Quote Originally Posted by Zaphier
It's never been the battle system or other mechanics that have made the Final Fantasy titles what they are, it's been the in-depth and engaging plots and interesting characters.
Exactly.
Quote Originally Posted by Cyraniel
Some people make it sound like FF was built around the ATB system... which it didn't start using until FF4.
Actually, I find the earlier games to play rather slow (due to game mechanics), I can get bored at times, waiting for my characters to attack or waiting to be attacked. I play anyway 'cause I like the stories.

Something I find funny is that some people say the newer fast-paced battle systems make the game too easy or unrealistic. I then calmly reply to them, "What are you, on crack?"
FFX did have an easy battle system, it being that for every character, time stopped so the player could calmly choose which action to take next . . . or walk their dog around the neighborhood.
Quote Originally Posted by TheAbominatrix
I know, I just mean that people use the term 'hardcore fan' far too often. Like "I was a hardcore fan but this game sucked so now I hate the series", which makes me say... well, you must not have been a very big fan to begin with.

Because of this lull between XI and XII, a lot of good RPGs have had a chance to shine, which may have been outclassed simply because of the name FF being released nearby it. Now, of course I dont want FF to go, but America and Europe do get a lot of amazing games, and it's time we started taking advantage of it instead of worrying so much about FF.

Mechanics dont matter much to me as long as they arent horrendously done (like in Parasite Eve 2, I couldnt even play that game because of the controls).

we're seeing so many interesting and innovative games on the market now that if FF doesnt start experimenting and expanding, they may get buried by more interesting series (like the Nippon Ichi games, and Mistwalker).
1: Hardcore Final Fan through and through. (Actually, I can't stand how slow the original Tactics is, won't touch TA 'cause the story reminds me of that Castlevania "choose your adventure" book, and I consider console games and online games to be two separate genres altogether. I'd play XI if they made a direct-to-console-only version.)
2: Have you ever played Guardian's Crusade? It's not something you'd spend more than ten dollars for but it is enjoyable. One RPG I despise is Dragon Quarter: Breath of Fire. Simply by walking, you increase your "dragon meter" and if you turn into a dragon, it's game over. WTF!? I've been up 17 floors or so and gotten my meter to 97% just by walking, no dashing or fighting involved, still I haven't reached any conclusion or some place to restart the meter. I've found a few RPGs (let alone any other genres) to contain game mechanics that seem for the most part to be an impossibility. These, I fondly refer to as "WTF" Mechanics.
3: To each his/her/its/their own . . . I played PE2 before I knew what PE was and beat it in a week. The game came off as a Survival/Horror genre but played like an RPG. I thought it was pretty cool. Something weird: At the end, it showed me a list of ALL the items I'd collected and hadn't used, it chucked them in exchange for non-refundable points. The point value was then used to determine my reward. I'm pretty sure it was an item I'd already had. I thought that was lame. I figured if I had collected more, I'd have gotten a better item . . . but, I returned the game to the rental shop and erased my game data (by accident, formatting incident: RPG Maker).