SE to churn out a FF title/year?!

final fantasy xiii sold well because it has final fantasy in its name.
So this bad red rep you people hear about is all factual. It came from people after buying this game from the company they have been loyal to.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

Besides horrible linear gameplay and a slight grindfest, what was wrong with XIII? Then again, I personally loved XII, so I may be in the minority still...

No disrespect to anybody, but XIII got (for the most part) positive reviews and in January 2010, it was voted the best game ever in Famitsu's reader poll as well as best RPG of the year at the Spike Video Game Awards.

I'm not saying it's a good game to everyone, but to say it's a bad game and that SE should rethink their plans just because you personally didn't like it isn't really right.

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Couldn't help but laugh. As if anything coming from Famitsu regarding a SE game wasn't biased. Probably one of the worst argument ever, even if at the end I do agree with the rest of your post :)

XIII wasn't a bad game. Especially not when you take in consideration what's available on PS3... Despite all bad criticisms (linear game etc.), even non-biased user reviews all across the world gave XIII a solid 8/10 in average.

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final fantasy xiii sold well because it has final fantasy in its name.

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Not really, if XIII was released in the same state XIV was (I know it's hard to compare a MMO with a non-MMO game, but still), no one would have purchased it.

If I remember correctly there was an article on gamasutra about how Japanese Developers starting to admit that in this gen they have lost their flare due to the size of the teams and it would take them 5-6 years to complete a game. As Merceron is the head of the team building the new engine for FFXIV for SE, I'd say SE has recognized this as well for this generation of gaming.

"Even in public, a lot of Japanese creators were saying, as Merceron put it: "We've lost it - we don't know how to make games any more." He explained that key creators "were complaining that their teams were too big and it was taking 5 to 6 years to make a game."

But, as the CTO put it: "If you have all these problems and you are already profitable, then it is great… wow, we're going to have even more profit when we're done." Yet later he began to understand that the developers "couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel" sometimes, and "have a hard time changing process"."

Link to the article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/3...g_Globally.php



PS: By the way, SE -USED- to put out an FF game almost every 1-2 years. I know they weren't as heavy duty on graphics, but the story was never compromised because of the time it took them. FF8 all the way to FF11 all came out within 1999-2002, and FF7 was made released only 2 years before FF8 was. Each year they were coming out, and everyone loved those games. Didn't matter they were only a year apart.

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Originally Posted by Lucifer

final fantasy xiii sold well because it has final fantasy in its name.
So this bad red rep you people hear about is all factual. It came from people after buying this game from the company they have been loyal to.

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Again, it released in Japan 3 months before the rest of the world, the "bad rep" would have been cemented in 3 months and you could have chosen not to buy it.

Therefore, again, the opposite happened and it still sold well.

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Originally Posted by Antipika

Couldn't help but laugh. As if anything coming from Famitsu regarding a SE game wasn't biased. Probably one of the worst argument ever, even if at the end I do agree with the rest of your post :)

XIII wasn't a bad game. Especially not when you take in consideration what's available on PS3... Despite all bad criticisms (linear game etc.), even non-biased user reviews all across the world gave XIII a solid 8/10 in average.

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Only people who hated FF was the ppl with their nostalgia glasses on. FF 13 did almost the same thing FF 10 did. Both games was extra linear. I love when ppl say all you do is press X in FF 13 what did you do in 10 lol. FF 13 combat was awesome and actually was fun is you didn't spam auto battle, every skill in the game had some use and was practical in many situations, I think in almost every other FF besides 13 where i thought 80% of the skills you learn was useless.

FFXIII was the most FF to come out since FFX lol.

