What Final Fantasy game would YOU have made?

[KyleOnTheRun]

I've had this idea for a homepage feature stirring for a couple days now.

Here's the idea: Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels are divisive, to say the very least. Some people swear by the cast, but hate the gameplay and storyline. Others just hate everything about it (I'm pretty much in this camp). Others LOVE the redesigned ATB battle system.

Compare to this to what I consider the 'glory days' of Square Enix: Final Fantasy 7. 8. 9. 10. The fact that these four games came out sequentially - and were so genre-defining and utterly awesome - makes me yearn for the days when a Final Fantasy game was a global event, and when the game in question was truly amazing.

I don't mean to get mired in nostalgia, so here's the deal - we didn't get a truly great Final Fantasy game this generation, so I'm going to write about the Final Fantasy game that I would have made - story, gameplay, visuals, narrative themes and imagery, etc. I also think this is an awesome topic of conversation, and we could unearth some very cool opinions and observations from each other.

So, I ask - what Final Fantasy game would YOU have made during this generation?

[Dave-The-Rave]

A PS1 era style one in HD..Ni No Kuni is doing it right, and proving the point that a HD World Map is possible.

[DarkVincent07]

Versus XIII. lol.


Or a Final Fantasy I-IV style game in terms of how the game is set out, world map, lots of freedom, but with modern epic art style like Versus XIII and Project X for WiiU.
HD towns and active battle system like Kingdom Hearts cross Tales of games.
A main character that is still relatable and fully voiced but you can customise how he OR she looks, like in Mass Effect

[Ixion]

Versus XIII. lol.

This. Not gonna lie.

I really think Versus is the general direction the series should go.

-Action-RPG
-Seamless combat
-Darker themes and art style
-Open world
-Cinematic/Advent Children-esque combat
-Nojima writing the script (lol)

That last bullet point is important though. All of this is moot if the writing is poor. I'm currently playing FFXIII-2, which is satisfactory from a gameplay perspective, but I am not engaged AT ALL with the characters or story.

[DarkVincent07]

I agree Ix, XIII-2 was enjoyable gameplay wise and I did my best my best to follow the story... But it was a clusterfuck and the way you jumped between 'levels' made it feel less open and was also tied to the less than great story.

I don't know how Lightning Returns will be with it's story but it definitely needs to be more focused and with less nonsense dialogue that is vague and uninteresting


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[Kuro]

I'd want ff5 it had a great story.

[Chickenooble]

I'd want to see a reinvention of FFVIII.

And Xenogears. Like, the complete saga. None of this Xenosaga shit. The Perfect Works with the mechanics of Xenogears.

[upmagic]

X -> XII -> XIII are Square's golden age for me, personally. I wouldn't change their direction, though I'd honestly prefer an FF15 as opposed to all these XIII spin-offs.

Going by the Agnis tech demo, though, it seems Square has another worthy epic in store.

Even if you're a fan of older FFs, I find it fairly petty to demand full on remakes of them. Leave them be, they're as great as they're ever going to be, and don't need new teams going back to them out of desperation. And if anyone's noticed, it'd be counter productive to Square new strategy in exploring the genre from new angles and drawing new audiences, which has been successful so far whether anyone would like to admit that or not.

[Sir_Scud]

I would love a FF game with an advanced job system, in some similar vein to FFV. A world map that you can explore, and a memorable soundtrack. A good story with characters that I can relate/care about.

It wouldn't even matter if the combat was turn-based or some kind of action paced RPG.

[Forcedme]

Set that son of a bitch in Ivalice.

Build upon that dope-ass shit that made FFXII ballin', youknowwhatimsayin?

Give it more of a "story" and "better characters" so that people can stop bitching about the best Final Fantasy already (sheeeeeiiiit).

Fucking graphics man. (WHAT!)

Side quests. Side quests everywhere. (SHIT!)

Control your own airplane [EDIT: Shit, dawg, I mean airship, nowhatimsaying?], or your own dragon, like some other dope-ass JRPG I can name (still knowwhatimsayin?)

Give it to me fo' free, fo' reals.

[Dave-The-Rave]

Set that son of a bitch in Ivalice.

Oh God, I hope they never set foot in Ivalice again! Hate XII, Tactics..etc.

[KyleOnTheRun]

Oh God, I hope they never set foot in Ivalice again! Hate XII, Tactics..etc.

Zzzzzzz.....

Any mention of Final Fantasy XII puts me to sleep. Man, that game was a letdown.

[Forcedme]

Both of you damage my heart and trample my soul.

[Ixion]

Whether you liked FFXII or not, it did have a lot of elements that most fans can agree on.

-The proportionate open world
-The large, vibrant cities and towns
-The seamless battles
-The mature dialogue

It's mainly the passive nature of the battles and the lack of character development that divides the fanbase, and while I agree those are both flaws, I feel FFXII's strengths are so impressive that it's an overall great game.

[Sylar]

A PS1 era style one in HD..Ni No Kuni is doing it right, and proving the point that a HD World Map is possible.

yeah man, an HD version of FFVII would be a dream come true but i doubt it'll ever happen

[KyleOnTheRun]

Whether you liked FFXII or not, it did have a lot of elements that most fans can agree on.

