The first part is pretty much all my posts, but the second part could be a new thing!
For this Side Post, I'm going to list six things that I think could help Square Enix turn around the entirety of the Final Fantasy series. Why? Because let's be honest, it has most definitely left the golden years behind, but if they made even some small changes, things could get better quite easily! Enough for this foreword, time to dive right into the side post of...
Recurring Fantasy Side Post Theater Proudly Presents...
The Beginning of a New Day - Six Things to Change Final Fantasy for the Better!
First and foremost to keep in mind is that (as always) these are just things that are "my opinions". I have no real experience or ability in the game industry, so these could all be toppled over by someone who actually knows something. Regardless, I feel like a couple of these couldn't be THAT hard to pull off. I'll try not to spend too long on each topic, but this won't be your average short post. It'll be like my usual posts...overly long! Enough about that though, let's start with the first point!
(I do apologize now because a lot of these are focused almost entirely on the flaws of Final Fantasy XIII.)
Daniel's Six Things To Fix Final Fantasy!
I. Start fresh on a new game with no ties and little reference to previous games. (Cid is okay.)
I'm all for references and ties to previous games, but I sometimes feel like they just reuse names and things to save time. It's one thing to feature Chocobos, Moogles, and other miscellaneous things throughout the series, but it's another to constantly reuse pretty much everything you can. The constant names and references to past towns, people, and countries sometimes just feels like a bit much.
Honestly, this point is less about names of things and more about actual ideas. Ever since Final Fantasy 7, it seems like a lot of Final Fantasy titles have just reused the general ideas and materials involved in the characters and stories. There are crystals, beings of great power, stuff about souls, maybe the planet is alive or something, and several other things. Unfortunately for me, Final Fantasy 9 does a lot of borrowing as far as the story goes, but it still remains one of my favorites.
To go even further, I created my own idea for a story. I'll try to keep this brief so I can move on to the next point. Game opens up and it features a beautiful medieval fantasy kingdom. Magic is considered powerful but dangerous, but the people of this land live free. They deal with monsters and all that, but it's your typical fantasy setting. Basically gives you the thought that this is just your average fantasy medieval setting, but then suddenly...THE CHANGE. Medieval nation suddenly comes into contact with a technologically advanced society. Monster meets robot and etc. Despite their technology, they're pushed back by the magic of the medieval side. Both sides start plotting against the other to destroy them. Dark methods are employed on both sides, and things get crazy. Then there's the secret behind it all.
Unfortunately, that's all I have. I was trying to avoid time travel being involved because it's been used before. As far as I'm concerned, it's more than they've done in Final Fantasy in a while. I'm not even talking complexities in that. As far as it is concerned, you'd play as both sides at one point. One lower tech group with swords and magic. A high tech group with guns, lasers, and a robot. At some point, the two groups meet to discover the truth. I'm ready to see something new or at least more exciting as far as ideas go. I just did it in like 30 minutes Square Enix...I want to see you guys come up with something better. STRIVE FOR BETTER! Now for the next point...It's gameplay oriented.
Note for Square Enix, feel free to use my idea above, but please send a free copy of the game to me if you do. Thank you!
II. Have the story fully out there. Don't overplay some parts and underplay other parts. (AKA Screw Datalogs)
Being straightforward here, this point is aimed solely at Final Fantasy XIII. I haven't fully finished it, but it seems like a bad idea to leave out important details during regular gameplay and have to look into them. It would be better to fully integrate all of the necessary details during the game's story. On the side, the datalog could be great if you happen to forget something or just want to review the facts. I shouldn't be questioning half of what is going on and then referring to the log for all of it. Games like Mass Effect did this idea completely spot on. They had a datalog of sorts, and it was full of details explaining bits and pieces of how the world worked. It was great! I read through quite a bit of the information and enjoyed it.
Should this be a point in its entirety? No, but I feel that it needs mentioning nonetheless.
So to summarize, include all necessary details during the gameplay. Supplement extra information with a datalog-type thing. /end point
III. Regular levels, regular ATB turns, we like them.
This just feels like it should be obvious. I understand the want/need/desire to create a new Final Fantasy system to make all the previous systems look like poop. However, so far, I haven't really liked a system after Final Fantasy IX. The Grid Sphere was an interesting idea, but it was such a slow way to advance. You'd spend ages building your character, and it never truly felt like you jumped into SUPER STATUS. X-2 improved this by adding levels and throwing out the Grid Sphere for a Job system. Unfortunately, X-2 was a terrible game and pointless sequel. XII brought in a better idea for a grid system, but I never felt a need to focus people in specific directions. I just got everything for everyone. XIII felt like a different system, but in the end, someone just reworked the Sphere Grid and tried to make it different. Newsflash, I see what you did there, and it wasn't a good idea.
