Author Topic: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?  (Read 12481 times)

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Nox_Noctis

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #20 on: May 22, 2008, 07:50:00 PM »
On a side note, in FFX-2 the Mascot costume was clearly the best one in the game.
I'd be willing to debate that, if only because of the Catnip + Trigger Happy (Level 3) trick that the Gunner can use.
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Optimator

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #21 on: May 28, 2008, 06:47:28 AM »
I've loved all the Final Fantasy games except XI.  I even liked X-2; just don't take it too seriously and it turns out to be really fun.  I loved all the items you can collect in IX, I loved the turn-based system in X (it made things like shell, protect, and haste way more effective), I love pretty much everything about III (VI) and VII.  I hated VIII at first, but I grew to like it a lot after I told my young self, "It's okay if it isn't exactly the same" and I now hold it in as high esteem as III and VII.  I liked Tactics but I never ended up beating it.  Got about 3/5 of the way through and just kinda stopped.  Same thing with XII; I really liked it but I got sorta bored with it and never picked it back up.  I feel I should replay it from the start though, since I am a real sucker for collecting shit in games and I hardly remember the plot.

The first one I played was III for SNES.  I have gone back and played V and II (IV) and they just aren't endearing since I didn't grow up with them.  Never played the first one or any of the Game Boy ones.   

I'm currently playing Front Mission 4, which is Square-Enix.  It's above average, but nothing to write home about. 

ninjarabbit

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #22 on: May 28, 2008, 12:24:12 PM »
Square-Enix's sales were down by 45% in 2007 in North America

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6191525.html

I guess you can only remake a game so many times before people stop buying them. but then again FFXII and DQ VIII came out in 2006 while no blockbusters came out in 2007 so that's obviously a factor too.

My suggestion ironically would be to put some of their classic games on the VC, PSN, and/or X Box Live. I'd love to have Dragon Warrior 3, Chrono Trigger, and one of the old FFs on the VC and it's literally free money for them since there's no development costs and the other costs would be minimal.
« Last Edit: May 28, 2008, 12:29:54 PM by ninjarabbit »

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #23 on: May 28, 2008, 04:18:40 PM »
I agree with you Ninjarabbit. I'd like to replay Drakengard and several other games on my 360 (they've all ready given me Unreal Championship, so I don't need Tourney at all).

It really isn't surprising that their sales have gone down. They keep recycling things over and over, it just gets a little boring. I'm pissed about 12, because it was just one giant Skies of Arcadia rip-off (seriously, they had everything down except the floating landmasses, they even had a new Valuan Empire to work with). They aren't producing good story lines, everything is just a bunch of Mary Sues/Gary Stus flying around and beating up bad guys. They stopped killing off characters, they even stopped making the good guys lose (one of the things I liked about the Drakengard story was that Caim was always a step behind the Watchers, and he did lose no matter what ending you had).


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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #24 on: July 01, 2008, 12:52:55 AM »
I have almost come to the same conclusion about FF going down the drain as you guys. FF10 to me was the last good game that was made for the series. 10-2, no, 11, not even that great of an online game, World of Warcraft easily is better if you want to play an MMORPG, and 12...wow the story there just sucks. I got it about a year ago and just got bored about 15 hours in and stopped playing and havn't played it since, which NEVER happens to me with FF games.  :-\

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #25 on: July 13, 2008, 01:34:02 AM »
FFVIII was good, my "first" FF game. :) FFVII I didn't like at all though, despite the international craze over it now, the game's first 2 hours were simply too draggy. I found the initial pacing terrible, so never got into it.

I loved FFIX, the story and very simple yet fun system got me hooked. I spent so much time mashing buttons just to play the chocobo digging game...!!!

FFX I liked when it came out, but looking back at it, I still like FFIX more. FFX-2... conceptually I like it, but something about the game itself just makes it... average rather than great.

No FFXI, but have FFXII. Love-Hate relationship with that game: Love the gambits and combat system, absolutely hate the story. In the end, boredom with the story meant I stopped playing it.

ninjarabbit

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #26 on: July 15, 2008, 11:23:25 PM »
FF XIII is also coming out for the 360 in addition to the PS3 (in North America only, in Japan it's still a PS3 exclusive). I just wonder how Sony feels since Sony did bail Square out after they almost went bankrupt with the failed Square Pictures studio that produced the Final Fantasy: Spirits Within movie.

