Final Fantasy

[GarethRDR]

Visually, XIII was jaw-droppingly spectacular. I'd give it that, certainly.

[wiggyrichard]

Hogso, how long into XIII-2 before the pace picks up? At the moment its just so **** boring!

[hogso]

Hogso, how long into XIII-2 before the pace picks up? At the moment its just so **** boring!

Well, in comparison to XIII it's paced quite differently. One of the major criticisms of XIII was that you basically run down a 'corridor', or enclosed map, do a few battles, have a cutscene, and so on for more or less the whole game (you eventually unlock an big open field but thats quite nearly the end of the game). So the pace is quick - given the player is willing to continue, anyway. SE took on board alot of criticism for the sequel and changed a whole bunch of things - that linearality being one of the key changes. So they split the 'levels' up so you pick and choose where to go and what to do next (for the most part, anyway). There are a whole bunch of optional places to go to that you can finish the game without visiting, which have their own stories on the side of the main one, which was another thing people were hoping for. It's a shame they didn't go further than just dressing up the same maps in different time periods, though.

To answer your question, well. Hmm. I can't honestly say the pace does pick up much, not in comparison to the first few hours. I know the very very start has the bit where youre in New Bodhum and you just run around talking to people for a bit before the meteor hits and chaos ensues, right? The rest of the game is more of the same really. The story picks up in a major way at one point, but the pacing of the game hasn't been an issue for me at all I have to admit.

I currently have Omega Weapon in my party, having defeated it and got the crystal for it on about the 4th time of asking. It's pretty fantastic, the laser sound is just glorious. PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW

[hogso]

Platinum'd XIII-2 yesterday. It was joyful

[Dante_Lockhart]

Is the grinding as tedious in FF13-2 as it is in FF13?

[hogso]

Is the grinding as tedious in FF13-2 as it is in FF13?

If you mean in regard to CP farming and item farming with a view to getting the 'all items' trophy/achievment in XIII, then no, it is nowhere near as bad as that. Are you one of the people that fought fight after fight against the big turtle thing, whatever its called, to get trapz for the ultimate weapons? Yeh, there isn't really anything like the in XIII-2. Well, there are still ultimate weapons you can get that require specific items from specific monsters, but they arent required for any trophy/acheivement, and certainly arent required to defeat the hardest monsters in the game

Although I was happy with the difficulty in the early going of XIII-2, by the time you get to the end, and you get some decent monsters on your side, it's really rather easy. Even the 2 hardest monsters inthe game were simply more time consuming than difficult. XIII on the other hand, I remember being rather unforgiving at times if you messed up some paradigm shifts.

Still really enjoyed it though, although I guess one trophy/acheviment does require grinding of a sort - you have to win 7777 coins on a slot machine which can take hours if your unlucky. Fortunately, you can put it on auto-play, put a rubber band around your controller, and just let it do its thing on its own.

[hogso]

Just a lil bit of FF news that is doing the rounds at the moment.

There is allegedly going to be a Steam release for FF7 sometime in the near future. It will include achievments, Cloud saves (see what they did there), and the odd inclusion of a trainer that lets you boost HP/MP/Gil/etc. if you're stuck...??? Which is weird. No official word, although a site for it did go live and was subsequently taken down - although it was cached by google. It's not known whether it'd be a port of the troubled PC version, whether the soundtrack would be the MIDI or original version, or if there will be any sort of upscaling in resolution.

It's also been reported today the Yoichi Wada, Square Enix CEO, has told shareholders that a future FF must exceed FF7 before a remake would be considered - as a remake of FF7 would signal the end of the franchise. How exactly they would measure whether or not a future game has 'exceeded' FF7 (or any of the pre-current gen games for that matter) is unclear. Sales figures, critical acclaim, feedback from the community...? It seems hugely unlikely that they'll ever rekindle the magic of the PS1-era games to me though.

[Ginko]

Final Fantasy X came closest for me. I love that game. They'll never surpass VII though and even if they did then you'd still get the fanboys saying it wasn't as good.

They need to go back to what made games like VII, IX and X the great games that they are and stop trying to make games with hyper-convoluted stories where every 30 seconds you get an annoying exclamation mark in your journal forcing you to read all of the backstory in the menus instead of making it part of the gameplay or cutscenes.

Currently playing through VII by the way, just about to break into Shinra headquarters.

[hogso]

Currently playing through VII by the way, just about to break into Shinra headquarters.

In through the front doors, or sneak up the stairs?

I usually do both :x

[villa4europe]

i dont see how a remake could possibly work

on one hand id want them to use the technology to expand on everything and on the other id want everything to be exactly how i remember it but with shiny new graphics

[hogso]

Indeed, but I don't think giving everything shiny new graphics would really hinder keeping everything else the same. You'd imagine - speaking hypothetically - they'd change it from being a top-down perspective with all those pre-rendered backgrounds to a third person view for a start off, which would massively alter the way the world would look, but then take into account Crisis Core. Midgar looked pretty decent modeled in 3D in that game. In fact I found being able to run up the little alley way where Aeris is at the start of the FF7 intro to be quite a joyous moment in that game.

