TellEmSteveDave wrote:
VII or IX
in my opinion the first 9 games are the best, 10 is meh and every game since has been disappointing, not because they're necessarily "bad", they just feel really linear and predictable. The recent games have deviated too far from the spirit of the original series.
When I was a kid i fell in love with the Final Fantasy games because they were epic adventures! you could spend hours and hours exploring the world, battling monsters, playing mini-games and embarking on side quests, not knowing what was around the corner!
No, for sure man.
FFX, while decent, pointed towards a more J-pop culture oriented field aka this generations Final Fantasy games. While that's fine, it has led into a new brand of Final Fantasy that has put off gamers. bringing down the popularity of the series. It has become more of a factory product rather than an innovative game....sort of like where Call of Duty is going right now.
The Final Fantasy series should strive towards a Skyrim feel. I'm not saying to copy Bethesda and make it an open world, sandbox game like Skyrim or even Grand Theft Auto. Instead, it should try to go back to that exploration factor. One of my fondest memories of these J-RPG's was exploring the world map, with beautiful music in the background, alongside a unique set of characters. That's what these new Final Fantasy games are missing. They're borrowing too much from generic anime plots and this isn't to knock on anime/manga but rather cliche elements that generic anime shows have. The influence of films and tv shows have a drastic effect on the memorability of the games. Take Akira, for example. Possibly one of the best anime films ever and one can see the influence it has in a game like Final Fantasty 7, with it's bleak, metallic dystopian future and motorcycle chase scenes. I feel these new Final Fantasy games lack that.
It's not even an East-West RPG thing either. People need to put the "J-RPG's are this and W-RPG's are this" idea aside. It's more of an exploration factor and a creativity that is missing in the Japanese industry. I mean, a lot of these older guys who gave the world great games in the 80's and 90's are becoming unsatisfied with the direction the Japanese gaming industry is going. And for good reason.
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#7 Brandon Roy (2006-2011). Thanks for the memories.