I realize that in posting this I am treading very dangerous waters because everyone and their second cousin seems to adore the Final Fantasy series. I’ve been shunned and even been threatened to be fired from the anonymous game store I work at (jokingly… I hope) for not liking this series.
There are too many.
I understand that there are a zillion different Mario’s and an outrageous number of Zelda’s, but those are games that anyone can pick up on and love. My grandmother plays Mario and Zelda nearly all hours of the day. But the number of Final Fantasys and all their little spin-offs makes my head spin. There are 13 in the main series, followed by little games like Tactics, the Chocobo series, and then something about the word “Dissidia”. When you begin adding endings like “X-2” to your games, it starts to remind me of math, and therefore I stay far away from it. I can’t keep up with all of the plotlines zinging all over the place because I was never on the band wagon in the first place. What’s going to make me want to clear my schedule for the next three months (possibly more, considering they are like, 60 hr.+ long games if you include everything) and sit down and play them all to catch up? Also, aren’t there movies and an anime series? This, all said and done, makes my brain explode.
Three words (kind of): Turn-Based RPG’s.
Call me a savage if you want, but I love physically (and by physically, I mean with my thumbs and fingers) moving my character to an enemy, pressing a series of buttons and watching my character take down another. It’s so satisfying. I love shooting people, swording people, and even killing infected with pots and pans. It is not nearly as enjoyable for me to scroll through a list of abilities, choose one, and watch some pre-rendered animation happen. It’s like I’m playing Pokemon Stadium all over again, only it’s not as fun or humorous. I just don’t know where to find my source of pleasure when playing these games. The storyline? Maybe, but aren’t they all pretty similar? If I wanted story, I would head for something more my taste, like Silent Hill, BioShock or Heavy Rain (so, dark and creepy, I suppose). The music? Again, maybe, but I’ve listened to Final Fantasy music, and the only song I really rock out to is ‘Victory Fanfare’ (especially VII’s), and that one isn’t even in XIII for some horrible, horrible reason.
Even the fanboys say the new ones suck.
The other day I had a customer come in, basically crying all over the counter because he was returning the newest Final Fantasy. He wouldn’t stop talking about how hollow XIII’s storyline was, how it made XII look like VII, and how XIII didn’t live up to the hype it generated. Apparently, the Final Fantasy series has been on a steady decline (minus Tactics) since VII/the original FF team left the project. Is this true? I don’t really know, I’ve only ever watched them or played them for a max of ten minutes at a time, but this customer wasn’t the only one who thought that. All of my oh-gawd-I-love-Japan-and-Final-Fantasy friends took the same stance on the new one (and X and XII), saying that it just doesn’t have the allure the earlier ones had. So if they don’t even want to play it, why would a newbie want to?
If anyone can give me a valid reason to try it, I’ll give it a shot. But right now there is just nothing that interests me.
Also, I do not live in a house or drive a car, so there is no way you can egg/toilet-paper/spray paint my house or slash my tires.
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