Final Fantasy

[gunnar hendershow]

Getting FFVII for Christmas in 1997 was a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience. I remember I opened the game first and was like "Yes! I'm getting a Playstation!" and my mom told me "You don't know that, maybe you only got the game." It was, to this day, the cruelest thing my mom ever said. Fortunately about 10 minutes later my brother and I found out she was wrong and we went to blow up a Mako Reactor and the rest was history.

[Red Devil-Taker316]

I thought X was dire, apart from the battle system, which had a few nice innovations while still feeling like a Final Fantasy game. The voice acting was probably the main thing to really put me off through the whole game, but I just never enjoyed it.

I thought XII was a lot of fun. It was probably the only Final Fantasy game where I actually enjoyed going out and battling random monsters more than I enjoyed the storyline; I'd struggle to explain the plot of XII, or to name a single character, but I could tell a hundred stories of hunts I went on, or funny combat stories.

As for sphere grids, or their equivalent in XII, I hate them. They're all designed to more or less force you down a certain path anyway, it's just needless busywork to give you the illusion of freedom within an incredibly linear system.

Just quoting this as it perfect describes why FF XII is my favorite Final Fantasy game.

[ZJ Penn]

Anyone play Dimensions on Android? It sounds right up my street.

[TKz]

Man. I've decided to do my latest playthrough of FFX on my PC, so I setup and emulator and actually ripped an ISO of my own copy of FFX (out of fear I'd download a non-PAL one and miss out on all of the fun extra stuff! Hooray for legally emulating something!) and holy shit. You can set it up so the emulator renders the game through your graphics card, so I'm essentially playing what the HD version will be when it comes out. It looks so much smoother than the PS2 version, it's crazy!

[Ruki]

Screenshot?

[Herr Matzat]

Man. I've decided to do my latest playthrough of FFX on my PC, so I setup and emulator and actually ripped an ISO of my own copy of FFX (out of fear I'd download a non-PAL one and miss out on all of the fun extra stuff! Hooray for legally emulating something!) and holy shit. You can set it up so the emulator renders the game through your graphics card, so I'm essentially playing what the HD version will be when it comes out. It looks so much smoother than the PS2 version, it's crazy!

You can also get the International Version from Japan. It has all the EU extras, english audio and screentext but without croping and slowdown the Pal Version brings. The only skill you need is reading a tutorial on how to start the game in english (which is like two clicks in menus)

Belive or not, thats actualy the first PS2 game i ever bought, strait from Asia via play asia.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/174/finalfantasyxinternatiohr7.jpg/

This emulation effect is around for many consoles/games that do not work sprite based. Play some N64 games with anti aliasing and without the slowdowns... Mario Kard looks much better on my Mac than it ever did on my N64 and it is so much faster when there is a ton of shit happening on screen. I can only recommend trying it, there even are N64 to USB controller converter cables on amazon.

Edited January 17, 2013 by Michael Matzat on a Plane

[TKz]

Screenshot?

http://i49.tinypic.com/opqtsl.png

http://i46.tinypic.com/358179l.png

I don't know if you'll be able to tell without having played FFX on a HD TV, but it looks really blurry when you play it on a HDTV from a PS2. What the HD Remakes do is make it not blurry, so you can see the actual outlines of everything. And because it's not blurry, you can see the renders in all their outdated glory. Still, looks better than I've ever seen it.

[King Ellis]

It probably helps that you're not playing via RCA or Scart or whatever the fuck.

[Ruki]

http://www.gamesradar.com/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-preview/

Preview for XIII-3. It sounds interesting...but it seems more action-y than I prefer in a Final Fantasy game. I'll get it, I'll enjoy it, but it's not what I want. I want a Square Soft type game, not Square Enix

[Clawson]

Kinda sounds like a Kingdom Hearts kinda battle system. So yeah I'll second your last statement.

[gunnar hendershow]

A friend and I were talking about the money they could make from devoting a small amount of resources to making 16-bit games with that old Squaresoft feel and putting them up for like $10 on PS3 and 360. I mean, they've done FFIV: The After Years so it's not like it's been totally uncharted terrain but they surely could put some good games with a great nostalgic feel pretty quickly. And the profit margin on them could really be strong. It's just wishful thinking at the end of the day I'm sure though.