FFXIII order of events:

-Thrown into the roles of an unknown character(s). (Like every other FF game.)
-Thrown into a sticky situation which sets the story in motion (Like every other FF game)
-Get a feel for the atmosphere of where said unknown character(s) come from. (Like every other FF game)
-No major villain in the first bit of the game (Like most FF games.)
-An event happens that propels the storyline into a different route. (Like every FF game)
-Grind. (Like every FF game.)
-Character Management (Like every good RPG.)
-Meet your next set of allies over time. (Like every FF game.)
-People come and go (Like every FF game.)
-Switch between perspectives (Especially like every FF game)
-Learn who the bad boy/girl is. (Like every FF game)
-Set them on a set route (Yes, like every FF game.)
-Fastforward
-Give player's "freedom" (Like every FF game, though XIII was indeed limited.)
-Straight path to final boss or turn back (..Do I even need to say it?)
-???
-It's a Final Fantasy game.

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Originally Posted by Elexia

Again, it released in Japan 3 months before the rest of the world, the "bad rep" would have been cemented in 3 months and you could have chosen not to buy it.

Therefore, again, the opposite happened and it still sold well.

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i'm sorry i have to disagree, and i can't believe i am saying this but i agree with the devil, FF13 did sell well bcause it had FF in its name. i read the bad reviews, i read the headline "final fantasy 13, a fantasy too far" i still bought the game thinking they had to be wrong.

but one bad season does not mean the team has lost it. FF13-2 looks much better i seen the vids it looks cool. and a comapany that has had so many successes can be forgiven for the odd mistake

(my views on FF13 are my own)

People are always going to have differing views on that game. The discussion has been had over 100 times before, and saying it was good/bad is never going to change the mind of someone who did/didn't enjoy it.

The OP is more worried about future games being damaged due to the time spent on them, but I'm hoping that (as I stated in my previous post) SE has learned from it's mistakes (as far as time taken to make a game goes) and will press on to getting more high quality video games to us in a faster amount of time. And they need to else people are going to start losing interest.

[QUOTE=Atoli;457521
Also, where exactly has FFXIII damaged the brand?:confused:
[/QUOTE]

Story lacking continuity, boring combat system, extreme linearity, and a lack of towns/pacing contributed to a feeling of FFXIII damaging the brand.

For me the story lacking continuity and the linearity probably did the most damage.

I loved the character design in XIII, though, imo it was the best playable cast since FFVIII. It was annoying to see the chick with glasses just fall over and die, though - such a cool character.

X and XIII are personally my favourite two of the series, but I can see how their method of narrative and gameplay wouldn't work for some people, yeah. I do think the hate-on for XIII is overblown in the same way everyone's nostalgia glasses for FFVII exaggerates everything.

That said, and someone mentioned this upthread but I wanted to comment on it specifically: SE isn't one cohesive development team. There are multiple teams working at SE, staggering development of multiple different games at the same time. Furthermore, a -number- of these teams have a track record of getting bogged down in development hell, which is bad for the company's reputation and their bottom line, as mentioned in the above-linked article, so it makes sense that they'd want to focus on busting past their problematic development mindset.

I take no issue with anyone disliking a game. Everyone has their tastes and preferences to what they like and don't like. Personally, I feel FFVII is only sub-par when compared to better games like FFIV and FFVIII. But do I think FFVII was a fail? No way. It just isn't something I personally like.

The same can be said about FFXIII. It wasn't everyone's cup o' tea, but that doesn't mean it was a failure or a bad game. Some people liked it, others didn't. Overall, it received good reviews and was a commercial success.

The problem is people arguing "I didn't like the game. It was a failure. SE has forever besmirched the name of Final Fantasy!"

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Originally Posted by Elexia

Again, it released in Japan 3 months before the rest of the world, the "bad rep" would have been cemented in 3 months and you could have chosen not to buy it.

Therefore, again, the opposite happened and it still sold well.

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Again, it sold well because it has Final Fantasy in its name.

of course it did.

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Originally Posted by Alerith

I take no issue with anyone disliking a game. Everyone has their tastes and preferences to what they like and don't like. Personally, I feel FFVII is only sub-par when compared to better games like FFIV and FFVIII. But do I think FFVII was a fail? No way. It just isn't something I personally like.

