|
Mansion Maniac posted:Every time I look at Nomura's designs, my heart cries out more for Yoshitaka Amano. Between him, Sakaguchi, and Uematsu, The technology is finally getting to the point that they could actually use Amano's designs and artwork in game. I hope they have the sense to do that on the next generation FF, I'd buy 2 copies of that game and frame one on my wall.
|
#
¿
May 17, 2012 15:12
|
|
even to me why I haven't abandoned SE for Mistwalker.
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 02:06 |
|
|
Amano added more character to Final Fantasy games with just the character profile pics on the status screen in FFIV and FFVI than all the combined in game artwork of everything after VI.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2012 19:42
|
|
|
Dr Pepper posted:Except the character art on said portraits is pretty ridiculous and doesn't at all resemble their sprites. Frankly if they were going to give them portraits they should at least have made new ones that matched their sprites. That's the sprites' problem. The technology has never been able to match up with his work, but now it's getting close and I hope they realize how great that could be. e: ImpAtom posted:To be honest, I think the sprites are more responsible for the charm than Amano's artwork, as much as I like it. FF6 in particular has incredibly expressive characters that are almost entirely the result of the sprites, no matter how simple they are. Yeah they were really expressive and fun, but I always pictured the characters as he drew them.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2012 19:56
|
|
|
Pesky Splinter posted:Not a game, but an upcoming movie. Whoa I was unaware of this! That's what I hope next gen FF games look like (with more color, but the linework is what they couldn't render until, apparently, now.) Momomo posted:Both, really. His art is nice and all, but I don't think it fits the settings very well at all. The fact that ingame they look nothing like what he drew just makes it worse. I disagree completely, I always thought his art created the settings and characters, for IV and VI in particular.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2012 20:25
|
|
|
pw pw pw posted:I love amano's designs, but it might look weird to see them recreated faithfully in 3d. All his characters kinda have the same brooding robert pattinson face. That's true, but mainly for the young male/female characters (hence Terra having green hair in FFVI, she would have looked just like Celes/every other young female he draws). However, Sabin and Edgar were identical twins and I think his drawings did a great job of differentiating them (outfits aside). With a variety of characters I don't think it would be a problem. Mrs. Badcrumble posted:I think the biggest problem with his designs is seeing them *animated* in 3D. Yes, I've seen the animated works based on his designs, but I still think it wouldn't look like a moving Amano painting unless you're one of those people who thinks that things like framing and composition aren't immensely loving important to Amano's art. Yeah this too, it would take both technology and a genius of an Art Director.
|
|
#
¿
May 17, 2012 21:50
|
|
|
Dr Pepper posted:You know what I'm just going to say it. While Amano may be a better artist. Nomura is a better character designer. His designs work better as video game characters, while pictures Amano's are very beautiful and interesting looking. They're not so great as pure character design. Good character design should tell you about a character just from looking at it. Nomura's style fits better with early PS1 polygon blocky characters. I really liked the character images in FFVII, they were cartoony, but had a lot of character and were just plain good. (also by the way Amano designs all the characters, Nomura/other artists "reimagine" them in proper anime as I understand it). After VII the FF in game art started a Descent into Anime. It had reached a low at Seymour's awful hair and Tidus' pants-like apparatus in X, then XII almost started to dig out of it in a different direction, but XIII just rocketed back into the abyss.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 15:48
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:With the exception of Sazh and Fang Lightning was cool too, though her outfit made no sense of course. But Hope, Snow, meaningless words like fal'Cie and Cie'th or whatever, and walking in a boring straight line were the reasons I could only make it through a few hours of play before trading it in. It just reeked of juvenile anime (and not the fun kind).
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 16:05
|
|
|
Artix74 posted:Wait, what? 13's art was actually pretty good. I can't think of anyone who's wearing something as outlandish and retarded as Tidus's outfit. Maybe Vanille and Fang, but even then there's a good reason they're dressed like that, and Fang kind of makes it work. It didn't go as deep as FFX and FFX-2, but it is headed back in that direction. I just recall FFXII having less belts, awful hair, and assymetrical costumes, and it seemed like a ray of hope.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 17:05
|
|
|
Himuro posted:FFVII is plenty "anime". In fact, it's more anime than FFVIII or IX's designs. I guess I just think of VII as good anime, at least the real main characters. I don't know what the hell IX was; Vivi was cool and everything else was just wacky. I liked it though. I think the difference is VII and IX are more cartoonish, and come off as more fun than awkward and kind of embarrassing like VIII and X etc.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 17:51
|
|
|
Mak0rz posted:A recognizable/unique character isn't necessarily indicative of a well-designed character. ^^^^ exactly, their outfits communicate their character. This was done well in FFVII and FFVIII, but since then has gotten progressively more terrible, peaking at Seymour's Hair, Tidus' pantaloons, and FFX-2 in it's entirety. They used to be visually engaging because of style, then they got visually engaging just because What the hell am I seeing here?
