Poll: Final Fantasy: Is it really an RPG?
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Haha, this is true. But to somewhat destroy the mirth, the first game was intended to be what's his name's (the lead FF developer whose name escapes me)'Final' project in the video game industry (largely since the company he was with at the time was about to tank). But after the game's resounding success he decided to stay in and make another, and another, and another and so on. I think his 'Final' one was 13. I'm pretty sure he decided that he didn't want to make anymore, which should only attest to how crappy 14's gonna be. Why do they insist on making games after the LEAD DEVELOPER decides it's been enough?RebellionXXI said:
If Oblivion is an RPG and Fallout is a FPS/RPG then Final Fantasy games are RPGS too.
You level up, you roleplay your character and you collect loot.
RebellionXXI: Most Final Fantasy games have a new story and if they run out of story ideas it'd be weird. Why? Well there are plenty of other JRPGs out there and tons of more FPS with stories. Final Fantasy games usually make a new story for game too. With the exception of FF7 series.
I just don't see them ever running out of stories but it might get to the point where "This look like something I played before"
You level up, you roleplay your character and you collect loot.
RebellionXXI: Most Final Fantasy games have a new story and if they run out of story ideas it'd be weird. Why? Well there are plenty of other JRPGs out there and tons of more FPS with stories. Final Fantasy games usually make a new story for game too. With the exception of FF7 series.
I just don't see them ever running out of stories but it might get to the point where "This look like something I played before"
That's all I was really going for.Kitacular said:As apposed to the other genres which were also made up? Technically most of them are adventure games (That happen to be turn-based), just some have roleplaying aspects, and some don't.
Roleplay is meant to allow the player to feel like they're the party in question, and that's sort of ruined if you're just given a bunch of pre-selected characters. Almost like using somebody's ready-made DnD character.
Still, you got me on the abbreviation
Yes i believe it is. I understand your point though, and come to think of it, I'd like to see a FF game where your own decisions influence the plot a lot more.
Probably because FF has a big enough fanbase to rival just about any other franchise in existence. Well, at least if they swap lead designers we might get some new gameplay mechanics.Wing0fSilver said:
You know, you may have a point there.Mertruve said:
The basic concept behind the genre of RPG is basically: STATS.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were the first to define the idea of a single character that was define by varying degrees of stats that measure how the character will perform. So the classic RPG requires you to level up, gain stats, build skills, and play the role of something other than you. While most games require you to play the role of someone else, without the concept that that character will develop, it is defined as an adventure game where you play a character that never changes except for, maybe, the gear he is using, eg. Mario and Link.
Eventually the idea of RPGs made it to Japan and into video games, where a players uses a character or characters, that change over the course of using them. As in the original Final Fantasy, you'd pick a class for your characters, they would level up, their stats would increase based on that class, and they all had their own types of abilities and equipment.
Over the years, the RPG genre has evolved and various methods have been employed. Japanese RPGs tend to focus more on the plot of a story, more like a tradition stage play with a script. With the characters predefined and the story progressing in a linear fashion.
American RPGs tend to focus on generic stories that can be completed by any type of character, more of a pick your own adventure book. You get an open or semi-open world and pick where and when to progress with the story.
EDIT: So, yes, Final Fantasy is a RPG.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson were the first to define the idea of a single character that was define by varying degrees of stats that measure how the character will perform. So the classic RPG requires you to level up, gain stats, build skills, and play the role of something other than you. While most games require you to play the role of someone else, without the concept that that character will develop, it is defined as an adventure game where you play a character that never changes except for, maybe, the gear he is using, eg. Mario and Link.
Eventually the idea of RPGs made it to Japan and into video games, where a players uses a character or characters, that change over the course of using them. As in the original Final Fantasy, you'd pick a class for your characters, they would level up, their stats would increase based on that class, and they all had their own types of abilities and equipment.
Over the years, the RPG genre has evolved and various methods have been employed. Japanese RPGs tend to focus more on the plot of a story, more like a tradition stage play with a script. With the characters predefined and the story progressing in a linear fashion.
American RPGs tend to focus on generic stories that can be completed by any type of character, more of a pick your own adventure book. You get an open or semi-open world and pick where and when to progress with the story.
EDIT: So, yes, Final Fantasy is a RPG.
Yeah, but that was just to explain the role part. Which the OT thought was supposed to be because you played a role in how things ended. It was how the name originated, all the other aspects defines the genre but the name "role" was based on the fact that you roleplay.Wing0fSilver said:
Wow, some interesting answers came up while I was asleep.Arcanz said:
Anyway, just thought I'd add an example of what I was originally talking about before going to work: remember that part in Final Fantasy VIII in which Quistis decides, in the middle of a plot to assassinate the villain, that she and her whole crew should abandon their positions to go apologize for snapping at Rinoa? If you're like me, you probably said aloud, "wow, that's a stupid ide--wait, are they seriously going to do that? WTF?!" And if you had been role-playing as Quistis, wouldn't the next words out of her mouth have been "you know what, never mind, let's focus on killing the evil world-beating sorceress now and make up with Rinoa later"?
This only goes to show that most video game RPGs are still stuck in the late 70s D&D mindset while the pen & paper format has gone on to try a variety of different things (not always successfully, but at least there's experimentation).Jonci said:
Personally, I don't consider it an RPG if the game is strictly linear. If you are required to perform the same fetch quests in more or less the same order in the same way, is any decision-making on your part really involved?
I'd actually hold up your typical Hitman game as a better RPG than most RPGs: for most missions, you have several options to take out the target: you can find a disguise, find a high point and snipe the target, set bombs on his car, charge in guns ablazin', etc. Now if the characters or storyline were affected differently based on your chosen course of action (eg, if you car-bombed the last two targets, don't expect that trick to work again. Or if you indiscriminately kill civvies, you don't get as many jobs), that'd be a great RPG.
But if you're just along for the ride with no meaningful input on the direction of the storyline or character development, you're not so much "role-playing" as "role-watching". Or as I like to tell the various live-action roleplaying groups I've been involved with, if all the stories require you to follow a script, or just watch while NPCs have interesting conversations and interactions (like a self-indulgent cutscene), then it's not role-playing; it's community theatre. (Just to point out that pen & paper and live-action RPGs aren't immune to linear fetch quest plots.)
And thank you for putting that way better than I could've. (Here's how that friend of mine put it: "If Final Fantasy was a golf game, you'd be playing the role of the invisible, voiceless caddy.")Falseprophet said:
And now I have to go to work.
It is, as stated, a Jrpg. Japanese RPGs are very different to Western ones, but don't assume that they're not RPGs.
Your pretty much talking out your ass...Wing0fSilver said:
Sakaguchi hasn't done any work on Final Fantasy 13 and left Square in the early 2000's and began work with Mistwalker in 2004...
Besides which he wasn't the lead designer for many of the games, although he often had some credit in their making, being producer and president and all that...
In fact the last game he worked on in the Final Fantasy series, as a designer, was Final Fantasy V.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hironobu_Sakaguchi