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VanSandman posted:I'd love to read about the fall of Final Fantasy as a series, from what was once a 'must-buy' for Playstation owners to a niche, at best, product. Anyone know of a good writeup? First couple results for "fall of final fantasy" seem to be what you're looking for: https://www.alteredgamer.com/final-fantasy/123269-ff-the-demise-of-the-series/ https://medium.com/@felfortes/final-fantasy-viii-and-the-beginning-of-squares-fall-f4aa6b402048 https://www.wired.com/2013/08/final-fantasy-is-still-dead/ https://leviathyn.com/2014/03/06/fall-final-fantasy-part-decline-square-enix-flagship-franchise/
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Aug 5, 2019 13:59
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food court bailiff posted:this is an insane amount of words about how serious you think the world and plot of a game where a valkyrie fights a ghost pirate for a magic sword are Man, I'd kill for a Cervantes skin that's the ghost pirate captain from Venture Bros.
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Aug 5, 2019 14:10
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VanSandman posted:I'd love to read about the fall of Final Fantasy as a series, from what was once a 'must-buy' for Playstation owners to a niche, at best, product. Anyone know of a good writeup? The niche FFXV that recouped its production costs on Day 1 and the fall of FFXIV, the only MMORPG left still worth playing 
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Aug 5, 2019 14:25
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food court bailiff posted:this is an insane amount of words about how serious you think the world and plot of a game where a valkyrie fights a ghost pirate for a magic sword are It's funny, I actually always thought that SC side-stepped the whole issue of "how do you effectively tell a story in a punchmans game?" pretty neatly by just not having much of one. Granted, I've only played parts 4 and 6, but for the most part the story seemed minimal in those. Each character just gets a couple of largely self-contained fights connected by a text box or two, and that's that. Which tends to work much better than the likes of Street Fighter, which wants to have its big dramatic important story despite being, you know, Street Fighter. Anyway, the only fighting game series that does story right is Mortal Kombat. 
Perestroika has a new favorite as of 15:36 on Aug 5, 2019 |
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Aug 5, 2019 14:26
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And then there's the time Akuma guest-starred in Tekken and fit in there better than half the Tekken cast. Also better than he ever fit in with Street Fighter.
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Aug 5, 2019 15:28
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food court bailiff posted:this is an insane amount of words about how serious you think the world and plot of a game where a Greek chick kicks a bunch of people in the nuts
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Aug 5, 2019 15:33
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Soul Calibur. “Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.”Ratoslov posted:And then there's the time Akuma guest-starred in Tekken and fit in there better than half the Tekken cast. Also better than he ever fit in with Street Fighter. I also liked Geese Howard’s appearance. But yeah, Tekken has a bunch of weirdos. There was a trailer a couple days ago that introduced a new character: a lady who moved gracefully while kicking rear end. Then all of a sudden: moves where she is possessed by her demon arm. Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuEwXWH4PbA
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Aug 5, 2019 16:24
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Cleretic posted:I don't think Namco actually know how to pick guest characters for their fighting games, nor have they ever known. And that really hurts Soul Calibur. The worst part of this is I didn't know much about the series and got SCII for my xbox, and that was the main copy my friends and I would play for years. I mained and got really good at Spawn, and then he never appeared in the series again. Can't they just reskin the model and give me the same fighting style back?
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Aug 5, 2019 17:56
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Street Fighter was best when it was national stereotypes and Hakan was therefore the best new character in decades.
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Aug 5, 2019 18:02
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Playing through Dark Souls for the first time. Was having a lot of fun, even in a sewer level, until I hit blight town. I'm not even very far into it, but the heights, poison dmg, and rickety setup are not very fun to fight on or through. I'm having trouble even wanting to play at this point, but I've had so much fun getting this far... I'm also playing through BoTW, but I've shelved it for a few months now for two compounding reasons. The first is I got the DLC and activated Master Mode, which overall was really fun. In Master Mode, most enemies and bosses are powered up by one level, can detect Link's approach easier and regain health over time; however, there is a limit to their health recovery. Stronger, golden versions of enemies are also introduced. There is ordinarily a mechanism preventing Link from getting killed in one hit by powerful attacks, leaving him alive with a quarter Heart instead. This protection is not present in Master Mode. This is all well and good in the world, and makes the early game quite the scramble to stay alive and armed. The reason I shelved it is I'm about halfway through the game and came upon another DLC area, The Trial of the Sword. After you get the Master Sword, there is a DLC enemy gauntlet you can fight compromised of something like 50 rooms in a row of combat, and the prize is it doubles the power of the Master Sword and its recovery downtime is severely shortened. They strip you naked before you go in, so your ability to deal damage and recover health is severely limited. With the Master Mode, it's just a little too much for me. If you're not efficient and clever at killing enemies with every environmental damage effect you can find, I find myself getting a ways into this gauntlet and eventually have no weapons or healing and get soft-locked because I can't defeat the enemies regenerating health with my zero resources. It's the first Zelda I've ever played where the combat genuinely has bested me.