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 19:13
|
|
|
JoeyJoJoJr Shabadoo posted:
Zell was the beginning of the end for FF fashion. "Hey FF is futuristic now, let's make our characters look hip! Is hip still a word that is used?"
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 19:39
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:To be honest, I don't like Nomura's designs but "it isn't coldly utilitarian with every bit of clothing serving a practical purpose" is like the least of its problems. The point of a character design is to communicate things to the view, not to be practical. Obviously you can't get too ridiculous but practicality isn't particularly important as long as it is communicating things well. That's it in a nutshell. "Random excess" is the best description of the style, and exactly what pisses me off when looking at so much of it.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 19:48
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:Uh. Nomura didn't design for FFXII. Akihiko Yoshida did. Ah that's right, he did the Tactics stuff too right? (edit: answered) That explains why XII stands out as different (much better) than those before and after.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 21:13
|
|
|
Saoshyant posted:Does it now? Vaan was just confused as a generic Nomura character and, dear god, Ashe's design is a terrible abortion. Hookers don't dress like that, much less Queens. I guess I was thinking of Balthier and Basch etc. Basically everything about the game except Vaan and Penelo (I kept them out of my party and generally tried to pretend they were just the kids in the backseat of my adventure). And yes I do think everything about the design and art in XII stood out as much better than those before and after it (except for the sheer quality of XIII, not the style just how drat well the game looked)
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 21:37
|
|
|
Epi Lepi posted:Really? I though XII was super generic and boring. Honestly I thought that whole game was a forgettable experience except Balthier because he was Han Solo. But then that's all I remember about him so I guess he was pretty forgettable too. I must admit I remember almost nothing about the game except really enjoying it, how cool Balthier was, and that you should always have Bubble and auto-pheonix down on your characters. I think I liked the style because it was more generic: the outfits, architecture, and everything from say, VIII and X just grated on me. Ashe's outfit was the stupidest thing but I gave it a pass because she wears essentially nothing as a skirt, and I'm all for that. Also the bunny girls were super embarassing.
|
|
#
¿
May 18, 2012 22:06
|
|
|
RagnarokAngel posted:Characters like Mog and Cyan...eh. Cyan? With his wife and kid, and the train? And his letters?  You monster..... You're right about their stories/dialogue ending in the 2nd act after you got them. The cool part was you didn't need to get anyone but the main 3 to finish the game.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2012 20:01
|
|
|
VaultAggie posted:Six was my first and favorite so go figure. That's just because it is the best one, not because you played it first.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 6, 2012 18:32
|
|
|
NewtGoongrich posted:
But you can save him! There is hope! It was so neat how depending on what happened it completely changed her and her whole outlook at that point (and the player's). And Setzer's walk into the tomb was brilliant, getting choked up just thinking about it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2012 19:01
|
|
|
VaultAggie posted:I always let Cid die, simply because it results in a much better scene. Sorry Cid. So true.....
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2012 19:21
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:Cid being able to survive is just bizarre as hell. It makes no sense and converts that entire sequence to "Welp, thanks for all the fish. Have a raft. No, no, I'll stay here. No, no, no end to my character arc or anything. I just really fuckin' love fish." Yeah I was so intrigued when I found you could save him, but then he just.....stays there forever? Do I need to visit now and then? Awkward.... I still couldn't bear to kill him with slow fish once I knew the trick, I'm a softy when it comes to killing nice NPCs to this day.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 7, 2012 19:46
|
|
|
der juicen posted:But but but I love cutscenes. I played just about every FF game and loved them all (FF2 couldn't get into it and haven't tried XI and XIV), except FFXIII. I got a few hours in, and had to cut my losses. I was really excited for it too, but it is not a good game, please play X first, or ANY other one first (except II maybe). The one actual good review I read described it best as "Beautiful, Boring,FFXIII" It does look incredible, but it is still unbearable. If you need to try it just please play another one first. I think X would be a good starting point, modern graphics, good battle system, cutscenes usually not too embarrassing. VI is my personal favorite but the old graphics and text can be a barrier to entry.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 15:31
|
|
I kinda really do though.
