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Final Fantasy IX Pics And Info
_xeno_ writes "psx.ign.com has a story that includes screen shots about Final Fantasy IX. This game is the last Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation, as future FF games will be for the PlayStation2. Apparently FFIX will be going back to the older-school Final Fantasy - that means swords and sorcery, MP, shorter summons, and characters that are drawn anime-style as opposed to FFVIII's attempt at having 'realistic' characters." Hey, maybe this time we won't have a big soap opera, either. A guy can dream, can't he?
I am personally a huge fan of computer RPGs and have been playing them since back in the days of the Bard's Tale and the early Ultimas, and it's great to see that the genre is still improving even today.
But what I'm writing about is the worrying trend in these games in which the stories neglect the basic premises of morality and decency. The Ultima series promoted its "Virtues", and you won by doing things in a decent Christian way. As such I would feel fine about my six year old son playing them, because they would be both having a lot of fun and being taught morality and ethics.
But the recent trend in Japanese games is getting worrying - the main character in this is a 16-year old thief, and what kind of values does that teach our children? That thieves are actually "good guys" and that their criminal natures are actually assets to them in real life? This kind of thing is not what we should be allowing our kids to be exposed to at a young age.
The other main thing I am concerned about is the overtly pagan nature of these games, with their "religions" and "dieties" which are in direct contradiction with the truth of God. I mean, it's all very well for adults to be exposed to these themes, as we are well aware of the pitfalls inherent within them, but children are much more malleable and are vulnerable to such ideas. What we need is a more Christian take on the CRPG genre - a game that teaches children the Christian values that will serve them well in later life as they take their place in society.
I'd almost think you were one of the lunatic fringee. But you're still an obvious fake; you're not capitalizing enough words. This has the effect that you don't sound arrogant enough.
In particular, you forgot to capitalize "Truth of God." Any real lunatic-zealot would have done that. "Pagan" would probably have been capitalized too.
You also forgot to mention Hell, that favorite subject of the Christian Right (don't ask me why; look through the entire Bible and you'll find that Hell isn't even mentioned once). Any decent lunatic zealot would have mentioned that in some way or another.
I should also point out that you seem to know little about Ultima. It does indeed promote its "Virtues," but it never mentions God, thus how can you know it promotes doing things in a "decent Christian way"? While most lunatic zealots do tend to misinterpret and overblow things, but they're a bit more careful than that.
Finally, you didn't outright advocate the banning of RPG's. Any self-respecting lunatic-zealot (if such a thing can be said to exist) would have dont that. For that matter, you aren't angry enough; the Christian Right is always angry about anything against which it rants.
Satirizing the Christian Right is a fun thing, and I wholeheartedly endorse it. I've done it myself, once or twice. You've shown no small talent in doing it, too; look at all the people you've fooled. But you still need a bit of practice. Unfortunately, the Church of the Mighty Lamb (the satirical site which brought us such gems as "Satan Trek," "Blasphemy 5," "Darth Pimp," "Pervert Pooh," and "My Little Pony is a WHORE!") appears to be gone, or I'd link to it. It's a great example of mocking the Christian Right; the long list of hate-mail shows you just how effective it is at fooling people. Certainly required reading for religious satirists.
Eeek.. there's me still not player FF8 yet! Not done so as I can't spare the week of life it'll alost certainly lose me once I start playing. FF7 nearly destroyed a month of my life a couple of years ago!
heh
troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
It's Ironic that a Game callded Fanal Fantasy spawned 7 sequels... and a 9th is coming..
It's almost enough to make me want to learn Japanese, since that was teh only way to play FFV for a long time. Then some rom hackers went and did an unnoficial translation.
FFVI (or FFIII) was one of the best games ever released - easily the best of teh series. I actually bought an NTSC super nintendo to play it because there were bugs when runnign it on my PAL unit. But they're jsut always such vast and sprawling events that it take smoths to find everything - I've still to complete the card queen quest in my current FFVIII game before I head off to face Adel in the Lunatic Pandora.
I can't Wait...
Hey, this site doesn't seem to have that much new stuff ... the place with the cool FFIX interviews and previews for ages has been Final Fantasy Online which has some wicked Q&A's with the creators and dudes behind the FF series. Japanese slant to it, of course.