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Aug 5, 2019 18:15
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Samuringa posted:The niche FFXV that recouped its production costs on Day 1 and the fall of FFXIV, the only MMORPG left still worth playing Seriously. I know people like to rag on XIII and XV, but the series is far from dead. XIII-2 has sold something like 10 million copies. Lightning Returns didn't sell a whole bunch, but it met sale expectations Square set for it. XIV has somewhere around 16 million subscribers. XV has sold over 8 million copies. World of Final Fantasy has sold well, for being a spin off. Also a spin off, Brave Exvius has been downloaded almost 40 million times worldwide. Etc. etc. Those numbers are insane for a JRPG, especially the sequel and spin off numbers. Final Fantasy is doing just fine.
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Aug 5, 2019 18:42
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Final Fantasy XV was also the last vestiges of the whole Fabula Nova Crystalis production that SE started, remember when it was called Final Fantasy verses 13? It's a drat miracle anything came out of that nightmare let alone 4 games.
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Aug 5, 2019 19:53
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Olaf The Stout posted:Playing through Dark Souls for the first time. Was having a lot of fun, even in a sewer level, until I hit blight town. I'm not even very far into it, but the heights, poison dmg, and rickety setup are not very fun to fight on or through. I'm having trouble even wanting to play at this point, but I've had so much fun getting this far... Blight town is the poo poo bit that everyone hates. I haven't played it in years but I remember having a Spider Shield or something that blocks incoming Toxic damage (which is different from Poison damage) from the blow dart guys. Also once you kill the blow dart guys they don't respawn. Not sure if any of that has been updated since but I hope it helps. After that I think you just have to get down to ground level and rush the boss cave, come back and mop up later when you're OP. Blight town's a slog but is followed by some of the much cooler (potentially punishingly difficult, insanity inducing) areas in the game so it's worth punching through.
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Aug 5, 2019 20:18
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Mierenneuker posted:Soul Calibur. “Transcending history and the world, a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.” Why didn't they get the OG Velvet instead of making a new one 
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Aug 5, 2019 20:22
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Bloodcider posted:Blight town is the poo poo bit that everyone hates. I haven't played it in years but I remember having a Spider Shield or something that blocks incoming Toxic damage (which is different from Poison damage) from the blow dart guys. Also once you kill the blow dart guys they don't respawn. Not sure if any of that has been updated since but I hope it helps. After that I think you just have to get down to ground level and rush the boss cave, come back and mop up later when you're OP. Blight town's a slog but is followed by some of the much cooler (potentially punishingly difficult, insanity inducing) areas in the game so it's worth punching through. ... At least until you hit the dragon butt central and clearly hastily put together demo area which serves as a level leading to the least fun boss fight in the game.
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Aug 5, 2019 20:25
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Bloodcider posted:Blight town is the poo poo bit that everyone hates. I haven't played it in years but I remember having a Spider Shield or something that blocks incoming Toxic damage (which is different from Poison damage) from the blow dart guys. Also once you kill the blow dart guys they don't respawn. Not sure if any of that has been updated since but I hope it helps. After that I think you just have to get down to ground level and rush the boss cave, come back and mop up later when you're OP. Blight town's a slog but is followed by some of the much cooler (potentially punishingly difficult, insanity inducing) areas in the game so it's worth punching through. Blighttown is extra good because on a first playthrough when you don't know how durability works it's entirely possible that your only upgraded weapon will break down there.
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Aug 5, 2019 21:32
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AngryRobotsInc posted:Seriously. I know people like to rag on XIII and XV, but the series is far from dead. XIII-2 has sold something like 10 million copies. Lightning Returns didn't sell a whole bunch, but it met sale expectations Square set for it. XIV has somewhere around 16 million subscribers. XV has sold over 8 million copies. World of Final Fantasy has sold well, for being a spin off. Also a spin off, Brave Exvius has been downloaded almost 40 million times worldwide. Etc. etc. Is 16 million the total amount of subscribers they've ever had or something? I have a lot of trouble believing that XIV has more subscribers now than WoW did at its peak.
