The Hulk said: How is another MMO a step in the right direction, in any way? That's not me being shitty btw, I'm genuinely curious as I never have and never will play it.
Lexx said: At the risk of proving how out of touch I've become with the FF franchise, why does everyone blame Toriyama and Kitase for the recent slump in quality?
shadowphoenix said: That was my attitude with FFXI. I decided to give FFXIV a chance and I love it. Give in a go, I think you will see why everyone is praising it so much.
Spidey said: Can you explain what makes FFXIV ARR so good? I"m not really into MMOs but I'd like to keep an open mind to try something new. But what specfically to you guys makes it so good?
shooter_mcgavin said: ^^^ this! Basically Kitase has lost it in recent years. He had a huge hand with some early gems like FFVII, FFVI, and Chrono Trigger but between then and now he kind of lost touch in making games. And even storytellying, which he seems to be a big supporter off, he's fallen off I remember he made some comments about if Final Fantasy should take a more mature rout, he said no and said (paraphrasing) that he wants to keep the franchise targeting a younger demographic and if older fans have to "deal with it". To be honest it's not really about Final Fantasy having mature themes or adolecent ones. Persona 3 (which I played only a year ago) were based around teenagers in a high school setting. I loved the characters and thought the story was great and resonated with me. It's just that FFXIII mistakes adolecent themes with annoying anime tropes and cliches. So younger characters aren't the problem it's how Final Fantasy and Square Enix tries to project and potray these characters. One example is Zell he seems to be so hyper and super excited to go into battle like a little kid waiting to play Call of Duty or entering Disneyland. He gets bummed out if he doesn't see action and wants to go fight so he can show himself off. Now I have never been to war or in the battle field but a lot of recruits I assume are in their late teens as well but I am 100% sure no young recruit going to war or battle is going to act like Zell. Ok some might want a twitch of action (as shown in the movie Jarhead) but not in the way is shown with Zell's character. Though to be fair FFVIII did keep things real with Irvine (choking under pressure) but still Zell pretty much is a perfect example in what is worng with FF's recent characterizations.
Onyx said: FFXIV ARR's quality aside. The thing with Naoki Yoshida, aka Yoshi-P, is: 1. He's a big fan of the older games in the series. Rather than try to make interactive movies or use whatever fancy new buzzwords Kitase and co. like to do, he wants to embrace what made the older FF's so well liked using new technology to its fullest. 2. He doesn't live in a bubble. He plays a LOT of games from all sorts of different developers and publishers from all over the world. He has a good sense of what makes for good game design. 3. He listens to gamers, which ties into no. 2. He cares what his games' audiences think instead of trying to tell them what they want. During XIV ARR's redesign process, he spent a lot of time interacting with games and getting a feel for what they wanted and what they hated. Basically, while Kitase and co. spend their time coming up with ideas in corporate boardrooms, Yoshida keeps it real.