On top of regular levels, I just want to go back to the original ATB system. What was so wrong with it? They spent SIX titles improving and perfecting the system. By Final Fantasy IX, it was basically perfect. AGAIN! What was so wrong with it? All I can assume is that somebody accused them of being lazy, so they changed it up with X. Personally, I liked X quite a bit for that reason. The change back to traditional turn-based was really well done and plenty of fun. The only reason I see in not having the old style of battle system is because of today's society. Your average game player wouldn't be interested in turn-based RPGs, so we don't really get any. At least, there aren't really any coming for the main consoles. (Maybe on handhelds at best.) The action RPG has become the ruler of RPGs, and honestly, there's probably no going back.
Now comes the question, how could Square Enix fix all this? First and foremost, give me regular levels and regular ATB. Now, if they want to do more than that, this is where I'll have to allow leniency. I want regular levels, but you can make them change or advance differently somehow. Make character and stat-building customizable, interesting, and fun. Most importantly, your leveling up should have some kind of meaning.
The biggest flaw with the Sphere Grid/Crystarium is that your leveling seems to do so little that it rarely feels like a change has been made. I don't have any ideas for what kind of character building system they could do, but I'd be happy with just the plain Jobs system like FFV or Tactics has. Allow me to build my team how I like and with what abilities I want. Apart from that, feel free to surprise me Square Enix!
As for the actual battle system...If you don't want ATB, then figure up something ATB-like without throwing out the entire idea of it. Really, XIII's system isn't too bad in that respect, and I'd be willing to take it if the rest of the battle system was worth it. For me, ATB was the pinnacle of Final Fantasy battles, so I'd love to see some new iteration of it. That's all I've got for gameplay, so let's shuffle past this and look at Point 4...
IV. Make better and more interesting characters. Have them look and FEEL diverse. Don't make quirks for the sake of quirks.
Being straightforward here, this point is aimed solely at Final Fantasy XIII. I haven't fully finished it, but it seems like a bad idea to leave out important details during regular gameplay and have to look into them. It would be better to fully integrate all of the necessary details during the game's story. On the side, the datalog could be great if you happen to forget something or just want to review the facts. I shouldn't be questioning half of what is going on and then referring to the log for all of it. Games like Mass Effect did this idea completely spot on. They had a datalog of sorts, and it was full of details explaining bits and pieces of how the world worked. It was great! I read through quite a bit of the information and enjoyed it.
Should this be a point in its entirety? No, but I feel that it needs mentioning nonetheless.
So to summarize, include all necessary details during the gameplay. Supplement extra information with a datalog-type thing. /end point
III. Regular levels, regular ATB turns, we like them.
This just feels like it should be obvious. I understand the want/need/desire to create a new Final Fantasy system to make all the previous systems look like poop. However, so far, I haven't really liked a system after Final Fantasy IX. The Grid Sphere was an interesting idea, but it was such a slow way to advance. You'd spend ages building your character, and it never truly felt like you jumped into SUPER STATUS. X-2 improved this by adding levels and throwing out the Grid Sphere for a Job system. Unfortunately, X-2 was a terrible game and pointless sequel. XII brought in a better idea for a grid system, but I never felt a need to focus people in specific directions. I just got everything for everyone. XIII felt like a different system, but in the end, someone just reworked the Sphere Grid and tried to make it different. Newsflash, I see what you did there, and it wasn't a good idea.
On top of regular levels, I just want to go back to the original ATB system. What was so wrong with it? They spent SIX titles improving and perfecting the system. By Final Fantasy IX, it was basically perfect. AGAIN! What was so wrong with it? All I can assume is that somebody accused them of being lazy, so they changed it up with X. Personally, I liked X quite a bit for that reason. The change back to traditional turn-based was really well done and plenty of fun. The only reason I see in not having the old style of battle system is because of today's society. Your average game player wouldn't be interested in turn-based RPGs, so we don't really get any. At least, there aren't really any coming for the main consoles. (Maybe on handhelds at best.) The action RPG has become the ruler of RPGs, and honestly, there's probably no going back.
Now comes the question, how could Square Enix fix all this? First and foremost, give me regular levels and regular ATB. Now, if they want to do more than that, this is where I'll have to allow leniency. I want regular levels, but you can make them change or advance differently somehow. Make character and stat-building customizable, interesting, and fun. Most importantly, your leveling up should have some kind of meaning.
The biggest flaw with the Sphere Grid/Crystarium is that your leveling seems to do so little that it rarely feels like a change has been made. I don't have any ideas for what kind of character building system they could do, but I'd be happy with just the plain Jobs system like FFV or Tactics has. Allow me to build my team how I like and with what abilities I want. Apart from that, feel free to surprise me Square Enix!
As for the actual battle system...If you don't want ATB, then figure up something ATB-like without throwing out the entire idea of it. Really, XIII's system isn't too bad in that respect, and I'd be willing to take it if the rest of the battle system was worth it. For me, ATB was the pinnacle of Final Fantasy battles, so I'd love to see some new iteration of it. That's all I've got for gameplay, so let's shuffle past this and look at Point 4...
IV. Make better and more interesting characters. Have them look and FEEL diverse. Don't make quirks for the sake of quirks.
This point is probably the most opinionated point of them all. Everybody likes different types of characters in a story, but I can argue that the margin of good-to-bad characters has been allowed to increase too much. After FFIX, my overall interest in series' main characters have dropped significantly. Obviously, everybody's going to have their favorites here and there, but the more recent titles make me feel like I don't really like ANY of them.
