Final Fantasy watered down?

[Fizzlewinks]

Does anyone else get this feeling, or is it just me? I've clocked a little over 20 hours into the game so far, and I am enjoying it, but I can't help but feel like it's missing a lot of things that made me love Final Fantasy.
It isn't the battle system. Though I do miss the good old fashion turn based fighting, I can't say I dislike the new system. It's a bit odd at first and I can't say I like that I can only control one person (And fuck game over when the party leader dies. However, it works well and is a great improvement from 12's MMORPG feel.
I just feel like this game is missing the things that made me love Final Fantasy. It feels very linear. Every thing is just "Go straight on this path and kill shit on the way." What happened to the exploration element to Final Fantasy? Sure, it wasn't as big of a feature as say Fallout, but there was a bit of it. I miss being able to explore towns and find secret items and hidden areas.
And after 20 hours of gameplay I haven't encountered a single puzzle. The closest I've come too that was an area where I can control the weather to effect what baddies were around, that's hardly a puzzle. I also haven't come across any mini-games. Remember the motorcycle section in 7? The train mission in 8? The play in 9? Card games? Blitzball? Only thing I've found that could even been considered a mini-game was chasing a baby chocobo around.
Lastly, I don't like that I don't seem to have any control over my party. I used to love picking out the characters I liked the most, developing them and connecting with them. But 13 forces parties on you and for the time I've been playing, they've mostly been split up in parties of 2. Even in a rare situation where all or most of the characters are present, the game forces a party on me that I can not change. I've seen that there a selection to change your party, but after 20 hours I'm still unable to select it. I've hardly been able to use the character Snow, and he's the one I like the most. But in the twenty hours I've clocked in I was probably able to use him for maybe 2.
I feel as though Square are jumping onto the bandwagon and turning Final Fantasy into just a long casual game by making the game more linear and putting blinders on you so you have to go the way they want you too.
As I said, I enjoy it as a game but it feels so lacking. What do you think?

 

[Spiner909]

I think you have a text wall
I miss Blitzball too. And baby chocobos are great, don't deny it.

 

[Fizzlewinks]

It's cute and all, but it was neither fun nor necessary.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

You're still in the 'Story' part of the game. The game gets better after a while, and the exploration and side-dungeons and what-not come out later.

 

[Riku'sTwilight]

I think you're at the point in the game where its still 'rubbish'.
I must admit that after 20-30 hours into the game I was not impressed, but when your party does finally come together and you can set out on a proper adventure it feels good.

When you get to Gran Pulse, it is an amazing moment, first looking up at cocoon and seeing certain HUGE monters roaming around the place, it just felt like they had it right.

Unfortunately not all of the game was like that, they did try to make it very linear, and it worked to a degree, but to me it felt a lot like 10 (and for me 10 was the start of FF being not so good)

An enjoyable second half to the game, but I'd suggest branching out onto other RPG's.
Tales of Vesperia is a great game, still the 'old-school' RPG's that we love, and also a great battle system.

If not, then I think we will all be praying that Vs XIII and Agito XIII will be a lot better

 

[Fizzlewinks]

You're still in the 'Story' part of the game. The game gets better after a while, and the exploration and side-dungeons and what-not come out later.

Call me crazy but I feel 20 hours is more than enough time to get the game going. Could have moved a lot quicker if it weren't for Vanille always running away... Little brat.

 

[TheSupremeForce]

To each his own. I loved the linear, plot-driven start to the game.
Regardless, as people have said, the game totally opens up later on. I'm not sure whether it will be an improvement, but I have heard a lot of people claim that it gets "better" at that point.

