The only FFs I ever managed to complete were 6 and 7. Started 5, 8, 9, 14, and a few of the older ones (1 or 2 I think). Mostly good games, just never got around to completing them. So yeah, I can understand the perspective of the people who think 7 is where it went off track... but I can't agree with it. That one is easily my favorite, and I'd buy a PS3 just to play a remake if I had to.

Okay, so they feature dough-eyed androgynous heroes and Western stereotypes aplenty, nigh-impenetrable plots, and often maddening encounter rates, but for all that I totally loved the Final Fantasy single player games (Yes, 7 and 8 especially). The MMO ones may as well never have been made for all I care, but I'd love another FF single player game.

Cram wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 12:30:

Beelzebud wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 12:24:
Call me crazy, but I think over-saturation greatly damaged the brand, more than anything else. When you're at XIV it's time to stop, and work on something new.

When each subsequent game of that company's main franchise, minus XIV, seems to outsell the previous, how would you explain that it's time to do something new to their shareholders?

FINAL Final Fantasy: This Time We Really Mean It *

* maybe...

Yeah, god forbid any of us ever enjoy a game that's linear. We're setting progress back worse than Adam West set back comic books.

This franchise simply needs to go away.
The company needs to finish what they started with the very first game, it was their last hurrah and they should just end it, put it out of it's misery.

This new Squeenix is run by fucking chimps, they have completely lost touch with what gamers want in 2011 and all they put out is garbage.

MattyC wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 18:00:

Ludomancer wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 17:56:

Dr. D. Schreber wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 14:41:
FF7 remake?

...dammit.

Fuck NO!! That's what started this whole mess!

What?

That's what I was thinking. I deeply enjoy FF7/FF8.

Ludomancer wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 17:56:

Dr. D. Schreber wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 14:41:
FF7 remake?

...dammit.

Fuck NO!! That's what started this whole mess!

What?

Dr. D. Schreber wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 14:41:
FF7 remake?

...dammit.

Fuck NO!! That's what started this whole mess!

Beelzebud wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 14:57:

When each subsequent game of that company's main franchise, minus XIV, seems to outsell the previous, how would you explain that it's time to do something new to their shareholders?

You mistake me for someone who gives a shit about their shareholders, or explaining anything about them. They are beholden to shareholders, I am not. From an artistic standpoint, I could care less about how their stock portfolio looks. I play games, I do not invest in them. I'm sure McDonald's has a lot of happy shareholders, it doesn't mean their food is good.

And you mistake the rest of us for people who give a shit about your opinion.

That being said, FF14 was flat broken. Not only was it broken, but during the beta when everyone bitched that it was broken, S/E took a piss all over the beta users and said that the game wasn't meant for them anyway.

FF14 itself didn't damage the brand, Square Enix's hubris tanked the game.

When each subsequent game of that company's main franchise, minus XIV, seems to outsell the previous, how would you explain that it's time to do something new to their shareholders?

You mistake me for someone who gives a shit about their shareholders, or explaining anything about them. They are beholden to shareholders, I am not. From an artistic standpoint, I could care less about how their stock portfolio looks. I play games, I do not invest in them. I'm sure McDonald's has a lot of happy shareholders, it doesn't mean their food is good.

FF13 was the first FF I actually bought (I've played a few of the older versions with emulators). It was a good movie. I don't recall there being a game though, just a movie where you walk around to make the next part of the movie come up. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, only there was only one adventure and you didn't choose anything.

Yeah, FF13 sucked.

FF7 remake?

...dammit.

Verno wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 13:41:
FF12 was amazing dude, a more adult storyline, it had a huge world filled with shit to do,

Really? The story started off well, with the invasion and the rebels and such. How did it even stay coherent at the end? I've played through the whole thing twice, and the entire last third makes no sense whatsoever.

And as for things to do, yeah, if you enjoyed running around auto-attacking everything. To be fair, I didn't mind the system so much (as it saved me having to select "attack" 5 billion times) but it just got annoying when your characters would auto-attack shit that was well outside your FoV.

And then don't even get me started on the horseshit item grinding you had to do in order to get any kind of decent equipment. Oh, you want this cool sword? You'll need 6 of this, and 6 of that, and 6 of that. Each of them have a 0.86% chance of dropping from monster XYZ, which is a single spawn that only shows up in the deepest part of this particular dungeon, and...

Ugh.

I'll take FF10 a million times over FF12. At least its story made some sense.

Creston

Give me a new Final Fantasy with the X-2 battle engine.

FF12 was amazing dude, a more adult storyline, it had a huge world filled with shit to do, a new combat system that was very well done and the much needed return of the job system (well in the International Re-release). It had its problems but it was packed with gameplay, it was so ambitious a project that the producer of the game had a nervous breakdown toward the end of development.

It was a great bridge between older franchise elements and more modern gameplay mechanics. I wish that 13 had been even half the game that 12 was. The FF series never really peaked, I used to think that but then they surprise you once in awhile. It's just that there seems to be two different factions at Square-Enix, the ones who want to make games and the people who just want to make spiffy CGI movies.

This comment was edited on Sep 27, 2011, 14:06.

Re-releasing FF14 isn't going to help you fix shit.

Making an ACTUAL Final Fantasy game would help you fix shit. And by an ACTUAL Final Fantasy game, I mean a game that's not like the abortion that was FF13. (or, less grievously, FF12.)

Or keep sticking your head in the sand, and watch as your cash cow slowly dwindles away into nothing.

Creston

Dress spheres!

Verno wrote on Sep 27, 2011, 13:13:
it makes you wonder what the hell they did with their massive budget and all that time.

You said it yourself ... visual assets extravaganza. The producers already admited, that they spent too little time on the gaming content, too much on creating tools and art and had to rush to meet deadlines.

I thought what damaged the brand was churning out sequels, each one half a game compared to the last.

Honestly, the whole series started declining when they moved onto the PS1 and started emphasizing graphics over story and gameplay. FF7 was such an overhyped, mediocre game, and it mostly goes downhill from there.

This is one of the few series where I'd actually welcome rehashing of old titles over creating new. What they did with FF4 DS was great. I keep hoping FF5 and FF6 are going to follow. The SNES period was the golden age of this series, they ought to look back at it for inspiration.

A lot of the subcontracted FF remakes did very well on the portable platforms surprisingly. Japan eats up those dumb little Chocobo Dungeons type titles too. Ironically its mostly the stuff that Square has done themselves that has been fucking terrible, although huge parts of FF14 were subcontracted out too.

13 was ridiculously extravagant in terms of visual assets but had very little actual gameplay, it makes you wonder what the hell they did with their massive budget and all that time. I didn't love FFX but at least there was some gameplay underneath the awkward dialogue and pretty CGI.