All-Purpose Final Fantasy Thread

[Gardner McKay]

Agreed.

Overworlds with vague landscapes/locations that symbolize areas and approximate vast distances naturally communicate a greater sense of scale than ultra detailed open-worlds, IMO (even if there's technically less there). I think there's a necessary trade off there. In fact, as far as I can see, the only way for modern open world games to communicate the same sense of scale without sacrificing what makes them open-world to begin with is by making distances so far away that travel would literally take hours (like it does in real life). Open worlds make things feel smaller, not bigger.

I like small, detailed, centralized locations as well (not all games need to have an overworld and feel epic), but personally, I've never been a fan of the trend towards open-world sand-boxes. I don't want moving from town to town to feel seamless/free of transitions and ultra-realistic any more than I want to watch an unedited real-time film that's one long tracking shot. I don't want games to feel like a painstakingly realistic simulation, I want games to feel like an appropriate approximation that allows ideas to be most effectively communicated.

As do I. I feel like we are at a point in gaming where I can only describe it as open world fatigue. Don't get me wrong, in some games these big, beautiful landscapes with extraordinary amounts of detail fit in perfectly and I really like them. But not in every game.

Also, I hear you on games starting to emulate reality a bit too much. I play games as an escape and the fantasy element is something that has always intrigued me. I think that is why I liked World of Final Fantasy so much. It was good looking game but still had that fantasy element to it. I want games to not make sense at times. Like, why the f*** in FFVII did Rufus need to borrow the Tiny Bronco to fly across the world? They can create something like the Big Cannon, move it from Juno to Midgar and, use it to shoot what is essentially an energy bullet halfway across the world but they don't have planes? Probably a poor example but my point is, I don't want to be brought into a super realistic world.

Part of what bugs me about the FF7 remake is that they are changing the battle system. I don't mind them modernizing the game but what the hell is wrong with a turn based system. They are taking a strategic-ish battle system and turning it into a hack and slash.

This is an excellent post. I dont like the open world in XV at all. I didnt mind it in XII, but it wasnt really an open world. It was more like non-linear zones, I guess. XIII didnt have one at all that I remember, but that game went totally off the rails and I never could get much more then 10~ hours or so in it.

I couldn't get into XIII. I may try again soon but I found the battle system to be completely fubar'd.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

I didn't realize it until well after the fact, but looking back on it I used to love JRPGs (and the Final Fantasy series in particular) for the open feel of them. For me, the overworld was my open world exploration kick. I loved going all over the place and exploring and going to towns and entering caves and dungeons, it was a gameplay format that I just loved as a kid. In that vein, I initially only kind of liked Chrono Trigger (now my second favorite game of all time) as I viewed the overworld(s) as weak, and really didn't like Earthbound as well due to the lack of an overworld (now a beloved game of mine as well). From that vein, I, IV, VI, VIII, and IX were all fun titles to me, though of the series only VI and IX were masterpieces for me. Just really itched that open world desire for me.

The introduction of actual open world games (albeit without an overworld obviously) with games like Ocarina of Time and GTA3 for me was what began the turn from JRPG to sandbox for what was my favorite genre, and that was further coupled with the overworld essentially being dropped from the Final Fantasy series. I got up to X-2, but honestly haven't been all that interested since. I know it's a dumb holdup, as I'm fully aware that the amount of places to go in modern Final Fantasy games dwarf the older titles in the series, but the format for me of having an overworld was and is something that I really loved, and the loss of it was really the jumping the shark moment for me personally.

Hmm, I never thought much about that, but looking back on it, now I do realize how big of a deal the overworld was for me. It was always one of my favorite places to explore, especially in VII where you could explore various optional areas (Wutai, caves, ancient forest, etc.). Despite the storyline being relatively linear, it gives the options to explore and take the game at the speed you want.

Getting into the overworld was always one of the signifying parts that the game is really starting to kick off. The airships open up the world as well and are another benchmark of the open world games.

