[Malacite]

Or do they just have the worst testers on the face of the earth?

Seriously, I'm playing through FF9 again and I have to wonder: is this where their quality control started going down hill?


Idk, I found ever since FF7 Square's forgotten it's supposed to be a god damned game. It's about having fun.


FF IX in particular is IMO, utterly ruined/tainted by the bull shit steal rates on the bosses. I just spent well over an hour trying to steal 1 stupid item from a boss (don't even get me started on the Beatrix fights...) because even with Zidane's Bandit ability, you'd still have to ask NASA to calculate the odds.


I guess I'm just pissed atm, but seriously, it just sucks out all the fun. Lately I've found that the vast majority of boss fights are stupidly easy. at least 90% of the time on IX in particular I find myself in a position where I can kill the boss in a single blow whenever I want, but the fight still drags on for a horrendous amount of time simply because of the bad steal rates.


Sure, I could just not bother, but then I'd be missing out on awesome items much earlier than expected. I would also like to point out that in no other FF has stealing been this stupidly hard (nor the bosses such utter cake walks back in the Nintendo era)



I really have to wonder some days if Square properly tests their games. Do their people actually sit down and go "Yeah, this is pretty fun." ? Masochism or Laziness, gotta be one of the two...



/rant off


:v ent:

[Feba]

It's about having fun.

Hypocrisy much? If you're trying to have fun, why are you worrying about stealing every little item-- and if you're trying to have fun, how do you even know that those items exist?


You're the one taking the game too seriously. Not SE.

[Grizzlebeard]

FF9 was the one where I lost interest in the series. Number of reasons but there were three that really did it for me. Firstly, the forced party mechanic where someone you'd spent ages gearing up was ripped away from you and you were forced to use other characters to play with. Granted this encourages you to play the other characters but I didn't appreciate the forced nature of it.

Secondly, I hated that whole, "Here's a fight where you'll get beaten anyway but you have to play it to win otherwise it's a real game over not the fake scripted one". Maybe one fight where you can't win is acceptable but that game had a bunch and after levelling for ages and gearing up it just leaves you feeling like you've been bitchslapped.

Lastly, after playing 7 and 8 where you could literally obtain every item, weapon, materia, etc if you persevered, I hated that whole thing where you either chose the final summons or you used the item to make a weapon or whatever. Regardless of the choice you're left feeling you haven't completed 100% of the game. Shame they didn't use the Vagrant Story mechanic where you had to play the game twice to unlock the remaining 30% or so.

[Murphie]

Not being able to collect everything was the reason I gave up on it too, eventually. That and the strategy guide thing. I didn't have a home computer when I was playing FFIX, and it was a bitch trying to remember the things I wanted to look up the next time I had computer access every time.

[Balfree]

I for one seem to be one of the few that still loves every final fantasy game. Currently thoroughly enjoying FFXII.

[Feba]

Balfree: FFXII was thoroughly enjoyable. When it was released a year ago.


How is this just now 'currently'?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

FFXII is quite a large game with a lot to see and do in it, possibly moreso than any FF I've ever played. It was also the most recent Final Fantasy main series game released, so I think that more than qualifies it as "current."

FFIX was actually my re-introduction to the series, so I was willing to be forgiving toward it when there was really honestly nothing else TO play on the PS2, but after going back and playing FFVII, FFVIII, FFX, FFIV and FFV and VI afterward, FFIX does feel lacking in a lot of areas.

FFIX plays the series nostalgia up hard, but forgets a lot of what made the other games good. It took the ability system from Final Fantasy Tactics which was already tedious and made learning abilities even MORE tedious. That's not an improvement. Since FFVI, the series has very much become more about customizing the characters to an incredible level of detail, but FFIX still tried to define the characters by class too heavily while not even succeeding with that.

Making Steiner a Mystic Knight was cool, but he was chained to Vivi to make that happen, which limited him as a character. Then you have White Mage and Summoner duties divided up between Dagger and Eiko. I understand Dagger was of a summoner race (Again playing up to old themes and characters like Rydia), but really could have just been the White Mage)

When you look at FFVI or even FFX, you seen characters defined by their class and standing on their own merits from the very start. Each character had something to bring to the table by themselves that no other character could offer, yet they also learned lots of things any other character could, such as magic. The tradeoff with FFVI was which Magicite you decided a character would stick with would affect their stat growth.

FFXII anyone can litereally be anything, but not everyone can summon each esper and you could only have so many gambits. You could make everyone use protect if you wanted them to, but it was often more effective to just have one character do specific duties like Haste rather than have each character constantly buffing themselves and getting nothing done.

Deep down FFIX's problem was that it wanted to be classics FFIV and FFVI were, but they limited the characters in so many ways it just wasn't possible to achieve what those games did.

[DakAttack]

In FFIX the tail turned me off, and in FFXII the liscense system turned me off. I didn't think it was retarded or anything, but it was more of a hassle than I needed.

[Balfree]

Originally Posted by Feba

Balfree: FFXII was thoroughly enjoyable. When it was released a year ago.


How is this just now 'currently'?

I bought the game a week ago.

About 20 hours in.

[Feba]

Again, how in the world are you JUST NOW getting around to it?

[Jarre]

In Europe FEBA, we only got 12 in February.

[Murphie]

I only bought it a few months ago, and I haven't gotten past the very first task, or mission, or whatever that is. I keep meaning to, but then I do other things instead.

[Feba]

Jarre: Well then, don't live in europe.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Feba, believe it or not, there are people that don't play games the very instant they are released.

Hell, that shouldn't be too foreign of a concept this generation, given how overpriced both games and consoles are right now. I can't even get excited for Metal Gear Solid 4 when the entry fee is five hundred fucking dollars.

Its a big buzzkill.

People can totally wait, I certainly haven't died yet from not playing The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess or Metroid Prime 3 - and both games belong to my favorite franchises ever, easily ranking above any FF I've ever played.

[Feba]

bbq, believe it or not, there are sarcasms on the interweb.