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Final Fantasy is going through a Midlife Identity Crisis - Opinion

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Looks absolutely epic to me



Sorry to hear your can't move on from old fashioned turn based combat OP. That's what your entire argument centres around. FF is a high production narrative driven adventure game and experience. Emphasising the journey of a certain set of characters, focusing on themes of heroism/friendship in a changing world.

If the new series visionaries/developers and new hardware tech available means they can produce new gameplay ideas within that framework, then let them instead of holding them back to these archaic whims of what FF is.


I'm really interested to see how this plays out for them. I wonder if we will ever get numbers on how it is selling vs past entries.

I'm all for developers trying new things, I hope it pays off for them and see how it resonates with fans of the series both longterm and any new fanbases it can reach to.

I thought final fantasy VII Remake was really something great so I'm really looking forward to part 2 on that.
 
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SCB3

Member
Well we haven't had a proper mainline one since 13 (which was 14 years ago, btw). 14 was a mmo after all and 15 was just versus redressed because they could.
Was about to to call you out but then I realised that you're right, I'd completely forgot that 15 wasn't originally a mainline entry

That also makes me think, wtf is Type-0 then? Wasn't that supposed to be 15 as well? Or 13? I've not played it so can't say for sure
 

hyperbertha

Member
Yea, Jill looks objectively better. The fibers from her shirt, the strands of hair. The lighting, the gloss on her skin from sweat. All running in real time, unlike FFXIII which was a precanned cinematic.

You are literally mental if you think FFXIII looks better than XVI.
This is a joke post right? The cg cutscenes in 13 destroy anything we've seen from 16 so far. Cg in most games still destroy 16.
 
I'm really interested to see how this plays out for them. I wonder if we will ever get numbers on how it is selling vs past entries.

I'm all for developers trying new things, I hope it pays off for them and see how it resonates with fans of the series both longterm and any new fanbases it can reach to.

I thought final fantasy VII Remake was really something great so I'm really looking forward to part 2 on that.

Well the difference here is that its a SE title. I'm not sure how willing they are to share sales with us.

I'm sure we will get a good idea on how it's doing when it comes out. Really curious to see how critics receive this title and if it boosts sales of the system.

If I was you I wouldn't worry about it since it's a PS5 title.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Well the difference here is that its a SE title. I'm not sure how willing they are to share sales with us.

I'm sure we will get a good idea on how it's doing when it comes out. Really curious to see how critics receive this title and if it boosts sales of the system.

If I was you I wouldn't worry about it since it's a PS5 title.

Why would I not want to play it if its a really great game?

Where do you think I'm going to play ffviir part 2? Lol

I think you have me mixed up with someone who doesn't like games due to the platform and someone who just likes really good games and not over hyped over reviewed middling games.

On ps5, great games I have played a lot or to completion listed below:

Demons souls
Returnal - goty
Ratchet- fun romp, but not as good as the others
Ghost of tsushima - overall a good game but a little dull in places
Gran turismo 7 - really, really great!
Ffviiri - awesome
Spider man miles morales - amazing

So the only middling game I've played is ragnarok on ps5....no interest in horizon right now but I will give it a go, if they don't take it off premium.

I'm an all platform owning player, who has big love for Nintendo and leans green rat and PC on the next gen High performance console / platform. Still play a lot of playstation, I just don't trust blue snakes lol 😆
 
Why would I not want to play it if its a really great game?

Where do you think I'm going to play ffviir part 2? Lol

I think you have me mixed up with someone who doesn't like games due to the platform and someone who just likes really good games and not over hyped over reviewed middling games.

On ps5, great games I have played a lot or to completion listed below:

Demons souls
Returnal - goty
Ratchet- fun romp, but not as good as the others
Ghost of tsushima - overall a good game but a little dull in places
Gran turismo 7 - really, really great!
Ffviiri - awesome
Spider man miles morales - amazing

So the only middling game I've played is ragnarok on ps5....no interest in horizon right now but I will give it a go, if they don't take it off premium.

I'm an all platform owning player, who has big love for Nintendo and leans green rat and PC on the next gen High performance console / platform. Still play a lot of playstation, I just don't trust blue snakes lol 😆

I'm just saying I wouldn't really worry about performance since it's on a platform where FF typically does well.

I honestly think you got me mixed up with someone else.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I'm just saying I wouldn't really worry about performance since it's on a platform where FF typically does well.

I honestly think you got me mixed up with someone else.

I apologise, I completely miss interpreted your post as I've just woken up. My bad, I thought you were implying I shouldn't worry about the title as it's a ps5 game...

My bad, dude. ❤️
 
I apologise, I completely miss interpreted your post as I've just woken up. My bad, I thought you were implying I shouldn't worry about the title as it's a ps5 game...

