AGDInteractive - Sierra Adventure Game Remakes Forum

Anyone here playing this?

I've just started chapter 10 with about 28 hours playing time.

Really loving it so far but kinda come to the thought that, its an amazing game. Just not an amazing FF game. More thoughts when I'm not so tired!!

I'm not really into Final Fantasy. I keep hearing that the last great FF game was FF7 and then it just dropped. I actually don't think I've attempted a JRPG since Secret of Mana (which I never got very far in). I'm more into American fantasy RPGs like Elder Scrolls. Actually, I don't think I've played any other RPGs other than that. I'm trying to get a hold of Fallout 3, though.

I'm taking a break from Final Fantasy games. I want it, I do but I just get too addicted and school has to happen for now.

The real problem with XIII from what I've heard is that the first 25+ hours in Cocoon are way too linear. Once you gain access to Gran Pulse, the game really picks up. The game itself does take a lot of innovative chances and it deserves respect for that, I think (especially since Square-Enix said that FF would be the innovative series while DQ would remain in a classic style).

I've honestly never been a huge FF fan, though I've played most of the games in the series and enjoyed them pretty well. My personal favorites are FFIII (FFVI in Japan) for the SNES and FFXII for PS2.

I don't really understand the hype with FFVII--it was good, but it really started to drag for me after a while, whereas the other two I mentioned never seemed to. This might be because I never played FFVII in its heyday (only played through it for the first time last year and found the whole thing to be extremely clunky in light of the more recent games in the series like FFXII.) I thought FFX was alright, but vastly overrated, and with an utterly obnoxious main character (also, the final areas of FFX are extremely difficult unless you grind your characters significantly before attempting them.)

FFIII is just classic, the pinnacle of great old-school Square goodness, spiritually very similar to the exquisite and equally quintessential Chronotrigger.

I loved FFXII mostly because of all the things it did differently--no random battles, a combat system more similar to Knights of the Old Republic than traditional Final Fantasy games. And the graphics were about the best the PS2 ever did. Great characters and story, too.

I really have no interest in FFXIII at all--pretty much everything I've seen or read about the game leads me to think that I'd get very bored with it very quickly, and the J-pop music in the TV ads is an EXTREME turn-off.

Lambonius wrote:I really have no interest in FFXIII at all--pretty much everything I've seen or read about the game leads me to think that I'd get very bored with it very quickly, and the J-pop music in the TV ads is an EXTREME turn-off.

It's not J-pop unless you're in Japan, Lambonius. The Japanese vocal theme "Kimi ga Iru kara (Because You're Here)" by Sayuri Sugawara was replaced with "My Hands" by Leona Lewis, a British singer, for international releases.

Yea I'm just on chapter 10, it has been really linear but I've still really enjoyed it and the linearity makes sense for the context of the story. I think they also made it that way to appeal to newcomers to the series.

I admit, I love free roaming games and all, bit I've kind of missed linearity and am sad that it is considered a flaw by some (not saying anyone on here said that, just in general I mean).
It might sound ridiculous but there are days when games that just throw open the doors to a world and say "have at thee" just overwhelm me. There's too much to do, it feels unorganized and the story always falls to the wayside of exploration.
That being said, if I played a Final Fantasy game that wouldn't let me wander just a little to go power level up, I would be quite upset.

Brainiac wrote:

Lambonius wrote:I really have no interest in FFXIII at all--pretty much everything I've seen or read about the game leads me to think that I'd get very bored with it very quickly, and the J-pop music in the TV ads is an EXTREME turn-off.

It's not J-pop unless you're in Japan, Lambonius. The Japanese vocal theme "Kimi ga Iru kara (Because You're Here)" by Sayuri Sugawara was replaced with "My Hands" by Leona Lewis, a British singer, for international releases.

Yeah, yeah. Lesser of two evils, to be sure, but only marginally.

Lady Pyro wrote:I admit, I love free roaming games and all, bit I've kind of missed linearity and am sad that it is considered a flaw by some (not saying anyone on here said that, just in general I mean).
It might sound ridiculous but there are days when games that just throw open the doors to a world and say "have at thee" just overwhelm me. There's too much to do, it feels unorganized and the story always falls to the wayside of exploration.
That being said, if I played a Final Fantasy game that wouldn't let me wander just a little to go power level up, I would be quite upset.

Dont worry as Brainiac said before about half way through 25-30 hours it opens up.