That's exactly where my fascination with FF sputtered out as well. I don't know if it was the blatant selling-out to horny fanboys that was FFX-2 or what it really was that killed my appetite for Final Fantasy or what. I bought FF Type-0 on sale and didn't even take it out of the original packaging...

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Part of what bugs me about the FF7 remake is that they are changing the battle system. I don't mind them modernizing the game but what the hell is wrong with a turn based system. They are taking a strategic-ish battle system and turning it into a hack and slash.

This is what gets me. Square Enix has had it in their heads for eons that you can't sell a turn-based game in the modern gaming landscape...yet probably half of the games I play are turn-based. Whenever they release something based on the 'classic' system it does well, and Square is always somehow surprised (see: Bravely Default).

Hack & slash is an entirely different genre altogether. One that I abhor. So by trying to appeal to a 'new' audience, they're actively pissing off much of their existing audience.

I just wish some western studio would have the gall to try to develop a classic JRPG-styled game, because the biggest studios in Japan certainly lost their desire to do so.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

I got FFX for my 15th birthday. I wasn't enveloped by teenage cynicism at that point yet, though it was the beginning of the end of my 'hardcore gamer' phase...which had to be twice as insufferable.

Ah okay, I wasn't quite old enough at release to really keep up with video gaming news lol.

 

[BruinDust]

As do I. I feel like we are at a point in gaming where I can only describe it as open world fatigue. Don't get me wrong, in some games these big, beautiful landscapes with extraordinary amounts of detail fit in perfectly and I really like them. But not in every game.

Also, I hear you on games starting to emulate reality a bit too much. I play games as an escape and the fantasy element is something that has always intrigued me. I think that is why I liked World of Final Fantasy so much. It was good looking game but still had that fantasy element to it. I want games to not make sense at times. Like, why the **** in FFVII did Rufus need to borrow the Tiny Bronco to fly across the world? They can create something like the Big Cannon, move it from Juno to Midgar and, use it to shoot what is essentially an energy bullet halfway across the world but they don't have planes? Probably a poor example but my point is, I don't want to be brought into a super realistic world.

Part of what bugs me about the FF7 remake is that they are changing the battle system. I don't mind them modernizing the game but what the hell is wrong with a turn based system. They are taking a strategic-ish battle system and turning it into a hack and slash.



I couldn't get into XIII. I may try again soon but I found the battle system to be completely fubar'd.

While XIII isn't anywhere close to my favorite FF game, one of the main problems with the battle system is it simply takes way too long to get to the point in the game where what you do in battle actually matters, and thinking fast and on your feet by changing paradigms where the battle system shows it's true beauty. The first real battle where I had to do this was at the end of Chapter 8 I believe, and most people had given up the game way before that.

I still prefer a turn-based game, but had Square thrust players into using the entire system within the first 2 hours, rather than piecemealing it out over the course of 8 chapters to get the full system and party, a lot more people would of given the game a chance.

Which is too bad because as a 3-part series, I quite enjoyed the XIII saga.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

As do I. I feel like we are at a point in gaming where I can only describe it as open world fatigue. Don't get me wrong, in some games these big, beautiful landscapes with extraordinary amounts of detail fit in perfectly and I really like them. But not in every game.

Also, I hear you on games starting to emulate reality a bit too much. I play games as an escape and the fantasy element is something that has always intrigued me. I think that is why I liked World of Final Fantasy so much. It was good looking game but still had that fantasy element to it. I want games to not make sense at times. Like, why the **** in FFVII did Rufus need to borrow the Tiny Bronco to fly across the world? They can create something like the Big Cannon, move it from Juno to Midgar and, use it to shoot what is essentially an energy bullet halfway across the world but they don't have planes? Probably a poor example but my point is, I don't want to be brought into a super realistic world.

Part of what bugs me about the FF7 remake is that they are changing the battle system. I don't mind them modernizing the game but what the hell is wrong with a turn based system. They are taking a strategic-ish battle system and turning it into a hack and slash.

