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...You liked FF XI?
Anyway, I seem to remember an article similar to the one you talked about. The Music composer for the silent Hill series went to talk to the current defvelopers (Double Helix or whatever the fuck they merged into) and he was talking about how much more advanced American game designers have gotten, what with all the new graphics technology(that usually dosen't get translated into moonspeak for a year) and just how different the developers were taking their approach.
tl;dr : Japs are falling behind.
Anyway, I seem to remember an article similar to the one you talked about. The Music composer for the silent Hill series went to talk to the current defvelopers (Double Helix or whatever the fuck they merged into) and he was talking about how much more advanced American game designers have gotten, what with all the new graphics technology(that usually dosen't get translated into moonspeak for a year) and just how different the developers were taking their approach.
tl;dr : Japs are falling behind.
They havent really done a spiky haired emo since FFVIII... Zidane was pretty normal (for a midget with a monkey tail) and Tidus and Vaan were pretty upbeat, at least compared to the likes of Squall and Cloud.
Continuing that point, in the FF series at least, Square have been making some decent changes. Look at the real time battle systems in crisis core and XII. Heck, XII was interesting in many ways; in particular, the lack of focus on any single character throughout the story. You cant deny that XII was a good, well made game; whether you actually like it or not.
They games they make are still definitely jrpg's, but at least they try new things. Itll be interesting to see how the XIII games turn out.
As for non-FF games from SE, well i wouldnt know :P.
Continuing that point, in the FF series at least, Square have been making some decent changes. Look at the real time battle systems in crisis core and XII. Heck, XII was interesting in many ways; in particular, the lack of focus on any single character throughout the story. You cant deny that XII was a good, well made game; whether you actually like it or not.
They games they make are still definitely jrpg's, but at least they try new things. Itll be interesting to see how the XIII games turn out.
As for non-FF games from SE, well i wouldnt know :P.
The problem with FFXI is that to enjoy the story, you need to play the game and that's not really interesting since the game is so frustrating.
Jesus. Square hasn't produced anything truly worthwhile since Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story or FF6. Move on and find better dev's.
I liked 9 more than 7 and 8 too. Never finished 10 or 12, but i think I would have liked 12. 10 looked pretty, but the characters all seemed unlikable to me.
Once you could do photo-realistic graphics imagination went out the window. And well sexy and beauty and youth sell....could you imagine Tellah or the twins...or Yang or ugh Cid today? Granted we are getting them in the DS remake but they're still super deformed.
You just aren't going to see old people in j-RPGs anymore. Yeah yeah Auron but his only purpose was to be the mentor and die. Plus he wasn't that old.
And heck, most of the characters aren't even 21 year old emos -- they're 17, 18, 19.
Wouldn't you be appaled if Nomura ever got the crazy idea to redo the older FF games with his designs? ZIPPERS FOR ALL! And there'd be no Tellah.
You just aren't going to see old people in j-RPGs anymore. Yeah yeah Auron but his only purpose was to be the mentor and die. Plus he wasn't that old.
And heck, most of the characters aren't even 21 year old emos -- they're 17, 18, 19.
Wouldn't you be appaled if Nomura ever got the crazy idea to redo the older FF games with his designs? ZIPPERS FOR ALL! And there'd be no Tellah.
12 was the worst ff i ever played it was god aweful and contained nothing original or new that was added to the franchise.
Square hasn't been a good developer since the SNES era. I think this is partially to do with them hiring Nomura around this time.
Hmm prehaps its time to start writing my defense of Final Fantasy XII as I've heard nothing but hate on the internet for that one.
Honestly the only FF game (sans FFTA2 which I don't own and the two ones released this month) I haven't played all the way through and beat twice is 7. Call me crazy.
My least favorite is easy II because that was nothing but a crazy ass rape all the way through. And I went through that damn thing three times. Fan ROM, Origins and Dawn of Souls.
Probably after that though.....X and I guess time to also start writing a blog against X...I love X and X-2 but X I just can't put higher than any of the others. Not sure I could even explain why if I sat down and plotted it out.
Honestly the only FF game (sans FFTA2 which I don't own and the two ones released this month) I haven't played all the way through and beat twice is 7. Call me crazy.
My least favorite is easy II because that was nothing but a crazy ass rape all the way through. And I went through that damn thing three times. Fan ROM, Origins and Dawn of Souls.
