Nail in the coffin. Even if they did really well with the combat it doesn't really matter since they did the weird gambit system in 12 and totally ditched turn based after that. Story is okay but the characters are the worst part, you can tell this is when Nomura got his grubby hands on the series and started filling it to the brim with his moronic designs and tropey nonsense.
X-2 was just a lost-cost experiment to see if there was any appetite for a direct sequel to a mainline FF, something that had never happened at that point. After that, they started with their real plan, the FFVII expanded universe.
Correct, X-2's content being 52% optional should give you pause. Fun gameplay though even if paired with J-pop, think it was the first FF in a long time that didn't have a traditional victory theme.
I am so well versed in Japanese culture, language, history, custom, and code of honor and conduct that I consider myself more Japanese than a lot of Japanese people and I can confirm that it is not X. VII is.
Must be the nostalgia. VII's characters, story, music, and combat were inferior to X. I think VII was good for it's time, but the story is distinctly early JRPG levels of moronic.
The background art was pleasant though
it got stuck in development hell and lost direction
iirc they had to swap between multiple directors and storylines until squeenix finally put the boot down
it got stuck in development hell and lost direction
iirc they had to swap between multiple directors and storylines until squeenix finally put the boot down
>Why did it even end up in development hell >it got stuck in development hell
It's a long story but the shortest version possible is >SE decides to make a multi platform engine meant to be used by all big projects at the time including XIV >Engine is shit because it's the first one SE ever made >XIII team can't work with shit engine and project is delayed >Versus XIII team goes to help with XIII so it is put on the backburner being worked on by 10 people doing tests and designing concepts for 3 years >XIII is released >Versus XIII resumes development >a year in they finally enter full production >engine is shit tailor made for XIII's linear world so it creates problems for VsXIII's open world >previously XIV 1.0 bombed and damaged SE's reputation, post mortem analysis points to the same engine mentioned above being the biggest reason it was shit >SE decides to remake XIV from scratch >entire versus xiii along with many other teams go to help remake XIV in just 2 years >Versus along with many other HD games at the time get either severely delayed or outright canceled >XIV 2.0 complete >PS4 gen already upon us >SE decides to make Versus XIII the new mainline FF because they have nothing else >CEO of SE is fired >New CEO decides XV trilogy set in fabula nova crystalis is not a good idea because XIII trilogy in FNC wasn't received well the 3rd game (LR) wasn't even out at the time so.. >Trilogy plans get canceled and story gets fricked up >Nomura gets butthurt and bails, taking Roberto Ferrari with him >Tabata in complete control decides to ditch most of the work that had been done on Versus to create his own vision of the game >SE decides XV needs to use a new engine (yes another one) they made >it's shit too >creates problems for XV's teams >time running out >cut content out the ass, compromises everywhere >game gets released in glorified early access >Tabata gets the bright idea to make it a live as service game and keeps working on it for 3 years with constant updates and dlcs >2nd wave of Dlc canceled, game killed
It's a shame that XIV created a blackhole into which other games disappeared as a result, but it was clearly the right decision. XIV makes beaucoup bucks. But the rest of Final Fantasy got fricked because of it. I'm not convinced XVI is going to course correct, either.
I'm still going to play it lol, I mean I think the majesty of FF is just lost. Like that other anon said, the confident swagger is gone. XVI looks very grim. But I am looking forward to it.
>I'm not convinced XVI is going to course correct, either.
It's been in some form of development since 2016 and in full production since 2019 so take that as you will. It had more than enough time in the oven, theoretically, but you never know what was going on behind the scenes during all that time. Versus XIII was 10 years in development IN THEORY but in reality nothing of substance was being developed due to all the shit I mentioned above.
We can only hope that all those years XVI has been in development were actually good years of solid work being done on the game and not just it being in another development hell.
Every mainline game since XI has been in development hell. While I don't doubt that the talent isn't the same as it was, there is clearly some management issues present at SE. XIII was originally slated to be a 6th gen release for example.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Actually, FFX had a slightly troubled development too. It was ready when it was supposed to be and Sakaguchi decided to delay it. The delay pushed the game to the next fiscal year window, which put Square in the red for that fiscal year since they were originally expecting millions of profits thanks to FFX. This was actually used by Yoichi Wada as an excuse to demote Sakaguchi and take his place as he convinced investors that Sakaguchi is a risky man that not only put the company at risk with Spirits Within but managed to put the company in the red for that year. They were convinced that Gooch was unreliable and he was demoted. All this because FFX missed its milestones.
FFX also originally was supposed to have online features and shit like that, so there was definitely dev hell frickery going on there too.
