What went wrong with her career?

What went wrong with her career?

Square started waiting 5 years between main series releases. At least when VIII was a disappointment, we all knew IX was soon to follow.

Waiting years and years for XIII and XV was everything wrong with them. If there were other good main-line releases in between, the disappointment of those shitters would not be so great.

>At least when VIII was a disappointment, we all knew IX was soon to follow.

as an old fag let me set the record straight: IX was the first controversial FF mainly due to its design. VIII didn't blow any minds like VII but it was well received. The reason people were not mad at IX was because X was very close.

Excuse me, I'm not that guy, but how is IX, controversial? Internet doesn't "exist" in my life back then.

As another person, who came along with VII and saw that VIII was very positively received by the vast majority, but also heard that amidst long term fan forums there was grumbling about it: I thought IX was just seen as a disappointment and bland, been there done that deal.

So since I'm curious and wasn't into the fandom at the time to see it firsthand (AC was the first thing to bring me to a forum, and promptly leave as well), I would like you to clarify what do you mean by "mainly due to its design"? Please?

Since VII took the series into a different direction with a more realistic art style, IX was off putting because of the cartoony graphics and return to an actual true fantasy setting

FFX was a precursor to the hallway design of FFXIII, also Blitzball was shit. Then they made a direct sequel, also a precursor to FFXIII's sequels.
FFXI was a fucking MMORPG
FFXII was a fucking single player MMORPG
FFXIII was a shitfest with horrible battle system and hallways broken up by short CG films
FFXIV was a fucking MMORPG
FFXV is Final Fantasy for normies

Oh and the biggest offender:
FFVII remake completely scraps the turn based battle system which made the game fun

Fuck Final Fantasy, and I say this as a former fan.

It turned into a stamp to be used on the cover of any JRPG project made by SE because making new IPs with AAA budget is too scary, especially because the fanbase won't accept anything less than a AAA game form a mainline FF title.

user here is half right, but the reason IX was the death knell to the series wasn't about graphics at all.

FFVIII was one of the most innovative games in the series. It tried a lot of new things for a series that was coming dangerously close to stagnating. Unfortunately VII was such a smash critical and commercial success that Square panicked at the perceived "backlash" against VIII. Mind you, it was still a massive success as well, but it wasn't unanimously praised and Square got nervous and decided innovation wasn't for Final Fantasy and shit out IX, a garbage game driven purely by nostalgia.

Not much really.

Maybe the sequel games and some spin offs?

As for the mainline titles, they're all pretty good.

>As another person, who came along with VII
>I thought IX was just been there done that deal.
How could it be that for you if your first Final fantasy was VII?

They wouldn't take that long if they weren't still trying to awe everyone with cutting edge graphics and trends. That approach might have worked a couple generations ago, but game development is just getting too long and complicated. They need to start working more within their means.

we didn't know exactly what creature freya is
is amarant a vampire
are you son goku

The old guard retired. Starting with X all the of the games lacked the final fantasy "soul". I still enjoy most of them but they're definitely not the same.

Nothing. Each game since 10 has been more complex and better than the previous ones. By FF17, the entire story will be told through lucid music notes as flashbacks about the future and philosophy will be the main theme.

Square Enix developed into a risk averse entity. The paradigms of hte industry have changed so much since the 90's (when they peaked), and now episodic content, samey content is the norm. Now you can just make one installment and drip-feed it downloadable content to keep the installbase happy, and that will cover you for an entire console generation.

Remember when we got at least three mainline titles per console? Now we get one.
>NES: I, II, III
>SNES: IV, V, VI
>PS1: VII, VIII, IX
>PS2: X, X-2, XII
>PS3: XIII, XIII-2, XIII LR
>PS4: XV, Prompto, Gladiolus, Whatever else

but you actually have 2 plus some spinoff FF games of high quality.

Travelers? Exvius? Record Keeper? Who cares.

