Yeah... the day groups like Square Enix makes a game that runs on Linux... I will eat my bacon with wings.
I used to idolize square. Every release was just mind blowing Final Fantasy fun, and then something happened. They started diluting their IP with crappy games, forgot how to innovate, forgot how to write a story, and succumbed to what I consider the biggest issue with Japanese gaming, and that's interminable grinding in their games.
I no longer feel compelled to get the latest Final Fantasy, and that makes me sad.
Uuuugh, yeah, I agree with this. It's not possible for me to agree with this any harder than I already do, not without exploding.
They used to do such awesome stuff, way back when. FFIV still remains my favorite, though they had all sorts of cool non-FF stuff too.
And then..... it was just gone. I think for me it was right around when FF10 released (which I hated) 7 and 8 had been okay at least, sorta..... not all that good, but okay.... but 10 was a cutscene-riddled ball of.... cutscenes. The storyline, which was already a concept Square was starting to have trouble with at that point, was braindead, and the design overall was just awful. I remember overall that game felt way more linear than any of the others ever had. And too many things in it were just too idiotic. Or at least that was my views on it, anyway.
Though, in reality, it doesnt matter too much as to which of those I percieved as the start of the stupidity, because they all led to the same end result, which is Square the way they are now. Ugh. FF 13, I think, speaks alot for just how far they've fallen, and of course it's not JUST the FF series, it's pretty much every single possible thing they make. And even worse, alot of the other developers of such things.... okay, pretty much all of them actually.... have this obnoxious tendancy to somewhat copy Square's everything, so as Square's RPGs started getting more and more dumb, so did those of others.
Eventually I gave up on the JRPG genre for good, and I'd never been THAT into it to begin with. Havent for a moment felt a bit of desire to go back to it. As it is, Square is pretty much entirely responsible for driving me towards my absolute loathing of story elements or cutscenes in gaming. Normally I'd say "And now I dont buy their stuff anymore", but I dont really buy ANY console-related anything anymore, so that only counts for so much.
.....also, yes, the GRINDING. I'm never, ever, EVER going to understand the appeal of this. Quite frankly, I dont WANT to understand. Like Disgaea, uuuuugh. Every time that developer comes out with a new game, a certain friend of mine enters the "NEVER SHUTS THE HELL UP" state of mind in relation to it. He'll then proceed to reach a certain point in the game.... usually not all that far in.... find one specific map, and then start doing it over.... and over.... and over.... and over.... and over.... and..... well, repeat "and over" about 60473857 more times, and you've got it nearly right. Because apparently that's what you do in a "strategy RPG", bah. I really, really dont get how that's supposed to be fun or interesting or challenging. And moreso, I dont get how anyone could even DO it for the bazillions of hours that they do. I can understand putting alot of hours into a game. But the thing is, in most games, STUFF HAPPENS.... you dont just jump and stomp on the same 3 Goombas over and over again until the heat death of the universe.
