They got rid of but should have kept

[Niblib]

Firstly the world map. It was brilliant. It added an element of sandbox to a linear genre. The ability to stop off at the chocobo forest on the to Burmesia in or check out the town before getting ifrit in 8 was always fun, and slowed the player to do things at there own pace. In 9 you could get quina straight after lindblum or wait until you left the mist continent. All in all the world map was a great element that needs to be brought back.

The second things is sort of connected. And it's more something they added but should get rid of. But that arrow on the mini map really kills the adventure. They used to just tell you the cave was north of the city or the sorceress was likely on the third floor and it wa the players job to figure out how to get there. It was more adventuresome, you could get lost or find the quickest rout. And sure you can turn off the mini map, but there's still only one path. Even in the cities there's no real turn offs that lead anywhere. Even places where there's no paths there's not even vague hints or gneral directions so you have to use the arrow.

Anyway that's my little rant on what used to be great about the franchise. Any thoughts comments or additions?

 

[Dark Knight]

ATE was a good idea in 9 but fell short because it didn't really do anything to alter play or give the play info they wanted it was more of a cheap trick like alot of ideas in FF but anyway it failed but it was a good idea that could have been altered in the newer games to actually do something like for example everyone has been complaining and all that extra text in 13 that the developers really wanted poeple to know well they could use the ATE and use photo images as someone talks throughout the game

i can think of lots of things but i know everyone will say them so i picked something out on the box so to speak


i bet everyone talks about the towns being taken away lol

 

[SapphireStar]

Actually levelling up. Its the main element of and RPG for me. Dont get me wrong, the sphere grids and crystlaims (cant recall the name!) are alright, but its the buzz you get when youre grinding for ages and finally level 40 or something!

 

[Monster]

I prefered levelling and now it's gone... it saddened me.

 

[Harlequin]

Ugh, here we go

Battle Colosseum, Battle Square, Monster Area. Although those omissions are offset by the inclusion of marks I suppose.

Card games. Easily one of my favourite FF minigames, in 8 and 9 I would greet people with square before actually talking to them xD

Chocobo races from FF7 were cool. Although they were just about maxing your chocobos stats and farming reward items, I enjoyed the breeding process and all the colours

Like alot of you have mentioned, a sandbox world map, although this would be painfully difficult given the battle dynamic of XII and XIII. I say throw that system away and bring back random battles

Airships, a proper romance, a proper story...

 

[Robbiedbee]

-Random Battles. A lot of people were glad when they got rid of these, but I wasn't. I always thought they were an important part of the Final Fantasy formula, and as annoying as they were, they added to the difficulty in dungeons/travelling the World Map etc. FFXII/XIII just reeked of something like Tales of Symphonia in places, and as good as that game was, I'd rather Final Fantasy games kept a lot of the things that made them Final Fantasys.

-Shiva/Ifrit. You could add one or two more staple Espers/Eidolons/Aeons/Summons to these two, but these are the main ones. I always thought they were fantastic recurring characters, and it was nice being able to pwn both Jenova and Edea with Ifrit for example. Plus, their inclusion means the developers don't have to strain their creative muscles too hard, which only leads to the creative prolapse that is Belias (or whatever it was called from FFX).

-Stat Trackers. Sure, they were a nice little bonus at best, but I liked having them in there. It would be frightening to know how many enemies I'd killed on my 400 hour savegame on FFX.

 

[Rydia]

World Map. It made you feel like you were actually part of the world and if you had to get from point A to point B, it could take about 5 minutes and not several hours. It also allowed for more story in the game because the majority of the game play wasn't traveling from one location to the next.

Leveling. Leveling is a major part of an RPG. They easily could have kept it in X and XIII by giving you another ability on the cyrsterium or sphere grid when you leveled instead of a point system.

The job system. I like my characters to have skills unique to them and not what everyone else can do. It's a bit silly when a well trained knight will have the same skills as the kid who lived in the slums and had no combat training what so ever.

 

[Lahl]

Levelling, the world map, decent mini games, beneficial NPCs, Summoning

Mod Edit: Can you please try and expand a bit on your post. Try and give details and examples. Thanks..

 

[Dark Knight]

Summoning

can you go into more depth with summoning and what you mean becouse as far as i know summoning is in every main game

 

[Rydia]

Summoning

I agree. I really do not like being able to have control of the summons because they seem so much weaker now. In the old games, they felt God like. They just seemed so much more epic when you would summon them and then they come out and so a super powerful attack and then leave. And they each had their own element. (Ifrit had fire, Shiva was blizzard, Bahamut had flare)

And they also seem so much smaller now. In previous games they felt massive. Also, sometimes it doesn't even feel worth it to summon in the new games because you trade two characters for one medicore character. (namely XII)

I also wish they had kept Bahamut as the most powerful summon and Leviathan as the second most powerful summon. Bahamut has been in the game since 1 (unless he was just added for the GBA version) And he was even considered the God of the summons in IV and Leviathan was considered the king of the summons. You had to go through an epic fight to get them both too.

 

[Six]

Leveling up is needed in an RPG for me too. You play as someone, you become better as someone, you gain experience.

The chocobo races, I missed those in the others too. I loved the colours, and the little side items you could get from them.

Summoning, agreed with all the above. (Although I didn't know Leviathan was the second most powerfull summon).

 

[Rydia]

Summoning, agreed with all the above. (Although I didn't know Leviathan was the second most powerfull summon).

In the games before VI he was the second most powerful summon. In IV he was called the king of the summons and you were supposed to believe that he was the most powerful summon... until you found Bahamut and he declares himself the God of the summons XD And you had to fight both of them to get to use them which was a pain in the ass.

Another thing, I think they should save Behemoth's for the end of the game. In past games they were probably the most powerful random enemies that you run into. In the earlier games, the boss battle music would even play when you encountered one. I remember being terrified in IV when I came across two of them in one battle D: Now that they come near the begining or the middle... it kind of ruins them for me because it used to be that when you would run into one, you knew that you were near the end of the game

 

[Morrigan]

Level up,gotta agree with the rest.I had a goal back then,to reach lv.99.

Now it's gone...


Let's not forget the map.When they took it off I suddently started to feel lost,seriously it keeps the town more categorized that way and easier to remember.To me it was a great help and pretty fun.

I know this may sound kinda ridiculous,but for some reason I prefer the old fixed camera.It added more to the atmosphere I believe.Despite the fact that sometimes I was having a hard time.

ANother one...I prefer the old fighting system,with the random battles cause that's how it stays true to its name.We have all those action-RPGs today,can you really control the whole party?

Oh and I also liked that they didn't have voices back then,it was like "reading a book",you used more of imagination and I kinda found it easier to follow the story.Now we have all those annoying voices floating around.Of course if they've done a good job voicing characters then I have no need to complain.