Queen's Blood (Final Fantasy Thread)

[gunnar hendershow]

I think with modern games just providing a lot more to do as a core function of the game that they all naturally have a slower pace. The world map of the old days was essentially a way to make a tiny game feel big. Now games have taken that concept and largely made them much more explorable. FFXIII was the last major JRPG I can remember that had a bit of a straight line through the meat of the story right at the start. Then it decided to open up and let you play it for how ever much longer you wanted.

It's a weird dynamic because there's an ability to really dictate how long you want a game to take to beat, but none of us are plunging right through just the story missions and we're going to explore, see what else is around, etc. In the past that was added into a game as a necessity to avoid making it feel too short. Now each of those elements are expanded upon, where you used to meet a cooky guy in a cabin for a line of dialogue and a treasure chest now you spend 20 minutes climbing the hill to the cabin and then there's another 20-30 minute quest that branches off from the cabin, all for the same reward that previously was just in a treasure chest.

[Ruki]

Just got to thr underground. Golbez is fucking hard.

[Ruki]

Characters die off so quickly! I think Yang was the 4th party member to die already? I also put Counter and the augment that makes all enemies target one person on Cecil. It feels like cheating. 

8 minutes ago, Rukaru Shida said:

Characters die off so quickly! I think Yang was the 4th party member to die already? I also put Counter and the augment that makes all enemies target one person on Cecil. It feels like cheating. 

...and we're up to 5.

[gunnar hendershow]

It's been at least 15 years since I last played it but I definitely remember that trick of counter + targeting a certain character as being a tad game-breaking.

[Ruki]

41 minutes ago, damsher hatfield said:

It's been at least 15 years since I last played it but I definitely remember that trick of counter + targeting a certain character as being a tad game-breaking.

Especially because I have the Ogre Slaying Axe or whatever on him, which just does MASSIVE damage. 

[Ruki]

Man, things ramp up in the Sealed Cave. Meh XP, but the monsters all have a ton of HP. And in other news... (again, a rumor!)

 

 

[Ruki]

 

Ahhhhhh!!!!! 

[Draevyn]

I don't know how I feel about this. It looks mostly like you're controlling one person and that just isn't Final Fantasy to me  

[gunnar hendershow]

It's honestly hard to pinpoint what Final Fantasy is anymore. They were an early peak in cinematic and story-based gaming but during the major graphical fidelity push of the 2000s they fell behind others who took the cinematic nature of classic, mainline FF titles and did a lot more. Not to mention a lot of the gaming hallmarks we take for granted where big deals in the 90s, which also helped FF stand out in the crowd. FF also lost a ton of foothold in JRPG fandom because Dragon Quest largely focused on improving an existing formula, Persona fleshed out/perfected its ideas with P3, Tales of Symphonia turned a lot of people onto that franchise, etc. Fanbases fracture and JRPGs was no different.

So they've been in a weird spot and while FFXII was a rather inventive game probably a tad bit ahead of its time, the same could not be said for FFXIII, whose ashes led directly into FFXV. The series peak in the last decade has been FFXIV which is one of the best MMOs out there (I'm told by multiple people, I don't play it because if I did I'd do nothing else).

People have been doing the "this game doesn't feel like Final Fantasy" for a lot longer than Square was making games that people point to as feeling like "Final Fantasy". And the franchise name carries such weight with it and this expectation that it's impossible to live up to. Final Fantasy X is pointed to as the last time Final Fantasy lived up to its name but it's almost 20 years old. Like, I don't know what Final Fantasy even means. And I think for years Square didn't either, but they felt it had to mean something bigger than it was. My earliest impression of FFXVI is that they seem aware that they don't need to push forward with every new advancement in the book and, like a lot of JRPG brethren, sacrifice some of the cinematics for a more solid game experience. We shall see though.

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, Forky said:

I don't know how I feel about this. It looks mostly like you're controlling one person and that just isn't Final Fantasy to me  

Likely the game is still 2 years out, so I'm not too concerned. I wouldn't be mad if they basically copied/refined what they did for 7R. 

