Whenever I see people post the "people only like XYZ game because of nostalgia/rose-tinted glasses", I can't eyeroll hard enough.
At the time there was nothing "ugly as fuck" about the graphics in 7.
I remember the battle with Diamond Weapon being one of the most epic things in gaming for me at the time lol. I was like, holy shit these graphics are so sick! So the nostalgia argument for graphics is stupid, in a few years XIII will look "ugly as fuck."
FF7's lolgraphics (by today's standards) were pretty GDLK when the game came out. Thats not nostalgia, thats a fact. Unfortunately for FF7, it is also the title that has aged the worst; graphically.
As for FF13 looking "ugly"... That'll take about 20 years. lol
Sony Did say they are running PS3 on a 10 year cycle so was said on E3 coverage. I'm not completely sure where that could even put Microsoft or even Nintendo or their timelines for Systems.
Haha oh man. I don't think I was "disgusted" per say when I watched Final Fantasy Spirits Within... just like, I was so confused. I was asking myself "How is this Final Fantasy?" I think it was just frustrating that they'd name it that and have absolutely nothing "Final Fantasy" about it other than simple easter eggs like Cid and chocobo-brand labeled clothes. Definitely in this case they probably would have done a lot better to just name it something else.
I know FF13 gets a ton of shit for being awful, and personally, I thought it was okay (definitely not the best though). A lot of the reactions I felt were really knee-jerk and maybe even a bit sentimental I suppose. But anyways, I'm sure this argument has been beaten to death by both sides so I'll let sleeping dragons be.
I think the flip-side is also true as well. If you're gonna make a Final Fantasy, why would you wanna make it something completely different to the point of not being recognizable? People wanna play Final Fantasy for Final Fantasy after all. I guess that's kind of the cool thing about it too since they manage to change it enough to feel different with every game, but enough familiarity to really make you feel at home (which I think is what a successful franchise does).
I know it's been said since forever, but really, truly, everything in moderation. There is no good in anything in excess, right?
I think a strong overworld presence would help any future console FFs. Last we really saw that was IX, which took exploration a step further with Chocobo Hot and Cold. Since then, travel's been more like waypoints between zones, and while the zones themselves may seem kinda big... they just lacked that feeling of awe.
Then again, I think overworlds have been a generally diminishing feature in RPGs lately. I can think back to the PS2 when Wild Arms 3 came out and feeling for the first time in a while that a game actually used an overworld decently. Still, linearity has persisted with the occasional title dabbling in contrast.
Lost Odyssey had it and it felt awkward as shit and out of touch with present times. Overworlds nowadays should be done Gran Pulse style. It felt huge with plenty of exploration that would be nice if expanded upon even further by newer games.
What are the main gripes with overworld? just that no one really does it anymore? Not overworld specific, but I always got a kick out of the Islands closest to Heaven/Hell from VIII, and LO had something kind of similar with the Temple of Enlightenment.
It just doesn't feel necessary anymore. FFXII had a vast open world, which had far more freedom of exploration than any pre-FFX world map.
I know it's been a while since I played XII, but if thinking in terms of scale, running around may not make the game world much bigger than some of the US' smaller states. Granted, I know the plot was centered more around the given country, it may be more appropriate to say: "Like that, BUT BIGGER!" Which may fall in line with an earlier comment about Gran Pulse from XIII.
Anyway, the concept of the overworld shouldn't be too hard to grasp. New environments to explore, and with that, new mobs to fight, things to find (be it items, caves, etc.), and new quests. I'd rather avoid situations where transit is slow and tedious, mind you, but I think skimping on these systems have kinda eliminated the childlike wonder that likely helped many of us older folks get into RPGs. Let's face it, the Earth is pretty much mapped and done aside from the deepest, darkest depths of the oceans. Having new worlds to frolic in is fun, especially when designed well to teem with life and ambiance. When you start asking yourself what's around that next corner (and not out of total fear of being raped by some megaboss 24/7), it's a success.
Even how you travel can influence things. From high up in an airship, you may discover some field nestled in a mountain range you wouldn't normally be able to access on foot. Again, this could house new monsters and other goods to make use of in your travels. You could also get attacked by Doomgaze, which would never happen on foot. Imagination is the limit here. Loosely connected zones accessed by waypoints hurts that.
The kind of overworlds we had in older final fantasies seems silly to use now a days. The entire game should just all be one huge area, with little to no loading zones, or major changes in envirenment anywhere. Like the way elder scrolls or fall out games are. FF12 is not bad, but some of the areas are setup in a way that one second you're in one area, and then the next you go through a zone line, and you're in a completely different place.
I think FF needs a better focus on the villain. They've done a decent job with making villains have feasible plans and the like, but they haven't had a big, epic, awesome evil character. The actual "villain" they seem to try to hide with some ambiguity in the last few iterations, starting with X. What was the big bad entity? Sin. Who was Sin? Tidus' daddy. What was Sin like? Random destruction of stuff, nothing past that. Character fit, has some moral dilemma, but no aspirations and had a bit of a sympathy element. XII, are they fighting the empire or just the leader? They could've fleshed this out a bit more and made Vayne a more complete, "true" villain, but seemed to stop short for some reason. XIII they're fighting what appears to be "fate" most of the game.
They need to have an evil guy trying to take over the world in some manner to fight against. Kefka, Sephiroth, just insane, power-hungry guys that appear to want nothing more than to kill everything.
FF graphics have always been good and all, and graphics were big for FF7. I mean, the gameplay, while good, isn't anything impressive and truly replay-worthy. I sure don't care to go replay the game to just play the game, like I do for something like FFT or Tactics Ogre or even FFXII/FFXIII at times. I like the gameplay in those enough to want to replay them and FFVII is lacking that, but it was amazing to travel around this huge 3D world.
The problem with graphics, and probably the 2nd other main issue the FF series has, is that with amazing graphics it becomes SOOOOO hard to create a huge world. They started cheating in X with this and it has stuck ever since, and I think that hurts immersion a lot. So I'm not really that awed by graphical upgrades because it just means they're going to skimp on world creation more.
I don't see how that can't be done with an open-style like that of FFXII/FFXIII. There were still spots you can find for the very first time in those games after months of playing, at least in FFXIII can't remember much about XII, that you would stop to say "wow I've never been here." Waypoints are an option, not a necessity, for convenience. No different then airships. On the contrary with overworlds you pretty much know where everything is once you get an airship because the entire world is already mapped out for you. Seems to me overworlds are much more restricted in that regard when it comes to the imagination of discovering anything.
The "Making of" of this tech demo will be streamed on Nico Nico from 1:50am to 2:50am EST. The session will be hosted by producer/director Yoshihisa Hashimoto, creative director Takeshi Nozue and lead artist Ryo Iwata and will cover such areas as concpet work, pre-rendering CG creation, real time work flow, and real time CG technology development.
http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv104498197
Is it weird I feel like she looks more like a guy than some of the past SE game leads? >.>