Modern Final Fantasy intake!

[Tricky]

OK I want to get fans perspective on this and reading most peoples comments on this forum there are many FF fans on here who aren't shy of criticising FF games if needs be done.

So my question is what's everyone's intake on this new form of Final Fantasy over the past 10 years??

Personally it's really not for me sadly!

I've not really played a FF that I've sat down spent endless hours on and really enjoyed since FFX. Now it's a case of pick up a FF game have 2-3 hours of play leave for a week or so go back to it play for 2-3 hours rinse and repeat!!

FF games have never been the same for me since the battle system was eradicated and has gone down a path of wanting to look more fancy then anything else also FF XIII annoyed me when I found out you can only control the actions of your party leader!!

I've got XII and never completed it, hell I don't think I got as far as the beginning and now it's collecting dust, I've had XIII since it came out and every time I play it I get to Gran Pulse and I stop playing and now that's sat down collecting dust, I've even got XIII-2 still in it's cellophane wrapping as I don't want to play it without completing XIII first!!!

So I have Final Fantasy XII, XIII and XIII-2 all collecting dust yet I, II, IV, V, VII, VIII and IX all get played constantly (FFX isn't in there because my mate lost my disc and I don't have III or VI) I would really love a FF game to revert back to it's old way's, I miss the annoying random battles, I miss the old school active time battle system, I miss the open world play being able to explore different continents using different sources of transportation around the world!!


The little things I had as a kid with FF I miss dearly, I was hoping I'm not on my own here as I don't want to sound old!!

 

[Styx]

I didn't like XII when I played it back in the day. Not because it felt quite different from the previous ones but because the plot was too straightforward for my liking and characters didn't receive much exposition. I like it now for other things it did well and because it did evolve the series in a much needed way. XIII on the other hand not only didn't pick up from where XII left but practically everything it had was a major step back.


I do want changes as long as some of the series' trademarks are kept. I don't want to be playing the exact same game each time. But I don't want change for change's sake. I want change to bring something that adds to the already existing. I don't want just something new or different. And above all design needs to be meaningful.

The problem with the future of FF quality is that it runs on multiple speeds depending on which team is making them and unfortunately the better teams are either caught up in the fuck ups of others or don't seem to be working on anything yet. I don't know where things will go with the series but I wish the XIII chapter was behind us already and shovelware like All The Bravest never happened.

 

[Razberry Knight]

I also appreciate XII a lot more. And i actually "like" XII even more after XIII.

XIII ruined ff's evolution as it held the minimul trademarks to call it an FF game but destroyed everything we loved about FF.

XIII-2 fixed the tedious gameplay only decided to mix in monsters to it, which made the gameplay inconsistent. Also you had the option to comment stupid things. The plot was horrible. But other than that XIII-2 proved that VII remake is perfectly possible. Unfortunately its plot and characters were lack luster. Lightning had more backstory but we dont play her, we play basically another Terra-wannabe (thats how i see her at least) known as Serah.

And thats what i hate most about XIII series over the other FFs, the XIII series is so ungrounded when it comes too its plot. Such as Etro dying leading upto Lightning returns. Theres no realism in XIII unlike I-XII. The original, although vague plot had a good flow with plot, and slowly went up. And the plot twist of garland coming back was great. And ever since, the plots of FF series were grounded. They werent completely outrageous. Ok IX i admit is a little ungrounded, but barely.

The sad thing is this isnt all SE's fault. No, this falls within a small group of developers who think they know their customer more than the customers themselves.

Kitase initially had interest in the customer, but teaming up with Motomu toriyama shows how egotistical a developer can be.

Although tetsuya nomura has made great games such as concept of VII, making sure Rinoa wasnt "gorgeous" but cute in order for unrealistically beautiful characters to be made for CGI, and kingdom hearts (but after 2 he turned into a cash cow) and i. Expect versus XIII to be a great passable FF despite its setting closer to real life.


Im very disapointed in the developers. If it wasnt for XIII, we wouldve had less HD but even more enjoyable games, and probably the hate wouldve dropped by at least 40% (i say 40 because some people believe ff stopped being ff after VII but come on...thats like metroid stopped being metroid after metroid prime).

