Final what? - May 27, 2000 - Jeremy Steimel
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of
the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There
is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. It's never pretty when out-of-work Protoss are forced into the private sector. Don't say we didn't warn you.
It's always a lovely feeling when you log on to something like a letters column expecting to see witty commentary by one of your favorite web authors, just to see a new face instead. With that said, AK obviously couldn't make it tonight. Last we had heard he was scoping out the scene of a Dallas mall, claiming to be from various boy bands. Unfortunately, things went bad when he started drawing more attention from biker-gang drag queens than actual girls, and we've yet to hear from him since. Upon arriving at the scene for investigation, all our agents were able to find was a crumpled piece of paper with the cryptic message "The column..must go on..", so I'll do my best to keep you all entertained in his absence. And rest assured, we're using every resource available in the GIA's geosynchronous satellite to track down Mr. Kaufmann and expect him to show up before long.
| Getting the ball rolling... (in the Final Fantasy direction) |
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Hey there
Maybe I'm just getting a bit hopeful, but I have some pretty high hopes for
Final Fantasy: The Movie. The script would have to be good to get so many
famous actors and actresses in it, because while they've done bad movies
before, even a decent video game movie can kill an actors career, much less a
bad one. And the fact that it's CG doesn't help much besides making it look
gimmicy to the rest of the industry. So the video game and CG things mean
that after all the scripts Donald Sutherland has read in his many years of
acting, this has to be one of the best. Or everything above could be wrong,
and it'll just turn out that Square, being the worlds biggest 3rd party
developer, had quite a few million to blow, and decided that it might be
funny to make the Alec Baldwin and Ving Rhames 1 dimensional B movie stars
that Rutger Haur and Christopher Walken are now, only earler in their careers.
Gilbert
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While I'm hoping that the Final Fantasy movie will succeed just as much as anyone else, I really don't think the roster of actors and actresses guarantees an amazing script. While a movie flopping can often damage and actor / actresses' career, I'm pretty sure that'd be limited to live-action films. Voice actors don't suffer much of a blow when a movie goes bad, due to no one really making an association with that person to the movie. While there are a few exceptions (almost anyone can tell you that James Earl Jones did Darth Vader's voice), you'd be hard pressed to find someone who could tell you the voices behind the most recent animated film to have flopped. However, when it comes to live action movies, it's much easier to associate a face as a failure to a certain movie (I.E. any project done by Kevin Costner in the last five years and the corresponding movie title).
| The BadAss debate continues. |
| Clearly the shirt is more
than just a mere garment.
As for the Snake vs Riot debate, I'm gonna have to go with Solid too. If
this were purely a question of who could take who in a fight I might be
inclined to vote for Ashley, but as this is a contest for biggest
badass...I think Snake has a clear advantage.
Then again I haven't played Vagrant Story yet so what do I know. Eh heh.
~Ian P.
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| And opinion #2... |
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AK;
Ashley Riot is more of a badass, because he does more of the gritty work.
Super NES Fan
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For reasons beyond keeping our contract with Ian in tact, I'm going to have to agree that Snake gets my vote for biggest badass. Although I won't be picking up Vagrant Story myself for another week or so, I've been exposed to plenty of Ashley Riot via the rest of the staff. While Riot does indeed seem to be tough as nails and a badass in his own right, Snake just has more edge. If Snake and Ashley were to fight, that'd be an entirely different matter. However, this is a contest for who's the bigger badass, so I have to give my vote to the contestant who would have no problem fitting in with the cast of a John Woo movie.
| Menus versus real-time, round 5000. |
| Uhm, here's my two cents on the turn based menu vs a more real time control scheme... I really only look for two things in a game: a good plot, enough difficulty not to
make me feel like the developers think I'm a moron, and great music. I can even put up with having only two out of three. The rest I pretty much tend to not care, as long
as faults aren't distracting (FFT's sub par translation does come to mind). I'd say more but I really can't seem to concentrate, what with the little sleep I'm getting trying to
play a certain game, and the fact that I just got home to find out that I finally got my CC OST, after two months of pining about it in semiweekly interludes... :)
BTW: This arch nemesis kid is starting to sound a little bit like Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, what with the mention of secret labs and giant slave robots...but
that strangely makes him almost endearing...wait, he's not supposed to be cartoony cute, but cartoony evil... oh well, at least he seems to show a promising learning
curve... but I bet that Chris already had a safe made out of special alloys, what to protect his gaming stashes, after all the threats generated in the past couple of weeks.
