Well Square, you finally did it... you killed Final Fantasy (A Rant)

[JamesStone]

This may be the beginning of the end... for me and gaming anyway...

I've loved Final Fantasy since I first glimpsed my friends older brother playing FF6 back in the SNES days and I purchased both a Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 purely so I could play Final Fantasy. I even picked up a PS3 when it seemed like FF13 was FINALLY getting close to coming out, and hey it eventually did... but for both PS3 and the 360, not that a non-exclusive mattered. What mattered was that well... I just didn't like it much, it lacked a particular something that all non-mmo had that made me love them (yes even 12). So after putting out the first non-mmo Final Fantasy I haven't beaten it seems Square has finally killed my excitement in the franchise that made me interested in videogames in the first place.

I'm talking of course about Final Fantasy 15, no it's not the semi-modern world I can take that... it's not the more action based combat system... I can take that as well... it's not even the character designs themselves...

I mean seriously square, no playable Female Characters announced? And why is the cast of FF15 looking like a douchtastic boyband coupled with a bunch of old dudes with oddly trendy j-pop hairstyles? It's not even the hairstyles, it's not the look of the characters... it's the fact that you seem to be "broing" up the series in the worst possible way...

I mean seriously... look at these guys... they look like a bunch of douchebags going out to the club...

Spoiler

Perhaps I'm just being negative on the character designs but to me it feels like this is just... too big of a change for the series in a direction I have no interest in following. I mean I still WANT to play JRPG's and I still WANT to play Final Fantasy, but it seems that you don't want to give me Final Fantasy... you want to give me J-pop douchebros on parade...

*sigh* Ah well, with the way gaming is going these days I'm sure more and more of my favorite franchises will get unbearable and with the whole medium in general straying away from Narrative Driven Games I'm sure the day isn't far away when I'll likely give up videogames as my primary hobby...

So Escapist, how do the rest of you feel about Final Fantasy 15?

You have no idea of what you are talking about, you are biased, you hyperbolize every single argument to the point of ridiculousness, and the way you present the facts leaves much to be desired.

I don't like Final Fantasy, and I'm not gonna get this one, but you are just taking the piss of something you can't obviously understand.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Snip

Adding my voice to the already loud chorus of this thread: you really don't have a clear basis from which to judge the game.

You haven't experienced the gameplay yourself. You've only seen the scant trailers and screens. You know nothing about the story except the scant details that have been gleaned from the trailers and developer interviews. You say a lack of a playable female is a big turn-off, but we don't even know if that's true yet.

Finally, you say you don't like the art design for the characters. Now that is something you can soundly judge based on what we have so far, but to say that that ruins the game for you? To say that the game could have awesome gameplay, a great story, and strong female characters (because none of these things can be fairly judged as of yet), but no, the game is ruined because of the art design on the characters?

That is, in my opinion, ridiculous.

 

[AgedGrunt]

I'm talking of course about Final Fantasy 15, no it's not the semi-modern world I can take that... it's not the more action based combat system... I can take that as well... it's not even the character designs themselves...

I mean seriously square, no playable Female Characters announced? And why is the cast of FF15 looking like a douchtastic boyband coupled with a bunch of old dudes with oddly trendy j-pop hairstyles? It's not even the hairstyles, it's not the look of the characters... it's the fact that you seem to be "broing" up the series in the worst possible way...

I mean seriously... look at these guys... they look like a bunch of douchebags going out to the club...

Perhaps I'm just being negative on the character designs but to me it feels like this is just... too big of a change for the series in a direction I have no interest in following.

So it's not the character design, but it is the character design. Um, ok.

Really not sure why people get so ragey over a lack of playable female anything in a work of fiction; it's not there to satisfy your feelings about gender. If there's a band of guys in a game, the story is about a band of guys, not a band of guys and a few girls thrown in so it's not a sausage fest. That's not how it should work, that's a product of political correctness and marketing.

As an old Final Fantasy fan I understand that playable female characters have always been a thing, but if gender and outfits are the deal-breaker with the series, where have you been? I haven't touched the series since XII; X and XII concluded to me that good stories and lovable characters aren't important anymore.

