Any thoughts on why the direction of Final Fantasy has become... Poor?

[Gregor]

I love Final Fantasy. I have played every game. Beaten every game including XI (Have nothing left to even do...) besides XIV... XIV was extremely pathetic in my opinion... Anyways I started this thread because I just can't fathom what has become of Final Fantasy.

While I am disappointed with FFXIII and its sequel.. I do not find them to be horrible games... They just do not have the FF feel to them. FFXIII-2, ok you can go where you want... But it's not an open world like all of the other FFs... It's disappointing. I know FFXI and FFXIV are open worlds, but they should have been called "FF Online." Back to FFXIII-2, a time travel system? Really? A time travel system that's like a Megaman stage select... wtf? i know FF1 and FF8 had time travel but it was at the end of the game... not like this ... lol.. I dunno... I'm sorry I feel this way I just.... By the way what happend to Versus XIII? We've only heard about that since.... 2005? Development hell?

If you notice... It takes them longer and longer to make a final fantasy game, yet they can make a crappy FF and 2 sequels... That aren't too good. I just don't understand the logic? Again, I hate to bash this company I love, but what the smurf are they thinking?

The real reason I think they won't make an FF7 remake is because they are afraid they'd smurf it up. Look at the trout they put out recently. I can't remember the last good game SE has put out. I did LOVE FFXII, but to me, lately I just feel the company is going down the tubes. My favorite FF games are FF4, FF6, FF7, FF8 and FF12... 7 being my favorite, I have played all of them as I've said. I seen another thread on another forum saying the demand has to stop for the FFVII remake. Why? Look at what they're giving us.

As you can tell I am a huge FF fan, but I'm just very disappointed at what SE is doing with this franchise. We need the open worlds back, the airships you fly, the crystals, and of course, that final fantasy atmosphere... I miss the good old days... I know all good things come to an end, but damn I hope Final Fantasy doesn't end this way...

[Goldenboko]

The main problem is probably not overall quality of Final Fantasy's anymore. You yourself just said you loved Final Fantasy XII, the Final Fantasy that came immediately before XIII. They're big problem is the time it takes to develop a new one. XIII has fans, but if you don't like it you are likely to wait 7 years for a new one, making the company seem unable to produce games anymore, because you had a sour taste in the last one you waited 7 years for. But, in single player experiences you've enjoyed, you only seem to be disappointed with their newest addition, not even the latest two.

[Gregor]

The main problem is probably not overall quality of Final Fantasy's anymore. You yourself just said you loved Final Fantasy XII, the Final Fantasy that came immediately before XIII. They're big problem is the time it takes to develop a new one. XIII has fans, but if you don't like it you are likely to wait 7 years for a new one, making the company seem unable to produce games anymore, because you had a sour taste in the last one you waited 7 years for. But, in single player experiences you've enjoyed, you only seem to be disappointed with their newest addition, not even the latest two.

Well, to be honest.. It isn't just the "latest two" I thought 10 was pretty lame. Tidus was cheesy, story was lame, Seymour... lol. XI should have been called FFOnline. Same with horrible 14... 13, read in my first post. FFXII was very good. Again, this is my opinion. Also XII did not come out immediately before XIII... It came 3.5 years before. So why wait all that time for a crappy FF... Is this what they're going to be from now on? Why are they hiding Versus XIII? FF 1-9 that's what Final Fantasy is to me. XII was brilliantly different while still having an FF feel to it. I mean are you personally pleased with what FFXIII and XIII-2 are? Omg... How about X-2? I forgot about that trash.

[Goldenboko]

The 3.5 years between XII-XIII is exactly my point. You liked 12, you didn't like 13, their record for the past two games therefore is good - can't expect everyone to like every game they put out, but it seems bad, because the wait for XIII was so bad.

X was also hailed very well, and where you may have disliked it, it has a huge following (myself included). FFXI was a very successful MMO, if you don't like MMO's that's preference. I'm not going to call Final Fantasy a "sunk" franchise because of a mediocre performance with 13.

