"Where has the magic gone?"

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

Dear SE,

I am writing you today because i feel that some things have bothered me for far too long and i need to get them out.

~

Growing up playing your wonderful games (Squaresoft), the many stories and iconic characters like moogles and chocobos blending together into living and breathing world where you felt almost at home, is one of the things i will never forget as long as i live.

I will always remember the laughs and tears i shared with friends, the heated discussions about who or what is evil and good. The anticipation for the next big title to be released that brings plenty of the known characters and even more new adventures and stories. Amazed by every new title you released, always surprised how you could maintain such a high standard.

When you released FF11, i was excited. I always wanted to share the world of Final Fantasy and the many adventures with friends, online at the same time. And you did again, give us a great experience so close to your single player games, yet able to share it with friends.

Epic stories unfolded, friends would start to identify with nations and races, roleplaying was never that easy. It was not just about finishing a quest, it was about pride and achievement. It was about friendship, exploring and adventures.

It felt good to share all these adventures with friends, and surprisingly, it still is at this day.

~

But, something has changed, it has been lurking all these years and we, the fans, always feared this day would come. And when it came, i was in denial, i tried really hard to like your new games. I forced myself to like them although they were shallow compared to the greatness i have seen from you before.

At what point, SE, did you loose your magic? I can't really tell anymore, can you? Why did you give up what made you unique and stand out from all the other RPG developers?

Why SE, do you try to be something you are not, you must have by now realized that you are terrible at it. You must have realized that you alienated and lost most of your fans.

All these fans, that stayed with you, like me, for many years, miss you. We are still here, we are grown up now, most of us i assume have maybe less time but plenty of money to spare.

We are not going anywhere soon, we are still waiting for you to come to your senses and make both of us happy. We are happy to give you our money, you just need to give us a reason to do so and you do know how to.

You remember, do you, SE?

Sincerely,
Skyrant Kangaroomouse

[quantumsaint]

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[Greencactaur]

Hironobu Sakaguchi

[Eekiki]

They lost their magic (Sakaguchi), but gained an Enix.

We got the shaft.

[quantumsaint]

Serious answer, they've been bleeding talent for years.
Interesting read:
http://ca.kotaku.com/5778294/is-maki...sy-a-nightmare

[Sepix]

It has alot to do with the workload that increases with every game generation. While an engine for a NES Final Fantasy was probably done in a month it took years to create the (crappy) Crystal Tools Engine.

There just isnt much time left for the actual game after years of engine coding. Alot of stuff probably looks good on paper but if they cant even display a LSMES with an engine that was in the works for 5 years i doubt they have much choice beside making it mainstream food.

[Atoli]

It's hard to tell if it's SE's or the players fault.
Final Fantasy games have started to follow the recent trend of working in real life problems, showing more diversity, etc.
While some games really get a lot better because of it, it won't work for all, and I get the feeling FF is one of those games whose atmosphere is hurt by it.
For example, FF XIII: We got a black guy to fullfill the quota, a boy who is a sissy and always relies on some girl so we have our non-mysoginistic quota, and so on. Not forgetting about all the discrimination stuff and everything else they tried to put into the game. Now I do realize some people liked it, but to me it all felt so hollow with all the preaching on what is bad so "be good kids and think of it next time you beat up the neighbour's kid".

For me, FF I-VII were the best parts and starting with FF VIII, it lost it's magic (although I enjoyed FF XII Revenant Wings).
The thing I love about FF XIV so much is how it recaptures the magical feeling of the older titles
I know there will be many who disagree with me, but that's just how I feel about it.

Something else you have to take a look at is ourselves.
Like you already said - we've grown up. It's way harder to give a grown-up person the same kind of magical feeling you could give to a child or teenager. The reason we still feel it in the titles we've played as kids is because our memories give it a magical feeling. It's not something controlable.
So I'm not sure who really is to blame for the loss of "magic" in Final Fantasy, but I think they are doing a really great job with FFXIV in recapturing it.

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

It has alot to do with the workload that increases with every game generation. While an engine for a NES Final Fantasy was probably done in a month it took years to create the (crappy) Crystal Tools Engine.

There just isnt much time left for the actual game after years of engine coding. Alot of stuff probably looks good on paper but if they cant even display a LSMES with an engine that was in the works for 5 years i doubt they have much choice beside making it mainstream food.

Unfortunately that argument is wrong. Coding an "engine" for the SNES or any 2D platform was as complicated since it was mostly done in assembler and no rapid development tools where available in those days.

All the hand drawn animations, sprites and backgrounds are much more time intensive than simple 3D polygons that get textured, lit and rendered.

I give you a simple example. The scaling of the enemies they have done in FF14 can be done with a few simple parameters. Polygons naturally scale to any size and tessalation takes only a mouse click in modern 3D modeling software.

If you would have done that in a 2D game you would have to hand draw all the sprites and graphics again. Something that would take months not days.

The whole argument about 3D beeing more complicated and time intensive is rubbish.
Why you think people that have no experience in game design can use the free editors to make levels that are sometimes superior to the original game?

[Demacia]

It's hard to tell if it's SE's or the players fault.
Final Fantasy games have started to follow the recent trend of working in real life problems, showing more diversity, etc.
While some games really get a lot better because of it, it won't work for all, and I get the feeling FF is one of those games whose atmosphere is hurt by it.
For example, FF XIII: We got a black guy to fullfill the quota, a boy who is a sissy and always relies on some girl so we have our non-mysoginistic quota, and so on. Not forgetting about all the discrimination stuff and everything else they tried to put into the game. Now I do realize some people liked it, but to me it all felt so hollow with all the preaching on what is bad so "be good kids and think of it next time you beat up the neighbour's kid".

For me, FF I-VII were the best parts and starting with FF VIII, it lost it's magic (although I enjoyed FF XII Revenant Wings).
The thing I love about FF XIV so much is how it recaptures the magical feeling of the older titles
I know there will be many who disagree with me, but that's just how I feel about it.

Something else you have to take a look at is ourselves.
Like you already said - we've grown up. It's way harder to give a grown-up person the same kind of magical feeling you could give to a child or teenager. The reason we still feel it in the titles we've played as kids is because our memories give it a magical feeling. It's not something controlable.
So I'm not sure who really is to blame for the loss of "magic" in Final Fantasy, but I think they are doing a really great job with FFXIV in recapturing it.

Which part recaptures it? The tiny world composed of 5 huge repetitive zones, the lack of chocobos, the lack of cid, the lack of any sort of memorable characters, or the lack of deep storyline/lore?

Maybe you added a V to FFXI by mistake, because that game DID manage to "recapture the magic". Then again it was in development before the merge.

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

Something else you have to take a look at is ourselves.
Like you already said - we've grown up. It's way harder to give a grown-up person the same kind of magical feeling you could give to a child or teenager. The reason we still feel it in the titles we've played as kids is because our memories give it a magical feeling. It's not something controlable.
So I'm not sure who really is to blame for the loss of "magic" in Final Fantasy, but I think they are doing a really great job with FFXIV in recapturing it.

I think we all know that even being in an older body, we never really grow up. Look into yourself and you still see that child. It's what drives humanity forward. Curiosity and adventure, don't tell me we loose that when we grow up, it's simply not true. We might not be as easily impressed or manipulated, but we still do have the need for all the same things we wanted back when we where a kid or teenager.

We need that new toy, it just changed from a toy car to a real car.