PDA

View Full Version : LEAST favorite Final Fantasy location



Pike
12-04-2012, 01:14 AM
Let's start with Zozo from FF6 which can go die in a fire :mad2:

Bubba
12-04-2012, 01:37 AM
Yeah Zozo is particularly unpleasant. That smurfing prison in FFVIII has to be the worst though. D District Prison I think?

That place needs to die slowly with sharp things sticking in it's head.

Laddy
12-04-2012, 01:50 AM
Most of XIII.

VeloZer0
12-04-2012, 01:52 AM
Ice Cave from FF1. I can't think of a single other video game location that has caused me so much grief.

Formalhaut
12-04-2012, 02:27 AM
The Necrohol of Nabudis in FFXII.

Seriously, running through that area is creepy, not only with traps and those painful baknamy.

Wolf Kanno
12-04-2012, 08:52 AM
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Dark Elf Cave from FFIV yet. I'll do the obligatory FFXIII jab and say XIII. Most of the dungeons in FFII are pretty tedious and lengthy for no good reason.

Lone Wolf Leonhart
12-04-2012, 08:53 AM
The vast and wide open desert in any random game. So large to the point where the vast nothingness doesn't even fit on the map in the corner of the screen.

Trying to locate a treasure chest in a generalized south/south east direction? Good luck! :monster:

Tigmafuzz
12-04-2012, 11:37 AM
The Necrohol of Nabudis in FFXII.

Seriously, running through that area is creepy, not only with traps and those painful baknamy.

That place is awesome :( the Henne Mines though can fuck right off.

maybee
12-04-2012, 12:03 PM
Nibelhiem because of the looooooooooooooooonggg flashback scene each time you play through FF VII.

Next would be the prison in FF VIII. Long and tedious.

ZoZo is annoying too, but the music is awesome and the creepy, depressive atmosphere is cool too.

Red Mage Coffman
12-04-2012, 03:12 PM
This might sound insane... But Midgar. I've played through FFVII a lot. Going through the events of Midgar can be a PAIN after doing it so much. I feel once I leave Midgar its like finally obtaining my freedom. To bad XIII didn't have you doing that, but instead continues for the whole game -.-

As an honorable mention, even if it isn't Final Fantasy, Destiny Island and Twilight Town. Same case with Midgar, did it so much, and finishing feels like freedom.

Shoeberto
12-04-2012, 03:14 PM
Desert prison in FFVII. It just sucks.

Bubba
12-04-2012, 03:42 PM
Desert prison in FFVII. It just sucks.

I liked the Corel prison in FFVII. The backstory with Barrett and Dyne was great and ultimately quite sad.

Shorty
12-04-2012, 08:59 PM
I will echo the prison and sewers of FFVIII. Both of those are terrible.

Night Fury
12-04-2012, 09:05 PM
Luca. Smurf off Luca.
And that Mi'Hen Highroad thing.

Denmark
12-04-2012, 09:46 PM
pike how can you hate this music though (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYYGCo4bL5M) zozo is the bee's knees

fanatic's tower is kind of ass though if you go up with mog/moogle charm and forget about the stupid battle at the top and haven't learned life3 then you just wasted an hour* going around in circles going up

ff1 ice cave isn't as bad as people claim imo. i have more disdain for sea shrine but that mostly stems from doing single-character playthroughs and getting destroyed by GHOSTs (fast, powerful, hard to run from, single knight is balls against undead)

lots of ffiv places later in the game get on my nerves cause i feel the random encounter rate is too high and there's no way to reduce it

all of ffvii is bad game sorry.




*not actually an hour

Jinx
12-05-2012, 01:39 AM
Calm Lands and Mt. Gagazet

Flying Arrow
12-05-2012, 03:21 AM
I can put up with annoying and stupid gimmicks, but areas where the designers just stopped giving a fuck are the worst: Inside Sin, Thunder Plains, Mt. Gagazet (but that music!), ugh.

nik0tine
12-05-2012, 06:31 AM
The Galbadian Missile base is pretty fucking awful too.

