The Lessons Not Learned.

[Midareyukki]

FF8 was received well by critics and had high initial sales, but it lacked staying power. Much of its early success is noted to have been a direct result of Final Fantasy 7 having left such a good impression on players. The junction system was the aspect of the game to receive the most criticism.

Yes. By critics. FF13 was received rather decently by critics as well if I recall. The issue comes with the community reception itself. Both games were seen as underwhelming, with 13 having quite a lot of community backlash over the linearity, the plot, the style and the characters. Hell, even the lack of the Prelude was brought up. FF14 1.0 coming right after did not help :|

[vanaii]

xD Oh but that isn't a flaw of the series imo. That's a flaw of the playerbase. People just expected future games to be the same as before, but FF almost never was that. Closest I can remember to two games being so similar were FF3 and FF5, with 5 expanding on the Job system. There isn't a singular grand unified version of what "Final Fantasy" is in terms of plot (you have comedy stories, depressing stories, invigorative stories, emotional stories, futuristic stories...), setting (medieval, cyberpunk, dieselpunk, steampunk, tribal, generic North Indian) or gameplay (ATB, CTB, RTB, ADB, Active X...). What tends to make a game part of the series tends to be certain tropes, certain characters and especially certain motifs. And it's up to each game to apply them as they see fit, even even omit them whenever unnecessary.

Heck, sometimes it's all about the label more than the game itself. That's how we ended up with FF Tactics xD it's such a clear reskin of the original Tactics Ogre, and while it reuses Cloud and some skills, most of it was pretty jarring given all the games released until then.

Oh, I'm not mad about that at all. That's the entire reason why I've been able to stick with the series for so long.

If I get sick of one "flavor," there are other "flavors" out there.

[Absimiliard]

Yes. By critics. FF13 was received rather decently by critics as well if I recall. The issue comes with the community reception itself. Both games were seen as underwhelming, with 13 having quite a lot of community backlash over the linearity, the plot, the style and the characters. Hell, even the lack of the Prelude was brought up. FF14 1.0 coming right after did not help :|

I don't know many people that will call XIII anything but hot garbage. I've not bothered to look into its sales, but I know I would rather get a lead injection to the dome than play that game again.

Also, why exactly is your post framed as if to imply I did not say basically the same thing your reply just did? You essentially reiterated my point while acting as if I said the opposite. This is confusing.

[hagare]

Yes. By critics. FF13 was received rather decently by critics as well if I recall. The issue comes with the community reception itself. Both games were seen as underwhelming, with 13 having quite a lot of community backlash over the linearity, the plot, the style and the characters. Hell, even the lack of the Prelude was brought up. FF14 1.0 coming right after did not help :|

am I the only one who liked 8 here >_>

[vanaii]

am I the only one who liked 8 here >_>

I liked 8 too. Before I get attacked by the mob, let me also just say I loved XIII and my favorite character in that game was Vanille.

Now that I'm certain I'm going to get attacked by the mob, let me just say my all-time favorites are XIV and VI though.

[Midareyukki]

I don't know many people that will call XIII anything but hot garbage. I've not bothered to look into its sales, but I know I would rather get a lead injection to the dome than play that game again.

Yikes .__.

Also, on wht you said, FF13's sales were actually a record holder. Quoting from Wikipedia, "Selling 1.7 million copies in Japan in 2009, Final Fantasy XIII became the fastest-selling title in the history of the series". The issue is that the sales happened around the time critics were praising the game. The backlash happened afterward, and the image of 13 sank since. In fact, the sales being a record prompted Square to greenlight two sequels... unfortunately they didn't expect the fans to be the ones receiving it poorly.

[Absimiliard]

Yikes .__.

Also, on wht you said, FF13's sales were actually a record holder. Quoting from Wikipedia, "Selling 1.7 million copies in Japan in 2009, Final Fantasy XIII became the fastest-selling title in the history of the series". The issue is that the sales happened around the time critics were praising the game. The backlash happened afterward, and the image of 13 sank since. In fact, the sales being a record prompted Square to greenlight two sequels... unfortunately they didn't expect the fans to be the ones receiving it poorly.

Yeah, that sounds about right. That's kinda been the pattern with Final Fantasy titles for a long time. Main titles, anyway. There will be a huge surge of hype followed by incredible levels of disappointment. Obviously this isn't so much the case with the earlier entries in the franchise since standards were very different then, and players had far fewer ways to voice their discontent. The only title I can recall since FF7 to not be immediately followed by a ton of salt was FF10. People for the most part liked it, although many of them said they wanted to throw Tidus off a bridge.

I suppose you could count FFXI, since it technically is a main title. It was surprisingly well received right up until that Absolute Virtue garbage.

[Midareyukki]

am I the only one who liked 8 here >_>

No :x And I'm honestly getting upset at people misunderstanding what I'm saying as though I hated these titles.

I loved these titles.

I grew up with FF, for F's sake. As did many people, I'm sure.

The only game I didn't like was FF2, and that was just because I didn't click with the gameplay. I have nothing bad to say about it. I like JRPGs, and hell, I invested quite a lot of time trying to understand FF8's Junction system while not understanding much of English at the time, because that's NOT my native language at all, because I thought the system was interesting.

I'm talking about my experience with the franchise's community and what I constantly saw on forums, youtube videos, and comments on anything related to them a decade ago. WAY before this influencer and clickbaity thing started. We're talking Dirge of Cerberus era, guys, not "lol FF15" era. Reactions were that old, you can go search stuff like GameFAQs to confirm. ALL OF THIS is verifiable.

So yeah. Stop saying that I don't like stuff, that was never what I said, AT ALL. (Not you Hagare, just in general)

More and more I'm convinced these forums have fried everyone's reading abilities. I don't think I can make it any clearer when I say that this isn't my opinion, it's what I observed OTHERS say. My opinion on this franchise as a whole was never mentioned.

People for the most part liked it, although many of them said they wanted to throw Tidus off a bridge

Fun fact!! His voice actor got so fed up at people misconstruing the Tidus Laugh scene that he made an entire video explaining what happened.

Yes, that is James Arnold Taylor, Tidus's Voice actor, Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice actor, having to make an entire video on one narm scene just because people wouldn't shut up about it.

[Absimiliard]

The only game I didn't like was FF2, and that was just because I didn't click with the gameplay. I have nothing bad to say about it. I like JRPGs, and hell, I invested quite a lot of time trying to understand FF8's Junction system

We talking the actual FF2, or the horribly mistitled EN FF2 that was actually FF4? Because the actual FF2 was somehow good and terrible at the same time. FF4 I just formed no strong opinions about because it was kinda run of the mill.

As for FF8 - I liked it too, and I enjoyed the junction system. I found it to be a nice way of building on FF7's materia system, but evidently a lot of people disagreed.

Fun fact!! His voice actor got so fed up at people misconstruing the Tidus Laugh scene that he made an entire video explaining what happened.

Yes, that is James Arnold Taylor, Tidus's Voice actor, Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice actor, having to make an entire video on one narm scene just because people wouldn't shut up about it.

Man, he must've gotten a lot of salt thrown his way to end up feeling that was necessary.

[vanaii]

Actual FF2 felt like a Saga game to me. FF4 felt like a prototype of what would define the series from that point on.

I don't really consider 4 to be terribly deep or insightful. It's just a fun little romp through a lot of varied locales.