 

[Starships]

Final Fantasy X-2 was the last and final Final Fantasy that I really enjoyed. Alot of people hated it but I didn't mind the really fun battle system and One Thousand Words concert. I think then fans started to feel that something ....off was happening to the Final Fantasy series, but since it was only one game, fans rubbed it off as one slip up and those who actually enjoyed X-2 ignored the complaining.

Then Final Fantasy XII came out and that's when I felt truly sad and disappointed and even angry at the game and the company for making this mess of a game. I hated it, not just dislike hate, but pure hate. The characters felt so empty compared to earlier games and the story was a huge bore. Final Fantasy XII is the first and only Final Fantasy game that I no regrets selling off and spending the $70's back then on something else. I couldn't believe that Square, the company that made Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IV made this awful game. These days, I still dislike XII but not as much. I recognise some... positive things about the game, and it's no longer my least favourite Final Fantasy, but it's my.... second least favourite Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy II is so much worse.

Final Fantasy XIII I actually enjoy, but the fandom pisses me off instead of the game. The fandom is always whining and complaining how the older fans are these horrible people that don't like FF XIII when hello, some of then actually do. Fuck you. And the always go about how this game is better than Final Fantasy VII and that Lightning is the best character ever when she's actually one of the worst and it just fucks me off, so Final Fantasy XIII is actually one of those games that I ENJOY it being dissed, because it's fandom fucks me off so much. Is it the best Final Fantasy ever ? No, but I find it to be a huge improvement from XII.

The Fandom is the most annoying thing ever sometimes though. Mostly on Tumblr and Final Fantasy Confessions.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is actually I really enjoyed, like a older retro Final Fantasy. Until the ending, which fucked me off to the max and I have lost my trust in SE since then. I felt like I was playing Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy IV again, and then.... Bam. The game shot me and my friends right in my face, and then kicked them in the balls while laughing. Horrible, sadistic game. But I still like it. But, ugh, the ..... ending...

Lighting Returns is one of the worst ideas that SE could think if and it might become my least favourite Final Fantasy ever made, but it's actually starting to have some things good about it. I have feelings that it might actually come out well... decent. But it was really made for the Lightning Fanboys and Fangirls that secretly want to hump to her everynight while planning to build a shrine for her the next day. But still, it's a terrible idea.

Overall today's Final Fantasy games either just piss me off or they just piss me off.

 

[Shaissa]

Really as far as the actual games go I have few problems with them.

Recent FF games (I am going take this from X-XIII-2)

Each one developed the game differently.

X: This took a very traditional turn base system, and modernized it. Took away casual leveling up and just buying weapons to make your characters stronger, and introduced a Sphere Grid system.

Overall I did enjoy the game from story to Characters to gameplay.

X-2: first "true" sequel to a Final Fantasy, added to a story that was complete (sorta), and gave it the "happy ending" that people wanted for Yuna and Tidus. It also introduced instant Job changes (where I think XIII got it's idea from) changing jobs in the heat of battle(or Dresses in this case)

Overall the Gameplay took a little to get use to, with the ATB being like half what it use to be, and the instant dressphere changing was different, but overall I enjoyed it, Story i didn't enjoy as much as X, and I felt 2 years the world wouldn't suddenly have many space ships and other things that basically were lost and forgotten, but I guess for a game it was alright, (kinda wish they left the ending to X alone, but I guess people love happy endings...)

XI: first Online FF RPG, decided to try and reek in what World Of Warcraft did, now I only played a little bit of this at a friends house so I cant say much for it, but overall it was a success from what I hear, and also who can blame them for trying to cash in at the time of MMO's being so big and popular?

VII DOC: Ok now comes a game I don't like... it took the story of FFVII, tried to add more plot holes into it, added new villain, new mysteries, and left more questions than answers. FFVII was already left with a plot hole, this game took that and left more questions than answers. Also they decided to turn an RPG into a sequel third person shooter... Didn't like that one bit... But other people enjoyed it, so... all I can say about this.

Final Fantasy XII: Now comes the last PS2 Final Fantasy, It was set up like an MMO, with monsters on the field and you attack them, but also had a unique system, where you could make characters learn almost any spells/skills, and equip anything they wanted with the new Gambit system. Now the Gambit system usually is what turns people away, because you can control one character (or none if you set up your gambits correctly) but Really I always Controlled one and set up Gambit's the way I wanted, If people had a problem with this, they didn't need to use it, and could flip through characters and decide what they wanted each one to do. Also the story, it didn't have any character romances (as far as the main cast goes) that the previous titles had, but had a story that I thought was amazing (granted people say it came from Star Wars...but that is another topic ) Really overall I did enjoy this game very much.


