Modern FF Quality: Who is to blame?

[47]

Anyone else of the opinion that Hironobu Sakaguchi's departure has beckoned the intellectual decline of the FF series?

It's not as imaginative anymore and seems to have traded in the fantastical elements for sci-fi and cyberpunk themes that really get boring quickly. The storylines have gotten even more predictable and cheesy and the only improvement seems to be the graphics.

lets face it, something is rotten in the state of SE. what do you think?

[thekingoftheempire]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

Anyone else of the opinion that Hironobu Sakaguchi's departure has beckoned the intellectual decline of the FF series?

It's not as imaginative anymore and seems to have traded in the fantastical elements for sci-fi and cyberpunk themes that really get boring quickly. The storylines have gotten even more predictable and cheesy and the only improvement seems to be the graphics.

lets face it, something is rotten in the state of SE. what do you think?

i've been having the same discussion with friends..
i dont think it has to do with Hironobu Sakaguchi's departure...it started since the SQUARE and ENIX merger...i blame ENIX for all of this..they have the larger share of the company and control over SQUARE and they're the ones making the choices...

[The Man]

Enix's teams have had nothing to do with projects run by Square's teams since the merger, and vice versa. Even if they did, I would actually regard that as something of an improvement, since Enix's average titles in the past few years before the merger were way better than Square's.

I have to agree with Doc. Sakaguchi leaving is probably a prominent reason for the decline in quality.

[The Dude]

Indeed his Departure can be seen as an omen. I'd also put some of the blame on SE for constantly "milking" current FF's to the bone while the resources can be put to better use.

[The Man]

There are occasional ventures that are done by staffs of both companies, yes, but the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest projects remain entirely in the hands of the people who were originally developing them. Moreover, Sakaguchi and Uematsu were already decreasing their involvement in Final Fantasy-related projects before the merger.

I honestly don't think Nomura is anywhere near as talented as Sakaguchi (or even Amano, for that matter), but whatever.

[My Final Heaven]

You don't think he might have left because after 10 games he's... *gasp run out of ideas? You know... Throwing it out there. It happens, you take a couple games getting your format perfect, you make a couple that are perfect, but then thigns have changed and the formula doesn't work anymore, but it's past the catastraphe curve now and there's no going back.

That's all that's happened. You people and your demands, you want each one to be better than the last, well it just doesn't work that way. Sure they could make a better game, but it wouldn't be final fantasy anymore. Personal oppinion here, it's all the back story (You know, the recursive things, the magics the classes, the battle atb system the 9999 hp caps) that is holding it back now. They are now simply arbitrary things that they feel they must build a game around in order for it to remain final fantasy. They keep trying to put Cloud in everything cause everybody loved Cloud. And vincent too come to think of it, I mean, cant you just picture Balthier with a Metal Arm? It would totally fit, but I digress.

I think it's the next Final Fantasy title that will actually determine wether or not the series still has a future. Personally Loved 12, but I could see how some people might not, the only thing is, I don't see how if one liked previous Final Fantasys but not at least a bit of 12, that that person could like anything they might have done with it that wasn't simply a total rehash... but then you'd hate it for being rehashed wouldn't you? However, the next one has 12's real time system to build on for combat, so who knows, maybe the next one will work out all the bugs that the old one had. (Like say, how bout the fact that you can only cast 1 ultimate magic spell at once and all other magic casting just waits it's turn while the physical attacks keep going. That pissed me right off about 12)

So yeah, no disrespect to mr Sakaguchi, but he probly should have quit after 9, because that would have made a great send off and let someone else totally redesign 10 from the start, but I don't think you can just blame the new guy cause there's a whole body of work that he has to try to assimilate into the new stuff as he goes, while at the same time keeping it fresh and intresting. It's much much easier at this point just to start from scratch, but to his credit, he hasn't.

[Batman]

You can't attribute the "decline" of FF quality on the departure of Sakaguchi because there has been a lack of real FF games to come out without him. You also cannot say the merger was to blame because of the same reasons. To be even called a "decline" means it has to have occurred over a number of games, which would mean the PS1 FFs or FFX was the beginning of it which was far from both Sakaguchi's departure and the merger. What's to blame is the market, on top of the obvious running out of ideas.

[The Man]

I'd say the Mistwalker promos make it readily apparent that Sakaguchi hasn't run out of ideas. Whether they're good ideas remains to be seen, however.

[Ragnarok]

Well I saw a decline peaking around Final Fantasy X. The story was great don't get me wrong. But I felt the game was really short and way too linear. Not top mention the sidequests were more of a chore. It went completely downward with Final Fantasy X-2 and that long period of 4-5 years as we waited for Final Fantasy XII. Personally I didn't pay much attention or really care about Final fantasy XII. Personally I thought it was going to be crap.

