Games The Final Fantasy Thread!

[ibra87]

Tell me about it. Namco are JUST realizing how good the Western scene is despite all the piracy, so much that they're pretty much releasing every single game now unlike before. Though not on the PSP Vita, but that's solely because of the low sales of the console itself.

 

[Sky]

Tell me about it. Namco are JUST realizing how good the Western scene is despite all the piracy, so much that they're pretty much releasing every single game now unlike before. Though not on the PSP Vita, but that's solely because of the low sales of the console itself.

I'll write you a PM.

Anyway... They didn't deny a possible release for the western world. I still don't get what they are thinking... Agito got a high score from almost every gaming magazine. They could've earned a damn lot if they released it here...
If I recall correctly the sales of the Vitra are higher in the Western World so even more reaosn to release a Vita version here... (I really need to learn Japanese..)

 

[SharkBait]

With all the Kingdom hearts 3 news as of late, I wonder when they will finally get back to discussing 15. It is the most hyped Final Fantasy Im looking forward (well mainly for Prompto and Nocto) but still it looks, in terms of gameplay, way faster and funner than FFXIII (only FF I ever beat) was. Though Ill miss Paradigm Shifting...

 

[Jammin]

Man, I'm really depressed about the most recent interview with Toriyama and Abes at SquareEnix.

It just sounds like they are intent on taking these games further from being the kind of thing I can get excited to play again.

To me it just seems like they are missing the point. If they want to make these kind of games fine, whatever. But the name Final Fantasy used to mean it was a game offering a certain type of gaming experience. And the focus on graphics and appealing to casual gamers over that experience is why so many longtime Final Fantasy gamers, like me, are so constantly pissed at them. It's not complicated.

It's why we greet games like Ni No Kuni with open arms yet greet Lighting Returns with a middle finger. Because the gaming experience they are offering isn't the one we want attached to the Final Fantasy brand.

It's like if Activision decided the next installment of the Call of Duty franchise was going to be a puzzle game. It would be the same type of problem.

 

[ibra87]

I can only agree Jammin. I used to get pretty darn excited every time I heard Final Fantasy is coming out. Right now I'll only get excited if they announce a remake of FF6 or FF7 really.

Who knows, the throne of JPRG is at least up for the taking by all other companies, if only one of them would step up and do it.

 

[kakashi919]

Although FF 12 was great, for me turn based strategy is where it's at. Bring back real dungeon exploring,grinding, secret weapons/armor/espers and rewarding sidequests with a good story and great characters and you'll have a great FF game. I get that they're trying to make more money by aiming for the casual crowd, but FF will never be the franchise it was if they do. I really miss the days when I'd spend hours grinding or doing something ridiculous like using a cursed shield for 200+ battles to change it to a paladin shield. There's nothing like that anymore,from my experience at least...

 

[zelllogan]

Man, I'm really depressed about the most recent interview with Toriyama and Abes at SquareEnix.

It just sounds like they are intent on taking these games further from being the kind of thing I can get excited to play again.

To me it just seems like they are missing the point. If they want to make these kind of games fine, whatever. But the name Final Fantasy used to mean it was a game offering a certain type of gaming experience. And the focus on graphics and appealing to casual gamers over that experience is why so many longtime Final Fantasy gamers, like me, are so constantly pissed at them. It's not complicated.

It's why we greet games like Ni No Kuni with open arms yet greet Lighting Returns with a middle finger. Because the gaming experience they are offering isn't the one we want attached to the Final Fantasy brand.

It's like if Activision decided the next installment of the Call of Duty franchise was going to be a puzzle game. It would be the same type of problem.

Their strategy is understandable: appeal to more people.

Basically, they will have more players buying their games ... even if this is making their games less good. I really doubt that Square will one day release a game as meaningfull as FF7. They made a choice: profit over history, quantity over quality. I'm disappointed by this choice but I can't blame them.

The real Final Fantasy, the one known by now 30 years old men, is forever dead.

 

[Jammin]

Their strategy is understandable: appeal to more people.

Basically, they will have more players buying their games ... even if this is making their games less good. I really doubt that Square will one day release a game as meaningfull as FF7. They made a choice: profit over history, quantity over quality. I'm disappointed by this choice but I can't blame them.

The real Final Fantasy, the one known by now 30 years old men, is forever dead.

The strategy is understandable and also highly flawed in my opinion.

The Final Fantasy product is not suited to be a broad appeal action game. It's too Japanese for that. Which makes sense since the highest sales are in Japan itself. They are playing to the home crowd and the reality is that as long as they do that they are never going to be able to broaden their appeal as far as they seem to think. The people who like that kind of thing are typically the hardcore gamers, not the casual ones.

Just take a look at the Final Fantasy XIII sales.

