Mourn the Dead Franchises
 

Oh Lufia. How I miss you.

I miss your outstanding music, which to this day I still catch myself humming. I miss your world which I have memorized down to the city names. I miss your fantastic concept art. I miss your non-randomized, yet strategically designed, battles. I miss your wonderful puzzles that had me even calling the Nintendo Hotline.

But most of all, I miss the story you told to me time and time again, in one of the most perfect RPGs ever, Lufia II. Ever since then, you led me astray worse than Tomb Raider Dark Angel and Devil May Cry 2 combined.

Chrono, such a loss. Trigger was great, Cross continued as best it could, despite all the funds and great minds being shifted to FF, and Brake, quite possibly the end of the trilogy, was taken from us before its time.


Alright, I feel silly putting it all that way, but seriously, the FF franchise has pretty much stagnated at this point, and Square could have taken a little of the pirated resources and made a decent title elsewhere. I love everything up to FFX to death, but after that, it got too overcomplicated and just not as fun anymore. Mana was a flop, Brake/Break got canceled almost immediately after its conception, and all we got for it was FFXI and FFXII, plus a bunch more FFVII stuff. None of which were nearly as wonderful as even the original, which, while it made the series go mainstream, really only got popular because of the 3-D graphics and oh-so-dark world. Which is why everyone thinks the cute, pretty-in-pink, flower girl is only good for magic and the only humorous spit of code in the entire game is a useless waste of polygons. Including the guide-writers. "Oh, noes! They're good for nothing because they're not as emo as everyone else!"

XPPPPPPPPPPPPP


...


Sorry. I just had to say that.



To redeem this post:
Why, SCEA? The legend of Dragoon had so much potential! The systems involved were truly unique, challenging, and fun! The attempt to add life to your work was admirable! So many fans of it would snap up the sequel, you could easily overcompensate the losses you've suffered with the PS3! But, nay, for it seems not to be.

Don't mention Lufia II. *tears at the mention*
That was a glorious game. I remember sitting in the basement sobbing like a baby during the ending with my brother going "What is wrong with you?"

I don't remember the name, but there was this old computer franchise that made a bunch of awesome point-and-click adventures (and none of that lame stuff where you can't die if you click something dumb) I remember so many times of sinking into quicksand or getting killed because I pissed off the wrong person.

I know Shadowgate wasn't really a franchise, but they tried to make a sequel and I wish it would have been as great as the first one (hey, I like point-and-click adventure games)

Wow, if we're talking on those terms, I could SO mourn the passing of Legend as a whole.

Imagine the greatest minds of Infocom forming their own company, doing both great stand-alone work and a project in total partnership with the ever-awesome Piers Anthony (the game and book came in box set!), and then getting bought out by Atari and dissolved so fast it'll hurt your GRANDKIDS' video game experiences. I mean, talk about killing the competition, and Atari hasn't come out with anything comparable to Legend's quality since before Legend was formed.

Not that I want to derail this thread, but how can you say that the series has become stagnant by citing the two games that couldn't be more apart from the set rules that were established by it? Especially FFXII, which completely throws away the Final Fantasy conventions in both its gameplay and story. I do agree that the future for FF doesn't seem any bright, with FFXIII looking to be a rehash of FFVII plot with more boobies. However, if you ask me, the problem with the franchise isn't stagnation, but overload.


On topic: I would actually like to mourn Kid Icarus. Though I've only played the original game in my Wii, I do realize there could have been much more done in the last generations. Here's me, hoping that Super Smash Bros. Brawl will call upon the gods of gaming and revive the little angel who could.

I was looking more at the fun factor of it all. Really, if you look at the basic formula for the games, excluding FF11:

1. Hero is introduced. He has no family and doesn't fit in well with the rest of society.

FF7: Cloud, mother dead, loner.
FF8: Squall, no parents, loner.
FF9: Zidane, no parents, feels alone in the world.
FF10: Tidus, no parents, thrown into an entirely new world.
FF12: Van, no parents, street rat.

2. Heroine is introduced. She's some sort of royalty and needs help and subsequent saving.

FF7: Aeris, last Cetra, Turks target.
FF8: Rinoa, estranged daughter of Galbadian head general, candidate of possession by Ultimecia.
FF9: Garnet, princess, needed to extract summon spells.
FF10: Yuna, High Summoner's daughter, target of the Al Bhed.
FF12: Ashe, now queen and in hiding, assassination target of the bad guys.

