FF began to suck balls?

[Zargabaath]

the problem stems from everytime a producer makes a classic turn based rpg with....oh no random battles ...the game reviewers crap all over it calling it nothing new and innovative..prompting the producers to try and make new inventive styles. ignoring the legions and legions of classic rpg fans and most horribly robbing us of our most prized posession the final fantasy series.

First off, what is so inherently wrong with a game that doesn't have random battles? Personally I am able to flow game to game without a preference - I play the game without a problem if it has random battles or not. Secondly, how do random battles make an RPG "special" or better - what is inherently "godly" about random battles?

Consider that the consumer base has grown up there is a good portion that most likely have acquired new expenses - house, children, car, etc. so they may not have the money or time to "game" as much as they did in the past, when they were young and didn't have as many responsibilities. So the companies must look for new consumers to purchase their product; I believe it was Kitase who said it was normal for old fans to grow out of Final Fantasy and that the series is aimed at the age group of teens to early twenties.

In Final Fanasy XIII, while it doesn't have random battles, at least there is a screen transition if fighting battles without one is a scary proposition.

Also, Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2 was very well received along with the Shadow Hearts series and Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V have also been positively received and they all had random battles with a turn-based system, to name a few - so yeah...

where it went wrong:
ffx (i dont know how anyone can say ix it follows the success plan)

Really? I think FFX being the second highest selling FF kind of says otherwise. As you later mention, the "not-so recent" poll has FFX/X-2 having the second most votes so and on gamespot the game got an average user score of 9.3 from a little over thirty thousand people. Considering how political polls say that the people think this and usually only polled one thousand or less people; a poll of thirty thousand people is very impressive.

The problem is this: no world map..yes its that simple!!!

If you think that the world map is something that made Final Fantasy special that is sad. Final Fantasy did not make the world map; the world map came before Final Fantasy was created. The world map is not that significant of a feature that it would ruin a RPG. Persona 3 and Persona 4, for example, don't have a world map that is explorable, but those games are still good because of what is in the game - the world map was not vital to the nature of the game; more examples would be the Shadow Hearts series.

they went away from the tried and true exploration of the world which truly opens up the immagination..finding a new cave, unlocking areas by sea or airship, finding a way to get to another place due to geography.

Those are all so "compelling" points. Walking through a patch of forest at the edge of a continent really opens the imagination. There was the "search" system on the airship in FFX that opened up some areas and there were areas in FFXII that could be further explored or found anew.

this is an esential piece to what makes these games work.

I think FFX, FFXI, and FFXII worked fine without a world map I didn't notice any glitches; the player could explore the fields of FFXI and FFXII which were massive though the fields in FFX - not so much.

FFX is FFX,not FFIV, FFVI, or FFIX - don't judge a game against another game; the game being judged is not the other game. Judge a game on its own.

I may have hated the game if the battle system was not the best ever i mean switching characters mid battle awsome!!

I agree that FFX did have a very awesome battle system with the ability to save Overdrives and select how to fill up the Overdrive bar - for example.

so yes it does suck balls now..admitadly i never played xi or xii but what i see i have no interest in doing so same with xiii. I saw the battle system and again its different!! from what i love in an rpg

FFXII still has a turn-based system even though it is in real-time - which is why it is called ADB (Active Dimension Battle). A character must wait for a bar to fill up before they can act; this is the same as in past FFs with the ATB system. A difference is in FFXII the action is selected first (pending on how the player played) and then the bar filled up; in FFs with the ATB, the bar filled up and then the action was selected. Both are still turn-based.

In FFXIII the ATB has been changed for the first time since its creation. The ATB bar fills up and the player can select actions that will take up a certain amount of the bar; also, the player has the option to perform an action before the bar has filled up if they want an action done quickly (ex: a heal or revive). The game is still turn-based because the player must wait for the bar to fill up to a certain point before the character can perform anything - it is not a hack-and-slash game where the player must press "x" to swing the weapon.

i mean come on square enix dont fix whats not broke a recent poll on this forum showed 6-9 being the most popular in the series. those games have the same basic traits with new stories and variations on the power up and abillities system.

It is odd how you seemingly overlook that FFX/X-2 had the second most votes, meaning it would be more accurate to say that FFVII-FFX/X-2 are the most popular games from that poll. If they didn't "fix" whats not broken they never would have left the real classic turn-based system showcased in FF-FFIII. Again the series is about switching stuff up, to try new things. Perhaps in a future installment it may have a real classic turn-based system or it may go back to a different version of the ADB system.

....or give the legions of loyal final fantasy fans what they want and make a new ff in the traditions of the old !!!!

That is not the spirit of FF unfortunately and it is unfortunate that a "veteran" would not realize this. Either way go play a series that is repetitive or play the old FFs, though it wouldn't be bad if you started judging the new FFs by themselves instead of irrationally judging them against a game(s) that they are not. Why would somebody judge FFVIII against FFV; FFVIII is not FFV, it is FFVIII. Foolish mortals.

stop taking us like fools and calling things final fantasy that arent final fantasy like the stupid final fantasy movie...remember all the games like that movie yea thats just like final fantasy...yea....o....k.

The title on the gamebox tells me that they are Final Fantasy unless I am reading the gameboxes wrong. Each Final Fantasy game brings the same key aspects that makes the series special in an unique/different way - it is only that some think that those aspects can only be done by "h" and not "u".

i posted my first critique above before i read much of the posts

to those who defend 12 and and the other titles that some are saying suck:

I find how you evaluate games to be of poor quality.

these games may be good games on their own the problem is they are putting the final fantasy name on things knowing tons and tons of fans will buy it based on it being called final fantasy...we buy these games for that reason alone trying to recapture the great final fantasy expieriences we love only to discover alot of these titles even those in the main series re different games with slight links to what i call true final fantasy whick
i describe in my post above (world map, exploration turn based battles with new twists)

I do love people with Nostalgia Syndrome so funny how things most be so strict in what is a Final Fantasy but at the same time they are going against the a key "spirit" of the franchise which is the series reinventing itself in each game, trying new things, mixing old aspects up.

As I said before real classic turn based is seen only in FF-FFIII and FFX however, FFIV-FFIX and FFXII and FFXIII do have a turn based system.

these games may be good but they are not what ppl who have played ff from the start are wanting...

I have beaten all the main series excluding XI and I got from each one something special and enjoyment. Oh no I must be an alien or something or I just don't have silly nostalgic notions of what FF is and what FF can be.
Flow like Spike Spiegel. Also there are many people who started from the beginning and like FFX, FFXI, or FFXII - anomolies are they??

perhaps thete are two schools of thought ff traditionalists like myself and those who like the newer games....ding ding

And perhaps there is another "school of thought" - people who are fans of the Final Fantasy series; whom like all of them and find something great in each game. Fans who aren't blinded by nostalgia or by graphics/new generation. That don't have rigid ideas of FF is and allow the developers to try new things or to mix old things up and to give it an honest chance. Fans who judge each game by itself and not against another FF. I am proudly a part of this "school of thought".

If you think FF has begun to suck balls, it's probably you. No, really.

Think of every game in the series as being the first in the entire series you've ever played. For the most part, all of the titles are setting the bar when they are released. It's you, the gamer who's played Final Fantasy since the very first one, that are changing, growing older, starting to see patterns, and starting not to get as pumped about them because it'll never be like your first time.

You've lost your sense of adventure and are now just nitpicking shit for no reason.

Nicely put. You get two crystal thumbs up from me.