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Tuesday, September 2, 2014

FF X-2 was the Final Final Fantasy:

Let's face it, Final Fantasy is dead.  Final Fantasy 15, if it ever does come out, is coming out about 8 years later than it should have.  It's built around the same gameplay as Kingdom Hearts, so it isn't even an FF game.  It's a Kingdom Hearts game.  They should just call it Kingdom Hearts 4 already.  The original artist, director, and composer for Final Fantasy are all gone.  There's no connection between the Final Fantasy's after 10-2 and the Final Fantasy's from 1-10.  Nobody who had a hand in building the originals is still there making the new games anymore.  The active time battle system is gone.  Nobuo Uematsu is gone.  What's the point in calling it Final Fantasy anymore?

Last year, the remastered edition of FFX-X2 outsold the new game, FF XIII-3.  FF XIII-3 was a dumb idea with virtually no fan support even at the time of its announcement.  After XIII-2 shamelessly portrayed itself as a real game while just reusing content from the previous game, no one was interested anymore in yet another sequel.  FF XIV similarly flopped, being so bad that no one would even touch it for years while it was completely rebuilt from scratch.  There was no party in FF XIII-3, so there was no 'roleplaying' element left to even roleplay in.  No dialogue, no interaction, nothing but mindless action in real-time.  If Square Enix knew what was best for itself, it would stop making any new FF's and just remake the good ones they used to make instead.  An FF7 remake would be welcomed by all the fans.  FF6 is similarly popular, as is FF4.  Back when they had a solid gameplay, beautiful music, and an immersive character dialogue driven plot, Final Fantasy was the king of the world.  Redoing it all with better graphics is the only positive contribution Square can give its customers anymore.  All of the creative content creators for the series are already gone.  Just let the franchise die already.  Everything beyond 10-2 is just filler by substitute authors no one cares about.  You aren't making good games anymore.  No one likes them.  No one is buying them.  Give up hope and give us what we actually want -- an FF7 remake for the PS4.

The best FF game is the FFX-X2 remaster for PS3.  By combining the best of both worlds, modern graphics and old gameplay/music, it stands above all its peers.  After that comes FF5, with its uniquely versatile job system.  Then FF8 with its great music and graphics.  Then FF4 with its beautiful world and character designs.  Then FF7 with its moving tale of Aerith and Sephiroth.  Then FF6 with its huge roster and huge world.  Then FF9 because it wasn't entirely bad.  Then FF3 because it also had a good job system.  Then FF1 because it launched the whole franchise.  Then FF2 because it was better than nothing.  Though not part of the main system, Final Fantasy Tactics was also great and an absolutely worthy addition to the series.  FF11 and FF14 are MMO's that aren't as good as WoW so there's no point playing them at all.  FF12 and FF13 had wretched gameplay and were worse than nothing.  I'm sure FF15 will be the same.  Since they refuse to change their philosophy and go back to their roots, how on earth could 15 be any better?

Tales of 'X' is a franchise where all the original creators are still on board, and all the gameplay and music is still similar to what came before it.  It has dynamic, interesting characters who are constantly chatting together in hilarious skits.  This is what a roleplaying game should be.  There's no need for sub-par FF games anymore, because everyone can just play Tales instead.

Meanwhile, the Sora no Otoshimono movie is pretty much useless.  A mixture of filler and canon material, but with the timeline horribly mixed up and crucial issues cut and ignored, it makes the whole story just a rambling yarn of chaos and confusion.  There was no point making this movie.  It looks like a scrapbook collage of 'best moments in Sora no Otoshimono' instead of an actual movie with a cohesive plot and causality.  People should just read the manga and give up on this anime.  It always devolves into filler and messes up everything it touches.  Yet another disappointment, just like the previous movie.

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