The Man
12-05-2012, 06:41 AM
Zozo is awesome :doublecolbert: The only problem with it is that the encounter rate is a bit too high.

Lone Wolf Leonhart
12-05-2012, 09:37 AM
the encounter rate is a bit too high.

I feel this way about the Al Bhed Home in the desert :argh:

Kanshisha
12-05-2012, 02:20 PM
as informative as the flashback was in FFVII, It was just so long and tedious! I remember doing another run through, and it was just the section i despised most.
At first was alright because like "oh hey, this is awesome", but after it all you end up reflecting where your time went... -Cloud's so called 'past', that's where.

Formalhaut
12-05-2012, 06:11 PM
Calm Lands and Mt. Gagazet

Both of those areas just necessitate the use of "no encounter". I hate them. You can add the Mi'hen Highroad and the blasted Thunder Plains as well.

Jowy
12-05-2012, 10:04 PM
Jade Passage/Pandaemonium

FUCKING BLACK KNIGHTS.

Tempest
12-06-2012, 01:01 AM
Esthar City in Final Fantasy VIII. I always get lost in that place.

Bolivar
12-06-2012, 01:21 AM
I actually like a lot of these places, some of them a lot, but my vote is going to the final dungeon in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years and can I get a witness?

maybee
12-06-2012, 11:28 AM
Zozo is awesome :doublecolbert: The only problem with it is that the encounter rate is a bit too high.

The house jumping or whatever you call it to save Terra is frustrating too.

Mirage
12-06-2012, 12:31 PM
Jugner forest in the past in FF11.

Jinx
12-06-2012, 01:58 PM
Every place in FFVIII.

Night Fury
12-06-2012, 02:10 PM
Esthar City in Final Fantasy VIII. I always get lost in that place.
It is annoying, but it has some awesome music.

Bleeep bloop blip pop whheeeee wizz bang!

Bubba
12-06-2012, 02:34 PM
It is annoying, but it has some awesome music.

Bleeep bloop blip pop whheeeee wizz bang!

Proof beyond any doubt that Nobuo Uematsu was a musical genius.

Night Fury
12-06-2012, 02:57 PM
It is annoying, but it has some awesome music.

Bleeep bloop blip pop whheeeee wizz bang!

Proof beyond any doubt that Nobuo Uematsu was a musical genius.

Exactly, I don't think we need any more proof than that, tbh.

Bubba
12-06-2012, 04:08 PM
It is annoying, but it has some awesome music.

Bleeep bloop blip pop whheeeee wizz bang!

Proof beyond any doubt that Nobuo Uematsu was a musical genius.

Exactly, I don't think we need any more proof than that, tbh.

The eloquent way these words decribe the majestic beauty and richness of the Final Fantasy world is simply... phenomenal.

Night Fury
12-06-2012, 04:56 PM
It is annoying, but it has some awesome music.

Bleeep bloop blip pop whheeeee wizz bang!


Proof beyond any doubt that Nobuo Uematsu was a musical genius.

Exactly, I don't think we need any more proof than that, tbh.

The eloquent way these words decribe the majestic beauty and richness of the Final Fantasy world is simply... phenomenal.

Let us not forget the part where it goes

Di ni ni nidoo dooo doo dah dooo deeeee
Di ni ni nidoo dooo doo deehhhh dooo deeeee

dee dee doo dah dah doo diiii diii daaa deeeehhhh

LAAA LAAAAAAAAAA
la ala laaaaaaaaaaaa
laaaluuuliiiiii
leeeelaaaluuuuuuuuu
HNNNN HNNNNNN HNNNNN HMMMMMM NNNNNN GGGUUUU DDEEDADADEEEEEEE
NU NU NIII NUUUU

Then proceed back to bleepity bloops.

Shorty
12-06-2012, 05:01 PM
I love Esthar. You folks are nuts.

Although I will admit that when you're running after that Pandora thing that it's annoying as fuck.

Night Fury
12-06-2012, 05:02 PM
I love Esthar. You folks are nuts.

DO YOU LIKE THE BLEEPY BLOOPY MUSIC TOO?!

