Drew,

Bear with me here. Alright, I have a response to most of the heated topics of yesterday. First off, I TOTALLY agree with you on the whole Kuja villain thing. I was in no way 'in fear' of him at all, and in my opinion, Sephiroth was the greatest villain of them all. That scene with him in front of the flames struck fear into your bones.

Next point, an RPG's graphics. I absolute love prerendered CG. Never while looking at a clump of polygons have I set down the controller, and said "wow." And until consoles are powerful enough to give that amount of detail and clarity, no RPG should be without them.

And finally, FFVIII in my opinion, is the best damn game in the series. It was for me, everything FinalFantasy stands for. It had everything. You had cutting edge visuals, the junction system actually made me pay attention to the stats, a great main character, and a epic quest, filled with adventure, love, and moral. In FFIX, I felt like the whole game was a sidequest, with no real main goal until near the end of disk 3, and then it's presented to you in an 10min or so dialogue. I really felt for Squall, and for his love for Rhoina that was deep inside him form the start. No game has moved me so close to tears, then FFVIII's ending. It made me think long after finishing it. I just didn't love the characters in FFIX enough to care a whole lot.

If FFIX has one thing going for it, it's the music, while only a few songs really shine, all of it has a whole made the game much more pleasing. It was unepic, while FFVIII effected me more than any move has. Just look at that picture of Squall where he's looking upwards into the sky, and say to yourself, "Final Fantasy." It send's shivers up my spine! It's not so much about the story itself in a game, it's wither or not it made you feel anything inside.

-The Dragon Reborn, who can't stand how much he loves FFVIII

Drew,

Anyone who thinks that graphics have any major impact on how enjoyable a game is, should be locked away. Or even story. A game doesn't have to have an uber-deep story to be a great game. Take EarthBound for example. There was nothing cutting-edge about the graphics, nor was there even anything impressive in it, graphically, but that didn't detract for it at all. The story wasn't hard to understand, either. I could understand the game completely and thoroughly at age 12. It was a fun game, and that's what's important. Something people seem to forget is that the real point of a game is to be fun, not to impress your friends, not to test your reflexes, not even to be escapism. I don't know why people feel the need to bash this game or that game for any reason. Just because you couldn't figure out that someone was being controlled by a greater evil, or because someone wasn't as psychotic as you wished they were, that doesn't mean you should totally dismiss that game as being a good game.

-Perrin

You know, it's funny. FF9 has a very nice theme, and one that, while pathetic by the standards of great literature, is rather impressive and thoughtful for a video game, at least the way video games are currently. Sure, there was a lot of extraneous crap about aliens and souls and vessels and Quina, but none of that is really central to the overall coolness of the theme; it's just a vehicle for it. This might indicate a problem with some of the big plot twists themselves, but I'm not here to talk about that. See, I love this game to death, but I'll admit it - when I saw Necron, I groaned. NOT because Square "pulled a Zeromus", as most people are complaining, but because what they did seemed so incredibly OBVIOUS. The prevailing theme of the game is death, and the way it influences life. It was handled admirably...until here. Here I was thinking, "This is an insult to the intelligence of gamers everywhere. We have this nice theme, and then Mr. Manifestation of Death Itself appears, prompts a hideously didactic conversation that would have had Kefka in tears of mirth, and proceeds to fight you and get defeated. All this is doing is beating what was pleasantly delicate into the ground with overwrought imagery.".

At least that's what I WAS thinking. Now I come to the column and see people saying, "what was that Necron thing all about?", and I wonder if maybe Square wasn't being obvious ENOUGH. Sigh.

-AJ

You remind me of Xena: Warrior Princess, Drew.

~Ian P.

Yo Drew,

Why are you so opposed to FFIX, especially since you haven't beaten it yet? It's superior to FFVIII (which you gave a 5/5) in every way. In terms of graphics, they're about the same. The music in FFIX is better, because even though it's the simple synths like FFVIII, they suit the fantasy world much better. FFIX is far superior with the characters as well. In FFVIII, each character had the same background, that defied all sense. In FFIX, they each had their own motivation, but they were connected to each other in much subtler ways. The story is much better than FFVIII's, as it didn't peak on disc two and then trudge on for another 15 hours. It was very linear, but that was good because it kept the story going.

