In Defense of FFXII

Next Generation has an article defending many of the somewhat 'controversial' decisions made in the design for the newest chapter in the Final Fantasy series. While it recieved a 40/40 from Famitsu, Final Fantasy XII has recieved some harsh criticisms for straying as far as it has from the Final Fantasy norm. From the article: "With Gambits turned on (and configured with just five minutes of commonsensical thought), battles go at least twenty times more quickly than in any other RPG. At their best, Final Fantasy XII's battles resemble rollicking fights in fantasy movies. The player merely directs his party through an area, freezing the action when he sees fit to make adjustments on the battle plan (stronger enemies appear, et cetera). This alone should be enough to qualify XII as a 'videogame.' The controller's vibration, for example, provides wonderful feedback. Yet players feel betrayed. They say, 'I want to press buttons.' They say, 'I don't want to watch my videogame.'"

Sounds more like a "Role Playing" game

[Jeff Carr]

I find it just a bit odd that Final Fantasy is seeming to be trending more towards the story aspects of the game, while the latest D&D isn't much more than a button masher.

Good for them!

Gameplay?

[twistedsymphony]

Since when has the FF series ever been about gameplay?

Isn't it's major selling point the whole story line and cinematic visuals. Having played a few of the more recent ones I think this feature would be really beneficial when you get about 3/4 of the way through and spend hours tediously looking for fights to level up before the final battle.

Re:Uh.. story link?

[BlightShadow]

I'm going to have to agree, the reason I enjoyed the old FF games was due to them dealing more with your attack stratagem. Not just setting the strategy, and running around.

Here we go again.

[Rob T Firefly]

Is it just me, or has pretty much every FF game changed something major that pissed off the fanbase to no end until they played it and possibly found it groovy? People bitched and moaned about FFX's sphere grid and Blitzball, FFX2's lack of blitzball, FF7's steampunk-over-standard fantasty, FF9's standard-fantasy-over-steampunk, the dress-up, the card games, the battle systems, etc, etc, etc...

I'm an RPG fan in general, and a Final Fantasy fan in particular. I like some of them more than others. The one's I'm not much of a fan of - wait for it, this is the good bit, the bit with "+1 insightful" written all over it - I don't play with anymore.

That would be horrible

[turbopunk]

I think the critics have something correct to say. I absolutely hated KOTOR and found it completely unplayable due to the fact that it never felt like I was controlling the character. The controls for battle were completely disjointed from the on-screen action. If the new FF has the same schema, I think it really will alienate the die-hard fans. Of course, it could also help pick-up all those XBox players that made KOTOR game of the year . . .

Enix's Influence

[TheZorch]

In FFXI you start to see Enix's influence. Its a subtle change, most of FFXI is still very much a Squaresoft dominant game, but game elements like missions and the rank system are Enix influences.

FFXII is the first Single-Player FF game since the MMORPG was released. Square and Enix have settled into their new role as a combined company, thus ideas from both sides will unsurprisingly be incorporated into the game. So, future FF games will start to look like a cross between FF and Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest VIII is a darn good game and seeing some of the gaming conventions from DQ in FF will add to the game rather than ruin the experience. Future FF games will be very different from those we are more familiar with, but that's not a bad thing. I look forward to the future of FF.

... can I have yours, then?

[hanako]

Setting the strategy and watching rather than button-pounding is something I've been wishing more RPGs would do for AGES. Some of us have RSI and don't like doing pointless repetitive things. Hearing about this new battle style makes me want to play the game even though I lack a console...

Re:Sounds more like a "Role Playing" game

[Anonymous Coward]

"Final Fantasy is seeming to be trending more towards the story aspects of the game, while the latest D&D isn't much more than a button masher."

Where have you been? Any serious FF fan has known FF has had decent story for almost the entirety of the series excepting the first and maybe 2nd - (using the 'true' sequel numbering).

The things that make games distinct from movies is your level of control over what is going on, and the only wasy you can do that is through the interface - the gamepad.

The thing I grew to hate about FF was its lack of control over your character and it became a sit and watch fest. FF since FFX has been a "leave your controller on the floor, go make dinner, come back" kind of game, if thats what gaming means in the future, where it's entirely passive and lazy and reduced control and challenge, count me out.

The thing that made video games great was interactivity and using the gamepad to control and make choices and perform actions on objects in a virtual space, this is part of the reason fighting games are so fun, you go up to a character, decide to perform a move, use the correct buttom combination and timing and BOOM, payoff. Anyone who refers to these games as "button mashers" are simply not gamers, gamers know that games require some level of interactivity and the focus eithe goes towards the action-end of the spectrum, or towards the "management" / tactical end of the spectrum (i.e. when you have to control crowds of units say in Warcraft 3, controlling each individual unit and its abilities realtime becomes simply impossible / unmanagable task, hence the need to condense or make it managable.

I prefer RPG's either to focus on one or the other because most RPG's when they dilute the control over your avatar get extremely boring, and story based RPG's that lack in combat/items/character development, are one shot wonders... once you play them rarely do you want to play them again.

Diablo series IMHO was nearing the pinnacle of what an RPG should be - replayable, addictive, fun - the diversity of the skills and actions you could perform was immense but the were simple to perform.