In FFX, the most likable character is easily Rikku with some of the others being just okay. In FFXII, the only redeemable character from that group is easily Balthier. Everybody else either don't have much going with them, or I feel like they've been done before. FFXIII introduces a cast of people that I can honestly say I have zero interest in. I could go into specifics here, but I'll sum it up with the following sentence. Each character, in one way or another, has given me a reason to hate them or at least hardly dislike. I'm nowhere into the game, but I honestly feel like there's no way my mind will change about them.
In Square's defense, it's going to be hard to make up a new and completely different yet interesting character. You often have to ride the lines of "something that's been done" or "kinda throw yourself out there with crazy". If you lean too far in one direction, you end up with a clone of a previous character. If you go full course to the other direction, you end up with something crazy and unlikable (see Lightning). In this day and age, almost everything has been done to death! There are so many common characters that many of them are considered the "typical" whatevers. Your typical action hero, your typical adventure type, the spunky girl, the strong silent type, the crazy/kooky person, and the types are just endless. Regardless of this fact, I'd still like to see them try.
This brings me to the main part of this point. I'm going to go into detail of what I think could easily fix the string of "not good" characters. The three points I'm going to consider here are interesting background, general personality, and the "quirky" factor. It'll mostly be reviewing the three ideas, tell what I think they are doing wrong, and then give suggestions of how to do them right. So without further dragging on, let's start with interesting backgrounds.
The character's background gives us a look into "Why does he/she/it act like they do?" It tells you where the character is coming from, why they did this or that, and where they could possibly be going in the end. As far as Final Fantasy goes, it's always been good about showing at least a little bit of each character's background throughout the game. In some cases, you had to do some extra exploring and side questing to find out more details.
More recent Final Fantasies have made it their goal to make sure that everybody has background always and up front. What happened to just exploring and learning more that way? (This kinda ties in to a later point, so I'll talk about it more then.) I understand giving me the full story of the main two or three, but I sometimes would prefer if the rest of the group was more optional at times. Like, tell me all about them, but don't go off into an off-bit where their story takes control of the main game. Let's make the main character's story the headliner while everybody adds in here and there. Wrap it up by making their full background and/or full story into a side quest of sorts. That way I avoid having to get intimate with every character when I really only like a few of them.
(Just a small detour here, I say all of this, but my favorite Final Fantasy is basically chocked full of this. I guess the difference here is that I love every single character in IX as opposed to the other series. This makes me more forgiving towards its tendencies. Like most people, I'm more willing to forgive things I actually like versus things I don't. So...just something to keep in mind really.)
Now apart from a background, you have to take into mind the character's personality! Of course, the background usually shapes the character's personality. It's how real people work! Your background generally molds you into the person you are today, or you're just crazy or something. (Everybody's different ya know?) For Final Fantasy, the personalities can be quite varied from one to another. Sure, they do tend to stick with your main stay personalities (like those mentioned earlier), but regardless of that, they always seemed to make the character feel special somehow. On top of that, the personality has to be a good one that fits and matches the character while also appealing to your audience.
In all reality, the characters in FFXIII aren't necessarily bad, but I just don't feel the same connection to them as previous titles. Heck, I haven't felt a super deep connection with any of the characters for a while. I didn't really get into the FFXII crew until late, late game. Balthier was easily the best one in FFXII, and everybody else I could mostly care less about. Characters should make you feel like you care about their problems and outcomes. Their personality should feel like an actual person or deep and understandable without going into "I'M SO DEEP" mode. Their personality needs to reflect who they are without being so overly dramatic about it.
My suggestion to fix this? I honestly can't think of anything you could directly do. Everybody likes different kinds of characters, so you'd just have to experiment with a couple different ideas before settling. I'd say make them more relatable without doing the whole "deep" mode like I stated before. I'm talking about those situations where a character is all like "I have discovered the truth of everything and it's as simple as this object that I have. I totally understand everything now because I'm the deepest and moodiest thing around."
It's hard to describe what I mean, but it's a common thing that annoys me in movies/games/entertainment in general. Sometimes, I just want a simple and straightforward set of characters in a mostly straightforward story with twists. Everybody doesn't need to have a huge, life-changing moment. Maybe the main guy + main supporting person, but the entire party? I'd say no. Just make the main person trying to save the world, and then he gets involved in something and finds out something else is behind it all. It's a typical story, but you could easily twist it a bit to make it more exciting! Seriously, there's nothing wrong with keeping a story simple yet amazing. Now we come to the last problem, and it's less of a problem and really more of a complaint.
The quirks! As far as I'm concerned, the quirk factor can sometimes just be too great. It's hard to describe because it's not always about "weird" quirk. Sometimes, it is just how the character acts and talks that can annoy me. I describe it as quirk because that feels like the best way to combine the idea. Quirks come in lots of characters through how they talk, act, or just general things they go off on. For me, the quirks are usually annoying when they're a pointless visual display that does nothing.
