Poll: Final Fantasy 16

[Glongpre]

I keep reading about people wanting a FF7 remake, but we all know Square wants to create a game that is as good as their older games before they consider a remake.

So, what about a throwback similar to FF9 but instead of using FF1-6 as the template, they used FF7-10?

The plot could involve saving the planet from a corrupt religion while undergoing time compression( ok not that). I love FF10s gameplay and I thought materia was an interesting magic system, and together that would be amazing. Maybe they could throw a sphere grid in there or something.

Perhaps going back to their roots would give Square some of their magic back. (not really their roots but whatever)

Thoughts?

 

[Fappy]

I would like a Final Fantasy that has an epic scale, with non-cliche plot/characters, with a focus on good, original, gameplay.

Squaresoft called. They said they've merged with another company or something and that there's no way that will ever happen again XD

OT: I just wish Square would get their heads out of their asses and start making actually good RPGs again.

 

[Soulrender95]

The trouble is Square-Enix are chasing the elusive western audience and appealing to the masses forgetting why the west fell in love with Final Fantasy in the first place and that it is essentially overseas a niche audience, still here's a few suggestions of things they should consider for it.

gameplay wise they need to stop messing with the combat system, either adopt a Kingdom Hearts style, or use a polished turn based system like X had, ditch the weird leveling system for something simple that doesn't pretend to offer choice, bring back the world map and side quests but mostly get rid of the linear corridors it makes the world feel unnecessarily small.

story wise, more incidental dialogue I want to know who the characters are, who they were and what they will do after it's all over I don't want just the "emo guy" the "tough guy" or any other surface traits, what made the early games great is the characters were more than just "The Quest" they were people with their own lives, don't just drop characters and say "this is X she is Y's fiance she is now a rock Have emotions about this!" knowing a character and interacting with them before you drop some horrific fate makes it easier to care about that character.

finally if your using a non-linear narrative don't complicate it further with adding in words the player doesn't understand, if your using fancy words use an audience proxy I don't want a dictionary telling me what the words are after 5 hours of not knowing what the hell people are talking about, if you don't want an audience proxy USE FAMILIAR WORDS.

 

[Glongpre]

On the subject of a world map; I really enjoyed it's inclusion in the older games but I never really missed it in FFX. It showed the map as the story progressed but just didn't allow you to manually walk across it. The world map gives the illusion of freedom, but it is still a linear experience in FF games.

 

[McMarbles]

I want a throwback all the way back to the 16bit era, AKA the best FF era.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I dunno as much as I want a FFVII remake I would like them to move forward and try new things its not like all the older FF games were great anyway they have always been up and down in quality arguably VI to X was their best run before VI we had IV and that was it the rest were bad or in II s case complete garbage.

FF needs to keep evolving and I hope they do that and still take risks so it can continue to be awesome and suck throughout the ages I do not want it to turn into Dragon Quest as there already is a Dragon Quest so play that if you want a solid unchanging JRPG.

 

[Glongpre]

I want a throwback all the way back to the 16bit era, AKA the best FF era.

That would be FF9. Which was good. I mean really good.

If they wanted to go back to that era that would be fine as well.

 

[McMarbles]

I want a throwback all the way back to the 16bit era, AKA the best FF era.

That would be FF9. Which was good. I mean really good.

If they wanted to go back to that era that would be fine as well.

Why is the 6 in "FF6" upside-down?

 

[Glongpre]

"Why is the 6 in "FF6" upside-down?"

I don't understand.

I was saying FF9 is a throwback to the 16bit era.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

As stated before, this probably won't happen with the main series. The US/Canada are not the only countries with lots of shallow gamers who only care for graphics, it would seem- future FFs can be as awful as you imagine, but they will continue to sell well in Japan so long as they're jaw-droppingly gorgeous and packed with lesbian tension.

I didn't really like the DS remake of FF4, but one (or 3DS) for FF6 could be interesting if they balanced it a bit better, and they already have good models/voices for Terra and Kefka in the Dissidia games. FFX is probably my favourite and I wouldn't mind a new game that was like that one just with a new plot, aesthetic and characters. I suppose its good to keep experimenting with new kinds of battle systems for each game, but as a result you get the occasional misfire.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I would like a Final Fantasy that has an epic scale, with non-cliche plot/characters, with a focus on good, original, gameplay.

Haha we all would.

 

[The_Scrivener]

I would like a Final Fantasy that has an epic scale, with non-cliche plot/characters, with a focus on good, original, gameplay.

Squaresoft called. They said they've merged with another company or something and that there's no way that will ever happen again XD

OT: I just wish Square would get their heads out of their asses and start making actually good RPGs again.

It amazes me that we keep saying this and they still have no clue. The fact is that SE is a different company than Squaresoft was. It is a bloated corpse that needs to stop stinking.