My bad, dude. ❤️

That's OK. I definitely wasn't saying your going to skip it because it's a PS5 exclusive.

So far it does look really nice and hopefully they get the sales that they want from it. I would hate to see a great game perform poorly. Although I'm not very worried about it since it's on a platform where FF typically performs well.

But of course if it's good I'll definitely get it despite its sales performance.

I didn't enjoy FF15 that much due to the road trip with friends theme behind it. Thankfully this one doesn't look anything like that.
 
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Yea, Jill looks objectively better. The fibers from her shirt, the strands of hair. The lighting, the gloss on her skin from sweat. All running in real time, unlike FFXIII which was a precanned cinematic.

You are literally mental if you think FFXIII looks better than XVI.
Ummm… lol. My point is that CG Lightning looks much better than in-game Jill.

You are also completely delusional if you’re seriously trying to claim that Jill’s in-game model looks better than Lightning’s CG model. If you’re saying what the dev team is pulling off with Jill’s in-game model is more impressive to you than a “pre-canned” CG model… who cares. The in-game models for this game are not impressive. And top-of-the-line CGI will always be better than top-of-the-line in-engine visuals, so I want my eye candy.

It’s also very telling that the most visually impressive scenes shown so far, the Titan Vs Shiva and Odin Vs Bahamut scenes, are the scenes with tons of “background pre-rendered elements” as Yoshi-P admitted back in June 2022 in a Famitsu interview.

But all the gamers that so badly want to say their fav game “LOOKS LIKE CG” want to ignore any smoke and mirrors the devs use.
 
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CG cutscenes are gone and aren’t coming back due to size limitations

You want 500 GB games?
Since when?

COD MWII just released and it has over 20 minutes of CG cutscenes.

Diablo IV has CG cutscenes.

Destiny 2 has CG cutscenes.

FFVIIR has over 20 minutes of CG cutscenes, Rebirth and Part 3 will be using them as well.

KHIII had over 40 minutes of CG cutscenes (though of varying quality).

Dragon Quest XI had around 20 minutes of CG cutscenes. Dragon Quest X gets CG cutscenes in updates and expansions. DQXII will surely have them as well.

Need I go on?
 
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Methos#1975

Member
I agree in a fashion and I would personally love to see another big budget AAA turn based FF, but ultimately I realize that this would probably be Financial suicide for SE. Dragon Quest 11 is the last major AAA turn based RPG released and while it broke sales records in the US selling 2 million copies, that is still pretty niche compared to the sales most FF main entries see. That's just the unfortunate reality here, turn based focused games just aren't popular enough anymore to make them worth pursuing in two big AAA series.
 

Nautilus

Banned
I hope Square Enix revives that cancelled soulslike game 'Final Fantasy Fortress' and makes it into FF 17.
maxresdefault.jpg
I never heard about this. What's this all about?
 

Nautilus

Banned
The second one. They are definitely followers now.


That's how I felt too although a lot of people have very different takes on FF7R, and they will likely screw all that up and over-indulge their more pretentious side with embarrassing meta twists that ruin everything in part 2 because Square.

The FF we loved is dead. Enjoy the very pretty action game with fancy summons and cringey drama and look to other developers like Atlus and Monoliftsoft for the future of epic jrpg adventures.

Given their modern day ineptitude at making interesting characters and scenarios, the best we could hope for from them with regards to getting something that feels up to date but also like a Final Fantasy game would be if Squeenix did high quality remakes of all their old games, capcom style, which would probably take about 7 years per game.
Yeah, you are probably right. Which is quite a sad thing to admit.
 

Myths

Member
Most arguments of this topic tends to selectively sample a segment of the life cycle of some entity then use an argument of tradition as the crux. Cherry-picking portions of things to make a claim of why it should stay or continue to have that identity is fairly nonsensical. Nothing stands still against time.m, change is inevitable with choices made thereof being deliberate.
 

mortal

Gold Member
We've been hearing this stuff since OG FFVII came out when old school fans venerated FFVI.

Then again with FFX.
Then again with FFXII.
Then again with FFXV.

The entire appeal of standalone Final Fantasy entries is the reinvention and variety between them, in terms of narrative, art design, and game design.

This is not an identity crisis. If FF games were more of the same with less reinvention, I'd stop giving a shit a long time ago.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
We've been hearing this stuff since OG FFVII came out when old school fans venerated FFVI.

Then again with FFX.
Then again with FFXII.
Then again with FFXV.

The entire appeal of standalone Final Fantasy entries is the reinvention and variety between them, in terms of narrative, art design, and game design.

This is not an identity crisis. If FF games were more of the same with less reinvention, I'd stop giving a shit a long time ago.
Well lot of people have stop giving a shit just for those reasons.
 