In this case, it's Sazh with the baby chocobo. There's really not any reason for it, and I think it's just...stupid. (You could argue that it's story based, but nothing says he has to keep it or that it has to appear all the time.) It seems like the quirks that characters are given are less about the character and more about random bits for entertainment. I've been rather vague about what I mean, but it's hard to really point them out without being like "this entire character is the problem!" I'd say the only real fix for this is to make it less about weird, random quirks and more about a weakness of a quirk. Imagine just the simple scenario of the "lady killer" type who gets caught by a group through use of a woman or whatever. It's just a typical yet easy-to-do scenario!
I've really not made much of a point with this so far...I think the real idea I should be trying to get across is that the recent characters haven't been fun or enjoyable. They feel like they've all been thrown completely into seriousness and can't get out. What happened to the fun-filled scenarios where you had a laugh and just plain enjoyed the characters? It's kinda nonexistent in many games anymore. They have to be all dark, moody, or emotional. Fun events can have emotion! It's called happiness, and I'd like to see more of it. Characters in games deserve to be happy too...and not just at the ending!
Beyond this, I realize that there are times when characters need to be sad, angry, or other emotions. However, when these times come, I don't feel as connected to the characters as I used to. Final Fantasy 9 was definitely the greatest connection I felt. There were times in previous Final Fantasy titles where I'd tear up a little. I don't feel as relatable to these characters as I used to I guess. Maybe it's just me, but they don't feel as good as they used to.
As I said at the beginning, this is probably the most opinionated point of them all. It's not really something you can easily fix, but there are still things they could do to improve them. Maybe they'll get a better idea somewhere and realize how wrong they've been. I'm going to hope for a better future of characters. Anyways, I've rattled on enough here and feel that it's time to move on. Square Enix, when you make the next round of characters, try to just put more heart and soul into them. Your current ones? Not so much. Aaaaand end point!
In FFX, the most likable character is easily Rikku with some of the others being just okay. In FFXII, the only redeemable character from that group is easily Balthier. Everybody else either don't have much going with them, or I feel like they've been done before. FFXIII introduces a cast of people that I can honestly say I have zero interest in. I could go into specifics here, but I'll sum it up with the following sentence. Each character, in one way or another, has given me a reason to hate them or at least hardly dislike. I'm nowhere into the game, but I honestly feel like there's no way my mind will change about them.
In Square's defense, it's going to be hard to make up a new and completely different yet interesting character. You often have to ride the lines of "something that's been done" or "kinda throw yourself out there with crazy". If you lean too far in one direction, you end up with a clone of a previous character. If you go full course to the other direction, you end up with something crazy and unlikable (see Lightning). In this day and age, almost everything has been done to death! There are so many common characters that many of them are considered the "typical" whatevers. Your typical action hero, your typical adventure type, the spunky girl, the strong silent type, the crazy/kooky person, and the types are just endless. Regardless of this fact, I'd still like to see them try.
This brings me to the main part of this point. I'm going to go into detail of what I think could easily fix the string of "not good" characters. The three points I'm going to consider here are interesting background, general personality, and the "quirky" factor. It'll mostly be reviewing the three ideas, tell what I think they are doing wrong, and then give suggestions of how to do them right. So without further dragging on, let's start with interesting backgrounds.
The character's background gives us a look into "Why does he/she/it act like they do?" It tells you where the character is coming from, why they did this or that, and where they could possibly be going in the end. As far as Final Fantasy goes, it's always been good about showing at least a little bit of each character's background throughout the game. In some cases, you had to do some extra exploring and side questing to find out more details.
More recent Final Fantasies have made it their goal to make sure that everybody has background always and up front. What happened to just exploring and learning more that way? (This kinda ties in to a later point, so I'll talk about it more then.) I understand giving me the full story of the main two or three, but I sometimes would prefer if the rest of the group was more optional at times. Like, tell me all about them, but don't go off into an off-bit where their story takes control of the main game. Let's make the main character's story the headliner while everybody adds in here and there. Wrap it up by making their full background and/or full story into a side quest of sorts. That way I avoid having to get intimate with every character when I really only like a few of them.
(Just a small detour here, I say all of this, but my favorite Final Fantasy is basically chocked full of this. I guess the difference here is that I love every single character in IX as opposed to the other series. This makes me more forgiving towards its tendencies. Like most people, I'm more willing to forgive things I actually like versus things I don't. So...just something to keep in mind really.)
Now apart from a background, you have to take into mind the character's personality! Of course, the background usually shapes the character's personality. It's how real people work! Your background generally molds you into the person you are today, or you're just crazy or something. (Everybody's different ya know?) For Final Fantasy, the personalities can be quite varied from one to another. Sure, they do tend to stick with your main stay personalities (like those mentioned earlier), but regardless of that, they always seemed to make the character feel special somehow. On top of that, the personality has to be a good one that fits and matches the character while also appealing to your audience.