Evil (TM) may gain the upper hand for a while, but Good (TM) is also a pesky, annoying thing its own right, folks.
Princess Jemmy, whose only goal for now is to wait patiently for Chrono Cross to be released in August...
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There are many gaming debates where I take an "on the fence" stance. Although part of it is because I often don't feel like having to hear SSJ-animel0v3r@aol.com tell me I'm a moron because I have different views than him, I also prefer to see a variety of styles across the different games I play. When it comes to menu-driven RPGs versus real-time RPGs, I'm generally pleased with the game as long as whatever the game's developers decided to do, they did it well. Although as of late I find myself enjoying real-time battle engines a little more than turn-based, menu engines, I still enjoy menu-driven RPGs enough that I don't want to see them completely disappear.
I don't know if I would compare the Arch Nemesis situation to Dextor's Laboratory, as I haven't watched the Cartoon Network in quite some time. However, you can bet I'd sure as hell apply to the witness protection program if I had as many people wanting to be my Arch Nemesis as Chris does.
| And on that same topic... |
| Hey man, as far as Final Fantasy goes, one must remember - not all innovation leads to progress...
I do agree that something has been lost... I remember back in Final Fantasy VI... Every character had a distinct musical theme, an incredible story and past, a decent
reason for figting... And, among all things, everybody had their own special ability... Upon the transition to 3D, the style isn't entirely destroyed, but it's simply not the
same. Granted, it's not supposed to be... But still... It's more than just a longing for the "good old days"... Oh well... either way, I have no real point, and I'm probably just
restating what everybody on both sides is thinking... Anything "lost" has certainly been revamped... Which is probably better...
Pardon my ramblings.
-Falcon
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There's no denying that the PSX Final Fantasy titles are different in their basic structure from the SNES Final Fantasy titles. Call me a Square-whore all you like, but there's yet to be a game with the Final Fantasy name on it that I haven't liked (Yes, I'm fully aware of the existence of Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest). Each game had its own style, be it in the plot or gameplay, that garnered attention from fans. Perhaps that's why I'm personally looking forward to Final Fantasy IX so much now. If you read the recently posted news story on Final Fantasy IX, you may have noticed that Square seems intent on taking some of the most popular aspects from each past Final Fantasy to make Final Fantasy IX as enjoyable as possible. While nothing regarding Final Fantasy IX strikes me as being all too innovative, I really don't think that will hurt the final game too much. The pre-existing elements of the game have all received slight touch-ups, and some of the features set to return have been on many RPG fans' want lists for quite some time now (individual character classes, possible double / triple techs, et cetera).
I won't be as pretentious to come straight out and say "Final Fantasy IX *will* be an awesome game!", but the recent revelations have definitely given it high hopes for me personally.
| It wouldn't be a DA column without a numerically ordered letter. |
| Hey all!
Guess what -- I'll make this short. Moreover, I won't even mention my old
letter's lobotomization. Wow! =)
1) The MP3 players for the GBC [that I've seen] come with built in speakers.
Essentially, they're using just the screen (to show info), the buttons (to
control tracks) and possibly the processor(s) (to decode the MP3s) -- the sound
chip of the GBC is the same as the GB's and both are fairly crappy.
2) The only FF I ever really cared for [read: danced about and praised over and
over] was FFIVj/IIe. What's wrong with me? Or is something wrong with everyone
else?
3) I'd wager you spend your time leveling up a heck of a lot in RPGs, if you've
come this far without seeing "any menu-based traditional RPG... that requires
real thought in non-boss battles." If you mean by "real thought" anything more
than simply attacking like mad and healing once in a while, I wonder if you've
ever played Chrono Trigger and used the positional abilites of most characters?
Or visited Alefgard in DQ/DWIII before you got to level 20 (heck, level 25) and
fought some quite difficult random battles (Goopis with Stonemen, etc)? True,
games like Suikoden or the FF series hardly require you to do more than button
mash your way to victory, but how the heck are you going to control a 3-6
character party *by yourself* in a real-time environment (or by setting the
other characters to AI mode -- ouch!)?
I said I'd keep this short, and it does seem to be under your word limit. Pretty
nifty, huh?