Final Fantasy XIII sold about 7 million units globally (5 mil on PS3 and about 2 mil on the 360). Now those are good numbers but less impressive when you consider the long expensive development time and extremely expensive CG animation style. So it needs to sell far more than the a JRPG to make a profit.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 sold about 3 million units globally (2.4 mil on the PS3 and 0.66 mil on the 360). Slightly less lengthy development time but still features costly game design. And clearly a big chunk of consumers decided they didn't want to come back to Final Fantasy XII's universe.

(Notice the place where the sales have plummeted the most is among the, supposedly, more causal 360 gamers.)

Do know what the sales for Final Fantasy VII and VIII were? Brace yourself 10 mil and 8 mil respectively; and cost astronomically less to make. So what does that say about SquareEnix's current business model?

------------------------------------------

I'm very interested to see how Lightening Returns sells. If it sells under 2 million copies, which I think it will, what do they do?

 

[kkck]

Finally got my hands on a FFVII for pc. I gotta say, after all the hype I thought the game was going to be better. Also noticed there is a PC version for FFVIII. Not sure if I should get it.... Well, I already had the play station version which I played with an emulator, not sure if there would be a point. The game did end quite scratched after I used it though, my laptop was not nice on it. Maybe it is worth the buy.... Are there any other FF games which have been released for PC?

 

[zelllogan]

Finally got my hands on a FFVII for pc. I gotta say, after all the hype I thought the game was going to be better. Also noticed there is a PC version for FFVIII. Not sure if I should get it.... Well, I already had the play station version which I played with an emulator, not sure if there would be a point. The game did end quite scratched after I used it though, my laptop was not nice on it. Maybe it is worth the buy.... Are there any other FF games which have been released for PC?

Only 7 & 8 so far with bad pc releases (very bad sound) & no attempt to improve the graphics in any way.
FF7 got the best pace of any Final fantasy game. There are for me no downtime.

 

[kkck]

Only 7 & 8 so far with bad pc releases (very bad sound) & no attempt to improve the graphics in any way.
FF7 got the best pace of any Final fantasy game. There are for me no downtime.

Really? I find the seventh to be the least interesting of the 3 PS games so far. Combat system is kinda boring so far (unless I am missing something) and the games seems relatively slow compared to the others. I am still early in the game but so far it even appears to have little to no strategy to it when it comes to combat (I guess the same case could be made for other games though). For me the best of the PS ones would be the 9th, then almost tied the 8th and then seventh (although I could change my mind depending on how the game turns out). So far the only way I could conceive a remake for the game is for there to be some rather severe changes to the combat system so as to make it more interesting.

 

[Jammin]

Really? I find the seventh to be the least interesting of the 3 PS games so far. Combat system is kinda boring so far (unless I am missing something) and the games seems relatively slow compared to the others. I am still early in the game but so far it even appears to have little to no strategy to it when it comes to combat (I guess the same case could be made for other games though). For me the best of the PS ones would be the 9th, then almost tied the 8th and then seventh (although I could change my mind depending on how the game turns out). So far the only way I could conceive a remake for the game is for there to be some rather severe changes to the combat system so as to make it more interesting.

Well tastes do vary but in the case of Final Fantasy VII I'm with zelllogan.

I'm curious how far you are in though. One of the great things about Final Fantasy VII is that it keeps opening up. The first 8 hours or so are in a city. Which sets up the story and slowly introduces the complexities of the materia system. Then things move on to narrative driven world traveling. All the while introducing you to various incentives to explore the world. Characters, Materia, Enemy Skills, Chocobo Breeding, Chocobo Racing, lots of minigames. The whole experience is steadily expanded until you feel like you can go anywhere and do anything.

And the music just gets better and better the whole time.

 

[kkck]

I am at the port place right now, right after the flashback with cloud and tifa's past and sephiroth going insane. It hasn't taken me 8 hours to get there though. I am just hoping I don't have to battle every time I want a chocobo lol.

 

[kakashi919]

^
Once you get the airship and start breeding, you wouldn't have to.

 

[kkck]

Ok, I am almost done with FFVII. I might play it again to have a more complete run of the game though. More weapons, minigames and such.... Anyways, anyone remembers the plot of the game? There are a few things I don't understand so far. How did cloud end up with a fake personality? That does not really make sense to me in the least. Did he end up with zack's memories somehow? And how is cloud so skilled through the game? Its one thing for him to claim to have been a first class SOLDIER but it is another one for people to believe him. Wouldn't that imply he had the skill to back up that claim? And if he did, why didn't he make it to soldier first class?

 

[Jammin]

Ok, I am almost done with FFVII. I might play it again to have a more complete run of the game though. More weapons, minigames and such.... Anyways, anyone remembers the plot of the game? There are a few things I don't understand so far. How did cloud end up with a fake personality? That does not really make sense to me in the least. Did he end up with zack's memories somehow? And how is cloud so skilled through the game? Its one thing for him to claim to have been a first class SOLDIER but it is another one for people to believe him. Wouldn't that imply he had the skill to back up that claim? And if he did, why didn't he make it to soldier first class?

