Does Final Fantasy not have it anymore?

[Craig]

in my opinion, all the remakes and a lot of the side games they are getting churned out arent brilliant, but then XII was awesome, i think XIII will be awesome, and then yknow, TA2 and Dissidia are cool.

id say they still have it, just theyre bringing about games a lot more so a lot of it aint brilliant. but to be honest i have no idea what im talking about

[Bolivar]

I feel the major projects are trying too hard to appeal to a western mindset which is kinda silly since these western mindsets bought all these Japanese mindset games for years but suddenly now we don't like it? I blame a majority of SE's problems on Wada and the people who supply him with information.

This is possibly my biggest complaint. Don't go to Russia trying to convince them to import your vodka. That's a lot of why JRPG's drag us westerners in (well, me at least) because it's images, sounds, and ideas that you don't get in your own culture.

Karifean your avatar is classic, really brings me back, gotta agree with your post too, despite learning to love XII (just not as a final fantasy).

[Karifean]

I'm not saying XII is a bad game, I'm just saying it is compared to the other final fantasies I've played... except maybe X-2, but INT + LM made it nice.

Sure XII is great, what with all the sidequests and secrets. I also liked mobhunting and rare games. And I am just doing a high-level-challenge, being already level 42 before even seeing Dalan for the first time. But, as you said, it's just not "Final-Fantasy-ish".

[the AJman]

I myself feel like the final fantasies just became less and less final fantasies after sakaguchi left. It started with X-2 having only 3 characters and became critical when XII lost (my opinion) the best thing of which you could tell it was a Final Fantasy: the battle system. I think that was one of the most important parts of Final Fantasy. Also, neither X-2 nor XII have the original "limit attacks". XII's quickenings are just not the same. XII also lost the feature of enemy skills and I cannot compare the espers to aeons/g.f.s/summons. Also, what I hated about XII is that you couldn't really "enter" the Strahl. You couldn't walk around inside it. And it doesn't have any minigame with chocobos. This I cannot forgive. VII had the whole breeding, VIII at least had the woods minigame and if you had a pocket station chocobo world. X had a number of minigames concerning chocobos and X-2 did too. But XII? All it has is the possibility of riding them. And I don't count the fact that you can reach areas with chocobos that you couldn't without as a minigame.

I must admit that I haven't played IX, but I did like Final Fantasy better when you could still walk around on the world map.

The first point to make, X-2 wasn't the first in the series to feature only three characters, that started in VII. So if blame and ridicual is going to be thrown over that, lets not just single X-2 out.

As for the battle system, this is a series that prides itself with doing things a bit differently in each installment. The first three games in the series had the standard turn based system. Than four introduced the Active Time Battle which remained with the series till X. X used a new system called conditional time battle which was a cross between turn based and ATB. XII is basically nothing more than ATB except that the characters can move around and the game doesn't transition to a battle screen.

Blue Magic (enemy skill) didn't come into the series until V so blue magic isn't exactly a requirement for a Final Fantasy game. As for the summons I personlly loved the system in XII. I love the idea that summons actually come out to fight with you, but that just me.

As for the limit breaks, they weren't introduced until VI and even than they were pretty darn rare. Its not until VII they became a large part of the battle mechanics in the series. And world map, sure XII didn't have one, but this game was so large, open, and expansive that it didn't need a world map. XII rendered the world map obsolete. I say this with respect to your opinion, which you are very much entitled to, and I'm not all trying to be a jerk about it. Thats all I'm going to comment on.

As for the topic at hand, I've said before I don't think that square has lost its touch at all. Sure they are trying to franchise the series more, and sure some of the spin offs aren't quite up to par, but their main projects are just as good as the ever been in my opinion.

I thought XII was great, its my personal favorite. XIII looks like its also going to be a box full fun, I can't wait to play it. XIV looks like it could be a darn good MMO, its a pity I probably won't play it for a while (not because its an MMO). Just look how well the Kingdom Hearts games are doing, and the new fighting game Dissidia looks amazing.

The only complaint I have with Square since the merger is the same thing a few others have mentioned, they don't too many new titles anymore. In the PSone era they came out with a completely new games like crazy and most of them were pretty good. Now most of their attention is Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest.

[Freya]

I think you're all old fogies.

Every Final fantasy is new world a new "final fantasy". So why not have it change each time. The only thing that connects the games is a couple names and maybe a few monsters. Oh and that all males look feminine.

