Final Fantasy XIII is a MAJOR flop on the 360 - we need to talk about it

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

thelifatree said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:
First off, aside from a couple characters in DQVIII, they aren't just following the set patterns of the previous characters that came before them. Yangus or Jessica isn't a composite collection of previous Dragon Quest characters, such as the characters in Final Fantasy games are pinned as being. The whole Yuffie > Selphie > Rikku or Cloud > Squall > Tidus effect. The characters in DQVIII, and pretty much any DQ game, are very different from other DQ games. That's what I meant by 'cliche'.

As for questioning their business plan, I'm nnot doing that. In fact, I know exactly what they're trying to do. They've even said it. They were trying to make another FFVII. But like you just said, FFVII was a phenomenon. Mostly because it came out at the right place and the right time. Now adays though, the Final Fantasy brand has lots of competition and people have mixed feelings about the series after so many titles. So simply trying to make a game 'like' FFVII with tons of uber graphics and similar characters/storyline isn't going to wow people into buying 9 million copies. That's what I was trying to say. They need to focus on trying to 'fix' Final Fantasy and build back up to that level.

They aren't going to be able to infuse popularity back into the series with one 'wonder' title. It will take multiple successful titles. And as it stands right now, each Final Fantasy, main series or spin-off, is getting mixed feelings from fans and reviewers.

Yeah, but what I'm saying, is every character in DQVIII was cliched but yangus and that green frog guy I forgot his name he was cool

Tidus and Zidane are not like Squall or Cloud, and Lightning is Female and nice So basically all I can get from that is you can't have a main character who is happy or sad? or in between?

Like I mean the surrounding members are archetypes there are only so many you can have unless you want to have too many of the same one. So you think making a bunch of Khimari's, Cait Stith, Quina like characters would improve the cast?

Zelda Uses The same Little Link Save Princess Zelda, Every Damn Time and I love it, So I don't think that's the problem.

Um in my opinion 7 is the worst one since 7 other than 12. Thats only mine though

FFXIII is not like 7 at all in plot, battlesystem, upgrading, or really anything like I mean it's a JRPG. So they didn't copy 7 and call it 13

Like the only way they were trying to create a phenemon was trying really hard to create something unique

Like I mean FFVII story was not like 8, which was like 9. Final Fantasy X Story (Is my favorite Story), FFXII they focused on combat, and an evil empire (bad cliched story but different), and Final Fantasy XIII, they made you slaves

 

But using the same structure, they almost recreated the phenomem on 10, and all that did was piss people off and make it linear and add voice acting. And be my favorite game

Theres no magical formula for a phenomon. Kind of like Call of Duty MW2. A Ok Console, Shooter Terrible PC, Shooter becomes phenenon for no reason.

 

Well, I'd like to say I don't think the characters in all FF games are the same.  In fact, I think the characters in FFVIII were very different than those of FFVII.  I mean, there's no way that you could say Zell was like Barret.  And Rinoa was totally different from Tifa.  That said however, there are some obvious similarities between the characters from FFVII on.  Heck, Nomura has even stated many of his characters were built based on him first looking back on previous characters, such as Squall was originally modeled after Cloud....as was Lightning.  Thankfully in the case of Squall, many other people, such as series director Yoshinori Kitase and overseer Sakaguchi stepped up and influenced the design away from Cloud more.  However it does show that, at least at some level, the series does seem to have a type of archetype for the characters going.  Even on the non-Nomura designed FFXII.

But I agree, many games have done quite well sticking to a formula.  And partially I'm advocating Final Fantasy get into a type of formula, much like a series such as Zelda.  However, I feel the major problems lie elsewhere beyond even reoccouring character archetypes and state plot points.  More along the lines of them throwing out what was popular and good in previous games and remaking almost everything in the next game.