Also, trying to defend Ulitmecia as a good villian is like trying to say that Spam is top quality meat. Kuja caused the whole story to start, by helping Brahne to take over the world. The fact that he and Zidane are almost the same makes it much deeper. I don't know why you're intent on attacking FFIX...is it because you feel bad about giving FFVIII a perfect score?

At least we can agree on one thing...nothing beats Xenogears.

--The Steve

I knew this would happen. I knew it.

FFVIII is released. 'Oh, the graphics are beautiful, but where's the story? Where's the gameplay? Bring Final Fantasy back to the old school!'

And, the people bitch.

FFIX is released. 'Oh, this is too old. This is terrible. Woe is me!'

And, the people bitch.

Both games are good to an extent. While I was not a fan of FFVIII (Good graphics and music, but the gameplay was not deep and engrossing, but fairly easy. The story was as if someone tied together a bunch of great climaxes.), I think FFIX is a meritable title. The character development was there for most of the people, but characters like Quina basically could have their background summed up in one sentance. 'Let's eat the world.'

I think people should stop whining and try to appreciate games for what they are, rather than finding something to nitpick about. There are always things to nitpick about in every title. If people would focus on the positive aspects a little bit more, people would enjoy video games more as a whole.

-Ben Breier

Since when are RPGs becoming more "watered down for the masses", as someone mentioned yesterday? Chrono Cross was far more complex than your average RPG, Vagrant Story was so full of mystery and intrigue that it would make a fantastic novel and Wild Arms 2 hammered into the player the meaning and virtues of being a "Hero". FF VIII was highly mature (and had the strongest characters in any RPG to date, IMHO), FF IX became almost painfully philosophical and FF VII was so profound that many gamers had trouble understanding the ending. Then, of course, there's Xenogears, but I don't think anyone's accusing THAT of being watered down...

What it comes down to is that "old-school" RPG fanatics remember their elementary/junior high days when they first were introduced to Chrono Trigger or FF IV and they're trying to regain that feeling. They don't understand that it's not the RPG's fault that something feels like it's missing; it's theirs. We're older, wiser and undoubtably more jaded, however nostalgia is a very powerful thing. There's nothing special that older RPGs had that newer one's don't, except for fond memories. In fact, I'm sure that some younger gamers will have the "old-school" attitude about FF IX in another five, ten years. It's just a painful, annoying cycle that the gaming community experiences as a whole and, with any luck, gamer designers will ignore it, continuing to innovate rather than replicate.

-Jason G.

P.S. Since when did Star Ocean have outstanding graphics? It looked no better than Xenogears...

...And in other subjects, here's what I gleaned from your Double Agent column today:

"Perhaps I'm just getting jaded, but with the number of excellent RPGs out there this holiday season, I was quickly side-tracked and never got around to finishing the last disc."

I haven't played FFIX yet either, but for different reasons. On my planet (Palo Alto, CA) - side-tracked means someone offered to buy my free (non-developing) time for so much money it's stupid. And everyone seems to wants to ship their crap before the fiscal year ends, et cetera.

Anyway, what are the 'excellent RPGs out there' ATM? - I would love to know, with my *copious* available game time. What with battling over FFIX in your column you seem to have neglected to tell....perhaps thegia.com could have an imperative "Play these games now!" section?

Drew,

I think you and me are in the same boat about this one. Of course there's going to be an unfair over-anylizing of any FF game, but I think it's quite clear that FFIX had its fair share of problems, mainly in the plot department. First of all, it's all been done before.