2 years ago
Anonymous
>It was ready when it was supposed to be
*wasn't
2 years ago
Anonymous
>FFX also originally was supposed to have online features and shit like that
Thankfully it didn't. I don't even know how that would've worked.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Nobody knows how it would work, probably not even SE themselves which is probably why they scrapped it. Other notable plans for the game that were cut are fully animated hair and fully controllable camera instead of the traditional fixed camera angles that the final game has.
The first showcase of FFX shows all this actually, it's the one where Tidus has black hair.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Not just controllable camera and animated hair. It also had very complex clothes physics, that were way ahead of its time. Of course they were nerfed by a lot in the final game. We didn't get such clothe physics in actual games until the PS4 generation. It's certainly a case of a project that was too ambitious and had to be scaled back. So it's not surprising that it was delayed.
swan song, financially it was a success, it’s legacy is perfect (considered almost unanimously to be one of the best games of all time) and it was the last real Final Fantasy game
You could tell it was the beginning of the end, it was a literal corridor simulator (muh pilgrimage in a straight line) and that they had budget problems (it's protoFF13, less of a straight line but still fairly linear with this big area with tacked-on minigames at the very end), they didn't even try to come up with a world map, just a shitty menu.
Story was ok, characters were either ok or non-characters, gameplay was good, that's it.
Bros, is the gameplay actually good enough to warrant a playthrough? I tried it years ago but the story and characters were unbearable and I couldn't take it. Should I give it a try? Is it worth it to just skip every cutscene if I can't handle it?
Not good enough to overcome those things if you don't like those things. What helps me to overcome the cringe is to sometimes switch to Japanese voice actors.
I'm not sure if you can even skip the cutscenes. If you just aren't into the story then it's hard to recommend the game to you since it's good part of what makes FFX Square's magnum opus
If you want a JRPG with good combat play Nocturne or Dragon Quest 11. Final Fantasy's gameplay has always been extremely shallow and unbalanced, people only play them to look at the pretty graphics and experience the moronic sub-anime stories.
not ur bro if you didn't like the cast of the game
homosexuals forever assmad about ffx characters when they are more human than any others in the series
Lots of shit design choices and cancer that would grow in later entries yet it was still the last FF with that iconic monumental soul. FF used to be that franchise who felt "This isn't just any video game, this is Final Fricking Fantasy." and X was the last time the series had that confident swagger. After the flop of Spirits Within things were just never the same.
I'm more talking about the sheer level of confidence/arrogance they had prior to Spirits Within flopping. Before that they were really pushing the envelope for what games could be, including how much they could cost to make, for better or worse.
I'm still not convinced they learned anything from that debacle. feels like we're always hearing about mismanagement and out of control budgets for every game.
People talk shit about X for being linear as though any Final Fantasy before it did frick-all interesting with its world map, instead of just having you aimlessly wander around looking for the one piece of side content that opens up every time you get a new vehicle before heading in a linear, straight line toward whatever town is next in the story.
>Besaid >Kilika >Macalania woods >Luca >Guado village >Gagazet mountain >The desert >The area with the lightnings > >Fricking Zanakarnd >forgettable
This has to be fricking bait. Haven't played the game since 2007 and it's not even one of my favorite ones and I can still remember areas from the game because they were memorable as frick. Must be a zoomer issue.
2 years ago
Anonymous
>The area with the lightnings
Thunder Plains
2 years ago
Anonymous
It's an okay game, but it severely lacks a soul the previous titles nailed. I'm not surprised you remember the maps with how linear it is.
I grew up on the PSX titles and Tactics Advance was the next truly great FF game.
2 years ago
Anonymous
the maps were linear in the psx FFs too, only difference is there was the illusion of a huge open world thanks to the world map which most of the time was locked to just 3 areas for story reasons until end game.
2 years ago
Anonymous
So they were, but that's a big fricking difference.
When the corridor you're walking through is a literal corridor of a path along a grass plain like X has so many off, that's -really- noticeable
When your corridor is the shape of whole continents and coastlines and you're blocked off by mountains and the sea, you're effectively going from point A to point B without a lot of choice in-between in both cases, but the difference in the feel and atmosphere of one versus the other is absurdly fricking huge.
Plus, once you start unlocking things like new modes of transportation, the gap widens even more in Overworld's favor. It's just easier to make an Overworld feel exploratory and adventurous than an open world design. Though granted< XII was way, way better at that than X, but it's still not the same.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Almost like the point of a game is to create the illusion of a world for the player to exist within. FFX and FFXIII massively failed at that.
2 years ago
Anonymous
X you're on a pilgrimage and XIII you're literal enemies of state on the run. It makes sense thematically.
