Saving the Final Fantasy series.

[Erana]

Face it, they are lesser forms of the series. Compare anything past 8 to FFT, FF6, and FF7. You will see a MAJOR drop in quality.

Support your answer.
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I'm bothered by a lot of Final Fantasies because they are JRPGs.
The earlier games were a lot more timeless: heroes going through a series of trials to save a mystical, magical world. A dark emperor calls upon demonic forces to conquer the world. A dark knight turns to the light and tries to attone for his sins by stopping the evil.

However, other Final Fantasies went a little... Off.
Evil corperation robbs the earth of its life source. So far, so good.
Then there was a meteor, and an evil head-thingy, and some blonde guy who also wants to stop the evil corperation tries to end the world, or something like that.
It was a great world and ambiance. Was Seperiroforth (I can never spell his name) and his part in the story really necessary?

And FF10. People were a bunch of grade-A jerks, so Sin was made to act as the antagonizing force of the world, creating a whole new world order in which all humans were united agianst a common enemy. Another great premise.
Then the giant, evil whale thingy was the main protagonist's father, people are randomly dead, and the preistess chick at the end goes, "Screw this," and goes to find her boyfriend in a variety of slutty outfits.

Now, I know people rarely agree with me when I say this, but I don't think FF8 should be considered a JRPG. Sure, it was made in Japan, and it is an RPG, but it is Japanese in the sense of representing Japanese culture.
Sure, there was a lot of internal dialogue from Squall, but I found the dialogue to be believable. Sure, Zell and Selphie do a lot of those anime poses, but the Japanese actually do them.
Rinoa is the arcytipal Japanese pretty girl, and Zell and Selphie are put in as less serious characters to be taken in the same spoonful as C3PO and R2D2 in Star Wars.
At the same time, Square also had a great premise, with believable politics and the whole, "Sorceress" thing, but the random time travel stuff was pointless and handled poorly.

I want from a Final Fantasy game a legend, not something as complicated as an anime rhendition of the Three Kingdoms.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

So what you are telling me is that you view everything past seven to the pinnacle's of the Final Fantasy universe over it's predecessors?

Not that the extra features aren't nice, but just because it "looks better" and may have more side quests doesn't qualify it as being superior.

I just don't see the drop in quality you see... I never liked Final Fantasy IV that much. Since it's been rereleased on DS with awesome new production values, I love the thing except for the cliche'd story (even at the time) and the grind tastic hardness of it. Same thing with FFV, sure the Job System was fantastic, but the characters are a little templated and the overall story is very meandering and lacks oomph. Now FFVI I love to death and will until my dying breath. This is MOSTLY nostalgia though... and an obsessive love of Steam Punk. FFVII is good, but very poorly translated with an annoying main character (I also really hate Aerith, stupid japanese feminine ideal). It does have some stellar scenario writing though.

Now while Final Fantasy VIII is a giant angst bucket... it offers some interesting elements. It tries to update Final Fantasy to a more Science Fiction setting, it also makes some strong attempts at character growth with Squall.

9's problem is that it discarded the "humorous update" of old Final Fantasy plotting with some really ham handed exposition and a twisty story that I couldn't care about it.

Final Fantasy X offers the first world with some real depth to it, what with the distinct cultures, lack of world map, architectural differences and even an invented langauge. Also Tidus is a good lead character, he starts out as a detestible little brat who eventually finds something worth fighting and dying for. Begins as an spoiled outsider, ends as a tragic hero. There is no defending that horrible laughing scene and Tidus' haircut though.

And I've already spoken my piece about XII.

 

[Jobz]

I've throughly hated everything after FFX, and yet for some reason I still buy them. They need to go back to the old turn based combat and interesting story lines. I played FFXII for a few hours, realized that there was barely any story at all, and got bored with it.

And why the hell are they trying to implement MMORPG combat systems into single player games?

 

[Bob_F_It]

And FF10. People were a bunch of grade-A jerks, so Sin was made to act as the antagonizing force of the world, creating a whole new world order in which all humans were united agianst a common enemy. Another great premise.
Then the giant, evil whale thingy was the main protagonist's father, people are randomly dead, and the preistess chick at the end goes, "Screw this," and goes to find her boyfriend in a variety of slutty outfits.