But when I heard Matsuno was in charge I was completely overjoyed. Unfortunately he dropped put and left when the game was half baked. Still even for a half baked game it restored some faith that Square can still do things right.

Personally I am not a big fan of Nomura. His characters designs always seem bland and somewhat following that loner and emo pattern. (Cloud and Squall anyone?) Sakaguchi was a great man. Along with with Matsuno and Uematsu. Sadly it seems the series is left in the hands of Nomura and the outcome of Final Fantasy XIII.

[Pickens]

If I had to place the blame on anyone it'd probably be Tetsuya Nomura. His reinvisioning of FF VII and just him directing anything outside of Kingdom Hearts is terrible. I don't really blame Sakaguchi because he had a pretty good reason to leave. According to the Mistwalker page, he felt he was being held back creatively by Square, and I think that has to do with Spirits Within bombing. So, the first person I can think of to blame is Nomura. He's a good guy to work in the background, but like The Man said, he isn't nearly as good as Sakaguchi.

[Daryl Falchion]

I think the series is just running out of steam. It's been 12 games all based off a game that wasn't ever meant to be anything more than a shot in the dark. I think it'll last a few more games before fading into the dust after newer and more innovative games come to the fore. :P

Not that I'll be happy about that. I loved my FFs.

[Ssj7Crono]

i would hate to say this but doesnt anyone here think Square should end the Final Fantasy series right about now? its obvious that the series is losing its quality, at least for me. Unless FF13 ends up to be real good, i honestly think Square should consider to end the series. I havent been played a decent FF game, at least on my terms, since FFX.

[EoT]

When Square and Enix combined. I miss Squaresoft, the last Final Fantasy which really had the 'final fantasy' feeling was IX.

[Batman]

Funny thing is, Square-Enix was still Squaresoft when FFX came out. FFX-2 was already in production when they were still Squaresoft. FFTA was already finished when they merged as well. Saying it was all Enix's fault is small minded.

[Scrutator]

The biggest problem with Final Fantasy is that it is to an extent difficult to bring something new into the series, each game is different to how it works and stuff but the games are becoming too similar to each other and difference is usually shunned which is why games like FFIX isn't well liked by most who played FFVII/VIII first and why those same gamers are excited with FFXIII since it has similar elements from both games. It's the same fanbase that gladly take constant FFVII spinoffs and remakes over new games since they want more and more of the same things.

Since Sakaguchi left Square and formed Mistwalker he has said about the creative freedom that he now has and it shows in his games where Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey do look genuinely interesting and stand out more from the likes of FFXIII which has the sci-fi setting that has been done to death in the last 10 years.

Until the fanboys etc actually want something new then the creative rut that Square is in won't be stopped, and saying that it's Enix and the merger that's to blame is a pretty stupid statement.

[Words of Ivory]

Many of them were **** even whilst Sakaguchi was still around - FFVIII, FFX, FFX-2, FFTA. Or other terrible spinoffs such as Ergheiz.

Why do you think he left in the first place?

FFXII. mind you, has been the most refreshing Final Fantasy in years, and probably the "most FF" game since FFVI. Sadly, I can't see them following the re-inventive direction taken by that game now that Matsuno has departed Square-Enix's company as well.

The less said about FFXIII, the better...

[47]

i fail to recognise the opinions of anyone who lists FFVII on the **** FF list and not FFVIII as well.

the departure of sakaguchi may have been because of the piss poor reception of TSW. that lost SE a whole lot of money and was probably the main cause of the Squaresoft/Enix merger. he also spent a good decade working on one game series, maybe he left because he got bored. who knows?

either way, i'm starting to believe that the catalyst of the decline was The Spirits Within.

[Jak]

Obviously the majority of gamers would go for graphux any decent gamer would go for gameplay/storyline, but I like both. I could put up with MGS1 graphics because the story line was excellent, but FFVIII was a no go because the story was ****.

[Words of Ivory]

Originally Posted by The Doctor

i fail to recognise the opinions of anyone who lists FFVII on the **** FF list and not FFVIII as well.

Whoops. That was supposed to be VIII, not VII. :O *edits*

Originally Posted by The Doctor

either way, i'm starting to believe that the catalyst of the decline was The Spirits Within.

Square weren't too happy about that one, that's for sure, although his departure was voluntary, or so he said, to "spend more time with his family". Of course, a couple of months later his new developement company, Mistwalker came out, with practically every major name that used to back Final Fantasy in the front seats...

I've always seen Mistwalker as Sakaguchi basically saying, "**** you Square. We can do it ourselves, whilst still keeping our artistic integrity intact".

[Honest Abel]

I think it is your, the fans', fault for buying these games still. Just let it die already, then we can stop posting at ****e FF forums and move on with our lives.