretty well, but I thought the introduction of the different races was a bit sloppy.

August 19, 2007, 10:50 PM

That is true, Nanaki really did get a lot of background in Final Fantasy VII. I guess that's not a bad... but you don't necessarily have to have multiple races to have a bunch of "flavors" in characters. Each town possesses a different flavor and with that your characters can differ without them ever having to be a different race, much like Yuffie in the same game.

August 19, 2007, 10:59 PM

Agreed with eisprinz. It's only really interesting if most, if not all, races get involved in your party. In XII it was only Fran involved, and there were so many other races that could've been potentially good members as well. We all can see that the Seeq and Bangaa can fight, right? It wouldn't hurt to at least an additional hidden character like that to join you, and it would give the gameplay a bit of the boost.

Which is kinda ironic, since I think that in recent FF's, Enix has sacrificed plot and characters for sheer gameplay and graphics.
That's just me.