I'm really going to have to give World of FF a try, it seems to be pretty widely enjoyed.

Yeah, I just really don't know what why it is some sort of taboo for them to look into doing another turn-based game. I think an active turn system that pushes the pace could work very well.

 

[Randallooch]

I love hack n slash games. I am a big fan of the SoulsBorne series and all games like it. That being said, I do not want hack n slash in my RPGs. I'd prefer turn-based, but can handle real time. The best blend of turn-based and real-time combat I can think of is the Active Dimension Battle system used in FFXII. It's one of the main reasons I consider it a classic, even with a main character as weak as Vaan. I know people weren't crazy about the gambit system, but I dug it. It allowed for a lot of customization but still gave you the ability to take control and override commands at any time.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I love hack n slash games. I am a big fan of the SoulsBorne series and all games like it. That being said, I do not want hack n slash in my RPGs. I'd prefer turn-based, but can handle real time. The best blend of turn-based and real-time combat I can think of is the Active Dimension Battle system used in FFXII. It's one of the main reasons I consider it a classic, even with a main character as weak as Vaan. I know people weren't crazy about the gambit system, but I dug it. It allowed for a lot of customization but still gave you the ability to take control and override commands at any time.

I like hack n slash games. Hell, I love some hack n slash games. Star Ocean is easily my second favorite game series of all time and although they are RPG's, they are hack and slash. It works for them though and they have tinkered with the formula (and really f***ed up the game itself in SO5) but they have always stayed true to the battle system at its core.

I realized I never finished my thought. My point here is... FF7 should remain turn based. It is what works for that game. Make it more immersive like FFX if you want but it should remain a turn based game at heart.

 

[Shareefruck]

As do I. I feel like we are at a point in gaming where I can only describe it as open world fatigue. Don't get me wrong, in some games these big, beautiful landscapes with extraordinary amounts of detail fit in perfectly and I really like them. But not in every game.

Also, I hear you on games starting to emulate reality a bit too much. I play games as an escape and the fantasy element is something that has always intrigued me. I think that is why I liked World of Final Fantasy so much. It was good looking game but still had that fantasy element to it. I want games to not make sense at times. Like, why the **** in FFVII did Rufus need to borrow the Tiny Bronco to fly across the world? They can create something like the Big Cannon, move it from Juno to Midgar and, use it to shoot what is essentially an energy bullet halfway across the world but they don't have planes? Probably a poor example but my point is, I don't want to be brought into a super realistic world.

Part of what bugs me about the FF7 remake is that they are changing the battle system. I don't mind them modernizing the game but what the hell is wrong with a turn based system. They are taking a strategic-ish battle system and turning it into a hack and slash.



I couldn't get into XIII. I may try again soon but I found the battle system to be completely fubar'd.

I totally agree about battle systems and about things not having to make actual sense, but oddly enough, I attribute the move towards realism to escapism and kind of have the opposite attitude about that.

This is probably a ridiculous opinion considering that we're talking about role playing games and Final Fantasy, but one thing that I do not like about video games in general is when it's used as this tool for escapist, male fantasy-fulfilling immersion, where it's about the fun of thinking you're someone else and getting to do things that you otherwise can't do in real life (that GTA mentality). I actually tend to reject that stuff and find it a bit on the creepy side. Things like character creation, and even how classic role playing games give you the option to rename the characters to your own and people you know is something that I wish wasn't a thing.

The more that games focus on first-person, technically ultra-realistic simulation (even if it's in a fantasy setting), the more it feels to me like it's catering to this form of escapism to me. It's an unpopular opinion, but I wish there was less of this focus in video games.

