This or That: Final Fantasy Series

Xantar · 03-04-2010, 11:53 PM

No love for Final Fantasy XII? Let me advocate for it a little bit in another lame attempt to stir controversy.

First of all, I don't think you can argue that the Final Fantasy formula needed to change. At a fundamental level. Any kind of combat that looks even vaguely turn based just doesn't fly any more.

The story had to change, too. I've read a lot of complaints about how Vaan is a largely inconsequential character (the story arguably centers around Ashe) and how the stakes for the game are mostly about the politics of two kingdoms. But to me, those were good things. It was nice to be controlling a character who had a normal perspective on things and wasn't overly angsty. And it was nice to have a story where you weren't saving the world. Because that meant anything could happen. When you have a saving the world plot, the only thing that can happen is you kill the bad guy and the world doesn't get destroyed. But if instead it's just about a princess trying to get back on the throne, all kinds of things can happen. She doesn't even have to succeed.

Ok, so the story does pretty much unfold the way you expect it to. It was still a good idea. Just like the Gambit system was a good idea that was imperfectly implemented. Come to think of it, it's kind of analogous to the materia system in Final Fantasy VII: it was a good idea in principal taken WAY too far. Having materia slots on your weapons which affect your spells and abilities is good. Having materia for what should normally be unique character actions (like Steal) is bad.

So I'm hoping that in FF XIII Square builds on the ideas they had and refines them. Alas, I do not have a PS3 or Xbox 360 nor the time to play a 100 hour game any more. But I do hope they pull it off.

TheSlyMoogle · 03-05-2010, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xantar

No love for Final Fantasy XII? Let me advocate for it a little bit in another lame attempt to stir controversy.

First of all, I don't think you can argue that the Final Fantasy formula needed to change. At a fundamental level. Any kind of combat that looks even vaguely turn based just doesn't fly any more.

The story had to change, too. I've read a lot of complaints about how Vaan is a largely inconsequential character (the story arguably centers around Ashe) and how the stakes for the game are mostly about the politics of two kingdoms. But to me, those were good things. It was nice to be controlling a character who had a normal perspective on things and wasn't overly angsty. And it was nice to have a story where you weren't saving the world. Because that meant anything could happen. When you have a saving the world plot, the only thing that can happen is you kill the bad guy and the world doesn't get destroyed. But if instead it's just about a princess trying to get back on the throne, all kinds of things can happen. She doesn't even have to succeed.

Ok, so the story does pretty much unfold the way you expect it to. It was still a good idea. Just like the Gambit system was a good idea that was imperfectly implemented. Come to think of it, it's kind of analogous to the materia system in Final Fantasy VII: it was a good idea in principal taken WAY too far. Having materia slots on your weapons which affect your spells and abilities is good. Having materia for what should normally be unique character actions (like Steal) is bad.

So I'm hoping that in FF XIII Square builds on the ideas they had and refines them. Alas, I do not have a PS3 or Xbox 360 nor the time to play a 100 hour game any more. But I do hope they pull it off.

While I didn't play FF12 I was there the entire time my roommate did (I was actually running through FF8 again on the TV beside him. We had 3 tvs, 3 PS2s, a 360, a wii and a ps3. It was a good place to live for sure)

Anyway, I watched him run through it. There wasn't anything really amazing about it, and there really wasn't anything bad about it either. Characters were ok, story was...eh to say the least, and the whole thing felt like I was watching someone run through Final Fantasy Tactics with a really similar story and an MMO battle system. Surprise, set in the same universe as FFT(loosely, the world was still called Ivalice and it's presumed that the video game that the kids talk about in FFTA is FFT), FFTA and FFTA2. The Ivalice Alliance strikes again. Honestly you know what was really fun? FFXII Revenant Wings. Like if FFXII had played like that, it would have been a much better game. Seriously.

Overall decent game, Fran was cool, Gilgamesh was awesome. Other than that it was forgettable.

Xantar · 03-05-2010, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSlyMoogle

Overall decent game, Fran was cool

Ok, actually you just reminded me of something else I wanted to say about FF XII: Fran is ridiculous. Her character and storyline were ok, I guess. But she's a bunny woman in a stripperific outfit made out of holes (and a piece of sheer cloth across her stomach for some reason) with stiletto heels. Just try showing her picture to anybody not familiar with Final Fantasy and dare them not to crack up.

She's like a fan service Frankenstein. The character designers apparently pulled five or six fetishes together and threw them all into one character with no regard to whether it would actually work.

TheSlyMoogle · 03-05-2010, 11:40 AM

well she's a viera.

Don't know if you played FFTA or A2, but they pretty much all look like that except for the mage classes of viera.