The same can be said about FFXIII. It wasn't everyone's cup o' tea, but that doesn't mean it was a failure or a bad game. Some people liked it, others didn't. Overall, it received good reviews and was a commercial success.

The problem is people arguing "I didn't like the game. It was a failure. SE has forever besmirched the name of Final Fantasy!"

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off topic sorry a few years back there was a poll in my local game store, that voted FF7 the best game of the last century, in the same store there was a poll that voted FF6 the best RPG ever. them polls always made me laugh. but still square top of 2 polls, taken of customers of the games store

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Originally Posted by Platinumstorm

Story lacking continuity, boring combat system, extreme linearity, and a lack of towns/pacing contributed to a feeling of FFXIII damaging the brand.

For me the story lacking continuity and the linearity probably did the most damage.

I loved the character design in XIII, though, imo it was the best playable cast since FFVIII. It was annoying to see the chick with glasses just fall over and die, though - such a cool character.

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Yup, it's like watching a really bad tv-show with limited remote controller. Nomura did amazing character designs as usual but to the game designer they were just dolls to his medium envy hollywood-wannabe playhouse. I have hard time taking people who like XIII seriously because clearly they were just pretending to be playing the game instead of really looking at what they we're allowed to do in the game.

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Originally Posted by Seif

Yup, it's like watching a really bad tv-show with limited remote controller. Nomura did amazing character designs as usual but to the game designer they were just dolls to his medium envy hollywood-wannabe playhouse. I have hard time taking people who like XIII seriously because clearly they were just pretending to be playing the game instead of really looking at what they we're allowed to do in the game.

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Not sure how you can stand the people in this community. All they do is vehemently defend anything SE touches. I guarantee you if SE captured their farts in a bottle, these same people would buy two bottles. They would put one up on display as a collectors item, and the other they would release right down their throat.

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Originally Posted by Seif

Yup, it's like watching a really bad tv-show with limited remote controller. Nomura did amazing character designs as usual but to the game designer they were just dolls to his medium envy hollywood-wannabe playhouse. I have hard time taking people who like XIII seriously because clearly they were just pretending to be playing the game instead of really looking at what they we're allowed to do in the game.

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I have a hard time taking people who bash other people for liking FFXIII seriously becuase clearly they havent figured out that the world does not revolve around only what they like.

Alternately, like, take what you said and replace "XIII" with any other game ever. I have a hard time taking people who like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past because clearly they were just pretending to play the game instead of really looking at what they're allowed to do in the game! Clearly!

Slightly more on topic, is there anyone else who'd like to see some lower-development-time, non-HD games (maybe for handhelds? Although even handhelds are HD resource-heavy games these days) come from SE? There's a /fairly/ high chance that this is nostalgia filter at play, and I've actually been really happy with what they've been doing, visually and otherwise, with the HD blockbuster approach. I'm just sort of curious what sort of game would come out of a more minimalistic approach to game resources (and I just got done playing Radiant Historia, which in addition to being fantastic, hit a lot of nostalgia-filter buttons, I think).

ETA: Wow, Lucifer, I think that's the classiest thing I've ever read on these forums. I'm impressed. Go give yourself a lollipop or something.

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Originally Posted by Teakwood

I have a hard time taking people who bash other people for liking FFXIII seriously becuase clearly they havent figured out that the world does not revolve around only what they like.

Alternately, like, take what you said and replace "XIII" with any other game ever. I have a hard time taking people who like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past because clearly they were just pretending to play the game instead of really looking at what they're allowed to do in the game! Clearly!

Slightly more on topic, is there anyone else who'd like to see some lower-development-time, non-HD games (maybe for handhelds? Although even handhelds are HD resource-heavy games these days) come from SE? There's a /fairly/ high chance that this is nostalgia filter at play, and I've actually been really happy with what they've been doing, visually and otherwise, with the HD blockbuster approach. I'm just sort of curious what sort of game would come out of a more minimalistic approach to game resources (and I just got done playing Radiant Historia, which in addition to being fantastic, hit a lot of nostalgia-filter buttons, I think).