-The proportionate open world
-The large, vibrant cities and towns
-The seamless battles
-The mature dialogue

It's mainly the passive nature of the battles and the lack of character development that divides the fanbase, and while I agree those are both flaws, I feel FFXII's strengths are so impressive that it's an overall great game.

I'll grant you all four of those points, but they aren't necessarily strong points for me. In my opinion, the mature dialogue was too wrapped up in draconian phrases and political snobbery - I couldn't identify with anyone in that game, and was distanced from its plot as a result. I also NEED a romance in my Final Fantasy games, as a primary or secondary narrative device. Not everyone shares this view, of course.

The wide open world and bustling geography were definitely strong points, though. Probably the only strong points for me.

[Fon]

Whether you liked FFXII or not, it did have a lot of elements that most fans can agree on.

-The proportionate open world
-The large, vibrant cities and towns
-The seamless battles
-The mature dialogue

It's mainly the passive nature of the battles and the lack of character development that divides the fanbase, and while I agree those are both flaws, I feel FFXII's strengths are so impressive that it's an overall great game.

RPG's to me are always about characters and stories that make an impact. This is why the majority of WRPG's don't interest me in the slightest. Final Fantasy XII, while I agree with the first three you mentioned, left very little reason to go back to.

As per the topic: This generation would have to be, XIII. If I had control over the project then I would have made substantial changes to it compared to what we got.

[HellsJester]

-Skill System something like FF9 where you unlock skills from using equipment
-Art Style something like Journey
-Battle System something like Ni No Kuni
-Have Chocobo breeding and racing something like FF7
-Back to medieval fantasy time period. Please no more dark gritty cities and industry
-Seamless explorable world with no random battles. If you see an enemy you can either choose to fight or avoid it
-Completely optional sidequests (example - you wont be forced to do them to get a special item you cant get anywhere else etc)
-Interesting cast of characters that have character development so i actually care about them

[Forcedme]

Step 1: Buy a copy of Ni No Kuni.

Step 2: Buy some white-out.

Step 3: Plaster the white-out over 'Ni No Kuni.' You can leave "Wrath of the White Witch" or erase it as well.

Step 4: Uncap a permanent black marker.

Step 5: Write "Final Fantasy XV" over the white-out

Step 6: Enjoy

[Hayzoo5]

One that trains people to use an anti-oppression framework.

[Ixion]

In my opinion, the mature dialogue was too wrapped up in draconian phrases and political snobbery - I couldn't identify with anyone in that game, and was distanced from its plot as a result.

I wouldn't say that's an inherent problem with the dialogue though. The game just didn't spend much time on the characters. The creators wanted the story to be 'event-based' rather than 'character-based'. Obviously a lot of people didn't like that decision.

[Peter von Frosta]

-Completely optional sidequests (example - you wont be forced to do them to get a special item you cant get anywhere else etc)

That makes no sense because then you'd have no incentive to actually do all the sidequests. Having sidequests only for the sake of completionist trophies is boring.
Sidequests should give you ultimate weapons and armors and additional characters like Vincent in FFVII. They should expand the experience of the game. While you aren't really required to do any of them in FFVII it expands the universe of the game.

This is how you do it!


And regarding to FFXII. Yes the gameplay mechanics are there, but I hated Vaan. It wasn't necessarily the dialog itself, but blasting out "I'm Vaan jerkface of baka-town, I want to be a space pirate!" was just annoying. Even if there wasn't much character development I still could have enjoyed the story, but I found it just uninteresting. The pacing wasn't good.

That said, I still plan to revisit the game soon. Probably in March. I need to setup PCSX2 properly until then

[darksora]

Final Fantasy I would love to see:

- World Map (with vehicles like airships unlocked as you progress in game)
- secret locations found in the world map (from villages to dungeons etc)
- Optional boss fights
- Optional party members (like Vincent, Yuffie, Quina)
- Mini games (chocobo related stuff, golden saucer styled)
- A game within a game, which is popular throughout world like Tetra Master card game (ff9) and Blitzball (ffx)
- Villages, cities etc
- Side quests (monster hunts, NPC help, collection)
- Epic character exclusive weapons that are obtained through a separate quest line tied to that character
- Interesting varied dungeons/ fields (ff9 is a good example of dungeons or areas that were different in gameplay)
- A true villain (Kefka, sephiroth, Kuja etc). haven't had a great villain this gen or last gen :/

[AaronSOLDIER]

I'd want ff5 it had a great story.

Yeah and ExDeath is underrated. They should remake it with 2D HD sprites and put it on PSN.

[Venger]

If I had total freedom to work with a Square Enix property and the budget and dev team to do whatever I wanted I wouldn't make a Final Fantasy game. I'd either make a modern expanded Chrono Trigger or a modern remake of Xenogears. I'd probably drop the turn by turn combat system and go for something more like an advanced version of the Kingdom Hearts real time combat system, but allow you to rapidly swap between characters. A final fantasy title, something more in the style of 6, 7 or 8 would be next on the list after those two.

Chrono Trigger with a similar anime like take to Ni No Kuni, with KH style battles, with a modern team combo system, character models that changed with equipment, add side quests, something of a more open world concept, with more time travel needed to solve problems, the multiple endings.