Part of me still concludes that X-2 was an excuse to get Yuna and Rikku in a stripping contest.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

Out of all the Final Fantasy games, I have liked numbers 1-3,7,8 and Tactics. Final Fantasy 1-3 were the prototypes for the rest of Final Fantasy's games and they were definitely good. In the entire series of games listed you could also rename any character in your party (except Sephiroth/Seifer) if I remember correctly, which also gives you an opportunity to create some comic relief by making them have stupid names, or just names of people you know to make the game seem more personal.
I liked Tactics because it had a historical base in French European history even while adding to it at the same time so the game had a good backstory behind it. The story, likewise with FF7 and 8 were great. In FF7 there was the experiment with creatures like Red XIII and super soldiers (Cloud & Sephiroth), an oppresive Oligarchy that ruled as tyrants over the world as well as producing horrific experiments. In FF8 the game took on a more serious tone, SeeD exams, realistic human characters whom you liked at times and thought were total morons at other times (which some of the characters also commented on.) So I think they should stick to making games that have a good backstory and a new way of working.

 

[santaandy]

Of all the main FF games, the only stories I truly didn't like were IX and X. IX would've been great if it hadn't gone sideways on disc 3, and X was just bad. The best IMNSHO, were IV, VI, and VII. XIII looks good so far.

The only gameplay elements I did not like in any of them were II's incessant grinding, VIII's entire gameplay, and XII's license board for items and wonky character controls. XIII again looks good so far.

I just wish Square would publish more gameplay details earlier.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Honestly, I like IX. It's probably my favorite in the main series. I can't really give a quantifiable reason, I can't point out that the story was good or anything like that, I thought it was just fun. FFT is obviously going to be the top of my spin off favorites. But Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate was very entertaining even if you're allies were utterly useless in anything worth wile. Couldn't even function as adequate shields. But the game itself was fun. FFXII died for me when I was killing things in a forest with only one or two shots, then went into the next area and got one shotted by the first enemy.

 

[Sylocat]

Eh, my favorite is 6, but the only one I really couldn't stand was 8.

7 was overrated, but a game can be good and still overrated, especially a game with THAT kind of fanbase. I don't get all the hate for 9. Sure, the fantasy was a bit drab and it didn't have as much of a story, but it was plenty fun. And I think 10 is fine, I like the way the story unfolds, the lack of irritating side quests, and I thought the characters were pretty cool. (I even liked 10-2, for what it was). As for 12, I didn't like Vaan, but he has so little presence that it's easy to just pretend he's not there. And the rest of the story is epic.

The problem with 12 for me was the graphics (I thought JRPGs were the one genre safe from the everything-is-brown scourge), but they thankfully seem to be moving away from that for 13. Suits me fine.

I don't get all the hate for the look of the characters. Sure, some of the guys are androgynous and spiky-haired, but so what? Is it suddenly a crime to have unrealistic characters? Just because Yahtzee doesn't like JRPGs?

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

My only issues with the later FF games have been there weaker storylines and shorter gameplay.
Also, the lack of minigames. Look at FFVII and FFIX, they both had some amazing minigames. Two fresh to mind are the pheonix tower defense game in 7 and the theatre performance at the beginning of 9.

 

[-Seraph-]

My only issues with the later FF games have been there weaker storylines and shorter gameplay.
Also, the lack of minigames. Look at FFVII and FFIX, they both had some amazing minigames. Two fresh to mind are the pheonix tower defense game in 7 and the theatre performance at the beginning of 9.

LOL I loved how they put an RTS mini game in a JRPG, and it wasn't half bad. That and the bike chase game were awesome..oh and battle arena...gotta omni grind there for sure. 9's card game was addictive and the first few times i started playing 9 i was solely playing the card game. Then i would get pissed off after losing all my cards after and hour of owning and have to start the game again from scratch lol. Thankfully I pulled myself away to PLAY the actually story.

 

[Zakyrn]

I'm not sure if the series needs that much saving since I like the games up to FFX and haven't played FFXII yet. I don't get FFX-2 though, to me they just ruined the good ending of FFX. The "Magic Girl"/Dress-Up Yuna concept didn't really work for me.
Can't say that FFXIII doesn't seem very promising with the leads boyfriend having a motorcycle which is actually Shiva, if only one of the later bosses turns out to be an airplane which can turn into Tiamat...