ETA: Wow, Lucifer, I think that's the classiest thing I've ever read on these forums. I'm impressed. Go give yourself a lollipop or something.

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I agree that the games SE has been releasing on handhelds have been really good and honestly I'd like to see more of that happening. I especially liked the DS FF III and IV remakes. I don't think VITA development can be considered that fast any more though, but there is the 3ds that's still reasonably low-def.

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Originally Posted by Seif

I agree that the games SE has been releasing on handhelds have been really good and honestly I'd like to see more of that happening. I especially liked the DS FF III and IV remakes. I don't think VITA development can be considered that fast any more though, but there is the 3ds that's still reasonably low-def.

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the one other thing them 2 games you mentioned have in common other than being on handhelds, they are both remakes of existing games, its not the handheld market that is their strong point, they need to get back to making games the way they used too, and i don't mean low-def, FF10 might have been the last truely great game they made (don't get me wrong i liked 12 and some ppl like 13) but i think 10 was the last one proclaimed as great by most, it had what FF3 and FF4 had great characters, great story, great game play plus high-def. this is what is needed to make the next FF game great

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Originally Posted by Elexia

It was one of the top selling FFs ever. Not only that but American and European gaming bases has 3 months worth of Videos, Reviews and Word of Mouth from importers to make an informed decision to not buy the game. It was a success, you can't deny this. It released in December in Japan, and in March or so in America and Europe, in that 3 months you could have decided:

"Game doesn't sound good, won't buy it."

The opposite happened.

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Top selling != Good game.

From my observations of game prices in the video game industry, a good indication of a game that goes bad (despite its sales) is if its price falls within a month (OR LESS) of its launch.

Example - FFX was the first PS2 version of FF, and it retained its value for a VERY long time after that. It sold like hotcakes, yet it stayed in the $40-$50 price range for a LONG time.

FFXIII, after its first few months, was already selling for bargain bin prices ($20-$30). So sure, it sold well, but people were probably returning their copies and moving on to other games due to many glaring issues that plagued it.

Also, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is one of the most top selling FPSes in this current generation. That doesn't mean it's good. It just means it sold well. Justin Bieber sells well. Twilight sells well. Need I go on? SE just figured that with FF13, if you cater to the lowest common denominator, you'll get great sales, and they did just that, and it worked.

And for the record, I didn't mind FF13 - I hated the straight-line gameplay and the automated battles, but I definitely think it could've been a lot worse than reviewers panned it out to be. I think it just suffered the DNF syndrome - after 5+ years of development, was this all they were really capable of creating?

Edit: Also something to note, arguing about which FF is the best is as bad as trying to argue politics or religion with someone. Everyone will have their own views and you will never convince the opposing party to see your side. In other words: it's a waste of time and space. Just saiyan.

FF: Warriors of the Light (good game to get that classic FF nostalgia on), just gonna leave that there.

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Originally Posted by Lucifer

Not sure how you can stand the people in this community. All they do is vehemently defend anything SE touches. I guarantee you if SE captured their farts in a bottle, these same people would buy two bottles. They would put one up on display as a collectors item, and the other they would release right down their throat.

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Right, so... did you buy FFXIV?

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Originally Posted by Bahn

Top selling != Good game.

From my observations of game prices in the video game industry, a good indication of a game that goes bad (despite its sales) is if its price falls within a month (OR LESS) of its launch.

Example - FFX was the first PS2 version of FF, and it retained its value for a VERY long time after that. It sold like hotcakes, yet it stayed in the $40-$50 price range for a LONG time.

FFXIII, after its first few months, was already selling for bargain bin prices ($20-$30). So sure, it sold well, but people were probably returning their copies and moving on to other games due to many glaring issues that plagued it.

