In this month's "Play Magazine" The J'accuse column has been handled by Alex Kidd, who has used it as a forum through which he takes a huge stab at role-playing games and, in particular, the most illustrious of them all... Final Fantasy. He insists that the games never require the player to do much, and that the stories don't offer anything that a "run-of-the-mill Disney movie couldn't" but take 60 horrible hours to unfold. He also claims that, while the worlds are vast, nobody should care because there is never much you can do in these worlds other then a few shallow side quests or reading some hollow, repetitive responses from uniteresting townspeople. He also takes a chunk out of random battles, saying that if any video game out there constantly revists the same thing (i.e. battle after battle after battle) then its a result of "lazy and unimaginative" programming.

He also comments on the "turn based" battle systems used throughout the series, claiming its an outdated game mechanic that is so arrogant it just refuses to keep up with the times. Also, though he admits a huge flurry will immerse gamers worldwide, the Final Fantasy XIII series is a pointless buy because we would have already experienced every plot element and playing point in a previous Final Fantasy. The article also shows two screencaps from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantay XII; the first of which was captioned with "The best of the lot, and still one big lump of lame" and the latter of which was captioned with "The latest in the series is a classic example of the laziness that plagues the series".

So, what do you think of that? He certainly has one big chip on his shoulder doesn't he?

Wheres my pitchfork - it's angry mob time!

I see where this guys coming from but the elements he slates make Final Fantasy what it is, the turn-based battle system was a vast improvement from the active-time battle based system. The plots are like films I suppose it's all a small build up to the climax at the end, even films get good reviews. The shallow sidequests are not meant to be time-consuming frustrating events but fun little side-tracks to the main quest. I do agree with the dull villagers though, although they have cleared that up a bit in the later FF's.

Many people enjoy turnbased it's not 'outdated' Xenosaga still uses turn based.I will agree the townspeople and side quests are uninteresting but what do you expect they are NPCs.

The guy is a total moron.

*torch and pitchfork*

It's not like the guy didn't have some valid points, even if he did mostly talk out his ass.

Final Fantasy isn't the best out there, but it isn't nearly as bad as he depicted it.

That's all well and good, but he still makes a valid point about the series stagnating and relying on people wanting more of the same instead of pushing the envelope to make something fresh and expand its audience.

True, he did. But, would you not consider X-2 a step in the right direction. Sure, it wasn't radically different, in terms of the core of the game. But the battle system, was a significant step-foward and was totally refreshing and unique, at least compared to previous titles anyway.

I was under the impression that FFXII is quite different to the previous installments in the series, or at least in the areas he described as weak like the turn based battle system and random encounters.

Of course I'm going to have to play it before I can make any judgements on this..

EDIT: Also, wtf @ calling FFVII the best game in the series (ok, I know I shouldn't really be surprised by this but still).

Half of what he says is truth, and the other half is him talking out of his ass. Especially him calling FF7 the best in the series.

No FF XII he said the best in the series FFVII was the lump of fame.

The article also shows two screencaps from Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantay XII; the first of which was captioned with "The best of the lot, and still one big lump of lame" and the latter of which was captioned with "The latest in the series is a classic example of the laziness that plagues the series".

Pretty clear that it was referring to FFVII, which I would wager this guy never played or he definitely would not have called it the best of the lot.

No but he said still but he couldn't have meant XII becuase it has just came out in sme cases not even yet. Plus with the raping of FFVII's story really make me think it is the lump of fame that was great... when it first came out.

He also comments on the "turn based" battle systems used throughout the series, claiming its an outdated game mechanic that is so arrogant it just refuses to keep up with the times

I hate it when people say that. I hate it even more when they say that they hate it because a turn based system lacks interaction and realism. I would like to see his personal top 10 of games. Probably full of first person shooters and action games. So 'tactical' RPG's ain't his thing, just let it be. Who said the game was made for him anyway.

