Castlevania Dungeon Forums
The Castlevania Dungeon Forums => Hardcore Gaming 101 => Topic started by: shelverton. on October 09, 2010, 12:39:38 PM
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I was actually gonna play this game. It would be my first MMORPG ever. The numerical installments in the Final Fantasy series always get good reviews, even the less great games score at least 8.5-9 and are usually worth checking out in my opinion, for the high production value if nothing else.. But now it seems SquareEnix lost it for real this time. I may not trust every review I ever read, especially not from GameSpot and GameTrailers, but Final Fantasy XIV has scored 4.2 out of 10 from Gametrailers, and 4.0 out of 10 from Gamespot. And the game looks atrocious!
This is actually rather hilarious.
A numerical installment in Final Fantasy series is trashed by critics for the very first time.
These are dark times for Squeenix - time's without hope. What motivates a gaming company to release a game that most of us would run from?
With the disappointing release that was Final Fantasy XIII, my only hope now lies with FF Versus XIII. I am however worried how very little information/screenshots/gameplay footage we've seen so far, considering how long we've known about its existance. Do I smell problems?
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This is actually rather hilarious.
A numerical installment in Final Fantasy series is trashed by critics for the very first time.
These are dark times for Squeenix - time's without hope. What motivates a gaming company to release a game that most of us would run from?
lol!!! ;D
FFXIII is already a dissapointment to me and i wouldn't play FFXIV. It's just not my style of gaming!!!! I think that SquareEnix has ruined one of the best RPG series with FFXIII and FIV............... :'(
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I can't imagine that Square could release a game worse than 13... Square has been dead ever since Sakaguchi left about 10 years ago IMO.
Also, have you seen the footage that they showed at TGS of Versus? There was only like, 15 seconds of it. And the game has been in development for what, 4 years now? There was almost nothing finished. The city they showed was empty except the monster the guy was fighting, and the combat looked slow and clunky. Then it showed him walking around this wasteland where there was only one building and nothing else around it. What the hell has Square-Enix been doing these days? Once they run out of classic games to re-release they are going to go bankrupt.
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I think Square Enix was iffy about releasing FFXIII since it was released in japan several years prior to us getting it over here. And hot on the heels of a desaster comes another one; FFXIV. Personally if I were in charge, I'd go back to a more simpler concept, like it was with the first six games.
What the hell has Square-Enix been doing these days? Once they run out of classic games to re-release they are going to go bankrupt.
They have yet to re-release Enix's other classic jems like Actraizer I & II, SoulBlazer, Ilusion of Gaia, etc. Good games and the all seem to have that same feel about them. I wonder if they're all part of the same story.
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They have yet to re-release Enix's other classic jems like Actraizer I & II, SoulBlazer, Ilusion of Gaia, etc. Good games and the all seem to have that same feel about them. I wonder if they're all part of the same story.
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SoulBlazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma are all sort of part of the same series sharing traits between one another in terms of story and gameplay progression (Basically needing to recreate the world after it was nearly destroyed). While they are Enix franchises they were developed by a company called Quintet.
ActRaiser which was also developed by Quintet as well also shares some similarities with the above games in that you are essentially God needing to recreate the world that was destroyed by a great evil.
At least there are some series that are still marketable and are decent that Square-Enix has yet to drive into the ground. Notably Dragon Quest for example.
Rather then focusing entirely on Final Fantasy and spin offs, there are many other IPs they have that could be explored for some diversity. A new Chrono game for example, Possibly a follow up to Einhander. Square also acquired Eidos and Taito, so there are those companies franchises to also consider for potential projects in terms of game development.
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I think that ff well has run dry.
And yeah, there soooooooo many good games they could be working on. I'd love a ds version of Terranigma or a sequel to Secret of Evermore (I don't know why but I. Love that game).
Instead, it's crappy ff after crappy ff. Ffxiii is sitting on a shelf, abandoned.