2 years ago
Anonymous
The sense that it makes thematically sadly does not outweigh the loss of enjoyment that it brings through the lessened quality of the experience thanks to those choices. XIII is pretty much the poster boy for that, a lot of the game is mechanically geared towards the constraints of its narrative [and its engine, as it turns out], and the final result despite being consistent and understandable on why things are the way they are, is simply not that good.
2 years ago
Anonymous
I felt like X executed linearity a lot better than XIII, and so did 7R for that matter.
For one both X and 7R have actual hubs, mini games, npcs to talk to, side stuff to do and generally a lot more than just combat. Their linearity is also... different? It's certainly not a complete straight line with a small space on your right or your left where a treasure chest is waiting for you. The maps are certainly linear but there is a certain level of complexity to the roads. FFXIII had none of this, for the most part everything was a literal straight line with nothing to do other than fight, fight, fight. No hubs, no mini games, no npcs to talk to. Every time I fired it up to put some hours in, I would quickly be mentally fatigued because of how monotonous the entire experience was.
2 years ago
Anonymous
I felt like X executed linearity a lot better than XIII, and so did 7R for that matter.
For one both X and 7R have actual hubs, mini games, npcs to talk to, side stuff to do and generally a lot more than just combat. Their linearity is also... different? It's certainly not a complete straight line with a small space on your right or your left where a treasure chest is waiting for you. The maps are certainly linear but there is a certain level of complexity to the roads. FFXIII had none of this, for the most part everything was a literal straight line with nothing to do other than fight, fight, fight. No hubs, no mini games, no npcs to talk to. Every time I fired it up to put some hours in, I would quickly be mentally fatigued because of how monotonous the entire experience was.
Perfectly explained here why they're both corridor simulators but one works and the other does not.
2 years ago
Anonymous
That's not entirely people's issues, I think. You get a sense for the geography of the world and a nice sense of actually stumbling upon a few things in the overworld. They don't need to be filled to the brim, just the option to revisit past locations with relative ease is nice.
But no, I disagree about FFX having a world that was "forgettable." Granted, the music ties me to the game more than anything, but there's a lot of world there to explore and the opening scenes of Zanarkand, Al Bhed scrounging and Besaid beauty is pretty compelling and provoking.
2 years ago
Anonymous
The OST is absolutely amazing, Uematsu never fails to deliver.
2 years ago
Anonymous
100% agreed.
And, a lot a number of these tracks are Hamauzu and Nakano, too. A terrific soundtrack, nonetheless.
2 years ago
Anonymous
But all the best tracks were by Hamauzu.
2 years ago
Anonymous
But he hardly did any of the music. It was Hamazu.
2 years ago
Anonymous
But all the best tracks were by Hamauzu.
He did over half the tracks, not to mention he obviously had creative direction over the OST. Don't be stupid.
Shit really goes crazy after luca. You go from three tropical islands to fricking rocky shore outcrops, Lily pad bog waters with giant elephant esque thing and then into the fricking thunder plains and macalania a frozen forest.
>I guess
b***h you better not just guess, Lulu has the best breasts in this whole fricking franchise and only Tifa really competes >her victory animation that is literally just bending over and letting them hang loose in her cleavage
No worldmap or open world showed was the first clear step down... its still a very good game and a good journey but i never could shake the feeling that something was lost..
It seems to have flown under everybody's radar that overworlds are actually an incredibly fricking effective tool for worldbuilding and immersion [if you have the ability to use bare minimum abstract thought and not be one of those dumbasses that goes "wait why am I suddenly a giant the size of a whole city?! What the heeeeeelll!"] and just generally having a sense of what the world is like while even being able to help with storytelling. VII proved that perfectly, that game is a masterclass on how to use your overworld to good effect.
It seems to have flown under everybody's radar that overworlds are actually an incredibly fricking effective tool for worldbuilding and immersion [if you have the ability to use bare minimum abstract thought and not be one of those dumbasses that goes "wait why am I suddenly a giant the size of a whole city?! What the heeeeeelll!"] and just generally having a sense of what the world is like while even being able to help with storytelling. VII proved that perfectly, that game is a masterclass on how to use your overworld to good effect.
