What does Final Fantasy mean to you?

To me...
Final fantasy isn't Jobs/classes or Tonberry
It isn't Chocobo's or a half dressed Shiva

To me...
Final Fantasy means an EPIC story.... a Foe that threatens the planet... that threatens existence itself
In this, I feel like the story is there... we just haven't had the opportunity to get intimate with it...
I, for one, can not wait

FF means unique and memorable characters
Loveable thieves.... Stoic reluctant hero's.. coming of age tales

It also means Features and Mechanics that are new to the genre or have never been tried...
Innovation
Daring to go against the norm, to do the opposite of what people expect... not putting something into a game because it is what all the other games have
Forget what you've come to expect...
As much as I loved Materia, it wasn't in VIII

I think of cutting edge graphics..... I think of BEAUTIFUL landscapes....
that are not just graphically good... but artistically beautiful....

I actually think of the Moon a lot for some reason...

I think of exaggeration and excess
Weapons that make no sense at all... Water inside swords... Swords that are way too big for any one man to yield, and yet the character being able to swing it 15 times in a matter of seconds....

I think of straps and zippers....
Gear that has no real world counterpart. Gear that probably wouldn't protect you in real life...
I think of Bangles and metals that don't exist

Jobs/class roles wont recapture some FF feeling.. in fact, many FF numbered titles had no job system at all....

FFVI had only Blue Mage and kind of thief.... Even Celes, the black Mage had cures and could use a sword and heavy armor with the best of them... (See: Ultima Sword and Ragnarok with Genji Gloves)

FFVII had no Jobs... With materia, anyone could be anything (And this is considered by many to be the Archetype)

FFVIII had Quistis the Blue Mage... who really wasn't even very useful and thats it... GFs and junctioning gave everyone a chance to be what they wanted to be.. even the stats were open ended

in FFX (Another huge hit) only Blue Magic and Summoning were exclusive to a particular person... A little Sphere grid manipulation and everyone could do everything.... Hell, Yuna could take 99,999 from almost any foe in the game if she made it all the way through the grid

FFXII was open ended and didn't have classes, Balthier was a thief in the story but not in his battle role

FFIX had very specific Jobs... and just so happens to be the lowest selling numbered console FF (We don't count X-2) since SNES when the series had yet to really blow up

these games had open ended play styles where any character could be almost anything in battle....

I'm not knocking the Job system, just explaining why, when I think of FF, I don't think of jobs and white or Black mages....
No Samurai or Paladin....

FF is story driven... plain and simple

good memories - hope - delay

Overall I enjoy the stories and characters in Final Fantasy games. Even some of the NPC characters have a great story and its fun to learn about the world you are playing in for most of the FF games.

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Originally Posted by Anty

good memories - hope - delay

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Without a doubt... almost every FF title since PSX have experienced a delay on the release date. So this game being unfinished should come as no surprise

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Originally Posted by Ruri

Overall I enjoy the stories and characters in Final Fantasy games. Even some of the NPC characters have a great story and its fun to learn about the world you are playing in for most of the FF games.

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I agree.... FF stories could always rival any storyteller in history...
Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, James Cameron
thats why we play these

When I think of the words Final Fantasy I now think of hype, very very poor coding,disconnect between developement team and player base, stealing players money to help show a quarterly profit, no auction house, no chocobos, no jump, poor chatlog controls, poor LS controls, and overal the word FAILURE.

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Originally Posted by Rydin

Jobs/class roles wont recapture some FF feeling.. in fact, many FF numbered titles had no job system at all....

FFVI had only Blue Mage and kind of thief.... Even Celes, the black Mage had cures and could use a sword and heavy armor with the best of them... (See: Ultima Sword and Ragnarok with Genji Gloves)

FFVII had no Jobs... With materia, anyone could be anything (And this is considered by many to be the Archetype)

FFVIII had Quistis the Blue Mage... who really wasn't even very useful and thats it... GFs and junctioning gave everyone a chance to be what they wanted to be.. even the stats were open ended

in FFX (Another huge hit) only Blue Magic and Summoning were exclusive to a particular person... A little Sphere grid manipulation and everyone could do everything.... Hell, Yuna could take 99,999 from almost any foe in the game if she made it all the way through the grid

FFXII was open ended and didn't have classes, Balthier was a thief in the story but not in his battle role

FFIX had very specific Jobs... and just so happens to be the lowest selling numbered console FF (We don't count X-2) since SNES when the series had yet to really blow up

these games had open ended play styles where any character could be almost anything in battle....

