Point to Final Fantasy Gameplay

[lozfoe444]

I don't really see the point to the whole "gameplay" part of Final Fantasy. You just move the characters from point A to point B and fight monsters, and you aren't even fighting the monsters. You just tell the real heroes what to do. Since you have no effect on the story, you have no reason to be there. Why isn't Final Fantasy just some show, book, or movi- oh wait. I don't know. Maybe some of you like to run around a level up for hours, but we have WoW for that now. So why do we PLAY Final Fantasy?

EDIT: Nice Nice! I guess I forgot about exploration and sidequests and other things like that. And I guess 20+ hours of gameplay does help you bond with the characters too. Still, all I feel like I'm doing is moving the characters so that THEY can move the plot. A bit like symbiosis or whatever. I guess I would like something in the GBA Fire Emblem where Lyn talks to you. All you do is direct them, but at least they ACKNOWLEDGE you! And maybe have more games where YOUR choices effect the story, like in Mass Effect.

In other words... BWAAAHH YOU DON'T AGREE WITH ME WAAAAAAH!!

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

We play for the story? You've basically complained about every turn based RPG in this post anyway I think. And possibly every game ever where you aren't your own avatar. Some of us rather like the combat system anyway (some of them more than others)

 

[Random Argument Man]

I find your question ironic since you got a Kefka avatar.

 

[Lukeje]

Couldn't that argument be made for every game? After all, it's not really you chain-sawing an alien in half, it's your character.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Says the person with a Kefka avatar....

Final Fantasy is about learning a story via an interactive environment and many times you CAN affect the outcome in some different ways. As for combat, what you sound like you prefer are twitch reaction systems, where some people (myself included), prefer a system with more strategy to it. You have various different people in your traveling group to choose from, each with different sets of skills and abilities. Combining these in different ways can produce powerful attacks, or can be disastrous in other situations. Learning these systems is part of the draw.

The same style of question can be asked about any game out there.
* Why run around the same poorly designed levels in Halo and just point and shooting everything?
* Why just drive a car around a track?
* Why bother with the fighting game? Everyone uses the same character and the same combo?

Each of these examples are valid points for people not interested in FPS, Racing, or Fighting games respectively, however for fans of those genres, the answer would seem obvious. Perfection of the system in nearly every case.

EDIT: Damn, nearly all my points got Ninja'd.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

You know, you technically described just about every video game in existence.

Couldn't that argument be made for every game? After all, it's not really you chain-sawing an alien in half, it's your character.

I need to read more posts first...

 

[Nmil-ek]

Some of us maybe like the combat system? Maybe some of us even enjoy grinding/leveling up I know I do I enjoy the laid back pace to the combat and the depth of micromanagment/strategy, I tend to enjoy old JRPGs stories more because they were centrefocus rather than an afterfought like most open world rpgs nowadays.

Your opinion congrats, my opinion also congrats neither are worthy of a thread but only one of us made one.

 

[lozfoe444]

For the few who say that it's for the story, what's stopping you from just looking it up on the internet. And still, why not have it a movie. Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of...

For those who say that all games are like that, it saddens me. There must be one or two games that makes you feel like YOU saved the day. Or maybe have the characters look at the screen and plead with you for what to do next instead of just standing like idiots. The first US Fire Emblem had Lyn talking to you and at the end it talked of the legendary you who went to parts unknown.

And for the comments on my avatar, Kefka's cool, shuddup!

 

[Radeonx]

For the few who say that it's for the story, what's stopping you from just looking it up on the internet. And still, why not have it a movie. Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of...

For those who say that all games are like that, it saddens me. There must be one or two games that makes you feel like YOU saved the day. Or maybe have the characters look at the screen and plead with you for what to do next instead of just standing like idiots. The first US Fire Emblem had Lyn talking to you and at the end it talked of the legendary you who went to parts unknown.

And for the comments on my avatar, Kefka's cool, shuddup!

People enjoy the game. What's wrong with that? Learn to deal with other people's opinions, because you will have to for the rest of your life.

 

[DazZ.]

You can explore in quite afew of them. It's not just "you have to do this now!" all the time.

 

[McMarbles]

I don't really see the point to the whole "gameplay" part of Halo. You just move the characters from point A to point B and fight monsters, and you aren't even fighting the monsters. You just press buttons to make the real heroes shoot them. Since you have no effect on the story, you have no reason to be there. Why isn't Halo just some show, book, or movi- oh wait. I don't know. Maybe some of you like to run around and shoot things for for hours, but we have Team Fortress II for that now. So why do we PLAY Halo?