The difference between SOLDIER members and regular soldiers was basically that they got a Mako energy shower which gave there eyes the unique signature look. What happened to Cloud was basically the same thing only much more extreme while being exposed to Hojo's experiments over the course of 4 years along with Zack(i believe there are documents in the shelves of the mansion explaining this but they might be somewhere else). The mako and Jinova cells react to Cloud and leave his mind essentially scrambled. But didn't to Zack because he had already received to SOLDIER treatment once so his body didn't react, Zack escapes and takes Cloud with him but is ultimately killed in Midgar.

When Tifa discovers Cloud alone in Midgar he's unable to distinguish between Zack and himself in his head and his memory is was too much of a mess to figured it all out. And since he had the same sort of treatment SOLDIERS got. His mind latches on to the idea that Zack's history is his own and his scrambled mind filled in the rest.

In other words Cloud wasn't just a normal SOLDIER. He was a super-SOLDIER, if you will. As opposed to Zack who was just an ordinary SOLDIER.

----------------------------

Hope that makes sense.

 

[ibra87]

Unfortunately, there is already a fanmade "HD"-patch to the old PC version which has even better graphics than what Square released. I say "HD" because its old so might not be as high as it used to be, but still prettier than SE's imo.



Also, playing bravely default. Man, this is a final fantasy game in all but the name. SE excused making it this way because 3ds has suvky hardware and boy am I glad they did.

 

[kkck]

The difference between SOLDIER members and regular soldiers was basically that they got a Mako energy shower which gave there eyes the unique signature look. What happened to Cloud was basically the same thing only much more extreme while being exposed to Hojo's experiments in the shinra mansion over the course of 4 years along with Zack(i believe there are documents in the shelves of the mansion explaining this). The mako and Jinova cells react to Cloud and leave his mind essentially scrambled. But didn't to Zack because he had already received to SOLDIER treatment once so his body didn't react, Zack escapes and takes Cloud with him but ultimately killed.

When Tifa discovers Cloud alone in Midgar he's unable to distinguish between Zack and himself in his head and his memory is was too much of a mess to figured it all out. And since he had the same sort of treatment SOLDIERS got. His mind latches on to the idea that he Zack's history is his own and his scrambled mind filled in the rest.

Why wasn't cloud given the normal mako energy treatment though? During the game they kinda make it seem like cloud failed to join because of a lack of skill, it was even something he was ashamed of. If the issue was the mako treatment then him not getting it is not necessarily his fault unless he wasn't even strong enough for that. And how did zack's memories end up inside him? Even if the treatment by hojo made him stronger I am still iffy about the idea of that alone making him as strong as a proper 1st class SOLDIER....

 

[Jammin]

Why wasn't cloud given the normal mako energy treatment though? During the game they kinda make it seem like cloud failed to join because of a lack of skill, it was even something he was ashamed of. If the issue was the mako treatment then him not getting it is not necessarily his fault unless he wasn't even strong enough for that. And how did zack's memories end up inside him? Even if the treatment by hojo made him stronger I am still iffy about the idea of that alone making him as strong as a proper 1st class SOLDIER....

It was never revealed exactly why he washed but that is what happened. For some reason or other SOLDIER didn't want him and he was ashamed of that.

But ironically if he had been given SOLDIER enhancement it was implied Hojo's experiment wouldn't have worked just like it didn't work for Zack. Cloud wasn't really a SOLDIER, just like Sepheroth wasn't, the fact that he was a washout allowed Cloud to become something more; an artificial Sepheroth.

 

[kkck]

It was never revealed exactly why he washed but that is what happened. For some reason or other SOLDIER didn't want him and he was ashamed of that.

But ironically if he had been given SOLDIER enhancement it was implied Hojo's experiment wouldn't have worked just like it didn't work for Zack. Cloud wasn't really a SOLDIER, just like Sepheroth wasn't, the fact that he was a washout allowed Cloud to become something more; an artificial Sepheroth.

Wasn't the entire purpose of the experiment to make cloud into something like sephiroth to begin with? In that regard cloud is perhaps the only success as far as I can tell. Although reading the wiki about the clones it says that only those who kept their personality were called failures... Anyways, if the experiment with the clones was meant to test the reunion theory (which seems to serve no purpose, seeing the cells reunite with jenova was never implied to have been anything but a gimmick in the end from what I can tell) then zack and cloud becoming like sephiroth was never relevant to the success of the experiment. I guess either the success or failure of them as experiments would be determined by their use in testing the theory. For all we know zack also became a true clone or something akin to zephiroth, maybe even with less side effects than cloud, but we never actually got to see that....