I was just speaking of abstraction being a more effective and interesting communication tool than immersion-- the details don't matter, just broadly get the feeling/mood/mechanics right, and communicate ideas well. Chess is more interesting/engaging than realistic depictions of strategic war. In the same way, a low-res sprite with a slightly tilted head signifying sorrow/disappointment, used at the right time, set to the right score, can be a lot more effective in communicating an idea than ultra detailed facial expressions, and a broadly symbolic over-world can communicate a sense of scale and exploration better than seamlessly detailed and realistic travel.

The move towards action over strategy in battles seems like the same thing to me as well. Characters standing around in a line slowly planning their attacks and waiting to alternate turns doesn't feel very immersive and looks kind of dumb initially, but it's a much more rich and rewarding system.

Games work better as abstractions of real things rather than as simulations of them, IMO.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

People are entitled tp their own opinions but i really dont think its fair to associate X with XIII. Most people who dont like X tend to be turned off from the characters, voice acting, or story, but underneath all that its still a fundamentally solid game. Some things could also be forgiven as it was the first title on a new console gen, like FFVII with its chunky 3D graphics.

XIII on the other hand, while there's some venn diagram crossover it has numerous flaws in its own right that has nothing to do with X. XIII's problems run far deeper than simply being 'linear'.

And in my opinion its greatest sin was just how much time and money square invested in it for such a mediocre game. We used to get 3 FF titles per console generation, but XIII tool nearly the entire gen to produce and ended up being the only main title single player FF.

And for people saying they had to change, just look at the Dragon Quest series.

We had this discussion when X (or was it XIII?) became available on Steam a while back now.

X was the first one without a world map and most of the game is spent going up and down corridors. It is more gentle about it than XIII which is a sledge hammer to the brain but it's still there in X.

I wouldn't say they are the same but I think it is fair to say they play similarly, even the character progression use similar systems. Out of all the main FF titles, they share the most structural similarities in terms of exploration, all the other titles are much more open.

 

[samabam]

oh boy, I have so much to say about this topic... but it's late so just my thoughts about Final Fantasy IX for now.

I don't entirely get the love for it. I played through it when it first came out in 2001 and right now I am doing my second playthrough on the steam version.
I still can't get really into it and I've thought about why I can't and I've found a few things that bother me about IX.

First of all the good things:
-It has a great story, probably the last really great story of an FF (although I quite like the story of FF X but IX has the edge in this part of the game) and some of the character are really endearing.
-As I started the franchise with VII back in the day this was the first FF, where the characters have specific roles and never really excel if you don't use them to their role ( ie Garnet as a healer, Vivi as a Black Mage and so on) and I like that opposed to VII and VIII where all characters were Jack of all trades.
- It's an amazing world they've designed everything about it just feels right for me, from the background lore to the way the cities look and the NPCs act.
- Contrasting to VIII and especially VII it has a great dub. (I have to talk about the german versions here, never played the english ones). You can recognize characters on their dialects and speech patterns, this adds a another great layer of immersion into the world for me
- The equipment and ability system - I just liked that equipment was very important for your characters after the disappointment of FF VIII where Equipment basically was unimportant.

But now the bad stuff
- As good as some Characters are (Zidane, Vivi, Garnet, Eiko) others are just there. I am just before the last dungeon in my second playthrough and I still dont really get why Mahagon, Freia and Quina are part of the ride. The game never gets really deep into their backstories and I somehow feel disconnected towards them
- The side stuff. Yeah, you can go Chocobo Hunting - I've completed that but it felt more like a chore than actual fun to play it. I can't get into Tetra Master at all and I loved Triple Triad. Ragwort Quiz, the search for the Stellatio and phantom hunting are really, really short side skids and I don't think you miss too much if you just skip them.
- X and XIII get blasted for their linearity but I don't think IX is that much different in this regard. You don't move through corridors, but the world map is just as restrictive (this holds true for VII and VIII as well and it is a point that is not really bothering me.
- But the absolute worst for me: the battle system is absolutely not to my taste. It is soooo slow, I think I will get through my second playthrough just because the steam version offers a time boost. Battles are so dragged out, I have input the commands for all of my 4 characters but have to wait a minute for them to execute them because I have to watch some animations from the fiends. In no other FF did I get the feeling that the battles are so dragged out. Buffs almost loose all value because they run out just watching animations. The trance is another part in this, I have to watch how the character get entranced, make 3 commands with them and then again have to watch them detrance. I am pretty sure that I would have given up on my second playthrough without the time boost.

tl,dr: The battle system ruins a game with one of the best worlds of any FF for me

 

[Shareefruck]

I feel like you've listed so many pivotal, game-making strengths that you kind of DO entirely get the love for it.

