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Ten Years of FFXIII?
IGN is reporting that the next game in the Final Fantasy series will probably be around for quite a while. If Square/Enix has anything to say about it, we'll be playing the FFXIII family of games for the next ten years. "Although speaking with a Nintendo magazine, Hashimoto brought up Final Fantasy XIII as a comparison for Square Enix's decision to expand upon the FFVII storyline through the Compilation project years after the game's original release. 'Different from something like VII, which we expanded upon afterwards, with Fabula Nova Crystallis FFXIII, we've thought about an expansive world setting from the start. Under the idea of wanting everyone to be sucked into the world for 10 years, we're preparing a number of categories.' He likened this approach to films like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings." Chris Kohler took the time to point out that, in the same interview, the Square folks stated they're still not entirely convinced about this whole Virtual Console thing. "We feel that the Japanese game market still requires [physical] media. Also, FF and Dragon Quest are played by a wide range of users, from children to adults, so there are limitations when you consider the problems that we would have with billing systems."
Remember how Square-Enix announced that FFX was going to be the last single-player Final Fantasy and that all other Final Fantasies after that were going to be multi-player online games?
How many people here can even name the Final Fantasy MMORPG correctly, let alone ever played it for more than a few months? (Of course, that could always have something to do with the WoW beta starting a few months after it was released in the US, along with Square-Enix following Sony's "fuck Europe" technique, causing it to be released in Europe just a few months before WoW was.)
In short, they've completely given up on the Final Fantasy MMORPG strategy. The existing one is still around, but very few people still play it, and they've continued to make single player games.
My point is this: Square-Enix has made these grand Final Fantasy statements before. When they realized it was failing, they changed course. So I expect you're right, that the plan will be a massive failure, but that they'll simply adapt, and we'll see FFXIV some 5-6 years after FFXIII is released.
The "ineffective" feature is actually the best part of FF1. Adds a bit of tactical depth, rather than the "hit A until you win" battle system of all the other FF games.
FFT: Lion War for psp
FFT: advance 2 for DS
The FF's are a little different than your normal series. They are all (until now, apparently) entirely different games with entirely different settings. Each game is a brand new experience, nd are driven by their plot and battle system.
The main difference in all of the games is usually how you learn your techniques. For instance:
FF1 has set jobs
FF4 has jobs that you can change
FF7 has Materia that you equip to use abilities
FF8 has a finite supply of spells that you collect from certain spots on the map.
FF9 has you learning abilities by using weapons and armor for a while
FF10 has the Sphere Grid
FF12 has the License board
The characters all usually fall into four categories:
- Caster (Black)
- Healer (White)
- Fighter ("Main Tank")
- Support (Abilities)
The way each game is set up, in terms of learning abilities, slightly alters the gameplay. They also all have different forms of super-attacks. Usually you fill up some kind of bar through damage taken, magic, and various other rules. They results of these special attacks are different in each game, and sometimes require a mini-game like challenge to make them more powerful.
Because they all have different settings and characters, they do not get dull and the game is kept fresh. They have high-quality, borderline (if not) epic stories that can really draw you in. They way everything works out is like a great movie that's 40 hours long. But they are not movie games (Xenosaga...) and the battles and gameplay in between are often exciting enough to hold you over. There is certain level of strategy needed (mostly in boss battles) because Square makes the enemies (mostly bosses) so unique. Each boss (usually) requires a different strategy.
Because they are all different, you should not think of them as sequels, but more of a continuation of an idea. That idea being incredible story-telling combined with fun gameplay, that (recently) pushes the envelope in terms of console graphical power. They look pretty and do it in style.
I hope that explained a little bit.
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I'm not sure if I like this idea. The fact that the worlds are ever-changing is a big draw for FF. You never know what to expect next in terms of story, or (to a lesser extent) gameplay. sticking with the same universe for an entire decade seems like a bad idea. I don't want FF to morph into all the other RPGs by loosing the unique worlds it brings with each game.
I think you should go back and play it again.
"What was Cloud's character? He was a characterless ass"
Cloud was a child who wanted to aspire to greatness and become one of the world's elite warriors (solider) attempting to be like his hero Sephiroth. He made a promise to his closest friend (Tifa) that he would not return until he achieved this goal and was someone the village could be proud of. After leaving his home and everyone he cared about behind, he failed in becoming a solider. Cloud felt shamed by this to such an extent that he refused to be seen by anyone that knew him before he left to try.
Cloud then got work as a generic shinra bodyguard guarding the man that he idolized and another solider who achieved in everything that he failed, Zack. During the course of the missions they were assigned to Zack and cloud became friends. On a later mission with the two soldiers he arrived back at his home town. Sephiroth went berserk for an undisclosed reason during this mission killing the other bodyguards, many of the people in the town, and seriously inuring both Zack and Tifa. Enraged by seeing this cloud attacked Sepheroth with Zack's sword even though he was no match for him.
After this confrontation with his former hero both cloud and Zack were nearing death and were then captured and experimented on by a shinra doctor. They remained in captivity being experimented on for years being injected with the cells and dna of jenova. These experiments left clouds already unstable mind a wreck. Cloud could no longer distinguish between his true past and the goals that he aspired to. Eventually Cloud and Zack were considered failures by the doctor and were to be disposed of. Cloud and Zack were able to escape from the mansion that they were experimented on but were not able to evade their pursuers. Eventually they were found and Zack was killed and cloud was left for dead as an unstable wreck who couldn't even remember his own name.
After wandering for a little while Tifa, Clouds old friend, found Cloud huddled over in midgar Tifa then picked cloud up and convinced him that his name was cloud and that he was a member of solider not knowing at that point that this is actually the boy that she used to know. At this point Cloud took some of his foggy memories and put them together creating a persona that he was a member of solider and did succeed in his childhood dream taking Zack's identity as his own.
And that brings us to the beginning of the game.
There are plot backgrounds and story ties with the other main characters in the game just as deep. There were reasons for everyone's actions and no character was the way you describe them.
You can say that you don't like the game and that's fine, but FFVII was far from shallow. Really if you think FFVII is as shallow as you described you really either didn't pay attention when playing (if you even played all the way through) or just are stuck on the elitist early gen RPGs and the only good RPGs mentality