Final Fantasy: Officially Burnt Out
pulsene.ws/UnbY
pulsene.wsPosted Jan 29, 2011, 7:12 PM UTC
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pulsene.wsI think I'd have to agree with the sentiments of this article.
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Totally agree. And they'll make the combat system even more simplistic. "Press A to execute death move. Press B to heal."
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I agree with pretty much everything said here. I think he nailed it.
My first Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy on the NES. It was my first introduction to any kind of rpg. I loved it. When I played IV and VI on the SNES, I was hooked. The games changed though, and I got older.
The things I loved about the series have mostly been taken out. There's less focus on the exploration. The stories are a mess. The voice acting is hit and miss. I'm really not a fan of Nomura's character designs. Etc.
If you love the games though, more power to you.
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I don't know how many of you guys have seen the Plinkett review of the most recent Star Trek film, but in it he talks about why so many movie studios are doing remakes or sequels. It is because there is an inherent value in the title; a certain property will already have a certain draw. I think this is how SquareEnix is treating Final Fantasy. They know there will be a certain amount of attention garnered to a FF title. Also lets disperse with any sort of pretension that Final Fantasy is an "event game" as this writer suggests. Back when FF:VII came out a year later you had FF:Tactics, FF: Chocobo Dungeon Adventure, FF: Chocobo Racingand other sorts of games that diluted the franchise. This dilution of the property has been going on for some time with many subpar games, Crystal Chronicles for example or even FFXI. Even back in the SNES days and Game Boy Square was slapping the FF name on games that were not even FF titles, Final Fantasy Adventures or Final Fantasy Legends. My point is this isn't something new, but I think this time the main flagship game did not quite live up to expectations so it is harder to care about future games in the series. To me FFXIII was not the best in the series, but I still look forward to FFXIII versus as it seems to be implementing a more action approach ala Kingdom Hearts. FFXIII-2 does seem unwarranted at best, but the game could give SE a chance to redeem themselves.
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Final Fantasy Legends were pretty damn Final Fantasy. The Saga series (Romancing Saga and Saga Frontier... excellent games by the way) started as Final Fantasies. Why does it even fucking matter? These are all IPs of Squaresoft/SE.
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I guess I was just trying to show Square has always over saturated the FF name. I mean why not call FF XIII-Versus be a whole other property. My question really is now why keep using FFXIII, a game that doesn't have much clout with gamers of the series.
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Birds go tweet.
In other news: HEY GUYS DO YOU LIKE THE NEW XCOM?????
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I think it was Tycho on Penny Arcade who said it and I kind of agree, but when you're playing through a game and the character you're most interested in is the one with the bird in his hair there may be something wrong. I actually thought the story and characters were pretty good in FFXIII, but the presentation was all wrong. The entire story is told through cut scenes rather than interacting with the world. There are almost no places in the game where you can make the characters interact with each other or NPCs so you don't get to discover information about them by playing. Nor are there meaningful sidequests where you can seek out more information about them. It's cutscene, fight, cutscene, fight, on and on until the end. Just doesn't make sense to me for a game where story so important.
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I disagree with the writer of the article.
Full disclosure: I have played the following FF games: I & II (on GBA), some of VIII and IX, X, X-2, XII, and some of XIII. Also, some of the FFT series, especially FFTA.
I've played both 'styles' of Final Fantasy games (though admittedly not the older ones when they were new - I was too young), and you know what? I like the 'pretentious' ones a hell of a lot more.
If you disagree, that's just fine. Just wanted to say that, in my opinion, the FF series is not 'Burnt Out.'
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Your... point? So you like them- do you care to say why?
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I guess the main thing is, I don't mind linearity if I'm having fun. There is something about JRPG design philosophy and limiting player control, which is kind of a gamble, but I think that gamble largely pays off with the modern FF games. I appreciate the production quality, especially the music. I feel that people who are so down on the 'pretentious' Final Fantasies seem to overlook some of these qualities, that's all.
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Linearity doesn't usually bother me. For instance Eternal Sonata is my favorite JRPG of the gen. Problem I had with FFXIII is the lack of control in battle. I always finish my JRPGs at a low level because I am able to control the battles well. FFXIII didn't allow much control beyond role changes, so it made it boring. I understand levels need to play a factor in RPGs, but when it is the ONLY factor going into a battle there is something wrong. I am still excited for VersusXIII because that looks more like a Kingdom Hearts battle system. I just hope it isnt like KH358/2 Days where it was a "mash the one button until you win" type of thing.
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XIV is terrible.
