If you didn't know the word "Spoony" before, you do now.Originally Posted by Jowy
I'm sure you're right. And you are all entitled to your opinions. Obviously, the "best" Final Fantasy isn't absolute. It varies from person to person. Even those who claim the games were better before FF8 will still argue over whether FF5 is better than FF6.Well I played 9 first (followed by 7 and 8), but I wound up playing 6 eventually anyway - and lord knows you could find enough people (myself included) to argue with you saying it was all much better pre-FF7.
I personally feel that when they made FF7, they did an excellent job on the game, but they also realized that they could sell games just by making them look pretty. As a result, you get a game like FF10 where the graphics are breathtaking, but the gameplay is horribly lacking at just about every moment.
I'm not a programmer, but it seems like it's easier to come up with flashy graphics than it is to come up with catchy gameplay and an incredible story. Square is always trying to make the gameplay in each different and unique, which is a great idea. It just seems like they got lazy on the last few games. They didn't need to put a lot of effort into making catchy, innovative ways to interface with the story and the characters because they could hire guys with the book knowledge necessary to make the prettiest FMVs you've ever seen.
Keep in mind, this is my opinion. I didn't outright HATE Final Fantasy X, either. I liked it a lot. I'm just saying that Final Fantasy had built up quite a name and fan-base for itself, over the first 6/7 games. They had a lot to deliver when FF8, FF9 and FF10 came out. I had really high expectations, and when I saw the commercials for FF8, I was really excited because I figured I'd get a new, interesting gameplay with a fascinating story and the ever present Nobuo tunes, and now I'd get SWEET graphics as well.
They only delivered on the graphics, and partly on the music.
Gameplay, by its very nature and definition, is the thing that makes you like a game. You can't like a game for very long if all you like is the fancy graphics. Take Tetris for example. The game is virtually unchanged, after all these years. No fancy graphics. The music on Tetris rocks, but you only do get the 3 songs. So why do people play Tetris? Because of the gameplay.
I started playing Suikoden Tactics about two months ago. The story is neat as all heck. It's quite bizzare, even early on, and I enjoy the story a lot, overall. But I can't play the game much longer because the gameplay isn't enjoyable for me.
More examples being the Mario games, Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3, Super Mario World, and so forth. They did have a story, usually about a princess getting nabbed by Bowser, and Mario going through a lot of work to save her. But honestly, we didn't play the game to see how the story ended, like you might in FF7 or FF6. It was fun to play, no matter what the story behind it was.
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