FFX in its time was the last mainline final fantasy game to be unilaterally beloved by the fanbase, so i guess swan song >XII got a lukewarm reception by the second generation (playstatioon era) fans at the end of PS2's life cycle >XIII trilogy was widely panned by most >XV was hit or miss, failing to restore the series to its former glory despite a major, admirable effort by squaresoft
i honestly hope XVI can right the ship but it doesn't look likely
this is the one where all illusion of choice was replaced with a single corridor that you must travel along?
and the combat was simpler than pokemon because you could always switch to the ideal character without losing a turn
the only way you could lose is if you accidentally swapped out all your characters at low health
I think the artistic essence of final fantasy still existed in this game, and it had the lolchoices leveling system that inspired path of exile, but it was very much the analogue of FF1 in its extreme simplicity
these were like 2 games at the edge of a big bell curve
Neither. It was a sudden bullet to the head. The series wasn't ailing before the release of X, even with its bad entries, because all of them felt like Final Fantasy. FFX killed the series by itself.
Is ff7 worth getting on steam right now? Tifas breasts are tempting me, I never played the original so I don't care that its a remaster.
Swan song with issues tho
I'd say play the og first since the Remake being incomplete atm and really acts as a remix. I wouldn't say it totally relies on you having played the original, but definitely has that audience in mind for it's more questionable pieces
I have mixed feelings on this one. I LOVE the story, the combat, and the characters. But I COMPLETELY HATE the ending, from the moment you can fight Sinh onwards. It ruined the game for me.
>Be 14 >About to fight Sinh >Fight is 3 hours long >Got to his second phase >1 hour later, I get to his 99999999 attack >I can't kill him in less than 10 turns so I die no matter what I do >Realize I have to grind A LOT to even being able to defeat that stupid one-shot attack >Never play again until 20 >Be 20 >Start a FFX new game >Exactly same thing happens
Notice how FF started its decline when the focus shifted towards juvenile romance stories (FF7+FF8 really leaned into this shit).
When FF started going back to the classic fantasy premise it began picking up steam again. Moral of the story is to keep Nomura and Kitase away from mainline FFs and lock them away in FF7R/KH containment zone while other devs salvage the IP.
9 attempted to course correct but the modernshit came back in full force in 10 with isekai bullshit. 11 was a success but only in Japan. 12 attempted to fix the problem but the goodwill was mostly gone by then. 13 then shat the bed and put the entire franchise at risk.
14 comes along, faceplants, then ends up being one of the best FFs in both story and sales. Then some moron grabs the wheel and tries to drive the franchise back into the ditch with 15. Now 16 is coming and there is a cautious optimism.
It's definitely the last great final fantasy. Easily the best love story in gaming (as long as you know x2 and the comic book are non canon). It has some pacing issues at the beginning but other than that it's nearly flawless.
It's definitely a hallway simulator but it actually serves the game to be so. It's literally a fricking pilgrimage to a bunch of holy sites to save the world.
>come on yuna its time to go to Djose Temple to further your strength. >NOPE FRICK OFF I NEED TO GO MINE TWELVE ORES AND FIFTY LUMBER TO BUILD A HOMESTEAD >Yuna you promised to follow your in father's footsteps.. >LMAO I GOT A QUEST TO HELP THIS CAT OUT OF A TREE!!! EBIN
The structure has purpose. Also some of the best videogame music ever made. jfc that soundtrack.
Nail in the coffin. Even if they did really well with the combat it doesn't really matter since they did the weird gambit system in 12 and totally ditched turn based after that. Story is okay but the characters are the worst part, you can tell this is when Nomura got his grubby hands on the series and started filling it to the brim with his moronic designs and tropey nonsense.
Wasn't Nomura still just a character designer for this?
He was the character designer alongside yusuke Naora and did the summon storyboard art
Masterpiece. XII is the swan song. XIII and XV are the identity crisis.
How was it the nail in the coffin when the best installment was right before it? It was a swan song
Let's not pretend 12 didn't have an identity crisis
Masterpiece of shit maybe.
good game but something went wrong here. Literally the same thing happened with RE4.
You can see it in X-2 that they lost their touch there
X-2 was just a lost-cost experiment to see if there was any appetite for a direct sequel to a mainline FF, something that had never happened at that point. After that, they started with their real plan, the FFVII expanded universe.
The last good game in the series, even Japan thinks so.
X is the last great Final Fantasy. XII is the swan song.
X-2 was... i don't even know, man.
Correct, X-2's content being 52% optional should give you pause. Fun gameplay though even if paired with J-pop, think it was the first FF in a long time that didn't have a traditional victory theme.
It set the precedent for shitty FFs but it was still very good.
X was the last great FF title, and is considered the best/most popular in Japan
>and is considered the best/most popular in Japan
no it isn't
It actually is. Don't speak on things you know nothing about, zoomer. It makes you look even stupider.
I am so well versed in Japanese culture, language, history, custom, and code of honor and conduct that I consider myself more Japanese than a lot of Japanese people and I can confirm that it is not X. VII is.
https://www.thegamer.com/japan-final-fantasy-10-best-game/
thegamer.com is not as Japanese as me. Try again.