GBA game.

Now I am not counting the Prequels..and Really I am only going talk about one game...

Tactics Advance: Now I loved the first tactics game, so when i heard about this I jumped up and down with joy...boy did I get a slap in the face, This game had NOTHING to do with the original, and took the Ivalice world and did a 180 on it, and took the Tactics game and smacked people in the face with terrible characters and story, I really believe this is where this is one of those times they really slapped the FF name on a game to sell it, and it worked... so well that they spawned a sequel to THIS TACTICS GAME, but no lets not spawn a sequel to the REAL FIRST TACTICS GAME! (ok rant about this done )

PSP

Again not counting Remakes...

Crisis Core FFVII: yeah so you all read my rant about DOC, so you probably think I am going rant about this right? sadly you are correct, not because of the Story, cause that was good (overall, even though I do have problems with some things they did, but overall was good if you take away the fact they changed events to FFVII and actually left you with more questions than answers again...) My problem with this game was the "level up system" if you can call it that. It was a level up system based on luck! you had a little slot in the corner that rolled while you battled, and if you were lucky enough to get 777 you leveled up... didn't matter how much you battled, no EXP was gained, it was all based on that nice slot system... That was the real flaw to this game.. (that and Zack... but I wont go into that this time.)

Overall Story good, Characters...ok as far as the "newer" characters to the FFVII series went. Gameplay.. BAD!

Dissidia: a game that tries to combine the XII number FF games, combine them into one, and turn it into a fighting game.... It actually works... strangely enough, Gameplay was good, battling was good, using both good and evil characters, was fun.. so Overall I did enjoy this game, the story was... Ok, I mean it was cool to use each of the good guys, but I wish they had a story where you could use the bad guys also
This game did spawn a.. Prequel, but I didn't touch it at all.

So enough of PSP lets move on to the last system..

PS3/Xbox 360

Ok I am just going get down to it.. XIII/XIII-2

Firstly I did enjoy this game, it was a good Final Fantasy game! Yes I do call them Final Fantasy games, they had elements of Final Fantasy, They both had good story lines and good characters, am I going praise that it was my favorite? no, cause it wasn't but overall I did enjoy them.

Now where do I have a problem (minus with VII's games and Tactics Advance)

It is not getting games we were promised in the first place! I am talking about Versus and Phase-0! Look Square, I don't care if you wanna make 10000 IOS FF games, or if you wanna spawn XIII 6 more times, maek 20000000 remakes, or whatever, I just want the games you promise first! Now I am sure people are going say "versus is going be on the PS3" and "phose-0 well come eventually/or wont" but I mean can we get games we are promised first before you do all these other things?

That really is my real complaint... the end

 

[Linnaete]

Clearly Final Fantasy has gone down the shit since FFX. I mean, everything up until the merger with Enix was so great and then they ruined everything afterwards. I mean, look at that Sakaguchi fellow. What a great guy. I mean, yes, I know, that Spirits Within disaster happened, and he must take the brunt of the responsibility for it, but if he were still at Square, everything would be so much better, right?

Oh, wait. Hold on. As common as the above opinion is, I don't actually agree with it. At all. I particularly disagree with the cries for the return for Sakaguchi, given the guy seems to prefer making iOS surfing games nowadays. I think there has genuinely been something good to have come from Final Fantasy in the last ten years. There was one game in the last ten years that, despite how divisive it had been, and how much it continues to piss off people today, was genuinely pushing the boundaries of the hardware it was running on, and the genre. There was one game in the last ten years (of which I have played) that I would perhaps go so far as to say that it was ahead of its time, despite the unforgivable production problems that plagued it.

