"Where has the magic gone?"

[Atoli]

Plenty of RPG franchises and Indie developers make much more fun and engaging games that don't have as complex graphical designs, but they gameplay is fascinating.

Maybe it would be a good idea if the big companies just bought those games /game ideas and do what they can do best:
Put awesome graphics to it.

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

A big issue now a days is that game developers focus so much on how a game looks that they often skip over how it plays. Graphics are the first thing you notice, but that's not what keeps you playing a game. Sure ffxi looks pretty (as long as you don't go out and about and see the same thing over and over).. but its boring as hell to play. Its backwards. Make a game thats enjoyable, then garnish with nice graphics. Don't blow all your time on an engine that runs like crap but looks pretty, then try to make the game play bareable.

I'd rather break out an emulator and play the original final fantasy than play ffxiv. At least in that game my warriors could have an axe or a sword and still whoop ass. Sure the game's 8-bit graphics aren't as pretty, but at least the game play is solid. Though the whole not being able to buy more than 1 item at a time was a PITFA.

Hell, the other day i hooked up my old ps2 and put in ff7. And the first thing i thought was "damn, i could of sworn the game looked better"... but after about 5 minutes of playing i didn't even notice the graphics anymore.

I even had a month when i went back and recreated a FFXI account and started over. Leveling jobs that i'd done before, i still had fun (even though it was really easy since they changed the exp)... well up until you get to the point where everyone wants to do abyssea non stop and levels have no meaning. Then i canceled my account again.

I wish developers would stop thinking "next generation" means you have to max hardware just to run a game.

Well said, i am the last not to admit that i do like pretty graphics, but i also appreciate graphics that are not as good but artistically well done, like old 8/16bit gfx. In the end, it's not the graphics that keeps you playing or that makes you enjoy the game.

As soon as companies start to understand that story and immersion is more important that the latest Shader Technology, we will be on the right track. You don't retain subscriptions with graphics, you retain them with epic stories and gameplay.

You can go to the louvre and look at the Mona Lisa, it's an amazing piece of art. But once you seen it 2-3 times it becomes just a painting and you might start to ask yourself who was this woman, why was she painted like that. The story becomes more interesting than the picture.

[Kafeen]

A big issue now a days is that game developers focus so much on how a game looks that they often skip over how it plays. Graphics are the first thing you notice, but that's not what keeps you playing a game.

I have this problem with publishers a lot. I can spend days working on game logic but without something visible our publishers (or even out directors) start to panic that no progress is being made. Its much easier to please them by taking 5 minutes to stick a new shiny particle effect on something. I end up trying to balance what needs to be done to make the game work and what I'm told to do to keep the higher ups happy. Game development would be so much easier without trying to keep those with the money happy.

[Skyrant_Kangaroomouse]

I have this problem with publishers a lot. I can spend days working on game logic but without something visible our publishers (or even out directors) start to panic that no progress is being made. Its much easier to please them by taking 5 minutes to stick a new shiny particle effect on something. I end up trying to balance what needs to be done to make the game work and what I'm told to do to keep the higher ups happy. Game development would be so much easier without trying to keep those with the money happy.

I notice that in a lot of industries. It's all glamor no substance. It's a very sad development and it worries me a lot looking into the future.

[SuzakuCMX]

Lost Odyssey was pretty magical to me. The writing makes XIV walls O' text seem amateurish in comparison.

Meh

Why can't they hire talented game designers!?
Character designer is doing Vs. and the director of XIII has nothing but utter failures in his CV ("My life as a King"anyone?) Japan is stock full of genius game designers hire them!

They're already hired by other gaming companies, deeeerp.

Why don't you hire the directors of previous FF games (other than Sakaguchi) to do new FF titles?

I don't get why they keep hiring these incompetent people to these important roles.

Yoshida's greatest achievments are that he has once played Everquest?! Are you kidding me? Hire the staff of XI they CLEARLY can handle a job like this.

The staff of XI were hired. Tanaka was the producer for XI and Komoto was the director for XI. Both of them were responsible for the complete mess XIV was at release/still is. Additionally, they stated somewhere that a lot of the staff that worked on XI are also working on XIV. They want the direction of XIV to be much different. Also, Sakaguchi directed or produced Final Fantasies I through X, Tactics, and Tactics Advanced, so it's not like there's more than him to get as director.

