The more things change... (Old usenet group posts about Final Fantasy)

[Pike]

...the more things stay the same.

What did people do before EoFF was a thing?

Bitch about Final Fantasy on Usenet, of course!

The challenge in the series has been degrading rapidly. FF7 is the easiest FF to date, IMHO. In part, I suspect this is being done so that they are more appealing to larger masses of people that are normally outside the typical RPG audience. This increases sales, but will inevitably begin to take some of the enjoyment out of the game for many RPG fans.

January 11, 1998

(most of the rest of the thread is filled with people agreeing and talking about how FFVII is "just graphics" and heralds bad things for RPG fans)

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Now that we basically know what FF7's system is about (Materia Orbs), anyone want to speculate on how FF8's system(overall) could be lightyears ahead of FF7? I can't even imagine how the game would look like with graphical improvements in the year 1999.

December 8, 1997

(presented without comment)

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PLAYSTATION SUCKS


I have both a PSX and an N64 and the N64 is definitely better. Why buy a PSX just for FF7 when it will probably come out for Windows too.

December 22, 1996

(thread is promptly derailed into console vs. PC (Windows 95 to be exact))

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I do miss the good old days. Still, I do love the potental these games can get and wonder WTF are the easy ones comming here. Why don't they try a hard one with us. Test the waters. Again, maybe I'm asking too much. oh well

December 28, 1996

(This is an excerpt from a huge post detailing why FF started going downhill after FFII/IV.)

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Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a game like FF7 will actually prove to ba a challenge. Maybe my faith in the universe will be restored.
But somehow, I doubt it...

December 27, 1996

(This is the end of a huge rant about how RPGs had been going downhill and FF6 just proved it.)

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It's because, as someone stated earlier, starting with Nintendo's release of Super Mario World, everyone has been making games "for everyone", not just for the esoteric few who are familiar with a certain genre of games.

Anyone remember the very first few SNES games (Super Mario World, Zelda, SimCity, etc.)? All of them had online help everywhere in them (I hated how you got that stupid "you can throw bombs now" message whenever you found/bought bombs in Zelda) and could have been a lot harder if they removed the training wheels.

December 27, 1996

(Yes, he's talking about how SNES games are for casuals and little kids.)

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I'll dig up more of these later if I get bored

[Madame Adequate]

These are utterly magical. SNES games are for casuals and scrubs. Even SimCity is for casuals because it has online help.

Man, these folks must have been RIPtrout PISSED about the Wii

[Colonel Angus]

Wow, I didn't even really interwebz back then & am glad I di'n't. I dunnae if I'd make it this long on all that negative jive. The internet has always been a terrible place.

[Shauna]

Hahaha, proof that nobody will ever be happy ever.

[Pike]

FF5 is IMO the last of the FF series that may pass as an 'intellectually challenging' RPG.

A tidbit from December 1999.

And here's a gem from June 1996:

FINAL FANTASY III'S LAST BOSSES ARE THE BIGGEST SHAM IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY

(III referring to VI.)

The fact that VI is "too easy" and "not as good as IV" comes up a LOT on this newsgroup. That last quote comes at the end of a huge rant about how FFVI is both easy and very boring.

[The Man]

Well, they are right that VI and VII are easy. But boring? I don't think so.

[Ayen]

FINAL FANTASY III'S LAST BOSSES ARE THE BIGGEST SHAM IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY

WHAT?!

*grabs a baseball bat and goes back to 1996 and kick that guy's ass*

Come here, you!
Raging Fan: Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

*bash his head in with the baseball bat and take his kidney* Give me that! I know a guy in nineteen years who is going to need this a lot more than you do!

PLAYSTATION SUCKS

That's it!

*more violence*

[Pike]

I do want to point out that not everything in the usergroup is negative and all of the games had a lot of enthusiastic fans. But because I am terrible, those aren't as fun to post.

[Galuf]

i never heard anyone speak bad about FFVI before lol. atleast not that bad.

i like how people back then couldnt enjoy those games. but heres me who started playing FF in 2014. and grew up playing shooters and stuff on the xbox. and i LOVE the FF games. so weird

[VeloZer0]

If you want a real laugh look back at historical documents concerning youth. There is an almost unbroken 2500 year chain of writers complaining about how bad 'kids these days' are and that they are an indication of everything going to hell.

[Pumpkin]

That's basically how it goes. The fans who came in on XIII will be going on in a few years about how XIX sucks and XIII was the last good one

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Final Fantasy II is way too easy! This must surely be the end of the RPG as we know it!

[Ayen]

That's basically how it goes. The fans who came in on XIII will be going on in a few years about how XIX sucks and XIII was the last good one

I don't even want to think about how bad XIX would have to be for that to happen.

[Spooniest]

My god

1999? people were bitching on the Internet in 1999?

I was learning Witchy Woman on guitar lol

[Sephex]

I'm looking at this sort of thing in a big picture sort of sense. People have always and will always bitch about things, especially things they supposedly love.

Take the Star Wars Prequels for example. Easy target there. God, so many things wrong with those films. Why can't we return to the glory days of the flawless original trilogy?

Except people did bitch about those movies endlessly. There is just no public record of it. I remember my dad telling me that he remembered a lot of people thinking the C3P0 was way too annoying and over the top in The Empire Strikes Back. There was also a time where people debated ENDLESSLY if Darth Vader telling Luke he was his father was the truth or an outright lie.

Return of the Jedi got the same treatment. Oh sure, everyone knows that the Ewoks were complained about, but not everyone swallowed the movie going, "btw Leia is Luke's sister. Yeah, just go with it, it makes the Vader/Emperor/Luke confrontation at the end carry more weight." One of the complaints of The Phantom Menace is that there is way too much going on during the films climax (Jedi Battle/Space Battle/Gungan Battle/Naboo Battle). Though not nearly as strong, there were people who felt the climax of RotJ had too much going on and screwed with the pacing.

Not trying to down Star Wars or whatever. I'm just saying that while it was very cool and amusing to read these comments, they hardly surprised me (partly because I was around for this sort of thing). It just goes to show that some times the test of time makes people reflect on things differently, as well.