Final Fantasy: The Wonder Years

[davidn]

Our second game from GameFly has not yet arrived, but in the middle of a sort of lazy long weekend slump that Whitney and I were both experiencing, we went out and found a second-hand copy of Meg Ryan's Excellent Adventure on my recommendation.

I never really understood the bad reaction that the fandom had to FFX. Certainly it's by far the easiest game of the series (though some of the side quests are just mad), and the English translation, both in terms of script and acting, could best be described as diabolical - particularly as it's done in a sort of contemplative narration style that tragically reminds Whitney of The Wonder Years. But despite distractions like the entirety of the storyline, it's the actual game part of it that I genuinely think is when they finally got their system right.

A lot of this is the result of having come from FF9, which at times was criminally slow and had your characters wait a truly controller-chewing amount of time between turns. They fixed that beyond all reasonable expectations here, with battles taking absolutely no time at all to load and the new system removing the idea of having to wait for a time bar to fill in favour of fast-forwarding the clock to the next available character. The fights even feel more "alive" than FF12's largely mute party, with characters taunting the enemies during fights or chastising the others for carelessly dying. And having an attack that involves smacking a flying monster in the face with something resembling a basketball is never anything short of hilarious. All this makes it rather a shame that they went for something completely different once again in the sequel.

The Illustrated Guide to Scary RPG Things

What I really like, though, is the throwing out of traditional levelling-up mechanics in favour of the Sphere Grid. Not just the property that it looks absolutely terrifying to anyone watching over your shoulder - it's more the idea of constant visible rewards you get for your efforts. Instead of hammering away at enemies just to see some stats increase a bit, you see each upgrade available to you laid out on a labyrinthine series of paths (not, you may notice, a grid) and always have the encouragement that if you can gain just one extra movement point, you'll be able to buy an upgrade to your attack power or increase your health capacity or get a new ability or four.

I suppose, as demonstrated by how people reacted to Metal Gear Solid 2, one of its biggest failings is making you play as a complete dipstick. Fair enough, the whole point of the game is that you're meant to be as clueless as Tidus as to what's going on, but you get the feeling that you personally would still act less of an idiot about it. Certainly when placed next to characters like Auron and Kimahri, you get the feeling you'd rather be playing as someone useful (or at least with less stupid trousers) instead.

Comments

[jenny0.livejournal.com]

I'm still in the early stages of FFX and am absolutely stumped. I'm at one of those temples where you have to places the glowing orbs in different sockets to get through, and I got about halfway in and just could not figure the sequence/placement out. I do really like the game so far, though; having been a massive FF7 fan I was really happy to find this at a yard sale. They are stupid trousers though.

[davidn]

You know, that was something that stood out to me that I completely forgot to mention in this post - the Trial sections. Not even Sierra could have come up with something so devoid of any sort of logic - all you can do is ferry orbs around one at a time, putting them in different sockets or approaching things without an orb in hand just to see if they do anything different, and hope that something will eventually happen.

I'd say there's no shame in going to GameFAQs and reading through the steps to complete them from a guide. They're not worth the frustration!

[flackon16.livejournal.com]

I loved FFX.

I'm not sure what it is about it, to be honest.

Admittedly, I hadn't really gone in depth with many before, having played bits of VI, VII and VIII.

But I've played several since then, and just felt it's missed something.

Uematsu's glorious composing?

A plot that is told in a way that's interesting?

I don't know.

Thanks for posting this.

[davidn]

FFX does lack a bit in the storytelling department (having one that isn't so blatantly linear would be a good start). FF12 fixed that beyond all measure, as you had so much continuous world open to you from the very beginning in a very sort of Diablo-like way. If the storyline from... one of the earlier ones, take your pick, was combined with this type of system I think they'd have a winner.

Its music does seem to be a little hit-or-miss... there are a few things I really love from it, like the piano introduction, Hymn of the Fayth and even the out-of-nowhere Rammstein-alike song, but there are also some supremely irritating ones like the Cloister of Trials music (which as I mentioned above you tend to hear far too much) and the Blitzball theme.

I should also say, as I notice you just started your account today, welcome to Livejournal :)

[flackon16.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, you did have the continuous world open on XII, but it felt like a kid in a candy store moment - there's [i]too much[/i] to do, you're not sure where to start.

Yeah, the music was hit and miss, but it was mostly hit imo. Yeah, Otherworld was a great song - The Black Mages (band with Nobuo Uematsu on organ) did a decent cover of it, check them out if you haven't already!
The Hymn of the Faith was far too prominent, I'll give you that. But I suppose it's another way of reminding you that all of them are connected in their own way. Plus they're all slightly different, so yknow.

Thanks for the welcome, although I had two previous livejournal accounts - both were hacked! Bah!

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

I agree with most of this: the goodness of the sphere grid, the extreme slowness of FFIX, the flow and character of FFX's battles. I've had the same thoughts, but you have expressed better than I could.

I enjoyed Tidus as a character, though, and I enjoyed the storyline. Tidus is a little whiny - understandably, in the situation, I think - but I never really saw him as being clueless. He might not have been a genius, but he had a fair idea of what was going on, and despite playing narrator more than protagonist, he did have his own emotional investment, and when he wasn't being flung from situation to situation beyond his control, he was being proactive in ways that I found suited his motives well.

I can see how it reminds Whitney of The Wonder Years, though. Actually, I saw an interview with the voice actor of Tidus and apparently he was under the impression that he should do the narrative voice as though he were much older, when in fact it should have been the same voice you hear throughout the game.

[davidn]

After going through a bit more of it, I have to say that Tidus only seems annoying at the beginning of the game - he gets a lot better as it goes on, with the biggest jump probably being just after the infamous laughing scene.

It does seem that FFX was the one in which you were the most reluctant hero, and it's not a level of cluelessness (at the start of the game) that I exactly blame him for. It's just that some of the decisions that that forces the player to go through - "No one except the summoners are ever allowed through that door." "Charge!" - sometimes feel more... well, forced, than most.