In all reality, the characters in FFXIII aren't necessarily bad, but I just don't feel the same connection to them as previous titles. Heck, I haven't felt a super deep connection with any of the characters for a while. I didn't really get into the FFXII crew until late, late game. Balthier was easily the best one in FFXII, and everybody else I could mostly care less about. Characters should make you feel like you care about their problems and outcomes. Their personality should feel like an actual person or deep and understandable without going into "I'M SO DEEP" mode. Their personality needs to reflect who they are without being so overly dramatic about it.
My suggestion to fix this? I honestly can't think of anything you could directly do. Everybody likes different kinds of characters, so you'd just have to experiment with a couple different ideas before settling. I'd say make them more relatable without doing the whole "deep" mode like I stated before. I'm talking about those situations where a character is all like "I have discovered the truth of everything and it's as simple as this object that I have. I totally understand everything now because I'm the deepest and moodiest thing around."
It's hard to describe what I mean, but it's a common thing that annoys me in movies/games/entertainment in general. Sometimes, I just want a simple and straightforward set of characters in a mostly straightforward story with twists. Everybody doesn't need to have a huge, life-changing moment. Maybe the main guy + main supporting person, but the entire party? I'd say no. Just make the main person trying to save the world, and then he gets involved in something and finds out something else is behind it all. It's a typical story, but you could easily twist it a bit to make it more exciting! Seriously, there's nothing wrong with keeping a story simple yet amazing. Now we come to the last problem, and it's less of a problem and really more of a complaint.
The quirks! As far as I'm concerned, the quirk factor can sometimes just be too great. It's hard to describe because it's not always about "weird" quirk. Sometimes, it is just how the character acts and talks that can annoy me. I describe it as quirk because that feels like the best way to combine the idea. Quirks come in lots of characters through how they talk, act, or just general things they go off on. For me, the quirks are usually annoying when they're a pointless visual display that does nothing.
In this case, it's Sazh with the baby chocobo. There's really not any reason for it, and I think it's just...stupid. (You could argue that it's story based, but nothing says he has to keep it or that it has to appear all the time.) It seems like the quirks that characters are given are less about the character and more about random bits for entertainment. I've been rather vague about what I mean, but it's hard to really point them out without being like "this entire character is the problem!" I'd say the only real fix for this is to make it less about weird, random quirks and more about a weakness of a quirk. Imagine just the simple scenario of the "lady killer" type who gets caught by a group through use of a woman or whatever. It's just a typical yet easy-to-do scenario!
I've really not made much of a point with this so far...I think the real idea I should be trying to get across is that the recent characters haven't been fun or enjoyable. They feel like they've all been thrown completely into seriousness and can't get out. What happened to the fun-filled scenarios where you had a laugh and just plain enjoyed the characters? It's kinda nonexistent in many games anymore. They have to be all dark, moody, or emotional. Fun events can have emotion! It's called happiness, and I'd like to see more of it. Characters in games deserve to be happy too...and not just at the ending!
Beyond this, I realize that there are times when characters need to be sad, angry, or other emotions. However, when these times come, I don't feel as connected to the characters as I used to. Final Fantasy 9 was definitely the greatest connection I felt. There were times in previous Final Fantasy titles where I'd tear up a little. I don't feel as relatable to these characters as I used to I guess. Maybe it's just me, but they don't feel as good as they used to.
As I said at the beginning, this is probably the most opinionated point of them all. It's not really something you can easily fix, but there are still things they could do to improve them. Maybe they'll get a better idea somewhere and realize how wrong they've been. I'm going to hope for a better future of characters. Anyways, I've rattled on enough here and feel that it's time to move on. Square Enix, when you make the next round of characters, try to just put more heart and soul into them. Your current ones? Not so much. Aaaaand end point!
V. Fire the person who does costume design.
I am quite serious about this. I understand that costumes need to be exotic and interesting, but there are times that they just seem...stupid. Rather than go into a whole rant, I'm going to give five examples. I'm thinking three "bad" examples of Final Fantasy clothing, and then follow it up with two "good" examples. The idea here once again is "What to avoid" and "What you should do!" I'm not making it hard Square Enix. I just want my old friend back! Anyways, let's start with the BAD OUTFITS!
Second Contestant - Tidus
Second contestant (and another from FFX) is Tidus. There's just...so much I hate about his outfit. I'll forgive that his left arm has the weird armor bit on it. Let's just imagine that it's something blitzball related to protect his arm or make it better for hitting the ball. (Looking at Jecht and Wakka makes this point seem true, but it still seems weird.) Beyond that, there's still just so much bad design as far as I'm concerned. We have overalls where the legs were obviously the zipper kind so you could make them shorts. However, Tidus apparently decided his right leg needed more legging than his left one because they're different lengths. Inside his overall shorts, he is wearing what appears to be a hoodie. A hoodie that has been cut in half and left open at the chest so we can see his manly chest. To go with all of this, he picks up a pair of heavy work boots. I feel like someone designed his outfit mostly on a whim or just to be silly. I'll give him the arm, but I can't forgive anything else. Worst part? He's really just another small step in bad ideas. The worst to come is someone I've already commented on...and the winner is-
WINNER! Snow "Hobo" Villiers
This guy...just...THIS GUY! Seriously!?! This is Class A hobo material going on here. I don't even know where to start with this guy. Let's go from the feet upwards. He's wearing okay boots, but then he seems to have stuffed his pants in them. And stuffed in his pants for some reason is a scarf. I just...How is this good clothing design? We advance upwards and see he is wearing a torn-looking trench coat. He's wearing a shirt with most of his chest area exposed for our viewing pleasure. He's wearing gloves, but those are acceptable at least. Then we come to that stupid face. He hasn't shaved recently, and he's topping it all off with a bandana and long-ish ragged hair.
