Square-Enix Isn't Sure Where to Take Final Fantasy

[Lullabye]

...well, i've been thinking for a while, why not make it like Last Remnant? I loved that combat system!...later on in the game. At first, it pissed me off to no end, my soldiers making the stupidest of choices, etc. But later on in teh game, it really becomes apparent how you've customized your characters, and how you've made them work together. Where as with ff series(especially most recent ones) there's no pressure to choose right when developing your character in any way.
Plus the combat system was just as "cinematic" as 13's, so fans of that have nothing to complain about.

 

[zombiejoe]

end it

 

[Thick]

Step one: hang the franchise name on a rack somewhere. You can free yourself somewhat if you set out to make a "spiritual successor" to FF instead of another FF. That's ignoring the humor in the fact that after at least fourteen titles, "Final" Fantasy is ringing a tad insincere. As a part of that, you might also have to stop reusing names of weapons and spells and such, which I actually think I might miss in some cases.

There were a handful of steps forward, sideways, and backward in XIII. I was pleased with some of the things you did with some of the characters' development. Carry on with some of that, preferably making characters that aren't so off the bat annoying that no one can stay with them long enough to care. Keep the future-punk-fantasy design, it's your best work, even those overuses of color. No matter how shallow or seemingly meaningless they are, it's at least an alternative to the color pallet of fantasy-classic or the dirt spectrum.

Step two: For God's sake, do not, under any circumstances, remake FF VII or VIII or any of the others. I promise you, they have not aged well and will only lead to ruin and divert resources from better things.


On a side note: I personally don't trust a MMO that has spell names like "Thunder IX" or literally an unbeatable boss [http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Absolute_Virtue].

 

[Fidelias]

I just wanted to put my two cents in here, not that anyone will actually read it, since it's on page 8. Also, I realize that everyone has their own opinion, but here's MY opinion of FF13:

I honestly don't know why ANYONE liked the battle system. It was WAY too simplified, and it actually punished you for trying to use your brain. All you did was use auto-attack, and switch your roles. THAT'S ALL YOU DID!!! There was no strategy, no thought, no control, and no fun.

The characters were horrible(except for Sazh. Sazh was pretty awesome. Except for the bird in his hair. I never understood that.) It's not just that they were annoying, it's that I couldn't relate to a single one. Not one. With six main characters, which is far too many, by the way, you'd think I would, but no. They just took some bad moral or ethical crap, split it apart, and gave it to the different characters at random. Hope(argh, bad name) was some whiny kid, who got scared and wanted to run away, or just froze up like an idiot. Sazh was, well, he was okay. Lightning was a cold-hearted *****, until she suddenly becomes Hope's new mother figure, and decides to be a good guy for no reason at all. Snow made me want to punch him in the face for being an arrogant bastard. He kept calling himself a hero, and then did very un-heroic things. He was completely annoying. Vanille was... an alien, I guess? I don't know, she seemed to be on drugs throughout the entire game. I hated her, too. And Fang was a cold-hearted *****, but at least she spoke her feelings out loud, which earns her some points, but that's it.

The story was... boring. It wasn't as complex as people were saying, it just seemed complex because they had strange ideas in it, but it was actually just a simple good versus evil thing, with a couple of boring plot twists.
Edit: Oh right, this isn't really an answer to the thread... hmmm... okay...

First off, make your characters less annoying. Since I like games with great characters the most, this would make me VERY happy. Also about the characters, cut down on the number of main characters to four or less. Anything higher than 5 and you can't develope the characters properly, and the players can't understand the characters' feelings. I thought this was one of the major mistakes of FF13. The only way that you could have more than 4 main characters, is if they were part of a series, but since Final Fantasy doesn't do that, stick with the four or less rule.

Story could be a little more clear. That's really my only gripe with that.

Oh, and better music. FF13's music was DULL. Better music would have grabbed my attention more.

 

[ca_jas]

This whole freakin thread is why square-enix is having trouble. Everyone gets pissed off when the new FF title is not like "their" FF. I freakin loved FF13, it did away with so many things that are somehwat unnecessary nowadays and kept it strictly a JRPG. Not to mention it had a female protagonist which is rare.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

10 was the last good one, and I was one of the few people who liked x-2.

Real time combat where you don't control your team members SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS...stop it.