Also, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is one of the most top selling FPSes in this current generation. That doesn't mean it's good. It just means it sold well. Justin Bieber sells well. Twilight sells well. Need I go on? SE just figured that with FF13, if you cater to the lowest common denominator, you'll get great sales, and they did just that, and it worked.

And for the record, I didn't mind FF13 - I hated the straight-line gameplay and the automated battles, but I definitely think it could've been a lot worse than reviewers panned it out to be. I think it just suffered the DNF syndrome - after 5+ years of development, was this all they were really capable of creating?

Edit: Also something to note, arguing about which FF is the best is as bad as trying to argue politics or religion with someone. Everyone will have their own views and you will never convince the opposing party to see your side. In other words: it's a waste of time and space. Just saiyan.

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Yes, look at Uncharted 2, quite possibly the most overrated game of all time.

FFVII - 1997
FF Tactics - 1997
FFVIII - 1999
FFIX - 2000
FFX - 2001
FFXI - 2002
FFX-2 - 2003

Well look at that. Also I fail to see how this topic relates to FFXIV. This is simply discussing Square Enix in general, and that is not what these forums are about.

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Originally Posted by Scherwiz

Right, so... did you buy FFXIV?

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I did. Collectors edition too.
How is this relevant?

I'll be one to admit, XIII was a little slow at the begining, and i was dissapointed that there was no open world untill chapter 13 or so. I really did feel though that as i leveled up i was able to do more in battle and was alot stronger as i progressed. The battle seemed fast paced due to the characters dancing all over the place and the graphics were pretty. Overall i liked 13 and was kinda hoping the battle in 14 was going to be like it. They definately need to make auto attack and magic effect graphics flashier like they are in 13. I'm unsure about 13-2, but i can't wait for 13-versus. And this is coming from an old guy.

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

While I was a teenager, my tastes were different and the FF series' story (made for my demographic) was compelling. Naturally my tastes have changed since then, just like yours, so the FF series and especially it's story (still made for the same demographic) most likely wouldn't have the same effect on you than it did back then.

Hopefully needless to say, the now-pre/teens enjoy playing FFXIII for its story, while the grumpy old men that played the previous entries are not as compelled by it yet still cling to the franchise anyway.

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Fair enough.
That said, I played my first FFs as a teen, and still enjoy those ones the most. There was that "little something" (best word that comes to mind is '"atmosphere") that could not be achieved with just gameplay or graphics.

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Originally Posted by Lucifer

I did. Collectors edition too.
How is this relevant?

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You bought something possibly worse than a fart in a bottle, atleast then, and ... I bought... 2 CE... shit.

Forget a FF title a year, and hurry up and give me Kingdom Hearts 3 for crying out loud! :(

/even more off topic

They said no KH3 until Vs13 is done.

By then Nibiru will have crashed into the Earth D:>

The reason AC and MW get games within a year has a lot to do with the fact that they have interconnected storylines. Each game sequentially adds more story to the series, and in all likelyhood, work on the next game has already started by the time the newest one is released. (i.e. Ubisoft realized they couldn't finsh Ezio's story by the end of AC: Brotherhood, and started working on AC: Revelations while Brotherhood was still in development.)

Then you have franchises like Halo. It'll be another year before we get to see how the new trilogy turns out, (2 yrs after Halo: Reach.) We have the Anniversary edition, which has an HD facelift, and some new features, but it's still the same original game from ten years ago.

Japanese game studios have shown in the past that they can put out great titles in a similar timeframe (the .hack and Xenosaga series being two examples)

I'm not sure a game a year would work well with Final Fantasy though, mostly since every numbered title is essentially a stand-alone storyline. That means you are essentially trying to come up with an entirely new storyline/lore for every title, that's not easy to do. In addition, most titles in the series have different game mechanics. XI and XII had similar battle engines for example, but XII also introduced Gambits and a License board, and XIII was radically different from either of those two titles.