Every time I see that photo...All I can think about is "Snow is a hobo." Nothing will ever change my mind about that, and I just can't see past his hobo image. Therefore, Snow is the winner in the contest of "stupidest outfit in Final Fantasy ever". I have a bad feeling they'll try to top this, but they haven't all been this bad. In fact, I'm going to show a couple examples of good costume design and why their outfits are decently designed. I'll follow that up with some thoughts and suggestions.
Every time I see that photo...All I can think about is "Snow is a hobo." Nothing will ever change my mind about that, and I just can't see past his hobo image. Therefore, Snow is the winner in the contest of "stupidest outfit in Final Fantasy ever". I have a bad feeling they'll try to top this, but they haven't all been this bad. In fact, I'm going to show a couple examples of good costume design and why their outfits are decently designed. I'll follow that up with some thoughts and suggestions.
GOOD EXAMPLE 1 - Auron from FFX
See? Final Fantasy X had some pretty good stuff in there as well. Auron is probably one of the better examples of good outfit design. Sure, it's a bit plain and simple, but I believe that simple is the best choice to make. You might be thinking that he looks like he's lazily wearing a bath robe, but it's actually meant to give him a classic samurai look. Of course, that was basically Auron in a nutshell. He's super powerful swordsman where his ultimate weapon was the legendary sword, Masamune. He does cool sword moves as his special, and yada yada yada. Auron has a cool samurai look, and there's nothing more to add to it. It's not over or under done. The only flaw...I never got why he has his one left arm at rest. He's clearly seen using it, so it's not like useless or anything. Anyways, it's a nice and well done samurai look. Why can't we have things simpler like this Square Enix? WHY NOT?!?!
GOOD EXAMPLE 2 - Any character from Final Fantasy XII outside of Vaan and Reks.
Link to Creative Uncut here!
Link to Creative Uncut here!
(Thanks again to Creative Uncut for providing all the Video Game Art!)
Am I just trying to finish up this post? Maybe...but at the same time, I didn't feel like posting up every single character. So instead, I've included a link above to the Creative Uncut gallery for FFXII. Besides, Vaan and his brother Reks, a lot of the characters have decent costume designs. The problem with those two is their midrift is completely exposed while the rest of them is armored. That's just bad armor design. You'd want to protect the chest the MOST! Basch's outfit isn't much better because it's just got that weird...flaps around the chest area. Once again, that's the part you WANT to protect.
Glossing past those violations, the rest of the FFXII outfits are fairly nice. They all have a nice fantasy design to them, and despite my dislike of the characters, their outfits look pretty nice. The characters have a nice variety of outfits. NPCs are dressed appropriately. The royalty members all have a general "I'm royalty!" look about them. I may have harked on FFXII about some things, but in the end, it was still fairly well done. It was good fantasy setting.
But now that we've had our "good examples", it's time for me to dip into the pool of "What could they do to improve?" Honestly, the number one thing I'd say to do is avoid designs like Snow. It's one thing to make the character look rugged, but he just looks downright homeless. That's not a good look. If you took away the scarf in the pants and gave him a better jacket, I could probably forgive him. Keep outfits simple yet elegant. Don't make retarded choices like what was done with Tidus or Lulu. They were interesting...AT BEST. Make an outfit interesting without just being outlandish.
Here's another thing to consider! I talked with a friend of mine (Nick) for help with focusing my points and just good ideas for it in general. He told me that a lot of other games have gone with actual fashion houses to design character clothes! That just sounds like a smart move. Leave clothes design...to professional clothes designers. Sure, they might have outlandish ideas at times, but they're bound to not make mistakes as badly as Snow. As much as Square Enix spends on their games, I think they could dedicate a small portion of that funding for actual clothes designers. Of course, it's always possible that they have done this already. If so...find new designers. Whoever you are using isn't doing the trick.
Having actual designers do their clothes would have a secondary benefit as well! As I was informed (and have heard about through random internet news and such), Square Enix loves to market their Final Fantasy stuff all the time. Things like Final Fantasy potions that you can collect and drink and more. Well think about it, if they had actual designers making the clothes, they could sell real world versions of the costumes for cosplayers. True, they'd probably cost a pretty penny, but they'd be ACTUAL versions of the outfits! I'm pretty sure most cosplayers have to do quite a bit of sewing work to make most FF member outfits. They aren't always crazy and out there, but in general, you'd have to put some work in.
So, to reiterate, they need to improve the outfits of Final Fantasy characters. I'd say it mostly pertains to avoiding mistakes like Snow Villiers and maybe looking into real world fashion designers to help out. I don't think it'd be too hard to avoid the mistake, and they spend so much that real world fashion designers couldn't be that much more to get. I don't want anymore hobos Square! I don't want anymore hobos. All right, that leaves one more point to discuss, and then we'll bring it around for a final ultimatum.
