Campaign Creations

Square is has done all big consoles now, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, oh boy.

Desler wrote: Not everyone takes the news well.

[YouTube Video]

Heh.  I like how he brought up Japan so much.  It's still a PS3-exclusive there, I've heard.

Actually... is that one of the Something Awful guys?  I hope so.  That video is a little less sad as a joke.

AA7Dragoon wrote: Final Fantasy should go back to basics.  Their experimental leveling systems have mostly been unsuccessful.  I hated FF8.  In fact, it's FF8 gold/draw system that ruined the entire game for me.  It had better graphics than 7, an appealing storyline, but the worst system ever!

The thing that ruined FF8 for me was the complete lack of level design.  Anywhere.  And, most of the main party really bugged me for some reason.

I actually liked the Junction System.  It's not great, and it took me awhile to warm up to it, but I was able to do some pretty nifty things to my characters later.  I just wish the system didn't encourage you to not cast spells.  The battles end up being almost entirely attack/GF commands, if you don't want to go through the trouble of restocking your magic piles later like I did.  Still, I had fun with it.


FF7's Materia system is far better, of course.  It's decidedly simple, but awfully powerful, and there's so many fun combinations you can get from it.  I played it again just recently, and was amazed as I found more winning set-ups that I'd never tried when I played the game before.

I can't comment much on FF9's, since I've never had the chance to play it.  It tries for a more classic style, though, doesn't it?

FF10's Sphere Grid was fun stuff.  It's an entertaining way to tackle giving your characters skills, and there's so many possibilities.  Though, obviously, some are better than others.  And some are just plain crazy.  For instance, eventually, Tidus became my healer, and Kimahri became my mage.  It was... interesting.

FF11 doesn't exist in my mind.

FF12's License Board was wonderful, I thought.  Along with their new battle system.  It's pretty similar to FF10's Sphere Grid, except that no character has a natural or preferred path to follow.  Every character is essentially a blank slate, so you have the power to make anyone whatever you want them to be.  Someone like me has a lot of fun with that capability.


It's good that Square tries a new battle system with every new FF#.  It keeps the series from becoming stale, in my opinion.  Part of what makes me keep flinging myself at new titles is to see how the new systems work.  If they were still using the same style this whole time... I doubt I would be as enthused for each new game.  But, that's just me.

I don't like the whole "blank slate" thing sorta takes away from the uniqueness of each character. I'm not a fan of "this character is a mage" type setup either, I think 7 did it best because you could load up a fat black guy with magic that he would be able to use, albeit not very well, or you could give your squish mage nothing but deathblow slashall and counterattack.

Aiursrage2k wrote: I stopped playing them after they made it online (11?)

My girlfriend actually plays this and I was watching her play it and it APPEARS appealing, but it's either going to be WoW or FF11. End of story there.

Zilla- wrote: only 11 was online. My biggest complaint about the series is they can't stick with a good system. 7's materia thing was fine, in 8 you can't use your good spells unless you want your stats to suck, 9 was meh, 10 was retarded, I didn't touch 11, and 12 has that shit where every character is more or less the same

The whole concept of the series is to give you a different setup for systems. None are created by the same producer so they all have their own mindsets. I enjoyed 7's system. 8 was made for certain characters to use certain spells, like 7 was lightly going for. What was wrong with 9? That's my second favorite in the series. I enjoyed the setup in there, very traditional. What was wrong with 10? That was third favorite in the series. The sphere grid was fun, but cheap at times, and made the stat increases feel more immersive. I haven't touched 11 but I've seen it played first hand long enough to know it's a good game, it's job based like Tactics. And 12, I didn't get too into immediatly but considering 13 has familiars from 12, I just made try again. I simply wasn't a fan of it being a single-player 11 at first, but now I'm up for something different.

Zilla- wrote: I don't like the whole "blank slate" thing sorta takes away from the uniqueness of each character. I'm not a fan of "this character is a mage" type setup either, I think 7 did it best because you could load up a fat black guy with magic that he would be able to use, albeit not very well, or you could give your squish mage nothing but deathblow slashall and counterattack.

I agree that it's important for each character to feel different.  With the 'blank slate' style, each character can be as different from each other as I want, and in the exact way I want them to be.  I went through the game with an extremely varied group, created as I saw fit, instead of generally in the roles the creators intended.  That's what I like about the 'blank slate' method.  Additionally, if I decide to run through the game again, I can do it with yet another completely different group set-up.  So it also makes for good replay value, in my opinion.

The Gambit System was also fun to play around with.

Zilla- wrote: I think 7 did it best because you could load up a fat black guy with magic that he would be able to use

There was only one playable black guy and that was Barret.  Fat?  I think they were trying tio display 'big scary black guy - large frame, possibly ripped' not 'fat'.  if he were fat, his mass would extend outward from the middle, not the top.

Desler wrote:

Zilla- wrote: I think 7 did it best because you could load up a fat black guy with magic that he would be able to use

There was only one playable black guy and that was Barret.  Fat?  I think they were trying tio display 'big scary black guy - large frame, possibly ripped' not 'fat'.  if he were fat, his mass would extend outward from the middle, not the top.

[imgwh 266x298]http://www.icybrian.com/games/ff7/barret.jpg[/imgwh]

He finds this to be fat?

I thought the system in FFV was pretty cool if that counts ^______^

Aekenon wrote: Heh.  I like how he brought up Japan so much.  It's still a PS3-exclusive there, I've heard.

Actually... is that one of the Something Awful guys?  I hope so.  That video is a little less sad as a joke.

yeah it's Fragmaster doing his usual thing of mocking someone else's real post on the Something Awful forum by reading it out in a nerd voice

I gave up Final Fantasy after fiinding that I couldn't skip cutscenes in FF7.

So impatient.  Yeah, you couldn't skip the summons, but they pretty much fixed the problem over time.  The cutscenes... the dialogue?  Hmm.

Summons in FF7 weren't so bad, especially since you typically wouldn't cast them every turn (coughFF8cough).

Cutscenes though... the only time I ever desire to skip those is during an additional playthrough of a game.  Most games these days give you the option, though.

News today indicates that this game will also be hitting the PC.

http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/comments_ ... d=072308_6

Very good news, as we haven't seen a Final Fantasy on the PC since VIII.  I hope this sparks a resurgence in support for FF games and the PC.

Sellouts. Hrmph.

Not surprising considering the PC and X-Box technologies are similar?  Makes sense just to go the whole nine yards.

AA7Dragoon wrote: Not surprising considering the PC and X-Box technologies are similar?  Makes sense just to go the whole nine yards.

Technologies aren't as any much similar between those two as a PS3 and PC. It's simple SquareEnix opening it's doors once more.