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

[Bubba]

I remember reading about the internet in my Super Nintendo magazines back in the mid-90's. I kind of wish I'd paid it more attention at the time. I could have been a multi-millionaire by now. Either that or I could have slagged off a load of games to people I'm never gonna meet.

[Pike]

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.

Agreed 100%, and in fact the reason I'm posing these to begin with is because it amuses me from the "this cycle truly never ends" standpoint. I've seen it before on multiple gaming sites: every time a new generation or game or sequel or expansion pack or whatever comes out, the one from one or two iterations before was the "last good one". Give it another couple of years and the cycle repeats.

Gamers in 20 years will be looking back at the stuff we're writing on EoFF now and laughing.

[Spooniest]

Eh, I already laugh at the stuff we say

[Loony BoB]

If you go back through the early threads (look for the ones with 30+ pages just around the time of release or after it) for each of the FF releases, you'll find people bitching about each of them. It's what Square Enix gets for innovating. In most series out there today, each game is fairly similar, especially if it's an FPS/TPS. SE however make big changes to gameplay all the time, and the result of that is a lot of new fans, a lot of moving with the times and - unfortunately - a lot of angry fans pissed off at how this isn't FFIV-2, FFVI-2, FFVII-2, FFX-2 (in this context, even FFX-2 wasn't FFX-2 xD), etc.

[Mirage]

FF 6, 7 and 8 are actually pretty easy. FF9 is too. FF5 was a bit challenging, but for me mostly because I was new to RPGs.

That said, the way developers made games "hard" back in the day wasn't actually very exciting.

[Freya]

Oh man, I love these! This would make a great article. "Even in '97 people thought the 'newest' FF was killing the series."

hahaha superfans are such old fogies. Then, Now, in the future. funny.

And let's throw in a BSG quote:

This has happened before, and it will happen again.

[Pumpkin]

I'm actually pretty good about that with video games. I like what I like I'll always give the newest one a try and generally be excited about it

Music though. Well pop culture in general. I'm laughing at myself because I used to think adults were so stupid because they couldn't keep up with pop culture. I can't read thos types of magazines or stories or cracked articles anymore because I have no friggin clue who these people are anymore. Like some woman named Iggy Azalea or something? That they mention on Cracked. I had to look her up and listen to her music and I was not impressed. I don't like new music anymore. New music is poo. New stars are poo

I'm getting old and I'm only 22

[Pike]

Oh man, I love these! This would make a great article. "Even in '97 people thought the 'newest' FF was killing the series."

hahaha superfans are such old fogies. Then, Now, in the future. funny.

And let's throw in a BSG quote:

This has happened before, and it will happen again.

Circle-of-life-the-lion-king-33812886-720-480.jpg

[Spooniest]

If FFXV tanks, SE may just give it a rest and start making new IP's

It's not like the series has any real defining characteristics anymore. Identity is only derived from an entity examining and interpreting its history; FF refuses to do this, hence, it lacks an identity.

[Madame Adequate]

If FFXV tanks, SE may just give it a rest and start making new IP's

It's not like the series has any real defining characteristics anymore. Identity is only derived from an entity examining and interpreting its history; FF refuses to do this, hence, it lacks an identity.

Well, they made Bravely Default, which is widely regarded as one of the best Final Fantasies in upwards of a decade.

They just didn't call it Final Fantasy for some insane reason.

[Mirage]

Maybe they just didn't want to have so much pressure on themselves. With a new IP, there would be no expectations. If it had failed, people wouldn't have said it was "yet another terrible FF".

[Del Murder]

If you go back through the early threads (look for the ones with 30+ pages just around the time of release or after it) for each of the FF releases, you'll find people bitching about each of them. It's what Square Enix gets for innovating. In most series out there today, each game is fairly similar, especially if it's an FPS/TPS. SE however make big changes to gameplay all the time, and the result of that is a lot of new fans, a lot of moving with the times and - unfortunately - a lot of angry fans pissed off at how this isn't FFIV-2, FFVI-2, FFVII-2, FFX-2 (in this context, even FFX-2 wasn't FFX-2 xD), etc.

It's not always the same people complaining and not all changes are 'innovation'. Speaking for myself, I was a big FFI-VI fan but still loved VII-IX at the time of their release, including all the innovations. Yet I was turned off by many features of XIII and anything that has come later. I wouldn't call that complaining about 'innovation'; I would call that complaining about bad game design.

Just because people don't like something doesn't mean they don't have perfectly valid reasons for not liking it and deserve some 'hater of innovation' label. Not that most of these guys have valid reasons. Some of them are absurd.

[Ayen]

If you go back through the early threads (look for the ones with 30+ pages just around the time of release or after it) for each of the FF releases, you'll find people bitching about each of them. It's what Square Enix gets for innovating. In most series out there today, each game is fairly similar, especially if it's an FPS/TPS. SE however make big changes to gameplay all the time, and the result of that is a lot of new fans, a lot of moving with the times and - unfortunately - a lot of angry fans pissed off at how this isn't FFIV-2, FFVI-2, FFVII-2, FFX-2 (in this context, even FFX-2 wasn't FFX-2 xD), etc.

It's not always the same people complaining and not all changes are 'innovation'. Speaking for myself, I was a big FFI-VI fan but still loved VII-IX at the time of their release, including all the innovations. Yet I was turned off by many features of XIII and anything that has come later. I wouldn't call that complaining about 'innovation'; I would call that complaining about bad game design.

Just because people don't like something doesn't mean they don't have perfectly valid reasons for not liking it and deserve some 'hater of innovation' label. Not that most of these guys have valid reasons. Some of them are absurd.

I agree with Del. I thought the transition from VII - X was pretty smooth despite things like Materia, Junction, and the Sphere Grid. If I played the last one I more or less knew what to expect. But the transition from X-2 to now is all over the place. X-2 gave us more fast pace action, XI was a MMO, XII was MMO lite, and XIII was back to turn based battles but you could only control one character, and then XIV we're right back to the MMO again. Those kind of changes are not smooth transitioning. They're flying off the handle! It's possible to innovate without changing so much from the last game you don't even recognize it anymore.

As for the actual topic, this reminds me of wrestling fans during the Attitude Era where people complained about The Rock almost as much as they do about John Cena now. We are all just living in the Reapers' endless and vicious cycle.