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When the game franchise you used to love keeps going downhill, and you realize it is finally time to let it go (media1.tenor.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/gaming@lemmy.world
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[–] 12 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Final Fantasy has been dead for a while. XI was the first major warning that things were no longer the same as an MMO was the last thing I expected from a mainline entry. XII was okay but it got rid of the overworld map and kept an MMO style of gameplay that felt like a slog to get through. Everything after that has been a disappointment heralded by extremely long dev times.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I bought FFXVI and both VII remake games on PS5 because I was still holding out hope that they could reignite the magic of the previous games. I mostly enjoyed them, but they didn't feel remotely like the Final Fantasy games of the past. XVI was more Game of Thrones than Final Fantasy, and the VII remake games were more XV/Kingdom Hearts than Final Fantasy.

    I feel like the writing was on the wall as far back as X. There is very little variety in the combat, it's very much a hallway like XIII, the "world map" is a list of locations in the order you visited them, and there are multiple long stretches where you can't backtrack.

    I've also tried playing Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey in the hopes that they would scratch that same itch, but I haven't been able to bring myself to commit to finishing them. I haven't played Fantasian, but I've heard mostly positive things about it.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    I actually liked XVI and the VII remakes better than anything they have made since FF XII, but I suppose that isn't a tremendous bar to reach. The SNES era of Final Fantasy is still my favorite.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I didn't get to finish Lost Odyssey due to my 360 red-ringing. It's a shame too because the story was one of the saddest since FF IX. It really explores the idea that immortality isn't all that great when everyone you know and love will eventually die and leave you with just memories, but then end up losing those memories too which ends up being half blessing and curse. The industrial setting a la FF VI was just gorgeous with one of Uematsu's best ever scores going off in the background. The character designs were pretty great overall too with Jansen being one of my favorite JRPG characters because of his dry witty remarks no matter what the situation is.

    Everything about the game hit just right and felt like it was a proper FF title in all but name. It hurt to know Mistwalker Studios barely did anything worthwhile after that for a long while until Fantasian.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Oof, I was fortunate to never have a 360 RRoD, but I knew people who did. Were you ever able to get it repaired or exchanged through Microsoft's extended warranty program?

    I didn't finish Lost Odyssey because I eventually lost interest. The premise was certainly interesting, the music was very good (Uematsu is a genius), the dialog was well done, and the gameplay was fun. What slowly drove me away was how depressing everything in the story was. It felt like every single story beat was trying to be devoid of any hope or joy.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago*

    It was already way past its warranty so not much could've been done. Yeah the depressing story can be a bit much too but it also felt very real and relatable. We all have loved ones who've passed away and I swear that game made me feel that moment it happened all over again. There are glitters of light throughout the story though and that's what made me keep going because it also does a pretty great job of emulating hope to the player. It's been so many years since it came out but I'd be willing to pay top dollar for even a basic port of it on Steam.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    Agreed in general, Square has turned to shit - but XI and XII were not where it happened, those games are great and XII in particular was peak Square. Part of the problem was Tetsuya Nomura and the slew of spinoff shovelware games with half-baked Kingdom Hearts style stories they started shitting out. The other part was a combo of their embrace of mobile gacha-style bullshit, and the apparent lack of skill and experience that go into their games as they shifted from maintaining their own engines and in-house tools in favor of joining the Unreal and Unity bandwagons.

    But don't worry, another "going back to their roots!" phase is just around the corner.

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