Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[MikkoAkure]

Pretty much every Final Fantasy game has set out to do something new in order to stand out from the others. We've also had 'serious' entries in the past. Final Fantasy Tactics, Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Type-0 instantly come to mind. They had much more grit, tragedy and intrigue than comedic moments but still did pretty well for themselves.

The difference is that while those Final Fantasys were serious and their stories were well liked, Stranger of Paradise tried to do the same and missed the mark and is more recent than those games by over a decade. Type-0 is the newest of those listed and came out in 2011.

I'm excited to see a return to classically medieval and gritty and FFXII was one of my favorites, but if Clive spends the whole game screaming "EIKONS!!!!!" over and over, it's going to suck a bit of the enjoyment out of it so I'm keeping my hype down for now and being cautiously optimistic.

[Theodric]

The difference is that while those Final Fantasys were serious and their stories were well liked, Stranger of Paradise tried to do the same and missed the mark and is more recent than those games by over a decade. Type-0 is the newest of those listed and came out in 2011.

I'm excited to see a return to classically medieval and gritty and FFXII was one of my favorites, but if Clive spends the whole game screaming "EIKONS!!!!!" over and over, it's going to suck a bit of the enjoyment out of it so I'm keeping my hype down for now and being cautiously optimistic.

From what I gather, Stranger of Paradise was always intending to be a sort of niche entry rather than a mainline entry. I doubt it was prioritising its storytelling over its combat system, especially since it was trying to be a sort of pseudo 'Dark Souls' type of game.

For the type of game he was in, I thought Jack worked pretty well. I doubt Clive is at risk of randomly pulling out a phone and start blaring music through it, so I'm not too worried about FFXVI becoming too much of a meme/parody.

My gut feeling is pretty positive where FFXVI is concerned.

[Vyrerus]

The FFXVI trailer does not look good.

It looks great.

Final Fantasy has always contained comedic relief, but it has not always been great, colorful high fantasy.

Final Fantasy II literally only has comedy in NPC dialogue, and in one or two interactions in the main story. It was incredibly melancholy, and literally featured monsters summoned from Hell by the Emperor of Palamecia.

Final Fantasy VI is set in a steampunk fantasy world with the majority of its color palette being greys, blacks, browns, and beige/off tan colors. In the second half of the game you are thrust into The World of Ruin with a deep dark blood red sea, maroon sky, and desolate earth as far as the eye can see with the exception of some scant forests. For every moment of comedy, there are two or three of incredible gravity. This includes a scene that you have to actively and somewhat RNG based avoid wherein Celes attempts suicide (unless you get Cid enough healthy fish). Bereavement is a common theme for no less than 1/4th of the game's cast.

Final Fantasy VII is similar to VI, except in a slightly more modernized setting. You play eco-terrorists trying to take down a world spanning Electric Power company that's bleeding the planet's life force dry for profit and control. It is only due to a plethora of mini-games at the Golden Saucer, along with the comedic relief elements that are usually present in an FF that the player is distracted from how incredibly grim the story actually is, being that it culminates in a rather Lovecraftian alien parasite being melded with a human fetus to create a super soldier who then becomes the will of that parasite, and attempts to break open the planet with a giant meteor and feast on its life force to become a god.

There is more whimsy in the next three entries, but none are without deeply existential questions and themes.

FFXI was a brutal, death filled MMO with absolute truck loads of comical relief and whimsy in the cutscenes, because the gameplay itself was slaughtering you every day. Even so, its more serious cutscenes are some of the most serious in the series with incredibly high stakes.

I don't think FFXVI will be absolutely serious all of the time, but even if it is, it will be hard to be more serious than entries they've already given us in the past. The trailers we've been given have been mostly focusing on the eikons/eidolons/summons, as well as the combat, since Final Fantasy has been moving towards action game for the last decade now. I am certain there will be NPC distractions and some comedy here and there within the more personal moments in the story, rather than the grand stakes that is the overarching plot.

[Tehmon]

It looks great.

Final Fantasy has always contained comedic relief, but it has not always been great, colorful high fantasy.

When a FF game hasn't been colorful high fantasy, it has made up with an extremely colorful cast of characters, heroes and villains alike. How FFXVI has presented itself is not making me confident, not with it's characters, atmosphere, character design or environment design. Everything has lacked the joy I require, as they are seemingly taking a deep turn into grimdark serious edgy nonsense, and they haven't showcased anything to balance that yet. Of course, this is based on a few trailers, but how they are marketing the game does not make me confident in the things I'd like to see in a singleplayer Final Fantasy game. The '' magic '' is not there.