 

[FinalHeart95]

I dunno, gameplay looks really fun. I can't say anything about characters or story because, well, I don't know much about it. No one does.

 

[Benpasko]

That picture isn't accurate anymore, watch to extended gameplay trailer to see the current character designs. I think it looks awesome, and the gameplay changes are welcomed. Have a little faith, this was worked on by the Kingdom Hearts team.

 

[DataSnake]

Here's a panorama of characters from the most recent trailer (that picture you're using is quite old)

Spoiler

As you can see, there are two girls, and when viewing the characters from the front they don't look so "brotastic" to me.

Wait a damn minute, is that Ezio in the middle of that lineup? Sure looks like him, with the hood and all.

 

[runnerbelow]

The character designs actually look kind of cool IMO. Admittedly, I have no knowledge of FF XV at all, so I dunno if the game will be any good, but compared to Snow, none of these guys look Douche-y.

I am also eagerly awaiting FF XIV: The Good Edition.

 

[Nemu]

FF14

So it's a thumbs up yeah? I assume that you haven't tried out the console version that is apparently going to be a thing?

Thumbs up for PC version. I don't have a PS3, so I've not played the beta on it (it only opened this last phase anyway). The few folks I have spoken to who have beta tested on PS3 were generally favorable. Everyone who has spoken up to compare this version of XIV and the last version like this one a LOT more.

I won't go so far as to give it a ringing endorsement, because I don't want to "count my eggs" as it were, but I would still suggest trying the open beta next month and giving it a shot.

It should be noted that the characters created in Phase 4 testing (the next one) WILL roll over to the gold version of the game, which comes out Aug 27th. So if folks test it and decide to buy it, their characters will carry over.

 

[Negatempest]

Here's a panorama of characters from the most recent trailer (that picture you're using is quite old)

Spoiler

As you can see, there are two girls, and when viewing the characters from the front they don't look so "brotastic" to me.

Is it weird I can't tell who are supposed to be the girls?

The only ones I know for sure are men are the ones with beards...I hope...

As for the OT:

Square killed Final Fantasy finally? (Pun intended)

Final Fantasy has been going on far too long, and (in my opinion of course) the last good Final Fantasy was 6. They should just give up already!

Just to respond to the last quote. To me, the last best Final Fantasy was 9, by far.

 

[ItsNotRudy]

For all intents and purposes, FF has been dead to me since FFX, piqued my interest with FFXII and then I lost interest completely. Basically when Squaresoft -> Squenix it went downhill fast. I think FFXII only passed because they basically recycled a perfected battle system/engine from FFXI and all they had to do was add the story.

 

[A Weakgeek]

And why is the cast of FF15 looking like a douchtastic boyband coupled with a bunch of old dudes with oddly trendy j-pop hairstyles?

Thats basically any anime protagonist ever. I'd just be happy that they aren't rainbow colored this time around.

 

[Silly Hats]

I don't think that I will buy another new Final Fantasy game unless I am absolutely convinced that I wont feel terrible for buying it. I just want a plot that is relatively simplistic and straight forward, as tiresome as chasing an evil villain is - its a welcome return for the franchise. I didn't think that such an early, almost primitive form of storytelling would be so welcomed.

This sums up my feelings forwards the franchise [http://youtu.be/yUcZWWXnEio?t=7m56s] perfectly and I wouldn't be able to say it better myself. Regardless of what you think of him, he has a point.

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

FF was dead years ago. FFX was what killed it for me.

 

[Korolev]

I don't like the look of the main cast. I honestly feel that Final Fantasy has been falling down the J-Pop hole for some time now. It's barely fantasy any more.

This didn't start with XV or even the terrible XIII - this started, as others have said, with X-2, which I still refuse to play to this day. For me, Final Fantasy died after X, with XII only being bearable, but not even memorable or good. IX will always be my favorite.

 

[Depulcator]

All I can say, is that it took you long enough!

 

[Innegativeion]

If nothing else, I think we can all agree that this is strongly evident of the fact that, despite all the complaining and jeering,

people really can't live without Nomura characters wearing clothes made of straps and zippers.