[Red Mage Coffman]

First off, agreed with the online thing. We waste a series spot like that? Just sorta bugs me. Now, I don't mind renovation in a series, which is usually what Square aims at. Trying to use new things to attract fans rather than recycling everything and pasting a different story onto it. Do they ALWAYS do it right? Well, no. Just take a look at 8 for example. Drawing magic sucks. And they tried a plot that revolved around a love story. Did it work perfectly? Well, yes and no. Some people will defend this game to their deathbeds. Some will dog on it so much that fanboys will be provoked to buy a Gunblade and stab them. 9 tried a throwback to everything we missed, the old days. It was a different game then 8. Did it work? Yes and no. Some people loved it, some hated it and hated Steiner more than anything. See what I'm getting at? I think Final Fantasy has one of the most diverse fan bases of all time. I've met people who hated everything after 6 and some who thought that 1-6 were boring and lacked a lot. Square has a BIG audience to appeal too. I think renovation is a good idea, believe me, I hate companies that copy and paste from the last game and stamp a different story onto it. (Coming from me, who plays Pokemon.) But I love Square for its renovations. Is it always perfect? No, but nothing is. I mean, I love 7, hate 8, but still play it for some reason, I love 9, I have mixed feelings on 10, 10-2 gave me more mixed feelings, 12 was different, but I liked it very much, 13 was a hallway, but it sure was an amazing hallway, with golden doorknobs, and streamers, and everything. 13-2, I've never been a fan of time travel games, but it was still a nice experience. It was like 13, but I was able to open some of the doors in the hallway and explore them a little. While I do love the old games, renovation is usually necessary to attract more fans. Okay, rants over, go home.

[ShinGundam]

We need the open worlds back, the airships you fly, the crystals, and of course

Do you realize there isn't a single open world FF, SE barely develop a 3D JRPG on console in a timely fashion and you want an open world game which means a more disjoint experience than what we have now from XII or XIII.

Overall, just hope for the best there isn't anything would magically change FF to better at least to me at the moment. What i want from FF is a new content, new magic(plot based magic/weapons), new monsters, new summons, many story NPCs, a new setting never used before in FF, a big and complex mega cities with many activities and entertainments, worldmaps and many vehicles but what a new JRPG about nowadays are guild-esque towns(not even an HQ like PE/Suikoden/Reishiki), mainquest is actually a sidequest, cheap nostalgia induce and tons of cameos, big maps of nothing but monsters and a vast region of nothing going on.

So what SE need to do? I don't know but i am sure as hell i don't want an old school wannabe or today's RPG trends either.

[black orb]

>>> Easy, FF is all about money now..

[Bolivar]

I don't think Final Fantasy has fallen off. Gaming has.

Ok, on a more serious note, short answer is the current generation landscape. This generation has messed a lot of people up. Developers either have to make an HD game or a handheld game. If you're handheld, you're automatically niche and Final Fantasy has always been cutting edge, so they have to go HD. But handheld is where all the gameplay innovation and RPG classics is taking place right now. An HD game takes so much time and money to get your tools ready and to pay the huge staff you need to make everything. I also have a personal feeling that big teams require generic ideas. I think after developing and re-finalizing a game engine, getting everything ready for the Xbox port, and working on the 16 spin-off games the FFXIII lead developers were making while they were supposed to be making the next Final Fantasy caused them to make a half-ass product. All it was was cutscenes and battles. No exploration. No events. Superficial customization. No investigation. No mini-game events to change the pace. Just cutscenes. And battles.

You can probably count the truly great HD RPGs on one hand... Developers are terrified at making a quality HD game while still pushing the genre forward with meaningful innovation. So they retreat to handhelds. But FF can't do that.

13 was a hallway, but it sure was an amazing hallway, with golden doorknobs, and streamers, and everything.

This was an awesome summation of FFXIII. I enjoyed the game a lot, but this is the truth.

[ShinGundam]

>>> Easy, FF is all about money now..

Lol, FF is always about business or did we forget how Square kept announcing sequels and clones to FF1, changing game names such as gemma knights into FF gaiden to sell more and changing direction from PC oriented games to console RPGs.

Bottom line check out Square's pre-FF1 and after FF1 then tell me FF wasn't about money.

[black orb]

>>> Again, FF is all about money now..
FF should have died long time ago, since Sakaguchi left if im not wrong..

[Henry Pease]

Yeah this is an issue of more concern and I too think that the core reason behind its poor direction is the business and frequent release of the series. So, anything that is done in less time indeed lack some thing.

[Jessweeee♪]

I still insist that it has become different rather than poor. I'm a huge fan of FFXIII and FFXIII-2 xD

[Shauna]

Different is wrong, Jesswee. You should know this by now!

[Formalhaut]

I still insist that it has become different rather than poor. I'm a huge fan of FFXIII and FFXIII-2 xD

I'm wary of a big return to the more retro "open world" style of VII and VIII. Final Fantasy is an ever changing franchise, you can't expect the same format every time; it may not be to everyones taste, but some people like XIII and XIII-2. Hell, Famitsu gave it a perfect 40/40.

[ShinGundam]

I think people keep misunderstanding. If you're talking about FF games being "open world", well they weren't. Calling FF "open-world" places it in a category that it seriously doesn't belong to.