Poll: Has Final Fnatasy seen it's day?

[tzimize]

vehicle summons is the worst idea...probably ever.

And yes, I think its seen its day (for me). And by that I dont mean there is not a market for it, people will buy it, and people who like jrpgs will get a kick out of it.

Personally I think FF7-9 was some of the greatest game experiences of my life, but then I was in 7th grade when I played FF7. When playing FF13 I cant help but think its a game made for 12 year olds. I'm over 20 hours into the game and there is so much lack of story its completely mind boggling, the fighting is very smooth but crappy, the leveling system is a disgrace (except the visual design) and the music is generic and boring.

After playing RPG-gems like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, FF13 seems like an angsty 13year olds fantasy, and a bad one at that.

Will games like this always find an audience? Yes. We will always have those kind of teenagers. Will I continue to play them as religiously as before? No, they are just not good enough to warrant my attention.

 

[Chipperz]

OK, I'm going to try a little experiment here...

Keeping the plotline completely solid, explain how the characters can walk into a town and start talking to people.

Go on, I'm right here - quote me and tell me how the hell it would work. Until then, I'm going to stick with "it's a great game until it starts giving you huge open worlds with bugger all to do".

 

[Gladion]

snip

Fuck... I have a lot to say. You're really trying to say that everybody who doesn't like Final Fantasy is stupid.

Well, let me bash Final Fantasy - aware of the fact I'm neither a Nintendo fanboy nor a JRPG-hater - by saying the every single part of the story is absolutely horrendous. Sure, if you keep your standards low, read no good books and only know video games' stories you might think the stories are actually good. Well, they are not, especially the characters are pretty unimaginative and range from boring to outrageously annoying - Cloud is #1 at the latter, responsible for me stopping to play FF7 before I even got to the second disc.

I understand that the theme of growing-up is a big part in JRPGs and I have no problem with that. Many talk about "angsty little twats" but I don't. When you're a teenager, you go through a lot of shit in the emotion-department. Having survived my teen years, I know that. It is just when Cloud acts like he is this lone soldier with no happiness left in his life I just don't buy it and it seems cliche and laughable. That's just one example, there are many others.

Granted, I haven't played all the Final Fantasy games. I played 4, a short bit of 6, then 7, 8, 10 and 12 (yes, I really tried to like the series), and I can't remember any of the games having good stories. Sure there is the possibility of all the other ones I haven't played being very good, but seeing as 7 and 8 are the most popular, I doubt that. With a series that gets praised so often for having great storytelling that's pretty weak, especially for a role playing game.

There are many other aspects of the games I hated, such as the battle system and the atrocious amount of random encounters (especially in FF8), but I'll draw the line here. I really am no hater usually, and if people enjoy their stuff I'm fine with that. I also know that the Final Fantasy games have their good bits - but they don't outweigh the massive amount of bad bits for me. But that shit you said right now really pushed it.

But I agree on your other point: If you buy a Final Fantasy game and expect something different than Final Fantasy, you're stupid. Though I don't know who in the world did that and why you said that.

Edit: Quistis was effin hot, though.

 

[Lim3]

I liked FFXIII.

Mind you i also watch DVDs while playing since it only takes about 10% brainpower to play.

 

[Buffoon]

No.

FFXIII is absolutely brilliant, IMO. I know some people just don't like FF, but I can't see why FF fans don't like FFXIII. Compare it to FFVII (one of the most loved FF's)... is XIII really that much more linear? No denying that XIII is extremely linear indeed, but that's what FF games are, ultimately. Okay, VII had a few more diversions, but they were only diversions. Ditto VIII, IX, X. I admit I was disappointed that XIII didn't have more stuff to do. But ultimately that's not why I play FF games, it's not what makes them great. What makes them great is the linear plot progression, the story that's being told and the way it's expressed.

 

[Daniel_Rosamilia]

The irony is, it's always called Final Fantasy, but it's never the Final one.

That's the thing: the 'Final' part refers to the story of that specific game and the characters, and as most of them aren't rehashed, technically they are ALL 'Final' Fantasies.

 

[Axeli]

A question that would far easier to take seriously weren't it asked after every Final Fantasy release.

 

[Meggiepants]

I'm going to have to disagree with some of the posters here.

I am not a Yahtzee parrot, nor a Nintendo Fanboy, nor am I stuck in my nostalgic memories for FF. I just didn't like FFXIII.

The battle system was great; I can even deal with the linearity. But I could not get into the characters. I found myself unable to like them. They were far too grating for me to like at all. The only character I even remotely liked was Sazh. And that was probably because he had a chocobo in his hair.

For a game series that prides itself on story over almost everything else, I think this is a valid reason not to like this FF.

If you say anyone who doesn't like this game is just ignorant, or stuck in the past, or doesn't have opinions of their own, then you are no better than people who dismiss FF because it's "the same game over and over and over again."

I don't take offense that people like it, and you shouldn't take offense that I don't.

