Poll: Final Fantasy: Gameplay or Story?

[Auron225]

While both are important, Id sooner put up with meh gameplay for a really good story than vice versa. The gameplay of Final Fantasy games has never been that exciting for me in any case.

VIII had a great story but the junctioning system just seemed so what-the-heck that it almost ruined it for me. On the other hand, FFXII worked perfectly fine and all, but the story wasn't interesting in the least to me. I'd sooner replay VIII.

 

[The_Scrivener]

Which one is more important to you? I have always valued a good story over good gameplay. That is not to say I do not enjoy games that have good gameplay and little to no story but FF has always been different.

For example I think that FF XII had the best gameplay in the series so far (except for the summon system) but as the story was a badly done shot for shot remake of Return of the Jedi I did not enjoy the experience.

FFVIII was crap gameplay and good story.

FFXII was crap story and good gameplay.

I think 8 was better so I guess story is marginally more important. However, 7 is the only one that I think got it completely right (9 did fine too, 6 to a lesser extent) so I'd rather play that one every year or two and tell the others to screw off.

 

[loa]

Final fantasy makes me like big numbers so I'm all about min-maxing the shit out of everything.
That's gameplay, right?

Also I stopped playing final fantasy 9, which probably had one of the most involving storylines I have seen in a ff game yet, because you are pretty much expected to grind and every battle starts off with a 10+ seconds slow intro camera swoop.
Every.
Single.
Battle.
Oh and the whole thing runs at like 15 fps so you're stuck in the most banal encounter for at least half a goddamn minute and there is one every 5 steps, I swear.

Conversely, I was quite underwhelmed by how ff10s story played out but I kept playing it all the way to the end because the combat was quite well done.
Hell I even put up with all of ff13 because its battle system was an intriguing concept with all the planning ahead even though 80% of it is locked away for over half of the entire game.

So I suppose gameplay wins.

 

[IanDavis]

In my experience, FF has usually failed on both accounts pretty hard.

However, if the gameplay is enjoyable enough, I can usually stomach the story. I even enjoyed FFX for a bit based on it's gameplay alone. However, JRPG gameplay usually is so Skinner Box-tastic and manipulative that even a good game by genre standards fails by my test.

I have never gotten into any of the FF stories. They all seem poorly paced, bloated monstrosities with annoying, whinny protagonists. It might be fantastic by genre standards, but it's just not by thing at all.

Personally, I wonder how these games got the legendary status that they did. I just don't see it.

On a side note, [a href=http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/12/19/final-fantasy-x]the IGN review of FFX[/a] is the closest thing to literary fellatio you'll find outside of actual erotica.

 

[Chungus]

Gameplay. Definitely gameplay. A story can be underwear-on-head retarded, but if the gameplay is good, I'm still going to enjoy it. If the gameplay is broken, however, I'm not going to touch it with a ten foot long pole. If I wanted to enjoy a good story, I'd head down to the library and read a book. I don't. I want to play a fun game.

On a slightly related note, good music is important too, in my book. If a game has monotonous, repetitive music, I'm going to get annoyed very quickly.

 

[BrotherRool]

FFX had the best gameplay and one of the best stories, so I don't need to decide =D

They interact more than you think though. The story of FFX is a long journey through a hard world. The gameplay consists on fighting monsters along roads (where we would expect no monsters) struggling to get to the next checkpoint, the next place of safety. Our game is a journey that lasts a long time, trying to get from A to B and the same with the story. Each person has a character that exactly fits their role in battle. Etc.

The story wouldn't be nearly as good without the gameplay reinforcing the required feelings, and without the story there'd be no reason to do anything and the game wouldn't be worth playing

 

[xplosive59]

All a good Final Fantasy needs is an epic story, an amazing soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and an open world aspect to keep me interested.

 

[recruit00]

Basically as long as one is good, I can be good.

Spoilers abound!

