Zelda Vs. Final Fantasy Vs. Dragon Quest

[The_Liquid_Laser]

SammyGiireal said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

It kind of depends on how you define Final Fantasy.  Is it the story?  The gameplay?  The setting?  The music?  Chocobos and Cid?  Everyone defines it differently.

I don't think the story is in 12 is as good as most of it's predecessors.  In that way it might not feel like Final Fantasy, because the series always had top notch stories.  On the other hand the gameplay was fantastic.  It was a very different take on turn based RPGs and in that way it was not a deviation.  Also, the world of Ivalice is very much part of Final Fantasy, but this was the first time it appeared in the main series.  So that kind of begs the question of whether or not you consider the "tactics" games to be Final Fantasy.  I do, but I can see how someone else might not.

And at the same time I could make similar arguments about the other Final Fantasies that came before it.  FF8 had terrible gameplay but a great story.  FF10 was incredibly linear even by Final Fantasy standards.  FF6 was the first time they had a major sci-fi feel, while before it was mostly pure fantasy with a little sci-fi splashed in.  Almost every entry you can come up with a reason why it wasn't Final Fantasy.  The definition the creators have is actually pretty loose.

For me the biggest difference was the drop in quality, and that didn't come unti FF13.  The creators used to have this goal that every year a Final Fantasy game came out, it would be the best game released that year.  I felt like 12 had that quality, but I don't think 13 or any of the games that came later had that quality.  I even enjoyed all 3 of the FF13 games, but I still felt there was a drop in quality.  FF12 was the best game that came out the year it was released though, at least to me.  I felt it had the FF quality that the previous games had.

We will agree on XIII being terrible. Disagree on VIII having a great Story and on XII being in line with the previous 10 Final Fantasies. FFXII felt a like a completely different RPG from the previous 10 starting with the music. Uematsu was part of the soul of the series. And the development team was different  in that game...it is I will agree ten times the game that FFXIII is. X was linear as I said they did away with the overworld, but it gave us a really good love story, a polished FF battle system and great music. The battle system in XII was also a huge departure of what we had seen in the previous 10 entries too. XII was a great game, that had it not been names FF no one would have associated the game with Final Fantasy, Tactics not withstanding, which was also a great game but not a main FF in style and substance. In the end a single fact remains FF1-FF10 Sakaguchi was at the helm, then he left and the series changed. For those of us who grew up with it...it was a jarring change. 

Yeah, I can see where you are coming from.  In the end it is the Sakaguchi/Uematsu that you associate with Final Fantasy.  I can understand that, because I am really missing that from Final Fantasy nowadays.  I really love the Tactics games though, so I consider Matsuno of the same calibur director as Sakaguchi.  For a person who was not as much of a fan, then FFXII can seem different from the first 10.