ATTN: SE, Re: Final Fantasy

[Spooniest]

(WARNING! WARNING! RANTBOT ACTIVATED! BIASES DETECTED! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!)

Where I live (Nashville, TN), if I mention Final Fantasy to anyone, I get a blank stare. If I try to explain further, it causes only more bewilderment.

If it is your desire to expand the user base of the franchise beyond what it is now, then I have a few suggestions. Granted, this may not be your desire...you may be content to simply restrict yourselves to whoever you're marketing to right now, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that the series as a whole has a universally appealing message at its heart; the way you are presenting it is interfering with that message's dissemination.

The universally appealing message that Final Fantasy espouses from its very humble beginning is not complicated or hard to explain, and it isn't something that you in the land where the sun rises won't understand.

One word: hope.

Now hope is not a difficult concept for people to understand. Even a small child hopes for things. But it is a difficult concept to convey within visual media. When someone is participating in visual media (movies, or more relevant here, video games), you don't want to engage their conscious mind as much as you want to engage them on an instinctive, visceral level.

When you present a story as supplemental material, rather than making it the "spinal cord" of the gameplay itself, you are doing what director Nicholas Meyer refers to as "bouncing your viewer out of the picture." You are hurting the believability of what your player is experiencing. You are taking away from the fantasy.

Additionally, I get it that you have a computer that could end my computer's existence forever. But these two points sum up my view:

1) You can't go wrong with a little black dress.

Final Fantasy seems like a woman showing up for lunch with a friend in a bridesmaid's outfit. It's overdressed.

2) Less is more.

You have the capability of producing representational art in the framework of a computer program. Why limit yourself to Realism? You can do so much more with art than simply attempt to portray things as they appear to be. The definition of Impressionism that I heard was "art that attempts to portray things not as they appear, but as they really are."

I have a deep, sincere love for the body of work that this series has produced. There have been times when it has been my only entertainment. It has influenced how I've come to view the world. It has illuminated aspects of identity, psychology, and metaphysics to me. You can do a lot more with it than you're doing, with a lot less effort. You're trying too hard.

Harve Bennett said, in the book Star Trek Movie Memories (pp. 301-302), concerning the production of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier:

...The biggest problems I had during the early stages of this picture had to do with [William Shatner's] appetite. [He was] coming into the situation, as a first-time director, determined that [he was] going to reinvent the wheel and make a real directorial statement. [...] When that happens, the tendency is for the director to to start biting off more than he'll be able to chew. You start thinking too big, B-I-G, big. [...] [Shatner] wanted big, complex shots, [he] wanted big things, [he] wanted things that were going to cost money. [He] wanted stuff that would take time. My job was to keep [his] enthusiasm and [his] appetites from going over a line of practicality.

And, as The Dread Pirate Roberts said, in The Princess Bride:

"Please understand, I hold you in the highest respect."

~ Spoons

[Jinx]

I really don't have any numbers, so what I'm saying is based on the observation of a small group of people I know both online and offline. I don't know if there are any new fans these days (or rather, if the amount of new fans of the series is enough to recognize as actual growth), but I know that old fans are less likely to introduce people to the series. Why? It's become downright embarrassing to play. They focus on visuals instead of what made the game great--story. There's something really shameful about introducing someone to the series and having them play the games that are all flash and no heart. Things like the repeated use of Lightning are embarrassing as well. Not to mention the mess with a 7 year development time for FFvsXIII that ultimately turned into FFXV. So instead of getting two games, we now get one game.

The series has lost its soul, and unless it can find it again, I think it's going to steadily decline. A lot of older fans don't and won't play the most recent games in the series. However, I know a lot of fans are really looking forward to FFXV and believe it might be just what the series needs. The problem is, just from things I've read and whatnot (actual articles) the developers and company owners really don't care about what fans what, but what they themselves want. It's very sad, and if they don't learn, then they're probably going to shoot themselves in the foot. That's not to say that everything the customer says is right, but when you have so many people saying, "WE'RE TIRED OF SEEING LIGHTNING STAHP" and they respond with "NO WE LOVE HER AND SO WILL YOU"...I think things like that hurt the morale of the fans, and make them feel that SE really doesn't care and just wants their dollars.

