| ShroudedDarkness said: So while Square is ass backwards, saying they should listen to their fans is a death sentence. And when Square gives them what they want with XIII-2 with towns, more freedom, less cutscenes, added back in shops, more minigames, more sidequests, no level caps, alternate endings ("paradox endings"), more ways to earn gil, etc? They claim XIII was the better game and that XIII-2 was the last straw... even though half of them didn't buy it and are going off of rumors and what they saw in videos. Don't get me wrong, Square is unbelievably insane with many of their decisions and are hardly above criticism. Final Fantasy XIII was flawed, Final Fantasy XIV was atrocious, Final Fantasy Versus XIII is an industry wide joke at this point, they are bleeding money due to their run away budgets, the list goes on. But as someone who is actually a fan and interacts with the fanbase I gotta tell ya, I don't know who is more insane: The fans or Square. |
There were groups of FF fans that hated XII because it did not 'feel' like a FF game, however it was not universally hated by fans, there was a large group of advocate that hailed it as one of the best FF ever.
XI was an MMO, it is NOT a FF game, numbered game or not, that shit is a spinoff and not relevant when discussing the quality of FF game.
X-2 was again considered terrible by many because it deviated significantly from a stylistic point of view, many fans thought the idea of 'Dress Sphere', an entirely female caste and an cheesy intro ala Spice Girl simply abominable, despite this, it was generally consider one of the best and most enjoyable FF mechanically, with arguably the best combat system Square ever created.
From an execution perspective, FFXIII-2 did a lot of the things FFXIII did wrong, but on a personal level, and this is an opinion share by ALL of my friends who have been FF nuts since the PS1 days and HAVE tolerated X-2 and XII...
XIII-2 isn't a bad game, the plot was still bad, the gameplay still good, the fuction was much improved.... but the ending, dear good was the ending is a messed up piece of garbage that just screamed sequel bait, it was unsatisfying to the extreme and made us all wonder why the hell we even played the game.
And lo and behold there was also a sequel.
I have a friend who have bought every single FF religiously (except the MMO), even getting a gamecube just to get crystal chronicle and then blackmailing all of us into getting gameboys just to play that game properly... he, and all of my other friends equally passionate about FF have told me that they are not going to get Lightning Return. They got burnt by XIII, then they got burnt again by XIII-2.
That tells you something, that tells you that Square is no longer resonating to its fans... and that connection is different from just plain LISTENING to them and DOING what they ask.
