Does anyone miss Final Fantasy?

[Kuroneko_rg]

I've been thinking for a while now how much RPG games have changed over time.
However, there is no game that I miss as much as the Final Fantasy saga.
Newer releases of Final fantasy (XII, XIII, Type 0) dramatically changed the gameplay, and the saga became something far
different to what it was.
I'm not saying FF XII is bad (I loved, haven't played FF XIII) but the jump was way too heavy. I miss having a party and
selecting their actions in a turn based system. I would love to see a new FF going for the feeling of older titles.

I'm not asking for remakes nor anything like that. FF is an icon of classic RPG, and it somewhat saddens me to see what it
has become.

The feeling is similar to what I felt with Resident Evil 4. Is a great game, but is not a Resident Evil.
In the same way, newer Final Fantasy are great RPG games, but they no longer are Final Fantasy.

I'd like to hear more opinions about this, and I hope I'm not the only one who misses the old essence of RPGs (Or games in
general).

[LVUER]

I don't really miss it, since there are bunch of games out there that still stick to the old RPG formula, but it will be nice to see "old-fashioned" FF once in a while. I forget the title, but if I'm not mistaken, there should be a new FF for Wii that still use old RPG formula (but with some new touches, like FFXII summon style and war map).

[Kuroneko_rg]

I haven't heard about it but are great news.

I know what you mean about other games still going for the classic feeling (I started Hexys Force yesterday and is very good) and I'm
glad you'd like to see an "old fashioned" FF as well.

By the way, I posted this in "General Discussion" by accident. Sorry if I caused you an extra effort.

[Destiny]

I don't miss the gameplay.
It's more the deep, surprising story that excisted till 10
7 and 10 are already somewhat... "dead" in my eyes, but only, because the game smackes you the main enemy in your face after just a few moments of playing. If you take 6 or 8 as comparison, there are around 3-5 enemys which seem to be the main source of evil, only to be revealed as a marrionette for the next enemy until you meet the ultimate evil in someone you met somewhere at the beginning without even realizing.
And now?
"Hey, you now about that evil dude?" - "Sure, what about it?" - "He's the super evil villian here and if we kill him, then everything will be ok." - "Oh, cool"

Sorry, but every childs game is that simple. I want a packing story with surprises, loveable characters, drastic events (ever played Legend of Dragoon where one of the main character dies? Or Celes in FF&, that tries to attempt suicide?).
The new games are all like colorful and funny and OVER-dramatic. Of course the main character has to ALWAYS sacrifice himself (because a game without a sacrificing main character is just stupid or what?)

The gameplay can change however it wants. Even FF Tactics or FF Crystal chonicles are cool with their total different gameplays.
There is just that lack of a individual story that makes me angry.
Take cliche heros (the hyperactive naive boy, the mysterious guy, the over-angsty magical girl and the sexy mysterious woman, tada, your party is as good as ready!), a story about saving a ficitive world with different races from an giant monstrous human (who is most possible your child hood friend or the seem-to-be friendly god of the world) and some quests to make it kind of challenging :/

[LVUER]

Don't get your hopes high though... I've been looking for the latest news about that FF, but no avail. With Wii U around the corner, I'm afraid SquareEnix will cancel that one to concentrate on other FF (like FFXIII Agito for example).

[Kuroneko_rg]

Hahaha! Destiny, your comment about the evil dude was hilarious.
Yes, I do admit following Sephirot and Sinh (Sinh was it?) from the very beginning is quite a bummer.

What about IX? You beat Kuja and then something comes out saying "I'm the bad something of the whatever and you'll die".
I liked the game but I couldn't help but feel ripped with such sudden fight.

I do understand that the new gameplay of newer entries is an attempt to reach more players, but still, Square Enix totally neglected what FF used to be.

Going back to plot quality, FF XII was a nobrainer. It was way too political and the game itself succeeded on the gameplay only.
FF XII is filled with a ridiculous amount of side quest just because the main plot is not enough. I really enjoyed Mark hunting but other quests are very annoying to beat.

I could never get a copy of Legend of Dragoon. I remember a friend gave it to me, but the thing was in such bad shape that never
got past the loading screen. If you personally recommended it to me, I'll make an attempt to find it.

I played FF Crystal Chronicles, Echoes of Time and was playing Rings of Fate. Couldn't fully connect with the plot, but a very good
game overall.

And regarding the bad news, I hope Square Enix could reconsider dedicating at least one title, to the classic way of the saga.

