If you haven't yet done so, read Tony Patino's Deep Thought. Now. Then come back. Okay? Good. Now on with the show. | Opposing views | The response to the new Final Fantasy drawings, what little I'veheard, has been universally positive. Time for the other side, I think. I sincerely hope that these illustrations do not become the basisfor Final Fantasy IX. This would represent a huge step backward for theseries, which has recently redefined the standards for storytelling inRPG's. To me, the expression 'the Final Fantasies of yore' representsa group of cardboard cutout heroes killing an evil man and a big uglymonster. 'Cuz it's their job, dammit. Even the even-numbered,story-based Final Fantasies were like this. The last two FF games (6and 7) broke this mold, and were much better for it. As for those who prefer this type of story, I have just one thing tosay: You can find these games anywhere. Hell, just look at WorkingDesigns. There's a whole company dedicated to translating the videogameequivalent of 'Shiny, Happy People.' Games like the last two FinalFantasies, which examine the weaknesses of their characters, are few andfar between. Buy the games you want, but leave ours alone. This isalso directed towards the people at Square, if any of them arelistening. Which I doubt. What's your opinion on this, by the way? Do you want the next FinalFantasy to be a throwback, or a continuation of the current trend? I am, of course, assuming that the visual style reflects the writingstyle in a fairly logical way. Serious stories come off best withrealistic characters, and vice versa. |
I don't believe that the gameplay or plot will suffer due to a change in setting. Still, I'm one of the few people that actively enjoyed the change of pace that the high-tech FFs offered. I really, really dug the whole steampunk thing they had going in FF7. FF8's a little less interesting to me, setting-wise, but I do like the tech approach. So I look on the potential retro look with more regret than anything else. I can only hope that we'll see another RPG from Square that picks up where FF8 left off in terms of tone. I'm not going to bitch and moan for eons about a change in tone, if those pictures indeed prove to be real. I'll just be wistful. | Workingdesigns.com and Link smacking | I noticed a while back that you mentioned in your column that you have a username at the WD message board, and I saw one post by you there. I also haven't seen a post by you since. What's with that? Sure it's a troll magnet and debates tend to start extremely easily and last for days, but on the other hand, it also has plenty of intelligent posters, very little to none of the"d00d" crap you see on most message boards, the president of WD visits the message board and accepts input and questions about his games, etc. So I ask again: why don't you visit it? Locke828 Link Doesn't this picture make anyone else want to put some clothes on Link and then smack his fully-castrated, smug ass around a few times? I don't mean like actually hitting his ass, though, that'd be nasty. |
I read the WD message board regularly. I just don't have the time or the mental energy to be a terrible productive or useful/amusing contributor. Better to lurk, in my view, than just spray a whole load of lame-ass posts on a perfectly good discussion forum. | Death to hobbits in FF9? Huh? | Ahem, As of 11:58, Friday May 28th I Owen Humphreys shall turn another year older. YAY! Anyway, all self promotion aside let's talk about...Hobbits and FF9. People Hobbits are VERY bad people. The Webster's define Hobbit's as: "a member of a fictitious peaceful and genial race of small humanlike creatures that dwell underground". MY Defineation? Furry footed bastards that wanna steal your stuff. Let's look at the Lord Of the Rings series, What do the Hobbits do in there? They walk around pissing their pants, getting captured by orcs, stabbed by Nazgul, almost getting Gandalf killed, naming a pony Bill, getting drunk and dancing on a table, and they're made out as heroes for dropping a frickin ring in a volcano.Hobbits are good for nothing, and they're like 3 feet high which means they can low blow you much easier. Also the punks are rude by inviting 144 people to a party because THEY'RE turning 144. And They go by 12, proof they're freaks. And now Square plans on having them be the stars of FF9? THAT world is screwed out the ass! They'll be frying up 144 chocobos, and meeting strange ass guys like Tom Bombaldi. The FF series only hope is that it isn't titled FF9, either that or they kill all the Hobbits and use their bodies as lawn ornaments (or Target Practice). DEATH TO HOBBITS! -Owen Humphreys P.S. IT'S COMING WITHIN 2 MONTHS! WHAT? If I told you ahead of time, you'd have to be beaten and turned into a lawn ornament. |