--(e)magius
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1) The idea of a portable MP3 player just doesn't interest me, mainly because almost all of my music is on original CDs. Beyond that, I really don't see a need to situate every portable entertainment source around my Game Boy Color. I have my GBC for the purposes of gaming -- I'm really not all that interested to see how poorly its processor can decode MP3s.
2) Everyone has their distinct tastes in gaming, and far be it for me to consider someone weird just because I don't agree with them. As good ol' Abe Lincoln said: "You can please some people all the time, and you can sometimes please everyone for a short amount of time. However, it is completely unrealistic to attempt to please everyone all of the time." Nothing will ever be universally liked, the gaming community is far too diversed for that to happen.
3) Although that comparison was geared towards Chris, I'll have to say I agree with you. Although I haven't had it happen in a few years, I used to be horrible about rushing through RPGs, and therefore being on an extremely low level. I'd generally become so addicted to some games' stories, that I wouldn't have the patience to build levels, as I'd be burning to see what was around the next corner. Unfortunately, this makes for sticky situations, such as trying to finish Lufia on level 30.
| This is why you don't go to online retailers for the latest news. |
| I was a little bored so I went to EBWorld.com and did a search for all RPG's
for the PlayStation. First thing I found was that the search also included
the PS2 for some reason. I brushed this aside and went down the list to
discover that you can pre-order Final Fantasy X and XI but not IX...and X and
XI both come out on 11/2/00. Now...This seems really messed up. For one
thing, why list X and XI ahead of IX not to mention the fact that I'm pretty
sure that they don't come out until after 11/2 in Japan...
I'm rambling again so I guess I should shut up...
-JWH
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We actually ran across the Final Fantasy X / XI release dates ourselves a few days ago, and fear not, we had a good laugh at EBWorld's expense. Okay, the laughing wasn't aimed at the release dates themselves, but instead the ludicrous box art they posted for Final Fantasy X. However, don't get your hopes up with the release dates themselves, as they're just filler-dates for EBWorld to post as an excuse to start accepting preorders.
| It's always the underdog. |
| Hey Jer,
Something of interest - I was staging a brawl between my FF and MGS action figures the other day, when I noticed that the Ninja's sword fit into Aeris' hands perfectly.
Needless to say, she was quick to take advantage of the situation and proceeded to mop the floor with her opponents, and even some of her comrades. Selphie's hair will
never be the same.
-Toaster Thief
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If only you were allowed write-ins for the BadAss competition, I would gladly buy into this scenario. Sure, Snake may be more rough-cut than a rusty razor, and Ashley may be able to kick titanic proportions of butt, but here we have an innocent looking girl who goes from selling flowers one minute to aiding the summoning of earth-destroying meteors the next. Hardly the kind of girl who's bad side I'd want on.
| "The Golden Age of gaming is 12" |
| Ayo,
For a seven year period, I spent a good amount of time playing video games. Then, I played Xenogears. For the past two years, my interest in video games has spiraled down to a
near-contempt for the form of entertainment. However, with so many games coming in the next few years, not to mention the Dreamcast and upcoming PS2, I think I'd be missing out on
some memorable experiences by not getting back into playing. Is there any one game (among those that the GIA is covering or would cover) that out now or that will be out soon that
might act as a sort of representative of all new games coming out soon? I will probably only get one game, if any, in the next year or two, so make it good. =)
-rlg
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To suggest just one game over the course of two years is indeed a daunting task, and truth be told, I have no real answer. A few immediate suggestions come to mind, such as Chrono Cross, which I loved to death, or Final Fantasy IX which I happen to feel is looking excellent. However, those are games that aren't all that far off. There's no telling how some future PlayStation 2 or Dreamcast titles may turn out, although I'd feel like a gaming sinner if I didn't tell someone to keep their eyes on Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty. My best advice would be to just keep a watchful eye out on the previews and reviews that will be popping up on the site over the next year in your spare time, and try to make an assumption from that.
| Your guess is as good as mine. |
| Dear Jeremy,
I've been thinking about Final Fantasy 8, and I have to say that I find
a certain aspect of its gameplay profoundly disturbing. Square has
repeatedly refused to comment, but as a concerned citizen, I feel that I
must take a stand on the issue of item collecting in RPGs and the
negative effect it has on our world's best and brightest.
