Dear Square, If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It. Leave Final Fantasy Alone

[Kudistos Megistos]

Khuutra said:

Kudistos Megistos said:

The last main series FF game that had the gameplay of a traditional JRPG (FF10) was the second most successful in the series after FF7 and is still loved by the fans (especially in Japan). Ever since then, Squeenix have fiddled with the formula that was still working as well as it ever was, and the FF series has gone downhill. The fans have reacted badly and sales have gone down. Far more people are leaving the franchise than joining it. It seems that Squeenix's answer to this it too change it even more.

The series hasn't had a really traditionalist approach since... like.... FF4. Final Fantasy changes from game to game more tha any other series, and that's not a new development.

You should have been around for the backlash when people saw mechs in the FF6 previews

Hoo boy

Well, there are changes and there are big changes. It's true that each of the FFs has it's own quirks, but the gameplay changes from FF10 to FF12 are of a different order of magnitude. Going from turn based combat to real time combat (I assume that's the right terminology...) changes the gameplay in a much bigger way than, say, getting rid of jobs in FF7, or using GFs in FF8, or using the Sphere Grid in FF10. So is releasing the other party members from the player's control unless they are pre-programmed by the player to fight in a certain way. I thought that playing FF10 was more similar to playing FF1 than playing FF12; that's how big I found the changes to be, and that's why the recent changes are different from the changes in the FF series before the Square-Enix merger.

I'd also like to have seen the bitching from mechs being in FF6 (oh noes!) I'm sure it was hilarious.