3. Oh, look! It's [insert old female friend]!

FF7: Tifa
FF8: Quistis
FF9: Freya
FF10: Rikku (WAY too late in the game, too!)
FF12: Penelo

4. Oh, snap! The princess is hurt!
FF7: Aeris dies
FF8: Rinoa is possessed
FF9: Dagger loses her powers, must remain in good health or fails to execute your commands
FF10: Yuna is kidnapped, goes ahead of you, whatever and leaves the party

I could go on, but as things have been going around here, I'm struggling not to sound like too much of an @$$. And I'm aware there are times I do, just by being so formal and throwing around my vocabulary. But suffice it to say, while there have been many changes to the systems involved, the same stuff happens over and over again. And yes, I'm aware my FF12 arguments are weak at best. The entirety of how the game worked really turned me off, so I didn't get far. But I'm admitting it.



Edit: On topic, it would also have been really great to get a continuation on Lands of Lore, but the two sequels weren't the greatest, and I'd rather stay with the original than have yet another one with a plot line set specifically to deprive you of allies and leave you with some lingering curse that literally kicks in at the least opportune moment to leave you virtually incapable of accomplishing anything in a convenient form. Giant dragon? Great time to turn into a gecko! Just step inside a city enclosed in a dome? Banging my head on the ceiling as an ogre is just what I was looking for!

And again, I'm sorry if I come off as an @$$, but this is what happens to a lot of great series. The sequels try to do too much and crap out. :gonk:

Well the main thing that got me was
A - the ending music just screamed 'saddening'
B - the dialog was so incredibly depressing, one of those "the main character doesn't know he's dying so he says something else." Like Maxim, after channeling all of his might into the Dual Blade. "Selan...I'm so tired. Can I lie down next to you?"
C - The fact that you could see it coming when Selan first used her power against the Sinistrals, when Artea said she couldn't hold out very long.

That was seriously the point where I was all, "No...no way! Aw come on! Maxim can't...no way!" I may not have cried but I sure as hell felt it.

EDIT: I think I just started CJ's waterworks again.

I won't try to argue against fun factor, because that is something so subjective I cannot even possibly hope to debate about it without turning this into a fanboy war. However, I have to admit that when you talked about FF becoming stagnant I thought you were talking not only about the plot, but also about gameplay mechanics which, in my opinion, upped the bar for J-RPGs.

I'll still try to tackle some of the points 'bout XII. Considering it is my second favourite FF, I ought to do it.

What you have to take into account when comparing these characters is not the superficial role they take in the story, but the function and development they suffer throughout the story. Comparing Cloud to Vaan, for example, is completely unfair because the second one is not only different from the first in many ways (an energetic boy who actually wants to do something with his life), but also isn't the main character of the story.

Comparing Tidus to Vaan may do more justice to both of them, save for one reason: Final Fantasy XII's main story is not about Vaan becoming a sky pirate. Vaan is what is a called a cypher, or a character through which we see the story unfold, though not necessary his. Ashe's story is what takes the focus during most of the game, and when you look at her motivations ( basically, Reks) you come to appreciate how different she is from the other "princesses" you listed.

It's just that Final Fantasy XII is a very profound game, with lots of subtlety embedded into the dialogue and mannerisms of the characters, yet people somehow seem to despise this, since it is a plot-driven story and not a character drama. Maybe if the characterisation had taken the front lead of the game it would have been loved by more people, but frankly, I prefer it that way. It is refreshing to play a Final Fantasy that is more similar to the games of yore, where epic stories were more important than why the fuck did Cloud get amnesia or that shit.

I would actually say that this is one of the most civilised arguments I've seen against Final Fantasy XII, though that's not saying much. Suffice it to say, if I can borrow your expression, that you do not come as an ass (yes, the word isn't censored in here), and that I can see where do you come from. As much as I love FFXII, there is so much room for improvement in it, mainly the pieces of the story that were not written by Yasumi Matsuno.

I would like to hear your opinions on the gameplay mechanics, though. I feel that those are the main points in which FFXII differs from the other games of the franchise, as well as the most rewarding of the game if you are willing to invest some time in it. A difficult chore, I know, considering I've played for more than two-hundred hours and I still haven't finished it.

I've got to give you that point though.

Hey guys?

Can we try to do more of that?

*sniff*

Xenogears, Squaresoft barely used ye...

Sure, there were a LOT of random battles. But the fight of the religions has inspired many a game to imitate the cross of battling bots and Fighting martial arts.

You barely had a chance to finish your story...