Also LOL Zobek quote! XD
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Hopefully the reviews of FF14 is a wake-up call for Squeenix, but I wouldn't count on it... I'm under the impression that the company feel it's OMG invincible and that critics and gamers will love whatever it pulls out of its megalomaniac ass. Maybe Squeenix think that people will continue buying their products regardless of the quality? That may be the case for a while - the Final Fantasy brand is after all TEH HUEG! - but I'm willing to bet that FF14 will not be the commercial success of its forefathers. And once you hit the downhill slope... well, companies have gone from BIG to bankrupt before.
Imagine what would've happened to Nintendo if the DS and the Wii hadn't become so succesful. The difference between Nintendo and SquareEnix is that Nintendo knows what they're doing. I'm not crazy about Nintendo but DAMN! ...They really turned the ship around. It was totally unexpected after the "semi-failure" of the Gamecube, and I totally admire Nintendo for it.
And YES! Secret of Evermore ftw. I am also forever in love with Secret of Mana and wouldn't mind a 3DS (or even Wii) remake of it. Or even better; Seiken Densetsu 3. The day SquareEnix announced that Seiken 3 wouldn't get a worldwide release, I literally cried for hours. I was a nerdy kid with no friends, mind you.
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I thought gamecube was relatively successful. it paled in comparison to the ps2, but still good.
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I too am a fan of Secret of Evermore.
But if Square-Enix were to start making sequels to beloved franchises like Chrono, then I'm afraid it would horribly backfire IMO. The company just isn't what it used to be, with their EXTREMELY LONG development cycles & cheesy influences. The SNES era is where they shined, when they were still SquareSoft.
Nowadays a third Chrono title would prolly be called "Chrono Trigger: Triple Locked X 33rd," with cel-shaded graphics & somehow part of the Fabula Nova Crystalis-whatever universe. Blegh.
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I thought gamecube was relatively successful. it paled in comparison to the ps2, but still good.
It was probably doing alright, but it paled not only in comparision to the PS2, but was also somewhat overshadowed by the original Xbox, which was Microsofts first attempt at the console market whilst Nintendo had years of experience.
Point is, Nintendo went from being a frontrunner in the 80's (and the better part of the 90's), to being a harmless bystander. At least in the console wars. It all began with the N64, continued with the Virtual Boy and then culminated with the Gamecube, which admittedly was a damn fine console which enjoyed reasonable success, but not by Nintendo standards. It seems it wasn't really taken seriously.
More importantly, nobody expected Nintendo to ever compete for real with Sony and Microsoft again, probably not even Nintendo itself, which is obvious when you look at the Wii which is sort of playing in its very own league this generation.
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Point is, Nintendo went from being a frontrunner in the 80's (and the better part of the 90's), to being a harmless bystander. At least in the console wars. It all began with the N64, continued with the Virtual Boy and then culminated with the Gamecube, which admittedly was a damn fine console which enjoyed reasonable success, but not by Nintendo standards. It seems it wasn't really taken seriously.
Nintendo pretty much met no competition with the Game Boy Advance, which was highly successful at the same time. They were doing pretty damn well despite the Gamecube's lackluster results.
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Nintendo pretty much met no competition with the Game Boy Advance, which was highly successful at the same time. They were doing pretty damn well despite the Gamecube's lackluster results.
Yeah, hence the "harmless bystander. At least in the console wars". Nintendo always did well in the handheld market, but they used to be at the very top of the console market too. And now they are, again, despite a few hard years. Sega couldn't do it, but I guess they had it worse than Nintendo...
Anyway, I'm getting way off topic now. I was meaning to say that if SquareEnix start slipping, I don't think they'll recover. If they start making Final Fantasy games that not even the game critics like, people will stop buying them, and the Final Fantasy name is doomed. A 4.0 out of 10 score is not just "bad", it's really really terrible. I'm sure it's gonna have an impact on sales, anything below 5.0 usually has. Or maybe I'm wrong, but I don't remember a game like that selling a lot of copies...
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To be perfectly honest, I think the main contributing factor that made FFXIV an unmitigated disaster was that it is an online title and everyone should know how FFXI was not as well received because it was also an online title.
