FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn

[Ghogiel]

Those looking for a decent FF type game should have a look at Lost Odyssey (X360), it was produced by the creator of the FF series. No sulky teens, the children are treated as children rather than half naked objects for the adults to hit on, the characters grow over time and the acting is very good as is the story.

That actually looks worth a go. Too bad xbox. :(

[Vagrant0]

You're not going to enjoy a game where you detest the character you're playing as

I don't know, FF8 was actually pretty good despite the fact that the main character had about the same expression range as a sprig of parsley and who managed to suck all life out of the ending with his indifference. Then there was the cast of support characters who often left the player annoyed, confused, or deeply troubled (or maybe that was some other game that had an S and M scene between two male characters in a desert prison (or just reading into it too deeply in retrospect)).

 

And yet, the game had a rather interesting storyline (didn't make much sense half the time, but interesting), and probably one of the better minigames of the franchise.

[ziitch]

Square Enix really did lose steam after two of its key personnel (Sakaguchi and Umastsu) quit to form Mistwalker. In fact, considering some of the choices made by Square Enix, I'm getting the feeling that it's quickly becoming a studio that can't earn back its losses and most of its members are mostly people desperate for work, or that the overall management of tasks has an all-time low over there as they over-emphasize on cutscenes (see above) just to send the message that the game's getting a redo. I mean, sure, it looks great and everything, but wouldn't it have been better if they spent less time on that and more time fine-tuning the systems somewhat more? They're trying to climb on the hard side of the uncanny valley for a game that just doesn't belong there.

[Vagrant0]

or that the overall management of tasks has an all-time low over there as they over-emphasize on cutscenes (see above) just to send the message that the game's getting a redo.

I would see it less as cutscenes pulling too many resources away from the game, and more that when they pitched the game for greenlight, the story was weak so they compensated by having their render-farm grind gears for a few weeks since making a good cinematic is easier than programming a good game.

[Vindekarr]

Massively overdone cutscenes don't always ruin a game, but it does always feel a little unnatural.

 

One good example is Halo 4. Fairly simple story, but the game does a great job of making sure the player always knows where they are, what they're doing, and why they're doing it, by way of a mixture of setpiece events in the background, and dialogue. The game would work fine without cutscenes, in-level there are relatively few, and most of them are brief since your companion is an AI hardwired into your central nervous system rather than a flesh and blood NPC you need to drag around. However for some bizaar reason 343Microsoft decided to put in these stupendously expensive looking cutscenes between levels. They look absolutely beautiful and the acting as excellent, but they always feel a little bit like the devs are showing off. Simple in-engine cutscenes could do the same thing without the stupidly expensive full-MOCAP, filtered HD shenanigens. In the end they're enjoyable, but they really don't feel like a neccessary part of the game.

 

 

Can't say I'm a big fan of big showey custcenes. They can be awesome but I'd rather the devs put all their effort into the game.

Edited December 31, 2012 by Vindekarr

[sentiment13]

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which was previously named as “Final Fantasy XIV”, is the 14th installment in the Final Fantasy series featuring flexible class system.