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Aug 5, 2019 21:37
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The Moon Monster posted:Is 16 million the total amount of subscribers they've ever had or something? I have a lot of trouble believing that XIV has more subscribers now than WoW did at its peak. "registered players"
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Aug 5, 2019 21:47
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ilmucche posted:Blighttown is extra good because on a first playthrough when you don't know how durability works it's entirely possible that your only upgraded weapon will break down there. Your weapons can break in DS1?
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Aug 5, 2019 22:01
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Jesus Christ I literally quit Spider-Man back to the main menu and when I loaded it out me back at the drone countdown. I don't want to drone race. It's bad and dumb Edit: yes I see abandon challenge in the pause menu but I was so incredibly over it yesterday I wanted to quit the game entirely
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Aug 5, 2019 22:04
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spit on my clit posted:Your weapons can break in DS1? They have a durability score that is very apparent on the inventory screen, and a tiny ways into the game you acquire the ability to repair your arms and armor at any bonfire for a paltry fee. Also there is a large blacksmith NPC who is constantly banging his hammer, pretty hard to miss. So it could happen, I guess. My friend played bloodbourne completely totally blind the whole way through, and never found the weapon bench in the homebase. It's non-descript and just looks like a generic static bench against a wall, so he beat the entire game with a broken un-upgraded weapon because he's both very, very good at videogames and it was his fourth soulsbourne.
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Aug 5, 2019 22:09
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Olaf The Stout posted:They have a durability score that is very apparent on the inventory screen, and a tiny ways into the game you acquire the ability to repair your arms and armor at any bonfire for a paltry fee. Also there is a large blacksmith NPC who is constantly banging his hammer, pretty hard to miss. So it could happen, I guess. Geez...you'd think he'd at least google "bloodborne how the gently caress do i repair weapons" Impressive, though.
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Aug 5, 2019 22:13
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Samurai Showdown dude is a bad pick for Soul Calibur because the game already has Mitsurugi, a samurai dude with a big ponytail.
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Aug 5, 2019 22:34
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In FF14 Shadowbringers, SE seemed to be so eager to make its bosses HUEG that they didn't stop to think if they should. In some cases if you ever target another party member for something and try to tab target back, even though the boss is in full view of you you wont target him. The final boss of the last story dungeon of Shadowbringers is a great example of this, I have to zoom fully out and like drag my camera to look up towards the boss to get tab to work, or click on the emnity list. In the worst cases though it can result in not loving seeing mechanics over the gigantic boss. Twinning's final boss has this mechanic where there will be lasers that are paused mid fire, then they resume after some time to the other side of the arena. If you're say the tank, and there is one right across the arena from you ,you wont see it.
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Aug 5, 2019 22:41
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Crowetron posted:Samurai Showdown dude is a bad pick for Soul Calibur because the game already has Mitsurugi, a samurai dude with a big ponytail. Not having any familiarity with Samurai Shodown, when I first saw Haohmaru in the marketing for the new one I thought it was Mitsurugi doing a guest role in SS. SS in general would be a good fit for Soul Calibur but like any other character would make more sense.
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Aug 6, 2019 00:41
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spit on my clit posted:Geez...you'd think he'd at least google "bloodborne how the gently caress do i repair weapons" Dark souls means more to him than his religion, and he has no hobbies besides videogames. He takes a week off work for every Fromsoft game launch and beats them all the first time without ever googleing anything, and then looks up stuff to platinum them. He's also one of those guys who doesn't read much in-game and plays a lot of games without ever learning all their systems and mechanics, but his pure footwork, timing, and fundamentals are so good he beats them easily anyway.
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Aug 6, 2019 01:57
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Olaf The Stout posted:I'm also playing through BoTW, but I've shelved it for a few months now for two compounding reasons. The first is I got the DLC and activated Master Mode, which overall was really fun. In Master Mode, most enemies and bosses are powered up by one level, can detect Link's approach easier and regain health over time; however, there is a limit to their health recovery. Stronger, golden versions of enemies are also introduced. There is ordinarily a mechanism preventing Link from getting killed in one hit by powerful attacks, leaving him alive with a quarter Heart instead. This protection is not present in Master Mode. This is all well and good in the world, and makes the early game quite the scramble to stay alive and armed. I had the exact same problem. I've never played a Zelda game that was anything other than incredibly easy before so a hard mode seemed a no-brainer choice. Especially since I usually like to try and find all the heartpieces/etc which makes most of the latter half of most Zeldas an utter cakewalk. But while most of the game with Master Mode was fine the Master Mode gauntlet is just absurd and even though it's completely optional killed my enthusiasm for the game completely.
