Where did the magic go? And Why?

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baname7

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Is it me? Am I just growing Up? Or is it something else?

I used to get so involved in the games.
I would think about them all day as I was playing them.
I used to wish I could be there with the characters, and go through the same experiences.
I always felt sad knowing for me, the story has an end, and I couldn't keep going with the characters.
And you know what...I still feel that way, but...

Recent FF games have not done it for me. Since FFX I have not felt what I used to for FF games. FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX all were so ingrossing and captivating, I didn't want them to end, and I get this amazing feeling when I replay them; a feeling that I am not getting with the newer ones.

I don't think it is cause I am older now(22). Because I still feel the way I used to when I replay the ones I love. But maybe thats just nostalgia.

I think that the games do not hold the same depth they used to, and don't develope the story and characters the same. I do know there has only really been FFXII (unless you count X-2), but I still feel that game developers in general do not create games the same anymore.

What do you think?

Some possibilities may be that games are focusing more on graphics and new systems, and less on characters, or maybe the talent for storywriting is going down the tube.

Let me know how you feel.

 
I agree. I got sucked into VIII and IX by just watching them being played by my mum, and know that I've finally been given the chance to play them I am also getting sucked into the world of the game, wanting to be there and experience it.

However XII hasn't done that to me. The battle style is different but good and the characters seem likeable yet I know what you mean. I personally think it might be that over the years, Square have made it more technical etc, introduced new themes to the games that even though are helpful are slowly killing the story line involved and how it stands out.

Tom.
 
Perhaps, the FF series was at it's peak between FFVII and FFX. You'll come to expect something as engrossing, moving, and amazing in a current FF title that was present in say, FFVII, or your favourite, but it simply won't deliver.

Perhaps, your favourite titles were just so amazing in your opinion because it had everything you wanted, enjoyed and could relate to, and the newer titles simply don't have that.

It could be that you've found your ultimate favourite FF title, one that just had everything you could have hoped for, and since then you've been chasing that feeling...

But that said, there is a majority of people who think along the same lines as you, and that's why I brought up the possibility of FF being at it's peak between FFVII and FFX. Maybe it took seven FF titles to perfect what Squaresoft/Square Enix wanted in their games, they hit that peak, and have been trying to live up to that standard ever since.

Maybe it's that there are a few too many new things being introduced into each FF title, and all you want is what you've come to love and expect.

It could be anything really.

EDIT: Though I myself enjoyed FFVII-FFIX the most, I still really enjoyed all the following FF games. As I've said many times, there are so many unique, interesting and enjoyable things in each Final Fantasy, which is the reason I love them all. Just some a little less than others.
 
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I feel excactly how you are feeling, and think you are very wise in making this thread, something I would have done soon if you hadn't.
You even hit the nail on the head with the use of the word "magic" in the title of the thread.

My golden age would be FF4-FF9, though, to me FF1-9 (and a lesser extent, 10) all possessed a distinctive "magic" that seperated it from other RPG's... Now I'm not sure if it is greater storytelling, characters or any of that (though, perhaps), but an underlying often overlooked "feeling" to the games that is very hard to describe in words. Something about those games cried out Final Fantasy.

Was it the music? Nobuo Uematsu music helped create this atmosphere but I don't think it was all down to him.

Was it the characters? Quite possibly, the FF characters are deep, have colourful designs, great personality, and generally very interesting to look at. I've played other RPG's and quite often the characters are usually a bit too generic, normal and bland, whereas FF offered variety.

Was it the story? While simple on the surface there are lots of deep elements to Final Fantasy.. Lots of great things about the storylines that have fans debating for days about trying to find the meaning and significance for them. The stories were stunning, even if a couple of them were recycled forms of the other, in a different way... For example FF5 was essentially very similar to FF1 (running from shrine to shrine, protecting crystals), but the deeper story on top of that made them stand outon their own and two great games which were very different, contained different characters, and an overall different feel (in a good way, as both were ace).

FF's had always blended seriousness and humour very well... There would be scenes of downright carnage, depression and terrible revelations... But then soon afterwards there would be comic scenes that would make you laugh for days thinking about them. Square always hit the balance right. It never felt like a tragedy, and it never felt like slapstick, it just felt in the middle, how it should be, a good balance of both.

FF's also blended dark and light fantastically. We had many pure characters of good, fighting for justice, against dark, excagurated villains. Pure symbols of good and evil. We also had more complex characters on top of these stereotypes, and what we had was a lovely blend and a rich cast of characters, each unique, each interesting, but all at the same time you really felt a light vs dark battle raging. The most epic of all battles. Pure good (ish, as I know there were some anti-heros) vs pure evil...

It is because of this that I conclude that Final Fantasy was the Disney of RPG games. No other RPG I have played has produced the same feeling in me. Sure there are lots of RPG's out there with well thought out storylines and a lot of work has obviously been put into them, but do they have the same magic? I can't sense it in them.

