^^ :concern: for once, i agree with you! ... i play a gem twice for the first time: 1, go through it blindly, will do stuff i encounter, but if it's not apparent/obvious, move on to the next part of story. 2, the full biz with text guides (no image) listing all possible quests and results, spoilers too, i'm not affected by them as most are. ^^ it's when i play the game a second time i can see how big it really is. (was disappointed in the blind runs, game was over before i knew it) and for that, value for $$$ all-round. keep the side quest, makes the game BIGGER by far, and much more interesting/REWARDING! :witless:
Making Final Fantasy games is big business these days. Do you disagree that recent have been too linear? I think there's a reason for that...
QFT. The recent Final Fantasies have been nothing but interactive movies with admittedly insane graphics. The games themselves bear no resemblance to what the series once was. None of the Final Fantasy games were directly connected, but they all had that FF personality and charm, which, IMO, has been missing for years. The last game that I felt truly had that Final Fantasy feel was FF10.
This is why I don't plan on playing any after X until I have the majority of the older ones done. FF in its prime was way before any of the new ones from what I've heard/read.
XII is worth it. FFT0 looks fun. Honestly a lot of whining boils down to "I don't like change" or "my nostalgia goggles are on so tight that I'm lightheaded and spouting nonsense." XIV 2.0 has also been praised a lot and has more in common with old FF.
XII is an amazing game, and while i do quite love it, it doesnt quite have the "feel" of FF1-10. I would still recommend XII, as it had a rather unique combat system that i absolutely loved.
How is your plythrough going? the world of ruin is the place of sidequests and where all the background stories are revealed And where Kefka's true greatness comes to shine lol
Do you have any way to define this personality and charm? i.e. Crystals, airships, a character named Sid, star wars references?
I'd have to disagree there, especially considering that XIII is just as linear and almost a direct clone of X in character development (Sphere Grid/Crystarium). In my opinion X was the game that started to bury the series into the ground and XIII only dug the hole deeper; XII was the last truly great Final Fantasy game to me even with its differences.
And Lightning didn't dress like she's pants on head retarded like Tidus (or Lulu with her belt fetish). XIII controversy aside, its protagonist was designed like other women characters in games should. Not revealing or over designed. She doesn't even show cleavage which is really unexpected from a Japanese developer.
I do actually like Final Fantasy XIII for it's aesthetic design; I like the futuristic setting and the technology that fills the world, I like the character designs and the clothes that they wear, I also like how the game has a strong female protagonist, it's something I really admire when women are given the hero role and seen in a powerful light. I just don't like linear gameplay, it's the one thing that bugs me most about lengthy games, following one path with no deviation or control over how I enjoy the experience. It was the same deal with Final Fantasy X, one path, no deviation, no control over the annoying characters that I was stuck with for the entire ride, I hated it to no end and that's before I even talk about the Sphere Grid or Crystarium System. Linear gameplay is a big no-no for me, the more they limit the experience the less I'm going to like it, I want to be wowed by the beautiful world they've created and then allowed to explore it, as opposed to simply being taken on a guided tour at their leisure. The original games were not exactly open ended either, but the systems at least allowed for creativity and individuality, and that's what was important to the series for me, X and XIII got rid of that entirely and became more automatic than XII could ever be.
@geluda I know you said not to worry about spoilers, but I still wanna make sure I preface what I say with... POSSIBLE SPOILERS I just finished up Ebot's Rock. The boss there rocked me a bit haha. So I was completely wrong about Geshtal. Kefka made light work of him. Question: Where the hell is Locke?! Don't tell me, but I'm starting to get concerned. I know I'm not done finding everybody, but I thought I would have discovered him by now. Cyan's relationship with the girl from IIRC Mobilz was really cool. Was hoping something romantic would spring up there. Sabin and Edgar are still my 2 permanent party members. Sabin's Bum Rush is ridiculous. I'm going to keep plugging away today. Very excited for the final battle!
X and XIII are nothing alike at all. The sphere grid allowed character development in pretty much any way you wanted, and while it had "paths" was nowhere near as linear as the crystarium from FF13, which is linear, one path the whole way through. You may feel like X was the game that started to "bury" the series, while IMO it was the last truly great FF game, and my personal favorite in the series. While I will agree with you that FF10 was more linear than say, 1-9, it was nowhere near as bad as the series of tunnels that was FF13. Once you got to the calm lands you could explore the game world at your leisure pretty much, and FF10 had a decent amount of side quests and extra stuff. FF13 has one side quest, mark hunting....... thats it. To say 10 and 13 are clones of eachother is just.... wrong, imo. I am seriously starting to wonder if im the only person on assembler that likes FF10..........
I can respect that. Like I say for me X was where things started to become more linear, and XIII made that problem worse on a far greater scale. XIII's development system was quite clearly inspired by X regardless of their differences, there was no originality at all, besides perhaps the Paradigm system. I can never get the words to describe Final Fantasy X; I guess for me it was too lighthearted, Tidus ran around like a little fairy and they never seemed to be in any imminent danger despite what just happened to Zanarkand (although I understand that probably isn't the case). It's like they just wandered from village to village, defeating a boss and then solving a Cloister, defeating a boss and then solving a Cloister, playing Blitzball and then solving a Cloister. I honestly found it boring as hell to play and tedious (perhaps there's a new name for our hero lol) to listen to their dreary voices as they chilled out in the sun for half the game. There was no magic to it at all. But if people like it that's cool, the sheer amount of content makes it one of the biggest games in the entire series, I guess you just have to have the patience to keep up with it, sadly that's something I never had for that game.
So I don't have much left that I'm going to do in FFVI. I need to grind my less-used characters a bit then I will be heading to Kefka's Tower. I would say I've fought the majority of the monsters, at least 200 of the 255, unless I'm mistaken. I decided to start FFVIII last night. I'm going to switch back to FFVI whenever I hit a slow part in FFVIII. Thought it would be better than starting a non-FF game at a slow part then getting sucked into that game. So far... I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy this game. The opening sequence definitely captivated me. Extremely interested. Also, so far I actually like Squall. I know people who act like, maybe not as promintent. Some people are just that "emo," as I guess people describe him. I really like Quistis so far, hopefully she plays a bigger role than I think she will. The music is pretty amazing as well. Just as good if not better. I've loved every song/tune so far.
Squall isn't the sole character to act angsty in Japanese media. It happens lots in anime and manga because the Japanese think that makes a character deep. People use it to attack pop culture from Japan. The cliche became grating to me too, but I've grown to ignore it because Japanese games can be unique and do things the west would not.
In American media, if the main character does very bad things, the very least of which is kill a person, audiences will think the angst that arises from it makes a character deep. That seems to be a common trait in this Golden Age of Television.
Squall's personality was made the way it is for a reason, not to say too much right now, it will become more apparent as the story goes on so don't listen to people's criticisms.
