THE BEST FINAL FANTASY (ALL INCLUDED)+ A discussion/Debate about a perfect FF

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

I don't have a proper opinion on 13, I was just commenting that all of the problems presented by the previous poster were either the same issues, or very similar issues to ones I found in 12. After everything I've seen and heard, 13 just looks like 12 with a changed system, but I can't say if it's for better or for worse. For long time FF fans, 12 and 13 have both been major let downs, so I'm not exactly eager to run out and pick up FF 13.

The exploration: If it's even remotely like 12 in size of environment (though, more than likely bigger), I'll hate it. It wasn't so much the size of the environments in 12, but the fact that they were the same thing over and over again with maybe a a chunk of rock put off to the left rather than the right. Considering what 13 had to work with, this game would more than likely drive me to tears with boredom. It shouldn't take an hour and a half to get from the town to the dungeon, or even longer from town to town. It just feels like a poor attempt to make the game seem like it has more substance than it really does.

I've heard nothing good about 13's battle system. Absolutely nothing. I can't have a proper opinion on it yet, but after everything I've heard, once again, I'm not eager to run out and play the game. I hated the way 12 went about the battle system, and 13's battle system just looks like a minor, I guess you could say "upgrade".

Game play: Every FF game has "game play", it's just a matter of how they go about it. Superman 64 had "game play", but it was awful. Basically, saying it has "game play" is about as good a point as saying it has a story.

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

I say if they combine the free roam of FF12 and the battle system of FF13 that will be number one for me

but FF 7 is the best FF game of all time

no FF character compares to CLOUD...with the exception of his twin sister lighting...lol

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

but 12 has heaps more gameplay then 13. it has exploration, sidequests, marks to catch etc just like the older final fantasies
13 has walk, have a fight, watch a cutscene, walk, have a fight watch 3 cutscenes, walk, fight, another cutscene....
theres nothing to explore its just A to B fighting on the way. its nothing like a final fantasy or indeed an rpg

The battle system is wank. you can't properly choose what to do, i like to be in control of all my characters not have someone casting a useless spell. also when i need healing i have to change all 3 characters paradigms which completely stops attacks and have to start again.
12 is better, your in control any spell is available when you need it and anyone can use it so you dont have to stop everything to heal.

13 is the worst, most boring, linear game i have ever played. the original mario bros was less linear because you got to go down pipes, in this you have nothing.

So 12 may have its faults but it has none of 13's

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

Well, that makes more sense. So either way, 12 and 13 are nowhere near the best FF games.

 

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yeah, 13 been the worst i'd say, tough call between that and x-2.
12 isn't so bad as a rpg but many ff are better, 4(ds version), 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 i would still pick over 12 to play right now

 

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I could never finish the DS version of 4. Probably because I slaughtered the GBA version (I did EVERYTHING), and I played through 90% of the SNES version, along with a good chunk of the PSX version. I think that game has just been remade too many times.

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

To Nathan Drake,

1) Final Fantasy 13 and Final Fantasy 12 are wildly different at the core. FF13 at its core is FF10 or FF10-2. The only evolution of FF 13 from FF 12 are the Paradigm Shift which is the imitation of FF12 Gambit and the encounter system that follows the real-time encounter system of FF12 and earlier RPG like Chrono Trigger. In this system, you can see enemies roaming around the game world.

I called the Paradigm shift as the pale imitation of the Gambit simply because the Gambit has more varieties in it. In the Gambit system, characters will obey your immediate order first before the most prioritized gambit. Also, you can set the order of importance in each character's gambit slot. This allows for depth and personal preferences when approaching a battle. The real-time, open-ended nature of FF12 world means that before exploring deep into an area, you can set Gambit to suit the nature of creatures in the area. Even if you venture by not preparing anything, you can run away and go to the Gambit screen and rearrange the gambits. The more gambits you purchased and owned, the more permutations and combinations you will get on how to roam an area. If all of your three characters die, you can choose another three to replace them.

In Paradigm Shift System, you can only control your party leader in a battle, the current "paradigm" that other characters are set to determine what they are most likely to do in the battle. Paradigms are less varied than gambits and can't be set in "order of importance". Each character will only act with a paradigm in a given moment although you can change his/her paradigm by pressing L1. In fact, FF 13 feels like dancing and pressing L1, X, L1, X. L1 is to order your characters to change their "roles" or paradigm like which character is a medic or which is the ravager, etc. But you cannot control characters other than the party leader. When the party leader dies, game is over and you can choose to re-battle the battle. That is because once you initiate a battle, you can never escape .

