He was one of the worst heroes I've ever seen. Useless little shit character/story wise compared to everyone else. Whaaa I wanna be a sky pirate!

I'll be happy when they stop making main characters of these things 10-20 years old. I wouldn't trust folks in that age range at my house to use my damned lawnmower, much less to be fighting giant monsters with world ending demon summons. Never understood Japan's fixation with having small children saving the world. Especially since the main age group buying video games isn't little kids anymore.

 

Kind of goes with the coming of age motif that a lot of fantasy novels also cling to, though in those cases its the protaganists growing up/wizening/maturing. Where as in RPG's its them just saving the world, getting the girl, and learning about friendship.

Thankfully, a few of the Final Fantasies broke that mold somewhat.

 

I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that FFXII had a hero.

Or characters, really.

Or a plot. Seriously. I was 60 hours in and still wondering when the plot was going to start. Fuck these political/ensemble plots where nothing actually happens. It was clichéd, but I liked the "protagonist with a mysterious past" driven storylines of 7, 9, and 10. 7 and 9 also had a good villain which made them epic. 8 had a good villain for the first 2 discs before everything went south.

Anyway, there were two things I really liked about FFXII: visible monsters/no separate battle screen, and the gambit system.

I disliked the "story", characters, character customisation system, focus on quickenings, uselessness of summons.

I'm getting really interested in Versus 13. It looks like a return to a very FF7 style.

 

I'm still raging that Versus is going to be PS3 only. :/ As for a sequel to xiii, I have no interest, since xiii sucked so much that I sent it back to Gamefly without beating it.

 

There is still a remote chance that Versus will end up for both 360 and PS3. The company president at SE said that they were considering the idea. They still have plenty of time to announce it. Versus will be launched as last in the Nova Crystallis franchise. I believe the statement was around mid 2010.

Come to think of it. How come no one is mentioning Agito/Type-0? For an PSP FF game it looks pretty neat. Aside of that the gameplay looks similar to Versus.

 

To be honest, I find it hard to believe people still enjoy JRPGs that much anymore. It just seems that there's just so much wrong with them. The stories are somehow generic and completely fucking nuts at the same time, so much so that I can't get immersed in them.

Act 1: Innocent hero (17 some emo boy) is ripped from a normal setting and thrust into a world of magic and monsters.
Act 2: Hero gathers together a team to fight the big baddie.
Act 3: Pysch! The big baddie was actually just a puppet of the REAL big baddie, who is essentially a stand in figure for GAWD.
Act 4: The protagonists must kill GAWD.

Not only that, but the translation jobs, and cultural divide go even further in making the game inaccessible. Just like the infamous laughing scene in FFX. In the Japanese culture, it makes sense that "laughing out loud" would be considered something awkward, because often times expressing your emotions in such a way is frowned upon. In the American context, it just looked fucking stupid.

Finally, apparently Japanese companies don't understand the meaning of "decent voice acting". There are so many companies that are hiring competent voice actors these days, it's inexcusable that the JRPGs are still behind the times here.

That's not even counting the (generally) linear structure that JRPGs take, eliminating almost all choice that you have in the game, and ultimately making my presence seem fucking meaningless!

/Rant.

Yeah, sorry. I just tried replaying FFXIII again. It sent me into a bit of a rage fest.

 

Try playing different JRPGs every once in a while? I mean, I bring this up every time JRPGs get mentioned, but Shin Megami Tensei games really are a whole different animal than Final Fantasy. I mean, in a couple of them you still kill God, but it's still handled differently.

Try playing Nocturne if you get the time, John.

 

I second the SMT series and its spin-offs, most of them, pretty much anything that isn't Persona, gives you the decision on which way to take the story, within a certain limit of course, the only problem is that most of them are hard. However, like Solomon said, sometimes you DO fight God, but YOU choose that route, not the game.

 

Except SMT2. You always fight God in SMT2, even when you decide to be on his side.

I don't remember why.

 

Wait, SMT actually lets you choose what you want to do? I'm off to acquire them now.

 

The main series games do. The offshoots are a bit less open in that respect. Go pick up Nocturne, play on Normal, then expect to get your shit pushed in.

 

Yeah, but I still enjoy the side quests and if you can do stuff as you please. Sometimes it doesn't even have to make sense for it to be fun.

I like how sometimes you get some innovation out of them. The Last Remnant took way too damned long with the battles, but I like the bonuses it gave you for sticking people in groups who complimented each other's fighting abilities. The fighting system itself was total bullshit though. and wow after reading my review on it, I'm actually mad I sat and finished that game now.

 

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-officially-burnt-out-192700.phtml

This game puts into words my rage at the FF series better then I have, despite repeat tries.