Are the newer releases really getting worse???

[catfish]

I can't claim to have played all the older games. In fact I've only played psp remake of FF1 and the DS remake of FFIII when it comes to pre-playstation games. I enjoyed them both a lot but the stories were a little flat.

The later games obviously have the advantage of some pretty spectacular graphics (that's pretty much why I like XIII actually) but are they all really so terrible? Why am I constantly hearing about how FF fans consider the games to be getting worse?

Personally, I love IX the best and after that it's a toss up between X and VII. We have voice acting now and although there were points in X that made me cringe it's gotten better. There is a complexity to the characters now that you just didn't have before.

I just want to see what everyone else thinks because I don't trust the reviews I'm reading. I know the combat in XII sucked and i know that XIII was linear but they (well XIII anyway) were still fun to play. So talk to me people.

[Jessweeee♪]

I don't think they're worse, just different. Some people like potatoes better than tomatoes is all.

(X, XII, and XIII are some of my favorites in the series!)

[kotora]

yeah it's all gone downhill after Square merged with Enix. FF13 sucks so much, it makes 12 look like a good game.

[Slothy]

I know the combat in XII sucked and i know that XIII was linear but they (well XIII anyway) were still fun to play. So talk to me people.

Wait what? The combat in XII was easily the best part of the game and one of the better systems in the entire series. The gameplay in XIII was pretty much the opposite; monotonous, shallow and lacking much player involvement on any level.

But I digress. To address the topic, the newer releases aren't getting strictly worse. FFX is weaker than IX and some of the pre-PSX games, and XIII is quite arguably the worst game I've played in the entire series, but XII was a fun game despite some pacing issues. But to be fair, FFVII isn't without a myriad of issues and FFVIII was pretty craptastic. Meanwhile, FFVI had a pretty unbalanced battle system, and I could probably keep going about other games in the series.

So while I may have enjoyed one particular recent entry far less than the older stuff, the entire series is a bit of a mixed bag. Even at it's best it has issues and flaws which are pretty hard to deny. I will say I think the SNES titles are generally superior in terms of game design, story, and any other measure available than most of the recent titles, but my love for FFXII keeps me from lumping everything together. How about we just say that Kitase needs to retire and leave it at that?

[ShinGundam]

It's cool to be rebellious , they just saw the loss of momentum and took the chance to bash it.

IMO, there is legitimate issues With the series but that the case with most of RPGs unless people just love to overlook the flaws of some games and bash other ones which is the case most of time .

[Jessweeee♪]

FFXIII had me constantly shifting things around during battle, even if I was using Auto fairly often! One of the reasons I like the newer ones so much is that before FFX, I was only using Attack, Cure, and the occasional item during battle until whatever I was fighting was dead, with maybe a couple of super bosses per game as an exception. It wasn't really until FFX that I found it practical to use other abilities in battle, and FFXII and FFXIII were the only ones where I had to really think about what I was doing.

(Also, it struck me as funny that I am currently doing the FFXII Negalmuur trick while reading a post about how unlike FFXII, FFXIII has little player involvement. The controller and TV aren't even on.)

[Vyk]

Pick and choose your reasons. All I can say is that its hard for me to care about the plot or the characters anymore. And a battle system can't be my sole reason to enjoy an RPG. Ever. I grew up and needed more. And the series shifted in a direction that no longer provides for me on a narative level. If you enjoy it, its all gravy. But the people like me feel left behind and neglected by Square. They try to keep plots and characters cliche, juvenile, and without much gravitational drama. At least in my opinion. But like has been mentioned in a few other threads. Square admits that they're aiming their games at tweens and young adults, and catering the lowest common denominator. They don't take a lot of artistic risks and the company is run by bureaucrats rather than visionaries (I'm just summarizing a lot of arguments I agree with, each person has their own reasons though)

[Levian]

Saying they are getting worse would be very subjective. They're definitely getting different, though.

imo, they hit rock bottom with 12, so technically they are actually getting marginally better as 13 wasn't too bad, but still not nearly as spectacular as IV to X

[Elskidor]

Hard to say and it really depends on the person your asking. I hate FFXIII but thought XII easily wiped the floor with it's previous X. I think different is probably the best term, and some will roll with it and some will hop off the train. But also..what's it getting worse than anyway? In my list the games always seem to slide back and forth on which one is better or worse than the title prior.