:-)
Oh, and they got walkthroughs, not that I needed them
Despite the advances in technology, I have enjoyed no game more than the original FFI. If any FF game were to be ported to Linux, I wish, I really wish, it would be FFI. (Well, there are always ROMs...) Cheers!
...and as such, I say PHOOEY!
The best Final Fantasy gaming platform is the Super NES!
Damn CD's. Damn video clips. Damn 3D graphics.
^!@#%$^!$&*!!!
;)
-- www.bteg.com | bleh.n3.net | hac47.dhs.org
10? Hey why not "Zelda 2000" or "Zelda Millenium"
;->
All opinions are my own - until criticized
A while ago, Penny Arcade had up 3 movies, featuring gameplay from FF9 and 10, and concept art for FF11 (apparently a MMRPG.) They took it down about a day after it went up, perhaps becuase it was bootlegged out of a theatre. The stuff from FF9 looks great, but FF10...It took me a few times watching it to realize it wasn't a prerendered animation sequence I was watching, but actual gameplay of the main guy running around. Friggin' Amazing. I don't know if it was posted anywhere else, but it's probably worth finding them to see it. The movies are about 3 min each.
"You should never have your best trousers on when you turn
"You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth."
-Henrik Ib
I am a Christian myself, but I find myself not really agreeing with you at all on several points.
First, it is annoying that you seem to ignore the values espoused by all other religions. This is the type of thinking which has lead to needless "Holy Wars" between cultures who have far more in common than not.
Personally, I feel that RPGs are getting much better. The hero isn't some perfect, shining figure that always does everything right. That's not the least bit realistic, especially if the character is supposed to be a human. The "anti-hero" philosophy is very attractive to me; yes, sometimes the "hero" screws up, sometimes they make bad decisions, sometimes people die. This is life. Of course, life doesn't have Cure3 and Airships, but more realism makes for a more enjoyable game--at least, when it is played by humans. You do believe that all people are flawed sinners, correct? Why would you want to present an image of something else to children, and give them the wrong idea? As they say, nobody's perfect.
Also, you MUST be able to question your beliefs if they are true. If your beliefs are truly so strong, and you are certain of your faith, then you should feel not at all threatened by made-up religions in video games. I didn't go off and start worshipping Espers after playing zillions of hours of Final Fantasy 6, even though it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen. That's ridiculous.
Sorry for going offtopic on this, but it as someone who both believes in God and loves RPGs, it really struck a nerve...
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
PLEASE tell me that someone will go over the artwork in this game before they port this to non-japan... It's bad enough this character wears makeup, dresses in lace, and has prada boots, but is a HUGE FLESH TONE PENIS SHAPED DILDO SWORD REALLY NECESSARY? Who drew this?
penis-sword character at http://www.ffonline.com/1_ff9tgs/zidan313minaba.jp g
-troll taker
Also, are Final Fantasy #2-9 supposed to be contradicting or was the success of Final Fantasy #1 totally unexpected? :)
The Final Fantasy series is not inflating the numbers. In Japan there have been 8 different Final Fantasy games released. Role playing games in Japan are insanely popular, to the point that the government asks ompanies to release them on Saturday's to reduce the number of kids skipping school to get the new game.
They are planning on releasing an anthology containing several of the final fantasy games that we here in the states missed. Don't know any detials, but I'm sure if you look you can find them.
--Travis
"You can't fight in here! This is the war room" --Dr. Stra
Surely if children are so easily influenced, it would be just as damaging to introduce Christian values and teachings into games. How about the myriad of other religions? At least by using deities which are known to be fictional, there is no unfair bias to any religious group by the designers of the game. I have no objection to the game promoting values, but they should be presented from a non-religious aspect - is it such an unusual notion that people could treat each other with respect just because life is better that way, rather than doing it because a particular religious group claims that a deity requests it. This isn't intended as Troll-bait, but I'll not be surprised if it ends up that way.
FF, with the exception of the very early ones(which didn't even have
*characters*), has *always* has deep and meaningful stories...or soaps, if
you want to call them that.
FF2/4's Rosa/Cecil, Rydia's tragic loss of her mother(*you* *kill* *her*
*mom*), Edward's loss of Anna at the Battle of Damcyan, Edge being forced
to kill his own horribly disfigured parents, the darkly honorable
Rubicant, the prodigal Golbez, the sacrificial Cid...
The rest of the series hasn't been much different, though I do
agree--something did change, and it wasn't altogether perfect.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com