"Lost Potential"
Do you feel that any of the FF games really failed to live up to their potential? Like they could have been so much better, but just fizzled out for you?
Which game(s) do you feel fall under that category? What could they have done differently?
(SPOILER)You all know my answer already (SPOILER)It's FFXII if you didn't, could have been sooo much better IMO, I probably would've loved it with stronger characters and a different battle system
I feel there are certain improvements that could have been made, but I don't know if I would say any failed to live up to their potential, with perhaps the obvious exception being FFXIII, but I'll let somebody else have that rant. As much as I love FFVIII I think it's a game that certainly could have benefited from more focus and what it wanted to be instead of trying so hard to one up Final Fantasy VII. I agree that XII could have been improved, but my problems with it are more based around the open world and all the blatant Star Wars rip offs, and I don't mean little references here and there, I'm talking about copying the cinematography of the films with the Airships. Had they played the Star Wars soundtrack over them it would have been right at home. Then near the end of the game the dungeons got so repetitive and became a chore. If the open world felt more engaging I would have enjoyed it more, but as it stands it just got in the way of the plot.
Everything since the PS1 generation?
FF10
The best of the bunch, in all honesty if it wasn't for the subsequent entries I would probably just count it as a weaker title rather than part of the disappointing half of the series.
FF11
Argue all you want about how it is a game deserving if a numbered FF entry but it still should have been called FFOnline. I think FF Tactics is the best game in the series, and it was still correct to label it as a spin-off title.
FF12
The game to me speaks of horrible conceptual design decisions with fantastic implementation, which makes me disappointed with how good it could have been.
- Combat was exceedingly simple and easy (illustrated by the fact that a 10 line AI can beat the entire game for you easily.).
- The story took itself way to seriously for how bland and predictable it was (once again, simple story isn't bad, but it shouldn't seem like the developers think they are writing the next Game of Thrones entry).
- The character set up was weak, you couldn't see the grid to plan your characters, and it was mostly irrelevant because you just learned everything on everyone. Had they had some sort of way to limit the skills/spells you could have equipped at one time the set up aspect would have actually required some thought.
FF13
Almost the exact opposite problem of FF12, they started with some interesting concepts as delivered extremely poorly on them. If you make a game that strips out exploration to focus heavily on combat and story you better damn well make sure that you do a good job on both of those things. With some better writing and a slower and more involved battle system the linearity of the game would be working for it not against it.
FF14
See FF11.
>>Am willing to change opinions based on data<<
Yes ... In fact, VIII and IX fall into that for me as well. The only one that came close was probably FFXII. It had a more mature-oriented plot about politics and whatnot, with the most mature (age/personality-wise) cast since VII. It could have been a legitimately intriguing and interesting story for mature and intellectual gamers to run through. But no. Vaan and Penelo were there. Thanks to focus-testing. Hate focus groups...Originally Posted by VeloZer0
See people keep talking about FF12's mature political plot, but I personally found the thing dead simple. Just because it involved political entities doesn't really mean it was any more complicated plot wise than previous entries.
>>Am willing to change opinions based on data<<
FFVIII started off well for me. I was excited about there being potential for a love story and Squall being a kinda messed-up character. I was looking forward to finding out about his past and what made him that way etc.
However, as time has gone on, I've gone from feeling mildy confused by the game to totally loathing it. I haven't finished it yet, but I will. Not because I want to finish it because of the story, because that bit is totally gone for me now. I wanna finish it because it'll annoy me that I got so far and didn't finish it.
I just think everything got far too confusing and just too much. Plus, there are too many areas that just make you want to kill yourself. Just tidious parts that just make you think- this could not be less enjoyable. Like bloody tonberry- I would rather feed greens to 10 billion chocobos than have to deal with the stupid tonberry malarchy again. Urgh.
I'm not saying it was well done or anything. Or even very deep or complicated. I honestly have no opinion on that stuff, because I've probably never put more than 10 hours into the game. It's just the taste that I got while I did play the game. Just felt like there were more politics than your average Final Fantasy, and that's easier for most adults to swallow than some ancient evil dark that laid in rest for thousands of years is suddenly resurrected, and out of all the people on the planet, you get to be the dopey little 12 year old that somehow manages to best it. Overdone, and rarely well these days. I'll take a lame attempt at politics over cliche rehashing. Which is kinda sad, when I think about it. This is what Japan has done to me by reusing tropes they don't even know how to properly use anymore half the time x_x
Definitely Final Fantasy XII. I can't even imagine how amazing that would have been if Yatsumi Matsuno had directed it from start to finish.
What we got was pretty fantastic, though.
Agree with Bolivar. It would have been great if Matsuno had remained on the director's chair all the way through. But damn if XII isn't an amazing game still (one of my top three FF for sure).
On the same note, I've been feeling for some years that Ivalice could well have been Square Enix's Tamriel (Elder's Scrolls world) and Matsuno the Todd Howard of sorts in the company. I think a separate numbered series with each title taking place in a different area of Ivalice would have been amazing specially if they combined the battle system and gameplay of XII with the strategic concept of Tactics so that some grander scale battles play out like Tactics while other battles play out like XII (for example).
FF13 and FF14. FF11 too, although that was a bit of a product of its time.
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
I can certainly see Ivalice as being a sort of Tamriel-lite ("lite" becuase so far as I can tell it lacks the crazy space lore, weird alternate realities and heavily philosophical background of Tamriel), however I have yet to see a game that executes it well. Even the FFTA games, which I love, aren't really about Ivalice, they just happen to be set there.
FFXII probably comes the closest, but because I can't stand the FFXII gameplay I can't manage to force myself through it.
I definitely want a more fleshed-out Ivalice, preferably with a battle system that is much improved over FFXII's.
As someone who's played a ton of Ivalice games and The Elder Scrolls, I have to strongly disagree with Pike. If you've never gotten far in XII, you're not exactly at liberty to say how far the lore goes. The Advance games were not developed by the core team, they were intentionally created so as not to interfere with the canon of the main entries. While they might not deal with space or alternate dimensions, that actually forms a very small subset of TES' in-game lore and intersects with almost none of the gameplay. Philosophically, it's not even close, Ivalice absolutely destroys TES. I would say Ivalice surpasses TES to the extent they not only explore a different region in each game, they also experiment with a fundamentally different gameplay system.
You should probably give XII's combat another shot. It's the WRPG "Real Time with Pause" system but executed 100x better, with Gambits preserving all the strategy of a turn based game.
I actually played a lot of XII. I just didn't beat it because I didn't like the combat, and thought the game itself was boring
I don't have a problem with the Ivalice world. I want to see it in more games.
I think the only Ivalice game Pike hasn't played is Vagrant Story, and admittedly that's the best Ivalice game, but it's pretty separate from the FF ones.
Also, Ivalice has better lore than TES. This is a thing someone said in Space Year Fifteen. The mind reels.
Excuse me? I simply pointed out that claiming Ivalice isn't "fleshed out" or philosophically lacking is a pretty indefensible position... which it is. Especially coming from someone who hasn't seen how these things were wrapped up at the end of each game.
If you're going to single me out for something I never said, you could at least provide a rationale outside of how mind-reeling it is.
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