Yes, I am talking about Final Fantasy XII. As in, 12. You know, the so-called "offline MMO" that was the whipping child of the fanbase until Toriyama and Kitase came along. I do regret the fact that Matsuno's vision was never fully translated into the game, that he may have been too ambitious, and that meddling SE executives pushed him to the absolute limit. Nevertheless, despite the meddling and the wheelspinning of the plot halfway through, the final product was still resoundingly solid. It did away with most anime tropes that we see taking up FFXIII, and rather excessively, pretty much nearly every modern JRPG of the last decade. It had a fantastic translated scriptwork, backed up by voice actors - some of whom were Shakespearean actors, albeit muffled a bit with the highly compressed nature of the game's voice files. Sure, one can make easy allusions to Star Wars, but considering they're allusions to the original trilogy and not George Lucas's pet prequel trilogy (thank God. No Jar Jar Binks), is that really a bad thing? It's not even a retelling of Star Wars anyway, so the constant comparisons to it, as if FFXII was ever a carbon copy of Star Wars gets a bit laughable. No, no, I assure you. Despite some allusions, FFXII was its own thing.

Why do I think FFXII was possibly ahead of its time? Well, one glance at the recent Xenoblade, and I see a JRPG that's pretty much in terms of game design, a culmination of the ideas and foundations that FFXII set up, but expanded and improved upon. Well, all except for the storyline, but Xenoblade doesn't beat around the bush with its actual protagonist, at the very least. Additionally, let us consider: if FFXII were released now and is the fresher game on people's minds, and FFXIII an earlier relic, what would happen? Would we yell at the clouds about this linearity issue as much? How would FFXII have been received in the current environment where WRPGs with huge, expansive game worlds have become commonplace? Why is something like Xenoblade pretty much universally adored now, but Sakaguchi's The Last Story has barely received the fanfare that the former achieved?

And yet, FFXII continues to be distinctly identified as a JRPG, not a WRPG even in the face of those inevitable "IT'S AN OFFLINE MMO!" cries. Though very different from FFX, both games have done a fantastic job of building their respective worlds, albeit with somewhat different styles. The player, through Tidus, pretty much needed to know the world of Spira to fully understand the story. The player in FFXII is not as compelled to for story purposes, but the world building is still there for the player to sample at his/her own time and pace. And there is a very rich lore, so I bloody loved it. Out of the two world building styles of FFX and FFXII, I personally preferred the latter. FFXIII couldn't even do what FFX successfully managed without stuffing information in a datalog, while obnoxiously flashing a big red sign in the corner of the screen to urge the player to do their own homework after every cutscene.

Besides FFXII, what else did I like in the last ten years?

Well, I have never played the Crystal Chronicles games. Crystal Bearers piqued my interest, but it seems to play like rubbish.

I have never played Dirge of Cerberus, but I have heard that it's donkey crap. Let us not speak of that.

I guess FFX-2 still counts at the moment, given that it came out in 2004 for PAL gamers. It was my first FF game, so despite the crap it pulls, I have a soft spot for it. And I did quite like Real Emotion then (and still sort of do, now!), so please don't kill me. And its battle system absolutely rocks. I'd want that back.

Crisis Core? Mediocre. Not sure why it was as well received as it was. Seeing Gackt in the game has honestly made me realise that a FFVII remake must never happen, if only so we can never see an HD Gackt smirking at Nibelheim, retconning things.

FFIV: The After Years? What a joke. It's basically a retelling of FFIV, but with a new central protagonist and everyone else more middle-aged than before, with a green-haired villainess and less Golbezes, a half-arsed moon phase system, and...uhh, yeah, I have no idea why they made this.

Revenant Wings? I got fed up with it, really. There's probably a good story under that because *gasp* PENELO HAS A ROLE?! but otherwise, seeing clumps of sprites slowly moving across a map to forage and attack enemies with little input from me? Meh.

Tactics A2? Story sucks, but it's very meaty.

Final Fantasy XIII? I don't need to say anything about this.

Final Fantasy XIII-2? Oh please fuck off.

Never played FFXIV, but it was so disastrous at launch that an in-game nuking of the world for a full-scale revival did a combination of the following: 1) cancelled or delayed other projects; 2) a large-scale reorganisation of teams and personnel for ARR: FFXIV; 3) put SE in further trouble with investors; 4) we're stuck with Lightning; 5) damaged the company's credibility considerably

The last ten years have been pretty mediocre.

--------------

tl;dr,

FFXII the major standout game for me in the last ten years. I do love how ARR: FFXIV looks. It actually LOOKS like my ideal FF game, but it's a premium MMO, so no thanks. And Nomura needs to step up his game to really sell Versus to me.