It's true that RPGs have long had a practice of leaving plenty of side
entertainment for the slightly-to-majorly anal retentive portions of the
audience, but FF8 took this trend to new extremes by making available a
more massive assortment of random monster apendages, machinery parts,
small bright shiny things, and materials that could be used to make
birds' nests than has ever been seen in a game before.
This raises some important social issues. For starters, can you IMAGINE
what these peoples' houses must look like? Once the heroes get done
saving the world, they can forget about inviting company over; they'd
have to relocate a small mountain first. And the addiction of collecting
this stash will prevent them from just selling all the junk off. I can
already imagine the excuses; "Who knows when I might need to change my
gunblade back to a basic revolver?" "Don't pitch those! What would I do
if I suddenly needed to refine 300 float spells?"
if I suddenly needed to refine 300 float spells?"
The actual habits of grabbing trinkets wouldn't die easily, either, and
many of our saviors would find themselves inadvertantly snatching pens,
pencils, plastic forks, wet-naps, ketchup packets, hotel soap, tea bags,
and salt shakers. Kleptomania and packratism are very real threats, and
they can turn today's triumphant heroes into tomorrow's social outcasts.
So next time you're playing back through FF8 and you start thinking
about maybe keeping all those fish scales "just in case," please think
about how your actions will affect the morals of protagonists
everywhere, and... do the right thing.
Paid for by the RPG ad council.
~GameCat
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Sometimes there's just nothing more someone can say to add to the profound ingenious of someone's thoughts. This, my friends, is one of those times. As Chris would say, Onward.
| And last, my long winded reply for the day. |
| Jeremy,
When the PlayStation 2 was first announced, I was ecstatic. Although I
didn't get my PSX until a few years into its life, I've been very happy
with the system and looked forwards to the next generation machine.
My enthusiasm has dwindled lately, however. None of the launch titles
have grabbed my attention, and the games that I would be interested, like
Final Fantasy X and XI, are all more than a year away. I'm sure I'll get
a PlayStation 2 eventually, but at this point, I'm not going to be getting
one at launch. In addition, I find myself looking forwards to Final Fantasy
IX more than the later games; I'm not really looking forwards to Final
Fantasy moving to an online format.
What are your thoughts about the PlayStation 2, and the future of Final
Fantasy and other RPGs? Do you think the trend towards on-line gaming is
inevitable, or will single player RPGs always find a market?
Brian Sebby
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The sentiment of dissapointment over the PlayStation 2 launch is fairly common right now. I personally doubt I'll purchase a system at launch, because quite frankly, I feel that the fall 2000 PSX lineup blows away the fall 2000 PSX2 lineup. There are a few PlayStation 2 launch titles that I hope to play eventually -- Tekken Tag Tournament, Armored Core 2, Kessen, and The Bouncer all come to mind. However, none of those have me giddy enough to put down a $300 payment to be able to play them. Of course, I've never been a launch fanatic. I didn't get my PSX until Wild Arms was ready to be released, and I didn't get a Dreamcast until this April. As many other people have stated, my software anticipation for the PlayStation 2 starts in 2001, with games such as Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2. Despite whether or not I decide to get a PlayStaton 2 at launch, you can be damned sure I'll have one in time for those titles.
As for the future of the Final Fantasy series and console RPGs as a whole, I think the next year and a half will be crucial in deciding which direction companies will take their games in. I'm personally looking forward to see what Square does with Final Fantasy X, due to it being the first 3D exploration Final Fantasy. However, Final Fantasy XI has yet to capture my interest, although I've never been an online RPG fan. Although many people still insist that Square will do something revolutionary with Final Fantasy XI, I can't help but recall numerous statements by Square officials saying that Final Fantasy XI is being molded after EverQuest.
As for where the market will go, your guess is as good as mine. I make no claims to be an industry analyst, and I personally don't believe the current market is all that predictable. However, I do believe that, as I said before, that direction will ultimately be decided over the next year and a half. A very strong set of "traditional" RPGs are slated for release, as well are a group of big-name online console RPGs. However the sales charts turn out, developers will look to that to decide if they should take a single focus, or continue making a balance of single player and multi player RPGs.
Closing Comments:
Well now, I'll have to admit I really enjoyed taking a spin at the letters position. If anyone feels inclined to flame / comment on any of my replies, I'm always reachable at Jeremy@thegia.com. For tomorrow, everyone's favorite Big Lick is set to pinch-hit while we continue our efforts to locate Andrew. Email him, or else. Until next time,
-Jeremy Steimel |
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