Topic: Final Fantasy XIII

[Aridale]

I havent cared about FF since 6. 12 was pretty good I liked the gambit system and how you didnt have to control each member if ya didnt want but that was about it. I played the new CC on Wii... its meh

[Inccubus]

I'd like to note that I do not under any circumstances consider the CC series to have anything even remotely like the idea of a possible connection the Final Fantasy.

The sequels of FFT are mostly crap, and I hate the character designer. The only game that can be considered a pseudo-sequel to FFT is Vagrant Story and that's actually a pretty good game. And lookie there! They didn't even have to name it after FF or Tactics.

[shelverton.]

Bleh. I'm so over this series is not even funny.
Looking back at the entire FF series I only really care about 4, 6 and 9. I did find 12 reasonably enjoyable for 15 hours or so, but then I lost interest.

I played FF Tactics Advance and didn't like it. It's so repetitive, especially compared to Shining Force or Fire Emblem (love them).

All my favorite RPG series are fucking up completely.
- Final Fantasy is not even an RPG anymore.
- Suikoden is probably dead.
- Shining-series is Japan-only nowadays (and terrible).
- Phantasy Star has turned into dungeon crawling at its absolute worst.
- Seiken Densetsu is just... oh. dear.

I want Dragon Quest IX.

[Profbeanburrito]

All my favorite RPG series are fucking up completely.

I agree, I loved the Seiken Densetsu series, but only 4 are actually good, Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and Legend of Mana.
And I love Wild Arms, but only 1-3 were good.
And I absolutly loved Brave Fencer Musashi and they fucked that up with a terrible sequel. Thank god they didn't do anything to fuck up Threads of Fate.

[Kale]

But Threads of Fate never came out with a sequel right?
Brave Fencer 2 I haven't played but my friend said pretty much the same as you did.

It's sad that I can go back and play FF8, FFT, Suikoden 1 and 2, Valkyrie Profile and enjoy it immensely, but the new ones is maybe a one time run through.

[Munchy]

I've watched my bro play this game a lot. Looks phenomenal, but Vanille's voice is like nails scratching a chalkboard in hell. I wish she'd pick a damn accent and stick with it. It's like hearing someone out of a B-movie.

Seeing how much shitty stuff I like, Vanille wouldn't bother me so much if she wasn't constantly jabbering about sunshine or flowers or beach balls and the cutscenes didn't practically scream, "SHE'S CUTE! ISN'T SHE CUTE? LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS! LOOK OR I'LL KILL YOU!"

Sazh is cool, though. You'd think he'd be more concerned about his hair, though; wouldn't the chocobo crap all over it?

[shelverton.]

I agree, I loved the Seiken Densetsu series, but only 4 are actually good, Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and Legend of Mana.

Yeah, that's where its at. Though Sword of Mana was incredibly short, even shorter than the original b&w Gameboy game. Unless you count both quests, but I only played through the hero quest.

While FF13 is not doing it for me at all, I still have some faith in the RPG genre. Valkyria Chronicles was absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to play the sequel (which should've been on the PS3, but I can settle for PSP is its even half as good as its predecessor.)
I also love Lost Odyssey, and like someone already pointed out - this is in many ways more Final Fantasy than FF13.

I'm also thinking about taking a look at the Tales-series. I loved Eternal Sonata (which isn't even a Tales game, but some call it Tales of Chopin so I guess there are similarities).

I will probably play through FF13 one day, but right now I'd rather pick up Resonance of Fate. Anyone tried it? It looks kinda interesting.

[Inccubus]

Dawn of Mana blew, but most of the rest of the series is pretty damn good.
I recommended to anyone that hasn't played Seiken Densetsu 3 yet to dust off their emulators and grab a translation patch for it.
Threads of Fate was a good game too.

[Profbeanburrito]

Because I love the Mana games I forced myself through Dawn, Children and Heroes. I didn't finish Heroes but it wasn't terrible. And Dawn wasn't too bad. When you see Flammie in Dawn for the first time and hear that music it so awesome!

[shelverton.]

Because I love the Mana games I forced myself through Dawn, Children and Heroes. I didn't finish Heroes but it wasn't terrible. And Dawn wasn't too bad. When you see Flammie in Dawn for the first time and hear that music it so awesome!

Dawn was never released in Europe, dunno why. But I've heard the soundtrack and it's awesome!
I hear Dawn has level-by-level progression, and you're "rated" after each stage, like in some action game? I mean, who would want that? Does that make it really linear too? Also, you only level up within each level, and then you loose all your experience points when you go to the next level? Not that I know if this is good or bad, but it doesn't sound much like an RPG at all. Makes me wonder why they couldn't just give us something like Secret of Mana, but in 3D.

SquareEnix really seem to go out of their way to not ever make a new Seiken Densetsu with some of the flavour that made Secret of Mana one of the most loved SNES games of all time. It's like they WANT the franchise to fail - both critically and sales-wise - by turning the whole series into an experimental melting pot of really irrational ideas that they are afraid to try out in their other franchises. "Oh, an unused gameplay idea that nobody really liked? Let's put it in our next Seiken Densetsu game and see what happens!"

Sorry for being off topic. I'll stop now.

[Inccubus]

Yeah, that starting 'fresh' in every level and even the fact that there are levels was really stupid.
The game probably didn't come out in Europe because sales in Japan and the US were pathetic.
Squre seriously needs to stop re-imagining everything they produce. Not everything is Final Fantasy.
And more often than not if it ain't broke, they really need to leave that bitch alone.