Poor FFXIV

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Originally Posted by Kirith

Oh wow, so SE likes to use similar elements in their games. Big discovery.

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Well, it is definitely a subject everyone seems to enjoy debating about. What exactly classifies a game as a Final Fantasy game? The storyline and characters? The content like monsters, airships and crystals? Or the general feel towards the whole idea of a 'Final Fantasy'? It is up to your discretion to what a FF game is truly able to consider itself one.

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Originally Posted by Ostia

Dont be a Fan Boy, there are plenty of RPG'S that are 100% better than any FF Tittle(Except FFVI,FFT)

Suikoden II, Xenogears, OGTLUCT, DO, ME, CT, CC, Suikoden V, Legend of Heroes(The last trilogy), Ys etc etc.

FF is a good series, but it has been in decline since they been catering to the graphic whores.

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I've been thinking this for years. Graphics are great, dont get me wrong. But you can't been good old fashioned game play. Given the chance, who would be happy to re-play (or play) the first 9 titles in the series without updated graphics? I know I would. FF6 > FF13 any time :D

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Originally Posted by Kaedan

Sorry dude, crappy games don't sell 6 million copies.

Also, the "lack of exploration" argument is very, very weak. There's no exploration in the vast majority of the previous FF games either. You can "wander the world"... but it doesn't get you anywhere. It's either just a bunch of random encounters while you see the mountains, forests and deserts they used as filler, or you find the rare town/city that you're not supposed to go to yet and are locked out of all the content.

There is no exploration. The "world map" is just there to give you the illusion. What they did in FFXIII was essentially "zoom in" on the characters. So instead of having a 3rd person and "orbital" view, you just have 3rd person.

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Did you even play previous games in the series? Look at Final Fantasy VIII. There was a lot to be gained from exploration, so you really are spouting nonsense.

And sales figures have nothing to do with how good a game is. After all, how can any of those 6 million buyers determine whether or not they like the game until they play it?

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Originally Posted by Clydey

Did you even play previous games in the series? Look at Final Fantasy VIII. There was a lot to be gained from exploration, so you really are spouting nonsense.

And sales figures have nothing to do with how good a game is. After all, how can any of those 6 million buyers determine whether or not they like the game until they play it?

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That may be true for the first few thousand sales, but if those people like the game... they will spread the word; whether on blogs, reviews or just by word of mouth. So as more and more people like and buy the game, these people will recommend it to their friends and it just perpetuates itself until it becomes like the game of the year or something. That's why you still see a few games that have been out for a while but stand in the BEST SELLERS section of gamestop.

This is why the first week sales are so important (when it meets the expected demand) in determining whether the game is a success or not.

FFXIII gets a bad rap. People complain about the western reviews praising it for doing something new, but they're absolutely right. I've been playing JRPGs for near 15 years now (starting with 7, but I've since played all the mainline FFs and a bunch of other RPGs as well) and the vast majority have similar battle systems, character types, stories, etc. I personally never much cared for the ATB system since it seemed like a false sense of "urgency" being stuffed into what is inarguably a turn based system, which is why I loved FFX's commitment to the turn based tactical aspect of it.

However after all this time with turn based systems, people were (rightly) complaining about these systems being very slow paced and kind of boring, especially when you had to use them to fight hundreds or thousands of random battles. So while the rest of the genre has been stagnating, and the sales have plummeted to reflect that fact, SE has been innovating.

First with FFXII's "FFXI offline" system, that I quite liked as an FFXI player, but seemed fairly unpopular outside the MMO player circle. Also FFXII was like Star Wars with Chocobos, that was awesome. I thought the customizability and the ability to delegate the boring micromanagement aspect of random battles was an awesome new experience for the FF series.