But again FFXIII also has seen it's share of harsh criticism mostly due to the fact of the lack of exploration and extreme linear progression and character interaction was mostly exclusive to just your own party members with very few significant NPCs. Most of the series conventions thrown out the window such as the removal of most statistical values leaving only HP, STR, MAG which in turn gave less depth to the combat and building your characters. There is also the issue that Tetsuya Nomura behind the game and every single FF game in which he had a major involvement he has never done a single title that takes place during a medieval era or was flavored with strong western or European designs or locales.
FFVII, VIII, X, and XIII are all FF games in which Nomura had a major influence as character artist and art direction and not a single one of these games had that medieval appeal of the series earliest installments or the more recent non-Nomura titles such as FFIX and FFXII which both titles felt completely different in terms of style and art direction which also affected the types of characters and locales present in the game.
The last and probably most predominate reason why I feel that the FF series is rapidly losing touch with it's fanbase is the fact that each game in the series does something different the previous game before it. Be it the Junction System from FF8, or Materia from FF7, or even the License Board in FF12. The only true constant in the FF series is that something will change in some shape or form. However there has been so much change the last couple of games that there very little to be recognized that the series is based on.
Take example of the Dragon Quest series for example. If you put Dragon Quest 1 along side Dragon Quest 8 or even 9 and compare the original title with the more recent one you can easily see comparisons and similarities to be had between the two.
However if you take FF1 and compare it with FF13, there is almost little to no recognition to be had between the two and one could almost think both games are from two completely different series.
I want that cohesiveness that gives the Final Fantasy games a recognizable image to return to. A level of familiarity somewhat.
I just want another FF title along the lines of something like FF6 or FF9. A massive adventure with some freedom of exploration, a conventional leveling and growth system, a medieval or steampunk setting filled with Knights and Sorcery in a traditional single player package. This is my hopes for the next idea single player FF game.
I just hope because FF14 used a medieval setting and was a failure doesn't doom future single player installments from trying such more classic FF approach.
And before it is stated "Why not just play one of the older games then if you want that then"
Because I want an entirely NEW game, with NEW characters, and NEW enemies, with it's own story and unique locales, but a modernized take on the medieval and classic FF formula, not a rehash of an old game to redundancy.
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New. Act. Raiser.
Where is it, Square Enix? WHERE?
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The last FF I bought was 12, I've had no interest in 13 sadly. It just doesn't look that cool. I think I like my FF medieval and magical looking. With knights and wizards. Maybe a ninja. Any how my favorite was Tactics, and they never did a sequel for a console. Why isn't there another Chrono game? Get Akira Toriyama, and make something that looks like Chrono Trigger in cartoon mode. Now that they can actually do games like that. That would be sweet, something like Dragon Quest VIII type but of course in the current HD quality. Heck they can remake the old RPGs I already have and love. That sort of thing would be fine with me, and they could introduce them to new players. I'm sure everyone would love FFVII totally redone right? Why did they make numerical FF games as MMORPG's anyhow? They should of just had some game called Final Fantasy Online. Not interested at all in any case. Shoot I don't have any square games on 360. Sad. There aren't any that look awesome to me. Half my ps1 games are from Square but only a few on ps2. I think they went down hill for me after ps1 then. But I prefer the RPGs on ps1 and SNES by far so I guess that's okay.
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SoulBlazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma are all sort of part of the same series sharing traits between one another in terms of story and gameplay progression (Basically needing to recreate the world after it was nearly destroyed). While they are Enix franchises they were developed by a company called Quintet.
SoulBlazer was horrible... I couldn't believe how horrible the plot was.
I would love to see 3d remakes of ff5 and ff6 like they did with ff4, though...
I just want another FF title along the lines of something like FF6 or FF9. A massive adventure with some freedom of exploration, a conventional leveling and growth system, a medieval or steampunk setting filled with Knights and Sorcery in a traditional single player package. This is my hopes for the next idea single player FF game.
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Because I want an entirely NEW game, with NEW characters, and NEW enemies, with it's own story and unique locales, but a modernized take on the medieval and classic FF formula, not a rehash of an old game to redundancy.
I agree completely.
To cut SE a little slack, the next Dissidia game looks cool.