Shorty
12-06-2012, 05:02 PM
I QUITE LIKE IT, YES

The Man
12-06-2012, 05:36 PM
Zozo is awesome :doublecolbert: The only problem with it is that the encounter rate is a bit too high.

The house jumping or whatever you call it to save Terra is frustrating too.

I didn't really have much problem with that - you just walk over to the open space and press left (or right), iirc. They may have changed this in one of the remakes, though. I guess it might not be 100% obvious what you're supposed to do, but the fact that it shows some other guy jumping between buildings is a pretty big hint.

Chris
12-06-2012, 06:35 PM
I endured FFIV DS recently... It was the hardest gaming experience I have ever had. Just when you think you're badass for getting through an unreasonably difficult dungeon, the next one is twice as hard. :(

So: Every location in FFIV DS.

Tempest
12-06-2012, 11:15 PM
I love Esthar. You folks are nuts.

Although I will admit that when you're running after that Pandora thing that it's annoying as smurf.

Pandora is probably one of the main reasons I don't like it. It's a cool place and the music's unique but, when I get to a city after traveling about I want to rest, not figure out where everything is.

Kanshisha
12-07-2012, 12:14 AM
It is annoying, but it has some awesome music.

Bleeep bloop blip pop whheeeee wizz bang!

Proof beyond any doubt that Nobuo Uematsu was a musical genius.

Exactly, I don't think we need any more proof than that, tbh.

The eloquent way these words decribe the majestic beauty and richness of the Final Fantasy world is simply... phenomenal.

Let us not forget the part where it goes

Di ni ni nidoo dooo doo dah dooo deeeee
Di ni ni nidoo dooo doo deehhhh dooo deeeee

dee dee doo dah dah doo diiii diii daaa deeeehhhh

LAAA LAAAAAAAAAA
la ala laaaaaaaaaaaa
laaaluuuliiiiii
leeeelaaaluuuuuuuuu
HNNNN HNNNNNN HNNNNN HMMMMMM NNNNNN GGGUUUU DDEEDADADEEEEEEE
NU NU NIII NUUUU

Then proceed back to bleepity bloops.

The creativity just oozed in this location. It is because of this location that the modern 'dubstep' is now what it is today... Imagine a world without epileptic sound effects.

Heath
12-13-2012, 08:42 PM
Zozo is bloody annoying, but it also has great music. I'll also echo the Desert prisons in both FFVII and FFVIII. The sewers in FFVIII are very annoying too.

The one that I find most frustrating though is Cave of Gi in FFVII. I always find it a tedious stopover in the story (yeah, it's nice first time around but it has the most predictable 'surprise' ever) and I always forget which doorways I need to go through and which ones I don't.

Forsaken Lover
12-18-2012, 02:59 PM
Fucking Orphan's Cradle.

You see, by this point in the game, I was soured on FFXIII. I actually did like it for 60% of the game. I wasn't a huge fan but I didn't hate it either. Then all that crap on Pulse and the plot having a fatal stroke really put me off. Oh yeah, speaking of Pulse and bad locations, that big tower thing that was like a wannabe Pharos? That was fantastically boring.

But back to my point. I was feeling very down on the game by Chapter 11 or 12 or whatever it was. Then Eden Under Siege happened. I frickin' loved that part of the game. The story was rising to the climax, it had some great atmosphere, and I just had a blast running around.

Then the final dungeon hit. And it was just the most tedious, un-fun, uninteresting final dungeon I've ever had the misfortune of experiencing. At least in an FF game. It was so awful that my position on XIII was brought down from "I really like this" to "I want to quit." I was in the final dungeon and I just wanted to stop because it was so unimaginably lame.

Formalhaut
12-20-2012, 12:21 PM
smurfing Orphan's Cradle.

You see, by this point in the game, I was soured on FFXIII. I actually did like it for 60% of the game. I wasn't a huge fan but I didn't hate it either. Then all that crap on Pulse and the plot having a fatal stroke really put me off. Oh yeah, speaking of Pulse and bad locations, that big tower thing that was like a wannabe Pharos? That was fantastically boring.