|
Gammatron 64 posted:Wait, wait, wait. What? What?! I think he meant to type IV and typed VI, I had a double take too. Edit: no idea what I'm talking about here.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 17:11
|
|
|
Die Laughing posted:I'll give you five to six hours before your will is broken, and you refuse to play FFXIII again. At least FFVII - FFX you can pretty much play with one hand because all the combat is turn based. I recommended X because it would be easy with one hand, and XIII is unplayable (until 25 hours in from what I hear.) I try not to get into "XIII is the worst" considering the thread title, but I can't in good conscience let someone walk down that path if they ask about it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 18:29
|
|
|
DOUBLE CLICK HERE posted:XIII's bad, but it's even more simple because the first 20 hours are pressing X through trivial battles where you still don't have a full party or unlocked systems yet. I feel like XIII doesn't get enough due for being the absolute best PS3 screen saver of 2010. Oh yeah, you can "play" XIII by simply hitting X for hours (you are forced to for the first couple hours), but you can also "play" an actual Movie that doesn't suck by hitting X like, once or twice. The battle system in FFX was really good, you could pace it yourself, and you get access to the entire story (for better or worse) without having to delve into dozens of pages of Codex type stuff. And XIII was a beautiful screensaver, and does get even too much credit for it (getting rated 8/10-10/10 by game reviewers when it is a solid 4 or 5 game with 10 graphics)
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 18:39
|
|
|
Schwartzcough posted:Except you keep ignoring the fact that he doesn't have the consoles to play the other games nor money to procure them. Seriously, people, I'm sure he's picked up the general consensus that XIII is bad. Some people do enjoy it, though, so if he wants to play it (and he doesn't really have other options) let him make his own decisions. This is an important point I am ignoring, sorry about that. Play XIII-2 maybe? I heard it's better than XIII? If not go ahead with XIII, wasting a few hours to decide it's terrible and trade it in isn't a big deal. I lived through it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 19:20
|
|
|
Artix74 posted:The opening scene of 13-2 is the final cutscene of 13, so that may not be the best idea if you haven't played 13. 13-2 is better in some ways, worse in other, but on the whole it is a general improvement. Yes I understand, maybe watch some videos of "essential" XIII story cutscenes on YouTube and then play XIII-2? Ok being facetious here but I can't help it XIII was painful.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 19:27
|
|
|
ImpAtom posted:If you think FFXIII was literally painful, FFXIII-2 isn't going to change your mind. It's almost identical except with a stupider plot, more poorly balanced combat and somewhat less linearity. Yeah I'm not going to try XIII-2 I figured that was about it. And Final Fantasy was my puppy growing up and XIII killed it 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 19:32
|
|
|
Azure_Horizon posted:Despite what people will tell you, it's okay to like FFXIII. There are some great things about that game. Even better, XIII-2 is a total improvement. Honestly XIII was just exactly the opposite of what I was looking for at the time, and I gave up on it early in the game. However I was impressed SE took it in such a different direction (just not a direction I liked).
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 21:13
|
|
|
Azure_Horizon posted:I didn't have a problem with the linearity because XII gave me a bunch of nonlinearity and was also one of the worst games I've ever put into a game console. Most everything XIII did was just a step up for me, needed to cleanse my palette. It is just different tastes; I loved XII and couldn't believe when I heard some people didn't. I was genuinely confused, like they couldn't have been playing the same game or something...