Plus, the Paradigm has no intricacy and the level of permutations and combinations like the Gambit. You don't get to set a character a set of various paradigms. As an example, if you set a character to Medic paradigm, the character will heal who has the lowest HP. You can't tell the character to heal according to a specific condition like "heal characters <50% HP" or "Heal Party Leader first". The Gambit system allows this.


2) Exploration. Final Fantasy 13 for the most parts is the antithesis of exploration. It hates curiosity and this damped the "sense of discovery" which is very important in the case of RPG.
The encounter system in FF13 is a backward evolution from that of FF12. You walk from one point to another, almost like FF10. Interestingly, FF13 levels in the way they look and feel are like FF10. This is not a surprise as the core FF13 developers were the developers of FF10. As you run forward, you can see creatures in front of you; you can choose to avoid them or you can battle them. Once you "touched" one of them, there will be a brief screen-split and you are taken to an arena that has the look of the current area that you're in similar to pre-FF12 Final Fantasies.

It is a step backward from FF12 in terms of seamlessness. Why? In FF12, not only the areas are big and the battle is without a split-screen, but the fact that you can escape from the battle while having a chance to lose one of your party members and a possibility for a complete wipe-out make this game very immersive; perhaps the most immersive among the Final Fantasy titles. You can die or hurt or get a status effect while you are escaping as the enemy that you fought chase you. This, from my experience brings FF to another level of player's interaction with the game world.

This encourages curiosity as well. Because the area/zone is large in size, you might not want to explore everything but if you explore deeper, you will probably find a cave or an extra dungeon full of high-level monsters.
In past FFs, because the random encounter system does not give any information and pre-battle observation of creature's level and traits, players are discouraged from exploring the high-level extra area at their current state in the game. In FF12, as the enemies are visible and the fact that a player can flee when his/her party are encountered by a high-level hostile creature induce quite a deep curiosity in that particular player. In other words, he/she would want to know what's inside there and has a high level of courage to go deep into the dungeon because of the seamlessness of the gameplay and the world's size. This will lead to a discovery whether in the form of early powerful weapons, a special creature that drops pricey mineral, et cetera thus giving the player that so called "sense of discovery". That is the purpose of exploration from my perspective and FF12 nailed it.

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

msg defined the differences in a short, concise matter that I could easily understand and appreciate. In short, I didn't even read half of that, as I just don't care anymore at this point.

If that was too much, well..... tl;dr

 

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It's long because i wanted to defend FF XII where it deserves and why it is better than FF XIII gameplay wise. I am passionate about FF.

 

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Remember the times where RPGs were all "Explore this wondrous world of ___"? When 3/4 of the game involved Grinding for levels? Grinding for money and equipment, exploring the world to discover treasures and more history of the world. That is an RPG in my opinion. Just telling me the world is full of wondrous stuff but not letting me wander around discovering those things is just a tease.

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

FF 12 nailed exploration. FF 13 is quite the opposite.

 

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I didn't really like Crisis Core as well. They kinda limited the exploration.

 

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If FFXII was a good game, I would read it all. I just really don't feel like reiterating my points in one sentence fragments for a game that I have quite thoroughly thrashed already for being such a steaming pile of bad game.

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

If you think FF XII is bad enough, then FF XIII would stink like a big drain near your home.

 

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I'm sure it would since I've heard nothing truly positive about FF XIII except from game reviewers who rate a game based on how pretty it looks.

 

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A lot of games are pretty these days. Some even prettier than than FF XIII like God of War 3, Uncharted 2 and even Crysis from 2007. Therefore, having pretty graphics isn't really exciting nowadays.

Plus, i have heard Xenoblade for Wii is pretty good. Big area, nice arts, fluid combat; pretty much everything you want from RPG.

Seriously, I hope Square Enix keeps the FF XIII graphics for FFXV. I think it is good enough. Making a new engine will consume a lot of times. Look at FF XIII, one of the reason they omit big towns is because it is hard to render town in HD.( meaning the game would take longer to develop as most of dev. time was used for making new uber engine.)
My idea: Tweak the engine a bit then spend all their development time focusing on world/zones design, new gameplay system and a solid plot and great cast of characters. NO need to build a new engine. Waste. The engine while not the best looking in 2-3 years time is pretty good as visual will not improve much in that time frame. The Crystal Tools is already solid.

 

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Hey Faggots, if your FF13 game sucks so much please send it to me so i can try it. 360 version plz.

 

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I wouldn't wish it upon anybody, im keeping my copy locked up to scare my grandchildren with

 

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I knew i hated the UK

 

Re: THE BEST FINAL FANTASY

k