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New & Improved Fantasies
Here's the new & improved poll for your Favorite Final Fantsy. Thanks to Neutron Pong for giving me the link
Comments
Cloud watched someone he loved die in an FMV. Cecil watched almost everyone he MET die, usually to save HIS life! Cecil was a DARK NIGHT! His AXE was on FIRE! His best friend betrayed him... TWICE! He went to the MOON! In a WHALE! Came back from ONE HIT POINT to WIN!
Cecil was the MAN!
Also, my father was a cosmic prostitute with many children.
Then they crowned me king. No, seriously.
"I am...the HATRED!"
Name: Squall.
Occupation: emo bastard.
Family: died.
The world is destroyed after a horrible World War. A whole race comes to an extinction because of the struggle towards ultimate power. The only ones that can stop are a group of mavericks that because of luck, destiny or fate came together thanks to a teenage girl that is in search of herself.
Final Fantasy VI is teh Awesomeness.
And Terra is the orginal magical girl of the RPG :P
It's the first FF....EVER...that has a coherent plot. I really enjoyed FFX (as evidenced by my 130 hours of play time), but you gotta admit it was about a dream of some spirits of a guy whose city was destroyed by religious zealot ssinging a song about....who the fuck knows. It's typical anime plot.
I'm sure most of it's just translation. I got the distinct impression that 20-something American males where not the target audience for FFX. The acting (to use the wonly word that makes sense here) of the characters just did not engage me, an unashamed American, the way the average sitcom does. It's just a culture difference.
That being said, FFXII does the best job yet of bridging the gap. It's about a war, and some rebels, and there's some mysticism in there, but it's taken in small doses. The dialogue is more natural, while still distinctly translated from Japanese (with all that implies). None of the characters are gag characters, and so far nobody has a grossly imbalanced potential-to-actual-implementation ratio (ahem Lulu ahem Terra ahem every supporting character ever).
Of course, earlier games in the series often had these qualities; but they were hurt by their purely-text approach. The anime-style plot doesn't lend well to text only. Even manga has images.
Anyway, FFXII is neat. They ought to try remaking the old ones with the same engine. They'd make a bundle of cash.
Interesting characterization, fun gameplay, the early game had it all.
Right about the point where they start sending you on massive leveling quests (go through 5 zones, gain 20 levels before you get another plot point), things start to go downhill. Then, it degenerates into the same old DBZ crap: a bunch of villains you barely know show up to yammer at the party while big, important things are happening, and people get all dramatic, without any of it making a lick of sense.
I liked FFX. But you have to admit: it committed some grave atrocities against drama. When you started, Sin was this awesome force of nature that inspired fear right through the TV screen. Then, it became a whale, and your father. Can we get past the Star Wars ripoffs already? Sometimes a colossal, awe-inspiring terror is just a colossal, awe-inspiring terror.
Then of course you've got your FF8. At first it is a delightful mix of retro, modern, and fantasy, with a captivating villain set off by well-executed FMV's (for once). Then, the villain who is actually a dumpy headmaster's wife joins your party, takes you into space, and it turns out everyone in the whole party actually went to the same orphanage, and they just forgot. Finally, you fight a villain whose name was not once uttered until the last moments of the last disc. And people wonder where the love is for 8.
Don't get me started on 7. It rode the currents of being simultaneously the debut of the 3d rpg and the FMV. It had some awesome characters, and the most bad-ass setting. The game is ridiculously cool right about until you leave that setting, then it kinda just becomes another game. If you put the Golden Saucer in the city (and make it something less lame, like a casino), then you can pretty much eliminate everything in the game that took place outside the city (especially the retarded end-game summons that ruin an awesome boss fight). The game designers at Square are so addicted to the FF1 "let's roam about the world from town to town and level up" approach that they didn't recognize that had an amazing, revolutionary game that didn't have to leave its bad-ass city. Look at Advent Children; they know where the real setting of the game is.
When it comes to a favorite Final Fantasy, I'm gonna have to go with FF1. It's the only one I can think of that made its point, and didn't bury itself under pretentious, ill-conceived plot holes. Second would be what FF7 could be, if three conditions were met: one, that they remove the filler material, two, that they either explain why Cloud can't get his mind off the dead chick or have him grow a pair and tap the fine piece of ass who's still alive, and three, they re-release it on a modern system so they can do justice to their character design and setting. Then it would rock the entire RPG world, past and present, without a doubt.
Oh, btw, spoilers.