Probably after that though.....X and I guess time to also start writing a blog against X...I love X and X-2 but X I just can't put higher than any of the others. Not sure I could even explain why if I sat down and plotted it out.
Id like to hear some explanation of why XII was god awful and added nothing new to the franchise, kohelhunter. Other than, "I dont like it so it sucks".
ok no problem
1. the battle system. It was not original and was taken from FFXI. If you played that game you would know it is pretty much identical.
2. The World and setting for the story. This also was not original like ALL previous final fantasies and was borrowed from the tactics world which has been drilled time and time again from square. I was like the creative directors of the game were like "Hey I don't wanna come up with anything original. How can we cash in on the name?"
3. The character designs. This one really ticks me off as well and really shows of the SE lazyness as of late due to the fact that most of the designs come from 10. Yuna and Ashe or Tidus and Vaan are prime examples of this.
4. The story. It was very drab focusing on politic rather than the characters which kept most players who played it not emotionally attached to the game. What makes a FF a FF i believe is that one character you can connect with personality wise that drives you through the game.
5. The voice acting. It was terrible. Period. The characters sounded like they were reading from a script lacking any emotion what so ever, also for some reason the voice actors all sounded like they were in a tunnel. The new Valkrie Profile game also suffered from this.
@ajaxender
I don't hate your opinion i respect it. However you asked for my reasons and there they are.
1. the battle system. It was not original and was taken from FFXI. If you played that game you would know it is pretty much identical.
2. The World and setting for the story. This also was not original like ALL previous final fantasies and was borrowed from the tactics world which has been drilled time and time again from square. I was like the creative directors of the game were like "Hey I don't wanna come up with anything original. How can we cash in on the name?"
3. The character designs. This one really ticks me off as well and really shows of the SE lazyness as of late due to the fact that most of the designs come from 10. Yuna and Ashe or Tidus and Vaan are prime examples of this.
4. The story. It was very drab focusing on politic rather than the characters which kept most players who played it not emotionally attached to the game. What makes a FF a FF i believe is that one character you can connect with personality wise that drives you through the game.
5. The voice acting. It was terrible. Period. The characters sounded like they were reading from a script lacking any emotion what so ever, also for some reason the voice actors all sounded like they were in a tunnel. The new Valkrie Profile game also suffered from this.
@ajaxender
I don't hate your opinion i respect it. However you asked for my reasons and there they are.
Square needs to get Amano back so we can get characters that wear something other than belts and zippers.
The main games themselves are almost always quality though, and nobody can say that they're rushed with the length of time it takes SE to put out a main series game. Yes, there are other good RPG series' out there, but it's not like Square-Enix is letting everything turn to shit.I have to admit that I don't like the real-time direction that the FF series is heading, but times change I guess.
The main games themselves are almost always quality though, and nobody can say that they're rushed with the length of time it takes SE to put out a main series game. Yes, there are other good RPG series' out there, but it's not like Square-Enix is letting everything turn to shit.I have to admit that I don't like the real-time direction that the FF series is heading, but times change I guess.
I would guess kohelhunter is a touch on the younger side seeing as he listed PS1 as the ultimate in JRPG. Nothing wrong with that but I do have to agree with BigPoppa in that their heyday was definitely with the SNES. Moonwalker or whatever they are called is on track to become my new favorite source of JRPG if they can take what they did with Lost Odyssey and expand.
@dtomek
I agree Mistwalker is a fantastic company that contains some of that great classic rpg goodness many of us classic rpgs fans know and love. However, Blue Dragon was not so great.
I agree Mistwalker is a fantastic company that contains some of that great classic rpg goodness many of us classic rpgs fans know and love. However, Blue Dragon was not so great.
Too bad that Blue Dragon was not good, they had a great team. However, i still liked the boss battles in Blue Dragon, not all of the game is crap.
SNES was the heyday of Square RPG's, it was not the heyday or JRPG's in general. I can name tons of RPG's that have come out during the last two console generations that were quite a bit better than most of the SNES RPGs I can name(Shadow Hearts: Covenant, SMT games in general, Tales of Eternia, etc, etc.)
And yes, I lived through the SNES era and played all the games back then, and loved most of them dearly. But I can still say without hesitation that I think a lot of stuff out now is better.
And yes, I lived through the SNES era and played all the games back then, and loved most of them dearly. But I can still say without hesitation that I think a lot of stuff out now is better.
