After The Hype

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

Anyone who plays Secret of Mana and still thinks Square only makes good JRPGs needs to go to the nutter.

I knew you were damaged but I had no idea you were hate on Secret of Mana damaged.

[Seil]

I'm with the Fiend on this one - the SoM series - particularly this one, were awesome.

[Regulus Tera]

Originally Posted by Seil

I'm with the Fiend on this one - the SoM series - particularly this one, were awesome.

Well, I wouldn't know about Seiken Densetsu 3, what with 2 burning me out on the series by being so dull and trite and slow. How the fuck Square managed to derive Chrono Trigger from its engine is nothing short of a miracle.

[Jagos]

Parasite Eve? Vagrant Story? Square can get it right a few times...

Speaking of which, I'm somehow reminded of Lara Croft after the first 4... Yeah...

[Seil]

The only real thing that manages to boost Tomb Raider sales has remained the same since the inception of the title:

Sex appeal.

[bluestarultor]

You know, I think Final Fantasy suffers from this, and I mean in general, not just FF7, although FF7 was arguably the first. Everything that came after FF7 brought Great Expectations (tm) as to what people were going to get. What we got was FF7, which while good, is not as great as everyone seems to think, FF8, which was broken as shit, FF9, which was a fairly competent game with minor balance issues (Vivi spends most of his time with nothing to learn) and a few annoyances ranging from Dagger's silence to having two summoners with totally different abilities to really limiting your use of certain characters for much of the game, and so on and so forth. And the worst part is that half of them have the nasty habit of limiting your use of the female protagonist, often when it's least convenient.

Then you have the re-releases, which are great in their own way, but they certainly don't meet expectations when compared to modern games, since they basically change bugger-all of the actual gameplay and end up being like a hobo with a Rolex: ancient games with updated graphics. And in FF4's case, the graphics could have arguably gone without an update, since 16-bit graphics are much better-suited to the DS than 3D, anyway, or at least were in that case.


Not that I hate FF. Far from it. It's just that there are far too many people who don't have a realistic view of what they actually are, which is, in general, games that do okay in the story department (although with the dearth in that area, it might be forgivable), try something new in battle every installment, and are generally competent all around. But I really don't get the people who think they are in every way perfect, because they aren't. They're good, but they're certainly not divine artifacts which can and must be held absolutely sacred.

[Bells]

Althouhg i must say, the fact that FF9 had 2 Summoners i thought it was a great Twist. Specially because they were both equivalent, and at the same time, unique. So it actually mattered if you had one or the other.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Bells

Althouhg i must say, the fact that FF9 had 2 Summoners i thought it was a great Twist. Specially because they were both equivalent, and at the same time, unique. So it actually mattered if you had one or the other.

Well, yeah, that's true. Only it was a bit annoying that the majority of Eiko's utility came from her accessories with no indication of what, if anything, any item would do to her Eidolons. Besides, Carbuncle got four forms, which says a lot more about her abilities. Eiko was very much on the White Mage side of the WM/Summoner equation, which just seemed redundant, since Garnet was already a capable healer. I was incredibly disappointed when Double White came up.

[Amake]

Originally Posted by Seil

Sex appeal.

Wow, that's stinky. I haven't noticed before (or possibly seen that poster before) but her eyes are cut off! That's about the cheapest, most blatant way possible to turn a person into an objectwoman into a fuck hole.

Re. FF9, I think it was the last big name game to not be hyped. You're talking about its weak points, but the one thing it did wonderfully was not get talked about before it was released. They didn't give anything away but a few nonspecific screenshots and 25 words or less of description, as far as I recall. I remember going out into the mist there for the first time and having absolutely no idea what was going to happen.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Invisible Queen

Wow, that's stinky. I haven't noticed before (or possibly seen that poster before) but her eyes are cut off! That's about the cheapest, most blatant way possible to turn a person into an objectwoman into a fuck hole.

Re. FF9, I think it was the last big name game to not be hyped. You're talking about its weak points, but the one thing it did wonderfully was not get talked about before it was released. They didn't give anything away but a few nonspecific screenshots and 25 words or less of description, as far as I recall. I remember going out into the mist there for the first time and having absolutely no idea what was going to happen.

That's very true. Both FF8 and FF9 weren't really put through the media grinder, but I was counting fans as part of the hype machine, which is to say the masses who got into FF because of FF7 wanted more and were quite vocal about things. In fact, FF8 is the fastest-selling FF title of all time. FF9 sold less, but was still a financial success, if a bit divisive of the fan base, and there's really no reason I can think of not to chalk that up to what I personally saw, which was people seeing the mixed reviews and buying it out of curiosity based on what they'd seen before. Hell, that's what I did. My older cousins both said it sucked, but my best friend said it was at least funny while looking retarded, and Kyle has a habit of saying anything he doesn't like sucks outright, which was enough to get me interested.

Honestly, after the hype of FF7, they would have had to cure cancer and at least five deadly diseases to live up to people's expectations.