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Aug 6, 2019 02:33
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I'm playing on master mode now and enjoying it (though the health regen is lazy and kicks in far too quickly) but I'm not looking forward to the Trial and it feels kind of stupid that it was part of the same DLC as master mode
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Aug 6, 2019 08:59
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Cleretic posted:Namco clearly don't really care about getting characters that fit, or else we'd have more than only two that do. Tekken's got a lot of these problems going on as well, but Tekken's always been intentionally pretty laughable; you can complain all you want that Negan or Noctis don't really make sense, but this is a series that has several characters who are just bears, so it was never a place for serious discussion. Mierenneuker posted:I also liked Geese Howard’s appearance. But yeah, Tekken has a bunch of weirdos. There was a trailer a couple days ago that introduced a new character: a lady who moved gracefully while kicking rear end. Then all of a sudden: moves where she is possessed by her demon arm.  ).
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Aug 6, 2019 11:31
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U.T. Raptor posted:Tekken's got its own issues, with a bunch of characters relegated to the Tag games for no reason. Why doesn't Angel get to be a mainline Tekken character? Sure she's got wings and shoots lasers out of her eyes, but so does loving Devil Jin and he's apparently just fine. Isn't Angel just the good aspect of Kazuya? She doesn't really have a personality, apart from "Good Kazuya" or a distinctive fighting style that's not just more mishima karate. At least Devil Jin and Jin Kazama are kinda distinct. Ogre would have a much stronger reason for inclusion if we want to promote characters from Tag. U.T. Raptor posted:(that loving bullshit crystal dinosaur man Azazel, who belongs in this thread several times over ). 100% this though.
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Aug 6, 2019 13:47
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So I platinumed Rondo of Blood/Symphony of the Night over the weekend, and I wondered why I did it, despite having so many misgivings about them (SOTN in particular). And I came to the conclusion that, in my opinion, SOTN is a good game, but it's a bad metroidvania title, if that makes sense. I realized that, once I got over all the trappings of a metroidvania, namely having to hunt down all the abilities that make exploration fun, I enjoyed the game a lot more. But before that happens, there are a lot of issues that make the game a pain in the rear end to play: 1) There's no pomp and circumstance to the power ups you get. A game-changing powerup is given as much weight as one that lets you see the damage you're doing to enemies - often they're just tucked in a corner somewhere, sometimes after you beat a boss, sometimes not. Sometimes if you beat the boss then go the wrong way, you'll simply miss it. In the latter half of the game, this seems to get better somewhat, as if they were learning as they designed content, but I never really felt like I earned a new ability, more like I just stumbled across it. 2) There's absolutely no rhyme or reason as to where you're supposed to go. When you start the game you're given the vague goal of killing Dracula. Makes sense. Where is he? Who knows. You're forced to randomly wander around aimlessly, eventually finding Belmont, being confused as to his motives, then resume wandering. A couple item descriptions point you in the right direction of the second half of the game, but there's no reason as to why you need to follow their instructions or why the person you meet in that location is even there. She just...is. So half the game is just wandering randomly, wondering where you can go, and once you get a new ability you have to scour the entire castle just to find a place where you can use it to advance. 3) Finding where you can use your new power up is a pain in the rear end. This is a weird one, but, in SOTN, just because you find an space that requires an ability to get by it doesn't mean you'll get anything for it until you find more abilities. Find an ability that lets you jump over long pits, next to a big pit? Awesome! But this long pit has nothing beyond it, and the time you've wasted travelling there (because you remembered, oh hey, there's a pit there that now I can jump over) is for naught. At one point there's a path full of spikes that you can fly through with the bat upgrade. But as you do, you realize that there's a grating there that you need the mist upgrade for. So you leave, get the mist upgrade, and return, but then you find out that, no, you also need an armor piece that lets you break spikes. This armor, incidentally, completely negates the need for the bat upgrade in this area. So why make it look like you could pass through with the bat form? Why not just make it clear that what you needed was the spike armor? This frustrated me to no end while playing. 4) There simply are not enough teleporters in the game, and getting to particular areas can be a real annoyance, especially given that you waste time going back and forth due to point (3) above. Once I left the 'metroidvania' portion of the game, that is, once I had all my abilities and didn't need to be worried about being gated out of areas and having to return with something, the game became way more fun. I could treat the game more like an open world game that was open to me to find all the bosses in to kill, get the good equipment, find the secrets, etc. But before that, ugh. Replaying it as Richter actually had the same sort of feeling - an entire castle (almost) was open to me to run around in and just cut down enemies. Edit: Oh wait some of the secrets were really bad, like, no-indication-whatsover-they-exist bad. I'm not even talking about destructible ceilings and floors, which are bad enough because they're impossible to know about, unlike walls. I'm talking about the room in the entrance of the castle that a) requires you to destroy a hole in boulder in the middle of the room, b) go through the boulder left to right while transformed as a bat, then c) go through the border right to left while a wolf, and then d) realize that a new path has opened up that had no indication of existing whatsoever. Also I'm pretty sure there isn't even, like, a sound cue or anything, but I was playing with my sound turned down at the time. Morpheus has a new favorite as of 18:43 on Aug 6, 2019 |