1) Ive watched my friend play XI. The battle system is not identical. Similar, but changed in order to suit an offline, single player game.
In any case, its better than reusing the same mechanics from nine previous games (im not including X because it was sufficiently different).
2) Ill give you the point that the world has the same name. Ivalice. Im pretty sure the characters and events are not the same. I was under the impression that the cities were not the same, but i might be wrong about that.
3) Tidus = Vaan because they're both blonde? Cos thats about where the similarity ends, as far as i can see.
Yuan and Ashe are a bit closer, but still, the main similarity is the hair colour. Ashe is, for one thing, a much stronger character than Yuna - shes more in charge, more confident.
Also, thats 2 out of 6 characters. Balthier seemed pretty unique to me.
4) Okay, you didnt like the story. Thats fine. It doesnt explain why its a bad game.
5) Ashe was the only one that annoyed me. I thought Balthier, in particular, was great. But then, I dont know of any jrpg that has great voice acting across the board, so i mostly ignore it.
You're still giving opinions. Just because you didnt like XII (and thats entirely fair enough) doesnt mean its a bad game. I dont like Bioshock. Id still say its a good game.
I guess the problem i have is not that you dont like it, its that you're using it as an example of Square going downhill. And i think thats just plain wrong.
In any case, its better than reusing the same mechanics from nine previous games (im not including X because it was sufficiently different).
2) Ill give you the point that the world has the same name. Ivalice. Im pretty sure the characters and events are not the same. I was under the impression that the cities were not the same, but i might be wrong about that.
3) Tidus = Vaan because they're both blonde? Cos thats about where the similarity ends, as far as i can see.
Yuan and Ashe are a bit closer, but still, the main similarity is the hair colour. Ashe is, for one thing, a much stronger character than Yuna - shes more in charge, more confident.
Also, thats 2 out of 6 characters. Balthier seemed pretty unique to me.
4) Okay, you didnt like the story. Thats fine. It doesnt explain why its a bad game.
5) Ashe was the only one that annoyed me. I thought Balthier, in particular, was great. But then, I dont know of any jrpg that has great voice acting across the board, so i mostly ignore it.
You're still giving opinions. Just because you didnt like XII (and thats entirely fair enough) doesnt mean its a bad game. I dont like Bioshock. Id still say its a good game.
I guess the problem i have is not that you dont like it, its that you're using it as an example of Square going downhill. And i think thats just plain wrong.
I have given my reasons on why it is a bad game, and I also am using it as a example of square going downhill. Why is it wrong? because you feel that as a company SE could do no wrong? If you think that then you my friend are what is wrong with the consumers of this industry. You take a side, unpaid, fully devoted, and feel that no matter what your company could do no wrong. You see this blinds you. If you took away the FF name from 12 you would have a sub par RPG that would have gotten 6 out of 10s across the board. I already explained to you why it is a bad game due to your denial factor believe SE could do no wrong you choose to argue.
I'm not a "weeabo" but of all the recent Square games I've played, FFXII has the best voice acting out of the bunch. If you think that X was better I would have to assume that you're retarded, especially if you really are 24 years old.
I agree with Kohler and I've been saying the same kind of thing for a while myself.
Square and Enix merging is a good example of how such mergers can kill creativity, leading to constant exposure to FF. Granted DQ is now getting some love but what's disappointing is that Square Enix used to be aboout so much more.
Through FF success they seem to have lost their compass. This is the reason I didn't bother with FFXI or XII. Now I tend to seek most of my rpg experiences from the likes of Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Success Corps, Spike, Level 5 etc, who's games seem to have a bit more heart in them.
Gen Eric Gui, you just touched upon something. I recently read in Edge magazine (U.K), the same thing expressed. Jrpgs were once a lot more popular in japan in the 16-32bit days. However, since the graphics tech has moved on, it seems many japanese rpg developers, have either not kept up with the race or just given up, continuing to make games like Disgaea, in order to please and win over the japanese fans.
As a result it seems japanese rpgs fans are moving over to the simpler tech of handhelds, in order to stay in that SNES era style of rpg
This may not be such a bad thing, when right now, I'd choose Disgaea, Persona 3 and Jeanne D'arc over most flogged FF fair.
The solution to the problem is for SE, to put the FF games on ice, I'd say for atleast a two year break. Concentrate on stuff like Vagrant Story, Fromt Mission, Parasiite Eve etc plus anything new and original.