I thought the FFXII battle system was great. That's the thing with Squenix though lately. It's no longer the era of turn-based RPGs. Those were slow and took time. Now these days everything is fast paced, why do you think FPS's have such a foothold in the gaming market? You have a instant reaction to an action you do. Squenix is just trying to keep up with that. So they have to change.

Sure you're a market of the old school fans. But they have to compete with so much more now. The gaming market has vastly increased in the past few years and they need to keep up with that. They need to appeal to more than their die hard fan base. They need to grow with the market else they wont be around much longer. Having a quicker, more involved battle system is going to keep players involved so they don't up and leave for some other more interesting game. Sure they have pretty graphics but that's not everything.

So no. I don't think they are losing their touch. They are just slow on getting games out xP

[Wolf Kanno]

In regards to the main line series, I don't have many worries. Though I don't have glowing admiration for several of the mainstream popular titles in the series, Square has only released one dud in the series for me.

I personally adored XII and was happy to see SE try to break away from the stifling forumlatic approach that most JRPGs were doing at the time. It was more of an FF to me than X was as I felt XII really tried to redefine the genre and created new expectations that I have for the series.

For XIII, I'm actually looking forward to the battle system (except for the Eidolons as its still retarded) and for the most part, I can't see the gameplay disappoint unless it has similar major flaws like FFX had for me. I'm still wary of its story as I have yet to be pleased by anything Motomu Toriyama has worked on. Despite all this, I know it will be a success and will get glowing reviews.

My main issue comes from the side projects SE does, as I said, the Compilation for the most part has been pretty terrible. The Ivalice Alliance has been mixed for me but overall I would sadly say its been rather disappointing overall. I don't even really want to see what FFIV:The After Years is like due to the quality of every other sequel SE has given us.

Mana got rammed into the ground, SE has decided that obviously no one likes Front Mission (though I guarantee the action/shooter entry will actually make it here whereas we will never see Front Mission 2, 5, and Online ever ) outside of Japan, and it seems like all the really innovative and interesting projects only have a slim chance of being released outside of Japan. I just feel that SE's new marketing plans for the non-Jpanese market is simply release anything with FF, DQ, and KH in the title (regardless of its quality) and then let's pour millions of dollars into making original IPs that will appeal more to a western audience that magically never contributed anything to the sales of our products in the last 20 years.

[Depression Moon]

The first point to make, X-2 wasn't the first in the series to feature only three characters, that started in VII. So if blame and ridicual is going to be thrown over that, lets not just single X-2 out.

VII had more than three characters. A total of nine characters are in the game. 7 story characters and two optional characters. Story: Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid.

Optional: Vincent, Yuffie

I forgot to mention that Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery for next gen consoles are both 360 exclusives. There was supposed to be a PS3 port of Remnant, but I heard it was cancelled so if you have a PS3 then you're screwed for Square games.

[Skyblade]

With FFXII, they were trying something new. Sure, it didn't meet up to the standards of the old classics, but not all experiments succeed. Now they're working on XIII, and we should see how it turns out before we blast them. X and TA2 were both excellent games (even if TA2's main plot was ruined by the shortened story), and everything else they've done has been a spin-off (and it's not a surprise that the spin-offs aren't as good as the originals). They can still write a good story when they want to, and I say we give them a chance with XIII before we condemn them.

[the AJman]

The first point to make, X-2 wasn't the first in the series to feature only three characters, that started in VII. So if blame and ridicual is going to be thrown over that, lets not just single X-2 out.

VII had more than three characters. A total of nine characters are in the game. 7 story characters and two optional characters. Story: Cloud, Aeris, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid.

Optional: Vincent, Yuffie

I may have mis-interpreted what Karifean meant. I took it as X-2 was the first game to have only three characters in battle not total. If thats the case than my apologies, I find myself misreading things quite often lately.

[Christmas]

I will still play the Final Fantasy series, if only it is not only exclusive to console, but computers too.

[ljkkjlcm9]

You can complain all you want, but Square-enix is one of the few companies that I know I will enjoy the game to some extent. Square-Enix, Atlus, Capcom, Nintendo.... those are like the 4 branches of my gaming. If I see a game coming out by them, I'm pretty sure I will enjoy it. Sometimes you get other companies making a game I want, but for the most part those are my pillars.

And XIII looks pretty awesome, especially the battle system, so I look forward to it.

THE JACKEL

[Wolf Kanno]

I just want to chime in real fast and ask everyone to stay cool concerning the topic. Please try to keep things civil and that goes for everyone... especially me.

[Rantz]

There seems to be two topics in here, so I'm moving the Eyes on Feminine Features discussion to a new thread. Other than that, carry on, and thanks for staying civil. ;]