I've always been, and will always be, pro-remake. If people don't think they should try to fix what isn't broken, then that's fine, just stick to the original. And then, if a remake did turn out to be so terrible that it was unplayable, just stick to the original I'd just be so thrilled to see x amount of iconic scenes in fully rendered current/next gen graphics that I'd happily put up with any changes they'd make.

Which they would be silly not to do by the way. They should change elements of the story, definately. Make the recruiment of Yuffie and Vincent mandatory, for example. Add a post-game side quest to resurrect Aeris. That kind of thing. I will stop there, before I go fully into fanboy mode

[Eames]

Remake FF7?! Why the **** would you do that.It was perfect the first time. You wouldn't record Stairway to Heaven with a synth and electro beat.... well you might, but you'd be a massive word removed.

leave well alone I say.

[Ginko]

Let's face it, a remake would sell rather well, regardless of whether it was good or not. Most of the fanboys would say it sucked in comparison to the original, so let them play the original. There's no harm in having both. I'd love to see FF7 in amazing graphics, just hopefully they would try to retain the same gameplay as much as possible.

Oh and in answer to your question Hogso, I went gung-ho through the front door as Barret suggested. I just finished the flashback in Kalm and am about to leave.

[wiggyrichard]

I thought they had already said there will be no remake of FF7?

God i would love it tho.

[nobler]

I recently read an interview, can't remember where but basically Square Enix made a point that if they remade FFVII, it would mean the end of the Final Fantasy series; almost like running away with their tail between their legs, giving in to pressure to make a quick, easy buck. They made the point that by revisiting an earlier Final Fantasy game meant that the series couldn't progress, that they'd somehow failed and can longer makes games of that standard, which let's face, is sort of true, but it's still a game series that carries a lot of respect in the industry and I can see where they are coming from.

[wiggyrichard]

I recently read an interview, can't remember where but basically Square Enix made a point that if they remade FFVII, it would mean the end of the Final Fantasy series; almost like running away with their tail between their legs, giving in to pressure to make a quick, easy buck. They made the point that by revisiting an earlier Final Fantasy game meant that the series couldn't progress, that they'd somehow failed and can longer makes games of that standard, which let's face, is sort of true, but it's still a game series that carries a lot of respect in the industry and I can see where they are coming from.

But nothing they will EVER produce will come close to what FF7 was/is.

If anything, they get a little bit worse with ever installment. I played the latest one FFXII-2, for about 5 hours and just thought it was crap.

[nobler]

But nothing they will EVER produce will come close to what FF7 was/is.

That's the point though, i think. They know this and by going back to FFVII, it's openly telling the world that nothing they have produced since is better or will be better, therefore they have failed and would more or less signal the end of the final fantasy franchise. Which, from a business point of view would be terrible, it's still extremely successful, regardless of the quality of the games.

I also still think it's a series with potential, they just need to stop being so fancy and go back to basics a bit. Like, umm.. a good, simple, heart warming story with likeable characters, for starters.

[wiggyrichard]

But nothing they will EVER produce will come close to what FF7 was/is.

That's the point though, i think. They know this and by going back to FFVII, it's openly telling the world that nothing they have produced since is better or will be better, therefore they have failed and would more or less signal the end of the final fantasy franchise. Which, from a business point of view would be terrible, it's still extremely successful, regardless of the quality of the games.

I also still think it's a series with potential, they just need to stop being so fancy and go back to basics a bit. Like, umm.. a good, simple, heart warming story with likeable characters, for starters.

I agree mate, that from a business point of view it would mean they end. But surely they know that FF7 was the king ding-a-ling of the FF franchise, so if it's not broke then dont fix it.

Get back to what people fell in love with and you will make more money! Now i know **** all about nothing, but surely they can see this?

I actually prefer the camera style of FF7 instead of this 3rd person over the shoulder crap!

Also, in FF7 there was a 5 minute cut-scene every hour or so, now its a 1 minute cut-scene every 10 minutes which is pointless and annoying. The ones on FF7 were jaw dropping and completely blew you away.

You've got me started now!!! :evil:

[hogso]

I actually prefer the camera style of FF7 instead of this 3rd person over the shoulder crap!

I mentioned it on the last page, and although I would expect them to change the camera to 3rd person rather than the top down viewpoint, they wouldn't have to do it.

I'm playing Tales of Graces f at the moment, in which the camera above and in front of the player from (usually) a 45 degree angle, which tracks the player as you move around corners, or towards the camera, and such like. It works really well.

Speaking of which, Graces is a great example of how to properly do a next gen console RPG. Looks great, compelling story, really likeable characters, a proper traversable world map (although quite different to FF7 et al),and tons and tons and tons of side quests/extra things to do. The PS3 edition (out here in August) even has a post-main game story which adds about 10 hours of story, and after that there's a 10 level EX dungeon with the hardest monsters and boss battles in the game.

As has been pointed out in other threads though, the art style isn't everyones cup of tea.

[Ginko]

I'm looking forward to Tales of Graces f's European release. I think it'll be a day one purchase for me. It's been far too long since I've really enjoyed a modern J-RPG. The last one that I absolutely loved was Final Fantasy X, then the closest that came after that was probably Lost Odyssey.