But back to my point. I was feeling very down on the game by Chapter 11 or 12 or whatever it was. Then Eden Under Siege happened. I frickin' loved that part of the game. The story was rising to the climax, it had some great atmosphere, and I just had a blast running around.

Then the final dungeon hit. And it was just the most tedious, un-fun, uninteresting final dungeon I've ever had the misfortune of experiencing. At least in an FF game. It was so awful that my position on XIII was brought down from "I really like this" to "I want to quit." I was in the final dungeon and I just wanted to stop because it was so unimaginably lame.

I found the Ma'habra mines (is that how you spell it?) even more annoying, because it's just dark, linear and uninteresting. The enemies in particular are just those robot things that are easy to kill for the most part. Boring. I have to agree though, the tower is just boring and confusing as well.

I didn't mind Orphan's Cradle actually, I liked the music and atmosphere. What I didn't like though was it's length as it seemed to drag on slightly, but also after the ending it was reduced to the initial area. Meaning you couldn't farm sacrifices over and over again. Now that's annoying.

Del Murder
12-28-2012, 05:04 AM
Marsh Cave from FFI. It's near the start of the game when your characters are still pretty useless and it always gives me headaches.

Pumpkin
01-02-2013, 06:23 AM
Okay, guys, no.

The Calm Lands, Mt-Gagazet, and the Mi'Hen Highroad are all kinds of awesome. :colbert:

I didnae like anywhere in FFVII. No wait..... no that's just the game I don't like.

Forsaken Lover
01-02-2013, 06:32 AM
People hatin' on Mt. Gagazet? Um, what? It has possibly the best area music in any FF game ever. That alone easily keeps it from being one of the worst locations.

I will confess to the fact I didn't like the Zanarkand Dome however. I appreciate they were going for a more intense feeling or something but after Zanarkand proper's amazingly somber atmosphere, it just felt disappointing.

I'm gonna also add both Sandseas from FFXII. Just awful.

Wolf Kanno
01-02-2013, 07:05 AM
Mt.Gagazet is an awful dungeon, because despite looking pretty and having some nice theme music it's largely a winding road littered with cutscenes that serve no purpose to the story, good lord you can't go five feet without accidentally activating another set of dialogue with the party that doesn't make any of them more interesting. I mean come on FFX, let me play the damn game.

Pumpkin
01-02-2013, 07:28 AM
Mt.Gagazet is an awful dungeon, because despite looking pretty and having some nice theme music it's largely a winding road littered with cutscenes that serve no purpose to the story, good lord you can't go five feet without accidentally activating another set of dialogue with the party that doesn't make any of them more interesting. I mean come on FFX, let me play the damn game.

Oh yeah? Well, your face. :colbert:

I Took the Red Pill
01-02-2013, 08:00 AM
I particularly disliked going to The Moon in FFIV.

Formalhaut
01-02-2013, 12:53 PM
Mt.Gagazet is an awful dungeon, because despite looking pretty and having some nice theme music it's largely a winding road littered with cutscenes that serve no purpose to the story, good lord you can't go five feet without accidentally activating another set of dialogue with the party that doesn't make any of them more interesting. I mean come on FFX, let me play the damn game.

Oh yeah? Well, your face. :colbert:

I liked it, though I didn't particularly enjoy the long winding road section of Mt. Gagazet. What I did find about Mt Gagazet though was that their was less story, more build-up:

1. Mountain Gate: Story, Ronso hymn
2. Long winding trail that goes on forever
3. Summit: Seymour Battle
4. Lengthy and boring cavern puzzle...
5. Rather strange flashback with Tidus

Finish. Bear in mind the long sections drag on forever. This was actually my only complaint with the mountain though. You thought that was bad, the Calm Lands was worse for story. A huge plain, brief cut-scene in the centre, optional cavern of the fayth, and off you go to Mt.Gagazet!

Loony BoB
01-02-2013, 01:02 PM
How anyone can objectively say that any location from VII onwards is worse than a random lengthy mine/cave dungeon in FFI through FFVI is beyond me. At least in 3D worlds the mines/caves can look different. Seriously.