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #27 on: July 18, 2008, 10:05:32 PM »
I didn't like FFVIII all that much, mostly because of the recycling of a tired story without the awesome elements of the earlier parts. Oh, and an annoying protagonist. The newer ones that I've played (10 was the last) have been better than VIII in my opinion, but worse than the earliers. My favourites thus far have been VI and VII. VII was such a masterpiece that I'm fairly sure they'll never be able to beat it; it's up there as my favourite JRPG of all times along with Chrono Trigger (Prime, that quote is awesome, btw) and Seiken Densetsu 3.

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #28 on: July 20, 2008, 08:17:16 AM »
I've only played two of the Final Fantasy series, and I'd say it can't do down the drain when it's already been there. It is neither fantasy, nor is it EVER the "Final" one.

Final Fantasy 8. I liked the graphics. It was a very good looking game. Right at the intro, there's a girl there saying she'll wait for you. So what happens when you finally meet her? You're a jerk to her. Where's the alleged "role playing" in a "role playing game" where I get to decide how to treat her? She's in the opening credits. I'm supposed be in love with her, not be an ass.

Speaking of which, I really, really hate the angst. "Nobody understands me!", what the hell is that? That's not a specific issue that someone could go on a self pity mood swing for. Can't get a girl to talk to you? Okay, that's a specific problem and part of the solution would be to not be an ass towards the girl seen in the opening credits. Can't get it up? Pop some Viagra, or go on a quest and get a magic potion or something. Don't like the popular music? Getting teased because you like fantasy games, or think it sucks you're living in one? Okay, those are problems, but "Nobody understands me!"? Nobody WANTS to understand you.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately) I do. He's a prick, pure and simple. The default character name should be "Dick Douchebag". Whatever bug that's up his ass is never explained at the point I stopped playing it.

Grow a pair and get over yourself. Nobody is going to like you because you're such a downer. Next time a plant monster pops up, don't bother attacking, take it up the ass like a man so I can get the Game Over screen and go play something worthwhile.

FFX- My wife wastes money on a $5 scratch ticket. I tell her it's a waste of money as she scratches it. She wins $50. She liked FF8, so we go pick up FF10. (Which was new at the time.)

Where FF8 left out the Role Playing, FF10 left out the Game. I used a clock. 50 minutes of nothing but cut scenes. I don't want to watch a movie, I want to play a game. The entire time, I can move the character from one side of the screen to the other. That's freaking it.

They may very well have left off the Role Playing as well, or they might have included it. I wouldn't know because it won't get to the game and let me play.  :wall

When I'm finally ready to give up, I finally get control. You'd think there'd be a save point right there so I don't have to go through all that crap again, but no... I have to play for a while with MORE cut scenes before I can get to a save point just to skip all that crap. It's not entertainment, it's frustration.

And don't get me started on the stupid "blitzball" game. I sure as hell hope I didn't have to WIN any sort of big tournament to get to the next stage. (I wouldn't know. I quit right there.)  :fo



« Last Edit: July 20, 2008, 08:30:21 AM by Peaboo »

j0lt

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #29 on: July 20, 2008, 01:13:01 PM »
I'm probably in the minority, but I'd say Final Fantasy went down the drain starting with 7.
Granted, I followed the series from the beginning, you know, when it was a FANTASY game?  Not some sci-fi train wreck with munchkiny characters.  :wall

/rant

I liked Tactics, though I agree the graphics were hard to get used to and the storyline, like the PS generation of FF games didn't match at all with the originals.
My favourite is still the original, and I also really liked 5, due to the flexible job system.
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Sinfire Titan

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #30 on: July 21, 2008, 11:42:40 AM »
Its the Angst, IMO. The reason it got so popular was because it was a darker series without being M-rated, which started around 7. That's also the reason Skies of Arcadia was popular, in that it was the opposite (it had very little angst, during an era where the angst genre of games were getting popular).

Now, they've milked it for all its worth. They need to change styles outright in order to revive the series. From what I've seen, X-2 and XII were steps in the right direction, but they still have too much in the means of the darker side of gaming (we need a villain who actually is the good guy, for once).

A lot of people are really upset about them tying each series in with the others. This happened in X-2, at the very end When Shinra reveals how the Life Stream came to be out of the Far Plane, thus setting up the storyline for 7. This really got under the skin of others, who preferred that it stayed as a mere coincidence rather than blatantly having each of the separate games be tied together merely by small elements (such as enemies).