I can really begin to see why FF and Disney teamed up for Kingdom Hearts now the more I think about this. Disney also has a certain "magic" about it, that distinguish it from other cartoons. A Light vs Dark struggle.. Humour meets darkness and destruction... Good characters, good stories, and good music a lot of the time too...

Back to the main topic... The essence of magic seemed to dissapear with the main team I'm afraid... FF12, Crisis Core, Advent Children didn't deliver... They seemed too dark, too serious, bit non-charactered... It didn't hit the balance at all. Gone was the humour elements. Gone was a lot of the characterisation.

Also, as noted, gone were several gameplay elements... No world map, no proper battle system, no flying airship... They all helped produce the FF feel in the past, but have been missing recently.

You're not getting old at all. You're just, like me, able to see this "magic" and appreciate what Final Fantasy always was at its heart... Many other fans struggle to see that, and it is hard to define with words, but there definately was something in FF that stood out among other RPG's, and that is declining now as FF's become more and more like any old RPG...
 
I can't add as to much seeing as there is a lot I agree with here.

But I feel that. Also Im not much of a fan of the designs in the newer games, and didn't like X that much either.
I really wish they would incorporate more of Yoshitaka Amano's art into the games. His art is Final Fantasy to me.

OH YEAH...AND..
What is with the Surfer Boys?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1046/765105234_24e0438612.jpg
http://www.kaliteliresimler.com/dat..._resimleri_posterleri_masast_duvar_katlar.jpg
http://finalfantasyversusxiii.net/f...ntasy-versus-xiii-famitsu-jan-clipping-09.jpg
And as Much as I LOVE FFIX
http://www.xbox365.com/gdb/images/GGGruGdPLG04221653/Xbox_360_264_500.jpg

HAHA, all these Blond dudes with semi long hair in their face.

Anyway. Could be when your old. Another thing is I find it harder and harder to get time for RPGs. And I don't even have a family yet (28 years old). But it does get harder to get into the games like I did when I was 14-17 where I could just sit around all day in the middle of summer and dedicate 6 hours to just Gaming.

I find these days I spend more time playing my Nes, Snes and Genisis games more than anything else.
 
I think Final Fantasy games are trying too hard to appeal to a wider audience. FFVII achieved massive adoration without reaching out too much, simply because it was so carefully thought out and the characters and plot were so developed. I loved FFXII, sure, but it's just not the same.
 
So the faithful are having there faith tested for the first time and many will crumble into dust with there lack of faith.....the hell does that mean? this is to be expected.....but what the hell can you do about it....not buy the game not enjoy the experience?, is sqaure enix so out of touch.. have sakaguchi and nobuo gone nuts, these are the questions we are faced with and we are in there hands as far as new creative stories go unless we all wanna dress up in cosplay and go around killing shit? do we want more of a Sci fi genre in our beloved series maybe sqaure should go into outerspace or something its been along time since they started this series and maybe a change of scenery is what is needed to give the series a new lease on life. I don't know about you guys but i'm just about ready to catch the next space freighter outta here!
as i approach what is likely to be the elderclass of FF fans I would like to hope my sense of enjoyment will not be compromised by my age for this is inherently fantasy were are playing and if we lose our scope for that then we have lost the core of what draw us to the series: its fun to belt up monsters....no i'm just joking....its the fact that we can play this series and complain its losing the feel of old because we have had so good for so long? also may some one else should be incharge of the series??
 
FlagsOfDawn said:
I think Final Fantasy games are trying too hard to appeal to a wider audience. FFVII achieved massive adoration without reaching out too much, simply because it was so carefully thought out and the characters and plot were so developed. I loved FFXII, sure, but it's just not the same.
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How are they reaching out to a wider audience?
With the exception of FFXII, SE has only made FF7 a franchise, which is narrowing their audience, as to play DoC or Crisis Core, you almost definitly must have played FF7.
I think that FFXII was a lot worse than than its predecessors, which is why it may seem as if FF is losing its magic.
Also saying that SE is losing its touch is subjective. Like I said before, I personally dislike FFXII, which would be my basis for saying that FF is going downhill. However some members of this forum, one in particular, would strongly disagree with my opinions on FFXII.
However a lot more people would agree that the various spin-offs of FF7 are terrible, and I think we can realistically discount them. They're a way for SE to make money and aren't, in my mind, part of the FF series.

So taking that into account, I think it'd be premature to say that FF has lost its magic. I'll wait until FFXIII before passing judgement.
 
Kasabian said:
How are they reaching out to a wider audience?
Click to expand...
This is the point at which I should back up my claim, but it's one of those things where I was only slightly aware of what I was saying in the first place.
Also, I don't think anything based off of FFVII really counts. They're just trying to get preexisting VII fans to blow more money.
And XII is such a drastic change in battle system that it's like they saw the success of XIII and KH and just completely changed it, therefore drawing in more--aw, screw it, I'm running late and can't be bothered to finish my thought. :P
 
I agree with the statements that have been put before me, but I just wanted to add my thoughts to this as well:

Not only is it based on maturing and a change of your life-plans that are partial cause of this, Its also down to the way the gaming market has turned...

