Random Square Enix Bashing

[Celdia]

Friend of mine found this post on some message board and one of the opening lines struck a chord with me. I thought I'd share with all of you.

I saw a trailer for Final Fantasy Agito XIII this week, now renamed Final Fantasy Type-0, and I was almost pained by how little of a shit I give anymore. It was just another dreary, dark, pompously "epic" trailer with more boring orchestral score, more quasi-cyberpunk aesthetics, and more ludicrous costumes drenched with brooding depression.
I used to be all for that. I'm one of those vile creatures who came to the series through Final Fantasy VII -- a game that's now very cool to hate -- and so I have no problem with the less fantastical, more  futuristic Final Fantasy games. However, Square Enix has just done so much of it in such a short space of time, and has completely saturated its market to the point where I just can't take anymore.

Square Enix is, essentially, the George Lucas of videogames. It can't leave well enough alone. Final Fantasy VII, which I still proudly believe is a fantastic game, has been systematically torn apart by Square Enix with unwarranted sequels, prequels, spin-offs and narrative rewrites, and now the entire game is just a waffling, overwrought mess. We had Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis,Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, all of them adding more and more convoluted twists and turns to the series, with less and less respect for the audience.
Am I alone in thinking that it's just too much? A painter who cannot leave his work alone typically ends up with a canvas full of muddy brown shit, and that's Final Fantasy VII now. After retroactively introducing increasingly silly characters into the series, and bogging it down with grandiose, meaningless tripe, Square Enix has ruined the whole thing. Just like what Lucas did with Star Wars.

Then there are the names. Fabula Nova Crystalis, Versus XIII, Agito, Type 0 ... what does it mean!? What does any of this pretentious fucking shit mean!? The names alone turn me off, as they give a clear indication as to just how up-their-own-arse the games are going to be. Anybody who hides behind bastardized Latin, made-up words, or the pointless rearrangement of sentences in order to appear clever and "deep" is a complete and utter dick.

Remember when Final Fantasy was an event? A real treat? Each game was a self-contained story lasting hours and hours, and they only came along once every few years. They were special, and they meant something. Their stories began and ended in one epic sitting, and each one was distinct and always brought something new. Contrast that to now, where the main entries in the series can't be separated from the huge amount of spin-offs and remakes and fucking sub-sequels. Now the franchise is just a grey sludge, everything looking and sounding alike, and constantly in development with at least five games in production at any given time.
Final Fantasy is just a machine now. A lurching, thunderous behemoth, methodically plodding forward in perpetual drudgery, churning out the same foggy irrelevance over and over again.

So when I see a trailer for Agito, or Type 0, or whatever inflated, grandiloquent name it's given itself this week, I can't even muster the strength to roll my eyes anymore. I already know what it's going to be like, because Square Enix seems incapable of pushing itself in any area other than graphics anymore. The game dialog is going to be a repeated stream of made-up words and brooding characters who have to learn to share their hearts, the graphics are going to be the same pseudo-futuristic stuff that we've seen already, and the gameplay will be another old idea re-purposed to look new, but will likely just be less interesting.
Maybe it was always like that? Maybe I've just gotten used to it due to the overexposure? All I know is I've had enough. It's too much now. And it's not just a case of too much. It's too much, too soon, too clumped together, and too histrionic. Square Enix has officially lost the plot, and I've lost all interest.

"Square Enix is, essentially, the George Lucas of videogames." I can't agree with this more.

[Lijj]

Really, who can keep up with this anymore.. No one has the time to play five part VIIs.
It wouldn't be healthy to play 5 part VIIs and what ever other sequels are concurrently being released. It's oversaturated now this random SE basher's right about that.
"So when I see a trailer for Agito, or Type 0, or whatever inflated, grandiloquent name it's given itself this week, I can't even muster the strength to roll my eyes anymore." funny

[Tigerspike]

Ah yes, the Destructoid review.  People over at GameFAQs were raging about this review.  I think people are just upset that this guy is making some valid points regarding the series.  Sure, he comes across a bit harsh, but it is an opinion piece.

[Dome]

Final fantasy serie ended with 9
Period

[Kagebunji]

It ended with 9, I agree. But it was still good after 9(Not to mention battle system in FFX wich, IMO, rocks everyone's damn asses).

[Dome]

It ended with 9, I agree. But it was still good after 9(Not to mention battle system in FFX wich, IMO, rocks everyone's damn asses).

Just don't call it "Final fantasy X"
Call it "Random JRPG" and it's fine by me

[Kaijyuu]

I quite liked, 10, actually. It was the last FF I enjoyed.

[GeneralStrife]

10 Was the last good one. 9 Was too ...'Goofy' For me. Other than that 10 and below is the real FF yeah.

[Kill_Bones]

Final fantasy serie ended with 9
Period

This.

