Poll: "Final Fantasy XV is the last chance I'll give the series"

[camazotz]

*snip*

I get what you are saying, it's quite possible for for two people to look at the art design of Final Fantasy games, one person thinks it's gorgeous, the other thinks it looks retina-scorchingly garish and stupid. (Giant blue hair antlers?! ARE YOU BLOODY KIDDING ME?!!)

That said, there is an observable decline in the quality of the Final Fantasy series' writing since 6. I actually went back years later and played Final Fantasy 6, and the differences between it and the 7 and later games is striking. Since 8, especially the writing in Final Fantasy games has just seemed really slapdash. There's an extreme reliance on heavily contrived situations, character motivations have become practically nonsensical, and Final Fantasy has developed a real tendency since 8 to just up and break it's own rules in order to make really contrived endings work and offering up no better explanation than "the power of Love and Friendship, blah, blah Heart of the Cards blah." It just seems childish to me.

What made FF 6 stand out? 4-6 are the only ones I haven't yet played, curious if its worth the time investment...as to what about it makes it so much better (noting that FFVII was the game that taught me how to enjoy JRPGs).

6 had a massive (main, playable) cast who, even though they're fairly cardboard characters, wouldn't be out of place in a cheap paperback fantasy novel. The plot is competent... the villains have understandable motivations (eventually. Saying more would be a spoiler), there are nods to geopolitical situations ripped off from Star Wars (original trilogy)... all-in-all, a very competently written game.

4 is up there too. Smaller cast, more focused story, more serious tone.

5... well, its story was fairly slapdash (elements of FF4 and FF1 reworked, but without the coherency of 4)... just acting as a vehicle for the updated FF3 job system they used... probably why it didn't see English localization until it could be considered a classic.

As for me (and for some of you, this will invalidate my opinion), FF10 was the series' last chance in my eyes... and that's where it dug its grave. If 7, 8 and 9 were a downward slide followed by a slight elevation in the shape of a ski jump... 10 was the quarry dug in the place of a landing hill.

Thanks....I'll have to check FF6 out. I did like FFX a lot, though, but it's story arc was very unconventional, and the character costume were just ridiculous.

 

[Tupolev]

I can understand why people would like the new spin on the combat system, but the game does a terrible job of actually incentivizing you to actually use it, because all you gain from the combat is items since they completely removed the EXP system.

Fighting gives EP.

EP is crucial and awesome.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Yeah, I'm already done. Final Fantasy died as soon as Sakaguchi left Square. Uematsu leaving left a pretty gaping hole too. As far as I'm concerned, their new company Mistwalker is the one making the real Final Fantasy games right now. Seriously, go play Lost Odyssey. To me that game is the real Final Fantasy XI. Nowadays Final Fantasy is all about spectacle and they've decided to completely ignore what people actually played Final Fantasy for.

FFXV does actually look kind of cool, but it won't be a true Final Fantasy game regardless of how good or bad it turns out to be. But Final Fantasy isn't dead just yet. Like I said, Mistwalker.
Kind of contradicts what I said at the start of this post but whatever, you get what I'm saying.

Basically, just go play Lost Odyssey. Even the freakin' name is an echo of Final Fantasy.

 

[JediMB]

I didn't finish Final Fantasy XII, and I completely skipped XIII and its sequels, but I'm currently playing Final Fantasy XIV. With most of the games being completely self-contained, I don't see why I can't just skip the bad games and see if what comes next turns out better.

 

[Flunk]

I liked Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2. I'm going to buy XIII-3 when I finish up my Steam list of unplayed games I've already bought. If Final Fantasy XV is terrible I'm still game for XVI. Final Fantasy is about story, and recently spectacle rather than gameplay. I'm find with a somewhat interactive story as long as the playtime is long enough. There are plenty of other games to play that have gameplay. It's not like FF has ever been anything but almost entirely linear, Final Fantasy XIII just admits it's linearity right off the bat.