>muh innovation
All of the "innovative" systems in 8 ended up being trash

We were always getting high-quality "spinoffs" though. This is not exclusive to the current generation. Most of the time they were in the form of separate IPs

>SNES = Chrono Triggered, Secret of _____, Mario RPG
>PS1 = FFTactics, Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross
>PS2 = Kingdom Hearts, Radiata Stories, Drakengard

and so forth

Not really, they were poorly balanced but interesting.

>Interesting
Give one example

Junctioning was an interesting way to manipulate your stats. Refining magic from enemy drops made trash drops feel more impactful. Upgrading your weapons instead of buying new shit at every shop felt more interesting.

>Junctioning was an interesting way to manipulate your stats.
Not with magic. Junctioning your best magic means you won't want to use it
>Upgrading your weapons instead of buying new shit at every shop felt more interesting.
No it doesn't. It means that there's just a linear progression rather than multiple options.

ALL of the innovative systems in FFVIII were designed around removing the trash elements of RPGs so you could play the game like a movie

>ENC NONE
>Overpowered Junctons

Literally remove the bullshit from the game so you can enjoy it properly instead of dealing with JRPG "mechanics" that waste time.

Everyone who figured this out enjoyed VIII way more than the cucks who spent all day fighting Fastitocalon-F's and losing boss battles.

Why not just watch a fucking movie then?

Not necessarily. You'll have more magic than you do junction spots. And if you use a few spells it's not a big deal to just refine more after combat.

In 99% of FFs you just use your top damage weapon, so I'm not really sure what multiple options you're talking about.

World of FF and (to some degree) KH series.

Theatrhythm CC is fantastic

>You'll have more magic than you do junction spots. And if you use a few spells it's not a big deal to just refine more after combat.
There aren't that many great spells in the game so all of the useful ones will be junctioned. Hard to find spells will also not get used as you won't want to go out of your way to go get more. The trade off for using a spell in battle then going out and finding more isn't worth it as a fully junctioned attack is always more efficient
>In 99% of FFs you just use your top damage weapon, so I'm not really sure what multiple options you're talking about.
That's not my point. You can't just say "well these games have a shit system so this one can to." Ideally instead of being lazy Square would create a good variety of weapons that make you actually choose

I stated what I heard the reaction was at the time about it from others. Same thing for VIII. I personally thought then that VIII was the worst game I had ever played (And that's still true, but that's only that, played.) and IX was boring and I couldn't keep my suspension of disbelief after the events surrounding Bahamut vs. Alexander. There were too many Deus Ex Machinas in quick succession and ragequit the game for 12 years and 3 months. Thought it was bad. Nowadays I think it's subpar, since for me the ending parts are the zenith of the franchise (with some headcanon).

Nah. I kind of like linear upgrade systems. They usually have a brief period midgame with the different elemental swords. But by the end I'd rather just have an ultimate weapon.

And yes magic is worse than attacking in 8. In some FFs attacking is worse than magic. Like I said they had neat ideas but the balance was off.

Zenith means best and subpar means below average. Which is it?

What is your favourite?
>Nah. I kind of like linear upgrade systems.
I don't That's boring and lazy design. There doesn't just have to elemental attributes. There can be attributes for different kind of enemies, there can be trade offs between attack and speed.
>In some FFs attacking is worse than magic.
This isn't the case in any FF

It was pretty much a slightly modified version of FF6 gameplay, which was considered a very backwards move especially after what 7 and 8 had to offer. The art style was also a HUGE deal, it didn't appeal to the fans of the more modern, realistic, and even gritty style of the prequels.

>World of FF
>KH
Again, these are spin-offs and should not impact the movement of the mainline.
I agree but it's just there for nostalgia's sake.

They'll never make a movie with a story as awful as FFVIII, so I have no choice but to play it.

The game as a whole is subpar. The ending parts are so good every human on the planet should experience them. So both.