Btw producing a MMO takes more than just reading forums and writing letters. Hire Yoshida to do community management that's what he's obviously good at. Hire a game designer to create a FF title like you have done for 2 decades.

It's not rocket surgery people =)

No it's not, but that doesn't mean anyone here actually understands what's happening, least of all you.

[Seif]

I agree. This "evil" of games taking huge teams and money is just something bigger companies use as an excuse when a game does poorly. Plenty of RPG franchises and Indie developers make much more fun and engaging games that don't have as complex graphical designs, but they gameplay is fascinating. Capsize on Steam is awesome, I just started replaying Xenogears, Fragile Dreams on the Wii, the Disgaea series is still 2D sprites and is amazingly complex and addictive.

I completely agree. I'd rather have good visual design, tons of content and deep complex mechanics that take years to master over technically good graphics any day of the week.

I'm still playing Phantom Brave after all these years and keep learning new things about it and no I've never finished it yet it's that long if you go for the ultimate weapons.

Speaking of ultimate weapons and unique quests attached to them in previous FF games? I miss that.

Graphics sell games but good design and content keep them playing and to a MMO the latter is a lot more important since the graphics selling point expires after the first 3 months anyway because someone will always make better graphics.

[AdvancedWind]

Tch.

It's not as simple as "Final Fantasy has lost it's magic". I do put myself in the group that likes older (IX <) Final Fantasies over the more recent ones, however, I also do know that it isn't just because "Final Fantasy X sucked and lost the magic" or "Summons in XIII are transformers, WTH". Actually, I can say that at the core level, FFX and XIII are as much as a Final Fantasy as any other before em, even tho I don't really like those games.

We often forget that our fond memories with the older games are from a time when we were younger. A time we ARE predisposed to have nostalgia over everything. The cartoons we watched back then are better than nowadays; the music groups from "our time" are better than the current ones; the games of the early 90s had a their magic lost in the new century, etc, etc. Everyone does that to everything, go ask your parents about a few things and they are sure to reminisce about their old times as well. There are even a few scientific studies that, in fact, point to that exact direction. We 'overrate' (for lack of a better word) everything from the day we were younger. Mark my words; Some of us may even be full of nostalgia towards THIS game in a few years, complaining all over again how the next FF MMO isn't FFXIV-2, lol.

In any case, go ahead and ask a younger JRPG fan that didn't grow up with the classics what game he liked better, FFV or XIII.

That said, it's also a fact that, indeed, a few screws are clearly missing from the current SE. Wada himself already stated the company does need to revamp itself if it wants to keep competitive on the market. FFXIV's development sure was / is a hell and I know as much as everyone else that it does need to improve a LOT not only to become a better game, but a better Final Fantasy.

But going around spelling the doom of the series and how it has lost it's "magic" is pure, absolute Nostalgia. The magic is there, but we can't find it because we just want to relive the feeling of playing FF (insert your favorite old school FF here) for the first time again and any game that is unable to hit the exact same buttons as that one failed. I, for one, appreciate each game for what they are and can live with the fact that things change. If it changes too much that it becomes something that clearly isn't for me anymore, I will just move on and let the new generation feel the same magic I did before.

[Aver]

Squaresoft is not Square-Enix. That's when the magic poofed.

[Corrderio]

For me it ended when SE took a plunge into the 3D market. It seems when that happened they focused more on the graphics than gameplay. The only real 3D FF I liked was 9.

[NeoEarth]

While I agree that as we grow up we trade our illusions for facts without trade-backs (eddie from pearl jam) we are still gamers inside.

I installed the snes rom on my droid. I then played through every FF I could find and was instantly drawn into each and every story once again.

The point is... ffxiv can have the single best mechanics of any mmo in history, but once we cap, get our gear, there is nothing more to do. While some may say that squeenix needs fix the mechanics first, I worry that should we have another year before we get AT LEAST 2 larger quests arcs... FFXIV will be doomed.

I am glad the OP created this post, i feel the EXACT SAME WAY.