FF1- NES story, Great gameplay, Classic

FF2- NES story, Awful gameplay and leveling, my least favorite

FF3- NES story, Good gameplay, some faults with dungeons and saving, still replayable

FF4- Screw you I like the mind control story stuff, the characters are awesome, gameplay is very challenging but rewarding, beating Zeromus on the DS version in one try was a huge accomplishment

FF5- Story was a downturn, job system was awesome, too bad I overleved because I cheesed every final boss. Neo Exdeath hit me twice, Shinryu and Omega were two total turns each. I felt bad for that

FF6- Interesting characters, one of the best villains ever, great gameplay, tied with FF4 for best Golden Age FF only because FF4 was my first real FF experience along with FF8

FF7- Adore the story, Sephiroth is an awesome villain, the Jenova twist at Whirlwind Maze was sweet, cool characters, awesome Materia system, denouttaden

FF8- My first PS1 FF8 so I am biased. Drawing is overblown in regards to hatred, junction is not hard to figure out and really cool for customization, GFs were kind of OP though, story is pretty much a blur since I haven't done a playthrough since my 100 hour plus playthrough from when I was like 10 but from reexamination, an okay story

FF9- Amazing storyline and characters, great throwback to the Golden Age of FF, battle system is classical and really well done, tied with FF7 for favorite FF game

FF10- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47ow4_Cmk0

The storyline sucks, the characters suck, extremely linear, too grindy at points and the bosses blow chunks, I never got past Seymour 3 because I did not want to grind again for 20 hours. I love the Sphere Grid but the grinding required to get through main story sucks. I will only beat it to say I beat the whole main series

FF11- MMO=Skip

FF12- Story is meh but it has some cool characters like Cid, Balthier, Ashe, Gabranth, and somewhat Basch. Gameplay is one of the best of the series. So much freedom to explore yet the goal is still clear and easy to figure out. I liked the side quests and the level up system and from what I have seen the International version is cool.

FF13- I liked the story overall because characters do experience some development despite some flaws. I like the gameplay because although it is auto, there is still good strategy to do when you get to later. Try to brute force Cid. See what happens. Some issues were rectified in 13-2 with the auto battle as well along with linearity.

Both is best but I can deal with just one if necessary.

 

[Fractral]

All a good Final Fantasy needs is an epic story, an amazing soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and an open world aspect to keep me interested.

I guess that means that you'll never like another final fantasy game again, then. Shame really, I wish Nobuo Uematsu still made the FF soundtracks. It would have made FF13's soundtrack a lot better.
OT: Story, generally. FFIX's story and characters just sucked me in, but the gameplay was a bit boring. The leveling system was bland, and seemed like a bit of a rehash of FFVI's. But the story kept me going throughout. That's true in most games, actually. A good story can make up for bad gameplay, for me, and good gameplay can more than make up for a bad story.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Story.

FF has never been about gameplay, its been about story.

now if they could just get some decent writers again .....

 

[loc978]

Story... which is why the franchise died with the PS1.

 

[MammothBlade]

BOTH. I enjoy Final Fantasy games because they have a nice mixture of the two. With XIII I found decent gameplay sorely lacking. The story wasn't that great, either. It was mostly just the impressive visuals that kept me playing.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

The only main series game with a combat system I enjoy is FFX. The only game where I felt the exploration and side content was worthwhile and rewarding was FFXII. In the rest of the series I've found the gameplay passable but detrimental to the experience (except FFII and FFXIII which I couldn't finish due to the gameplay). It just stopped me from getting to the next narrative bit, which is what I was actually playing for, and added absolutely fucking nothing.

If it had been possible at the time, I'd have just watched a play-through on Youtube and enjoyed myself much, much more.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Both are important, but not *as* important. Gameplay is inherent to games; story isn't. Add an interesting story to a game that already features a gameplay mechanic that is both fun and original and you'll get a great game, but more games can do without story than they can without gameplay - which, as I already mentioned, is the defining feature of a game. Otherwise where does that leave all the fighting games, the beat 'em ups, the sports games, the racing games and the puzzle games? I can think of excellent games in all categories that feature all gameplay and no storytelling at all.