 

[Akai Shizuku]

Well everything I meant to say has already been said. My personal reason is because I find most Final Fantasy games to be exceptionally well-done, addictive, and something I can use to distract myself from life until it's over. Which is usually a long time.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

For the few who say that it's for the story, what's stopping you from just looking it up on the internet. And still, why not have it a movie. Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of...

For those who say that all games are like that, it saddens me. There must be one or two games that makes you feel like YOU saved the day. Or maybe have the characters look at the screen and plead with you for what to do next instead of just standing like idiots. The first US Fire Emblem had Lyn talking to you and at the end it talked of the legendary you who went to parts unknown.

And for the comments on my avatar, Kefka's cool, shuddup!

The reason a game is better is quite simple. 20+ hours with several throughlines of plot weaving across one another. In a movie you can't have that. You have your main throughline, with perhaps one or two side plots going on (which can't be fully expanded), while in a game, you have the time to allow the player to explore all of these, and even modify them as they are needed.

As for games that "make you feel like "YOU saved the day," yes. Final Fantasy does that quite nicely. Neverwinter Nights is another. Even Bioshock. The point here is that while you do not understand the appeal doesn't mean it isn't there.

However having looked back over your posts, I can't help but feel this is a simple trolling attempt. Your attack on the fact the cinematics are long in your OP, coupled with the "Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of..." comment look to be fishing attempts to start a flame war.

Try this, share what you feel is a good game to counter FF with. What game made you feel like the hero, gave you the control that an RPG gives, didn't stick you on a linear course, and all the like. Fire Emblem still had you going from point A to point B and issuing orders to the real characters. What title are you thinking of when you say [let YOU be the Hero]?

That isn't meant as an attack, I genuinely am curious. If we know this information, it could explain what it is that you don't get about FF.

 

[Dash-X]

I came into this topic because I thought someone had found a point to FF's gameplay...

I play FF games and enjoy them. I have no idea why. All I know is that I buy these games, and a hundred or so incontiguous hours later, I find that I've been entertained.

 

[scatman94]

For the few who say that it's for the story, what's stopping you from just looking it up on the internet. And still, why not have it a movie. Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of...

For those who say that all games are like that, it saddens me. There must be one or two games that makes you feel like YOU saved the day.

And for the comments on my avatar, Kefka's cool, shuddup!

I respect this guy's opinion, but I have to disagree.

I don't think the story would be as interesting if you read it on a book or something.

Yes, it might be just going from one place to another and fighting, but what happens in between is the fun part.

The battle system, the overall design, the character development, the music, the difficulty of the game as you progress. It all blends together into one fun experience for me.

And besides, where is the fun in just watching all the cutscenes on Youtube? The story is simply an incentive to keep playing to see what happens next.

I'm not gonna hold a grudge against this guy for not liking Final Fantasy. This is just my point of view.


P.S. In my opinion, I thought Advent Children sucked.

 

[crepesack]

I don't really see the point to the whole "gameplay" part of Halo. You just move the characters from point A to point B and fight monsters, and you aren't even fighting the monsters. You just press buttons to make the real heroes shoot them. Since you have no effect on the story, you have no reason to be there. Why isn't Halo just some show, book, or movi- oh wait. I don't know. Maybe some of you like to run around and shoot things for for hours, but we have Team Fortress II for that now. So why do we PLAY Halo?

*applause. Agreed. People will have different tastes, deal with it.

 

[Random Argument Man]

For the few who say that it's for the story, what's stopping you from just looking it up on the internet. And still, why not have it a movie. Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of...

For those who say that all games are like that, it saddens me. There must be one or two games that makes you feel like YOU saved the day. Or maybe have the characters look at the screen and plead with you for what to do next instead of just standing like idiots. The first US Fire Emblem had Lyn talking to you and at the end it talked of the legendary you who went to parts unknown.

And for the comments on my avatar, Kefka's cool, shuddup!

Alright Alright, I'll intend to analyse your answer.

For the story comment, there's one thing that JRPG sometime do well. That's naration.

Books would've made it a bit pointless for a Final Fantasy. Imagine one chapter for every character there is... I think we would have at least 20 chapters without the story going somewhere.

