Sequelitis

[Timerk]

I am concerned that since Squenix has set itself to releasing sequels and spin-offs of Final Fantasy games, like they have done with VII and X, and will do with XII and XIII, that we have seen the end of self-contained stories. I think there will now be more pressure on the writers to 'save something' for the sequel, which may be released on a platform that all players do not own or want to own. For example, I fear that the reason we learned so little about Balthier and Fran in XII is because that story will be told in RW, and, if that is true, it makes me feel ripped off. Can you imagine how different you would have felt after watching the ending to X if you knew X-2 was coming?

This might be old school, but I would like my FF's to go back to being one and done, no more sequels. Tell the story, and then be done with it, no more FPS hybrids, no more Dress-Up Princess games. I don't want to have to buy RW to get the answers to questions I should have gotten in XII, and I don't want to have a story spread thin over three titles when it could have been told in one.

Ok, I'm done venting (for) now .

[Roto13]

I really want to see the sequels and spinoffs stop too, if only because they're so whorey.

[farplaner]

Yeah, it seems they've found a new way to milk their cash cow. I almost regret buying X-2 for the simple fact that I played a part in encouraging them...

BTW, this is the first mention I've heard of "RW"... shows you how up-to-date I am....and how oblivious I am to stickied threads...

[LunarWeaver]

When they turn out well, I like them. I enjoy the worlds they create and enjoy going back. They aren't always up to par in quality, but such is the fate of spin-offs sometimes.

Every other company and every other series does this, so I don't see why people are surprised, or rather so outraged, when Square does it. Star Wars has been made into first-person shooters, RPGs, RTS's, board games, MMO's, action games, adventure games, all of it. It's just something that happens when you have a popular franchise. And that's what Final Fantasy is.

In fact, now that this beautiful Ivalice is already done, I'd like another Ps2 game that takes place in it, despite the next-gen focus already being here. They could make it fairly quickly and probably tell a pretty good story since that's most of what they would need to focus on. That's juz me for ya.

[VengefulRonin]

I dont like it very much...X-2 sucked ass, the others have been decent (except DoC, i heard that wasnt very good either). But what concerns me is that in their money whoring, Sqeenix will stop focusing on their quality. If they spread things out over several games and spin-offs, the stories will become less and less tightly woven and quality will be traded off for flashy graphics and half-nekkid chicks in bondage clothes. Not that any of that is an eyesore <.< I'm just saying they'll begin to focus more and more on simple aesthetics and concentrate less and less on a good story...XII being the perfect example.

[atlanteay]

i just got a DS for FF3 so i don't mind sequels on the DS. However, if you don't like the sequals, read a review and don't buy it if it's not good. Or read the gamescript if you wanna know what happens. SE is a big company... big companies need BIG cash so they're milking the games like cows to get those big bucks

[Moon Rabbits]

I don't like sequels to FF games. Square should leave that to their other franchises, like Kingdom Hearts (which needs a prequel, by the way).

[VengefulRonin]

I don't like sequels to FF games. Square should leave that to their other franchises, like Kingdom Hearts (which needs a prequel, by the way).

I'm pretty sure KH3 is a sequal. ^_^

I like the idea of the games story ending and me saying "wow...." instead of it ending with a cliffhanger and me saying "dammit, now i gotta pay another $50 to see how it turns out"

[LazarCotoron]

Wow. No import gamers in here, huh?

Whether you all like it or not, the sequel thing is here in the states, and it's because the BIGGER money grubbing thing they do in Japan won't go nearly so well here. In fact, they gave it a shot here, and that shot met with mixed feelings and resentments. Remember that DotHack thing? Yeah. CHAPTERS of a single story spread across 'different' games.

"OMG, my company is abandoning me and my world view that is too small to allow other things to happen..." Suck it up. The world of high finance sucks, blows, and every step in between. You want to look at what you ACTUALLY pay for a game? Use the hours you put into it before you threw it down in disgust or were simply finished with it. FFXII has, for me, just gone under $1/hr for its content-everything considered, I think I have MAYBE half the game accomplished-and that's being pretty generous. My projections put FFXII at being approximately $0.45/hr of content.

