Final Fantasy series

[Squigsquasher]

If they do decide to include a growth system in the next FF, then something similar to the Crystarium from XIII would be good, with a few changes:

1: When you've decided on a particular route for the character, you have to follow it. So, suppose Vanille has the option of going either Medic or Commando (as she does in the actual game). In XIII, you can level her up as a Commando and a Medic. A better approach would be deciding either "I want Vanille to be a Medic" or "I need another Commando" so that when you decide which path you want to take with her, she's on that path for good, maybe with limited ability as a Commando, which she cannot be levelled up as. This would still allow choice and different party builds, whilst keeping the game from being a cake walk and stopping people from being able to just paradigm shift their way through the game.

2: Levelling up should be much slower, so you really have to work to improve your character's skills.

As for graphics, whilst a revisit of the retro graphics would be cool, I don't think the problem is having good graphics per se, it's the team focusing too much on the graphics. If you took FF6 and kept everything, from gameplay to storyline, exactly the same, but gave it XIII-level graphics, and added voice acting (but didn't actually change the dialogue) and maybe remastered the music, it would still be pretty great, if not better.

So, yeah, I have no problem with FF having pretty visuals (far from it) but they need to make sure that's not its only attribute.

[AngelNo13Bardiel]

Honestly, even though I'm a big fan of both IV and VI, I think they should just step away and not make any for a few years.

I haven't called any new FF game better than "good" since IX and X. XI and XIV were MMOs (something I have no real interest in), I did enjoy XII quite a bit (put in over 100+ hours, I recall) but I never remembered a bit of it just weeks after finishing it (I had the same experience with VIII), and XIII just left me feeling...meh (it wasn't bad, just that it was linear to a fault and didn't really capture my interest). And I gave up wanting more VII years back, not even sure a remake will change that.

[Stan]

I'm gonna be honest, I thought the story was one of the strong points of FFXIII and XIII-2. Also, they had Lightning, one of the best female characters we've had for a while.

But that's just me.

I don't think anyone disagrees with you on that, the story in ff13 was not what turned people off. And lighting was a good protagonist for an RPG type of game. Most of the criticisms came from the game-play section---specifically auto command and the linearity of the first 12 hours. I personally did not hate the fighting mechanics, but the crappy level structures of just going forward a corridor-like environment really bothered me. Otherwise I think the game was okay, not great, but tolerable.

I am frankly very curious if versus 13 really got canned or not. After the rumor from last fall was put to rest by SE confirming the game was still in development, people rejoiced, BUT I personally am very skeptical on the matter. I have this nasty suspicion that the game IS vaporware at this point and SE is staying quiet on the matter for the sake of stock prices and so on. I really hope I am wrong, but my pessimistic nature is just preventing me from believing they are still developing it, but that's just me :/

[The Killer of Heroes]

^The story and characters all got a ton of criticism upon release, and rightfully so.

[Stan]

^^ Are saying you think the gameplay was good

[The Killer of Heroes]

I'm saying the story was awful, and the gameplay was better but still critically flawed.

FF13 is a huge mess of a game. It's fascinating how complex it's awfulness is.

[hui43210]

Still haven't played one i didn't like, so I'll probably fine with whatever they do.

And f#$k the haters Lightning is awesome, also not a fan of the lets hate on FFVIII movement that Spoony started. That's my 2nd favorite one, only slightly behind FFVII

[GAR Shinji]

Yours is the sword that will slash the heavens!

[TehDonutKing]

Swap Nia and Yoko.

[Stan]

Oh Simon with your big drills and swords~

[The Abhorrent]

What do I want to see in the next Final Fantasy title?
A surprisingly easy answer:

Like this game  SPOILER: Show

Using Xenoblade Chronicles as a template, relearn what made the genre and the FF series great back in the olden days, and get back on track for what actually works in the type of game they're trying to create. This doesn't really mean lifting gameplay mechanics, just remembering the feeling which separated the merely "good" games from the timeless classics. That's pretty much the answer right there, nothing too complicated about it.

More recent releases, notably FFXIII, have gotten a lukewarm reception at best due to how they've been straying from what made the genre great in the first place; the games themselves aren't really all that "bad" (heck, FFXIII's combat is superb for what it does... and after you finally unlock the "meat" of it several hours into the game), but they've been lacking the elusive magic spark which made the series special. It's been a slow tumble downhill ever since the PS1 era (the seeds were sown during this time, but it didn't really become a big issue until the HD console generation and FFXIII), due to the huge shift towards graphical fidelity (level of detail) and placing too much stock on the series' name to bolster sales; on the bright side, Square (in a press release I'm not bothering to track down) has finally got the latter message through their head (hopefully). This comes at the same time Xenoblade Chronicles had a huge push to get localized for a North American release ("Operation Rainfall", I think it was called)... and still managed to blow everyone's expectations out of the water. To say that game "got it right" is something of an understatement, and graphical prowess is the last thing on the Wii's list of accomplishments.

Not a whole much else can be said, at least from me.
Remember what made the older games classics, and it will all fall into place.

[Agentomega]

Spawned from here.

So, I figured if people want to talk about what world they play on and/or want to coordinate and play together, that can go here.

To reiterate, I've got characters on Cerberus, Odin, and Hades. If anyone wants to join us on Cerberus, we've got kind of a color-themed naming schema going on a la RWBY (though it's probably not a requirement or anything). My main is Rhoe Amariyo (similar to "amarillo", yellow), a Keeper of the Moon Scholar.

[MAGI_01]

I'm on Odin and Cerberus as well.

My main on Cerberus is Vairemont Ecarlate, a Elezan Wildwood Bard.

[Ænimal]

i was literally just about to make this thread

anyways, i'm on Diabolos; my character is Shinmen Takezo, a Monk-in-training

here's a pic:

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/545/xz1w.png/][/URL]

[Doctor Memory]

I don't have any characters in the EU group, but I don't mind making alts. I have about a dozen at this point, thanks to server problems and my own chronic altitis. Also, my RP skills are very rusty, so I could use some help getting back into form.

Do you guys have a linkshell or FC? If so, who should I pesterSteam for an invite?

[Agentomega]

Do you guys have a linkshell or FC? If so, who should I pesterSteam for an invite?

Indeed we do. If you're up for joining us on Cerberus, Magi, myself, BPES and Aggro can invite you to the FC (and maybe the linkshell? I'unno how permissions work with those). Odin is basically just our forum RP characters, so a bit more exclusive there.

At any rate, we tend to RP our Realm Reborn characters more through Skype and Lodestone Blog entries. Feel free to PM for more info.

In other news, I got extremely lucky and acquired two weapons from HM Ifrit - Ifrit's Codex (SCH) and Ifrit's Cane (WHM).

[Stan]

Random question but, does SE ever make their mmo's free to play? I will get the game for the ps4 regardless, but it would be cool to know if it mite go free to play eventually?

[MAGI_01]

Nah, the director, Naoki Yoshida has stated that he would personally shut the servers down himself if FF14 went free to play.

I think it's because most people view a move to F2P as sort of an admission of failure and of course, he does not want that to happen.

Not sure if FF11 went F2P or not though. Last I knew it still required a sub.

[Squigsquasher]

I might pop my MMO cherry and get this. Looks fun, and I'm glad to see it isn't the trainwreck the original was.

[Agentomega]

I might pop my MMO cherry and get this. Looks fun, and I'm glad to see it isn't the trainwreck the original was.

Yussssssssss, it would be great to have you with us, squig. I can just imagine the logs you would write

I also sincerely recommend a gamepad of some sort. It's such a smooth system. Granted, it's nice having a keyboard for chat too...