FFS remake 7. Cash your checks, THEN retire the series. Or better yet figure out a way to make turn based combat look like Advent Children and maybe add some realtime elements like quicktime block/crit or combo sequences like the ff6 brawler. Then with that knowledge make simultaneously release the 7 remake as a teaser to the true Final Fantasy (and don't call it 15, just call it Final Fantasy...its cooler that way trust me).

 

[Cheesepower5]

To those saying it should just burn in Hell, shut the fuck up. Just because YOU don't like the series, doesn't mean others who DO can't enjoy it in peace.. Asswipes..

Anyway, it's a shame Square Enix has come to this point.. They deserve praise for their writing and musical expertise! However, I'm sure a new IP can't hurt, something similar, but branching off to try out stuff. I honestly think pandering to Americans is pointless and stupid. You people don't know WHAT you want. Always complaining..

However, as an above poster stated, a Terranigma 2 title would be FUCKING EPIC! That,or SE's property, Taito, should make a good quality Lufia game like Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals was.. That'd be nice.

Sadly, the actual developpers of Terranigma went under. Enix just published it.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

I hated XIII because it was a bad game, just like I loved XII because it was a good game, because it should have been the standard bearer.

 

[yanipheonu]

Eh, I honestly don't care. I have never liked Final fantasy, and if 13 was any indication, I never will. Apparently people DO like these games, so I guess they should keep making them, even if there are somewhere in the ballpark of 30 FF games (and I don't care what you say, when you stick the FF name on THIRTY games, it is milking it)

The ONLY sequel was X-2. The ONLY prequel was Crisis Core for FFVII.

So I guess you guys are just pretending Dirge of Cerberus didn't exist? That's cool... but seriously, chill out. Your acting like he's insulting you personally.

People forget FF12 had a sequel. XD

 

[yanipheonu]

This whole freakin thread is why square-enix is having trouble. Everyone gets pissed off when the new FF title is not like "their" FF. I freakin loved FF13, it did away with so many things that are somehwat unnecessary nowadays and kept it strictly a JRPG. Not to mention it had a female protagonist which is rare.

This.


...

Erp double post. Meh, no one cares.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Why don't they finally just release the FINAL Final Fantacy game already?

 

[ShinGundam]

Don't listen to fans they don't even know what they want anymore and do whatever you want but make it a FULL SPEC-FINAL FANTASY title.

 

[Strife2GFAQs]

Considering FFXII and FFXIII failed catastrophically while going in opposite directions and being the only two games in the series that bored me enough to stop playing, let's see if I can narrow it down.

1. Choose hack/slash or turn based battles, and LET ATB DIE!

The previous two installments have really toned down the player involvement in lieu of garish fight sequences. Whether it's from gambits or auto play, they really don't think pressing "attack" means anything. XIII tried to mix turn based battles and their stupid ass ATB system and failed miserably. I don't mind chaining attacks together, but would it have killed them to allow me to move my ******* character? Choose the turn based system of FFX and Persona (the rock paper scissors element system in the latter is ingenious) or free roam hack and slash like Star Ocean (or even make it like God of War, where the insane screwball fight sequences are actually part of gameplay).

2. End the emo drama.

Maybe I'm getting too old to understand the "pain of adolesence" anymore, but that doesn't mean older characters don't have issues. It pained me to think that a game which had a 30 something support character talking about his kid for 10 minutes was brushed aside because of some dip**** 10 year old's quest for revenge or guilt, or whatever he was angry about. Hope was the worst FF character I've ever dealt with from a plot standpoint. Edward, Quina, Cait Sith all have problems, but none of them hog screentime like that stupid teenage ****. There's wrong about maturing a bit and creating characters that can appeal to slightly older fans.

3. Stop ripping off FF7

Next.

4. Sidequests/Minigames and Old-School Charm isn't dead yet

I'm all for modernizing the FF worlds, but now that enough games have copied that idea, it's growing stale, and the old-school charm isn't something to throw away. XII felt like a steampunk version of that, but the setting itself wasn't the issue, but the characters and battle structure. Also, you want to know why your battle system can't hold up? It's because it's all XII and XIII had. The so called sidequests were just more battles. No scavenger hunts, no card games, no secondary missions but kill this and earn something.

