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I hate to use the term blogger, I don't really blog that much, and it gives an impression of pretentiousness to call oneself blogger. Whatever you want to call me, I live in Stockholm, Sweden and I enjoy videogames, they don't solely define me but surely a large part of who I am. I'm not the smartest or the most intellectual person, I like to write about things I like and writing helps me put my thoughts out as I'm a terrible conversationalist.
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Before you read any further please go to this post and watch the video. Done? Okay. I've been pretty blase about the latest Final Fantasy's over the last five years, or however long it's been in development, the last FF I cared about was the Tactics port for the PSP. But watching this trailer, it just infuriated me profusely. That cookie cutter anime-bullshit, how is that supposed to interest anyone? As a trailer it fails it's purpose, it turned me from indifferent to antagonistic towards what it advertised. Though it's not so much the trailers fault as much as the products. It just comes off as a bad summer blockbuster movie, big and loud, uninspiring, generic... but made by the Japanese. Even without subtitles or voice-overs I can figure out many of the scenes that will play out, it's just so predictable. While overarching story, design and character may differ from game to game the genre is so bogged down in tropes that they become all become so interchangeable and uninteresting. I think that this trailer truly symbolizes how Final Fantasy-series and Japanese role-playing games in general has gone wrong. Style over substance, antiquated and un-interactive battle-systems, generic and predictable stories (tradition isn't an excuse), unlikable and one-dimensional characters and overly and just plain bad designs. A lot of you weeaboos probably think the Japanese as the masterrace and that they can do no wrong and you "curse the roundness of your eyes" to quote a dice game. Square-Enix are just bad at design, the trend has been a shift from, while certainly anime-influenced, mostly fantasy-based to wholehearted anime-inspiration. It's seems ever since Yoshitaka Amano jumped ship after FF7 and was replaced by Tetsuya "belts and zippers" Nomura design in RPG games have been in general shit. Christ just look what happened to Phantasy Star. 
Honestly which is the cooler one?... and if you answer the one on the right you're wrong. Do you know how I learned that the Japanese can hold bad opinions just as westerns? When I read the fanvoted list of top ten favorite RPGs. Final Fantasy X at number one... are you serious? Perhaps the single worst Final Fantasy game after 8 is voted number one... I mean for gods sake Kingdom Hearts II is four slots above Chrono Trigger. It's was just so disappointing, here I thought the Japanese knew a good game from a bad onem but just comes to show that westerners doesn't have exclusivity to be wrong about games. It's same way I realized how sexualized or society is: I was sitting in a hamburger diner while MTV was on a TV and a big black woman was shaking her ass in skimpy clothing and I just felt that it was something that I wouldn't want anyone to walk in on me watching.
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Living the dream since March 16, 2006
Living the dream since March 16, 2006
I mean, we've had worse. We've had FFX.
...-2.
reigned supreme over style, resulting in a better storyline, script and thereby a better game. Improved technology has led to advanced character movement and audio, and with it comes all the little mannerisms and voices that sometimes get on my nerves. Its a cultural thing, and although the bouncy high pitched character is popular in Japan, it makes me want to mute the damn Tv. The dubbing only serves to make things worse; its the equivalent of having someone lean over your shoulder while you're reading a book and read the words in an annoying and exaggerated manner.
I quite like the style of anime and manga to an extent, but Japanese tastes sometimes confound me, and the whole look of FFXIII, while appearing well animated, looks to be the same predictable trite storywise we've come to expect from JRPG's these past few years.
Its a big shame, because final fantasy VI,VII and IX are still some of my favourites. I didn't mind X (undead Auron saved the game for me) but XII was a story-lacking travesty. This game will make millions, and the Japanese will love it. But the alienation of westerners will continue to grow, and while we cry out for these games to adhere to our wildly different tastes in games, the Japanese won't give a crap. What we really need is a western studio that will make an RPG in a Japanese style,but with western tastes in fantasy settings and storytelling.
Saying all that, I'll still buy the game, and I may even enjoy it, but inside I'll always be yearning for a return to the golden age of JRPG's, or something to blow me away, something we've never seen before.
... However, my personnal opinion is that your approach to the subject is a little too stuck into nostalgia. I've enjoyed the "good ol' days" of SNES JRPGs like anyone else, but I believe that while their approach is similar, companies like Squaresoft do improve over time.
*** SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED FINAL FANTASIES ***
In my opinion Final Fantasy 4, my first RPG ever and one of my favourite of all times, is still very shallow when you take a step back. A knight is ordered by his king to do horrible things, repents and becomes a paladin, rushes to save his abducted girlfriend and stop the bad guy from collecting shiny stones that will make him rule the world... ending with a showdown near the center of the moon against a puppeteer unspoken of until 85% through the game. Support characters each have a story that can be summarized in one line: the arrogant prince, the last summoner of her kind, the gentle girlfriend with healing spells (YAWN), the cowardly bard, the honorable monk, etc.
I know I'm being mean and simplistic, but I mean to show that we are more easily impressed as kids and tend to wall-up behind skepticism and nostalgia as we get older.
Try to analyze Final Fantasy X's story for a moment, look beyond the zippers, the blonde hair and the retarded accent (YA?). An emotionally-fragile young man trying to walk in his father's footsteps falls in love with a woman, drawing his easygoing side out, bringing him peace. He then innocently accompanies the woman and her friends in a journey that everyone but him know will only end in death. The shadow of his father's exploits still follow him around, as the old man accomplished the same pilgrimage in the past with the woman's father. When his new friends finally get around to telling him about the inevitability of his girlfriend's death, he childishly refuses to accept it. He convinces the entire party to challenge tradition and look beyond religious teachings to face death itself and find their own answers. Overcoming Death (Sin) and God (Yu Yevon), the hero realizes his own inner strength just as his father manifests his pride in his son, hence the famous ending high-five between the two.
I think it's a pretty story that gives one more to think about later than the Save-the-girl/Find-shiny-baubles scenarioes of yore. But it's just my opinion anyway, and I'm wrong since I posted it on the Internets. ^,^