Yeah, while I think I’d call 6 the most epic of all the FFs (in terms of story and the feel of the world), for some reason the characters never stuck with me the way the PSX-era games did. It’s still damn good.
And speaking of FF6, there’s something I want to mention but it constitutes a fairly major spoiler for FF13. Don’t click the spoiler link unless you’re planning not to play it, have already finished the game, or just don’t care about spoilers. (with that warning, I bet nobody’s going to read it now…)
I sometimes see people decrying the recent (post-6) FF games as being too “emo”. I always wanted to say that FF6 was the only game in the series I was aware of that had an attempted suicide, and how do you get more emo than that? But there’s a suicide attempt in FF13 too so I can’t make that argument anymore.
It’s only emo if you’re overreacting. Seeing as she failed to stop Kefka, failed to save Cid’s life and all the evidence suggests she’s doomed to die alone in a dying world, I see Celes’ attempted suicide as perfectly understandable and thus, not emo.
Grumman hits it. Besides, truly, the definition of “emo” isn’t “suicidal” - it’s WHINY. Stereotypical “emo” people don’t actually COMMIT (or attempt) suicide, or, indeed, try to do much of anything about their condition - they enjoy being miserable and whining about it. A stereotypical emo person (note: I disagree with the use of ‘emo’ to describe JRPG characters - most people throw the term around wildly and inaccurately) would be more inclined to mope and write bad poetry about how much their life sucks (even though their life probably doesn’t suck that much - that’s another reason why using ‘emo’ to describe JRPG characters is wrong. You can’t be emo if you actually HAVE SERIOUS PROBLEMS.
Now if people want to complain that JRPG characters are too BROODING or something, they’re free to do that, but emo is the wrong term, and suicide attempts don’t even factor.
It just doesn’t feel “Final Fantasy”. I mean for instance, none of the monsters so far seem to have any relation to classic FF monsters. The one monster I have encountered that I “recognized” was a bomb, and it looks nothing even remotely like the classic FF bomb, all angry and poofy, instead it looks like a multi-sided D&D die.
The combat is just weird. Not necessarily bad (I don’t really like it, but that doesn’t make it bad), but way more experimental and like something you’d come up with for a new series not a long running series. Like ATB on crack without any direct control of 2/3 of the party. And after battle, you get all your HP back so long as your leader’s not killed. If the leader *is *killed GAME OVER, even if your other party members have 100 phoenix downs and 100% of HP. (Not that there’s any discernible penalty for dying anyway beyond having to start the battle again as if it never happened.)
And while FF’s always been kinda linear, this just takes the cake. I’ve never played an RPG this linear. After an entire disc’s worth of gameplay there’s been absolutely ZERO choice of where to go and what to do. Just run forward down a “corridor”, bump into enemies (not random battles, but they might as well be), fight, repeat about 4-5 times, then run forward and hit the next story segment, lather rinse repeat. There’s an automap, and a minimap in the corner, but I don’t know why they bothered, it’s not like there’s any question of where to go (the opposite direction from the way you came) or of getting lost (any branching paths just loop back right to the main path right away anyway so it never matters if you go left or right).
Like I said, if this had any other name on the box than FF, no one would even know it had been developed as one, and I get the feeling it wouldn’t be getting much attention at all. People would be looking at it as “hey those jRPG guys put out another crazy new RPG” rather than having midnight launch parties and hype out the wazoo.
Let me be clear, I’m not saying it’s a bad game or anything, and I don’t mean for it to all sound like complaints, just that it doesn’t seem like an FF game. To some people that may even come off as “refreshing” instead of the “same old same old” but to me it comes off more as sticking a popular name on something just to sell more copies.
Kind of like how the first game in the Mana series was released as “Final Fantasy Adventure” (US), “Final Fantasy Mystic Quest” (Europe), and Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden" (Japan); and the SaGa series’ first game was released as “Final Fantasy Legends” in the U.S.
This really shouldn’t come as any surprise. They’ve been doing this with FF since like… FFX. At least. Arguably much earlier. The whole series lacks a consistant feel, world, theme, unifying battle system, or pretty much anything that defines it as a series. It’s just a big lump of unrelated visually pretty games sold under the same label. It’s a huge cheat, and if it’s a little more obvious now, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been happening for ages.
Hmm. I think your wrong. I haven’t gotten the latest one yet, nor have I played the online multiplayer, but there are certainly more than enough similarities between the games for me to comfortably call them a series. There are definite differences (oftentimes as technology allows), but it seems to me that a vast majority of people would disagree with you.