 

[Ryalan]

My reaction to FF13 are varied. I loved the way the game looked, the setting seemed interesting, the battle system made an interesting 'job' system however I didn't care much for it. I liked a few of the characters that many others did not. My main problem which caused me to walk away from the game was: after I got introduced to the characters, I wanted a specific party. When my pal told me this wasn't going to happen for another 20 or so hours in the game, I found each party make up they forced me to use less and less interesting. Eventually I just stopped caring trying to play through the 'tutorial' to get to the meat of the game.

I do believe square can breathe some life into the final fantasy series, however I agree with the sentiment that if they retired the brand name and turned them into varied named games they would get the reception they need without fan bickering. There are a few ideas I have that would require them to keep the name though.

As for making a game that many people want to play, that is actually very simple. Shamus Young pointed out in his article http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7652-Experienced-Points-The-Final-Fantasy-VII-Remake-is-a-Fantasy that a Final Fantasy 7 remake would be no easy undertaking. So what? Fans are clamoring for a remake, it would sell a lot of copies, and many would enjoy it, why not spend the time and money to produce a game you know will sell and be well received?

Beyond that there are a few things they can do:
1) Put a good bit of effort into making FF14 a very strong MMO. Many people enjoy MMORPGs, many people enjoy Final Fantasy. A strong showing here would build a good market share and help fund other games, or if it is wildly successful could become a focal point for the company.
2) Something related to the Chrono series. Looking around I discovered a little gem called Radical Dreamers that was a relative unknown due to factors surround its launch. Take this game, flesh it out to full length, produce it to high quality standards and let fans debate how it's story interacts with the story of Chrono Cross.
3) The high tech / high magic settings are starting to feel old: how about we do a reverse FF6? Technology and machines is a lost art. The world is ruled over by the nations and armies that can control Magic. This leads to a bright and mystical fantasy environment. Now machinery is being rediscovered and being used to lead a rebelling against a tyrannical government. Here is the gem of this idea: You can have the main character be none other than Cid the engineer! (in whatever incarnation new or old you want him)

In the end, they could also continue to push the limits and experiment, and as long as they keep a modicum of quality and DONT PRODUCE UNDER THE FINAL FANTASY NAME, they would make radically successful games.

 

[Redd the Sock]

It's not hard to see Square's trouble with vision. So many comments all trying to take things in differnt directions, including the grave, it's impossible to go anywhere without a lot of complaining from people. Some want new, some want old. Some want western elements, some don't. And some just can't get over the irony of the name not realizing just about all of them are new properties.

I'm not going to say where FF should go, but I can say what it may need to fix, and that's storytelling. Narative is the heart of an RPG as it's the thing that keeps us playing through a lot of the same combat (and by that I mean selecting menu choices) over and over for 40+ hours and into the sequals and copyy cats. Yes, games like Dragon Quest don't really need epic stories, but then, they don't reinvent the gameplay wheel everytime. I think that overall that was the biggest mistake of FFXIII. They did everything they could to get us to the next story chapter from removing side quests and streamlining combat to the point you're barely playing, not realizing that we're by and large, bored of the story rather quickly and never really get into it the way we did in other games.

It's been a while since I really cared what happened in a square game (and the one I did was littered with play out the disney movies for most of the time) and I'm reduced to going through the motions of beating it just to beat it. And at that point, the seams start to show in the gameplay to the point even good gameplay becomes teidious. I not sure exactly what was lost from the days you could get people to cry by killing a character, or having them demand a sequal to get the main love interests back together, much less how to get that mojo back, but without it, Square is a company pushng gimicks, not gameplay.

 

[soilent]

How about the dumpster?

They've been making the same game ever since 7, and they know they have no intention of changing.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Final Fantasy 13? I just bought some of the original Final Fantasy games! Goodie for meh I guess!

 

[RatRace123]

They could take it back to its roots. You know FF 1-6, back before emo became the standard for its protagonists.

 

[Pebkio]

Actually, yes, we all have ideas on where to take Final Fantasy... or any other series, for that matter. Instead of posting all these brand old ideas, let's just all post what we think is the worst thing about the Final Fantasy series as a whole.

(For future reference, I'm going to exclude FF: 1, 3, and almost all of the non-numbered games from any of this as they don't really count as JRPGs... except maybe the hair)

In that case: The characters. A good story can be made from a simplistic set-up and good characters. The final fantasy series in general can't pull that off, because their characters suck. Annoying whiney robots who over-act now that they have to actually talk.

There are notable exceptions, of course: Nanati (mostly) from FF7, Balthier from FF12, and Blank from FF9... just to name a few...