 

[rockingnic]

The linear design was so the story actually made sense. Also you do control how your team plays but not over their actions. I think it's a smart design because, in actual real life, you have no control over someone but you can tell them what they should focus on. The only complaints I have of the game is how you have to switch paragrims just to access other abilities. I wish paragrims just enhanced certain abilities rather than cutting the others off completely. The and how the missions are tedious just running back and forth just to pick one at a time. I prefer the hunt system in FF12 more. I do agree it would make sense to at least let you choose who you want to control even when you only have 2 or 3 members and should let you switch members in and out of play when ever you have more than 3. I don't know why people complain about the story, I can follow it and at least I feel like I just met the characters rather than know them from birth where I can predict every action and it leaves the story for some mystery, knowing anything can happen.

 

[Thaius]

Everything that you're complaining about happens later. Oh, except the puzzles. Because those always sucked. The sphere puzzles in the cloisters in X? The whole clock thing in the CIty of the Ancients in VII? Final Fantasy puzzles were always full of fail. I don't miss them.

A minigame is the only thing you're mentioning that I do kind of miss. Though XII was devoid of them as well. Not that XII is the one to use when comparing Final Fantasy games...

 

[Rush_Thores]

Argh, I suppose its not unreasonable for someone to buy a FF without knowing anything about it before hand. Fanboys just need to see FINAL FANTASY and the rest is irrelevant because at that point they've already purchased 6 copies of FF:Baby Seal Bloodfest in the 3 second time span.
But those people aside, I cant imagine buying a game without doing a bit of research or reading a review or two. I have read every review and prieview for this game in most websites and a couple magazines. At least the two months prior to its release, everyone of those previews and reviews said 'it's linear for awhile, but opens up. Then you can develop characters, choose your party, and explore a lot.' The linearity is in regards to a tight story which lasts awhile, yes. But its not indefinte. I know that's adresses only two of your complaints, but Ive heard people ***** about that so much lately.

 

[Fizzlewinks]

Everything that you're complaining about happens later. Oh, except the puzzles. Because those always sucked. The sphere puzzles in the cloisters in X? The whole clock thing in the CIty of the Ancients in VII? Final Fantasy puzzles were always full of fail. I don't miss them.

A minigame is the only thing you're mentioning that I do kind of miss. Though XII was devoid of them as well. Not that XII is the one to use when comparing Final Fantasy games...

Well I makes me happy to hear that. I was worried I had the same dull missions to look forward too. And despite not being all that great, I do miss the puzzles. It broke things up. And as for 12...Hence the reason I hardly mentioned it in my post.

 

[Pickard12]

Whilst I understand some of the points you raise, I don't necessarily agree with all of them.

I too really enjoy the battle system and think it does an excellent job of creating intense battles that successfully merge action and tactical elements. I think it would be far too hard to control all three party members with the battle system in its current speed. Sometimes I find it hard enough as it is trying to switch to paradigms quickly. I find that the AI control is very competent in choosing spells and abilities after the enemy's weaknesses have been revealed. Then you can focus on keeping everyone alive/buffed and raising the chain gauge.

I think that the linearity is a fair point to raise although it hasn't annoyed me as much as the majority of players. As it has been said, this is to create a sense of urgency in the story which I feel is one of the better FF stories, definitely better than XII. Each character experiences some sort of emotional trauma that allows them to grow and helps create a more engaging story so I do not mind the linearity.

Think I can get past any 'FF staples' that it lacks. I went it expecting a completely new FF experience so do not sorely miss any of these features. It's certainly not the next step forward for the series but neither is it the death of it in my opinion.

 

[Thaius]

Everything that you're complaining about happens later. Oh, except the puzzles. Because those always sucked. The sphere puzzles in the cloisters in X? The whole clock thing in the CIty of the Ancients in VII? Final Fantasy puzzles were always full of fail. I don't miss them.

A minigame is the only thing you're mentioning that I do kind of miss. Though XII was devoid of them as well. Not that XII is the one to use when comparing Final Fantasy games...

Well I makes me happy to hear that. I was worried I had the same dull missions to look forward too. And despite not being all that great, I do miss the puzzles. It broke things up. And as for 12...Hence the reason I hardly mentioned it in my post.