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The thing is though FFXIV does not need to make a lot of sales to do well. For an online title, game sales are far LESS important then actual subscriptions and those that continue to give money to Square-Enix on a month to month basis.
Those people that buy the game try it out for a month or so aren't going to be an impact in the greater picture. However those individuals that have essentially spend $180 a year to keep playing the game and continue to spend to keep playing it is where Square will get most of it's money for the game.
They don't need to bank on initial sales like offline games do. Online titles are usually always in it for the long haul so if you have 40,000 subscribers all paying $15 a month for a year to play the game that will simply keep adding up.
$15 x 40000 people x 12 months a year = $7,200,000 a year.
Some of that money will obviously go into server maintenance, but a majority of it will be banked into Square-Enix's own corporate pocket.
Also unlike most offline games in which the content is mostly self contained and there is very little updates or expansion. Online games usually more often then not have constantly changing mechanics and improvements, many patches to fix bugs and continuously monitored aspects to keep it's userbase entertained and interest by throwing them virtual bones to chew on.
Unlike FFXIII which was an offline game which that initial $60 a customer paid to get the game is ALL Square-Enix will ever get from that one customer. However many, many people constantly funding cash to Square-Enix on a monthly basis will more then cover the expenses involved for development costs and whatever else that is needed to keep the game running.
I still want my modern take on classic FF though. I refuse to put my money down on another FFXIII.
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SoulBlazer was horrible... I couldn't believe how horrible the plot was.
I agree. And I actually didn't like Illusion of Gaia either. It's massively overrated. The most annoying thing about both Blazer and Gaia was that the dialogues were soooo long yet completely devoid of any useful information. The townsfolk in both games, especially Gaia, would never ever shut up. I also remember one particularly painful sequence in Gaia where you had to stand in a f**cking line. I mean.. REALLY? Terranigma is arguably the best game in the trilogy, and I'd definitely like to see a remake. Though even that game wouldn't crack my top 15 of favourite actionRPGs...
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Eh, I found 'em charming for their time, but I will agree that a lot of them have not aged well. I replayed Illusion of Gaia lately. I'm near the end at the pyramid. Just kinda stopped it an picked up Secret of Evermore, though. >:0
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I've already decided to look to The Last Story as the "real" next-gen FF. Versus 13 is also the last chance I'm giving SE (for big, console releases), though I'm not getting it day one like I used to. I'll probably end up just sticking with the remakes & Dissidia, from here on.
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I think Final Fantasy has been dying of cancer for a very long time. We've just now reached the point now where even the nimrods in the gaming press just can't deny it. If they had the balls to slap FF8 with that 4/10 score --FF:TSW would never have happened, Enix would never have bought out Squaresoft, and we wouldn't be attending this sad requiem. With Amano's art and Sakaguchi's direction gone, Uematsu's music is the only good thing Final Fantasy really has left... Squenix handed this franchise off to a bunch of posers and spawned all these spin-offs to milk the name. Just goes to show that hype and brand count for more than actual game content --that is, until this big Bahamut shit hits the Corporate Airship's rotor blades...
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Hey, I liked FF8. It's 12, 11, 10-2, the bountiful milking of FF7, and a lil bit of 10 and so on that I have problems with.
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I wanted to like VIII, but the junction system just 'drew' the fun out of it for me.
I like IX though!
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Any reason why you hated the junction system? Too over powered? cumbersome? etc?
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Well, I suppose it reminded me of waiting for enemies do do what I want back in FFV and FFVI in order to get their Blue Spells.
Because of my 'collect everything' mentality with these games, I would end up drawing a lot in a battle, which made it a pre-battle prerequisite that made the game a bit less fun for me. I realize that it's a personal problem though, it's not like there was something wrong game-wise.
The other thing I didn't like about the game was that it was realistic-looking and had another brooding hero. Even up to today, I have not been able to stand FFVII, and longed for the tiny sprites of FFVI to be shown to me on a more powerful system. Instead I got Squall... who seems to be a character that represent everything I hated in people at the time (I'm a positive dude, or I'd like to think I am, so I like qualities similar to what Locke, Edgar, and Sabin had in FFVI, or Bartz's adventuring spirit of FFV or the resolve to do what's right, that Cecil has in IV.... and then we get into hateful emo-ass Cloud in FFVII, followed by brooding emo Squall in FFVIII... the playful cool characters returned in FFIX with Zidane and his crew).