[Ryu]

His points are what have been driving me away from the series more and more over the years. It's the feeling of lack of respect towards fans that ruined the series for me.

So many sequels, prequels, spin-offs, MMORPG's with a main series' numeral slapped onto it, etc. has spread the series out too much, and made some games inaccessible to fans or just flat out undesirable. Just look at the MMORPG's. Who wants to spend years of their life grinding just to get through a game's story? You can't even collect MMORPG's, which defeats the purpose of being a gamer in the first place, imo.

And then you have sequels and prequels and on various different platforms. That's too much money, and too many hours spent wasting time on something that doesn't have any other reason to exist other than to milk a franchise for $$$. From a business perspective I can understand why they'd do this, but the fans may end up moving on to other series if they keep it up. That's just my opinion of course.

I have to admit though, it's amazing how they've done so much to FF but continue to keep DQ very fan-focused. It's probably because they fear DQ fans will burn down their offices if they change so much as a sound effect file.

[Avalanche]

everthing after ff 10 was pure rubbish!

[philsov]

What's with the 12 hate?  It's an excellent game with a good battle system and storyline.  Some of the characters themselves suck, but this has been the standard since 7 onwards so it's really nothing new.  It has great voice acting and skippable cutscenes.  Had X had the previous (good voices and skippable cutscenes) it'd be likely heralded as one of the best FF's.  Just because it came out after 11 (lawl) doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.

9 had a lot going for it but it was simply just too easy -- it's a very sad day when bosses die (by essentially getting 3-manned) before Zidane is able to steal all the bosses loot. 

It's all a continuation of the marketting from the early 90's -- the name Final Fantasy sells.  Secret of Mana 1?  Final Fantasy Adventure.  SaGa 1-3?  Final Fantasy Legends 1-3.  It's really no different than "Heroes of Light", which is inferior to FF3j in a majority of aspects, and that's rather sad.  The storyline continuations namely for 7 are just cash cowing, but there's still a bottom line to consider so long as the fanboys are gobbling them up they'll keep on getting churned out.  Once sales begin to drop off they'll stop the line.  It's pretty simple.

And I hate to say it, but FFT itself is a spinoff from the Final Fantasies (woo Tactics Ogre rehashed and coupled with the FF3/5 job system), and had Cloud Strife as a secret character.  Just because it's a spinoff doesn't mean it's bad.

[Kaijyuu]

I disliked 12 almost entirely due to the battle system. Yeah it's a change from the boring old turn based system, but change isn't always an improvement.

Dunno about the story since I could never play long without being bored to tears.

[Avalanche]

FF12 had boring Characters, boring music, no atmosphere. I dont even remember the story and the fighting system to well, but i guess they also sucked.
i played it nearly till the end, but it was a fight its just very boring.

[VampragonLord]

i enjoyed ff12 for the overall story *READ* not characters, but the story. the characters werent bad, but not as fantastic as they could have been.
what i liked *and* hated about 12 was the battle system. All characters had the following gambit
Hp < 70%, cura
HP < 50% curaga
Dead < Revive/life/etc
flying < telekenisis or whatever it was called
Nearest < Attack
HP < 100% cura
Any < haste

[Shade]

FFXII if it would have some actual story happening 60 hours of gameplay, gameplay mostly is well done, expect it's boring, gambits helf this alot, and license system should not have been made ever. Music is boring. Bossfights are easy, but normal fights with normal monsters are sometimes brutally hard. Bossfights are alot easier because of the quickenings, they make that status spamming forrest dragon or what ever it is look like joke when you take 95% of it's hp before it gets to attack, characters feel so unneeded, say what ver you about any of main characters(like squall, cloud, zidane, tidus), at least others were importent to story.

And my god my main reason for hating this is it's huge money issues, I don't like it that after I have spent money buy newest equipment(first shop that you can get by my knowledge) then go next screen from the shop and face a boss(avian if I recall), after beating the boss, you notice something in the area that you are, you see the guys that sold you the stuff selling all new equipments. WTF! While you say this is rare occurance, no it happens quite alot. But getting money is what bites me, the money is gotten by selling items that you enemy drops, it sucks when the items don't give you nearly enough, so yeah when my all equipment costs over 300 000 all together. Did I tell you that the loots give really bad amounts of money, to get the better loots that you can sell for 300 per about, you need to be killing enemies of the same race in chain(kill chain must be at 50 to get the best stuff), so basicly KILLING THE EXALTY THE SAME UNITS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! My play time 60 hours maybe consist 1/3 of pure grinding for equipment, it doesn't help that if you kill one another unit of not the same race the chain cuts to 0. I have btw gotten for some odd reason 500 enemies at chain.
Getting lates equipment I spended 5 hours getting them, because the are that I am at has 8 diffrent races of units, This was literally the moment that I stopped playing the game.