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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #31 on: July 21, 2008, 12:32:01 PM »
FF7 was one of the worst games I've ever played.  It never made sense how people could like it so much, what with the angst, boring characters, terrible storyline, tedious combats, banal music, and retarded mini-games.

There hasn't been a decent FF game since the sixth installment.

j0lt

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #32 on: July 22, 2008, 10:35:44 AM »
I've only played two of the Final Fantasy series, and I'd say it can't do down the drain when it's already been there. It is neither fantasy, nor is it EVER the "Final" one.

Guess I'm not in the minority then!    ;)
Final Fantasy WAS fantasy (the whole series up to 5 - 6 was kinda steam-punkish), and the original was SUPPOSED to be Hironobu Sakaguchi's final game, as Square was perilously close to bankruptcy at the time, and his assumption that if the game failed to be a success he'd quit making video games.

The first 6 (aka "the good ones") were all made for NES and Super Nintendo/Famicom) were all fairly similar.  When they switched over to Playstation, it was like a whole different series banking on the FF name.
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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #33 on: August 01, 2008, 04:03:06 AM »
FF7 was one of the worst games I've ever played.  It never made sense how people could like it so much, what with the angst, boring characters, terrible storyline, tedious combats, banal music, and retarded mini-games.

There hasn't been a decent FF game since the sixth installment.
The music is awesome, it was the audio programming that was horrible.  Yes, there's a difference.

Anyway, my favorites of the series are VI, VII, and IX.  I haven't had a lot of time to play IX (only when a friend of mine brought over his Playstation could I ever play it), and, frankly, VIII was garbage.  You can say that FFTA's story/mechanics/whatever was bad, but VIII was worse in all regards.  Everything involving magic in that game was inane, Limit Breaks were WAY too easy to abuse, and the story has two endings.  No, I don't mean like Chrono Trigger's multiple endings, I mean the story goes along and ENDS... and then it continues on to the stupid ending.

As for FFTA shaming FFT, know that FFT was a piece of crap, too.  The entire story you're a brat that is shown to be totally ineffective at every turn, you start out failing to protect a princess, no wait that's the MIDDLE of the story.  You actually start out failing to protect your best friend's sister, you go on to get banished from your noble house, you then lose an ancient artifact of vast importance to the security of the world...  And the mechanics?  Sure there's about a dozen jobs that can be undertaken by generic units, but the story units are so much better that there's no point.  Don't even get me started on that ridiculous Brave/Faith system, either, or the ridiculously complicated Zodiac compatibilities or the invisible stat bonuses you get as you level up in particular classes.

Otherwise, I have to agree with the OP's comments on X-2 (Bad idea, mediocre execution) and XI (Honestly, it looks pretty shitty to me).  XII-2 is called Revenant Wings, and it's something of a shallow RTS game on the DS not really worth buying.  FFTA-2 took all the redeeming qualities of FFTA and got rid of them.  It gets a point for introducing a few novel ideas (the Bazaar is nice), but I keep finding myself tempted to just sell it back to Gamestop.

I also enjoyed the older Final Fantasy games when they originally came out... but they're all starting to show their age.  I bought the handheld ports of FFI, II, and III, and I must say, only FFI was worth anything to me.  FFII has a storyline even for when it was released, and FFIII's storyline, while good for the time, just doesn't hold up to today's standards.  FFIV was recently re-released *again*, and frankly I can't stand that game.  It just keeps going and going.  I get fairly far into it and then get bored with it because it's already dragged on for SO LONG, I mean by that point I've already killed one BBEG twice, destroyed a giant, world-destroying colossus, gone to the moon and back again...  The hell do I have to do to be the hero!?

FFV is still cool with me because I like it's Job system.  The story is "meh" at best, but solid mechanics are enough for me to like a game so long as there's nothing seriously detracting from it.  FFVI is still very good, best of the series at the time and the clear best of the series now because of S-E whoring out FFVII until it broke.  All the shit S-E produced with FFVII in the title seriously made me like that game less.

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #34 on: November 13, 2009, 04:29:48 PM »
Excuse the thread necromancy. I never post outside of min/max and I probably never will again.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'd say Final Fantasy went down the drain starting with 7.
Granted, I followed the series from the beginning, you know, when it was a FANTASY game?  Not some sci-fi train wreck with munchkiny characters.  :wall
+1

FF7 was one of the worst games I've ever played.  It never made sense how people could like it so much, what with the angst, boring characters, terrible storyline, tedious combats, banal music, and retarded mini-games.