>thegamer.com is not as Japanese as me. Try again.
^what denial looks like. Ffvii was never great
Must be the nostalgia. VII's characters, story, music, and combat were inferior to X. I think VII was good for it's time, but the story is distinctly early JRPG levels of moronic.
The background art was pleasant though
this was the project that ruined the company completely
FFXV could have saved it
Why did it even end up in development hell in the first placr?
it got stuck in development hell and lost direction
iirc they had to swap between multiple directors and storylines until squeenix finally put the boot down
>FFXV could have saved it
*and by XV I mean Versus 13
It's been too fricking long. FRICK
>Why did it even end up in development hell
>it got stuck in development hell
You don't say you fricken moron
It's a long story but the shortest version possible is
>SE decides to make a multi platform engine meant to be used by all big projects at the time including XIV
>Engine is shit because it's the first one SE ever made
>XIII team can't work with shit engine and project is delayed
>Versus XIII team goes to help with XIII so it is put on the backburner being worked on by 10 people doing tests and designing concepts for 3 years
>XIII is released
>Versus XIII resumes development
>a year in they finally enter full production
>engine is shit tailor made for XIII's linear world so it creates problems for VsXIII's open world
>previously XIV 1.0 bombed and damaged SE's reputation, post mortem analysis points to the same engine mentioned above being the biggest reason it was shit
>SE decides to remake XIV from scratch
>entire versus xiii along with many other teams go to help remake XIV in just 2 years
>Versus along with many other HD games at the time get either severely delayed or outright canceled
>XIV 2.0 complete
>PS4 gen already upon us
>SE decides to make Versus XIII the new mainline FF because they have nothing else
>CEO of SE is fired
>New CEO decides XV trilogy set in fabula nova crystalis is not a good idea because XIII trilogy in FNC wasn't received well the 3rd game (LR) wasn't even out at the time so..
>Trilogy plans get canceled and story gets fricked up
>Nomura gets butthurt and bails, taking Roberto Ferrari with him
>Tabata in complete control decides to ditch most of the work that had been done on Versus to create his own vision of the game
>SE decides XV needs to use a new engine (yes another one) they made
>it's shit too
>creates problems for XV's teams
>time running out
>cut content out the ass, compromises everywhere
>game gets released in glorified early access
>Tabata gets the bright idea to make it a live as service game and keeps working on it for 3 years with constant updates and dlcs
>2nd wave of Dlc canceled, game killed
It's a shame that XIV created a blackhole into which other games disappeared as a result, but it was clearly the right decision. XIV makes beaucoup bucks. But the rest of Final Fantasy got fricked because of it. I'm not convinced XVI is going to course correct, either.
*blocks your path*
I'm still going to play it lol, I mean I think the majesty of FF is just lost. Like that other anon said, the confident swagger is gone. XVI looks very grim. But I am looking forward to it.
>I'm not convinced XVI is going to course correct, either.
It's been in some form of development since 2016 and in full production since 2019 so take that as you will. It had more than enough time in the oven, theoretically, but you never know what was going on behind the scenes during all that time. Versus XIII was 10 years in development IN THEORY but in reality nothing of substance was being developed due to all the shit I mentioned above.
We can only hope that all those years XVI has been in development were actually good years of solid work being done on the game and not just it being in another development hell.
Every mainline game since XI has been in development hell. While I don't doubt that the talent isn't the same as it was, there is clearly some management issues present at SE. XIII was originally slated to be a 6th gen release for example.
Actually, FFX had a slightly troubled development too. It was ready when it was supposed to be and Sakaguchi decided to delay it. The delay pushed the game to the next fiscal year window, which put Square in the red for that fiscal year since they were originally expecting millions of profits thanks to FFX. This was actually used by Yoichi Wada as an excuse to demote Sakaguchi and take his place as he convinced investors that Sakaguchi is a risky man that not only put the company at risk with Spirits Within but managed to put the company in the red for that year. They were convinced that Gooch was unreliable and he was demoted. All this because FFX missed its milestones.
FFX also originally was supposed to have online features and shit like that, so there was definitely dev hell frickery going on there too.
>It was ready when it was supposed to be
*wasn't
>FFX also originally was supposed to have online features and shit like that
Thankfully it didn't. I don't even know how that would've worked.
Nobody knows how it would work, probably not even SE themselves which is probably why they scrapped it. Other notable plans for the game that were cut are fully animated hair and fully controllable camera instead of the traditional fixed camera angles that the final game has.
The first showcase of FFX shows all this actually, it's the one where Tidus has black hair.
