What are the chances for FF13 being the best Final Fantasy game?

[blaydcor]

MontanaHatchet said:

blaydcor said:

MontanaHatchet said:

twesterm said:
Considering SE's track record in the last 10 years, incredibly slim.

I'm guessing it will be really high in the huge flashy cut scenes and pretty graphics and probably even have decent to good gameplay but it will fail miserably in the parts that really matter: story, characters, and music.

That speaks for a lot of games. Also, do things like story and music matter more than gameplay now? People seem to be really out of touch with JRPGs or something.

People meaning...you? JRPG's are the one genre where gameplay often takes a backseat to story, characters, and atmosphere. Who the hell slogs through thousands of tedious random battles for the fun of it? Why are JRPG's with lame gameplay like FF7 but intriguing, involved stories and well-loved characters so phenomeonally popular? Are Bioware games so damn good because of the, uh, gameplay or excellent writing and sharp plotting? If that's how you think RPG's work than I dont think you're really a true RPG fan.

If games ever want to become art (which I think is incredibly possible in so many different ways), I think RPG's are the closest they've come yet.

Erm, no. No game values anything more than gameplay, and if they do, they're an awful game. Perhaps you're right. Maybe people do value other things more than gameplay in JRPGs today. It would definitely explain why the genre has fallen from grace as much as it has. Gameplay has never taken a back seat. If I wanted a good story, good characters, and a good atmosphere, you know what I'd do? I'd stop playing videogames altogether and go to a film festival. Maybe I'd go on Netflix and rent myself some classic films. Know what I wouldn't do? Get a videoGAME. Emphasis on GAME. The random battles aren't tedious when you combine them with a fun battle system and good stat building. I rarely find random battles boring in JRPGs (unless the game has a bad battle system i.e. Lost Odyssey). Bioware's games are so popular because they're great games and they're fun to play. Maybe I'm not a true RPG fan for putting gameplay over story and characters and atmosphere. My mistake.

But you know what? I'd rather play a fun RPG with a crappy story and crappy characters than a boring piece of art ANY DAY. And if that means I'm out of touch, so be it.

Good gameplay makes an RPG good. Good story and characters make it timeless. The examples are endless. People play RPG's to immerse themselves in a foreign, unique experience. Yeah, stat-building, levelling, and equipment and all that are fun, but that's what make it a game rather than an interactive novel; it still isn't the core of the RPG. RPG's are, at their best, interactive stories; the gameplay further invests you in the narrative and progression. Not understanding this doesn't make you out of touch, it just means you aren't a hardcore RPG fan.

Obviously the better the gameplay the better the game, regardless of genre. My point is that there is a reason why horrible, boring games like Final Fantasy 7 are still so acclaimed, why (by modern standards) games as techinically deficient as Chrono Trigger are still so beloved.

This is a bit tangential, but consider, say, "games" like the Ace Attorney games: almost no gameplay to speak of. Just awesome characters, crafty logic, gripping storytelling, and perfect music. And each of those 4 are in my top 10 games for this generation.

"Game" is a vague term, especially in today's market. Attempting to enforce strictures on "games" by claiming that gameplay must come first and foremost is a stubborn, unilateral view that will never allow games to progress into anything more than mindless electronic experiences with the emotional depth of Pacman.