Presentation-wise, it's the strongest FF game, IMO. Timeless visuals/designs, art direction, music, interfaces, etc. Charming, well defined characters, without anything else being straight up broken, terrible, or moronic. That's going to be enough to win a lot of people over.

 

[misterchainsaw]

While XIII isn't anywhere close to my favorite FF game, one of the main problems with the battle system is it simply takes way too long to get to the point in the game where what you do in battle actually matters, and thinking fast and on your feet by changing paradigms where the battle system shows it's true beauty. The first real battle where I had to do this was at the end of Chapter 8 I believe, and most people had given up the game way before that.

I still prefer a turn-based game, but had Square thrust players into using the entire system within the first 2 hours, rather than piecemealing it out over the course of 8 chapters to get the full system and party, a lot more people would of given the game a chance.

Which is too bad because as a 3-part series, I quite enjoyed the XIII saga.

I'm with you on XIII. I'm convinced there's a solid game in there, both in terms of battle system and plot, but as you said, the battle system takes way too long to open up and the dialouge/writing is largely subpar (although I will say I think the scene with Vanille and Sazh on their own is among the best in the series).

We were talking about VIII earlier and I feel much the same way about that game to an even greater extent in terms of the battle system. It's an example where a bad one (or even just a poor implementation of the junction system) completely broke the game for me.

Then there's XV, which has very few redeeming qualities IMO. Ironically, one is probably the writing and voice acting among your party, which is something they've struggled with in every game with VA's except XII.

I completely understand if people can't get into the battle systems of XII and XIII though.

 

[Intangir]

As an old-time gamer (born in the 80s), Final Fantasy was and still is a pretty big part of my life while growing up. I regularly revisit the older classics (Final Fantasy X included) and have made my brother, more than ten years my junior, play ALL of those games with me (alongside other awesome RPGs like Suikoden II, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, etc.). When he got older and more aware, he thanked me for it.

Anyways, the way these games were made prior to FFX-2 and all the lame spin-offs (now, the newer games are not all that bad, don't get me wrong, FFXII is pretty good and innovative, but sometimes a bit tedious [specially the Pharos dungeon], and some of the newer titles like FFXV show some good things [but Frakk the camera]) and the story they depicted, although not in the greatest deployment of visual beauty or clarity, gave me a better overall game-playing experience compared to what was made in the 2000s. That decade is when the golden-age of japanese RPGs and, to some extent, console RPGs ended (not that the gaming industry isn't still churning out top-quality RPG offerings for console gamers once in a while). I still really enjoy FFX though, and FFXII to a lesser extent.

On a more personal note, I still remember the rage and frustration I felt as a kid when Kefka revealed his true colors in FFVI (or FFIII for my SNES) as more than just a simple clown [spoiler alert] when he poisoned Doma Castle, forcefully sealed the Espers within Magicites and stole their powers, murdered General Leo and later Emperor Gestahl to take control of the three statues then virtually becoming the God of Magic and basically destroying the World, leaving behind nothing but frail remnants of society, insane fanatics, ashes and sorrow [end spoiler alert]. The strongest scene of the true gaming masterpiece that FFVI is, to me, undoubtedly one that will stay for a long time with me and that is the whole introduction to the World of Ruin [other spoiler alert] with Celes' attempt at suicide when Cid, whom had been taking care of her ever since the World's ruin, died in his little quiet home and left her stranded hopelessly alone in a desolate and magic-torn world [end spoiler alert]. I will not lie to you, that scene, with all the implied grief and despair of Celes's situation, shown throughout the introduction both with the subdued dialogue, changing World Map visuals and music, as well as all emotional scenes, made me cry like a little girl as a kid and still brings a manly tear to my eyes whenever I play the game again as an adult.