Games are not as challenging as they used to be, gone are the days of a game being a self-achievement to beat, Unfortunatley game designers have taken many titles in the holywoodesqhe style direction and add more glitz and glamour to a game than is really neccessary, game play and re-play value are the major casualty of this way of thinking.

There was a time when games got by on how well they played, and if they would drag you back in to play again, now its all about set-pieces and dramatic special effects (basically bells and whistles) which leave the seasoned gamer feeling like hes being treated like he/she is stupid and has trouble picking up a controller.

Unfortunatley, this is all a side effect of the bigger games companies seeing $ signs behind going for all out prettiness and appealing to a larger audience, that to be quite frank....never really wanted to pick up a joypad in the first place, This in turn allows them to create sequels, spin-offs and secure movie deals...Greed is the major factor behind the way the gaming market has changed....

For myself, I have not really bothered with many of the new titles, Im happier playing the older ones, they still have that charm and that re-playability factor that every seasoned gamer craves...

Unfortunatley it seems that square-enix have also sold there souls to the holywood devil for there share of the big fat $$$....
 
I think in my case, it's down to age. I was always a bit of a dreamer, and I proper got into VII & VIII, and although I though X was an amazing game, and I love it, it wasn't quite the same, and I blame that soley on me getting older. X is one of my favourites but sill.....I wish I was 15 again D:

In the case of XII, I just didn't enjoy it......even if I was younger I don't think the magic would have been there for me....it seemed ...to grown up for my liking xD
 
Im the same as pretty much everyone else here. I couldn't relate to XII as i could in the older games. I never got into it, although i've owned it since it came out.

Although I dont think this is down to age. I still get that feeling when i replayed IX and X just in the last couple of months. I think it's down to XII not exposing you to the characters as much and not giving you that background information on them which helps you to get involved and empathise with the characters.

I don't know what possesed them to make this change, maybe it is for the money as someone has already pointed out in this thread. Maybe it is for want of a larger fan base than they already have. But we can only hope that the magic is back in XIII, if not, then i guess it's back to replaying VII through to X again for me.
 
Personally I think Square has lost a lot of their flair for storytelling. Their writers can still come up with fairly decent plots but their ability to tell those tales isn't nearly as good as it used to be. Square's classic games were very sharp. Every character, area, and situation was carefully crafted to control the emotions of the player. It seems like now there's just a decent premise with horrible execution. Locations are uninspired and interchangeable. Characters are shallow and unoriginal. And I think most importantly, the plot always seems to flesh out in a very predictable way.
 
i personally blame Square Enix

ever since Squaresoft merged into Square Enix the Final Fantasy series has suffered, all of the FF games they have released have been average to borderline mediocre
but rather than put an honest effort into these games, they'd rather beat the dead horse of past games *cough FF7 cough* and go multi-platform to get as much money as they can. in short, there's nothing magical about being a money grubbing whore

/end rant
 
While this is a completely separate conversation altogether, Square Enix is a company. They cannot be "money grubbing whores". It is a company's aim to gain money. If rehashing old titles is more profitable than creating new ones then that is what they should do.

I would agree though that Square has been acquiring really bad development companies, like Enix and Tri-Ace, which has led them to create a plethora of subpar games.
 
First i was using that term loosly to express my distaste for what the company has become
And while a company aim is to gain money, they also have to keep in mind the quality of their product, when the quality goes down, less people buy their product
with final fantasy, one of the main aspects of "good quality" is a moving story line
lately, they've reduced the quality of their products( i.e. the plot of the game) in exchange for riding on prestige

were just buying the name nowadays
 
baname7 said:
Is it me? Am I just growing Up? Or is it something else?

I used to get so involved in the games.
I would think about them all day as I was playing them.
I used to wish I could be there with the characters, and go through the same experiences.
I always felt sad knowing for me, the story has an end, and I couldn't keep going with the characters.
And you know what...I still feel that way, but...

Recent FF games have not done it for me. Since FFX I have not felt what I used to for FF games. FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX all were so ingrossing and captivating, I didn't want them to end, and I get this amazing feeling when I replay them; a feeling that I am not getting with the newer ones.

I don't think it is cause I am older now(22). Because I still feel the way I used to when I replay the ones I love. But maybe thats just nostalgia.

I think that the games do not hold the same depth they used to, and don't develope the story and characters the same. I do know there has only really been FFXII (unless you count X-2), but I still feel that game developers in general do not create games the same anymore.

What do you think?

Some possibilities may be that games are focusing more on graphics and new systems, and less on characters, or maybe the talent for storywriting is going down the tube.

Let me know how you feel.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you man, i dont know if its to do with getting older or maybe the quality of the games are slipping. I think it could be that after playing the FFs for so long and so many times you kinda know what to expect. It doesnt have the same impact it did when you first bought a final fantasy game and turned it on.
Im not so sure if its getting older, i reckon if i bought FFVII right now without knowing anything about the series id get sucked in straight away.
 
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