Um, er, what the hell are you talking about? We've seen no evidence of hobbits in FF9, even if you take the pictures we posted totally at face value. What we've seen are a bunch of pictures of super-deformed characters, in traditional RPG style. There's nothing, in art or accompanying text, that would indicate that FF9 is about hobbits. Put down the pitchfork. Everything is cool. | Still lovin the nicknames | Yo man, give Drew a smack upside the skull with a fryin' pan! That nickname generator is freakin' great, 'specially for us easily disracted type! I spent, like, forty minutes hitting the button and having a laugh. Drew is cool now. What a genius invention that thing is. I'm gonna bookmark it! Signed (*Snicker snicker*) "A fat promise who grew up in your mom" See what I mean!? Completly randomized too!! That was great! Now your line is: "Glad you enjoyed it. Watch for more mindless wastes of time coming soon." or something. |
Not one to be outdone, I plan on unveiling a Random Gay Porn Generator tomorrow, which will randomly toss up a picture of a lusty-looking man fondling his massive cock every time you click on the animated gif of a cracking whip. Fans of the Zelda picture should love it. | Banner seeking | Double Agent Man, "Um, the banners are on each and every page, right under the masthead.They're the only animated part of the page, so I'm a little lost on howyou failed to notice them, honestly." I'll just say this. If you have your browser configured in a certainway, which I always have by default, you will never, EVER, see thebanners. I won't tell you exactly how, but not everyone is seeing thebanners. It's not that I was trying not to see them. I know you get $$$for them and it pays for the site. It's just I'm not gonna change mybrowser's default settings specifically to see them. -The Bad Guy |
If you have Javascript disabled in your browser setup, or have a browser that doesn't use Java at all, you won't see the banners. And you will be almost as bad a person as The Bad Guy, here. Bastard. Never clicking banners, never sending child support checks... | Underdogs | I was thoroughly impressed by Tony Patino's essay on Collective Mediocrity (although I wasn't too impressed with the typographical errors). I thoroughly agree that the large influence of other people and games unfairly bury and overshadow other quality games. For myself, what it all comes down to is that I stick with what I like, not what someone else thinks I should like. I'm not afraid to speak out that I think Final Fantasy VII was far from great, or that I think that Poy Poy is one of the best games Konami has ever produced. For a rather broad example, I think it's rather unfair that RPG's that don't have Square's name on them already have a sort of strike against them. Reviewers constantly compare new games to month-old or classic Square games, which is absurd. Not absurd because they shouldn't be making the comparison, but absurd because they seem to think that everything that comes from Square's developmental offices is gold (Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy VII, and more recently Erghiez are definitely not the best Square has done). Seeing as I have no idea of where to go next and I'm already in a deep hole--I'll stop my bickering. But you see what I mean, right? People (as a whole) are stupid and gullible... Another well-written letter from HypeSpider. And if this gets posted, please give me some feedback at HypeSpider@aol.com. |
But, er, what if someone genuinely thought FF7 was a great game? That makes them stupid and gullible, by default? I'm no RPG moron, and damnit, I enjoyed FF7. I played it again recently, and I still like it. It's not the perfect game, I don't hold it as the pinnacle of RPG achievement, but it's the closest thing to an RPG benchmark we're likely to ever see. It was a public and critical success, and is therefore prime material for citation in reviews and articles. 90% of the reviews of it published in major magazines were very positive. Like it or not, FF7 is a more widely recognized and acknowledged success than Poy Poy, or Persona, or what have you. Does this perpetuate the problem? Yes it does. But something's got to be a benchmark, a reference point. And Square's earned enough acclaim that, in the RPG genre, they ARE the benchmark against which all other games are measured. It used to be Dragon Warrior, now it's Final Fantasy. In time, hell, Lufia might end up as the RPG against which all others are compared. | The future of 2D gaming | 'Ey DA or Seb or the occasional Reb, or whatever you wish to be called, What's up, haven't wrote in in awhile. I just thought I'd write into say hey, and Comment on something I thought I'd never see. As most people know, the days of 2d gaming seemed dead, especiallywith these 128 bit systems on their way. Squaresoft had seemed to havebeen leading the pack awhile back, trying to stay on the top of things,with the latest in high tech graphics. But now they have three 2d gamescoming out, and Im mighty thrilled at that. Now, I know you're thinking"Is there a point to this or is he just rambling again...". Believe itor not, there IS a point. Im curious, what's the DA's opinion on thefuture of 2d gaming? If any software company has the guts to release a2d game for psx2, imagine the possibilities. of course, Sony would haveto pass the game through quality control and not consider it inferior.Do you think the 128 bit systems spell the end of 2d? Scared at the thought, LC3 |