I'm also a fan of linearity. I don't consider it a failing at all. Not surprising considering games like Space Quest and Half-Life are some of my favourite games ever. I actually think we need more linear games...seems like EVERYTHING is free-roaming now.

A linear MMORPG...there's a concept. What would that be like? A simple multiplayer game? lol

MusicallyInspired wrote: A linear MMORPG...there's a concept. What would that be like? A simple multiplayer game? lol

The problem with that is that once people finished with the story (and with linearity, some would finish quite quickly) that would be it. MMORPG's need that exploration and grind to keep players paying and playing. I like the idea, but they're much better off just making co-op games like Left 4 Dead with bigger story lines, in my opinion.

Lady Pyro wrote:The problem with that is that once people finished with the story (and with linearity, some would finish quite quickly) that would be it.

I'm not sure how it would be done, but I have to think it's possible. Movies, books, graphic novels, etc. do pretty well with story beginnings, middles and endings. To be a part of an engaging, taughtly written story (and you need the linear nature to have any kind of drama), maybe one with multiple, pre-constructed paths depending on the user's actions, and to experience it with others at the same time, would be absolutely incredible. It may be more of a niche market, and it may not have the same kind of replayability qualities as RPG's, but there are all kinds of people out there, and I think that kind of experience would attract a lot of people.

But like I said, how would you keep players playing? The whole thing with online games seems to be to keep them going as long as possible, with a linear, story based game that's just not plausible.

You could have a never-ending story. That's what MMO's do anyway; constantly write new material for their gamers. Or at least keep one story going for a while, end it, then start a new one. Then it would be like a sequel. But you'd still be going over all the same areas...which defeates the purpose of the linearity.

But why would the games and stories need to go on perpetually? There are all kinds of people, and many people dont want to get into an ongoing gaming world with no story arc or end. Movies and books are still popular as ever, and they have a finite amount of material and fixed stories. That's because good stories will always attract. Adventure games or interactive fiction don't have to be just like rpg's. There's room for all kinds of entertainment.

How could a multi-player adventure work? I'm not sure. One way to look at it might be, in a small way, to liken it to those slow-moving rides at Disney parks (as dorky as that sounds), in the sense that groups of people experience stories together, or like murder mystery weekends, but in this case the people could work together online to solve the stories, interacting with the virtual settings. Maybe future tools will make interactive fiction writing and virtual world creation more accessible to a wider range of authors.

Well, in WoW for instance, there's several linear stories. You can follow one storyline, you can stop and pick up another one, or you can follow none, or all... but there's storylines all the way through and there's tons of them. I think in an online game you can DO the linear storyline, but you can't do it like "there's on major story arc we're just going to keep adding on to!" because you NEED a big bad and you NEED a climax and conclusion -- you can, however, start another storyline when that one ends and do that for eternity.

I've been playing WoW since launch, this is the first I'm hearing of a story.

Hahahaha!

And I'm not saying anything needs anything. I just said what would it be like?

Quest For Glory Fan wrote:I've been playing WoW since launch, this is the first I'm hearing of a story.

Do you actually read the quests or just do the objective? :P

And the story's get more involved as you go on. In WotLK there's even a whole phased area in Dragonblight -- during one of the quests, it basically gets all lit on fire and it will appear that way from that point on. So, see, the story can even affect the game world. Kind of. :P

A story in a game should not be told through a cinematic or reading material. It should be experienced. If you can go through a story without the need to actually know what the story is that's not good story-telling in gameplay.

WoW is done so that you can be as involved as you want with the story. I've done the Dragonblight stuff and seen the cutscenes but it didn't add much to the game for me. I'm all about endgame raids and achievements.

Quest For Glory Fan wrote:WoW is done so that you can be as involved as you want with the story. I've done the Dragonblight stuff and seen the cutscenes but it didn't add much to the game for me. I'm all about endgame raids and achievements.

Exactly -- you can play WoW for the lore and the story if you want. Or you can play it for raiding. Or achievements. Or battlegrounds. Or dungeons. Or even making your own story through RP. Or any combination of those things, really, and then some! And I think a successful MMO has to do that -- it must allow for a variety in play-styles so that it is an attractive game to a massive number of people.
In a single-player game, absolutely, you should not be able to avoid the story, it should be an integral part of the gameplay so you can attract players interested in story as well as gameplay and still have them playing the same game, really. An MMO is a different kind of animal though.

Well put crayauchtin, I agree.

Just over 50 hours thru now. In chap 13 just doing the sidequests before finishing the game!!