Then FFXIII's system. It's still sort of turn based, but it's also very fast, flashy and fun, which I think is what a game should be. The pace at which battles could unfold kept you thinking on your feet, and you had to tactically think of how to handle boss fights rather than just "well, here comes the big damage spell, let me heal through it." Debuff classes were actually useful in most boss fights for once instead of being strictly situational, and the way the game handled it made maintaining buffs and debuffs much less of a chore than previous FFs.

It could have used more exploration, but at the same time it had great pacing through most of the story that discouraged boring grinding and kept you involved in the story and the world. I think, if anything, what people like to talk about the "good" part of the game, the open world part, is actually the weakest because there's little direction, no narrative and nothing but endless battles.

Do I think XIII is perfect? No, for a variety of reasons, and similarly I don't like the direction SE has taken the past few years with endless spinoffs and rereleases instead of quality original IPs. Still, I don't think FFXIII deserves the crap it's gotten, especially since FFX was quite similar in its linearity and is often praised as one of the best FFs.

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Originally Posted by Ostia

Dont be a Fan Boy, there are plenty of RPG'S that are 100% better than any FF Tittle(Except FFVI,FFT)

Suikoden II, Xenogears, OGTLUCT, DO, ME, CT, CC, Suikoden V, Legend of Heroes(The last trilogy), Ys etc etc.

FF is a good series, but it has been in decline since they been catering to the graphic whores.

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That's a matter of opinion. And I've already admited I'm a shameless fan *cough* gal, somewhere else on the site. :)

I also think it's because of the graphics that the last games have been a little lacking, but I never blamed it on everybody. FF games have been expected to be the leading in graphics since idk when.

However, I would be perfectly content with FFVIII level graphics, and even no voice overs. I always felt that the movies were kind of like a reward in the game when you reached them, but when the whole game is nearly that quality, kinda takes away from it.

I'm not so sure a majority would agree with me though. :)

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Originally Posted by Bled

http://images.wikia.com/egamia/images/2/2f/Magicite.png

looks a lot like crystals to me..

http://th07.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/...e_by_Orinn.jpg

Magicite is the stone form of an Esper. Once an Esper dies, they turn into Magicite.

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No shit, they look like a crystal ? Just because they look like a crystal does not means they are the same crystals from the previous 5 games, their creation and purpose in the game is different than those before before, hell their entire concept in game is not the same.

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Originally Posted by Clydey

Did you even play previous games in the series? Look at Final Fantasy VIII. There was a lot to be gained from exploration, so you really are spouting nonsense.

And sales figures have nothing to do with how good a game is. After all, how can any of those 6 million buyers determine whether or not they like the game until they play it?

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I'm pretty sure somebody said this, but Final Fantasy, is a brand name, the name alone sells games(Like this crappy game for example) i bought the game just because it said Final Fantasy, why ? Because i own every single FF main FF tittle, also people tend to forget that the first FF title in a next gen console outsells any other tittle in that console(FF7,FFX,FFXIII)

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Originally Posted by chime85

I've been thinking this for years. Graphics are great, dont get me wrong. But you can't been good old fashioned game play. Given the chance, who would be happy to re-play (or play) the first 9 titles in the series without updated graphics? I know I would. FF6 > FF13 any time :D

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I have replayed 7 and 8 about 5 or 6 times. For a while I was alternating between them. I've replayed 10 twice. I've yet to replay 12, I don't own 9 or the earlier ones, but I would like to. I'm still working on the extras with 13. Once the story is over, I kind of lose my motivation. But I'll get it all done eventually. :)

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Originally Posted by Ostia

No shit, they look like a crystal ? Just because they look like a crystal does not means they are the same crystals from the previous 5 games, their creation and purpose in the game is different than those before before, hell their entire concept in game is not the same.

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They wouldn't call it crystallization (FFVI) if it wasn't a crystal, crystals in FF serve different purposes, especially in the later games when the world is suddenly no longer governed by mothercrystals.

Also, XI's Magicite:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Magicite:_Aurastone

Crystals aren't just one thing in games, especially in FF games.