In all likelyhood, there may be further expansion of previous titles, since it is somewhat easier to expand on exsisting canon.
(In a literary example, Ender's game was originally a short story, then it became a full novel that expanded into a tetralogy, not including the Shadow series and Ender in Exile.)

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Originally Posted by northernsky

Fair enough.
That said, I played my first FFs as a teen, and still enjoy those ones the most. There was that "little something" (best word that comes to mind is '"atmosphere") that could not be achieved with just gameplay or graphics.

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That's because you play the "Back in My Day VII".

In my language there is a different word for experience and experience. It is, ironically, much like of a drug in that you can make it occur once but you can't simply reproduce it by experiencing the same thing again and again.

SE's games are much like it, in that they give you an experience and anything after that will not be the same. As far as being games, they don't do that well, but you are mistaken if you think that I don't keep the experience in a higher regard. However, unlike some of you I understand that it is not so simple as to play a similar game to get back the feeling (or as you would say, atmosphere) to return. Right now what makes me play their newer games is only the fact that I think they are more entertaining as games as they were before. When previously you would have been hard-pressed to play an FF title if the story, music or characters were not compelling to you, today it is possible to like the entries for being games alone. I don't have to like the story or characters for it to be entertaining.

I had my experience back then with FFX and to some degree FFXI. I still think that playing those games were the best entertainment I've had in my short life, but that shouldn't stop me from looking at them objectively and with the eyes of now 21-year-old me. When somebody criticizes FFX, I think the complaints are legit. That still doesn't take away what I got out of said game long time ago.

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

FF: Warriors of the Light (good game to get that classic FF nostalgia on), just gonna leave that there.

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I loved that game until I found the auto-battle button. Ok many games have auto-battle and there's nothing wrong with that but in that game the mode is a super computer that can foresee enemy attacks 4 moves away and can basically play better than an actual human ever could.

Auto-battle is good when it's mainly pressing only the attack button for you while grinding but if you implement a mode that eliminates all strategy then I wonder what's the point of setting up those challenges to begin with?

Btw I think that game has the best ever art direction Yoshida has ever done in a game and it's also one of the prettiest DS games I've seen.

As I see people talk about how quality has gone down on RPGs over the year, 1 HUGE thing comes to mind that I feel is the cause of most of the complaints.

The emphesis on how good the game looks instead of the story elements and gameplay....

Over the years we have made major strides in technology with graphics for consoles and such, and the further they get, the more downhill it seems some of these games become in many of us old timers minds.

I was there for dragon quest 1, and final fantasy 1.
I thought they were amazing games and it was nice to play along to a game where you grew instead of having to start from scratch every time you turned on the game.

From there Dragon quests expanded out to 2 and 3(never played any after that til the newest ones) and it continued to amaze me.
Final Fantasy(american version) 2 and 3 came out, and unlike 1, they had majorly compelling stories which sold me on RPGs for all time.

Then 7 came out...The leap in tech was apperent with this and they used it wisely, as did most companies who were doing games like this back then. They still focused more on the game itself and the graphical scenes were few and far between, usualy at a major story moment so you could better get the point across.


Now, the use of graphics to tell a story is so overabused, we get games like 13(which btw, i did love, despite what others think) in which people now complain about the overuse of the cut scenes.

HOWEVER, is it even possible to step back and remove these elements from games in order to go back to our older RPG roots? The answer is simple, no it isnt.

People have expecations of games now which are imposible to meet, they want the graphics, they want the gameplay, they want the story. If any of the 3 are missing they complain.

But more of a focus gets put on the graphics cuz in the end, thats the main thing people talk about, "how great it looks". If you can make a pretty product, you get more sales then you do if you make a cartoony game thats more story driven and fun. A good example of this is Saints Row vs GTA.




But back to the topic of a new game each year. I can easily point out that this does NOT mean we will get a new FF rpg every year, chances are, we will get a new "final fantasy" game each year in general.