[RyuDragnier]

When a FF game hasn't been colorful high fantasy, it has made up with an extremely colorful cast of characters, heroes and villains alike. How FFXVI has presented itself is not making me confident, not with it's characters, atmosphere, character design or environment design. Everything has lacked the joy I require, as they are seemingly taking a deep turn into grimdark serious edgy nonsense, and they haven't showcased anything to balance that yet. Of course, this is based on a few trailers, but how they are marketing the game does not make me confident in the things I'd like to see in a singleplayer Final Fantasy game. The '' magic '' is not there.

They did similar marketing for FFXII, if I recall, on how dark the game was. Even FFX's marketing was somewhat dark I believe on what all it showed.

[Kolsykol]

I think FFXVI looks great, Shiva looks incredibly derpy to me tho I don't like her design at all.
It just looks so random and weird I don't even know how to describe it, it's easily the worst Shiva design in FF imo.
Garuda looks like from a horror game, it's a good design I guess but she also looks like someone just vomited black organic scales on her there's not much variety in her design in terms of shapes and color.

It's oddly dark and gritty for FF tho.
Imo part of what I enjoy about FF is the more upbeat, fantastical and bright tone and visuals so I am not really a fan of that.
I also hate how it infects everything nowadays, why does every single game ever made needs to be dark and gritty?

I saw the new Street Fighter too and I don't think I've ever had that mixed feelings before.
Part of me thinks it looks really good but the another part of me thinks it looks like a different game and not like Street Fighter.
The roster leaked tho and Juri is in it and we got some leaked art of them, Juri's redesign is probably my favorite she has had I am a big fan.
They do look a bit monotonous tho because they all got a '' street wear '' redesign.
It's not that they look bad but part of the fun with fighting game characters is how diverse and wacky they are, and it's also why I never found them appealing in Mortal Kombat because of how repetitive and one note the characters were.

There's just something a bit dull with the the characters all having the same design theme.

[RyuDragnier]

It's oddly dark and gritty for FF tho.
Imo part of what I enjoy about FF is the more upbeat, fantastical and bright tone and visuals so I am not really a fan of that.
I also hate how it infects everything nowadays, why does every single game ever made needs to be dark and gritty?

It's pretty close to how I'd expect a remake of FF6 to be, in terms of dark and gritty. That game was dark almost the entirety of the game. As a reminder...

You invade a town and kill a bunch of people trying to defend it in the opening, Kefka's whole poisoning of an entire city, the Phantom Train carrying the souls of the dead, the whole murdering of Espers, Kefka destroying the world, Celes attempting suicide, etc etc.

That game is VEEERRRYYY dark, and has one of the biggest fanbases in the franchise.

[Kolsykol]

It's pretty close to how I'd expect a remake of FF6 to be, in terms of dark and gritty. That game was dark almost the entirety of the game. As a reminder...

You invade a town and kill a bunch of people trying to defend it in the opening, Kefka's whole poisoning of an entire city, the Phantom Train carrying the souls of the dead, the whole murdering of Espers, Kefka destroying the world, Celes attempting suicide, etc etc.

That game is VEEERRRYYY dark, and has one of the biggest fanbases in the franchise.

Yeah I meant more in regards to visuals, I think FF has always had a more bright and fantastical aesthetic.

Edit: Except maybe FF7, it was more dystopian tho.
I think I am just a bit tired of it because of how common it is, it feels like every game with '' realistic '' graphics has the same tone.

[Shibi]

When the trailer for a Final Fantasy game is shoving a post-sex scene into your face, it feels unreal to me.

Garuda and WoL I think.



Well the same hair as the dominant they label as Garuda:

[RyuDragnier]

I think I am just a bit tired of it because of how common it is, it feels like every game with '' realistic '' graphics has the same tone.

I understand that one completely. A lot of games seemingly aiming for the same level of realism, and it can get tiring. The only reason why I'm letting this one slide is because it's the FF14 team doing it (you know how cinematic they are), and because if the writer is indeed the one behind Heavensward, then these graphics will meet his level of storytelling. I don't deny though that I'm hoping for a bit of goofiness between the serious stuff shown, like ending up in a Moogle village full of moogles that we need a child to act as a translator for (that can act as a bit of a minigame hub).