OT: FF franchise includes games that I haven't liked in the past, and come back later with ones that I have. So no, I don't think it has seen it's heyday.

 

[InvisibleSeal]

Well final fantasy reinvents itself a bit with each new game (except if they make sequels etc) - so we can never know what the next games will be like.

Who knows, in 30 years people might not care about FFVII anymore, there could be people raving about Final Fantasy XVI or something!

Then again I always do find the name funny. I wonder when they will make their FINAL final fantasy...

 

[kurupt87]

It's a bad game, not really bad, but definitely not good.
The story is mediocre, and suffers from a bad case of WTF for a good half of the game.
Combat is stupidly easy once you've got the hang of it, to the extent that having a sent/med AI combo and the game plays itself. Not to mention that you actually have 3 AI party members. The only difference between one and the two others being you have to tell the AI to work each round, rather than it being on automatically like for the other two.
You can never talk to anyone.
The cast of this so called epic, lasting at least 30hrs, totals 18 characters, including the party, not all of whom have names. Only 10 of these are actual characters, rather than a stereotype or cardboard cut-out, and 6 of these are the party. 18 ffs, 12 people outside the party in this massive effing world, it only just out-does your average FPS.
I could go on, but I'll stop.

I was always looking more forward to versus than this, and I will be getting that day 1. If that disapoints as well, then that's it for me and this series.
This is a review I did [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.181575-Final-Fantasy-XIII-Review-No-Spoilers-Fan-Review-Extended-Negative], it's negative, if you didn't get that from what I've posted here.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

I would like to see a return to true fantasy in FF15, or at the very least steampunk.

So would I. The steampunk wastelands of FFVII blew my mind and I had some decent fun in the flat-out futuristic world of FFVIII, but FFIX, with its green forests, ancient castles and primitive technology, felt like someone had opened a window and let in some fresh air!

 

[Wounded Melody]

True, not every FF game has a great story or believeable dialogue. But on the same hand there *are* decent stories in the series. I don't believe people who say every FF is crap or every FF is gold--there is good and bad throughout the whole series. If you look at the stories from a literary point of view, there are many memorable characters and plotlines. Of course, the presentation may not come off as such because it's a video game, but it's there.

 

[Dragon Zero]

From My limited experience (I'm about mid way through chapter 3) I actually enjoy the game. I think it scratched an itch I didn't know I'd had. While there are a few characters that annoy me (mainly Snow and Hope) I do enjoy the cutscenes and characters enough to let me keep playing it. The battle system feels very streamlined, which I like since I've never really been a big fan of the Active Time Battle system, though I still prefer the system in FFX (my first Final Fantasy) since I could at least take my time to think out what I was going to do. I also THANK GOD that I no longer have to worry about Random Encounters, which are one of the many reasons why I stopped playing JRPG's.

I don't think Final Fantasy has seen it's day end, as long as it can keep adapting and evolving it will remain for awhile.

 

[yanipheonu]

Not too sure why people are complaining so much. At no point was I like "OMG I love this new faster pased battle system with an ingenious Paradigm System (Unappreciated Gem right here), and spectacular graphics along with some of the best CGI sequences out there, but there's no towns and it's linear so I HATE IT."

Besides let's face it, in every Final Fantasy, what do you do? Walk to point A to B, fighting constantly along the way. Whether it be a world map or dungeon this is always the case. If you don't like battle after battle, you probably shouldn't have picked up Final Fantasy, and you're incredibly naive for expecting something else. XD I'm sorry, I just love how people complain how it's just endless battles, it's not like that was every FF game ever created.

I see nothing wrong with cutting out the middle and making it more linear. FFX did this before, why did no one complain about that? Would this game have really benefited with an arbitrary world map? What could they have done to make it less linear without making it crappier?

Also, anyone who's complaining about leveling hasn't gotten to the part where the Crystarium opens up. 0_O Every character can be any class LOLWUT? I'm still not sure how I'm going to level my characters or what battle team I'll develop....

I really do think it's nostalgia. This game is not really desperately different than it's predecessors, and is probably better than at least half it's predecessors in battle system and visual styles.

Finally, I'm not going to complain about people not liking characters or story, that's all opinions of course. But look around at the JRPGs these days, and remember it's probably gold in comparison XD

Another note, Edge infamously gave FFXIII a 5 out of 10. Which is immediately discredited when you realize they gave FFX a 6 out of 10. XD Besides, for every bad review, there's a perfect score. One reviewer gave it 120 out of 100 since they felt 100 was not good enough. But the 83% aggregated score is pretty fair. If you dig it, you have a BLAST!

I'm curious about how the sales do. And I feel bad for how people dislike this game, I'm sad they won't enjoy it nearly as much as I do!!!

 

[Saris Kai]

If XIII kept the same world and characters but dungeon exploration and battles were handled more like XII it would be my dream game. XII would have been my favorite game in the franchise if I didn't hate nearly every character but Balthier.