 

[Razberry Knight]

Really as far as the actual games go I have few problems with them.

Recent FF games (I am going take this from X-XIII-2)

Each one developed the game differently.

X: This took a very traditional turn base system, and modernized it. Took away casual leveling up and just buying weapons to make your characters stronger, and introduced a Sphere Grid system.

Overall I did enjoy the game from story to Characters to gameplay.

X-2: first "true" sequel to a Final Fantasy, added to a story that was complete (sorta), and gave it the "happy ending" that people wanted for Yuna and Tidus. It also introduced instant Job changes (where I think XIII got it's idea from) changing jobs in the heat of battle(or Dresses in this case)

Overall the Gameplay took a little to get use to, with the ATB being like half what it use to be, and the instant dressphere changing was different, but overall I enjoyed it, Story i didn't enjoy as much as X, and I felt 2 years the world wouldn't suddenly have many space ships and other things that basically were lost and forgotten, but I guess for a game it was alright, (kinda wish they left the ending to X alone, but I guess people love happy endings...)

XI: first Online FF RPG, decided to try and reek in what World Of Warcraft did, now I only played a little bit of this at a friends house so I cant say much for it, but overall it was a success from what I hear, and also who can blame them for trying to cash in at the time of MMO's being so big and popular?

VII DOC: Ok now comes a game I don't like... it took the story of FFVII, tried to add more plot holes into it, added new villain, new mysteries, and left more questions than answers. FFVII was already left with a plot hole, this game took that and left more questions than answers. Also they decided to turn an RPG into a sequel third person shooter... Didn't like that one bit... But other people enjoyed it, so... all I can say about this.

Final Fantasy XII: Now comes the last PS2 Final Fantasy, It was set up like an MMO, with monsters on the field and you attack them, but also had a unique system, where you could make characters learn almost any spells/skills, and equip anything they wanted with the new Gambit system. Now the Gambit system usually is what turns people away, because you can control one character (or none if you set up your gambits correctly) but Really I always Controlled one and set up Gambit's the way I wanted, If people had a problem with this, they didn't need to use it, and could flip through characters and decide what they wanted each one to do. Also the story, it didn't have any character romances (as far as the main cast goes) that the previous titles had, but had a story that I thought was amazing (granted people say it came from Star Wars...but that is another topic ) Really overall I did enjoy this game very much.

GBA game.

Now I am not counting the Prequels..and Really I am only going talk about one game...

Tactics Advance: Now I loved the first tactics game, so when i heard about this I jumped up and down with joy...boy did I get a slap in the face, This game had NOTHING to do with the original, and took the Ivalice world and did a 180 on it, and took the Tactics game and smacked people in the face with terrible characters and story, I really believe this is where this is one of those times they really slapped the FF name on a game to sell it, and it worked... so well that they spawned a sequel to THIS TACTICS GAME, but no lets not spawn a sequel to the REAL FIRST TACTICS GAME! (ok rant about this done )

PSP

Again not counting Remakes...

Crisis Core FFVII: yeah so you all read my rant about DOC, so you probably think I am going rant about this right? sadly you are correct, not because of the Story, cause that was good (overall, even though I do have problems with some things they did, but overall was good if you take away the fact they changed events to FFVII and actually left you with more questions than answers again...) My problem with this game was the "level up system" if you can call it that. It was a level up system based on luck! you had a little slot in the corner that rolled while you battled, and if you were lucky enough to get 777 you leveled up... didn't matter how much you battled, no EXP was gained, it was all based on that nice slot system... That was the real flaw to this game.. (that and Zack... but I wont go into that this time.)

Overall Story good, Characters...ok as far as the "newer" characters to the FFVII series went. Gameplay.. BAD!

Dissidia: a game that tries to combine the XII number FF games, combine them into one, and turn it into a fighting game.... It actually works... strangely enough, Gameplay was good, battling was good, using both good and evil characters, was fun.. so Overall I did enjoy this game, the story was... Ok, I mean it was cool to use each of the good guys, but I wish they had a story where you could use the bad guys also This game did spawn a.. Prequel, but I didn't touch it at all.

So enough of PSP lets move on to the last system..