Not just controllable camera and animated hair. It also had very complex clothes physics, that were way ahead of its time. Of course they were nerfed by a lot in the final game. We didn't get such clothe physics in actual games until the PS4 generation. It's certainly a case of a project that was too ambitious and had to be scaled back. So it's not surprising that it was delayed.
I can't even hate FFXV with the cluster frick it's been through. But SE always has shit management.
demand for FFVII remake unironically is the reason FNC exists and the exact reason every game in it save agito sucks ass
yes
swan song, financially it was a success, it’s legacy is perfect (considered almost unanimously to be one of the best games of all time) and it was the last real Final Fantasy game
>(considered almost unanimously to be one of the best games of all time)
LMAO
Cope
You could tell it was the beginning of the end, it was a literal corridor simulator (muh pilgrimage in a straight line) and that they had budget problems (it's protoFF13, less of a straight line but still fairly linear with this big area with tacked-on minigames at the very end), they didn't even try to come up with a world map, just a shitty menu.
Story was ok, characters were either ok or non-characters, gameplay was good, that's it.
Final Fantasy was never good
Post tunes.
Piano collections version reminds me of Mr.Rogers
Why are X trannies so delusional
Trannies hate X.
Bros, is the gameplay actually good enough to warrant a playthrough? I tried it years ago but the story and characters were unbearable and I couldn't take it. Should I give it a try? Is it worth it to just skip every cutscene if I can't handle it?
Not good enough to overcome those things if you don't like those things. What helps me to overcome the cringe is to sometimes switch to Japanese voice actors.
I'm not sure if you can even skip the cutscenes. If you just aren't into the story then it's hard to recommend the game to you since it's good part of what makes FFX Square's magnum opus
>I'm not sure if you can even skip the cutscenes.
Not even in the remaster?
Nope. You can skip FMVs but that's it. You can tap A/X to skip lines of text sometimes but it's a crapshoot.
If you want a JRPG with good combat play Nocturne or Dragon Quest 11. Final Fantasy's gameplay has always been extremely shallow and unbalanced, people only play them to look at the pretty graphics and experience the moronic sub-anime stories.
I liked V, I've been trying to chase the same high but the only other FF game I've played with fun gameplay systems is VII
not ur bro if you didn't like the cast of the game
homosexuals forever assmad about ffx characters when they are more human than any others in the series
Nail in the coffin. FF10 is more linear than FF13.
>linear is... LE BAD
here's something more your speed homosexual
>Pic related
Kino
Lots of shit design choices and cancer that would grow in later entries yet it was still the last FF with that iconic monumental soul. FF used to be that franchise who felt "This isn't just any video game, this is Final Fricking Fantasy." and X was the last time the series had that confident swagger. After the flop of Spirits Within things were just never the same.
XII still feels like a proper Final Fantasy game
Not really, but that's not necessarily a bad thing since XII is still a great game.
I'm more talking about the sheer level of confidence/arrogance they had prior to Spirits Within flopping. Before that they were really pushing the envelope for what games could be, including how much they could cost to make, for better or worse.
I'm still not convinced they learned anything from that debacle. feels like we're always hearing about mismanagement and out of control budgets for every game.
It's Square, they haven't had a single smooth Final Fantasy release since Final Fantasy VI
FFX had a world and lore I wanted to be in. FF games these days don't give me that sense of wonder anymore
People talk shit about X for being linear as though any Final Fantasy before it did frick-all interesting with its world map, instead of just having you aimlessly wander around looking for the one piece of side content that opens up every time you get a new vehicle before heading in a linear, straight line toward whatever town is next in the story.
Last good FF
Original sin for everything that later went wrong with XIII, but at least their heart was in the right place while makin git
definitely nail in the coffin, didn't feel like I was playing a Final Fantasy game
X is so completely devoid of the charm and charisma that the series developed and perfected, absolute nail in the coffin.
Then we got muh Kingdom Hearts! Ohmygarsh, Mickey! Fricking garbage bullshit only homosexuals would admit to enjoying.
X is the epitome of charm.
>Incredibly forgettable world
>Terrible main character
>Daddy issues
>Garbage plot
Lulu's breasts are nice I guess
>Incredibly forgettable world
Weak bait.
seriously, a beach?
The whole game is forgettable, thankfully I played it recently so it's fresh in my mind.
>Besaid
>Kilika
>Macalania woods
>Luca
>Guado village
>Gagazet mountain
>The desert
>The area with the lightnings
>
>Fricking Zanakarnd
>forgettable
This has to be fricking bait. Haven't played the game since 2007 and it's not even one of my favorite ones and I can still remember areas from the game because they were memorable as frick. Must be a zoomer issue.