After my run-in with FFVI (or the One Game to rule them all) as a 8/9-year old, I enjoyed all Final Fantasy games to differing degrees but still finished them all (except the MMORPG ones). In the end, some were great (FFI, FFIV, FFX), some were brilliant (FFVII, FFIX, FFTactics), some were good (FFVIII [the game's story gets better if you believe that everything that happens after the 1st CD is Squall's dream as he lays dying, I also didn't mind the gameplay too much, music is excellent at times and Liberi Fatali as an opening is straight-on badass], FFV, FFXII), others were bad (FFXIII [the gameplay felt like a more awkward version of FFX-2's dressphere changes to me, there are NO TOWNS to explore in the entirety of the game, the story is pretty bad, lots of gimmick and no substance to the characters, I didn't like the music, I didn't like the game at all], FFMysticQuest, FFCrystalChronicles) and a few were absolutely awful (FFX-2 [the gameplay is nice, however the story is pure gimmick sexy-girl-wannabe trash, absolutely murders the previous game's lore and kills any meaning to the ending of FFX, hence the ranking], FFXIII-3 [so you're saying that the main from FFXIII that I really didn't like is now a valkyrie straight out of Valkyrie Profile without any kind of basktory provided or explanation for anything, and that she must now fiddle around with Time like in Prince of Persia or Ephemeral Phantasia while battling re-hashed monsters from previous FFXIII games to stop the End of the world and save everyone and all the puppies and gigantic plotholes of her Universe, wonder of wonders that this game got this rating], FFII [DAMN YOU STATS-LEVELING SYSTEM!!!]), but I've never played a Final Fantasy game that left me with a ''bland'' feeling at the end and that, my friends, shows that even if the developers have gone full-on money-grab, they still put out products that can move people (in good or bad ways).

Whew, didn't realize I'd gotten so talkative, sorry if I've bored you guys with my post/rant.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

oh boy, I have so much to say about this topic... but it's late so just my thoughts about Final Fantasy IX for now.

tl,dr: The battle system ruins a game with one of the best worlds of any FF for me

I agree with most of what you said. I appreciate the game for what it is, I like the storylines and all that. It's just not for me. It never really gripped me and my most recent playthrough I had to give up halfway through because I just felt like I was having to pull myself through the game.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

As an old-time gamer (born in the 80s), Final Fantasy was and still is a pretty big part of my life while growing up. I regularly revisit the older classics (Final Fantasy X included) and have made my brother, more than ten years my junior, play ALL of those games with me (alongside other awesome RPGs like Suikoden II, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, etc.). When he got older and more aware, he thanked me for it.

Anyways, the way these games were made prior to FFX-2 and all the lame spin-offs (now, the newer games are not all that bad, don't get me wrong, FFXII is pretty good and innovative, but sometimes a bit tedious [specially the Pharos dungeon], and some of the newer titles like FFXV show some good things [but Frakk the camera]) and the story they depicted, although not in the greatest deployment of visual beauty or clarity, gave me a better overall game-playing experience compared to what was made in the 2000s. That decade is when the golden-age of japanese RPGs and, to some extent, console RPGs ended (not that the gaming industry isn't still churning out top-quality RPG offerings for console gamers once in a while). I still really enjoy FFX though, and FFXII to a lesser extent.