Synless

Member
What are some of you trying to prove comparing real-time graphics with CG?

Of course CG looks better. What a stupid fucking comparison to bitch about.
 

mortal

Gold Member
Well lot of people have stop giving a shit just for those reasons.
And given that the series is more popular than its ever been, not less, the significant majority of fans still give a shit because all of those aforementioned reasons.

The standalone format of Final Fantasy is the reason why there are often list wars between fans.
Again, there were people arguing about FF entries loosing their roots or identity since the 90's.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Series is slowly becoming irrelevant bar the mmorpg.
Agreed. I've stated it before but the only IP I look forward to from Square these days is Dragon Quest. FFXVI primarily looks like a over the top Spectacle Fighter. It's probably just going to be a DMC/Bayo/Asura's Wrath kind of game at it's core.

To this day I still feel FFIX is probably the best Final Fantasy ever put out in the grand scheme of things and FFXI is the superior MMO.
 

mortal

Gold Member
Exactly lol. Far more people stopped giving a shit about FF because Square couldn't decide what to do with it, and sales stagnated.
That doesnt make any sense. If "far more people" stopped giving a shit, then we would've seen sales decline with each new entry.
The commercial success of the new entries literally proves the opposite of this, even the ones that aren't as well received critically.
The series is literally the most popular and successful that it's ever been.

Nautilus Nautilus Yup, I figured you had no actual counter argument. Just stick to the reaction emoji I guess 🤔

Also:

If you aren't a fan of recent entries that's perfectly fine. Hell, no one is going to like every single game.
Even as a lifelong FF fan that's been playing these games since the 90's, there are some entries I like more than others and some that I dislike. I'm sure every FF fan can relate.

Series is slowly becoming irrelevant bar the mmorpg.
lol what? That's patently false.
 
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Raven117

Gold Member
You are young. I’d say the “midlife crisis” started with 10… which led to 13.

12 and 14 (being one of the best final fantasy in the entire series) are more true to form.

Regardless, things change. FF was always meant to be "new." lets just see what they come up with.

YoshiP absolutely knows FF
 
After Sakaguchi left Square two constellations of teams were developing FF. One, the team that had Wada's support, wanted to move it in an adolescent anime schlock direction, this is where we get X-2, XIII its sequels, XV, and VIIR. The other was initially led by Matsuno, Sakaguchi's preferred successor, and wanted to take FF into a more mature direction reminiscent of the tone of Tactics. Matsuno was forced out during the development of XII, but his protégés have pretty much constituted the XIV team and are now in charge of XVI.

Suffice it to say that XVI is almost certainly more in line with Sakaguchi's preferences for the series than the nonsense the other team has been up to for the last almost two decades.
 

Rush2112

Banned
cant possibly be worse than FF13 and 15. one had all combat mapped to the A button and the other was a crappy ass open world with boy band characters.

At least I recognize this guy from heavensward. he made one good game maybe he can make another.
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Most of the people who say “Final Fantasy should go back to turn based” aren’t even interested in playing such a game. These are the same people who would just find 1000 other things to bitch about.

More like, they see themselves as more sophisticated and intellectually superior to all those shallow action gamers and they feel personally offended that the biggest JRPG series has forsaken them. A new turn-based FF would be like an apology that validates their identity and tells them “you were right all along”
 

simpatico

Member
Well we haven't had a proper mainline one since 13 (which was 14 years ago, btw). 14 was a mmo after all and 15 was just versus redressed because they could.

Also lets be real here, industries change. Unless you're Nintendo you cant just pander to nostalgia and remain successful. And traditional 3D JRPG's just aren't in right now.



Well that one can easily be explained at least (if not justified). Ryota Suzuki is "combat director" and him not making a Devil May Cry style game would be weird.
I'm not so sure. If Square went completely back to the roots and released a old school turn based FF with high res sprites and backgrounds it could be huge. They're trying to meet a demanded that no one has demanded. FFIX is the last 'real' Final Fantasy and everyone loved it.
 

Nautilus

Banned
Most of the people who say “Final Fantasy should go back to turn based” aren’t even interested in playing such a game. These are the same people who would just find 1000 other things to bitch about.

More like, they see themselves as more sophisticated and intellectually superior to all those shallow action gamers and they feel personally offended that the biggest JRPG series has forsaken them. A new turn-based FF would be like an apology that validates their identity and tells them “you were right all along”
Yeah, because Persona 5, Octopath Traveler, and many other games of such style, with a fraction of the brand recognigion of FF, did so poorly, and so very little people were interested. lol

There are some bad takes, and then there are opinions like this.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
That doesnt make any sense. If "far more people" stopped giving a shit, then we would've seen sales decline with each new entry.
The commercial success of the new entries literally proves the opposite of this, even the ones that aren't as well received critically.
The series is literally the most popular and successful that it's ever been.