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 21:24
|
|
|
Zombies' Downfall posted:So if you want to pretend the main character doesn't exist, you can. ^^^Best advice. Leave the kid with grotesque/hilarious abs in a ditch and Balthier is your new main character, and he uses a sword and shield. Give Ashe the gun.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2012 21:57
|
|
|
der juicen posted:I'm really, really enjoying this game 6 hours in. Maybe not having played an FF game has given me the benefit of not being jaded, etc. Good, and that's just it: expectations from playing other FFs/RPGs were why I couldn't get into it (FFXIII isn't a role playing game!) I secretly hope to play this game and enjoy it someday. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2012 15:12
|
|
|
Lilli posted:Well everyone knows FF VI is the best one. Not everyone, it's an elite club for only those with the finest taste. Which makes it all the sweeter. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 14, 2012 20:19
|
|
|
My Lovely Horse posted:
Yeah some of his guns have like 255% accuracy or something ridiculous, so he can use it as a regular attack.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2012 15:52
|
|
|
Cardboard Fox posted:When I was a kid I remember thinking that Vincent's Limit Break was amazing. After recently replaying the game I have to say no, it really isn't. It's quite bad. It was solid for a lot of the game, especially if you happened to use it on an enemy weak vs. the element being used. And it was just plain cool, but late in the game it was surpassed by virtually everything. Another nice thing about deathblow/sniper rifle combo is you can keep attacking without needing to use his limit break until you want to.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 9, 2012 19:24
|
|
|
I once killed the Ruby Weapon with Vincent solo, no Knights of the Round. While I slept and went to class, took about 9 hours. True story. Some combination of counter, mime, fullcure, and Ultimax4. Just to be clear, I'm gay for Vincent.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2012 03:30
|
|
|
The White Dragon posted:Incidentally, 4x Ultima probably animates more quickly than Knights of the Round, and it's not hard to bust him in thirty, forty minutes, so I'm not sure where you got this nine hours from. I went with quick reset until your non-main party members get Quicksanded, and then Final Attack + Phoenix + Master Summon (for infinite charges). Ultima was only taking off about 400 damage each shot, so 1,600 per turn (the first counter was fullcure so he couldn't 2 shot me), which was still the strongest thing I had except for some non elemental enemy skill that did like 7k but couldn't absorb hp/mp or counter. I can't remember the exact details but I left it running overnight and checked on it before a 9am class and he was still going. Pretty sure this led to the early decline of my playstation.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2012 14:15
|
|
|
boblemoche posted:Omnislash + counter/mime slotted 8 times. Cardboard Fox posted:A few years ago I killed Ruby with just Cloud in about 20 minutes, but that was me using KotR. I can't remember what the materia combination was. It was something like KotR with Counter and Drain? Cloud would counter every attack with KotR and heal himself for 9999 at the end of the counter. I simply put the controller down while I went to the kitchen to make something to eat. These are much better, smarter ways to do it; the point was killing Ruby with Vincent and no KotR was much more difficult. Since one of your rewards for beating Ruby is a gold chocobo (what you need to get KotR) it's like an implicit challenge to do it without using KotR. And Omnislash is just sick.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2012 16:07
|
|
|
Cardboard Fox posted:You know, one day I think I'll try beating the 2 weapons without using any game breaking abilities. No KotR, Mime, or Omnislash. Just a straight up battle. I think I'll be able to take down Ruby quite easily, but Emerald still has that annoying 9999 AE attack. Any idea if Wall reduces that damage to make it survivable, or are you pretty much reliant on final attack revive? Emerald was actually a lot easier because Gravity spells work on him (9999 damage even on low level gravity)and won't kill the "eyes" which I believe is what triggers the deathblast thing (when all eyes are destroyed, he does it). You can tell when a part is getting low hp once the gravity spell does less than 9999 damage. So you can hook up Gravity to Hp and Mp absorb, 4x cast and just go wild. Then Kill all but one of the eyes with regular damage attacks and start hitting the body. I did finish him off with Omnislash though, but it's doable without it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2012 17:41
|
|
|
LoudLoudNoise posted:This should not be a goddamned thing. Didn't I see this in a Photoshop Phriday at some point? This is really like a bad joke.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2012 21:42
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 02:06 |
|
|
The White Dragon posted:It's from an age where a third of the setup was in the instruction manual, a third of it was in the game, and a third of it was you, the player. It's your own opinion whether or not this is how a video game should conduct itself, because these days your characters are spelled out for you so hard that there's absolutely no room for interpretation regardless of how asinine that spelling is--and some players like it like that--and other folks think it's okay to have these almost-characters where it's up to the player to fill in the blanks. Sabin and Edgar are brothers, and that's put right in front of you, but are Cyan and Mog bros 'cause they fight together all the time? That's your conjecture. That's a good observation, there was more room for interpretation of characters in VI than in later games. One of the main reasons it's my favorite is probably looking at all Amano's artwork in the booklet and other sources and kind of imagining the story and characters as you played.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2012 19:56
|
|