VI. More freedom to explore and roam. Make more things optional and don't go overboard with it.
In the old days, you were thrown on the map and made to explore the world. Sure, they did limit where you could explore at certain points, but it certainly felt like you had some choice for exploring. In more recent times, this has come to a grinding halt for Final Fantasy. (A lot of other games as well...but we aren't talking about those right now.) I'd say the first true example of this began with Final Fantasy X.
From the very beginning, you were stuck in one large hallway in which you could go forwards and backwards. That was about it. There was a lot to do in that hallway though, and after you reached the end, you could fly all over with speed and ease. However, in the end, it was still just a long fancy hallway. There's a big world out there, and you're stuck inside the fenced area of the pathway. However, FFX didn't feel too bad compared to FFXIII. FFXIII has no forms of true exploration until you reach the final areas of the game. At that point, I'd almost feel like...too little too late. At that point, you have to be super dedicated and willing to deal with all the content thrown at you. On top of that, it turns the last portion of the game into one big grindfest. (Although...most end game scenarios are generally grind-y for RPGs. However, that is besides the point.)
What you might be thinking is I want a huge open world Final Fantasy. The answer to that is both yes and no. I enjoy open world games for their freedom, but sometimes freedom is too much. You end up spending all your time just roaming and not getting anywhere. A game like Final Fantasy has to be open enough to feel like you aren't in a hallway, but the walls need to be visible or you end up wandering aimlessly. There's really no good middle point in this, but the biggest thing I'd like to feel is freedom again. Freedom to explore the area around me. If you're going to stick with a more hallway-type design, then at least find a way to distract me from it. Even something as simple as expanding the metaphorical walls would be an improvement. And there's an added benefit to exploring freedom!
The freedom to explore brings in another factor that's slowly disappeared from the gaming world...the detective factor! It's the idea of having to figure out what to do rather than being told what to do. Of course, unless it's the beginning of the game, you have to be careful how you do it. It's acceptable in the beginning to have you deliver things around town to learn how to play, but it feels like a nuisance if you are forced to do small petty tasks just to advance all the time. Walking around a town, talking to people, and general exploration should always yield some kind of results. Whether that reward is moving the story on, discovering a secret, or just a few measly items, any kind of result from having to work for it always satisfying. So what's my solution to it all? Glad you asked!
What Final Fantasy needs to be, in terms of exploration, is a mixture between an open world of freedom and adventure, a metaphorical hallway instead of an actual one (at least hide it from us!), and most of all, make sure the exploration actually matters! Honestly, I'd be okay if the overworld was more 2D than 3D. I'd be cool if you just did it in the 2D sense like the classic series. You enter the world map and walk as a giant avatar across a miniaturized world. It's not the best choice, but exploring a massive multi-map world on foot can get annoying, especially if there's not a fast and easy teleport system to aid in travel. FFXII was good, but I'd like the ability to explore more of the world and not just a single country. Of course, then you give up the details of a single country for a simplified entire world. It's a tough choice, but I'd take the latter over the former. Unfortunately, there's not perfect solution to pick here, but we can't have anymore hallway simulators like FFXIII. In the end, you sometimes just have to take the good with the bad.
All of that basically covers the "Freedom to explore and roam", but now we need to consider the second part "Make more things optional but don't go overboard." As with any game, you want a lot of content. With RPGs in mind, they should easily have more content and last longer than any other game in nearly any other genre. Even the earliest of RPGs easily lasted 20 hours! As you know from my playing through the series, I've easily spent at least 30 hours on every title since Final Fantasy II. The earlier games just generally took that long to play, but around the time of FFV, things started expanding more and more into the extras and side quests. Things you didn't have to do but would generally improve your play through the game with helpful things like weapons, armor, items, experience, or just pure bragging rights. All in all, side quests were a good thing.
As the series has advanced, they've almost always increased the number and difficulty of many side quests. Extra bosses that are insanely harder than any boss you HAVE to face. Weapons of such power that having them means the rest of the game is nigh pointless. Large out of the way quests to learn more about the world around you or the characters involved. If it isn't obvious, I'm saying Side Quests are a good thing, but there is a limit to how much the side quests can improve the core game.
In previous titles, some of the side quests ended up being the more memorable parts of the game. Final Fantasy VII has the three weapons: Ruby, Emerald, and Ultima. In FFVIII, you had a large assortment of side quests like Centra Ruins for Odin and Tonberry GFs or the Deep Sea Research Center for Bahamut and Ultima Weapon. Final Fantasy IX brought in the crazy Chocobo Hot & Cold quest which was worth more than its time in rewards, and in the end, it lead you to one of the hardest bosses in Final Fantasy history, Ozma! The point here is...They were pretty darn cool. Then Final Fantasy X came in...