Main character who's thought to be dead and shows up right at the end in dramatic fashion? FF8. Soul going in and out of the planet and memories being passed on through generations? FF7 (and Xenogears). Summons being used to rule/destroy the world? FF6. Main character from another world? FF5. A ruler in search of crystles for power? FF4. Seeming like your world is the entire world map only to get access to the whole thing about halfway through the game? FF3. A ruler summoning forth monsters from another world? FF2.

And then there's the most obvious. FF1. You know, I was really kinda hoping that there would be some sort of solid connection between the two games when I first saw the name "Garland" flash up on the screen. There could have been some very cool things they could do with that whole 1000 year time loop thing in relation to the first FF. But it seems him and the four Chaos Guardians (they actually had the nerve to call them "Chaos" Guardians when there's no Chaos in the game) were there only so that old schoolers could say "dude" and "sweet".

On top of all this plot copy and pasting that's going on, character development for all but Zidane, Garnet, and maybe Eiko is rather slim. Steiner and Beatrix fall in love why and when exactly? Amarant is your sub-average under developed silent tough guy with a bad theme, and he's not even as useful in battle as you'd think him to be. Quina is the comic relief who's jokes get old quick. Where did the rest of his race go anyway? Freya has nice development for awhile but after she does the Riverdance, that abruptly ends. And Vivi. They left the biggest questions of the game unanswered with him. If all the other Black Mages are produced as adults and die after a year, why was Vivi different, being born as a baby and living for eight years? What happened to the rest of the aware Black Mages? And how the hell did Vivi have kids at the end? Did he start laying eggs?

But the game still had its redeeming qualities. The relationship between Zidane and Dagger was nicely done, the gameplay had a lot of variety and was quite challanging near the end, Kuja isn't as bad as you guys thing he is (after that Bahamut sequance, I really thought he was untouchable), what Zidane's real perpous was for and the fact that him and Kuja are brothers was unexpected, and the graphics, music, and charm of the game were through the roof. So FFIX is a good game, no, a great game. Twice as good as most other games. We're only being so harsh because it's a FF.

~Dr. Uzuki

i like chex mix like madonna likes dick

i like squaresoft like madonna likes dick

i like phantasy star online like madonna likes dick!!!!!!!!

-z

Hell, we all do this. The day-after, overly-intense scrutiny of what is clearly the greatest game ever made. FFIX raped. Don't try and deny it. Sephiroth was a little bitch and I hope you all die.

I can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or not...

OK Drew,

You wanted a justification to my claim that FFVIII is the worst FF ever. Prepare.

First of all, let's take for example the characters of FFVIII which is the first folly of this mockery of an RPG. Instead of relying on well developed characters as Square normally does such as Kain and Cecil, Rydia, Zidane, Vivi, Cloud, Sephiroth, Sabin, Terra, Aeris, even Butz for goodness sake, the list goes on and on, Square cheated on FFVIII. Instead of providing characters with individuality, they simply grouped them all together and said "they all grew up in the same orphanage" big frikkin' whoop! The only thing this did for Square was provide FFVIII with dull characters, all of them were grouped together because they grew up together...heh...clever.

Second of all, the battle system was terrible. Why? I'll tell you why, it was overly complex for anything the FF series has done before and it wasn't very practical, it basically makes the game longer because it forces the player to engage in random battles because there is no MP, you have to discover the amount of cures you're going to use in the game there by making the system very unattractive.

Third, Laguna's whole purpose in the game seemed so pointless. If you were to look in the instruction manual for the game you would see Squall and Laguna back to back with a little inscription that hints at some sort of key point in the game where Laguna will be majorly involved. But he turns out to be the President of Ester (or whatever it was, forgive me but I may have forgot the name) once again -- big whoop! Who cares? Presidents and Kings and Queens are commonplace in FF games, not the role of someone who seems to be such a major player in the game.

In retrospect however, FFVIII did have a few strong points, for example, the graphics and FMV sequences were without a doubt amazing but that alone can't make the game. I remember when my friend and I were playing through it and as we became increasingly less interested in the later discs of the game we both agreed that FFVIII should have been just the first disc because the game was flawless up until disc 2 where it all went downhill.

-mista tea