I usually divide it by system. So 1,5,9,12,13,15 by system they're on.

Attacking is worse than magic in FF6 just off the top of my head and dual casting in FF5 can be quite strong as well.

I see. I think the game is superb and the ending is ok.

All the Final Fantasy games are good.

>II is a SaGa game
>XIV will forever be an empty Warcraft clone
>Toriyama's dress-up fantasy
>XV is some KH ripoff
No.

>5 over 4

Yep. I enjoy 4 as well though.

What's good about 5?

I stand by my statement, they may not all be great, fantastic or amazing, but they're at least good.

I enjoy the class system and the customization. In 4 unless you're playing the DS version there's nothing you can do to influence the growth of your characters.

I don't think II or XIV are "at least good", with both being fundamentally broken in key areas which diminish the quality overall.

Where's the customisation when every character ends up being a freelancers?

Square-Enix has no idea anymore what the fuck they're doing or who their target audience is. They're management skills for the making the games are also shit, and made worse by them being too focused on making their games are cutting edge as possible.

I can easily understand that. I don't like IX's world, gameplay, characters or plot, so when it stops being IX and starts transitioning to being about universal concepts and Final Fantasy as a whole on the steps of Memoria, my interest skyrocketed.

It never gets to that point unless you do a ton of grinding.

I think 14 is good. 2 is playable but it just makes me want to boot up a SaGa game instead.

Fair enough, I think 9 has some of the best characters in the series. I thought memoria was just going back in history through the planet's memory.

>14 is good
This actually triggers me. Having played since the closed beta, I have experienced everything the game has to offer but under no light would I consider this good.

It's one of the only games in a modern era to hold a subscription model when every game has gone the way of F2P and made much more money doing so, and the basis for that is that they have "regular content updates". If we are to compare this to its only competition, it's actually getting stomped by Warcraft since that game doesn't have raid tiers that are toppled in a day, and LFR/Normal/Heroic/Mythic give variety and appease every type of player whereas LFR/Savage do not. Not to mention the number of bosses far exceed Final Fantasy.

There's also the argument of content delivery. We've gotten less and less with each patch, from three dungeons per, to two, to one. Each patch log is filled to the brim with quality of life updates to pad it out and make it appear like a big change has occured when nothing really changes. You still have busted tank meta in 4.0. Worthless skills on each class (especially stun/silence/blind) that didn't really go anywhere, and will never go anywhere.

Systems are largely broken or obsolete. We still have busted systems like guildhests littering the duty list, when they serve no purpose whatsoever. You can still queue for 3 year old content

I could write a thesis on why this game is bad but suffice to say fuck you and your opinion.

I didn't say great. Just good. I'm not a huge mmo guy, all I want is to sub, do some stuff then take a break. FF14 has good aesthetics, the combat is ... alright and it panders really hard to my nostalgia for the series.

That's all I need.

>I thought memoria was just going back in history through the planet's memory.

Within the parameters of IX, sure. As I said with some headcanon: Memoria sets up memory as another central theme for the game and as an event it's totally divorced from what was happening before and the characters become irrelevant. It's a new game. Then Crystal World is about saving the world from the Void, and here is where the headcanon comes in, the memories are the callbacks to the previous games (they weren't cheap nostalgia hooks, they actually tied into the story) that have survived through the Crystal to the present world (The worlds being sequential. There is another game in the franchise that supports the idea of worlds returning to and expanding from the Crystal by the way.) and you're defending Final Fantasy, the Crystal, itself from annihilation. These are some exciting stakes.

And then you get a life affirming fairy tale happy ending that should resonate with the common pulse of humanity because it relates to the main theme of life. Furthermore it actually feels earned, with closure for every character. It's wonderful.

>Fair enough, I think 9 has some of the best characters in the series. I thought memoria was just going back in history through the planet's memory.
It was but you end up at the universal crystal where everything comes at the end. Memories tying everyone together is the road to the crystal that created the universe.