Even when I play Dissidia I get a guilty pleasure out of ripping Cloud and Squall (and Sephiroth) into little shreds with someone like Zidane, OnionKnight, or Kefka... just because I still hate their attitudes.
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Out of all the 3D FF games, FFIX was the best one and I was willing to play through the whole game. It might have had something to do with the battle system returning to a more simplified form rather then being unnecissarily complex. I've never really got into the 3D games but FFIX was an exception. I'd still prefer to play FFI through FFVI as they represented for their time, the opitimy of excilence and quality.
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Wait, they already have a fifteenth? O_o I have to pay more attention to this stuff.. Although I generally don't play MMOs
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Wait, they already have a fifteenth? O_o I have to pay more attention to this stuff.. Although I generally don't play MMOs
It's actually number fourteen, but yeah, it's out already. I read somewhere SquareEnix has already appologized for it being lackluster.
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Well, I suppose it reminded me of waiting for enemies do do what I want back in FFV and FFVI in order to get their Blue Spells.
Because of my 'collect everything' mentality with these games, I would end up drawing a lot in a battle, which made it a pre-battle prerequisite that made the game a bit less fun for me. I realize that it's a personal problem though, it's not like there was something wrong game-wise.
The other thing I didn't like about the game was that it was realistic-looking and had another brooding hero. Even up to today, I have not been able to stand FFVII, and longed for the tiny sprites of FFVI to be shown to me on a more powerful system. Instead I got Squall... who seems to be a character that represent everything I hated in people at the time (I'm a positive dude, or I'd like to think I am, so I like qualities similar to what Locke, Edgar, and Sabin had in FFVI, or Bartz's adventuring spirit of FFV or the resolve to do what's right, that Cecil has in IV.... and then we get into hateful emo-ass Cloud in FFVII, followed by brooding emo Squall in FFVIII... the playful cool characters returned in FFIX with Zidane and his crew).
Even when I play Dissidia I get a guilty pleasure out of ripping Cloud and Squall (and Sephiroth) into little shreds with someone like Zidane, OnionKnight, or Kefka... just because I still hate their attitudes.
I get ya on that, it took me forever to beat FF7 because I hated Cloud and most of the characters, and even more Sephiroth (ugh). But Squall was cool, imo.
As for the drawing system, yea.. I play like that too, where I usually end up spending a lot time collecting stuff. But really, if you didn't have to draw things like you did, most battles would be easy. Like Ultima Weapon, he was so easy when I didn't draw from him.. of course I had to reload because I forgot he had Ultima that I wanted to draw >.>
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Right! See, when I play games that do that I tend to grind and grind until I get something (it's how I got all the cards in Circle of the Moon right away; grind until I get an item drop). It was infuriating when I wouldn't get anything cool in FFVIII (edited, originally wrote XIII), and even more so when because I was waiting for something cool, I'd end up losing a character or something. And while Squall is cooler than Cloud (fucking sky-based names), he was still annoying to play.
Meanwhile it's a joy for me to play FFV and VI (IV is good too but I tend to grind on that one too only 'cuz at times it's hard since I play HardType).
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You know, thinking on their names... I can't help but think they... or atleat their names might be based on The Storm Riders characters. Wind and Cloud.
and uh... did you mean VIII or XIII?
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Every main Tetsuya Nomura designed character in the FF series or whatnot has always been named after weather patterns or things related to nature.
Cloud, Squall, Snow, Lightning.
Even Sora from Kingdom Hearts is also a victim of this naming scheme (Sora means Sky in Japanese)
This trend continues for FF Vs. XIII as well. The main characters Noctis and Stella and their full names basically mean Light and Darkness.
I suppose it's more interesting then naming the hero, Joe or Bob...or something common like that.
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Huh... I just looked it up and it seems you're right.