After my run-in with FFVI (or the One Game to rule them all) as a 8/9-year old, I enjoyed all Final Fantasy games to differing degrees but still finished them all (except the MMORPG ones). In the end, some were great (FFI, FFIV, FFX), some were brilliant (FFVII, FFIX, FFTactics), some were good (FFVIII [the game's story gets better if you believe that everything that happens after the 1st CD is Squall's dream as he lays dying, I also didn't mind the gameplay too much, music is excellent at times and Liberi Fatali as an opening is straight-on badass],

and a few were absolutely awful (FFX-2 [the gameplay is nice, however the story is pure gimmick sexy-girl-wannabe trash, absolutely murders the previous game's lore and kills any meaning to the ending of FFX, hence the ranking]

Whew, didn't realize I'd gotten so talkative, sorry if I've bored you guys with my post/rant.

I agree with your tiered rankings there. I removed the ones that discussed games that I didn't play much (anything after FFXII).

X-2 is an absolute travesty... The battle system, I thought, was pretty cool. Getting to attack with multiple characters at the same time and pair attacks was cool, but the dress sphere system was horrid, and having only 3 play-able party members wa sjust whack.

And as you stated, the story is gimmicky trash that kills the previous game's storyline and destroys the ending.

As FFX is my #2 favorite FF game, X-2 was simply unforgivable for me.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I agree with your tiered rankings there. I removed the ones that discussed games that I didn't play much (anything after FFXII).

X-2 is an absolute travesty... The battle system, I thought, was pretty cool. Getting to attack with multiple characters at the same time and pair attacks was cool, but the dress sphere system was horrid, and having only 3 play-able party members wa sjust whack.

And as you stated, the story is gimmicky trash that kills the previous game's storyline and destroys the ending.

As FFX is my #2 favorite FF game, X-2 was simply unforgivable for me.

Speaking of FF X-2, is it me, or are Logos and Ormi a complete rip off of Solt and Peppor from Chrono Cross?

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Speaking of FF X-2, is it me, or are Logos and Ormi a complete rip off of Solt and Peppor from Chrono Cross?

Holy shit, I never even thought of that.....

This makes me want to replay Chrono Cross, been probably 5 years... but I'm waist-deep in the FFX HD Re-master right now and can't take on another RPG at the moment. lol

 

[Gardner McKay]

Holy ****, I never even thought of that.....

This makes me want to replay Chrono Cross, been probably 5 years... but I'm waist-deep in the FFX HD Re-master right now and can't take on another RPG at the moment. lol

I still have to finish the Remaster. I need to beat the Earth Eater for a few more luck spheres so I can finish the last two Dark Aeons and fight Penance. You know, it is supposed to rain all weekend. I have a three day weekend. Maybe its time I finish the Remaster once and for all.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

I still have to finish the Remaster. I need to beat the Earth Eater for a few more luck spheres so I can finish the last two Dark Aeons and fight Penance. You know, it is supposed to rain all weekend. I have a three day weekend. Maybe its time I finish the Remaster once and for all.

That's a great idea. I plan to spend a good bit of my Sunday on it. Yesterday I banged out the Calm Lands mini-games: Chocobo training, all monsters captured, got Yojimbo, did Remiem thru Yojimbo, Chocobo Racing in Remiem.

I did the Biran + Yenke fight and harvested about 14 Lv. 3 Keys from the fight.

 

[RandV]

I'm with you on XIII. I'm convinced there's a solid game in there, both in terms of battle system and plot, but as you said, the battle system takes way too long to open up and the dialouge/writing is largely subpar (although I will say I think the scene with Vanille and Sazh on their own is among the best in the series).

Yeah when XIII came out on Steam I finally got to play it and did enjoy it overall, but I have a high tolerance for JRPG's and would only consider it a 7.0-7.5 which is a huge shame considering all the time, resources, and hype that went into it. Some of it is a bit fuzzy now since this was a few years ago, but I recall playing it that I could get a sense of what they were going for and it could have been amazing, but they made a number of big mistakes and just completely botched the execution.

Story-wise I felt like they were going for a mix of FF VI, VII and X. VI because the eidolon(?) things felt a lot like Espers to me, X for the subversion element on them, and VII because Cocoon was envisioned as a bigger Midgard and they wanted to capture that feel of being locked in a big city for the first X hours before releasing you into the broader world.