Any movies that takes its sweet fucking time to explain a character loses some of it interests along the way. Making the plot turning around itself. It also takes it sweet little time to make a point.

Imagine FF6 for a second. Imagine if they had to explain every characters stories for a 2 or 3 hours film. It wouldn't be fucking impossible. 13 characters!?!? That doesn't count villains, allies, countries and whatever. The story would just drag on and on and on and on...(You get the point).

You might go on about FF7 Advent children. Final fantasy Advent children was mostly fights and a story of the guy who's still sulking about his dead girlfriend. That was pretty much it. The setting was already put since pretty much anyone who saw it already knew Cloud's backstory.

A video game however, can explain these situations fairly quickly.

Final fantasy made it one of its major stamps. Since video games are capable of making it short and make us feel what the characters are feeling in a unique way, it makes it a good story. You can't really feel the emotion of Cyan ,when his whole kingdom had a genocide, on the fucking internet. You don't connect with these characters with just a résumé on the internet.

Let's put another topic you've given. Do you feel like you (The player) saved the day. You said "You just guide the characters to point A to B". True! However, it also depends on how you guide the character.

Let's take FF6 again. When you finally had the fucking huge plotwist out, you (the player) must bring the party together. You're not obligated to actually get all characters. You're not obligated to do the side-quest. You can just head straight to Kefka tower. (It will be complicated however).

That's what Final fantasy do. It's how you're making the story come together. You guide these characters to their stories. It's like any other RPG in the market. You guide a character.

 

[WillSimplyBe]

i am saddened by the lack of love for final fantasy of todays gamers

agreed and quoted for troofs.

Seriously, why is this guy using a Kefka avatar?

Final Fantasy, and subsequently most RPGs, are all about the story elements. You don't like it? Okay, that's fine, just don't bother with them.
also, Random Argument Man is spot on here.... well, I guess I have to do it...

For the few who say that it's for the story, what's stopping you from just looking it up on the internet. And still, why not have it a movie. Advent Children was cool. Kind of. Sort of...

For those who say that all games are like that, it saddens me. There must be one or two games that makes you feel like YOU saved the day. Or maybe have the characters look at the screen and plead with you for what to do next instead of just standing like idiots. The first US Fire Emblem had Lyn talking to you and at the end it talked of the legendary you who went to parts unknown.

And for the comments on my avatar, Kefka's cool, shuddup!

Alright Alright, I'll intend to analyse your answer.

For the story comment, there's one thing that JRPG sometime do well. That's naration.

Books would've made it a bit pointless for a Final Fantasy. Imagine one chapter for every character there is... I think we would have at least 20 chapters without the story going somewhere.

Any movies that takes its sweet fucking time to explain a character loses some of it interests along the way. Making the plot turning around itself. It also takes it sweet little time to make a point.

Imagine FF6 for a second. Imagine if they had to explain every characters stories for a 2 or 3 hours film. It wouldn't be fucking impossible. 13 characters!?!? That doesn't count villains, allies, countries and whatever. The story would just drag on and on and on and on...(You get the point).

You might go on about FF7 Advent children. Final fantasy Advent children was mostly fights and a story of the guy who's still sulking about his dead girlfriend. That was pretty much it. The setting was already put since pretty much anyone who saw it already knew Cloud's backstory.

A video game however, can explain these situations fairly quickly.

Final fantasy made it one of its major stamps. Since video games are capable of making it short and make us feel what the characters are feeling in a unique way, it makes it a good story. You can't really feel the emotion of Cyan ,when his whole kingdom had a genocide, on the fucking internet. You don't connect with these characters with just a résumé on the internet.

Let's put another topic you've given. Do you feel like you (The player) saved the day. You said "You just guide the characters to point A to B". True! However, it also depends on how you guide the character.

Let's take FF6 again. When you finally had the fucking huge plotwist out, you (the player) must bring the party together. You're not obligated to actually get all characters. You're not obligated to do the side-quest. You can just head straight to Kefka tower. (It will be complicated however).

That's what Final fantasy do. It's how you're making the story come together. You guide these characters to their stories. It's like any other RPG in the market. You guide a character.

Quoted for troofs.

If you don't like it, lump it.

Videogames *CAN* be a medium to tell STORY. You don't say, "Hey, why the hell is this a movie? There should have been a book!" Because both movies and books are also story-telling mediums. Why does a video game always have to be nothing but a loose story, a collection of quick-time events, a gun, and a camera for a head?

/rant