Please feel free to cite all these things that supposedly tie the series together. Things like “They all contain a character named Cid” and “they all have chocobos” don’t exactly satisfy my criteria.
That’s weird. At first I thought you were wrong cause there’s an FF Mystic Quest in America that was on the SNES. However, the American Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was released in Europe as Mystic Quest Legends and in Japan as Final Fantasy USA Mystic Quest, and it’s a completely different game from FFAdventure (which was Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana) 1)
I finally got a chance to sit down and play this. The hand holding was excessive for the first few hours but I’m toward the end of the first disc now and I think the Paradigms add a lot to the combat. I’m having more fun (and occasionally frustration) during some of these battles than I have in any other Final Fantasy I can remember. I like that a tough struggle can turn into an easy 5 star fight once you figure out the right paradigm for the situation.
I like the story well enough (typical ‘Frantic escape from the corrupt powers that be’) and the characters are the usual Final Fantasy mix of characters I like and characters I absolutely despise. Lightning isn’t actively annoying which makes her the best lead character since the pre-Playstation days. Sazh and Chocobo are great, the almost upskirt scene with Vanille actually made me laugh. The only one I really can’t stand is Vanille, but I’ve read she gets better later on. I hope so.
The linearity is as bad as they say but I think it works for the story they’re trying to tell. I understand why some people are frustrated or disappointed but all in all I’m really enjoying it so far.
I’m still having serious mixed feelings on the battle system. It works okay, but the visuals make me want to play it like an action RPG.
Considering how many abilities, both from the player and from the enemies, are area of effect, the complete inability to influence where anyone stands is starting to bug me.
Still, the battle system is a huge step up from the tepid boredom of doing anything in FF12 or the “Flashback to 1994 only now you can change characters mid battle” from FFX. So uh, kudos for that, I guess, but it’s still not as entertaining as Grandia or Tales. I’m not convinced it’s really all that much more ‘cinematic’ than other battle systems either, except for the fact that graphics are REALLY PRETTY.
Yes. I don’t know any names, I’ve been trying to avoid places where I might find any big spoilers, but I’ve read that there are bosses that will be much harder than the endgame boss.
There are missions that are basically the same as the hunts in FF12. I believe there are 64 total, of which 5 or 6 are required and the rest are optional. I haven’t done them all so I don’t know if there’s anything as ridiculous as Yiazmat in FF12 or Penance in FF10, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
I notice that they’ve changed the names of some things from the Japanese version for no real reason. For example “Optimas” are apparently now “Paradigms”, which I learned from reading Terraplane’s post. They both sound kinda weird. Also they changed the names of the roles:
(they weren’t Japanese words that translate to “Attacker”, etc., they literally were the English words Attacker/Blaster etc.)
Since I was playing on an American PS3, the trophy names/descriptions were all in English, and early on I noticed there were trophies for things like "Master the Commando role ". Since there was no “Commando” role that I could see, I figured that Commando, Ravager, etc. were some kind of super-roles that I could access at a later point. I was disappointed when a friend told me that it was just the English names for the roles.
Is the character advancement system still called “Crystarium”? I always thought that sounded a little funny.
My main gripe with Vanille comes when I have to use her in combat. “Take that!” “Ah ha!” “Take that!” “Ah ha!” I keep hoping that Lightning will punch her in the face.
Yeah, the voice acting for Vanille is pretty awful. But there’s always a pretty awful voice-acted character ever since they started doing voice acting, and she’s not quite as obnoxious as Yuna or Rikku or Wakka. And the voice acting for Snow is probably the best in the series, so far.
I really enjoy the battle system so far. You have to be on your game–it’s not just set it and forget it like FF12, or the generic ATB of the previous FF games. The paradigm shifting is pretty entertaining.
The game is agonizingly linear and I’m still not getting the plot at all, but I’m early in–just started Disc 2.
I’ve played FF7, 8, 9, 10, and 12 (not yet 13). From this I know that if you’re playing a Final Fantasy game:
The story will be set in a vaguely steampunk world, where magic exists side by side with stunning technology – but the technology will only be advanced in some ways, and medieval in others.
The point-of-view character will be a young man who is either an outright orphan (Vaan/12, Squall/8) or whose origin and parentage are a total mystery (Cloud/7, Squall/8, Tidus/10). The character’s questions about his upbringing and place in the world will lead to multiple situations in which he stares blankly into the middle distance, pondering.