I'm not knocking the Job system, just explaining why, when I think of FF, I don't think of jobs and white or Black mages....
No Samurai or Paladin....

FF is story driven... plain and simple

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The FF series STARTED with the job system. In fact the initial job lineup from the very first FF was so iconic, that they used it to kick off their first online game.
The job system was a bit wonky in FFII (perhaps where the armory system idea came from). But it was back in full force in FFIII, locked in FFIV, open again in FFV, Locked and subtle in FFVI, At it's best in FFT, Locked again in FFIX and was fully present in FFXI and the international zodiac version of FFXII.

The only games that didn't have a job system of some sort were FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, and FFXIII.

Although FF games have been heavily story driven, that is only a single component of the formula that makes up the franchise. Some like FFI were quite light on story until the end, Others like FFXIII were so heavy on it that they ended up not feeling like a FF game at all.

Also, FFVII is not the archetype, it's not even close. Rather, it was just happened to be Square's biggest marketing success due to the great visuals it had for its time. The story and characters where decent, but not overly amazing, especially compared to FFIV, FFVI, and FFT.

FF series for me is the following:

• A small band of heroes in an epic battle against a global threat
• Chocobos, Moogles, Airships and Cid
• Job system (of sorts) and growth in abilities as you progress.
• Quality visuals and top-notch art design.
• Iconic magic and cataclysmic summoning spells.
• An original world to explore
• Staple enemies such as Behemoths, Tonberries, Cactuars, etc..
• Innovative party battle design with flashy attacks.
• A dignified and refined approach to art and story direction. (light on violence, sexual content etc..)

These are the bare minimum requirements to make a FF game. If FFXIV can get this right, it should do fine.

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Originally Posted by Rydin

Jobs/class roles wont recapture some FF feeling.. in fact, many FF numbered titles had no job system at all....

FFVI had only Blue Mage and kind of thief.... Even Celes, the black Mage had cures and could use a sword and heavy armor with the best of them... (See: Ultima Sword and Ragnarok with Genji Gloves)

FFVII had no Jobs... With materia, anyone could be anything (And this is considered by many to be the Archetype)

FFVIII had Quistis the Blue Mage... who really wasn't even very useful and thats it... GFs and junctioning gave everyone a chance to be what they wanted to be.. even the stats were open ended

in FFX (Another huge hit) only Blue Magic and Summoning were exclusive to a particular person... A little Sphere grid manipulation and everyone could do everything.... Hell, Yuna could take 99,999 from almost any foe in the game if she made it all the way through the grid

FFXII was open ended and didn't have classes, Balthier was a thief in the story but not in his battle role

FFIX had very specific Jobs... and just so happens to be the lowest selling numbered console FF (We don't count X-2) since SNES when the series had yet to really blow up

these games had open ended play styles where any character could be almost anything in battle....

I'm not knocking the Job system, just explaining why, when I think of FF, I don't think of jobs and white or Black mages....
No Samurai or Paladin....

FF is story driven... plain and simple

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none of which were online thats why they worked

Cloud Strife :3

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Originally Posted by Zantetsuken

FF series for me is the following:

• A small band of heroes in an epic battle against a global threat
• Chocobos, Moogles, Airships and Cid
• Job system (of sorts) and growth in abilities as you progress.
• Quality visuals and top-notch art design.
• Iconic magic and cataclysmic summoning spells.
• An original world to explore
• Staple enemies such as Behemoths, Tonberries, Cactuars, etc..
• Innovative party battle design with flashy attacks.
• A dignified and refined approach to art and story direction. (light on violence, sexual content etc..)

These are the bare minimum requirements to make a FF game. If FFXIV can get this right, it should do fine.

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Yea... i can definitely respect that...
My point about the Job system is that defined roles wont instantly add the FF feeling... because there are definitely games that had the feeling but didn't really have defined classes
As far as your list.. I think you forgot Biggs and Wedge... haha

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Originally Posted by danny52844

none of which were online thats why they worked

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No... I agree, Jobs are needed and I look forward to them.... My point is that it wont provide instant FF nostalgia like people think....
People were complaining "You can't have a final fantasy game without WHM or BLM"
So the Jobs will be named using traditional final fantasy names....
What's in a name?
Why do people on this forum get so anal about what stuff is called?
there is a long ongoing discussion about calling the new attachment system "Materia"
Instead of White Mage they could call it "Sissy Foo Healer..." what does that change?