What consumers expect of a FF-title

[PSxpert2011]

General Hospital or 90210 anyone? Better than FFXIII (NO BODY GIVES A FK ABOUT the CHARACTER other than the STAR character,IMO), I rather focus on the drama going on in my own home( which I can shut off by locking myself in my office.

[Chezen]

You know it's funny. I loved Hope, but I thought Vanille was annoying.

What I expect foremost out of an FF-title is a good story with characters that I care about. But of course it is more than that. I think of elegance, epicness, beautiful music, a certain style of gameplay (one that hinges more on the quality of a decision than the quickness of one), cool graphics for attacks (especially limit breaks). It's just an overall quality that I think lacks in other games.

I personally feel that FFVIII was the best game overall. Very little of it fell to the wayside in quality, and the storytelling (my most important factor) was just excellent.

What went wrong for me in XII was the story. First off, I'm really not into politics. As for the characters, some of them had potential, but there was never a moment in the story that really got you to care about them. Vaan was really out of place (I found out why later). If the powers-that-be would have left well enough alone, it probably would have been a much better title.

I was not a fan of the AI battles either. I not only like turn-based, I really missed the attack graphics from the previous games. You know, the ones that would zoom in and make it look more interesting.

Lastly, I also felt it borrowed heavily from Star Wars.

In XIII... I actually really liked it, I just wanted it to focus on Lightning more. The massive downside was that, even more-so than XII, the game felt like it was on auto-pilot. Only in real boss battles did that battle system get to shine. All I had to do to win most battles was to punch X 8 times. I want to feel like I'm actually doing something. Yes, there was the non-auto choice, but honestly, how feasible is it to set up 6 attacks in real time like that? Maybe some can do it, but I'm not ashamed to say, not me.

That's why I'm not a fan of real time combat. (mmo aside, which is different)

[Zantetsuken]

Why does hot girls, gunblades, and soppy attitudes make everything better? FF13, Kingdom Hearts, Dissidia, 3rd birthday, FF7:AC, FF7C, FF:CC, FF Type-0 have all have one thing in common. They all try too hard to be cool.

^^ exactly. ^^


The Ivalice Alliance games do not have this problem, nor did FFI-VI, FFIX and the MMOs, nor does Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, or the DQ series..

If a designer's goal is to make something cool (or trendy), the best outcome is temporary success, and the likely outcome is complete failure. More players have developed excellent BS detectors and won't be distracted by fluff.

Rather than making something cool, the designers main purpose should be to tell a story and/or create an experience for players. If the design is good, and the game has quality (both traditional SE strengths), then,the game BECOMES cool.

It's the difference between being a trend setter and a trend follower.

[Sojiro]

FFXII was fantastic, but I agree that it wasn't perfect.

• Battle system on auto-pilot made the combat too easy. Gambits should have been disabled for active character.
• License board erased distinction by endgame - Intl. Zodiac version fixed this with job boards.
• The story was sober, complex, and subtle -- like all Ivalice stories -- but I think Yazumi Matsuno's exit resulted in a loss of focus at the end.
• Van was a bland character and lacked the depth found in the other cast members. The game would have been stronger if Ashe remained center stage.
• Some of the monsters were a bit silly looking.

Those issues aside, I think FFXII was one of the best in the series.

Unlike the 'RPG on rails' style of FFX and FFXIII, it had a relatively open world with lots to explore and do. It may not have had the emotional moments that FFX or FFVII had, but it was also free of the sappy and cliched dialog that plagues the more 'emotional' FF stories.

I seriously hope SE considers an HD (and 3d) re-release for the Intl Version of FFXII. I'd be first in line for it.

Despite being a couple pages back I had to quote this and say that I agree completely, I never understood why XII seems to be regarded as the "worst final fantasy", or "the final fantasy I hate the most!". This is coming from someone who regards VI as the best in the series. XII was a solid entry in the series, and maybe i'll never get why people rag on it so much.

[Jennestia]

You know how people seem to hate FFXI and all it stands for? XII was specifically designed "as how XI was originally intended to be designed"..battle system and interaction wise.

So it was very close to FFXI, thus the hate for it, since the game itself was amazing -- The only issue I had was the dialog.

[Lucifer]

Wrong.

No.
I should have stated; no ties to the cast and or plot.
Since FF13-2 takes place after the events of 13, it is an obvious sequel.

FF10 being a sequel to 7 is bs. How does one guy of FOUR people; get to write his own story and say "yeah this is the sequel to FF7 because I'd like to think its like that" (Those are his own translated words I believe. He never mentioned it was a sequel though but people and their autistic judgement...)

It's not a sequel. Take that terribly translated interview with a grain of salt.

[Zezlar]

General Hospital or 90210 anyone? Better than FFXIII (NO BODY GIVES A FK ABOUT the CHARACTER other than the STAR character,IMO), I rather focus on the drama going on in my own home( which I can shut off by locking myself in my office.

Yeah, that makes a load of sense.

/sarcasm

[grandm]

No.
I should have stated; no ties to the cast and or plot.
Since FF13-2 takes place after the events of 13, it is an obvious sequel.

FF10 being a sequel to 7 is bs. How does one guy of FOUR people; get to write his own story and say "yeah this is the sequel to FF7 because I'd like to think its like that" (Those are his own translated words I believe. He never mentioned it was a sequel though but people and their autistic judgement...)

It's not a sequel. Take that terribly translated interview with a grain of salt.

the devil is so right. there i no way 10 can be considered a sequel to 7, despite the fact the world that 7 is set on looks nothing like the world of 10 (even if it is 5000 years in the past, there would be similarity's). no, there is no way FF7 is set on spira. and even if SE had an official press release (and not one man's deluded views) i still would have a hard time believing it.

but anyway if some1 could convince me that FF7 was set on spira. that would make FF10 a spin off not a sequell

[Malakhim]

Actually X and X-2 are prequels to the FFVII series as pointed out by a quote by Kitase and a few FFX-2 in-game entries.

[grandm]

Actually X and X-2 are prequels to the FFVII series as pointed out by a quote by Kitase and a few FFX-2 in-game entries.

prequels, i would love to know how this works, where in the world of FF7 is there a great big canyon? (calmlands) so i can only guess that midgar is sposed zanarkand, but zanarkand is at the top of mt gagazet none of this looks anything like the world of FF7.

areas of FF7 look very technologically advanced, this is the only thing that give any impression that the two worlds are connected. but wait what is this spira managed to go through a huge war (machina war) and a thousand years of decline yet blitz ball survived, even when most technology has been banned they still manage to fill great big floating balls with water and play a game in them, yet they lose this ability by the time FF7 comes along or any off FF7s spin off's, not one mention of blitz ball, a game so great it has a religious like following.

then there is the cetra the ancients, i mean if you have a name like the ancient, that would suggest you have been around along time, long enough to have shown up in FF10? so where were they? maybe summoners were ancients. but if they were then why did we never hear them called cetra. or why did all characters in FF7 get to use summons and not just aerith and her mom.

and there is the guado sure they were hiding in the woods by the end of FF10-2 but what happend to guadosalam that was a very unique area, what with the place to visit the dead and all, not the sort of place you would expect to disappear and what happened to the ronso? did they morph into dogs and become red XII.

all being said i would need some real convincing that FF10 and FF7 where related