Very possibly. I'm a pessimist, so take this with a grain of salt, but in an industry whose lifeblood is technological advancement, sprite manipulation is really going to drop down on developer priorities when the capabilities of on-the-spot polygonal rendering grow more advanced. They may continue to some extent for another gaming generation or so, but in much smaller quantities, and it may disappear by the time of the PSX3 or what have you. | No more gay porn? | Mind if I respond to a few of the topics that have been raised recently? Hi! I'm a female fan artist that likes to draw half-naked males. However, Idon't draw naked video game characters (very often ^_^;).. why? Because youcan't recognize most game characters without their outfits. I don't have aproblem with naked game characters, I just think it's not .. interesting.When I draw a video game character, it's not only because I like his or herpersonality, it's also because I like their character design (which usuallyincludes a specific, unique outfit). ... Like I said, I have no problem with nude game characters if that'swhat artists want to draw, but I admit I'd probably be whining too if I sawlots of racy pictures of video game girls in Sketch Artist. However, ifthat's the only thing you guys are peeved about (equal time for nakedgirls), the fact is there are many more racy pictures of game girls thangame guys out there on the web. Sadly. ^^; The 7th Saga! You just can't stop talking about that game. ^_^ I liked it!... Sure, it wasn't great, but it came out during a time when my friend (whoacutally owned the game) and I were desperate for RPGs. We both becamehopelessly addicted to RPGs after FF2, and seeing as they weren't exactly inabundance in pre-FF7 days, we managed to play through that plotless wonder.The funny thing is, we sort of invented personalities for the characterssince they came with none. ^^ My friend's party was made up of Lejes andValsu (the demon and the priest). So we would imagine them fighting all thetime, and drew little comics of them hitting each other. ^_^ I guess it'snot really a defense of 7th Saga; more like proof that you can have fun withany old RPG if you try hard enough. ..and about the "Collective Mediocrity" thing. I think that Mr. Patino mightcome off across as a little arrogant when he says that "(the majority) donot like or appreciate ideas of exceptional quality". I think if averagegamers would like these games, if they were aware of what they have tooffer. Persona was one of my favorite games of all time. The plot goes into issuesof psychology, religion, and philosophy without being blatant about it(however, I also loved Xenogears, which was *very* obvious about itspsychological and mythological influences ^^;). I was able to convince myfriend that Persona was a great game too, even though she also has othervery 'mainstream' interests. I do know people who are indifferent to it, butI've met nobody who really hates it - telling me that they just didn't giveit a fair shot, and were turned off early on by it's weirdness (it is a*very* Japanese game) and slower pace. As for the other games mentioned.. Ireally wanted to like Ogre Battle, but it was just too difficult (one ofthese days I'll really give it a try). Soul Hackers.. well, it's inJapanese, and I'm afraid I'll never get a chance to play it. Sadness. bye! ~Vera |
... yeah, this one pretty much speaks for itself. I've just got to say, though, that 7th Saga is not devoid of possibility. Quite the contrary. I had a hell of a lot of fun creating lives for the characters in it in the fanfic I did. But it's MY creation, not the game's, and that's why I can write the fanfic, like it, and still say the game sucks sour frog ass. | 7th Saga | Double Agent, I would just like to know if their is going to be a sequel to 7th Sagawhich I think was the best RPG on the SNES. The Final Fantasy games can't even hope to be compared with thatmasterpiece that revolutinized the genre. Also why is this great game not in the vault. The hairless Donkey Kong and his funkyfresh rapgroup from the city of SouthCentral |
.... ookay. Anyhow, there is already a sequel to 7th Saga in Japan for Super Famicom. It was entitled Mystic Ark, and was pretty good, from what I played. Similar in style, but a lot smoother and more original. I wrote up a Vault of 7th Saga, but it was rejected for publication on the basis that half the words in it were "SHIT". I don't know why. I thought it was a balanced look at the game, in all its glory. Exactly what it deserves... | Firing techtalk | allan, you took the cheap way out, tomodachi. if you thought about it,the way barret uses his gun-arm would be obvious! seeing as how theweapons he uses attaches to a bio-mechanical device, i.e. cyborg parts,it is feasible that there are neural connections between the device andhis brain. whether or not he made it himself or it was a custom job, idon't remember the dialog too well. anyway, the chain gun-type he starts with operates, one would think, inthe same way barret used to open and close his hand. electric impulsesand conscious thought equals an L.A. shooing range! only two thingsbother me; where the ammo comes from, and why does every weaponry sellattachments. unless these operations are common ( doubtful ) juno reactor |
Okay. You win. Closing Comments FLOIGAN BROTHERS FOREVER! - Allan Milligan | | | |