There hasn't been a decent FF game since the sixth installment.
+1

FFIV [...] keeps going and going.  I get fairly far into it [...] by that point I've already killed one BBEG twice, destroyed a giant, world-destroying colossus, gone to the moon and back again...  The hell do I have to do to be the hero!?
That's a f**king epic game right there!

The story is "meh" at best [...]  FFVI is still very good, best of the series at the time and the clear best of the series now
+1

Side notes: Cut scenes for summoning = zzzzz. Man does it take a long to kill ruby weapon by using Knights of the Round

I can almost get to WOR without fighting a single avoidable battle. And with no bug-abuse. That's right. No magic. No money. No Rages. And no psycho cyan or smoke bomb abuse. Damn is it hard, fun, and crazy.

The FF5's job system had this 1 flaw... That one boss fight 1:1 with Butz didn't allow you to switch classes before it. So I had [due to save states of only the battle] to solo a BBEG with a white mage.  :lol
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BowenSilverclaw

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #35 on: November 13, 2009, 04:33:11 PM »
Excuse the thread necromancy. I never post outside of min/max and I probably never will again.

I'm probably in the minority, but I'd say Final Fantasy went down the drain starting with 7.
Granted, I followed the series from the beginning, you know, when it was a FANTASY game?  Not some sci-fi train wreck with munchkiny characters.  :wall
+1

FF7 was one of the worst games I've ever played.  It never made sense how people could like it so much, what with the angst, boring characters, terrible storyline, tedious combats, banal music, and retarded mini-games.

There hasn't been a decent FF game since the sixth installment.
+1

FFIV [...] keeps going and going.  I get fairly far into it [...] by that point I've already killed one BBEG twice, destroyed a giant, world-destroying colossus, gone to the moon and back again...  The hell do I have to do to be the hero!?
That's a f**king epic game right there!

The story is "meh" at best [...]  FFVI is still very good, best of the series at the time and the clear best of the series now
+1

We don't agree all that often, but on this, Plus Fucking One :)
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CountArioch

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #36 on: January 09, 2010, 01:05:28 PM »
I know that the guy that did the final fantasy games left Square-Enix a while ago, he didn't do anything past X-2.

He was on the team that made Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon though. 
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Senevri

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #37 on: March 23, 2010, 07:08:19 PM »
I'm a huge Parasite Eve fan meself. That being said, I like FFVI and FFVII both.... I've completed VIII, which was okay - I skipped the grinding by having the chocobo mini-game thing get stuff. I like the characters in both games, really.

I'd really want to like IX, but haven't really played it much. I think the character advancement in X is pretty nice, although most of the characters are sort of meh.

Dissidia had Megumi Hayashibara as the voice actress for Shantotto, and actually had a somewhat good representation of what the actual fights probably are like.

I like both Chrono games, and Xenogears, although Trigger is the best.

ragincajun2288

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #38 on: June 08, 2010, 04:22:15 PM »
I have played and beaten almost every single FF game ever made. My opinion is:

FF3 is the god damn shit, probably the best one. The SNES remake of FF1, also awesome. FF4 and 5 also rock my cock hard. These are the american numbers by the way.

FF7 and FF8 were both pretty good.

Okay so 9 and 10 didn't have total bad ass silent type I don't give a fuck lead characters. Who gives a flying fuck? Little kids who don't understand more complex characters? Both games had great story and combat in my opinion. Except 9's fuck up where you had to use your limit when you got it.

11...why God? Why?

12. Boring after the first 8 hours of doing the same thing.

13. Haven't played it yet but from what I've seen it looks aight...I think they screwed up on several things already though.

And yes Chrono Trigger rocks, always  :D So does Tales of Phantasia, Illusion of Gaia, FF Mystic Quest, Legend of Zelda, Terraenigma, Secret of Mana, Star Ocean, and Super Mario RPG shut up it was awesome lol.
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Littha

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Re: Final Fantasy: Down the Drain?
« Reply #39 on: June 08, 2010, 08:11:13 PM »
Honestly I think XI is the best in the whole series story wise, people never gave it a chance though as soon as they learned that SE was doing something different. Its a solid game and as Far as MMORPGs go is probably one of the best especially considering the music was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and Naoshi Mizuta unlike XIII.

Oh and its full title is Final Fantasy XI: Online

Anyway after that I my favorites are 6 7 and 9, control systems in 8 didn't work as well as I would have liked (looking at you junction system).