Problem with the eidolon's is the whole thing was poorly explained and confusing. Lots of random words thrown around without any context unless you start digging through the lore entries, and unlike VI they dropped the ball on any sort of gameplay impact. With VI when you first find magicite it expands the game, meshing well with both gameplay and story. In XIII its treated more like a tutorial through the first 5 or so hours of the game, where you start the game punching soldiers and robots without any magic then suddenly you're f'alci or whatever and you keep punching the robots with the same effectiveness but now with a few additional types of attacks.

In general with the combat if you watch what's happening on screen it's actually an impressive technical feat, but the problem is when you actually get into the game you miss all that because you're eyes need to be glued to the status and progress bars in the bottom left(?). Also I remember having a huge problem with being limited to 6 paradagram shift things (?) at a time and not being able to save setups. So to get optimal performance in combat you'd need to be constantly wasting time tinkering in the menu, so what you end up doing for practicality is find a general setup that sort of works for everything and stick with it, missing out on a lot of the strategic elements.

Finally I want to rant about the story overall, which feels like it was ruined specifically because the main creator had a fetish for Lightning and just had to start the game off with her kicking ass in a train scene similar to how FFVII started except better! So you're kind of dropped into the game mid-story, and it just makes use of numerous flashback scenes at various points to catch you up but it just never really works.

There's lots of other problems I could dig into but I've ranted enough.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

The more time that goes by the worse and worse FFXV looks to me. I think it’s pretty handily the worst main entry in the series.

FFXIII had its issues, but I still look back on certain moments very fondly. Nothing in FFXV will feel that way - the combat was neat for sure, but the world and story were pretty shitty. That second half of the game is atrocious - it blows my mind that a big name creator can just get away with that crap. That would be like me taking an essay-based exam and filling in one-word answers for the second half, and my fictional, shockingly-employed professor giving me a B because I answered the first half of the questions good.

 

[Nickmo82]

The more time that goes by the worse and worse FFXV looks to me. I think it’s pretty handily the worst main entry in the series.

FFXIII had its issues, but I still look back on certain moments very fondly. Nothing in FFXV will feel that way - the combat was neat for sure, but the world and story were pretty ****ty. That second half of the game is atrocious - it blows my mind that a big name creator can just get away with that crap. That would be like me taking an essay-based exam and filling in one-word answers for the second half, and my fictional, shockingly-employed professor giving me a B because I answered the first half of the questions good.

It had a nice fluidity to it, but that's all imho. Magic was always such a major factor in FF games and then FFXV basically completely did away with it.

I agree though... FFXV REALLY doesn't hold up to any other main series entry. 13 pretty much sucked, but I still enjoyed it all the way to completion. FFXV I had to force myself to finish, and when it was done I was left with a distinctly "... is that it?" feeling.

 

[ColonialsHockey10]

It had a nice fluidity to it, but that's all imho. Magic was always such a major factor in FF games and then FFXV basically completely did away with it.

I agree though... FFXV REALLY doesn't hold up to any other main series entry. 13 pretty much sucked, but I still enjoyed it all the way to completion. FFXV I had to force myself to finish, and when it was done I was left with a distinctly "... is that it?" feeling.

No doubt. The feeling of first reaching Oerba in FFXIII is an all-time video game moment for me. The music was also wonderful throughout, and some bosses like Barthandulus and the entire Palumpolum sequence were marvelous.

But FFXV didnt have a single moment like that. Bosses that were supposed to be epic like Leviathan were a disaster. Despite being open, the world in the beginning was also pretty boring/ugly.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

FFXV is mediocre but shows a lot of potential.

Plus it's the first fully 3D FF to get exploration right. Not perfect, but right: exploration is fun and rewarding. X and XIII are hallway simulators while XII felt a bit too restrictive in it's map designs (tech reasons I'm sure).