The main character will gain allies. These will include, at minimum, five of the following:
An overeager, brash, male with anger control problems, who frequently SPEAKS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS (Barrett/7; Zell/8; Steiner/9; Wakka/10);
A grim, stoic male who broods and gives the impression of Having Seen Terrible Things in His Time (Vincent/7; Irvine/8; Amarant/9; Auron/10; Basch/12);
An ally that is some sort of bizarre cross between a humanoid and an animal (Cait Sith/7; Freya/9; Kimahri/10; Fran/12).
A female who is either a princess or Highly Special and the One True Hope of the World Who Has a Strange and Mysterious Connection to the Primary Bad Guy, or Both (Aeris/7; Rinoa/8; Garnet/9; Yuna/10; Ashe/12). Her inability to avoid doing anything, including tying her shoe, without an entire army descending to kidnap and/or kill her, will drive most of the plot. She and the protagonist will fall in love, and at some point kiss in an improbably mystical fashion. She will use a staff as her primary weapon (Ashe excepted).
A female who is much more kickass that #4, both in terms of fighting ability and attitude (Tifa/7; Quistis/8; Lulu/10);
A female who has pigtails and a can-do attitude and an incredibly precocious approach to the main character, and causes most of the game’s players to want a tractor to fall on her (Yuffie/7; Selphie/8; Eiko/9; Riku/10; Penelo/12). Either this girl, or #5, will be in love with the protagonist, but it will not be reciprocated or really even noticed by the protagonist.
There will often be a playable character that uses a gun, or a gun/sword (Barrett & Vincent/7; Squall/8; Balthier/12), or at minimum NPCs with guns equipped. However, guns will never be as powerful a weapon as a sword, or even really as a stick.
As the game begins, the world will be in the midst of either War or Revolution. The PCs selection of a side in the ongoing conflict will be key in the development of the plot. There will be extensive political scheming that doesn’t really make a lot of sense, usually occurring out of the view of the main characters and affecting them only tangentially.
At some point, you will meet two men named Biggs and Wedge. They will always be together. They will be doing something silly and inconsequential, and they will be the comic relief.
PCs will be able to use magic. The primary offensive magic will be elemental, and named for the element: Fire, Ice, Water, Thunder. There will also be an Air-based spell (Aero) and an Earth-based spell (Quake), but these will be of limited utility. All of the elemental spells will have a second level, named the same as the first level but with the suffix “-ara” added, that hits multiple enemies, and an ultimate level, suffixed “-aga.”
There will be a Death spell that never works.
There will be a spell called “Gravity,” that does damage as a percentage of the enemy’s hit points. It will usually not work.
There will be spells that can inflict status ailments: Sleep, which causes a character to say “ZZZZ” and do nothing until someone hits him with a stick, or shoots him, in which case he will wake up; Confuse, which causes a character to spin in place and act at random; Berzerk, which causes a character to turn red and attack constantly; Slow, which causes a character to move slowly; Poison, which saps the player’s health periodically; and Doom, which causes a coutdown to appear over the character’s head.
There will something called an “Ultimate Weapon,” (usually an enemy), and something called “Ragnarok” (usually a sword that boosts defense).
There will be a large open world with many explorable places, including some places made inaccessible by comically contrived methods that can be reached usually using an Airship.
There will be big yellow antisocial birds called Chocobos, which can usually be ridden for increased speed or to reach hidden areas.
There will be a final boss, but there will be optional battles in the game that are many orders of magnitude more difficult than the final boss, such that a party that comfortably dispatches the final boss will still get obliterated in seven seconds by these optional enemies. The reward for beating these enemies is usually not all that cool.
There will be spells allowing the player to summon powerful beings to aid him. Some of these beings will be directly tied to specific elements. Their names will be drawn indiscriminately from random Western and Eastern religions and mythologies. They will arrive in a spectacular cutscene and unleash a huge attack. They will either be so powerful that they become the party’s only real attack, or so difficult to use properly that they will be used once, to see the cutscene, then ignored forever.
At (at least) one place in the game, everything will grind to a halt while you are forced to play a game unrelated to the main game in order to advance. This may be a strange card game, underwater soccer, or a race. If you wish, you may get really good at this mini game and reap huge rewards, but you absolutely will not be allowed to bypass it altogether, as it will be tied into the main game.
There will be lots of NPCs who will talk to you. They will always say the same thing. Your character will not talk back, in the vast majority of cases. Your character will very often say the following: “…”
Crystals will be important. Trust me. You will be collecting, destroying, protecting, searching for, or fighting against a crystal at some point.
…and this is from memory, without really even trying.
Most of this list is only applicable to the last few games. The first 6 have only a few and those are the generic “magic” type things Airk already disqualified.