FFXII has a more real time oriented battle from what I've heard and I think that can work for the series, throwing in some coop would be great also. I was ok with the battle system of FFX-2 but FFX was to slow for me and the ATB of FFIX was sort of broken with all of the long animations allowing all of the characters on the battlefield to catch up regardless of their speed.

There's a lot of Tidus hate when discussing Final Fantasy, but I have to agree with PedroSteckecilo that he has great character development throughout the game starting as a whiny brat and turning into a slightly whiny hero.
First time when I played FFX I just couldn't forgive the developers for creating such an annoying character but in the end you don't care about the forgiveness of the developers and just settle with forgiving Tidus.

Dark settings are where it's at. Dystopian futures are the defining feature of Final Fantasy.

The top three greatest games all had those and weren't for everyone's opinion group, which made them good.

FF6 - Dark tyrannical Iron Age with magic.
FF7 - Dark corporate run Modern Age with magic.
FFT - A rampaging church, rampaging religious groups.

These are the defining moments to the FF series, the evil within the worlds.

If you haven't played ff2 yet you'd like it.
FF6 with less steampunk basically.

 

[Proto Cloud]

I for one, am all for going back to the basics, getting rid of the terrible physics, bringing back Nebuo Uematsu, adding more depth to the game play, and whatever it needs to take. Sorry Square but FF13 is not the direction we need to be going in.

I completely disagree, I think it's staying too close to its roots. RPGs are growing very rapidly and JRPGs are falling behind. I believe it's time that that they show the other Japanese companies some much needed change.

Right now you see RPGs like Fable II, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and so on that are pushing the genre forward. So far, I haven't seen this out of Squaresoft yet; look at The Last Remnant, FFXII, and Infinite Undiscovery, they really didn't do anything that hasn't been done in the last two console cycles.

I forgot about Valkyria Chronicles by Sega, which I appaud them for doing something different. Remember kiddies stagnation brings death to franchises.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Less metrosexuallity in the men.

Less plastic surgery in the women. More cloths on the women.

Now let me qualify this because it bears some explaining- I like scantile clad hawtness as much as the next guy. But I CHALLENGE any game developer to make an attractive female character that 1. Does not have breasts large enough to count as d6 bludgeoning weapons, and 2. Wears realistic armor. That knight chick from Soul Calibur 4 (possibly the only Soul Calibur female that wasn't horrifying) is a great example.

I'm not sure what gameplay innovations 13 is going to bring to the series, as I understand it there is going to be alot more emphasis on action. My only problem is it seems to be very high magic.

Final Fantasy has always excelled in "low magic" worlds you could relate to. In Final Fantasy 6 it was a rare forgotten art, except for -your- characters, and those soldiers in industrial suits. Final Fantasy 7? Magic is industrial technoligy again. FFT? A gritty medieval world, with arrogant nobles and abused peasentry. Personally I'd love a return to Ivalice of FFT, but lose all the zodiac shit. Let us see the war of the lions, or the war that came before Ramza's time- the war brave Beoulve fought in. Bring back the Silver Marquiss while your at it.

 

[MONTGOMERYWOODRUFF69]

Bring back the turn based combat.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Kill the series, start up something original. I liked FF6 and FFT is my 2nd-favorite game of all time, but it's time to brutally murder this franchise. It's never going to be as good as it once was.

Also, get some clothes on those young boys and random prostitutes women. They could take a few lessons from Valkyrie Profile 2.

 

[thiosk]

The last final fantasy game I played was FF9

I realized there was something fishy going on when I started junctioning magicka in FF8, and never finished FF9. Or maybe i have the numbering confused. I totally don't know whats going on between ff8 and ff10.

The series started getting seriously wierd after 8, and I lost interest.

Though i still have my FF1 NES cartridge, beckoning for a 4 white wizard game...

 

[Batadon]

As completely godawful as X-2 was (and it was), it had the best combat system since FF5. Heavy emphasis on classes, allowed and rewarded switching classes mid-battle, BY FAR the best ATB system. It's a shame the rest of the game was a steaming pile. Heck, if they used a similar system in FFXIII... I mean, who would know?

 

[minoes]

I just want to see Yoshitaka Amano´s beautiful designs rendered in High-Def.