Affection Points

Rydia

Rydia

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Does anyone else here wish that affection points you get in certain FF games actually mattered to the overall storyline?

Sure, you get a cute little scene between the two characters, but then that's it.

If you get the Yuffie date, that doesn't mean that Cloud and Yuffie are going to be the canon couple.

Or in FFX, if you treat Rikku a certain way, you get the motor bike ride with her and a scene in the Guadolosome, but Tidus still ends up with Yuna.

I kind of wish that the affection points determined who your main character loved. So if you showed more affection for Rikku in the game, then the scenes that focused on Tidus and Yuna would have been Tidus and Rikku scenes, like the kiss at Lake Macalania and the ending. Or if you showed more affection towards Yuffie in VII, then the Highwind scene would have focused on her and Cloud and in the end it would have been Yuffie reaching for Cloud. (Although, these scenarios with Barret are kind of disturbing to think about :O)

I wouldn't have a problem with a character being favored as far as affection points go, like how Aerith is favored for the GS date and Yuna would obviously be favored in X.
 
Actually I wouldn't mind seeing an FF game played out in a way like the game Jade Empire, where depending on what choices you choose and such can lead to a good path or evil path. Plus depending on the dialog you choose depends on the romance between certain characters.

I don't like how they have it now like in FFX how there could be a potential RikkuxTidus but no matter what you do in the game it will never happen
 
=/

To be honest, I actually prefer having a storyline (including the main character's fate) set and laid down for me. I don't really like affection points as I feel like I want to go back and do the whole thing all over again just so I can see what happens when I choose this or that. Time consuming, but it's not just that...

It's generally easier to just go ahead with the storyline and finding out what happens next rather than determining who the main character should end up with. I don't know, I guess the way I see it...it's like...reading a book. You want to find out what happens to a certain character and accept who she or he ends up with in the end. That's the author's book and choice. I'm just the reader, therefore I go with the flow.
 
Nah, it just wouldn't work. Take X for example. The story would be so much less interesting if, after all of Yuna's hardship, that she ended up waiting in the clearing while Tidus and Rikku got risky in the lake. So instead of hugging Yuna before he fades away, he gives Rikku a hug ... even though Yuna just destroyed her own Aeons.
 
I wouldn't mind seeing that happening in X but they were already making X-2 when X was being sold so that would have messed up X-2 completely. But it would be cool to be able to do that.
 
Bei Bei said:
Actually I wouldn't mind seeing an FF game played out in a way like the game Jade Empire, where depending on what choices you choose and such can lead to a good path or evil path.
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I agree with Bei Bei. I would be pretty interesting to see the game be like Jade Empire and Star Wars: KOTOR as in the events that happen in the story change depending on the choices you make, and different pairings could spring up from that. And it would also be cool to have multiple endings.

But if it's just affection points we're talking about here and the events themselves stay the same but with different characters, then I would be against it. Because, for example, if Tidus decided to be with someone other than Yuna, like Rikku, or if Cloud decided to love Yuffie instead of Aeris, then that would the whole impact of the story IMO.

The concepts are interesting, but I would rather keep them as they are now.

KainTheDragoon said:
I wouldn't mind seeing that happening in X but they were already making X-2 when X was being sold so that would have messed up X-2 completely. But it would be cool to be able to do that.
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I wouldn't mind FF X-2 being messed up. Actually, I wouldn't mind if it never existed, but that's just my opinion....
 
^lol

I'm with @Mitsuki on this one, I like the story outlined, having to chose what to do will only make you want to go back and see what happens if you chose differently, time consuming and annoying IMO.
 
But really it makes the storyline much weaker if you do that. In a well-constructed story, the ending is inevitable. Think about the choose-your-own-adventure books - they're fun, but they're hardly great literature. The main character would have to be really boring and neutral, otherwise lots of the choices would seem out of character.
 
I wouldn't say that. Chrono Trigger had multiple endings and that is my favorite game ever.

A good story writer could pull it off.

VII definently could have pulled off since the ending was left up to interpretation anyway.

And there could always be the "official" ending, but if you want the character to like another on a different play through, the process could be difficult. (Like how it is to get the Barret date)
 
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Rydia said:
I wouldn't say that. Chrono Trigger had multiple endings and that is my favorite game ever.

A good story writer could pull it off.

VII definently could have pulled off since the ending was left up to interpretation anyway.