Only one I liked was Squall though. Cloud was a pansy in disguise. Snow was an idiot, and Lightning was a wannabe badass (as far as I can tell, since i didn't really play much of ff13 before I threw it away (not literally))
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Tidus is named after the tides, too.
I think only Zidane escaped this fate... but it probably means something weather-related in some language or something.
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and uh... did you mean VIII or XIII?
Fixed it. I meant VIII... though I did some things in XIII like that as well (although I never got far enough to know whether there is a stealing ability in that game). In that game I would grind to get points for leveliing up the fake-jobs system they had (what was with all the heavenly rings?).
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sometimes i feel like i'm the only person in the world that greatly enjoyed XIII :( Was it a great game compared to others in series, not really but hey, all its failures were easily overlooked. Just don't mind the many empty bottles of Jack Daniels around the room that i consumed to get through it :P
But as for XIV, thank god its getting bad reviews. Otherwise i might have picked it up, and believe me, my marriage couldn't survive me becoming addicted to an MMO again. She almost left me because i was so insane about XI. So much so that whenever she saw me bring home 13 she gave me a look that would make the greatest of evils quiver with fear and she threatened divorce. Like really, i was "that guy" you always hear about that lets his life fall apart for a video game. It took me almost as many hours to convince her it was nothing like XI as i put into getting the 840/1000 gamerscore.
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^That's pretty sad dude... but on the bright side, it means you can get so interested in somethign that you really go crazy over it.... me, nothing really interests me that much. I mean, there are games and other stuff that I really like but nothing that makes me that obsessive.
Only thing that might've done it was Diablo. I was pretty into that for a good long while, but even that dissipated... and I was like 12 when I played it.
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Dude, if this wife of yours gets pissed because of a game you like, then she isn't deserving of you. When it comes to marrage there should be an equal understanding and acceptance about things from both sides of the marrage. If she can't understand how you can love the things that make you happy, then she's the one who'll eventually ruin the commitment to you. No offense on your personal life of course, I just feel annoyed by a person's inability to fully analyse something before they get all steemed up about it.
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I'm not taking her side or anything, but I bet she felt he rather played FFXI than spent time with her. There should always be room for personal interests, and it's totally give-and-take and everything... but online gaming tends to completely ABSORB the person, and that is very frustrating for the girlfriend/boyfriend... You can't sit each and every night in front of your computer playing a game and expect people to accept that. Also, you probably spend more time in front of the game than you would really admit. 1-2 hours of gaming each night may not seem a lot to you, but it actually kinda is to others... And I bet most people spend even more time than that with their MMORPGs.
Which is why I'm single right now, LOL.
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That's very true too.
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yah it absorbed me. the worst point was just before i quit i had literally spent almost 72 hours w/ no sleep, barely eaten anything, no shower, way to much caffeine, speed and a bunch of painkillers because my hips and knees would hurt from sitting indian style for so long w/o moving. Only thing that stopped it was i had to go to work, and while at work i thought i was having a heart attack at age 27. Turned out the drugs/caffeine and 0 sleep had caught up with me.
that was the worst it ever was, but yeah when i got home from work, the first place id go would be to my PC. I would go entire weekends with my wife in the next room and not once would i see her face to face. I mean really...... my wife would come in the PC room naked and dance to get my attention and my eyes wouldnt even move from the screen.
I finally woke up though, been clean from drugs and MMORPG for 2 almost 3 years and i have my eyes and attention on my wife more than anything else now. Cept for the past few weeks cuz i been playing castlevania ;D She is ok with that though cuz i actually turn it off when it needs to be turned off.
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Dude, I'd say you were lying, but that would imply I have some faith in humanity... which I've lost long long long ago.
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Final Fantasy has been downhill ever since Enix merged with Square. If I recall, X-2, XI, XII, XIII, and XIV were all under Square-Enix. The only FF I've liked out of that bunch is XIII. Even then, I wouldn't say XIII is great. Good, but definitely far from the best FF in the series. I will say that VI and IX are the best in the series in my opinion.
I could never get into XI at all, so I didn't even bother looking into XIV. I'm not a big MMORPG person. I used to be with 2D MMORPGs years ago, but I never really play any MMORPGs now.