 

[Snukastyle]

I'd love to see another Final Fantasy in the vein of FF9. Yo date it remains my favorite of the series...great characters, solid story, and great in-game systems. It really re-captured the sense of wonder inherent in "fantasy" as opposed to the quasi-sci-fi mess the series has mostly devolved into.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

A world map give the "illusion of choice?" In FF1 I always get the airship and kill kraken and tiamat before even going in the volcano. They even have different dialogue for that possibility.

In FF6 you can do as much or as little of the World of Ruin as you want, in just about any order.

My favorite FFs are 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. I liked 8 and 12 a little, and parts of 10. Mostly just Lulu and Auron.

The rest I hated. I mean really hated. Like the kind of hate you get from opening a box labeled as your favorite thing, and finding out its a bloody melange of various animal diarrheas that somehow gives you lung cancer just by smelling it.

Particularly FF7 and Dirge of Cerberus.

I mostly like what I've seen over the years of FF15, even if I sometimes have no idea wtf I'm seeing when they show actual gameplay.

More than a return to good FF games, I want a return to good FF Tactics games. Or ANY FF tactics games.

And a Vagrant Story sequel or HD remake dammit.

 

[Dominic Crossman]

I would like a Final Fantasy that has an epic scale, with non-cliche plot/characters, with a focus on good, original, gameplay.

Haha we all would.

Isn't ffxv this? Looks epic, original and non-cliche to me.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Squaresoft called. They said they've merged with another company or something and that there's no way that will ever happen again XD

Painfully true. Today, I consider them one of the worst Japanese RPG developers. I honestly haven't been all that impressed by their output since the 16-bit era. Though at least their games for the PlayStation were still pretty decent(a lot of people seem to consider it their favourite Square generation).

I switched over to franchises like Tales and Shin Megami Tensei a long time ago. And for very good reason. I don't understand why so many Westerners still primarily keep up with Square Enix for Japanese RPGs. That boat left a long time ago. I don't think that the Final Fantasy of today can even hold a candle to Tales.

gameplay wise they need to stop messing with the combat system, either adopt a Kingdom Hearts style, or use a polished turn based system like X had, ditch the weird leveling system for something simple that doesn't pretend to offer choice, bring back the world map and side quests but mostly get rid of the linear corridors it makes the world feel unnecessarily small.

I would approve of them staying with turn based combat system only if it can do what turn based combat actually accomplishes: strategy.

Really, the only thing that that turn based combat is good for is strategy. Not something Final Fantasy is accomplishing lately.

Because of a want to change things up but a reluctance to change tradition, Final Fantasy combat is going through a really awkward identity crisis right now. Where Square seems to feel like turn based is outdated, so adds pseudo action-y elements, that just make the combat fail at being both turn based and action. Kingdom Hearts would be nice, also Tales and Star Ocean.

At this point I think they just need to let the tradition die, though. They've done it too much injustice in recent year that there's in no way a point for them to keep to the tradition. It isn't as if they're keeping the tradition of good turn based combat alive. Final Fantasy also apparently wants to be a popular jRPG. I think that good turn based combat is, as of right now, a niche. A niche that could have been kept much, much bigger if people in the industry were still geniuses of strategy. But as of right now, most Japanese RPGs turn turn based combat into button mashing instead of brain wracking strategy. It can be revived but I don't think Final Fantasy should be the one to do it.

Some mixture of something like Kingdom Hearts and Tales would be the best. The combat itself I should basically be like Tales of Vesperia.

 

[tilmoph]

I've sort of lost interest in the JRPG genre, as I've gotten more into open-world/exploratory and controlled character development of Western RPGs, but FFVII and FFTactics 1 still hold a special place in my heart. I've played VIII and X and XIII for about half an hour, and I didn't like the trend they showed. XIII was probably the worst; way too linear about sums it up. You can scream Gran Pulse all you like, but exactly one area of the game doesn't make up for everything else.

So for XVI, I'd say open world, flexible narrative, bring back the job system (X-2 almost sold me on that, but then the trailers showed the savior of the world playing pretty princess pop star and I quit caring), cut down on the mid-gameplay cutscenes (yes, Bahamut ZERO being a giant robo-dragon in space breathing a big hydrogen bomb on a continent looked cool as hell the first time, but by the 20th it was old), and I think that about sums it up. I don't really mind some linearity, I get that JRPGs are closer to visual novels than tabletop games, but that only excuses things to a point. Beautiful scenes can give a good sense of the world your in, but basically stopping the game while overlong supermoves play does nothing but annoy.

Oh, and just thought of something; make the superweapons something you can figure out in game without needing a damn strat guide. Have hints, make the extra magazines you can collect but don't do anything useful, something, just give me enough information in-universe to figure out how to unlock everything without basically needing an outside source.