PS3/Xbox 360

Ok I am just going get down to it.. XIII/XIII-2

Firstly I did enjoy this game, it was a good Final Fantasy game! Yes I do call them Final Fantasy games, they had elements of Final Fantasy, They both had good story lines and good characters, am I going praise that it was my favorite? no, cause it wasn't but overall I did enjoy them.

Now where do I have a problem (minus with VII's games and Tactics Advance)

It is not getting games we were promised in the first place! I am talking about Versus and Phase-0! Look Square, I don't care if you wanna make 10000 IOS FF games, or if you wanna spawn XIII 6 more times, maek 20000000 remakes, or whatever, I just want the games you promise first! Now I am sure people are going say "versus is going be on the PS3" and "phose-0 well come eventually/or wont" but I mean can we get games we are promised first before you do all these other things?

That really is my real complaint... the end

The misconception between CC's leveling up system is believing its based completely in luck. How many times have i explained this? The game replace "XP" with "SP" that you can gain by beating monsters or converting materia into SP. The ammount of SP taken will gain the likelyhood of leveling.

I actually expiremented on how accurat it is by being lv 50, and using cursed ring (to make the spinner stop) and level grinded for about 5 hours. Once i removed the ring, i leveled up twice within one battle. So no, its not all based on luck. People should really research or at least read the tutorials when it comes to its lv system.

For XIII and XIII-2 they had the minimal ammount of what makes an FF game, but to the fan, it takes more than trademarks, it takes effort. XIII had little to nothing. The plot was horrible. Even if someone manages to say "i get it" its followed by "really?" Especially in XIII-2 where Caius is the villain. Overall in every FF we experience their world to its fullest and even in XIII-2, they made a completely new world.

The storylines just get convoluted. The other problem is that the gameplay doesnt suit the story. Why have monsters if their not remotely plot related? They couldve added a second new character...but no...

As much as how "cool" LRiii looks, the garb system is also something that doesnt need to be in XIII series, especially when lightning looks incredibly ugly no matter what she wears. And the game is proving that more and more.

I have high hopes in the future but only if motomu toriyama stays out the main series. Because a good RPG takes more than awesome gameplay, it takes awesome story driven game elements. And XIII continues to lack that.

 

[Shaissa]

I did actually know about the SP system, but it was so unbalanced, you could level up 3 times in one battle, or 30 battles later not level up at all! It was very unbalanced, and that wasn't the only problem with the game, that was the only one I was going go into just for the sake of keeping this on track.

Also I learned by now, that you don't like XIII series, and I understand why, but you should know I did, and really you don't have to keep saying it over and over. I let you have your opinion, let me have mine, don't need to attack the series every chance you get when someone says they like it

As far as how lightning looks in XIII.... I am going leave that alone, cause I know of far worse looking characters.

 

[Razberry Knight]

I did actually know about the SP system, but it was so unbalanced, you could level up 3 times in one battle, or 30 battles later not level up at all! It was very unbalanced, and that wasn't the only problem with the game, that was the only one I was going go into just for the sake of keeping this on track.

Also I learned by now, that you don't like XIII series, and I understand why, but you should know I did, and really you don't have to keep saying it over and over. I let you have your opinion, let me have mine, don't need to

attack the series every chance you get when someone says they like it

As far as how lightning looks in XIII.... I am going leave that alone, cause I know of far worse looking characters.

Yeah depends on how much SP. Its moderately consistent. Not perfect, but overall not impossible to get over. It still levels you upto where its needed.

I know you have your opinion, however i think you can understand that your comment implied that some dont consider it an FF game. And we do, but barely.

XIII fans get touchier than XII fans and thats probably because XII is defendable. If you ever challenge mine or any user's opinion on XIII is practically impossible to deem yourself victorious.

Gameplay wise they have improved, but plot wise their deteriorating and it doesnt help that the plot started off sucky. You can have ur opinion on liking it. But im challenging the perspective on it itself.

 

[Jdeadevil]

Well I can't compare to the big posts above, but personally I think Final Fantasy XII was the last Final Fantasy that left me with a really epic experience. Final Fantasy XIII was a good time but partly the only reason I got into it was because I try to be a loyal fan of Final Fantasy, it does sound pretty pathetic but it was an alright and fun game, but the last extremely amazing adventure feeling for me was with Final Fantasy XII. I did like the story even if it was a little far-fetched and politically driven, I have a thing for games which allow you to completely break away from the main story and level up your characters and move on to more powerful monsters, and all the marks, side-quests, licenses, and the amazing in-game towns and cities really made me feel like I was there with the characters.