I agree with you about everything except FFVII. I can actually remember playing FFVIII and FFX and at the very moments you mentioned thinking wtf. I just decided to ignore and play on. Suspended disbelief. I'd have to play FFXII a bit more to see if I agree about that. I got it in October and I haven't played it since December. But I'm looking forward to tackling the whole of the Zertinan Caverns. No matter where I go in FFXII, there seems to be an entrance to that damn cave.
I like starting an RPG and feeling as if there is a big wide world to explore and secrets to discover. If we'd never left Midgar, I'd always be wondering what was outside of Midgar. My wanderlust wouldn't have been satisfied. I also like an RPG that offers the opportunity to do other things except the main plot. Doing something completely different from the intense storyline of trying to save the world or what have you, is relaxing. Takes the edge off. Either that or stopping the game altogether to play something lighter. I liked distractions like the Golden Saucer. I got myself a golden chocobo. Nice change to seeing all those Weapons around and the depressing change to the overworld music after a certain point.
As for Cloud and his psychological problems, have a heart man. I know I've laughed at him my share of times but come on. That sort of thing can actually happen to someone.
Of course that could just be my own guilt speaking. I wanted Aeris to die. I actually wanted it because I thought she was cutting in on Tifa's turf with Cloud. But I didn't think it was actually going to happen. I was in shock for quite some time. Not to mention I'd gotten her to the point where with a tap of her rod, she'd knock an enemy senseless and didn't have to be just the magic/healer girl. Where did all my hard work go damnit?
I'm sure Tifa could ease the pain but I can't hate Aeris in death for still having Cloud's heart. Aeris wasn't really all that bad.
I did like having my trigger happy ability, though.
Oh, and ZOMG, are we really arguing about which poorly-rendered hex girl we'd bang?
As for FF7...poorly rendered nothing, have you seen Advent Children? And yet, it suffers from the same problems so many run-of-the-mill anime do. Unable to write meaningful, engaging dialogue, the writers instead fill 80% of the movie with over-the-top action that gets less and less watchable as you go on. You came to see the world brought to vivid 3D life, after all, but not necessarily to watch it whizz by at 300 mph. As a lame anime, it has it all: generic, bishounen villains who talk too much, characterizations that are 95% implied and 5% developed, and a poor balance between action, drama, and comic relief. Much like many of the FMV's and animated sequences in all FF games since 7 (but really mostly since 8).
All I'm saying is: if you're going to do drama, do it right. Explore Cloud's issues, don't just rest on them. Clearly, his biggest conflict is internal, and yet that isn't dealt with. Sephiroth allowed him to externalize his conflict in FF7, but obviously it did no good, since he's even worse off in AC. Unlike classic heroes, he never faces his true conflict, instead seeking always to externalize, to turn his demons into actual monsters he can kill. He never has to face his actual problems, so he never gets over them. Typical of bad anime, there is no plan, no dramatic structure, just a determination to relive the same plots and situations over and over again. Like Dragonball Z. It's juvenile. Grown-up entertainment involves character growth. Thus the hating.
Though apropos of the latest episode, I must say FF7 was definitely one of "those games" that define a genre, and is then copied endlessly. (Oh my, can consoles suffer from that too? Gasp!) In this case, Square itself continues to copy the formula, making no real changes to it. FFXII is a departure from this, of course, but only in small ways. We shall see what FFXIII brings, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
(I hated that game)
I have to say I like FFX the most though... It had my favorite battle system and characters, but I do think it has WAY to short gameplay compared to the other FF's. What really won me over was the graphics and the characters, although the story sometimes felt a little weak to me, and I kind of got fed up of Tidus's complaining...
Has anyone noticed a trend in the main characters in the FF's? They all seem to have an emo side... 0.0
Although this is a little off topic, one of the games that I thought really brought all the elements I was looking for together, was Legend of the Dragoon.
Legend of the Dragoon was the last playstation game to come out before the PS-2, and I have to say it went out with a bang. I was actually rather surprised the game wasn't made by Square Soft, because it contains a lot of their "personal touches". Like it holds the great characters, awesome plot, and spifftastic battle systems that Square Soft likes to use. Although the normal gameplay graphics well... suck... the amv's are AMAZING. Very well done for its time.
Although it's graphics aren't very good, the great plot, awesome development of characters, and 4 Discs of awesomeness made up for it. It had great settings, relatively good music, and a ton of characters to play (all complete with background stories to dive into).
It reminded me a lot of the Final Fantasy games, so that's why I brought it up... ^.^'