P.S. Final Fantasy IX is my least favourite because it's nearly 100% fan service and a retread of previous games.

 

[In Search of Username]

I'll play the ones that sound good to me/get good reviews? I don't get why I have to be entirely loyal to a series or entirely abandon it. I can just play the good ones, right?

 

[shrekfan246]

I consider Lightning Returns to be a great game, with excellent combat, although your milage may vary on the story, I found it alright, better than XIII for sure.

Are you SimonAJ... ?

Well...I uh...no, I'm not...

*flees*

(Just joshing, he's an LRR fan who said he thought it was great too, I'm sure more than one person in the world likes the game.)

Nope, just me, its hard being the only one who likes an FFXIII game...

XD Aw, now I feel bad.

Spoiler: Big post with a lot of subjective nonsense that you probably will just disagree with.

Combat rewards you with EP (an absolute necessity for things like Chronostasis and Teleport, along with other useful abilities) and you also earn money and abilities, which are important for new strategies in combat, any excess abilities you garner (I had like 10 blizzards) can be merged together at a shop to make them more powerful and add other neat passive abilities like extra power or health, you can also grab massive OP weapons from the bigger monsters, not to mention the combat itself is fun to use, so I always charged into combat. Also, you can literally hunt monsters to extinctions, meaning they won't appear anymore and there are many quests that involve slaying entire monster families, so there's that. I admit, the absence of traditional EXP is sad, but at least the game does something to mix it up and it doesn't strictly fail, it makes questing more important.

See, that all just sounds incredibly unnecessary and convoluted, like they threw it all together because they felt like they had to change things. What the hell is EP and why does it power abilities in a different manner than normal magic, especially when a lot of said abilities are still pretty typical Final Fantasy fare? Natural progression of the character's strength as they level up? What's that? Let's just throw an excess of weapons and abilities at them in an illogical fashion and make them need to make something useful out of it! (Not that it's the first Final Fantasy to do that, of course. X in particular has an unconventional level and item progression system as well.)

I certainly wouldn't say it fails at what it tries to do, but it just seems like the only reason for any of it to exist in the first place is because they were throwing darts at a wall of ideas to see what stuck.

Stagger is easy to grasp, hit monster with magic (ones it weak against works best) and physically attack it to stall the stagger depletion, keep going until its staggered and bring the pain (perfect guarding can heavily up or outright fill the stagger gauge) I played on Easy and it maintains a decent level of challenge (although many weaker enemies can be one-shot after the first few quests and adequate equipment) but the bosses and big enemies are enough to keep you on your toes. I recommend Easy for a first playthrough, then Normal and Hard for subsequent ones (I have yet to finish the game actually, need to get back to it)

Again, not saying it fails at what it attempts to do, but I never really liked the Stagger system to begin with. I hate arbitrarily damage-sponge-y enemies at the best of times, so the Final Fantasy XIII mini-series being almost solely comprised of them as a form of "difficult" fights irritated me to no end.

Also, in regards to the timer, yeah it can make you nervous, but the game gives you plenty of time, if you follow a strict guide to do all quests, you will be done by Day 8-9 (that's 5-6 days extra to hunt and explore, provided you made good use of Chronostasis)

Many quests can be annoying, with just wandering around and collecting stuff, but to be honest, some quests were fun to see through to their conclusion and some were quite fun and lets be fair, almost all games that feature side-quests have dull ones along with the good ones.

The problem, at least from what I saw of the game because again I've only seen roughly seven hours or so, is that pretty much every side-quest I saw featured in Lightning Returns was a dull, tedious collect-a-thon. Maybe there are some more interesting ones later on, but that was the beginning of the game and it really doesn't paint an enticing opening impression when all of your starting quests are to go do someone's errands for them or to find a specifically colored doll that a little girl dropped.