The game that proper broke me away from the sheepishness of society was Final Fantasy X, the religion-based story-line which involved going all over the place and playing all sorts of mini-games with such a wide-based selection of magic abilities, it was too much for my little mind at the time but I changed because of it and that was an amazing experience, I'd spend countless nights of no sleep just sitting there getting involved in the story and feeling sorry for the characters and then wanting to go back to kicking monster's asses' again after feeling for the characters. And again, I like games which allow you to cut away from the story and do your own thing, something that really pays off with Final Fantasy X-2 in my opinion, or paid off for me.

Just my contribution.

 

[ff1-10]

Well, for one, I chose my username because I believe that the last great Final Fantasies are the first ten. It's not that I don't think they can have great ones anymore, but I just mean lately. Unlike other people who claim that they have given up on the series even though most likely they probably haven't, I still have hope so will keep myself updated with FF.

Maybe 1-3 really lacked in depth compared to the ones following it, and from what I heard, 5, but they still have that something that hooks you and makes you feel like it's Final Fantasy and worth playing. As for the others in the series, I played 8 and liked playing through it, but believe that they could have done far much more and better than what they gave as the final product. For one, Squall and Rinoa's random romance occurrence that definitely had more than the potential to develop and show its development. It was the main reason why I kept playing and half of the game was actually about it, but if you're gonna make a game revolve a lot around a couple, it should be made understandable, which I can say for the whole plot about the whole sorceress theme because no matter how many times I play it, I don't understand it. The battle system with the drawing was terrible. Everything felt good, but only like a good draft of the game. I like it, though, because besides the romance, the feel the game gives off when you play it, when you enter towns, the music, and the quirkiness of the story and characters. But they should have polished it and changed/made things better. 9 was fine in terms of story and characters, but sometimes I felt that the art looked too boring, faded, and distant from the players' eyes.

4, 6, 7 and 10 receive the best compliments, so I think it's fair to say that there's nothing to say about them. They're the best of the series. Though the others don't measure up as much, a series has it's up and downs and the downs of the first 10 aren't too bad.

After 10, everything went wrong.

X-2...I think was a wrong decision just based on how they designed the characters, made the story end up, and just made it based on a lot of pop and fun. I bet it'd be fun for girls to play, and boys probably enjoyed it for the fast-paced battles and same reasons as girls, but I feel that they should have taken it a more serious route because 10 was serious. I understand that there's no more Sin and that Yuna has become a stronger and vibrant woman, but imagine if it had picked off right where 10 left off with Yuna on the airship and we actually get to see and explore her growth from old to new Yuna and then slowly discover the changes from not having Sin around anymore. We could have gone on serious missions where people needed us and stuff, I don't know...I just feel that X-2 would have been a much worthwhile sequel if it had been serious and just as great or greater than 10, JUST the way, if you guys have ever played it, Shadow Hearts: Covenant was even greater than it's first counterpart. I haven't played the first game, but the second is really good, serious, and explains what happens in the first, making it a great standalone game by itself, something X-2 and all sequels should do. (And just for the record, the first Shadow Hearts wasn't on IGN's list of top 100 RPGs, but Shadow Hearts: Covenant was; I think that proves somewhat of what I just said about it.)

11 was online, and didn't you have to pay for every little thing? If so, that was a bad idea because no one wants to pay for every little thing in a game after they just spent so much on the game alone; a video game should give you those things without you have to pay extra because you've already payed for it. The game was a bad idea in general because I don't remember online gaming being that big at the time and the majority of fans forget about 11's existence.

12 was based on another FF world, something we all know an FF should never do. The beginning was actually really fun, breaking into the dungeon, stealing, meeting sky pirates, and getting out of that whole mess, the story and characters revealing itself little by little in a pleasing way, but after that, there wasn't much; just battling with minimal story, then onto a whole new 5 hour dungeon again. What was in FF that depended greatly on story and characters and minimal on battle exchanged places here; NOT good. The graphics were great, but stale looking. Just the fact that it was handed over to the world of Ivalice makes it disappointing. An FF should be its own; NEVER a part of another video game, even if it is an FF franchise, and don't get me started about how bad Kingdom Hearts did that. I don't care how many fans KH has and how good they claim it to be; adding FF to it...terrible, uncreative, dumb-looking concept. And if indeed the battling was too MMO (even though I've never played one, I can see what complainers mean from seeing MMO's), that was a bad idea as well because it's a CONSOLE game.