I get what you mean, but I feel this rejects all the excellent titles which focus almost exclusively on story. I can think of several games with almost non-existent or really lousy gameplay that I still consider excellent games due to having a good story, such as Planescape Torment, To the Moon, Killer 7, Heavy Rain etc.

For me both are equally valid and depending on the type of game I prioritise different things. I do not expect or demand a great story from games such as racing, fighting etc (although should they have it it can be a nice bonus) nor do I demand great gameplay from certain games as long as the story is good (although again, should they have both it can be a nice bonus).

Killer7 has a good story? That would indicate one can actually understand it, or at least come up with a decent interpretation for it. Inasmuch as I rank it high among my favorite games I can only be amused by the zany "plot" without actually enjoying it or understanding it. That game was about achieving a certain atmosphere - an eerie combination of visuals, music and quirky, rickety gameplay - but has no noteworthy "story" to speak of. Leaving this example aside, I have to stand by my previous statement - a good game can't be all about story, but it can be about gameplay.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I can take one or the other but honestly, at the end of the day, I have far more detailed memories of grinding and leveling up my GFs to Godhood and, playing Tetra Master and, summoning Knights of the Round than I have of plot points and, side story points etc. I remember Yuffie and whats-her-name from Shinra being kidnapped and strapped to the side of a cliff but I don't remember names or reasons.

...

Guess I should have just said 'gameplay'...

 

[twaddle]

I'm tired of hearing the linear thing about FF13 so I'll get this part out of the way:
[HEADING=2]FINAL FANTASY 13 WAS JUST AS LINEAR AS FINAL FANTASY 10[/HEADING]

Now that's done, although I like to say both,but it's more likely I will stick through a shitty story if the gameplay is good. Because you know at some point in final fantasy game comes the grind fest to get all the items in game and at that point if the gameplay isn't that enjoyable it becomes a huge chore and your likely to drop it and say you'll comeback later....and later almost never comes. I'm a completionist.

 

[FFP2]

I'm tired of hearing the linear thing about FF13 so I'll get this part out of the way:
[HEADING=2]FINAL FANTASY 13 WAS JUST AS LINEAR AS FINAL FANTASY 10[/HEADING]

Now that's done, although I like to say both,but it's more likely I will stick through a shitty story if the gameplay is good. Because you know at some point in final fantasy game comes the grind fest to get all the items in game and at that point if the gameplay isn't that enjoyable it becomes a huge chore and your likely to drop it and say you'll comeback later....and later almost never comes. I'm a completionist.

To add to that: EVERY FF GAME IS LINEAR THEY JUST GAVE AN ILLUSION OF OPENNESS!

Even FF12, the most "open" one by far and a single player MMO locked you out of areas until you progressed enough!

OT: I really don't care much for FF's story, they've never been the pinnacle of JRPG storytelling (Persona 4 destroys them in that aspect). Just because of that stupid Aerith scene everyone thinks FF is synonomous with good storytelling.

As much as I love 13 and 13-2 and will defend them to the death the stories were really... iffy. The only way you could really understand it was if you went to the wiki AND read the shitload of info they dumped into the datalog thing.

The reason I love FF is that in every game they change the combat up significantly. From the CTB to the ATB, it's always been fresh. The "Amazing ATB" in Lightning Returns sounds really stupid though.

 

[xplosive59]

All a good Final Fantasy needs is an epic story, an amazing soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and an open world aspect to keep me interested.

I guess that means that you'll never like another final fantasy game again, then. Shame really, I wish Nobuo Uematsu still made the FF soundtracks. It would have made FF13's soundtrack a lot better.

I haven't liked a FF since IX, which is where the series went out on a high in my opinion!