>The area with the lightnings
Thunder Plains
It's an okay game, but it severely lacks a soul the previous titles nailed. I'm not surprised you remember the maps with how linear it is.
I grew up on the PSX titles and Tactics Advance was the next truly great FF game.
the maps were linear in the psx FFs too, only difference is there was the illusion of a huge open world thanks to the world map which most of the time was locked to just 3 areas for story reasons until end game.
So they were, but that's a big fricking difference.
When the corridor you're walking through is a literal corridor of a path along a grass plain like X has so many off, that's -really- noticeable
When your corridor is the shape of whole continents and coastlines and you're blocked off by mountains and the sea, you're effectively going from point A to point B without a lot of choice in-between in both cases, but the difference in the feel and atmosphere of one versus the other is absurdly fricking huge.
Plus, once you start unlocking things like new modes of transportation, the gap widens even more in Overworld's favor. It's just easier to make an Overworld feel exploratory and adventurous than an open world design. Though granted< XII was way, way better at that than X, but it's still not the same.
Almost like the point of a game is to create the illusion of a world for the player to exist within. FFX and FFXIII massively failed at that.
X you're on a pilgrimage and XIII you're literal enemies of state on the run. It makes sense thematically.
The sense that it makes thematically sadly does not outweigh the loss of enjoyment that it brings through the lessened quality of the experience thanks to those choices. XIII is pretty much the poster boy for that, a lot of the game is mechanically geared towards the constraints of its narrative [and its engine, as it turns out], and the final result despite being consistent and understandable on why things are the way they are, is simply not that good.
I felt like X executed linearity a lot better than XIII, and so did 7R for that matter.
For one both X and 7R have actual hubs, mini games, npcs to talk to, side stuff to do and generally a lot more than just combat. Their linearity is also... different? It's certainly not a complete straight line with a small space on your right or your left where a treasure chest is waiting for you. The maps are certainly linear but there is a certain level of complexity to the roads. FFXIII had none of this, for the most part everything was a literal straight line with nothing to do other than fight, fight, fight. No hubs, no mini games, no npcs to talk to. Every time I fired it up to put some hours in, I would quickly be mentally fatigued because of how monotonous the entire experience was.
Perfectly explained here why they're both corridor simulators but one works and the other does not.
That's not entirely people's issues, I think. You get a sense for the geography of the world and a nice sense of actually stumbling upon a few things in the overworld. They don't need to be filled to the brim, just the option to revisit past locations with relative ease is nice.
I like the gif, thanks, dude. Saved.
But no, I disagree about FFX having a world that was "forgettable." Granted, the music ties me to the game more than anything, but there's a lot of world there to explore and the opening scenes of Zanarkand, Al Bhed scrounging and Besaid beauty is pretty compelling and provoking.
The OST is absolutely amazing, Uematsu never fails to deliver.
100% agreed.
And, a lot a number of these tracks are Hamauzu and Nakano, too. A terrific soundtrack, nonetheless.
But all the best tracks were by Hamauzu.
But he hardly did any of the music. It was Hamazu.
He did over half the tracks, not to mention he obviously had creative direction over the OST. Don't be stupid.
Shit really goes crazy after luca. You go from three tropical islands to fricking rocky shore outcrops, Lily pad bog waters with giant elephant esque thing and then into the fricking thunder plains and macalania a frozen forest.
>I guess
b***h you better not just guess, Lulu has the best breasts in this whole fricking franchise and only Tifa really competes
>her victory animation that is literally just bending over and letting them hang loose in her cleavage
Touche.
Not technically the same franchise but I always feel like these veiny frickers never get enough love.
No worldmap or open world showed was the first clear step down... its still a very good game and a good journey but i never could shake the feeling that something was lost..
It seems to have flown under everybody's radar that overworlds are actually an incredibly fricking effective tool for worldbuilding and immersion [if you have the ability to use bare minimum abstract thought and not be one of those dumbasses that goes "wait why am I suddenly a giant the size of a whole city?! What the heeeeeelll!"] and just generally having a sense of what the world is like while even being able to help with storytelling. VII proved that perfectly, that game is a masterclass on how to use your overworld to good effect.
good points made here
FFX in its time was the last mainline final fantasy game to be unilaterally beloved by the fanbase, so i guess swan song
>XII got a lukewarm reception by the second generation (playstatioon era) fans at the end of PS2's life cycle
>XIII trilogy was widely panned by most
>XV was hit or miss, failing to restore the series to its former glory despite a major, admirable effort by squaresoft
i honestly hope XVI can right the ship but it doesn't look likely
Peak soul
>This thread again
This is at least the 5th fricking FFX thread in the past 24 hours. What the frick is going on?