The turn-based mechanic is outdated though. You'd be silly to think otherwise. It was originally used because such games ripped their mechanics out of pen & paper RPGs and there really wasn't a better way to do it at the time. Many games these days completely eschew those mechanics since gaming technology has progressed far enough to phase it out.

It's a rather common fact that turn-based gameplay is not as fast-paced as other systems and has other limitations that western RPGs are quickly escaping. Even when turn-based systems are used in western games, it is usually a fluid process such as is found in games like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, etc.

True the turn-based is not as fast-paced as as Real-time, it's more along the lines of tactical strategy, plus people are doing many new things to turn-based like active-time battle and intertwined turns * instead of everyone in the party attacking as soon as it's your turn the turns are arranged by your characters speed. Not to mention the different vaiation of battle styles it's not like it's ALL the same.

Everything you described there is a standard and entirely outdated mechanic. There is nothing more tactical in that type of system than there is in a faster-paced system. Other games have far less downtime, however, so their system is superior. Take KOTOR, for example, which has at least as many combat actions as a Final Fantasy game, but manages to integrate them seamlessly into the flow of battle without requiring you to take time out to choose from an unintuitive menu or wait for your next turn to arrive and then lose time while you make your selection.

Such a system is obviously superior and effectively demonstrates the flaws of the Final Fantasy series.

The turn-based mechanic is outdated though. You'd be silly to think otherwise. It was originally used because such games ripped their mechanics out of pen & paper RPGs and there really wasn't a better way to do it at the time. Many games these days completely eschew those mechanics since gaming technology has progressed far enough to phase it out.

It's a rather common fact that turn-based gameplay is not as fast-paced as other systems and has other limitations that western RPGs are quickly escaping. Even when turn-based systems are used in western games, it is usually a fluid process such as is found in games like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, etc.



Just because it's old doesn't mean that it's outdated. I don't think a genre will ever be outdated unless it loses it's fanbase. Yes, technology has given us the chance to build a real-time more complex mechanics but the question is: should we let technology lead us in such matters? I think not. Now a days it's possible to make 3D beat em up's instead of 2D. But still there are a lot of people who like and prefer 2D fighting games like Street Fighter and Guilty Gear. Although there movement is restricted to 2 dimensions and we have been bashing the same buttons for years now, it's still appealing to a lot. Plus we've seen inovations within 2D fighting that never could be implemented in 3D.

Like?

That's a rather poor comparison. There is nothing fundamentally inferior about a 2D fighting game vs a 3D fighting game because they still provide a similar experience either way. In contrast, games such as the Final Fantasy series have much slower battles than western RPGs. They tend to be less engaging and less intuitive with more downtime between moves. To argue their equivalence is downright silly.

I figure you're only standing in defense of turn-based systems because you like games that use them. However, if you look at the gaming industry objectively, it is obvious that those games are inferior. Instead of thinking about how much you like those games as they are, consider how they would be with an updated battle system where a certain type of move is performed automatically so you have no downtime, but can be interrupted in favor of a different move you select ahead of time by placing in a queue. If that doesn't put things in perspective for you, I have no idea what could.

I've imagined FF9 with Tales of Eternia's E-LMB and I was like woah that would be fucking awesome.

I cannot lie I actually would like to see a real-time FF but that is what gives FF it's flare, still providing good games when new game mechanics should make it obsolete.

...still providing good games...

That is pretty debateable.

Not to mention totally side-stepping the issue at hand. We're discussing how the series could be improved, not how the games are already.

The main character needs get laid! Main character needs get laid. They don't have to show it, even. They just have proof that it happened. Of course it is implied that Cloud and Tifa might've done it, but not much going for it(And if you take the right side trips, it's implied that he ends up in the middle of a homo-orgy... first time I ever saw a fag in a fantasy rpg, and it was a whole room of them, getting jiggy in same tub Cloud was in. I laughed my ass off.)

The guy is a total moron.