I just fail to understand why FF is getting so much hate on the internet. My first FF was VII (it was the first to be published in Europe) and since then I liked every single one of them.
I was waiting for FF 13 since the release of the PS3 and it was my best gaming experience on the console generation. FF13 is my "Game of the PS3" so far. The Story is fantastic, and somehow i feel that only Japanese developer can tell really deep storylines.
The starting scene with the train reminded me of the "Deportationen" of the Jews during WW II. I live approx. 20 km next to the KZ Mauthausen... those trains really existed... and that part is where the motives of the story have their origin. The whole concept of fear or xenophobia being the cause for ppl to turn against each other...
You can see Barthandelus smiling devilishly when he no longer needed to control the people. After the set up war to ignite fear 100 years before people started to act on their own. They were willing to kill innocent people just because they came close to foreign objects... Not because the government or the spirital Leader were demanding it... no, the ordinary people wanted them te be deported.
The Nazis were acting similar... they told everyone that the Jews were the Cause of all trouble... and after some years many people started to believe intrinsically that the Jews were bad. The situation started to get its own dynamic.
In japanese stories things are not always explained into detail. You have to think about what is happening and why people are acting in a certain way. And thats why i really love them. FF 13 has really a great story and I would really appreciate a FF XIII-2. Would be a first day buy for me without hesitating.
FF X-2 and FF XII were also great games and i really liked them. So for me, Square-Enix still is the best gaming company out there (well, only the japanese games. I didn't liked what i have seen of Batman, Kane and Lynch or Just Cause).
The only FF I have some problems with are the Crystal Chronicles games on the nintendo systems and FF XI, because of the time requirements and the forced grouping. Despite the harsh critics, I think that I will enjoy FF 14 much more than FF XI. I am really looking forward to it.
The problem that many people have with FF XIII is maybe that they are expecting a game similar to Oblivion...And I have to admit, that although it won many GOTY-Awards, after 40 hours of gameplay, I had to quit playing it out of ultimate boredom... I really tried to like the game... but in 40 hours it was not enjoyable more than 15 minutes and it got worse every hour.
It seemed like the game had a boring story, the main Character has no motives or reasons to participate in the main story, so the storyline had not much depth....I should really stop it here, because I do not want to spoil the game for the fans... I just couldn't get into it...it was in most cases the total opposite of what i expect of a console RPG. Sure, it offers an enormous amount of content.... but quantity does not equal quality...
All in all I do not think that WRPGs are the evolution of JRPGs... they are a totally different approach and I haven't played a single WRPG that I like. On the other hand, if I watch some cutscenes on youtube of some classic JRPGS I have the urge to get the old PS1/PS2 copies from the cellar and put them in my PS2/PS3 to play them again... Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Suikoden, Grandia, .... there are so many different JRPGs with great storylines....
Well, WRPGS were never that big in Continental Europe either. Most of the European sales of them should come from the UK where the Xbox360 is pretty strong. The UK and the US share a very similar gaming taste, that is quite different from Continental Europe. Thats why FF is bashed stronger on english speaking forums.
Back to Topic. For me, Final Fantasy is not killed, it is still expanding. I really loved FF 13 and i can't wait for the next one. But if you didn't like it, that is totally ok for me. Even if this forum should totally bash the game, there are enough people outside the UK/US that really love the game the way it is.
