Topic: Final Fantasy XIV gets trashed

[Mystic Myotis]

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.

...

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.

[OmegaDL50]

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.

[shelverton.]

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...

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

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

[RegalX7]

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.

[cecil-kain]

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...

[Kale]

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.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

I wanted to like VIII, but the junction system just 'drew' the fun out of it for me.
I like IX though!

[Kale]

Any reason why you hated the junction system? Too over powered? cumbersome? etc?

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

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.

[X]

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.

-X

[phillinator]

Wait, they already have a fifteenth? O_o I have to pay more attention to this stuff.. Although I generally don't play MMOs

[shelverton.]

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.

[Kale]

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 >.>

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

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).