I can understand abnormally high encounter rates, but if you're going to go down that road then I'll point to some rooms in early FF dungeons which had encounters for every few steps you took. Basically you had to avoid those rooms and not explore them unless you wanted to level up using them or something. Either way, those early FF dungeons were basically crap in every way I could imagine. I can't really blame SE for that, games of that era were restricted by game engines and graphical capabilities. But that doesn't mean that suddenly a beautiful landscape in one of the more modern games is suddenly worse.

It sounds to me like people are associating these locations with one-off plot devices or cutscenes rather than the locations themselves.

Formalhaut
01-02-2013, 01:14 PM
How anyone can objectively say that any location from VII onwards is worse than a random lengthy mine/cave dungeon in FFI through FFVI is beyond me. At least in 3D worlds the mines/caves can look different. Seriously.


Simple. I haven't played any of those earlier games. I've no experiences with them, though I've heard horror stories.

Jinx
01-02-2013, 05:05 PM
Mt. Gagazet's music is okay. Not great. Just okay. The scenery is kind of cool, but the encounter rate is ATROCIOUS. And because of the winding-ness of it, you often get turned around. CRASH. It's time for a battle. Come back. End up going the wrong way. CRASH. Battle. Turn around, fuuuuck. Same way AGAIN. CRASH!

You get my point.

Also, Calm Lands is boring and ugly.

Formalhaut
01-02-2013, 05:24 PM
It's as if the world designers of FFX got lazy after awhile. Here's the location list in order:

Besaid: Lovely, picturesque, nice scenery, nice music...
Kilika: A reversal of fortune for tiny islands, the story-line hots up here
Luca: Nice port town, blitzball is abit naff, but the story is quite good
Mi'hen Highroad: Slightly long, but nice and pleasant
Mushroom Rock: Ominious, spooky, downcast... sets the scene for the doomed mission
Moonflow: Loved this area. Loved it

And then it starts going downhill...

Guadotown: Decent, very story-based and goes on for quite a long time
Thunder Plains: Long, annoying. The music doesn't really fit as well
Macalania: Quite nice I suppose. Encounter rate is something to be desired, and it does wind around abit.
Sanubia/Bikanel: Just desert, after desert, after desert....
Calm Lands: Dull and boring. Far too wide.
Mt.Gagazet: Decent, but encounter rate is atrocious and the path long-winding
Zanarkand: Finally get's it's act together.

Jinx
01-02-2013, 05:31 PM
Macalania Forest and Moonflow are the two most beautiful areas in this game.

The music from Macalania Forest, just

;-;

Formalhaut
01-02-2013, 05:53 PM
Actually, the Moonflow's background track "Movement in Green" is one of my favourites.

Jinx
01-02-2013, 05:58 PM
Actually, the Moonflow's background track "Movement in Green" is one of my favourites.

Eh, too much like To Zanarkand for my taste.

Formalhaut
01-02-2013, 06:03 PM
I just liked the instrument in it, sounds like bagpipes, though I'm not sure if it is bagpipes. Besides that, Suteki Da Ne is a great piece of event music!

Wolf Kanno
01-02-2013, 07:38 PM
How anyone can objectively say that any location from VII onwards is worse than a random lengthy mine/cave dungeon in FFI through FFVI is beyond me. At least in 3D worlds the mines/caves can look different. Seriously.

I can understand abnormally high encounter rates, but if you're going to go down that road then I'll point to some rooms in early FF dungeons which had encounters for every few steps you took. Basically you had to avoid those rooms and not explore them unless you wanted to level up using them or something. Either way, those early FF dungeons were basically crap in every way I could imagine. I can't really blame SE for that, games of that era were restricted by game engines and graphical capabilities. But that doesn't mean that suddenly a beautiful landscape in one of the more modern games is suddenly worse.

It sounds to me like people are associating these locations with one-off plot devices or cutscenes rather than the locations themselves.