[gekiganwing]

The last FF game I played extensively was #9. I've pretty much ignored all the games made in the last eleven or so years. My tastes have been drifting into small / indie / retro games.

These days, I like to think that the Final Fantasy series actually ended with the sixth game in 1994, and that everything since then is FF in name only (kind of like how the brand name Atari is "in name only" since the original company went under).

[Merqurial]

I miss Final Fantasy games that actually let you play them. Ever since 7 the trend has been more towards cinmatics and less about gameplay. The culmination for me was FF 12, where I literally had the game playing itself and checked in every now and again to make sure they were still healing each other. I spent the entire Yiazmat (uber hidden boss) fight on IM chatting with friends, because I had nothing to contribute.

If Square Enix ever decides to make an actual Final Fantasy GAME again, I may come back to the series.

[Destiny]

@Kuroneko_rg
I can absolutly recommend it
It's fun, the graphics are ok (if you think about when it was made) and the story is cool.
And I mean, how many main characters just die in the middle of the game (ok, Aerith did, but I hate that girl xD)

And yeah, 9 kind of overdid the "surprising final boss". But it did well before. You first think, the queen is it. The the Jokers. Then Kuja.
Just like in FF8, where you switch from one witch to the next.
I mean, 10 had like NO surprises for me.

Oh, a giant monster destroying Zanarkand and everyone fears itand its evil -> Main villian
A eerie, sexual molesting dude wanting to marry "our girl" -> will go crazy somewhere in the story and become the seeming last enemy, just to be revealed to be...just an eerie, crazy dude
The priestess wanting to protect her land -> Gone mad and turning against everyone who disobeys her, being the penultimate enemy
Of course is it necessary to make a race go instinct -> those lion thingys (look at Zelda for Shiekah or FF Crystal for the Yukes or or or)
Hero (or someone extremly dear to him/her) will sacrifice himself -> THE WHOLE GAME IS ONLY ABOUT THAT
Involve some romance scenes so it hurts more that they will not be together in the end or at least can hate each other oficially without making it awkward -> YunaxTidus; LuluxWaka
Involve "going to hell to talk/resurrect the dead" -> Well, duh. As far as I understood it, half of all important characters in the game are dead ôo

The only thing that surprised me, was, that Tidus just didn't fit in the series. I mean look at the main characters.
FF1 - seriously, no one here has a character trait
FF2 - silent guy
FF3 - active, witty and kind guy
FF4 - silent, shy, thoughtful and brave guy
FF5 - silent, thoughtful guy
FF6 - silent, thoughtfull mysterious woman
FF7 - silent, thoughtfull, mysterious guy
FF8 - silent, thoughtfull, mysterious guy
FF9 - fast (thief), witty guy that seems to be always optimistic
FF10 - hyper-active, naive guy that is ALWAYS optimistic
FF12 - naive to stupid, overactive (thief) guy that is ...not optimistic but just too stupid to realize whats going on ôo
FF13 - cold, uninterested woman (that turns good and trusting later)

I mean, ok, 9 kind of broke it already a little (even though he resembles the hero from 3 very much), but Tidus just...made it stupid ôo
"The world is going to end, everyone will die, so...let's play blitzball *__*" or how you could describe him <__<


@Merqurial
THIS.
In the former games with the action bar, it is simply your fault if you won't look, because the enemys will attack, no matter if you do something or not.
The new games remind me of the actual Metal Gear. You play around 5 minutes, cutscene from 15 minutes will come. The ending alone takes around an hour. So the game takes around 72 hours to finish, but you can guess just how much of that you are actually PLAYING. And since FF seems to also go totally crazy with cutscenes and super graphics, I guess it won't take long and even a sneeze gets a two minute cutscene out of nowhere...

[Kuroneko_rg]

Destiny
I'll look for it and see if I can find it. I don't care much about graphics. I have my PS one games near me as I use to play them once in a while (Bloody Roar 2, Parasite Eve 2, Dino Crisis 1 and 2 among others). I'm still crying for my copy of Parasite Eve, which stopped working months ago.
I could never get to like Tidus either. In fact, I'm stuck with him in Dissidia 012 because of that.
I think FF X is way overrated because it was the first title in the ps2. The same happened with Silent Hill 2, which in my honest opinion, was no match for the original.

Merqurial
My experience was pretty much the same. Yiazmat was a ridiculously long and easy battle. It took me much more effort to beat Zodiarc.

