Poll: Final Fantasy: Gameplay or Story?

[Kinitawowi]

Without gameplay, there's no game; so naturally, gameplay is king. This is Final Fantasy we're talking about though, so I still expect a half-decent story to back it up.

FFX is a perfect demonstration of why you can't rely on gameplay alone. Let's get this clear right now: the Sphere Grid is nothing short of a work of genius. The options, the sheer number of things you can do with it, it's amazing. Too bad it was tied up to the most cack-handed Yuna Is Jesus story tied up to a boring wangsty shithead of a main character in Tidus. Great gameplay, rubbish story, I don't care if I'm going to hell but I genuinely preferred X-2.

FFVII is supposed to be the zenith of storytelling. But the Materia system is the exact opposite of interesting when you're dealing with that many characters and makes it all too easy to leave at least five of them on the airship for all eternity. Here's the trick, FFVII; if you're going to do a job swap based system, you can't have that much party wastage. FFV has the princely sum of four playable characters (one of whom dies to be replaced immediately with his granddaughter or something, so it's still only four) in a four person party; that gives you time to spend with the characters. FFVII has nine playable characters in a three person party (one of whom dies and two of whom are optional, so six?); that's fine for a class based system (FFIX has eight in a four - and it works perfectly because the class system forces you to swap characters for party balance), but it's total overkill for job swapping. The Tactics series gets away with having 24 in a six because they're not individually supposed to be story-critical (except for a couple of specials).

TLDR; I'll be more annoyed by bad gameplay than I will bad story, but the game really needs both.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I'd say both are important and need to be good. It's probably why I don't hold FF7 in the same high regards as most, since the story was very cliché and the gameplay, well, it's got a turn based combat system without any way to spice things up (like in FFX). Not very engaging or stimulating.

 

[roushutsu]

For Final Fantasy, I would say story. Most JRPGs don't need a complex battle system, though experimenting with new methods is appreciated. With that said, the stories are what make or break a FF game for me, and the stories after IX haven't been up to par with previous entries.

 

[SaberXIII]

I can't remember many instances where I thought the Final Fantasy gameplay was particularly incredible, it all follows one of a select few formulas with very little change. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the gameplay, quite the opposite, but the story is what keeps me playing, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

In my mind there are three important parts to a Final Fantasy game. Story, gameplay and the soundtrack. When all these are great then it is a great final Fantasy game.

 

[Snownine]

In my mind there are three important parts to a Final Fantasy game. Story, gameplay and the soundtrack. When all these are great then it is a great final Fantasy game.

This is it exactly. My favorite Final Fantasy games had, in my opinion, all three of these attributes.

 

[Adon Cabre]

[HEADING=2]SquareSoft/SquareEnix DO NOT do either very well, at all.[/HEADING]

[HEADING=1]Final Fantasy X[/HEADING]

The Sphere Grid had incredible depth. Competent manipulation maximized your character far beyond the grid's original layout capacity. And how awesome was the diversity in customization of weapons and armor?

The philosophical & theological concept was amazing. Spira is surrounded by death (Sin) and tragedy, and which finds contrast in the lush tropical vibrancy of the islands. There is so much color and accent; and you could feel Spira's unique and simple cultures.

Blitzball is an awfully well executed mini-game! (This could easily be DLC in today's era.) I love how the story reaches its first crescendo when Tidus gets to Luca. We have heard him bragging on about his talent at Blitzball, and then we finally get to play -- and keep playing for the rest of the game! You can trade athletes and position them where ever their stats work best. (Talk about a fantasy league -- ah!) Sport, like music, is an integral part to any culture. Square Soft understood this.

The problem is the Narrative itself.

The plot is simple: kill sin. But there are numerous twists that you see coming hours before they happen, and the characters are static -- none of them are well written, either.

[HEADING=1] Final Fantasy XII [/HEADING]

Very simple narrative -- stop the evil empire; and when you have a simple plot, you can pour more resource into the odyssey itself.

The Great Crystal is such an example. The music and aesthetic wonder culminated into such an eerie atmosphere: you were lost -- and quite literally so because there was no map -- in the fantasy's bridge to Ivalice's own fantasy/mythology.

But the World isn't as consistent as X. SquareSoft wanted to take you everywhere, and that made for a shallow experience; you breeze past domains and realms without any true immersion in anyone's culture. And what about the diversity of Humanoids within the group? It's just Humans and one Viera. No Kupo's. No Siiks? No Lizards?

There was no sports, either. Nothing had the panache, or charm of Blitzball to show me how this world pressed on through war and tragedy. In fact, it seemed to be dictated by those circumstances.

XII is consistently paced: no one is hiding information, and there aren't exposition dumps either. XII's characters are exceptionally well-written. You could tell the societal status of each protagonist by their accent and lexicon. But the speed of the narrative distances you from these characters; and because they don't personalize the heroes, you don't experience their journey.

There is nothing immersive about this Combat System. You'll find plenty of optimization in the menu. [HEADING=2]But XII is not really interested in you playing the game.[/HEADING] Run near an enemy and the Character AI kills it. And if you want to do it manually, then you need to wait for a cool down time. This game is dictated by numbers, too. The loot in chests and from creatures is based on probabilities and percentages. Unfair, and unrewarding!

And I don't like how every character can use any weapon; it just doesn't fit the narrative: a street rat like Vaan knows how to shoot a Blunderbuss as accurately as a Skypirate?

[HEADING=1]Final Fantasy XIII[/HEADING]

XIII takes what was bad in the previous installments and embellishes their incompetency while shredding to pieces every positive aspect!

So in all actuality, X has been better than any Final Fantasy to come out in this recent decade. [HEADING=2]X does more things better then XII and XIII.[/HEADING] X knew its limitations and didn't broaden the world too far to make it shallow, or stretch the story to create impersonal characters. The attention to detail in the cultures with sports and even monsters created such an immersive experience.

 

[Snownine]

Until FFX, you got both in every game.

I thought the battle system of X was superior to the systems that preceded it.

 

[Kevianz]

I don't see why people like FFXIII-2 over XIII IMO XIII was executed waaaaaay better (except for the linearity).

At first i thought I would like XIII-2 over XIII also but after playing it I just began to dread it, that jumping around in timezones just made me sick after a while and it didn't really feel like i was exploring anything but just jumping from dungeon to dungeon.

Also i hated that pet system it had, and that you always was stuck with sarah and noel. In XIII you had 6 characters you could switch with and while they all could play the same role's basically, they still felt different in ways. + sazh <3. And them quick time events, not that i don't like cutscenes where you beat up a boss but they should have just kept them on cutscenes