13 looked to me like what could be an amazing mixture of 7 and 10 with Lightning as a Cloud type character who discovers her identity, but the reality just turned out cheesy and like a rough draft, like 8 but MUCH worse. And like 8, it had the potential to be great, and we all know that because of how much we hyped it up when the trailer came out from the feel and info given to us about the story, but when they finally gave us the final product, it was disappointing. It was just really cheesy, cliche and battle after battle like 12. They're even making it worse by forcing us with two sequels to make us hold it as a great FF, but we don't, and those sequels are even more cheesy and cliche, making 13 even worse than it already is. In fact, they know we think little of it, hence why they're shoving it down our throats just because they made Lightning appear like the female Cloud and Cloud is great so they want her to be just as amazing but she's not.

14 - I saw the HORRIBLE, TERRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD review on Gametrailers. I never played it, but I saw how there were fields and fields with no end with no monsters, no towns, no nothing. They've remade it, too, so that together says it all that they messed up big time with it.

And then there's FF7's compilation - they, like most of us have said, really milked it. When I put into perspective all those books, the movie, the anime, Crisis Core...I don't even know WHAT to think of FF7's story anymore. I still like FF7, but its compilation means nothing to me. It's obvious that it was just fan service - no real depth or great addition to the game. Probably only to the heated love triangle between Cloud, Tifa and Aeris that will never have a solid answer until the developers tell us who is "canon".

That Saka guy that you guys talk about is who made FF. Look what he's done after Final Fantasy: Lost odyssey and The Last *something* that was for the Wii. I've played Lost odyssey and think it was a good game; good enough to wish to see the same in FF. Then "The Last ________" had great reviews. Like someone had said before on a forum, Final Fantasy used to be about emotions and meaning; now it's just about what's cool (or what they THINK is cool). That something, the emotions and meaning that FF used to have, is now being put into Saka's new games that should really be in FF and is what ACTUALLY hooked us; not your idea that we just want is considered cool nowadays. Do they not realize that so many people say the video games now don't measure up to old games because they don't have that "something" old games have?

I understand that a series changes and from what I said about the few FF's from 1-10, that it has its ups and downs, but lately it has gotten BAD to the point where we're all complaining and not buying/wanting to buy an FF anymore unless we test someone else's bought copy to see if it's good first. The majority doesn't enjoy FF anymore. Why change something when it's working? FF was always changing, but it kept that something, the emotions and meaning connecting the characters and story together along with the great turn-based battle systems that made us keep playing. Now that base is disappearing along with each old story that gets replaced when a new story is created for a new FF, making FF disappear altogether.

I hope they don't ruin FFVersus13's potential because it looks and sounds, from what we've been given about the story thus far, amazing. But I also have a bad feeling that it may turn into another 13 because of what's been happening lately and from the same team that's been making everything go "downhill".

I kind of feel like that was a bad post, but I'm sort of short on time, lol.

 

[SiderealPassing]

I think the main point for me is that it doesn't feel like Final Fantasy if it isn't turn-based. It's the central formula that makes Final Fantasy Final Fantasy. I guess you could make a point about the plots but it's hard to come up with an all-encompassing plot device that is common of the first ten games (eleven counting FFX-2) because a lot of them are very different. The turn-based battles is part of the formula that has been part of the series since the beginning. What do you have when you take that away?

I'd actually like to revisit FFXII just to see if I can appreciate it while accepting the fact that it's not really a Final Fantasy game. I've heard mixed (but mostly good things) about the plot so it might be worth playing through because of that. I'm willing to try FFXIII for the same reason. I'm sure both have things to appreciate but I'd have to allow myself to like them based on the knowledge that it's a radical departure from what I've come to know and love from the series.

I guess what makes me the most mad is that Square Enix hasn't (and may never again) churn out more Final Fantasy games that follow a recognizable modus operandi for fans such as myself who love and vastly prefer the classic formula to, well, most other styles of gameplay.