And there could always be the "official" ending, but if you want the character to like another on a different play through, the process could be difficult. (Like how it is to get the Barret date)
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Chrono Trigger is one of my favorites too, but really, you can't say that Chrono was an amazing character. The reason it worked for Chrono Trigger is because the player was forced to project his or her own personality (or another personality that the player makes up) onto Chrono. Chrono was essentially a flat character - it's only the players' decisions and the affection of the other characters that composes him.

I don't really think it would've worked out with Cloud, who has incredible characterization. There would've definitely been some choices that would've been incredible out of character, if they were drastic enough to divert the plot to a different ending.
 
Well to be fair you do get to choose Cloud's responses at some points in the game as with Tidus.

The line "Actually, I'd rather have you Lulu" sounds a bit awkward.

As does Cloud's "Next to you how could I not?"

Really I wouldn't see his personality changing at all if he ended with Aerith or Tifa since both girls have very similar personalities already. Maybe a bit with Yuffie but Cloud did get a little goofy after the lifestream event. And you do get to choose who you want him to flirt with at the begining.

I wouldn't seen the point of even having affection ratings if they don't even matter to the story.

If there is a remake I demand for a Tifa and Aerith GS date! And a special X rated scene with them that you have to do a lot of side quests for in order to get. ;)
 
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eisprinz said:
But really it makes the storyline much weaker if you do that. In a well-constructed story, the ending is inevitable. Think about the choose-your-own-adventure books - they're fun, but they're hardly great literature. The main character would have to be really boring and neutral, otherwise lots of the choices would seem out of character.
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Frankly, that is true that the main character in choose-your-own-adventure stories have flat personalities. But that is done on purpose because the reader is supposed to be the main character. That's why no choice can be out of character because you're that character. But, I will agree that you don't ever hear about popular choose-your-own-adventure stories in Literature classes.

Rydia said:
f there is a remake I demand for a Tifa and Aerith GS date! And a special X rated scene with them that you have to do a lot of side quests for in order to get. ;)
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That would be awesome! :O
 
AddleBoy said:
Frankly, that is true that the main character in choose-your-own-adventure stories have flat personalities. But that is done on purpose because the reader is supposed to be the main character. That's why no choice can be out of character because you're that character. But, I will agree that you don't ever hear about popular choose-your-own-adventure stories in Literature classes.
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Yep. That's exactly why they're so appealing: they allow readers to imagine themselves in these situations, or at the very least a character which they create themselves. Half the story really comes from the reader, so the value of a choose-your-own-adventure story really depends on how much the reader invests on it rather than what the writer has done.
 
I like it how it is already, how in FFVII and X certain scenece will have certain characters in it depending on how you treat them, the macalania ride in X, the gold saucer date in VII...

What would be interesting to see, is a game where if affection points decide which character lives and dies, permanently. Kinda like how in Tales of Symphonia you choose between Kratos and Zelos.
 
I think different story events/endings are a great idea for FF games. What they would have to do though, is go into more effort to ACTUALLY make good stories. And the characters have to be a bit less defined than in most FF games for it to work well.... Fortunately, that should be no problem with the current character designers, because they honestly suck at characterization in recent games. ^^
 
WolfBlack said:
I think different story events/endings are a great idea for FF games. What they would have to do though, is go into more effort to ACTUALLY make good stories. And the characters have to be a bit less defined than in most FF games for it to work well.... Fortunately, that should be no problem with the current character designers, because they honestly suck at characterization in recent games. ^^
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Yep... FFXII was perfect for choose-your-own-adventure endings considering the characterization was more vague, but still possibly appealing. But like you said, the problem is that the one single storyline itself was a bit underwhelming. I can't imagine the results if the story were spread even thinner across the alternate possibilities. Since FFXII functioned in a way that no one character was considered the "hero" (although Ashe is definitely the key character), it might have been interesting to follow through that single story, but through the eyes of each different character and play a little bit with polyphonic narrative.
 
I liked how you get to choose Tidus and Cloud's responses to everything, I thought it was pretty cool, it kinda put me in his shoes, (it also helps that I named Cloud after myself and all the other characters after people I know,) but still, it was fun, but I like the single ending just fine.

f there is a remake I demand for a Tifa and Aerith GS date! And a special X rated scene with them that you have to do a lot of side quests for in order to get.
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Until then, you can watch the follwing video... Tifa and Aerith GS date: (Dirty hmour and swearing warning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpI23AldgGY
 
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