"Leave XIV Alone!" ~ Dragon Age

[grandm]

final fantasy is how many years old now? i'm sure you know the date mouse (not a dig at your age:P just meaning you know a lot about final fantasy) anyway if you are as old as final fantasy. are you the same person you was when final fantasy 1 hit the shelfs?

the brand has changed so much since the original (that was always ment to be a one off) but if yo don't evolve you die. is the new FF a good thing? if i'm honest i prefer the old FF. but maybe that is me showing my age

[Anonymoose]

are you the same person you was when final fantasy 1 hit the shelfs?

Are you ready for my Final Fantasy street-cred to hit the floor? The Final Fantasy I played was FFX (In 2002; when I was 14). I know, I know. (The shame!) X sucked me in so deep that I went back and binged the entire series in one summer hoping to find one that lived up to it. Needless to say, pretty much every single Final Fantasy beat it in terms of characters, but Spira's lore remains among my toppers. (If anyone cares, Final Fantasy Tactics for PSX was my favorite by far, XII coming in close second because I pretend that Vaan decided being a sky pirate sucked, went back to Rabanastre, and left Balthier as the main character after Act One).

As for the game aging, aye, adaptation is completely required. Sometimes I just feel that they change and cling to the wrong things, which is why I find at least 90% of the recent changes refreshing compared to the alternatives. I'm happy to see what XIV will become, it's the process of becoming and adapting to it that's got my feathers ruffled. Like they say, it's not being dead that sucks - it's getting dead. I think game evolution's kinda similar, sometimes.

Then again, if XIII proved anything, it's that they're pretty much out of ideas if they don't start making some drastic changes. So, if it prevents another XIII, change whatever you want.

[Catapult]

Are you ready for my Final Fantasy street-cred to hit the floor? The Final Fantasy I played was FFX (In 2002; when I was 14). I know, I know. (The shame!) X sucked me in so deep that I went back and binged the entire series in one summer hoping to find one that lived up to it. Needless to say, pretty much every single Final Fantasy beat it in terms of characters, but Spira's lore remains among my toppers. (If anyone cares, Final Fantasy Tactics for PSX was my favorite by far, XII coming in close second because I pretend that Vaan decided being a sky pirate sucked, went back to Rabanastre, and left Balthier as the main character after Act One).

As for the game aging, aye, adaptation is completely required. Sometimes I just feel that they change and cling to the wrong things, which is why I find at least 90% of the recent changes refreshing compared to the alternatives. I'm happy to see what XIV will become, it's the process of becoming and adapting to it that's got my feathers ruffled. Like they say, it's not being dead that sucks - it's getting dead. I think game evolution's kinda similar, sometimes.

Then again, if XIII proved anything, it's that they're pretty much out of ideas if they don't start making some drastic changes. So, if it prevents another XIII, change whatever you want.

Similar story here. X was first and I've been dabbling in the earlier titles as they've been re-released. Although I'm abnormal in that I really enjoyed XIII. And XII, although that's more to do with the game ripping off Skies of Arcadia than anything else.

Feathers ruffling for the same reason. But holding out because if Ferne has proven anything, it's that the lore masters and writers can get rather creative.

[Anonymoose]

Although I'm abnormal in that I really enjoyed XIII.

I think what bugged me about it was how much I wanted to like it and wasn't allowed to. 75% of the game was a rail adventure, and 23% of the rest was farming various levels of turtles. So much lost potential (and bad character development. I hope the XIII adventure got Lightning to be a little more than the character equivalent of a blank piece of paper.)

[Bowen]

I think what bugged me about it was how much I wanted to like it and wasn't allowed to. 75% of the game was a rail adventure, and 23% of the rest was farming various levels of turtles. So much lost potential (and bad character development. I hope the XIII adventure got Lightning to be a little more than the character equivalent of a blank piece of paper.)

While we are talking about FFXIII. Omg can't wait til' FFXIII-2

[Viridiana]

(If anyone cares, Final Fantasy Tactics for PSX was my favorite by far

I knew I liked you for a reason.

[Elexia]

Aye, that's what I've been thinking about. The thing is, the original point of Final Fantasy was to bring Western fantasy to Japan because it was so exotic and ... fantastic.

Subjective, I personally find western fantasy dull and generic. I like eastern and middle eastern fantasy and mythology. The original point of Final Fantasy was to save the company and bring out a good RPG, not westernize the RPG genre in Japan because the 80s and 90s Japan were starting to turn out the key JRPGs at the time which was significantly different from western RPGs in ways. The only relevance to western RPG FF shared was the magic system was sort of similiar to Dungeons & Dragons, then they went with the current Mana setup that they threw out for FFXIII.

why most of the items in the Japanese versions are katakana of English words (Grass Viper = Gurassubaipa). It sounds more exotic.

You're definitely stretching it a bit. It's not done because it sounded exotic, it's done because it's common practice in Japanese media (specifically gaming) to use generalized names, a lot of FF names, that you forget to point out, are generally much more rooted in older (and usually) middle eastern/asian mythology with the exception of heavy use of norse for some. If I'm in Japan and I try to write out that I seen a Garden Snake, am I trying to be exotic? Or am I just saying it's a Garden Snake?

XIV is a very blatant attempt at westernizing the (MMO) series, much like XIII was for the offline series since fast paced straight to the point gaming is what's popular now but that doesn't mean it's a good thing at times, because it's the biggest reason Korea dislikes TERA, even though it's not a horrible MMO, it's very clearly trying to appeal purely to western bases which Korea's main complaint about TERA aside lack of content, is "It feels to western, if I wanted to play a western MMO I'd play World of Warcraft or Rift."

I get the idea of the thread, but some things are a tad bit of a stretch of the imagination. No one is resistant to change, but remember that Final Fantasy wasn't made to westernize Japanese RPGs, it was made purely to save Square's asses lol.

[Synfrag]

XIV is a very blatant attempt at westernizing the (MMO) series, much like XIII was for the offline series since fast paced straight to the point gaming is what's popular now but that doesn't mean it's a good thing at times, because it's the biggest reason Korea dislikes TERA, even though it's not a horrible MMO, it's very clearly trying to appeal purely to western bases which Korea's main complaint about TERA aside lack of content, is "It feels to western, if I wanted to play a western MMO I'd play World of Warcraft or Rift."

I don't know where to break your quote due to missing periods but....

Tera is Korean, and has been Korean long before it even announced a western launch so why would it be developed for western appeal? Aion was exactly the same way being created in Korea and then ported west. In that process they westernize some extra things. I get your point about them failing with creating a western like theme but it was intended for the Korean market not the NA/EU.

Regardless, Korea is not a thing like Japan. You should know, you live there. In MMOs Korea is vain and superficial, their games are always about looking cool/sexy with scantly clad women and crazy looking men. Their gamer market is actually younger than NA/EU unlike Japan's which is older than the west. I can't speak for Tera but as far as Aion is concerned, the largest bulk of content releases coming from NC East was costumes and aesthetics, not anything to do with Mythology or Westernizations. Content is developed only for their market.