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Aug 6, 2019 18:40
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Samuringa posted:The niche FFXV that recouped its production costs on Day 1 and the fall of FFXIV, the only MMORPG left still worth playing Money is fine but the brand is very much riding the coat tails of its former success. Around 6-7, the brand Final Fantasy became something to expect big things from, and since then the reputation it has devolved into a long a wet fart. I think people keep buying the games and wanting them to be better than they are. You used to expect to get a strong story with an interesting twist on turn based combat and character development. I don't believe 12, 13, or 15 came even close to delivering on that. 11 and 14 being MMOs is another strange animal, and until the major overhaul 14 was a total dumpster fire. They may be doing fine financially, but I think it's a bit disingenuous to suggest it's as good as ever because of it.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:00
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Just about every FF game starting with VIII has been "the downfall of FF". I was just starting high school when VIII dropped. I remember it well. And I remember the hate each title got following that. VIII was the downfall for the janky story, the poorly done love story, the junction system. IX was the downfall because it went back to the roots, for the AP system, for the slow rear end battles. X was the downfall because Tidus, Sphere Grid, laughing scene. Etc. People act like "FF IS OVER" is some new thing. This poo poo has been going on since the late 90s, and yet here the series still is, still going strong.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:20
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Every final fantasy except the one you like is the worst and the fall of FF.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:25
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AngryRobotsInc posted:Just about every FF game starting with VIII has been "the downfall of FF". I was just starting high school when VIII dropped. I remember it well. And I remember the hate each title got following that. VIII was the downfall for the janky story, the poorly done love story, the junction system. IX was the downfall because it went back to the roots, for the AP system, for the slow rear end battles. X was the downfall because Tidus, Sphere Grid, laughing scene. Etc. I think you're describing negatively received traits of the individual titles, which are fair, but those don't necessarily remark on the series. I know plenty of people that loved and love the crap out of 8, 9, X, because their mechanics and characters were engaging despite the problems. Point to me one person that is super eager to go replay 13, or Crisis Core, or the completely out of left field "Final Fantasy 4: The After Years," or even 15. There's been a long combo streak of unrepentant junk that I think is far more indicative of a cultural downfall.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:27
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i stopped liking a thing ergo everyone else stopped liking it too
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Aug 6, 2019 21:28
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Poulpe posted:I think you're describing negatively received traits of the individual titles, which are fair, but those don't necessarily remark on the series. I know plenty of people that loved and love the crap out of 8, 9, X, because their mechanics and characters were engaging despite the problems. I replay XIII somewhat regularly. I've played XV three times so far, with a fourth probably coming soon. Crisis Core was alright. And so was TAY. I'm that one person. Also I don't like VI and IX. My favorite title is IV, with VIII, X, and XV in a constantly rotating slap fight for second depending on which I've most recently played. It's almost like different people have different taste in games, and those ones you think are unrepentant junk have fans out there. Astounding.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:32
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Poulpe posted:Point to me one person that is super eager to go replay 13, or Crisis Core, or the completely out of left field "Final Fantasy 4: The After Years," or even 15. There's been a long combo streak of unrepentant junk that I think is far more indicative of a cultural downfall. Aside from the After Years, hi, I'm right here.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:37
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AngryRobotsInc posted:It's almost like different people have different taste in games, and those ones you think are unrepentant junk have fans out there. Astounding.  Excuse me for insulting your poorly received video game series! No accounting for taste! I stand by my statement though, largely the series is being viewed as lower and lower quality, and I think now we're in a context where people feel like they have to play the next one regardless, but the luster is wearing thin.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:41
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XIII, voted the best game of 2009 by reader poll in Dengeki. Got a 39 out of 40 from Famitsu. Received good reviews almost across the board in the West. Sold over 7 million copies worldwide. XV, 38 out of 40 from Famitsu. Generally good reviews across the board. Has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. Has been acknowledged as saving the series as a whole. I think we have very different definitions of poorly received.
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Aug 6, 2019 21:58
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