Compare that with anime series peddled by companies like ADV, who are in the habit of charging $7.50 an episode. Three episodes on a disc at $7.50 spells RIPOFF in my language.

And what's this bullpucky about 'obligations' to buy a sequel!? You're not 'obligated' to buy anything.

Oh, and since you mentioned FFX...yeah, it blew. Get it out of your system-Yuna was pathetic, Tidus was alright, Auron needed more screen time to save the game, Lulu, Rikku, and Khimari were tacked on characters. The game didn't WARRANT a sequel on its own merits-if you bought FFX-2, you threw your money away in a fit of obssessive compulsive buying.

I don't believe for a second that RW is going to answer much about Balthier and Fran. In fact, at my point, on my way to Giruvegan, I've learned a satisfactory amount about Balthier-enough to say that I now understand his motivations, choices, actions, and decisions. Fran, not so much... But y'know? This might sound weird to the 'MySpace' generation in here, but I don't NEED to know. The way she talks when her past is mentioned-I can tell that hard choices were made and the decisions that led up to present circumstances were less than pretty.

And if it bothers you so much that the game didn't answer all of your questions, y'know what? There are millions of fans around the world that write fan fiction. And it's free.

Christ, if there was any more whine in this thread we'd have to card people for admittance.

[Renmiri]

I would love an XII sequel!

I think the FFXII world is great, the battle system is fun, the graphics kick ass. But the story, soundtrack and characters !!!! I ranted so much against it already that I won't go into details, suffices to say it almost spoiled the whole gaming experience to me.

In a sequel the folks at SE could get Uematsu or another good game composer - the guy from Silent Hill for instance, some good scene writers and character designers and make FFXIIa the best FF game in all history!

[VengefulRonin]

I would love an XII sequel!

I think the FFXII world is great, the battle system is fun, the graphics kick ass. But the story, soundtrack and characters !!!! I ranted so much against it already that I won't go into details, suffices to say it almost spoiled the whole gaming experience to me.

In a sequel the folks at SE could get Uematsu or another good game composer - the guy from Silent Hill for instance, some good scene writers and character designers and make FFXIIa the best FF game in all history!

They NEED to let Uematsu do all the character work. Period. I'm tired of Nomura's lackluster characters.

[LazarCotoron]

Uematsu is a music composer...

[VengefulRonin]

O_O

Damn my brain, its gone dead >_< I meant amano...i like his character designs much better.

But they SHOULD have let uematsu do the music on XII....

[Renmiri]

Uematsu is a music composer...

Game music, tis what I meant.

Although you are correct he kicks ass in music composition, game or no game.

I prefer him to Kitaro, although the later has more "serious music" fame.

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't really care for sequels to games. Last Order was pretty good but it contained stuff that should have been in the game to begin with. It felt like they were trying to fix the plot holes in FFVII's plot.FFX-2 was an abomination to God and mankind. It ruined the Job class system, a feat I never thought possible. That alone makes it worthy of condement. I won't even bother going into it's purely irrelevant plot.


I don't think the sequels/side games of FFXII are going to fix your problems with FFXII, Timerk and Renmiri. It seems to be focusing more on Vaan and Penelo visiting a new set of lands so I doubt we'll see anything new. Of anything, it will set you up with a new cast of characters that it will focus on purely since the writer's probably feel there is no point in exploring the returning casts pasts.

I see the sequels as nothing more than a way to milk money cause SE has lost all it's real creative people. They now have to fall back on whoring out old games, or making sequels of established smash hits, in order to stay ahead in the buisness. The last game they ever released that was not helped by their main franchises was Drag-On Dragoon (I refuse to call it by it's other name). Enix has lost all it's real players, Square has lost almost all of it's talented staff. When you think about how Square's last completely original game was The Bouncer, it seems rather sad. I don't know what's going on at SE HQ, but they need to get their act together and try to either get back their old talent or start gambling on finding new talent by tapping into whoever is left.