Both
It was just endearing enough to ignore how cringey the writing was, and fun enough to ignore how much of a corridor the game was
this is the one where all illusion of choice was replaced with a single corridor that you must travel along?
and the combat was simpler than pokemon because you could always switch to the ideal character without losing a turn
the only way you could lose is if you accidentally swapped out all your characters at low health
I think the artistic essence of final fantasy still existed in this game, and it had the lolchoices leveling system that inspired path of exile, but it was very much the analogue of FF1 in its extreme simplicity
these were like 2 games at the edge of a big bell curve
>you could always switch to the ideal character
Yeah that sure worked great against Seymur Flux and Yunalesca.
Everything after X was a mistake
Well not quite everything
God, I wish that was me.
It could be, on /trash/. Join us...
I'm already there.
Coffin
Neither. It was a sudden bullet to the head. The series wasn't ailing before the release of X, even with its bad entries, because all of them felt like Final Fantasy. FFX killed the series by itself.
It's funny how everyone always forgets FFXII exists.
Kinda easy to forget, I loved the boss fights though. I'm afraid FFXVI will be a lot like FXII in more ways than one.
Is ff7 worth getting on steam right now? Tifas breasts are tempting me, I never played the original so I don't care that its a remaster.
Swan song with issues tho
remake was fun, try it out and refund it if you don't like it
Yes
I'd say play the og first since the Remake being incomplete atm and really acts as a remix. I wouldn't say it totally relies on you having played the original, but definitely has that audience in mind for it's more questionable pieces
Series was already dead.
Massive cracks appeared in 7 after you leave midgar. Either 8 or 9 killed the series for good, probably 8.
>'8 is bad' meme
After you leave Midgar is when 7 actually becomes a video game. Stick to your hallway simulators.
Beginning of a new glorious era that makes troonyrunners seethe
I have mixed feelings on this one. I LOVE the story, the combat, and the characters. But I COMPLETELY HATE the ending, from the moment you can fight Sinh onwards. It ruined the game for me.
>Be 14
>About to fight Sinh
>Fight is 3 hours long
>Got to his second phase
>1 hour later, I get to his 99999999 attack
>I can't kill him in less than 10 turns so I die no matter what I do
>Realize I have to grind A LOT to even being able to defeat that stupid one-shot attack
>Never play again until 20
>Be 20
>Start a FFX new game
>Exactly same thing happens
Are you drunk?
Yes
>Sinh
Stop
yuna pits
Notice how FF started its decline when the focus shifted towards juvenile romance stories (FF7+FF8 really leaned into this shit).
When FF started going back to the classic fantasy premise it began picking up steam again. Moral of the story is to keep Nomura and Kitase away from mainline FFs and lock them away in FF7R/KH containment zone while other devs salvage the IP.
>When FF started going back to the classic fantasy premise
???
When did this happen?
9 attempted to course correct but the modernshit came back in full force in 10 with isekai bullshit. 11 was a success but only in Japan. 12 attempted to fix the problem but the goodwill was mostly gone by then. 13 then shat the bed and put the entire franchise at risk.
14 comes along, faceplants, then ends up being one of the best FFs in both story and sales. Then some moron grabs the wheel and tries to drive the franchise back into the ditch with 15. Now 16 is coming and there is a cautious optimism.
It started the phase where they decided:
>LET'S MAKE OUR ONLINE GAMES... LE GOOD
>AND LET'S MAKE ALL OUR OFFLINE GAMES... LE BAD
It's definitely the last great final fantasy. Easily the best love story in gaming (as long as you know x2 and the comic book are non canon). It has some pacing issues at the beginning but other than that it's nearly flawless.
It's definitely a hallway simulator but it actually serves the game to be so. It's literally a fricking pilgrimage to a bunch of holy sites to save the world.
>come on yuna its time to go to Djose Temple to further your strength.
>NOPE FRICK OFF I NEED TO GO MINE TWELVE ORES AND FIFTY LUMBER TO BUILD A HOMESTEAD
>Yuna you promised to follow your in father's footsteps..
>LMAO I GOT A QUEST TO HELP THIS CAT OUT OF A TREE!!! EBIN
The structure has purpose. Also some of the best videogame music ever made. jfc that soundtrack.
Indeed, it's the last great offline Final Fantasy.
Boring combat system. 10-2 was a major upgrade. LO is also just a better game if you're into the older turn system style.
>make it to Zanarkand
>no plan to save Yuna, and there is no dissuading her finishing the journey
>this starts playing
>even plays through the fights and victory screen
Goddamn it was so good.
>tidus was the dream that would end all along
KINO
FF fans were eating real good to even think X was a decline.