I can get behind the FFVII dungeons are blah cause only a handful of them really impressed me because as I've mentioned (I'm a broken record now) that the adment of 3D simply made dungeons more about how they look and lost a lot of their gameplay appeal, not the the first six games don't have shitty dungeon design at least somehwere but I do agree that barring the ShinRa-HQ and the Temple of the Ancients, I never felt like any of the other dungeons had lasting gameplay appeal. Even the Crater is a pretty subpar final dungeon in comparison to the four games before it.

As for why people trout on a dungeon, I feel its perfectly legitimate to nail it for story reasons, especially if its because the game either can't justify the place for story reasons of in the case of my Mt. Gagazet rant, I felt the story interfered with enjoying the location. Its a package a deal if you ask me. :p

Roogle
01-02-2013, 08:16 PM
There was a dungeon in Final Fantasy XII that involved going up almost a hundred floors to retrieve an item. I can't remember what the dungeon was called because it was so tedious that I have tried to block it out of memory. That place had very little interaction between the characters or any story events at all while you were ascending the tower. So am I to believe that they could scale this tower in a few hours without stopping to rest with a campfire scene or something? The dungeon was horribly paced for me and it took me several hours to get through it without any promise of a cutscene or something to take a break with.

Formalhaut
01-02-2013, 09:25 PM
In XII? I cannot remember a tower with 100 floors. I do remember something incredibly similar in FFX-2, with the Via Infinito that I quite enjoyed because it was the only difficult part of the game. And in the international version of X-2, there was a tower, though fairly certain it wasn't 100 floors.

I've never owned the IZJS version of XII because the bloody Japanese never release international versions to little ol' Europe, but there might be a new dungeon in XII IZJS that I don't know about. Sorry I'm not very helpful :|

Wolf Kanno
01-02-2013, 09:52 PM
I think he's talking about the Pharos Lighthouse, though it did have some story scenes (not many considering its length) and tons of bosses and a few minor puzzles.

Clo
01-02-2013, 10:00 PM
It's really odd, because I love MOST of the locations in FFXII, but I remember that tower Roogle is referring to and that thing WAS HELL.

Forsaken Lover
01-02-2013, 10:01 PM
I'm pretty sure the only story scenes are in the very beginning and the very end of the Pharos.

Although you can read those glowing pillar things to get some fluff about the Occuria. I didn't even do that though - just read all of it on Wikiquote.
Plus I liked the music.

And FFII might have had some pretty crappy dungeons but a lot of them were saved by one of the best dungeon tracks in the entire franchise:
Final Fantasy II OST : 13 - Ancient Castle - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTFx62k_Qc)

Although the tower talk and the talk of the 2D FFs having inherently worse dungeons makes me think of Mysidia Tower....

Why did you force me through all those gimmicky floors of elemental bosses and hell just to get a spell that isn't even worth trout in gameplay, let alone story?!
WHY FF2?!! WHY DO YOU MAKE IT SO HARD FOR ME TO LOVE YOU?

Pete for President
01-03-2013, 08:58 AM
There was a dungeon in Final Fantasy XII that involved going up almost a hundred floors to retrieve an item. I can't remember what the dungeon was called because it was so tedious that I have tried to block it out of memory. That place had very little interaction between the characters or any story events at all while you were ascending the tower. So am I to believe that they could scale this tower in a few hours without stopping to rest with a campfire scene or something? The dungeon was horribly paced for me and it took me several hours to get through it without any promise of a cutscene or something to take a break with.

It had some terrible puzzles too!

Like many have already said Zozo must get nuked, as well as the Tower of Fanatics. I would't even know how to beat that thing without the emulator's ability to save everywhere. Bosses that have an insta-kill move that is triggered by actually beating them are just a kick in the nuts to a player.

Loony BoB
01-03-2013, 10:11 AM
How anyone can objectively say that any location from VII onwards is worse than a random lengthy mine/cave dungeon in FFI through FFVI is beyond me. At least in 3D worlds the mines/caves can look different. Seriously.