I'm an ex XI player -- clean for ~6 years now (thank you, thank you) -- and I tried the beta for XIV just to see how they could possibly justify making another MMO.
Answer: They couldn't. There is no good in XIV. None. At all. It's total BS.
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Looks like the Sonic cycle has also become the FF cycle as well.
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They need to make a new RPG or re-visit one of their old franchises in a fresh way CHRONOTRIGGER COUGH. I used to love the world map aspect of the gaves, now they are just a linear pile of crap.
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Yeah just play the first 7 over again. And 9 was decent.
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It's all about opinion and play style. My favorites were 7,8,9,10. I liked one on Snes where the girl starts in a mech but lost her memory too but can't remember what # that was.
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The first 6 were boring grindfests and 9 was forgettable. I enjoyed 10, 12, and 13 far more than the older games.
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I'm one of those vile creatures who came to the series through Final Fantasy VII -- a game that's now very cool to hate
WTF?
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I couldn't disagree more. The games just keep getting better and better (FFXIII is definitely one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, and I loved X and XII as well). I've been looking forward to Versus XIII since it was first announced and Type-Zero looks very interesting. Screw the haters. Keep putting out more great games.
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Was I really downvoted for liking a game?
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I was hoping this would be an insightful article into the changes SE has made with the franchise over the last decade.
Instead it's a writer endlessly whining about how "pretentious" the series has become. The irony.
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I have no idea why you're being downvoted for disagreeing. I guess I forgot that hating FF is cool.
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I love FF. I just hate their mindset in the changes they are making. Final Fantasy X was a good mix of the old system and the new system and they should have tried to work with that. Instead it's just become a long walk and cut scene bonanza. It's ok to have cut scenes as long as the other elements of final fantasy are still there.
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The last FF worth playing was 9. It was the last self-contained game that had a roaming world, a coherent story, and an ending.
X has a ridiculous story and is far too linear. Not to mention X-2's insanity.
XI is an MMO. Next.
XII is a single-player MMO with no likable characters and a bland world.
XIII makes X look like Fallout in terms of open gameplay.
XIV is another MMO and currently an unplayable mess.
I hate to say it, but Final Fantasy is done. At least they had a good run.
I agree with you except for X, though I am biased because it was the first Final Fantasy I ever played. Having played FF4, FF6(FF3, or whatever), FF7, FF8, FF9, FFX, FFX-2, and FFXIII.
There is a noticeable different between FF's before X and after it in my opinion. The games after are missing some key elements that other FF's had. I didn't connect with any of the characters in 12 or 13 and didn't find the plot compelling.
Not to mention the they made the LEAST interesting character the main character as a last minute decision for FFXII.
I really don't understand why they did that, Balthier really should have been the main character or Basch.
If I recall, Basch was the original idea, but it was deemed to risky for the Japanese market to have a grizzled veteran instead of a 16 year old be the main protagonist in a JRPG.
Edit: Seems to be in the wiki too.
I think I have read that there wasn't supposed to be a main character for XII or XIII. All of the characters were supposed to be equally developed or something. This makes no sense to me, why would I want to play a game that didn't have a main character?
In the case of FFXIII that is true, but in FFXII it had a large focus on Vaan. I read they made the main character Vaan so the player felt more like an observer or something like that.
FFXIII would have been a wonderful game if the battle system was at least mediocre. The characters and story could have held the game up on their own if the gameplay wasn't so bad it hurt the game. The characters were very well done in FFXIII. Even Vanille, the character a ton of people say is annoying, kinda grows on you. Though I didn't like the character Snow, I understood him and liked his place in the story. But I'll never know how it will end because about 35 hrs into it the game play was still bad after the point everyone told me it was going to get good. I just said "I can't take this BS anymore!"
10 has an exceptional combat system that made it really fun to play, so it is worth playing, although the main character is just trash, but wading through his bullshit is worth it.
12 had a really awesome storyline, the combat system was really kind of easy.
I just wish they had 10's combat system and had 12's storyline, while using a more badass character like Balthier.
13 was just terrible, it shouldn't take so long to get into the game and every map was just a long corridor.
Not to mention that when you're done with the main story line you're pretty much done. The only sidequests were to kill marks, but after a certain point you needed to grind like 10 Million experience to be able to do so. Kill monsters to get stronger so I can kill monsters? Christ, I can play WoW if I want to do that.
Yup and I've bought every single one with the exception of XIV. I keep longing for them to be good. I bet I'll do it again.
Yup, series over... the Squaresoft and Enix spirits died with the merger.
a good run... into the ground. :(