I will admit the game is basically there to show off how great the developers think Lightning is, she isn't too bad, she has more of a dry sense of humour here, but she still isn't that compelling in comparison to the other characters (like Noel, Snow and Sazh) But I found myself enjoying the story, its not masterpiece or all that shocking, but I enjoyed it well enough, it has its moments (the scene in Yusnaan with the fireworks and bringing down the statue is a great example)

I understand, I am not a big fan of FFXIII either, I didn't enjoy playing it, XIII-2 was much better, but still had many problems, mainly with its timey-wimey time travel bullshit, but I do see Lightning Returns as a genuine improvement, is it the bane of all JRPG's, no, is it the greatest thing since sliced bread? no, its a relatively fun JRPG that I found to have more enjoyable moments than bad ones, so as someone who didn't like FFXIII, this is a welcome improvement.

See, I see the entire XIII mini-series as Square Enix recognizing what people didn't like about the preceding title, and then managing to completely miss the point in how they try to "fix" it.

Spoiler

Final Fantasy XII - A lot of people didn't like the different combat system, the weird license boards, and the story/characters. So with XIII, they go back to more "traditional" Final Fantasy things with a completely bonkers story and more outlandish characters, a new iteration of the ATB combat system, and another weird mix of futuristic fantasy for the world-building.

Final Fantasy XIII - But, they completely flub the pacing of their story and the character arcs of their characters, they slow-roll the combat system so agonizingly that until many hours into the game it's just boring to use, and their focus on over-the-top story-telling and visuals means that the game "world" is mostly a collection of corridors and cutscenes. So, with XIII-2, they super-charge the rate at which both the narrative and combat of the game progress and they provide a bunch of new, larger areas for people to explore, repopulating the worlds with actual NPCs and things of that nature.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 - But, the narrative makes a complete mess of an already ridiculous story and overcomplicates the whole thing to the point where none of it even matters anymore because who's seriously still following it at this point? (Don't answer that, I've heard far too much from the lore defenders of XIII as it is.) The areas have little meaning because they're literally just random collections of different places, slapped together by the nonsense time-travel plot, and they still don't provide the same feel of a living world like older Final Fantasy titles because of that. You're basically flying through a void, occasionally landing on a floating island for the sake of plot progression. Also monster-catching.

So for Lightning Returns they decide to scrub the actual time traveling (at least I think) and just set it 500 years later when everyone is still the same age anyway because nobody is dying so what does it even matter except that they can use it as an excuse for different areas (I think? Lord knows I don't remember if they had the same locations in the first two games) and then go back to the original XIII plot point of "It's God's will" as the excuse for everything you have to do in the game. And they finally bring back cities! Yay!

Christ, I'm giving myself a headache just typing all of this.

Spoiler

Except that the city is populated by cardboard cutouts of characters, and still feels highly pointless as it's described as being the "last bastion of light" or something "in a dying world" and the only safe haven and everything... except darkness and enemies are crawling around every gorram corner! How safe can it be when you can barely go five steps without finding another monster wandering around? And by now the narrative is just complete gibberish, even for Final Fantasy, which isn't to say it can't be enjoyed, but it's just so far past the point of being insane.

I'm simplifying it quite a lot, I'll admit, but that's because it hurts my brain just to think about it this much. XIII-2 and Lightning Returns managed to take an already poorly-told narrative and make it almost incomprehensible.


I mean, I always say more power to the people who can enjoy those games. I just couldn't because I went in with the expectations VII, VIII, IX, X, and XII had left upon me and I couldn't look past all of the little differences that just kept me from having fun or liking the story. XIII is far from the first Final Fantasy to have a silly or dumb story, but it's the first one where it seemed to me like they just had no idea how they were supposed to actually tell it, and all of the additions they've made since have just... made it even more ridiculous. And I didn't really care for the combat system to begin with, because I didn't like having control of the party forcibly ripped away from me. It arguably wouldn't have worked well with how they changed the ATB combat, but then I just raise the question of why they needed to change it so much in the first place. By Lightning Returns, I just have no idea what they're trying to do anymore, but it looks like it's not for me.

Or, to put it simply, I blame Motomu Toriyama.