[LVUER]

The only thing that surprised me, was, that Tidus just didn't fit in the series. I mean look at the main characters.
FF1 - seriously, no one here has a character trait
FF2 - silent guy
FF3 - active, witty and kind guy
FF4 - silent, shy, thoughtful and brave guy
FF5 - silent, thoughtful guy
FF6 - silent, thoughtfull mysterious woman
FF7 - silent, thoughtfull, mysterious guy
FF8 - silent, thoughtfull, mysterious guy
FF9 - fast (thief), witty guy that seems to be always optimistic
FF10 - hyper-active, naive guy that is ALWAYS optimistic
FF12 - naive to stupid, overactive (thief) guy that is ...not optimistic but just too stupid to realize whats going on ôo
FF13 - cold, uninterested woman (that turns good and trusting later)

FF9 is the one that very different from the rest because he is a playboy. There is a 4-koma about this one about how the other protagonist (Cloud and Squall to be exact) are embarrassed because Zidane is a shame to FF protagonist.
And you forget something about FF10 (Tidus), he is a whiny and father-complex figure. Very unique when compared to the rest of the cast.

[Luxtizer42]

I thought 12 was somewhat underrated. Making everyone speak in a terrible faux-Shakespearian dialect was a big mistake that detracted from an otherwise decent narrative and some gameplay ideas that I thought were fun and innovative.

But yeah, the series is seriously moving downhill. 10-2, 11, 13, 13-2, and 14 were all serious disappointments, even when one judges 11 and 14 against other MMOs rather than traditional RPGs. I think the series has lost a bit of the charming silliness that really set it apart in the earlier era.

When I think back to what made the series so excellent, it wasn't really anything about the main narrative. There's always an evil empire or evil corporation or evil wizard who does evil things, and the good guys get together and stop them. Nothing new there. The best parts were all happening outside that. Like in FF7, when one can take a break from the plot to raise giant chickens, go snowboarding, or play arcade games. There were the bizarre random RTS segments at Fort Condor, the hilarious crossdressing sequence that comes out of left field, all the background touches and details that weren't related to the plot at all.

These little charming details were what took the series from merely good to really exceptional. The core gameplay and plots were always fine, and continue to (mostly) be fine, but these sorts of diversions, the silliness and the freedom to explore, that's disappearing. FF13 is a prime offender. Almost no ability to explore exists, and the little silly moments are done poorly and uninterestingly. You spend the whole game on the rails watching a fairly unimaginative plot without break or interruption. It's quite a shame.

[LVUER]

Speaking about MMORPG FF, they should have make a separate series rather than merging it with the main series (using only numbers on them), like "Final Fantasy Online" or something like that.

[Luxtizer42]

Speaking about MMORPG FF, they should have make a separate series rather than merging it with the main series (using only numbers on them), like "Final Fantasy Online" or something like that.

Couldn't agree more. It's particularly strange in that they made Final Fantasy Tactics its own series, when I think one could make the argument that those games have far more in common with the core FF titles than FF11 and FF14.

[Kuroneko_rg]

The same happened with the Crystal Chronicles games. They made a different series still using Final Fantasy elements.

I agree, the side quests and mini games in Final Fantasy have been a relaxing point (Or very frustrating) in the series. Chocobo raising in FF VII is probably my favorite. I also liked "Hot and Cold" in FF IX.

I can't tell why Square Enix haven't included a Chocobo mini game since FF IX. The one in FF X-2 was just boring.

Another element that Final Fantasy lost over the time is it's world setting style.
From I to V it's set in medieval worlds.
In VI the world is still medieval, but technology takes an important role.
In VII they went further with Shinra Corp.
The setting in VIII was pretty much close to real life or so, even surpassing real life technology.
IX was a nice walk back to the roots.
X... I feel it more like a sub developed world than medieval.
XII's Ivalice was pretty cool, with a nice combination of tech and medieval stuff.
Of course, changing the world setting to fit modern day demands is sometimes the better choice in order to draw attention to
newcomers, but I think it only downgrades the series from game to game.

The classic job system is also lost. Black Mage and Dragoon are my favorite classic type characters and the last cannon game they appeared on was FF IX (Being Vivi my favorite character in it).

I think Square Enix should leave the numbers (XV, XVI, XVII...) to games that really fit in the series, and give a different name to
games that keep changing what a Final Fantasy title is supposed to be.