The last good FF was FFX and FFXII had a horrible story.
S-E is just getting Lazy.....

You say the losing the exclusivity is a bad thing, I think it's a wonderful thing.

I don't think it's the main cause for the delays and would be willing to be large amounts of money that it had been planned for a very long time, they just didn't plan for it very well (another bad sign).

But if I'm to believe what people say, there were no delays.  :-p

There can't be any delays when we never had a release date.

Sorry, this turned into a long post. Only read if you really like FFVI and haven't played many Suikoden games.


Anyone who feels that FFVI was the last good FF needs to try Suikoden V, Suikoden II, and Suikoden III. FFVI is my favorite RPG of all time, but all of these games come very close behind.

Suikoden I is also good but not nearly as good as II, which is one of the great RPG epics. One nice thing about Suikoden I is that it can be downloaded for 7 bucks on PSN. Suikoden II is a bit harder to get, and usually goes for a couple hundred bucks... good luck. The structure that makes Suikoden great was solidified and perfected in II, but the later games reinvent the formula enough, and introduce different enough main characters, that they're equally as great.

Suikoden III is weird because it tries to create a tactical movement based battlesystem in which characters with armor take zero or one damage from peasants with pitchforks (and they fight a lot of them). If you stick with it, you can grow to love the combat -- mountable units like horses and griffons, 6 characters in every combat, an awesome counterattack and weapon skill system. Spells that devastate the battlefield. It's a combat system that is a slave to its story -- sometimes experienced characters join you, and they actually are 20 levels above you.

However, for me Suikoden III is great because of the story. The game is divided into both chapters and separate character perspectives. Imagine Final Fantasy VI when Terra, Sabin, and Locke all get separated on the raft and go their different paths -- except that these different paths make up the first 20-30 hours of the game. Also, while each character path has a main character, they also have 5 or more supporting characters, many of whom end up being just as important to the story. You choose the order in which to play each character -- you could play all four chapters of one story, or switch between them. The stories also intersect, so you get a sort of omniscient perspective after you've played through all the different viewpoints. The game also goes on after that, and gets better and better. I'll stop before I spoil anything.


Suikoden V is probably my favorite of all of them. It doesn't feel as perfect as II, and the combat system is more boring than both of the other games (pretty traditional turn-based), and the environment graphics are disappointingly bland in many areas, but somehow the story makes up for all of it.

It benefits from the improved translations and slightly more detailed writing that marks some PS2 RPGs, but it has the memorable and unusual characters, solid pacing, epic storyline, and real drama of a much older game. There are so many great characters... and you get to have 10 characters in your party at once, with 6 fighting in each battle.

So what does Suikoden have to do with the Final Fantasy series going downhill?  o.O

I don't want it to bomb...I just want to be able to play it this god damn DECADE. I've been waiting for about 5 years now SE! This is a prime example of why announcing games far in advance is a very bad idea.

Sigh, I'll start a different thread... I didn't think you'd complain about someone suggesting a game they think you'd like apropos of FFVI.


*goes away from the crotchety thread*

The cause of delaying the game for several years longer than every other FF made and the cause of the game losing its exclusivity were one and the same: the PS3 bombed, and Squeenix wants a bigger userbase to sell the game to. By waiting for the PS3 to sell more units and putting the game out on the 360 as well, there are more potential nerds for Squeenix to milk dry with a hyped up (but shiny) FMV-riddled piece of crap. It's simple business.

I totally agree with twesterm. It does not take this long to make a Final Fantasy. They used to make 3 of these games every generation: 1-3 on NES, 4-6 on SNES, 7-9 on PS1, 10-12 on ps2, and the PS3 has been out since 2006 without a single main series FF game.

I mean, when a company announces that their new game, Final Fantasy XIII, will be "the first installment of the Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII compilation," isn't it obvious that they've jumped the shark and are selling out harder than ever?

Ouch, Final Fantasy discussion! FF fans are even worse than Resident Evil fanboys, lol.

My take: I am very underwhelmed by the trailer of FFXIII. It really looks like Star Wars to me, but I'll buy it anyway because it's Final Fantasy. But if this one sucks as well (I absolutely hate XII) the series won't have my automatic loyalty anymore.

What does have my money automatically is another DS remake. FFIV DS is marvelous and I haven't enjoyed a FF like this since IX, maybe even since VII.