 

[gigantor21]

I haven't bought a mainline entry in the series since X-2 (UGH), so skipping XV if it gets bad reviews wouldn't be all that hard for me. I've never been a big fan of the overall franchise to begin with; I've only played X, X-2 and VII, and X is the only one I've finished.

 

[Juan Regular]

I gave up on it when X-2 came out too and I'm not holding my breath for any game with Final Fantasy in the title anymore and from what I've seen of XV it doesn't look like my cup of tea either. I used to love the series to death, played I-XII and liked or loved all of them but it just got completely ridiculous after XII. That one at least tried to stay true to the series in some aspects. VI and IX are still my favorites and they'll always have a special place in my collection.

Really have to give Lost Odyssey a try though at some point. Being a PC gamer mostly these days, I haven't gotten around to unpacking my 360 again. Bravely Default also looks cool, but I'm never getting a 3DS.

 

[Oly J]

I'll get it eventually....what do you think the chances are there'll be Chocobos? I'm going to be very disappointed if there are no Chocobos

 

[Fox12]

Nomura is a competent developer, so it's less me trusting FF and Square, and more of me trusting him. He's definitely a fan of style over substance, but his games have some of the best gameplay and atmosphere I've ever experienced. This is definitely the last FF title I'm giving a chance to. KH3 is also a possibility. I really want to see Square turn itself around, but they honestly bore me now.

 

[Shinsei-J]

As someone who's enjoyed every main series Final Fantasy game other than the XIII series I still hold onto hope.
Though I do guess those have been our entire last console cycle so It doesn't bode well at this point but,
I want to believe, so I'll keep believing even if XV is terrible!
One day the magic will return and I intend to be there.

Ps. Get those Bravely Default guys on board, they know their shit.

 

[Meinos Kaen]

No 'I have already given up on it' option? lol Look at all the 'other' choices.

But seriously, I'm not touching XV with a ten foot pole. SquareEnix lost all the trust they had built in me over the years with twelve and the thirteen compilation and the Seven compilation, and Final Fantasy XV gives me no reasons to give them the benefit of the doubt again. Tetsuya Nomura is a terrible director and writer, the fighting system is not the one a Final Fantasy should have -not that I hate action rpgs, but Final Fantasy is not the series for that, it shows that this was supposed to be a spin off-, the protagonist is another pretty boy, and it takes place in a CITY. Give me my world saving epics back and then we'll talk.

The only thing that could make me give SquareEnix more of my money is that fabled Final Fantasy 7 remake or a new Final Fantasy Tactics that's not a mobile game. And even then, I would be very distrustful.

 

[loa]

Final fantasy 13 was my last final fantasy and I'm tired of squares nonsense now.
Turns out I missed absolutely nothing with 13-2 selling its ending as dlc and 13-3 being... that.
They could've done so many things with the 13 universe but decided to literally scrap it all to tell a story about some chosen savior whatnot with heavy religious undertones because we surely haven't seen that one before.

Maybe I'll get back to them if they can write and animate a believable human being. So basically never.

 

[Maxtro]

IMO, the FF games shouldn't even be numbered as each one is very different from other iterations in the series.

Either way, the only FF game I didn't like is 13. I never bothered with its sequels. I never played 11 or 14.

One bad game out of so many good ones is nothing to worry about.

 

[ProtosOmega]

Isn't each Final Fantasy now done by a different team lead? If XV isn't that good, the next game could be good for having a different team lead.

 

[Zetatrain]

If its good then all is well. If its bad then I'll just wait for the next one and see how its turns out. If i have plenty of money to burn and nothing else to get when it comes out then I'll probably buy before checking out the reviews.

 

[faefrost]

Other, simply because no two FF games are really anywhere close to the same, nor can they even loosely be called a series for the most part. (excepting the FF X and X-2 and the FF XIII trio or sorts). If FF XV looks good I will play it, if it looks horrid I will skip it. If the next looks good, same deal. One has little to no bearing on the other.