Going back to main male protagonists is a good move that they have made, although i really enjoy the older FF games the new games are fun as well, i didn't like some things they have brought in such as the FF12 gambit system but it wasn't too bad.

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385/2 Days

FF has no direction, each title is its own new reboot and take on the series.

That"direction" is FF and adore it for doing what no other big franchise can dare to do.

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Maybe not the right direction, but I'd still say a consistent one. The way I see it, the combat systems etc over the few main instalments have evolved in a fairly consistent manner. I imagine that from Square's point of view, going back to the older style of gameplay would, well be a step back for them, regardless of what fans want. In most other series, this would probably just be consider the natural progression of the games, just there is too much nostalgia with FF fans to please everyone. When we say the right direction, who's perspective are we looking from?

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(June 15, 2011 11:54:20 PM)Darthdevidem01 Wrote:  FF has no direction, each title is its own new reboot and take on the series.

That"direction" is FF and adore it for doing what no other big franchise can dare to do.

This. there is no right direction. personally, i think XIII was a breath of fresh air from the running theme, even though sometimes it is good to see things that were in the past others.
every FF is difffrent. that is what partly makes up the FF world. you don't have to like every title that comes out.

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LIGHTNING!!

White Flash. Call upon my name.

'I've Got This Gunblade Here, And It's Much Bigger Than Any Blade You've Got...' *Victory Bow* Alli Hillis

SE's ONLY problem with the FF Series has really been FF14, no other FF has been considered bad by a majority before this title. No other FF has led to them bleeding money.

Only God knows how they screwed up FF14 so bad, but so far its the only blunder the amazing FF series has ever made, and a blunder like it will never be repeated.

@Axel's Lover

Exactly. Lets see the last 5 FF's released.

FFIX, FFX, FFX-2, FFXII, FFXIII

Each of those games is completely different from eachother.....they do not share many similarities at all. Of those five FFXIII and FFX are the ones I love the most.

With that in mind how is there a particular direction the series is going in...there isn't.

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(June 16, 2011 01:34:45 AM)OhGodtheCentaurs Wrote:  I've loved square enix since they were squaresoft and i was a child but when will this company start giving the fans what they want and not what will profit them more?

Wouldn't giving fans what they want be what profits them more? I mean if they gave people what they wanted with XIV they wouldn't be losing money.

While I agree that each FF is different and the games themselves don't have a direction, square on the other hand does, or at least should. If they didn't it'd be worrying. Just making games that they get from the elementary school dustbins. Though kids can be pretty imaginative.

Personally the Fabula Nova Crystallis was a good idea, nowadays games are taking a long time to make so they need to be making side games to supplement the production of the main series, so might as well just go from the beginning and announce this is what your doing and get the hype going. It also means that they can spend 5 years on making Versus, because they're making money on the rest of Final Fantasy XIII games. Though FFXIII-2 is probably a response to it taking longer than they wanted.

I'm also hoping that the work they're doing on Versus's graphics and open world can be used to make future titles so we wont be waiting so long for XV, and of XV's side games, and possibly XVI (dare I think that far in the future?).

That's if this is whats actually happening. If they are just bumbling through and getting their story ideas from school children's old exercise books then we might have problems.

As for the games I think they've just failed to get the balance of shinny graphics and story. In the olden days (I-IX) the graphical limitations meant that more time was spent on other aspects of the game, however nowadays to make pretty, pretty games it takes a much longer time so the story and character development are getting neglected, or the exploratory of the world.

X was very pretty, had a pretty good story, fleshed out characters but was linear and got rid of the over world map that was the main source of exploration in the earlier games, giving us a level select instead.

XII was even prettier than X and also had a vast explore able world (even without the use of an over world map :o) but the story was bland (using the excuse of 'more political' and 'grown up') and the character development was none existent.

XIII was extremely pretty but lacked in story (trying to make up for it with the codex thingy) significant character development and was criminally linear. Though XII's development problems and square deciding to make their own graphics engine for XIII didn't help them to make a good looking game with a fully fleshed out story AND release it in a reasonable time.

Hopefully they'll now be able to use Versus and XIII's graphics and can go back to concentrating on creating an epic tale with interesting characters and an amazing world we can explore to our hearts content. Or the WiiU will have better graphics like their saying and Square will then spend their time trying to male the games good enough for that console and we'll continue to get pretty games with little substance.

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Well, I can't be the judge of that.

FFXIII was SE's most successful game, but it was also the most dividing.

Personally I don't miss the old days, I mean, I don't like that many fans just want a million VII copies (with slight variation so they can slap on a new name)
The old days are gone, they were great but SE has moved on from them, let them rest ffs.

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When it comes to the main number games that have been released (which for me also means X-2, XI, XIV) I have not been disappointed.

All I can say is this for Square Enix,
1. Stop making bad spin-offs
2. Stop making so many spin-offs AT ONCE

If that cannot happen, at the very least

3. Hire more people to work on your games

I have more to say, but I am going to keep it simple.

Like a good friend, I am there for you Square Enix.

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Sign here, it wouldn't hurt to just help a little

(June 16, 2011 07:39:53 PM)ProjectDecade Wrote:  Personally I don't miss the old days, I mean, I don't like that many fans just want a million VII copies (with slight variation so they can slap on a new name)
The old days are gone, they were great but SE has moved on from them, let them rest ffs.

If the current crop were on par with their predecessors we wouldn't have to keep bringing them up and could move on

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"Final Fantasy never had a direction."

Excuse me? Are you serious? I don't want to seem like an anal smartass, but where do you come off by when you mean Final Fantasy never had a direction?

So a fantasy/science fantasy game series that has strategy-based combat and exploration, story epics with recurring themes of defying malicious gods/kings/destiny, love, self-actualization; doesn't have a direction?

Every game series, even in a franchise where the stage of the story is different from the last, needs direction to set itself apart from other franchises in the genre. It's what separates Final Fantasy from Mass Effect, or Elder Scrolls. It's the difference in presentation, atmosphere, gameplay, and all that implies that a "direction" of a game series is derived.

So spare me the bullshit that Final Fantasy has "no direction", because that is false. Final Fantasy NEEDS direction if it wants to be its own thing. Whether the direction it's currently going with in looking at it's most current title (i.e. Final Fantasy XIII) with more emphasis on "cool visuals" and linear dungeon crawling, is what the series needs to still be relevant to gamers of today, is debatable.

/rant

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