Also--

[Bolivar]

So you didn't like XIII. Welcome to the franchise.

Were you in the forums when XII came out? X still gets put on trial as a war crime against humanity to this day. 7, 8, and 9 are all incredibly divisive games. I can guarantee you when your favorite Final Fantasy came out a lot of longtime fans didn't like it. I need to ask: when was this magical time when Square was in control of its vision and knew what its fans wanted?

I understand this is more of a caution against XV but for real: chill. The game isn't out yet. I dislike action RPGs as a rule but I'm willing to give it a shot.

And whether you like it or not, Square has always been about cutting edge graphics and always will be. They were making 3d games on the Famicom for crying out loud.

[Jinx]

So you didn't like XIII. Welcome to the franchise.

Were you in the forums when XII came out? X still gets put on trial as a war crime against humanity to this day. 7, 8, and 9 are all incredibly divisive games. I can guarantee you when your favorite Final Fantasy came out a lot of longtime fans didn't like it. I need to ask: when was this magical time when Square was in control of its vision and knew what its fans wanted?

I understand this is more of a caution against XV but for real: chill. The game isn't out yet. I dislike action RPGs as a rule but I'm willing to give it a shot.

And whether you like it or not, Square has always been about cutting edge graphics and always will be. They were making 3d games on the Famicom for crying out loud.

Dude, my post wasn't even about my personal preferences, but what I've seen tons of people saying. Also, I'm extremely excited about FFXV, I don't know where you got the idea that I wasn't.

[Spooniest]

Regarding XV specifically...

I saw one shot of a group of people standing in V formation toward a camera that was tilted to one side. They looked like Bryan Singer's X-Men.

That's all I know. I'm not going to spoil it for myself.

[Jinx]

All I'm saying is I actually tried to give a constructive post on why I think (from a fan's perspective) they've been having issues, and I'm still called out as being snarky.

I've never even played FFXIII.

[Sephex]

So you didn't like XIII. Welcome to the franchise.

Were you in the forums when XII came out? X still gets put on trial as a war crime against humanity to this day. 7, 8, and 9 are all incredibly divisive games. I can guarantee you when your favorite Final Fantasy came out a lot of longtime fans didn't like it. I need to ask: when was this magical time when Square was in control of its vision and knew what its fans wanted?

I understand this is more of a caution against XV but for real: chill. The game isn't out yet. I dislike action RPGs as a rule but I'm willing to give it a shot.

And whether you like it or not, Square has always been about cutting edge graphics and always will be. They were making 3d games on the Famicom for crying out loud.

Where did you get any of this from her original post?

[Bolivar]

I'm not sure if my mobile's having issues with the site, but my post was in response to Spoony's (well-delivered) letter to SE, and how their recent obsession with technical spectacle and realism is getting in the way of the core message of hope and fantasy.

This is that thread, right?

[Sephex]

Well, without directly quoting someone, it looked like you were responding to Jinx, especially given the fact that she ended her post with a picture of a FFXIII character. Though this is one of those situations that can be easily confused, so I am big enough to admit that I shouldn't have assumed that your reply was in direct response to her.

[Spuuky]

given the fact that she ended her post with a picture of a FFXIII character.

Well, no, she didn't.

[Jinx]

given the fact that she ended her post with a picture of a FFXIII character.

Well, no, she didn't.

...yes I did?

[Spuuky]

given the fact that she ended her post with a picture of a FFXIII character.

Well, no, she didn't.

...yes I did?

Really, that's a character from FFXIII and not Vaan from FFXII? They really need to work on their character designs.

[Jinx]

given the fact that she ended her post with a picture of a FFXIII character.

Well, no, she didn't.

...yes I did?

Really, that's a character from FFXIII and not Vaan from FFXII? They really need to work on their character designs.

Yeah, that's totally Hope from FFXIII. xD

[Bolivar]

Well, without directly quoting someone, it looked like you were responding to Jinx, especially given the fact that she ended her post with a picture of a FFXIII character. Though this is one of those situations that can be easily confused, so I am big enough to admit that I shouldn't have assumed that your reply was in direct response to her.

And I'm big enough to admit that's mighty big of you.

Sam I eagerly await your in-thread apology!

[Jinx]

I am sorry that all of you guys suck so much.