Yeah, well the battle system gets more complex (mainly based on the further development of your characters), the game opens up in a huge way about halfway through, and you will eventually be able to switch out party members at any time (outside of battle, at least). So stick with it. For me, the biggest thing about Final Fantasy is the story, and this one delivers very well. The linearity actually helps in that regard, so I'm very, very happy with it so far. I'm about 35 hours in.

 

[Fizzlewinks]

Whilst I understand some of the points you raise, I don't necessarily agree with all of them.

I too really enjoy the battle system and think it does an excellent job of creating intense battles that successfully merge action and tactical elements. I think it would be far too hard to control all three party members with the battle system in its current speed. Sometimes I find it hard enough as it is trying to switch to paradigms quickly. I find that the AI control is very competent in choosing spells and abilities after the enemy's weaknesses have been revealed. Then you can focus on keeping everyone alive/buffed and raising the chain gauge.

I think that the linearity is a fair point to raise although it hasn't annoyed me as much as the majority of players. As it has been said, this is to create a sense of urgency in the story which I feel is one of the better FF stories, definitely better than XII. Each character experiences some sort of emotional trauma that allows them to grow and helps create a more engaging story.

Think I can get past any 'FF staples' that it lacks. I went it expecting a completely new FF experience so do not sorely miss any of these features. It's certainly not the next step forward for the series but neither is it the death of it in my opinion.

I wouldn't want to control all the characters at once in this type of battle system, but it would be nice to be able to switch which character I'm controlling during a battle. That way when I need to heal up I don't need to rely on the AI to heal my party leader. I agree, it'd be too hectic to control each character at once.
I'm all for moving forward and trying something new, but I feel like they left too much behind.

 

[Guy32]

Gran Pulse opens up more. I'm on 30 something hours and I've been on Pulse for about 10 hours. The game definitely got a lot better for me there, not to say it was bad before.

I think I'm about half way trough the game give or take. It's a f'kn huge game.

 

[Fizzlewinks]

Argh, I suppose its not unreasonable for someone to buy a FF without knowing anything about it before hand. Fanboys just need to see FINAL FANTASY and the rest is irrelevant because at that point they've already purchased 6 copies of FF:Baby Seal Bloodfest in the 3 second time span.
But those people aside, I cant imagine buying a game without doing a bit of research or reading a review or two. I have read every review and prieview for this game in most websites and a couple magazines. At least the two months prior to its release, everyone of those previews and reviews said 'it's linear for awhile, but opens up. Then you can develop characters, choose your party, and explore a lot.' The linearity is in regards to a tight story which lasts awhile, yes. But its not indefinte. I know that's adresses only two of your complaints, but Ive heard people ***** about that so much lately.

I wouldn't go as far to say Fanboy, this is the first Final Fantasy game I've purchased since X came out. Unless you count XII, which I don't. I think I owned that game for a week and I refuse to play spin offs. I did read a fair amount a fair amount of reviews and had expected the linear beginning, but when I read on gamespot that "the first 30 hours are a bit linear" I assumed (hoped) that was an exaggeration and unfortunately it wasn't. Other than that, the rest of what I read seemed promising. The linearity of the game, although annoying, isn't really my biggest tiff with the game, I just feel it left out too much of the classic Final Fantasy out to dry.

 

[Lim3]

All though its super convenient, i kind of wish they didn't all receive CP when a battle was finished.

There's also no steal command.

I also agree that it would be good to switch your main character mid battle.

A lot of JRPGs are linear, but usually there's cities and towns to visit, and people to talk to too, and you have to go back if you want to do all the side-quests. I miss that in this.

Also i would like more puzzles, or at least harder ones. I did the tower with the 7 levels, but the map markers made it super easy. Go here. Then here. Then here. No thinking required. And no secret areas to unlock.

Also no controllable air ship, though at least they put a character called Cid in.