One of the coolest things about FFX is also one of the most annoying things about FFX...the massive side quest business. Don't get me wrong, they were really cool and rewarding, but the work you put into all of them can be daunting at times. A lot of them quickly go from "challenging and cool" to "annoying as crap and now you hate the game". I managed to obtain and power up all of the weapon's except for Lulu's and Kimahri's. Why? I'm not going to go into details here...All you need to look up is "Butterfly Catching" and "Lightning Dodging". They were two big piles of "annoying time waste". Glossing past those two, the ultimate weapon quests require more work and effort than the rest of the game combined. (I know...because I did damn near all of it except the two I listed.) That's not a good thing though, and the side quests really only open up at the very end of the game. Like I said before, when it's all right there in a big pile near the end, you almost feel like "too little, too late". (Although it's better to word that "too much, too late".)
Final Fantasy XII improved over XIII by giving you more room to explore and giving you a steady number of side quests as you went along. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy XII felt sort of like an MMO without other people, so it can be hard to see the good points when bad points are staring you in the face. In the end, I would apologize for my look on FFXII because I gave it a hard time, and it ended better than it began. FFXIII on the other hand...I don't think I'll be able to forgive it. I'm not to the end of the game yet, but my understanding is that the last part of the game piles all the side quests on you while leading to the end. This isn't a good idea Square! I've yammered on enough now about the problem though, so I need to start giving answers.
I say I'm going to give answers, but there's not any true answers to side quests. I mean, in the end, side quests are entirely optional. It comes back around to the same thing as exploration. You need a decent balance in the side quests. You want a good enough number to engage in for both variety and opportunity, but you can't go overboard with them. The side quests shouldn't consist of more content than the rest of the game. I don't feel like I should have to say that, but it seems that I kinda have to. I feel like it goes without saying that a side quest should be difficult, enjoyable, and a rewarding outcome. What it shouldn't be is a couple hour grind of annoying and repetition. (Screw you lightning dodging.) I feel like the only people willing to do all of this are the hardcore group that do it for completionist's sake. I used to feel like a completionist, but nowadays, I just have my limits.
Above all, the side quests need to be fun. You should enjoy doing them and be happy upon their completion. You took the time and effort required, and you were victorious! I'll admit...Side quests aren't for everybody. They are for those who fight harder and push greater than the rest. They bring about a greatness in the game and make you feel great for doing them. Thus, side quests are kinda like the final lifeline of a great RPG. They force you to your limit and challenge you to the extreme. I could go on and on, but I think you get my point, so it's time to quickly review!
Final Fantasy needs to have more freedom of exploration while retaining a somewhat controlled environment. You actions and decisions should matter no matter where you are, and yet secretly tying you to the rest of the game. Side quests should be the ultimate test of the gamer. They should reward you with exotic items, insanely challenging bosses, extra story or details, and always leave you having fun with a sense of satisfaction. And that makes six points...so it's time to wrap up this bad boy with my SECRET FINAL POINT!
SECRET FINAL POINT - VII. If you refuse to do anything above, just stop the series now.
Yeah, I know I said "Six", but this is less of a point and more of the ultimatum. If they refuse to try and improve, I just want the series to end. To me, Final Fantasy was like a fantastic brand name. It shone brightly and made the promise of "Great RPG experience here!" or "Inquire within for great characters and interesting story!" Unfortunately, as the years have gone by, the series has greatly degraded from its previous hold in the RPG industry.
In their defense, the old style of RPG isn't as accepted by the gamers of today as it was in the past. Sure, there are the handful of us from the past who want more older style RPGs, and there are even people of the now who might want the same thing. I'm sorry to say, but we aren't the majority. The majority wants action, explosions, and pretty ladies/men. It's too much about instant gratification if you ask me, but I won't ramble on about it.
Back to the main bit, if you refuse to try and improve the series without selling out, I just want to see it die off. Don't pull a Mega Man and make it die slowly and horribly. Just pull the plug quick and swift, and let the poor series rest in peace.
Final Fantasy began the way of the video game RPG, and it has proven time and time again that it could be improved. Lately, that's not as true, and I just don't like seeing something so incredible and amazing be changed into something so awful. True, they're trying to adapt to the times, but those adaptations are the same reason that they are where they are now. Changing for the better can be good, but it's not always about change. Sometimes, you just need to go back to basics or start all over. In the end, either changes need to be made for the better, or you need to bury the brand now and let it die peacefully. And that's all I got.
I'd like to thank anybody who took the time to take this post into consideration. Whether you got mad about it or completely agreed, I'm just happy you took time to give it a chance! I ended up making several parts a lot longer than I meant to, and I didn't get the post done on time like I had planned. However, I'm going to look past this and apologize by simply saying "I've had a few trying days." It's not the best excuse, but it's the only one I have. Balancing work and gaming with making all these posts becomes exhausting. I applaud anybody who does this with more consistency than I do.
Anyways, feel free to share my post! Show people how awesome/horrible/interesting I can be. Talk about how the horrible structuring is evident of how future generations are going to kill us all. Maybe you think it's so enchanting that you'd like to meet me in person or give me an award. Now I just have an over-inflated ego! Best stop that right now. Look forward to more Final Fantasy XIII stuff soon! /end post
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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