13-2 this year for instance, next year itl be 13 vs.

Following that we may get a 7 remake(itl count as 1 per year if they do it)

we may get some new handheld console games after that, and so on.

The point is dont sell it short as a new numbreed title each year when it comes to this(i havent read the article, but im guessing it doesnt say its a new numbred title each year)

Good point earlier about Uncharted 2 the people at naughty dog were truly surprised to see the sales drop off so drastically after the launch. This was in a Gamasutra article earlier.

I think the same happens with all Hollywood-wannabe games because they're so shallow that there's not that much more to them watch them through once.

Prior to XIV's launch SE was reporting strong sales not because of XIII but that the re-releases of past FF games were selling a lot better than they had anticipated.

If anyone has played FF III they know it's almost a different game every time you play it because of the job system. XIII however will always be the same soap opera with the same skills on every character no matter how many times you try to re-play it.

And hey it's totally fine if you like XIII. We probably expect very different things from games. Some people like to be passive while I enjoy doing stuff in a game. Different folks different strokes and all that.

Uncharted 3 is at least as good as U2, in some aspects even performing better than the predecessor, but most people still say that it "doesn't feel as good as U2" or that it was a "slight disappointment". It's because they can't just play another game like U2 to get similar experience out of it.

I really wish that SE would be the Naughty Dog of JRPG's sometimes. That franchise has everything I want from an SE RPG, with slightly altered gameplay.

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Some people like to be passive while I enjoy doing stuff in a game.

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SE RPG's have been extremely passive for as long as I remember. You can not control the movement of your characters in combat. All you can do, in practice, is to move between menus, press X and watch the character's animation. Cutscenes have no interaction in them (although XIII-2's QTE's should take care of this) and on the field, pretty much all you can do is walk from one place to the other. There is no interaction with the environment like in say, Xenogears which wasn't that impressive but better than nothing. Also for being "strategy" oriented (at least I hope so), the game does not really do a good job in making use of that mindset like, say, FFT or Tactics Ogre franchise does.

While XIII is fundamentally the same, the franchise is taken to a more action-oriented direction, since you are required to switch paradigms and react to enemy's actions faster than before. No strategic elements have been lost in the process, and in reality the game does a decent job at keeping each role relevant throughout the game (aside from Sentinel, anyway). It is the kind of streamlining that is happening with XIV as we speak, and that doesn't result in "dumbing down" anything as much as it only removes some of the tedious aspects from these games that really don't serve much of a purpose and have been included due to traditions and not because it would make a good game.

And that's just in relation to combat. They would have done better to keep the overall pace of gameplay in XII levels with sidestuff to do in the middle but thats fixed in XIII-2 so no biggie. "Open world", though, serves no purpose anymore especially now that true open world games have become so much better in presentation than they were in 1997.

I personally don't enjoy rpg games that is linear or have me back stepping into the same environment multiple times. in a none mmo game that is simply not acceptable for me.

FFVI>FFT>>> All FF

Please do not mention FFXIII in the same line as FFVI it is blasphemy.

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Originally Posted by XxOstiaxX

FFVI>FFT>>> All FF

Please do not mention FFXIII in the same line as FFVI it is blasphemy.

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umm... like you just did? VI is awesome though, one of the best soundtracks ever. Also dat opening omg.

VI made very good use of the open world for a SNES era game, and its story had some unorthodox twists as well. I don't think any FF before or after it comes close.

Chrono Trigger proves that the gameplay still could have been vastly better for a game of that era, but it is one of the best efforts SE has made in the franchise either way.

If you take spin-offs into account not mentioning Dissidia would be blasphemy. They really need to take that serie from the handhelds and use the gameplay in the mainline entries. It is so close to having very very good gameplay almost on the level of fighting games/DMC that it makes me drool for more (you can actually treat it as a legitimate fighting game with tiers and advanced tactics. Too bad it has no online). Kingdom Hearts could also learn something from it.