Also I like gambits system in the way that I like making diffrent combinations, just like we do for FFT with the AI tournaments

[LastingDawn]

What's with the 12 hate?  It's an excellent game with a good battle system and storyline.  Some of the characters themselves suck, but this has been the standard since 7 onwards so it's really nothing new.  It has great voice acting and skippable cutscenes.  Had X had the previous (good voices and skippable cutscenes) it'd be likely heralded as one of the best FF's.  Just because it came out after 11 (lawl) doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.

9 had a lot going for it but it was simply just too easy -- it's a very sad day when bosses die (by essentially getting 3-manned) before Zidane is able to steal all the bosses loot. 

It's all a continuation of the marketting from the early 90's -- the name Final Fantasy sells.  Secret of Mana 1?  Final Fantasy Adventure.  SaGa 1-3?  Final Fantasy Legends 1-3.  It's really no different than "Heroes of Light", which is inferior to FF3j in a majority of aspects, and that's rather sad.  The storyline continuations namely for 7 are just cash cowing, but there's still a bottom line to consider so long as the fanboys are gobbling them up they'll keep on getting churned out.  Once sales begin to drop off they'll stop the line.  It's pretty simple.

And I hate to say it, but FFT itself is a spinoff from the Final Fantasies (woo Tactics Ogre rehashed and coupled with the FF3/5 job system), and had Cloud Strife as a secret character.  Just because it's a spinoff doesn't mean it's bad.

Thank you Philsov. The hate for FFXII is highly unwarranted and though it may have not lived up to it's potential (that's what happens when you kick off the main World Creator, eh?) it was still a wonderful game with a good story and what's important to remember is that Matsuno's style of story very rarely puts the main characters (or party) in the direct line of the conflict. Subtlety is a big part of Matsuno's style. (Just look at the characters in FFT that get maybe five lines and then read their Brave Story to better understand them as a person. An incredible literary tool. Exposition, yes, but not forced exposition) And there is a lot of subtle workings in FFXII.

As for Gameplay, in using that Gambit combination did you beat some of the optional bosses? I can't see that having worked too well on some of them.

And Shade... How Dare the Game make you Work for your equipment! Unbelievable! It should have just been handed to you on a silver platter like nearly every other common day RPG!

As for FFIX's battle system? It was slightly glitched and far too slow. It seemed to me as if they would have waited to release it on the PS2 they may have been able to correct all of those issues but the PS1 simply wasn't powerful enough to put theory into perfect practice.

I can sort of see why FFXII gets lost in the shuffle though... FFX - Nomura/Sakaguchi(Barely), FFXI - MMO, FFXII - Matsuno/New SE, FFXIII Compilation - New SE/Nomura...

So I can see why people sometimes disregard XII when it was truly the last of its kind and showed in dramatic terms what can be salvaged from a grand vision stopped halfway.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Agree with most all points made in original post.  XII is painful, but playable.  Story problems caused by kicking the director out halfway through the game.  Gameplay problems:
1.  With such an enormous world to explore, almost every area should be available from the start.
2.  Storyline enemies and normal enemies in all areas should have a <Average Party Level OR Level xx, whichever is higher> set-up.  Wish we had this in FFT, too.  This would also make leveling up so much more fun.  You wouldn't have to sit in one place for DAYS ON END and spam-kill enemies.  You could wander around and do useful shit like hunt for rare drops and level up too.  It's called multi-tasking, SquareEnix, think about it.
3.  Bazaar system; a good idea, poorly implemented.
4.  My standard complaint about RPG's.  Come on, you know this song: 95% of everything you get through the game is obsolete by game end.  Fix this by balancing the game so nothing makes any other thing obsolete.
5.  Navigating through menus to change equipment when a boss casts Disablega is tedious, there should be a multiple button press shortcut.
6.  Cheap shit.  Quickenings (WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING?), enemy only supports (this enemy is so weak and stupid they had to give it super powers to make it tough), needing an accessory to make status magic not suck, no dual wielding, 1-hit KO abilities that target Espers, forgot the rest.
7.  Tedium.  Gameplay that's more work than fun.  Having to walk everywhere.  A time limit on chocobo rides.  Balthier's airship not being able to drop you off anywhere, or pick you up wherever you call them.
8.  Lack of chocobo-based mini-games.

FFXII needs a rom hack to address these issues.

[Dokurider]

PEOPLE CALLING FFXII A BAD GAME?!?!

[Dome]

PEOPLE CALLING FFXII A BAD GAME?!?!