[Ruki]

A friend and I were talking about the money they could make from devoting a small amount of resources to making 16-bit games with that old Squaresoft feel and putting them up for like $10 on PS3 and 360. I mean, they've done FFIV: The After Years so it's not like it's been totally uncharted terrain but they surely could put some good games with a great nostalgic feel pretty quickly. And the profit margin on them could really be strong. It's just wishful thinking at the end of the day I'm sure though.

That would be a great idea. Those games would probably sell more than the other games.

[Herr Matzat]

You have to wonder if it can be don with a small amount of resources. Only because it´s not a trillion poligons and HD render videos dossent mean it´s "less" work. If you look at the biggest classics Square Soft put out (Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 6, Chono Trigger, Xenogears and alike) you still see a lot of efford in the grafics, even if only pixelart - which issent that easy to do, music, ballance and story.

On Phones and Tablets you already got FF:Dimensions which is a retro style new FF. Like The After Years it reused a lot of old art i believe... which is kinda lame. On sale you could get it for 15€ i belive. Usualy the full price is 24€ i think, but you can play the first cupple of houres for free before you get to unlock the rest.

[gunnar hendershow]

It's going to be less expensive work no matter which way you slice and dice it. The technology in 2013 is much better than it was in 1993, those were massive projects because the technology required them to be. Nowadays the technology requires something like FFXIII-3 to be a massive project. It's why one guy is able to design the Touhou games. They don't need a massive team for attention to detail, so much of the programming has already been done since the technology has been fully explored and, if you want to use a gaming analogy, beaten.

This is briefly what I understand of game design and why the 8-bit games were huge projects in their day.

[Herr Matzat]

I think you greatly underestimate the time and efford that goes into producing a qualety game. Creating a world, writing it´s story, balancing it´s gameplay dos not take less efford because it gets packed in pixelart.

Writing and balance wise i´ed even say a game like FF13 took way way way less efford in it´s very liniar endless tutorial short playtime way. Look at a chrono trigger with all it´s worlds, timezones, looks, different style and level of opponents, a story that draws you in but more or less makes sens (as hard as it is to do with time travel)

I think it´s fatal to say just because there is RPG Maker and Medi sound tools for everyone that such a game could be up with the greats while don by 5 people in a year. If you look at retro city rempage (obviusly comming from a less professional source than Square) and it taking 10 years to get were it´s at and still getting shit all over by some reviewers like IGN (5,3 out of 10).. it´s hard.

I mean, i absolutly look forward to something like Secrets of Grindea ( http://www.secretsofgrindea.com/ ) or Sealark and if you follow them you can absolutly see how much passion they have. But passion alone dos not creat a great RPG, often these indy devs lack the full team. They can do one or two things realy good and are willing to put their everything in it. It´s just easier to get a great game thrown together for a gnere like raceing, puzzeling or something like FTL were mechanics and a few good looks can creat a great experience. - An rpg that might end up en par with a Secret of Mana needs more than some cute sprites and a good battle system.

I bet Square could do it. But for some reason i don´t think they want to. The past years have been very lackluster in qualety, and many of their mobible games are just insanly pricy. Kotaku just had an article on that in their newsletter last night.

The Slow, Excruciating Death Of Final Fantasy

http://kotaku.com/5977118/the-slow-excruciating-death-of-final-fantasy

Edited January 19, 2013 by Michael Matzat on a Plane

[gunnar hendershow]

How come, then, they were able to release many more games with a much smaller crew in the 90's as opposed to what they manage to produce today with much larger crews?

[King Ellis]

Dey released a phone game where dey FORCE you at gun point to pay a dollar each for extra characters AT RANDOM.

Final Fantasy is dead.

[LL!]

I guess it really was the final fantasy.

[TKz]

What's the absolute worst way to introduce what should be a good idea for a minigame to players?

Make it near impossible to win your first match.

Blitzball is ridiculous. It's so much harder the first time you play than it is any time afterwards, the Goers have ridiculous stats in the story match. They're actually easier to play AFTER THE MATCH. Why would you set it up like that? It just makes you not want to play it.

[ZJ Penn]

Hide behind the goal