I can understand abnormally high encounter rates, but if you're going to go down that road then I'll point to some rooms in early FF dungeons which had encounters for every few steps you took. Basically you had to avoid those rooms and not explore them unless you wanted to level up using them or something. Either way, those early FF dungeons were basically crap in every way I could imagine. I can't really blame SE for that, games of that era were restricted by game engines and graphical capabilities. But that doesn't mean that suddenly a beautiful landscape in one of the more modern games is suddenly worse.

It sounds to me like people are associating these locations with one-off plot devices or cutscenes rather than the locations themselves.

I can get behind the FFVII dungeons are blah cause only a handful of them really impressed me because as I've mentioned (I'm a broken record now) that the adment of 3D simply made dungeons more about how they look and lost a lot of their gameplay appeal, not the the first six games don't have troutty dungeon design at least somehwere but I do agree that barring the ShinRa-HQ and the Temple of the Ancients, I never felt like any of the other dungeons had lasting gameplay appeal. Even the Crater is a pretty subpar final dungeon in comparison to the four games before it.

As for why people trout on a dungeon, I feel its perfectly legitimate to nail it for story reasons, especially if its because the game either can't justify the place for story reasons of in the case of my Mt. Gagazet rant, I felt the story interfered with enjoying the location. Its a package a deal if you ask me. :p
But how can anyone honestly say that these dungeons are worse than the copy/paste mine/cave dungeons found in all 2D RPGs? :S Most of them have nothing but perhaps lava or switches or something, and that's it... 2D hallways all over the place for the rest of it. Perhaps it's unfair because they're 2D and comparing to 3D gives them an immediate and instant disadvantage, but you can't say that a cripple isn't slower than an athlete just because they're a cripple.

Formalhaut
01-03-2013, 10:24 AM
I think he's talking about the Pharos Lighthouse, though it did have some story scenes (not many considering its length) and tons of bosses and a few minor puzzles.

Ah, my bad. I got confused on the whole 100 floor thing and went "Wait, eh?!". Of course it's the Pharos; the the only damn tower in the game.

Actually, one area of the game I didn't enjoy was the Great Crystal. Maybe it's because of the confusing way stones and names like Leo XVIII and trout like that which can get confusing. Though even that pales in comparison to spending plenty of time there trying to get the bloody Danjuro...

Wolf Kanno
01-03-2013, 11:23 PM
But how can anyone honestly say that these dungeons are worse than the copy/paste mine/cave dungeons found in all 2D RPGs? :S Most of them have nothing but perhaps lava or switches or something, and that's it... 2D hallways all over the place for the rest of it. Perhaps it's unfair because they're 2D and comparing to 3D gives them an immediate and instant disadvantage, but you can't say that a cripple isn't slower than an athlete just because they're a cripple.

See this is an issue of value dissonance, I'm not terribly bothered by the limitations of the systems making them look the same, as long as I have something to do within them. This is where I don't like the 3D design cause I often felt the dungeons are just there for atmosphere and usually hold no game purpose so once you get over how pretty it is, it's just a pretty straightforward romp through the dungeon fighting enemies. I feel the best dungeons are ones that give me something to do and keep my interest up. I am playing a game after all and I feel that if you focus on atmosphere and visual appeal too much you sort of limit yourself in making the dungeon a gameplay experience. FFX is a perfect example of this, with the basic dungeons largely being visually interesting but generally straightforward and organic looking, great for atmosphere but leaves little place for gameplay beyond combat and maybe the odd mini-game (that usually feels out of place) whereas you get to the actual Temples which have some visual flair but are largely designed for puzzles so their architecture makes no sense and with the exception of an occasional room for eye candy they are largely boring reused 3D models for walls used to help keep the dungeons purpose of being a puzzle manageable without distraction. Bizarre fantasy architecture and avant garde camera angles are only going to make a block puzzle into a nightmare to play through, so often dungeons are separated from being pretty and being fun.

Overall, I prefer fun and interesting gameplay experiences in my dungeon over fancy camera angles and avant garde art style because dungeons are suppose to be a core gameplay element and I feel the design should reflect that first, doesn't mean I'm against atmosphere, but I feel one element holds more weight and value over the other.