Also:
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If you aren't a fan of recent entries that's perfectly fine. Hell, no one is going to like every single game.
Even as a lifelong FF fan that's been playing these games since the 90's, there are some entries I like more than others and some that I dislike. I'm sure every FF fan can relate.


lol what? That's patently false.
There’s infinitely more people gaming now then there was back before FF went to shit. There is no way of know how many sales they lost or gained.
 
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mortal

Gold Member
There’s infinitely more people gaming now then there was back before FF went to shit. There is no way of know how many sales they lost or gained.
The argument that the series sales have stagnated or its becoming irrevlevant are false.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
I think FF16 just further demonstrates square’s focus on trend chasing. Persona 5 is a very recent and very slow burn turn based RPG and it lit the world on fire. No need to pander to the every shortening attention span of the mass populace. Just be good at what you do.
Persona 5 is nothing like any of the Final Fantasy games. Trying to make a Persona-like Final Fantasy game would just be “trend chasing”.

I’m glad someone is making weeb high school life sim crap for people like you. Please don’t ruin FF with that.
 

Nautilus

Banned
That doesnt make any sense. If "far more people" stopped giving a shit, then we would've seen sales decline with each new entry.
The commercial success of the new entries literally proves the opposite of this, even the ones that aren't as well received critically.
The series is literally the most popular and successful that it's ever been.

Also:

If you aren't a fan of recent entries that's perfectly fine. Hell, no one is going to like every single game.
Even as a lifelong FF fan that's been playing these games since the 90's, there are some entries I like more than others and some that I dislike. I'm sure every FF fan can relate.


lol what? That's patently false.
You are probably refering to FF Xv, as I don't remember 13 doing super well, and 12 didn't do better than X.(I think).

The problem is that XV did most of its sales on the long run, and did so at lower prices, as it hit something close to bargain bin prices relatively fast. Plus, and I might be mistaken on this, FF XV developmemt cost was especially high compared to previous FF, so much so that even some DLCs had to be cancelled because it lacked interest for them and Square decided to cut its losses. Not to memtion the critical reception the game had. So all in all, it's financial success might have been lower than what any of the previous entries might have been.

FF XIV is an exception. And even then, an expensive exception that was very costly Square with its 1.0 release. I personaly don't even consider the MMO entries an mainline games, as they are an ever expanding story, but that's a discussion for another time.

So yeah, FF has been a hit or miss for almost 20 years now. And even the ones that are a hit, the "growth" we see is small compared to what the other long standing franchises are doing nowadays.

mortal mortal Yup, I imagined he wouldn't even bother to properly reply to me, as he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Just goes to show how much he really cares. Its probably better if I just ignore him.
 
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daninthemix

Member
FF has been trash ever since they gave the characters voice-acting in FFX. Strangely they added gibberish stories to go with the gibberish voice acting.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I think FF16 just further demonstrates square’s focus on trend chasing. Persona 5 is a very recent and very slow burn turn based RPG and it lit the world on fire. No need to pander to the every shortening attention span of the mass populace. Just be good at what you do.
Funny you bring up Persona (a series I enjoy I should add) as a model Square should follow with FF. It's funny because there's a contingent of the Persona fanbase who dislike P3-P5 with a passion due to the series moving away from tone of P1-P2 to a something akin to high school / teen simulator.
 
If I get my CG cutscenes, I’m happy.

This is a shot from the opening of FFXIII, which released 13 years ago.

2GAThaY.jpg




This shot is, as far as we know, the highest quality version of Jill, a character from FFXVI, releasing in 2 months, that we’ll see.

Ej23VbX.jpg



“The visuals are good enough” my rear hind. I want my eye candy and SE has their own internal CG studio and I will continue to whine until CG cutscenes are confirmed.
Character looks is all FFXIII had going for itself though. FFXII was the last great mainline FF title.
 
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Thirty7ven

Banned
FF has been moving away from turn based into real time action since FFXII. I don’t see a midlife crisis here, but rather a path forward.

It’s the most exciting FF since XII.
 

Three

Member
Wrong ff 15 was atb as well
It was just really flashy. Full on DMC action is just sad for a FF game. Pathetically sad 😢





I’ll probably end up loving it 🤣
What do you mean atb? I'm not down with the acronyms. FF15 wasn't turn based either.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
What do you mean atb? I'm not down with the acronyms. FF15 wasn't turn based either.
Active time battle.

Standing still or running around you still couldn’t attack unless the timer was up just like every final fantasy since 4.
 
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