Square and Enix merging is a good example of how such mergers can kill creativity, leading to constant exposure to FF. Granted DQ is now getting some love but what's disappointing is that Square Enix used to be aboout so much more.
Through FF success they seem to have lost their compass. This is the reason I didn't bother with FFXI or XII. Now I tend to seek most of my rpg experiences from the likes of Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Success Corps, Spike, Level 5 etc, who's games seem to have a bit more heart in them.
Gen Eric Gui, you just touched upon something. I recently read in Edge magazine (U.K), the same thing expressed. Jrpgs were once a lot more popular in japan in the 16-32bit days. However, since the graphics tech has moved on, it seems many japanese rpg developers, have either not kept up with the race or just given up, continuing to make games like Disgaea, in order to please and win over the japanese fans.
As a result it seems japanese rpgs fans are moving over to the simpler tech of handhelds, in order to stay in that SNES era style of rpg
This may not be such a bad thing, when right now, I'd choose Disgaea, Persona 3 and Jeanne D'arc over most flogged FF fair.
The solution to the problem is for SE, to put the FF games on ice, I'd say for atleast a two year break. Concentrate on stuff like Vagrant Story, Fromt Mission, Parasiite Eve etc plus anything new and original.
Also, Dr. Nutt
Do to your wonderful name calling I have concluded that you are indeed very young and lack the mental capability to come up with a legitimite argument for why the voice acting is indeed good. Instead you choose to call me retarded. I am having a nice debate here ajaxender. So this is for you....
[URL=http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=birgentantrummg6.gif]
[/UR
Do to your wonderful name calling I have concluded that you are indeed very young and lack the mental capability to come up with a legitimite argument for why the voice acting is indeed good. Instead you choose to call me retarded. I am having a nice debate here ajaxender. So this is for you....
[URL=http://img291.imageshack.us/my.php?image=birgentantrummg6.gif]
[/URSquare Enix has made too many spin off's relying upon the success of the FF franchise. I'm willing to stick my neck out and say FFX-2 was awful, and I wasn't a fan of the numerous mini-game style stuff they brought out afterwards either.
Totally agree again Kohler, Unfortunately SE loyalists are too jaded in that 'they can do no wrong' attitude.
I want the Square that made FFVI and the Enix that made Actraiser back. Those from a time when they had balls to make something different each time.
I don't care how swishy FFXIII etc looks. SE need to wake up and smell the coffee.
I want the Square that made FFVI and the Enix that made Actraiser back. Those from a time when they had balls to make something different each time.
I don't care how swishy FFXIII etc looks. SE need to wake up and smell the coffee.
I also think Square shouldn't be falling into this trap because Sega went down this same road, back in the nineties with Sonic games.
It got so bad that we got lots of Sonic games in a year, Sega soon learned from it though, and put Sonic on ice for a while.
And take a look at those latest Sonic Unleashed screens, Sega are learning well from their mistakes with Sonic. If only SE would do the same with resting FF.
It got so bad that we got lots of Sonic games in a year, Sega soon learned from it though, and put Sonic on ice for a while.
And take a look at those latest Sonic Unleashed screens, Sega are learning well from their mistakes with Sonic. If only SE would do the same with resting FF.
There are people that have been saying this since Square made FF7. I don't know how you judge a game to be "good," but if you could actually get through the laughing scene in FFX and you think that that game has better voice acting the what's in XII, then calling you retarded is not name calling, it's a legitimate mental diagnosis.
Ahh someone is angry. I gave the reasons up above on why the voice acting in 12 is so very poor. Listen I never said X'x was fantastic but it was done better than 12's. Read above to find out why.
I'm not angry, and you didn't give reasons, you gave opinions. Personally, I found the voice acting in FFXII to be more subtle and nuanced than the overmoting J-pop crap style of X and more recently, Crisis Core.
@Dr. Nutt
You also never gave a legitimate reason for your "FF12 is betterz 4 life" on voice acting what makes it in your opinion "better". Nope instead you come in a reinstate your self as a ......
[url=http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=birgentantrumtx0.gif][img=http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2996/birgentantrumtx
You also never gave a legitimate reason for your "FF12 is betterz 4 life" on voice acting what makes it in your opinion "better". Nope instead you come in a reinstate your self as a ......
[url=http://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=birgentantrumtx0.gif][img=http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/2996/birgentantrumtx