 

As for what Final Fantasy is? I think it's whatever SE wants/needs it to be at that time. They have changed the formula so many times that I would say there are more 'experimental' titles than there are traditional. And I'm ok with that! But the story is seemingly exactly what I've been wanting forever now... a high fantasy FF game. Swords and shields, not tech! 

 

(Also, yeah, FF14? It's dangerous. It's free now from level 1-60, with the first DLC. I played it non-stop for 4-5 months. Got partway through the second DLC before I burned myself out. It's a really good story! Although, the non-expansion content can drag... but they have just recently trimmed some of the fat)

[gunnar hendershow]

22 minutes ago, Rukaru Shida said:

As for what Final Fantasy is? I think it's whatever SE wants/needs it to be at that time. They have changed the formula so many times that I would say there are more 'experimental' titles than there are traditional. And I'm ok with that! But the story is seemingly exactly what I've been wanting forever now... a high fantasy FF game. Swords and shields, not tech! 

Yeah I think the criticism I have is that at the time a game comes out SE management doesn't seem to know what it needs to be. They cut FFXII's legs off, Versus XIII got so butchered they decided to build XV on it instead, they had a good idea what they wanted out of FFXIII and the couple of sequels but it was largely because they played it safe. FFXII is my big point because that feels like a game that had all these weird, wild ideas that just got totally muted and toned down. And that's always my worry with SE management, that the franchise that's biggest 3 hits are all by any metric batshit crazy is having management step in to make the games palatable to a "wider audience" and on top of that pushing to simplify the gameplay mechanics.

But, yeah, it's a ways out and maybe the shot in the arm from FF7R was enough to give the team working on FFXVI (who I believe work a ton on XIV if I'm not mistaken) some creative liberties. That to me would be the best thing that could happen.

[Schlitzbrille]

But we're all im agreement that Joshua is a lame Final Fantasy character name, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bobfoc]

It turns out that Final Fantasy XVI will be exclusive to PS5 for six months before coming to PC, and twelve months before presumably coming to Xbox.

[Draevyn]

9 hours ago, Rukaru Shida said:

Likely the game is still 2 years out, so I'm not too concerned. I wouldn't be mad if they basically copied/refined what they did for 7R. 

 

As for what Final Fantasy is? I think it's whatever SE wants/needs it to be at that time. They have changed the formula so many times that I would say there are more 'experimental' titles than there are traditional. And I'm ok with that! But the story is seemingly exactly what I've been wanting forever now... a high fantasy FF game. Swords and shields, not tech! 

 

(Also, yeah, FF14? It's dangerous. It's free now from level 1-60, with the first DLC. I played it non-stop for 4-5 months. Got partway through the second DLC before I burned myself out. It's a really good story! Although, the non-expansion content can drag... but they have just recently trimmed some of the fat)

I meant what it is to me, not what it is as a game or to the developers. I respect that a game isn't meant just for me but I purchase games based on how I felt about them and while I do appreciate some evolution, I feel like Final Fantasy as a whole kind of went down hill once they stopped doing turn based combat.

I still buy them because the story is usually there, and they generally have a party of fun characters, but I haven't felt the love for the game as much as I have since 9. I was hoping that when they talked about going back to the roots that it wouldn't just be the story but that they'd incorporate more of the older feel of the games into the beauty of the new engines and such.

I just want to feel the same type of passion for it that I felt the first time I fired up Final Fantasy VIII, or went back and played 7 for the first time. I even enjoyed 10 though it wasn't quite the same, it still felt the same. 

[Ruki]

I'm on the moon! Anyone know about how many more dungeons are in the game?

[Ruki]

And done! Final dungeon dragged on a bit too long for my liking, and then Zeromus was a pushover. Not my favorite FF game, but it might be that I'm no longer into the classic style anymore. 

 

And with that, I've now completed every mainline FF game (not including 11 and 14)!

[Ruki]

 

[Benji]

Not surprising, they had FF7R on the back burner waiting to come out so long, probably knew it wasn't worth announcing until that was out.

[FLiam]

As someone who has only really played FFVII and IX, is it worth playing XV? It looks like it might be a cracking game, but not really sure. 

[apsham]

I think it's at least worth giving a shot - the definitive edition goes on sale for super cheap, and although it plays like a wildly different game I really like the dynamic that it sets up and you get some cool moments.