FF1-Better (Than something)
FF2-Worse
FF3-Better
FF4-Better
FF5-Worse
FF6-Better
FF7-Worse
FF8-Worse
FF9-Better
FF10-Worse
FF11-Uhh hmm wha..?
FF12-Better
FF13-Worse
FF14-Ummm why is an MMO is this series again?

[Del Murder]

I'm probably one of the few who have played and liked all of them (except XIV which hasn't come out for PS3 yet). Like Levian said, better or worse is entirely subjective, but one thing you can say for sure is that they are becoming different. XIII is much more different than X than IX is to VII (different systems, but you see my point). Since many of the older fans fell in love with and became used to the style they used for so many years, there was a good chance many would not like this new direction. There are still many fans of the newer games, and I'm sure there are even some who hated the old games but love XII and XIII.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll agree its more a matter of being subjective. In terms of the main series, some are definetly better than other but it really wasn't until X that I felt Square made a dud, as the game felt rather mediocre to me. I don't care for the MMO entries, not so much because of any quality issues as much as its just my dislike for that particular medium. If FF went into a sporting game or FPS route I would feel the same. Though I'm still a noob with XI, I can say that it is fun just not my cup of tea.

XII was a step in the right direction for me cause I felt the game took risks that were worth taking. It still has the best world design imho, and probably one of the most flexible battle systems in the series. It was also the only entry I felt really tried to stray from the cliches that were choking the genre at the time. Though, even I will admit that XII doesn't live up to its full potential but even with that issue I still feel it was better than several entries in the series.

XIII is just... awful and mostly a fine example of what's been wrong with SE for the last decade. The writing is boring, gutless, predictable, and irrelevant. The battle system takes the worst aspects of the series history and mostly feels like you're just pressing a button to watch a cutscene battle as opposed to feeling like you're actually making a real difference beyond keeping health up. While the game is visually stunning the world design is restrictive and confining. Destroying any illusion you may have felt about being in a real place, just simply a tourist on a guided tour, with no hope of getting lost on a deserted island with the Skipper.

I think what made me really sad was the revelation that the last FF that really challenged a player to think beyond stupid crap like battle strategies, "shipping", and "who has the most awesome hair"; was Tactics Advance. A game reviled by many for its "childish" nature but really the games deeper themes have actually gotten the most mature discussion on this forum for years. The game actually challenges the player to think about something that actually has some value in the real world. That is what is missing in the series. Its unwillingness to grow up, and talk about something that might actually make a real world impact by changing the players perspective by making them think of deeper feelings. Most of the series mature elements are hidden behind childish interpretations, black and white idealism, and mostly exists for plot convenince as opposed to actually being meaningful. FF has the ability to transcend itself and become art, but it settles for being cheap entertainment instead.

[Roto13]

I haven't played XIII yet so I can't really say if that one is better or worse than the previous games, but I can say they were all great up to that point.

The battle system in XII is awesome, btw.

[Miriel]

I don't think they're worse, just different. Some people like potatoes better than tomatoes is all.

(X, XII, and XIII are some of my favorites in the series!)

I think this is exactly it. I can definitely see how the newer games would appeal to a different type of player than the older ones. I didn't think FFXII and XIII were bad games, I just happened to lose interest in them fairly quickly.

[Roogle]

I am not sure if I would say that the releases of the Final Fantasy series are getting progressively worse. I want to throw the possibility out there, though, that this could be related to increased turnaround time between each title.

Final Fantasy had three entries for its first few consoles: Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Playstation, and followed it up by creating a massively multiplayer online role-playing game during its Playstation 2 era. That left the only regular titles in the series to be Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. Perhaps the latest titles fall under more scrutiny because the online entries are seen as a different type of game and there is less material to spread around? Out of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IX, someone will surely enjoy at least one of those titles.

[kotora]

I am not sure if I would say that the releases of the Final Fantasy series are getting progressively worse. I want to throw the possibility out there, though, that this could be related to increased turnaround time between each title.

Final Fantasy had three entries for its first few consoles: Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Playstation, and followed it up by creating a massively multiplayer online role-playing game during its Playstation 2 era. That left the only regular titles in the series to be Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. Perhaps the latest titles fall under more scrutiny because the online entries are seen as a different type of game and there is less material to spread around? Out of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IX, someone will surely enjoy at least one of those titles.

it's not the online games that made 12 and 13 worse in the things that made the FF series great, such as narrative, characters and world building. There's no denying that these things were handled very differently in these entries compared to the previous games in the series.