Why I Hate... Final Fantasy

By Daniel Bettridge Published 11 January, 2011

Role-playing gahhhhhhhh.

Hate is a powerful word. How often does it really apply? I'm not a fan of novelty crisp flavours or the Black-Eyed Peas, but do I truly hate them? Probably not.

However, it's the only word which comes close to describing how I feel when about certain things. To name three: Katie Waissel, designer baby clothes and Final Fantasy.

Few gaming series have as rabid a fanbase as FF. Since it first appeared on the NES all those years ago, it's attracted an obsessive following. Many of its fans are the kind of people who will proudly dress up like their favourite characters and brandish giant replica swords fashioned out of polystyrene.

I'm the ideal candidate for dedication to the cult of these Japanese snorefests. A significant proportion of my formative years was spent hunkered down with like-minded outcasts, rolling 20-sided dice as I lost myself in the worlds of Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons.

While the cool kids were out playing footie and smoking tabs I was plundering dungeons as a Night Elf, hunting for loot and trying to work out how my level 20 paladin was going to escape hordes of Orcs. I'd happily engage in passionate arguments about how much fire damage a magical amulet could inflict.

1

Man or woman? You decide.

But Final Fantasy failed to appeal even then. I wasn't excited by the prospect of being able to act out a digitally realised version of my banal existence. I saw games as a form of escapism. I wanted to shoot an endless procession of faceless henchmen, not discover an all-new arena for social exclusion and turn-based combat.

Then there's the issue of whether you can even get past the first hour of gameplay without giving up. Never has there been a more inaccessible franchise than Final Fantasy.

The other day I was talking to a friend about how unimpressed I was with Final Fantasy XIII. Tough it out, he told me, the game gets great after 20 hours or so.

20 hours? In 20 hours I could learn basic Swahili. Why should I spend almost an entire day and night sitting through linear storylines, repetitive battles and cut-scenes I don't really understand, just to get to the good bits?

2

Turn-based combat - every bit as dull as it sounds.

Why are those battles turn-based, anyway? Don't know about you, but if confronted by a dark wizard Hell-bent on world domination, or a cybernetically-enhanced beastie shooting laser beams from every orifice, I doubt I'd sit there politely contemplating my next move while they pummel away at me. I'd windmill in with my keys between my fingers at the earliest possible opportunity. I can live without turn-based conflict, thank you very much. And that endless list of items, weapons and potions. I could also happily skip repetitive mini-games such as the odious Blitzball. The reason I like to explore fantasy worlds of action and adventure is not so I can replicate the experience of sucking at sports I don't understand.

Why is there so much walking? Endless, tedious, brain-numbing walking. It's punctuated only by episodes of being forced to consume thousands of words of poorly-translated dialogue exchanged by increasingly infuriating characters.

If I felt like reading, I'd pick up a book. I play games because I want to avoid anything that remotely resembles self-improvement. And no matter how many times I have to press a button to make my character spew out another inane sentence, you won't convince me this is anything other than a Japanified version of a Dan Brown novel.

"But!" I hear the fanboys cry. "But what about the cut-scenes, the epically glorious cut-scenes?"

Screw the cut-scenes. If you want to watch a digital render of a fantasy realm, go to the cinema. Perhaps to see one of the horrendous movies the Final Fantasy series has belched into existence. But don't pretend hours of repetitive gameplay are worth it in exchange for a few moments of CGI wizardry telling chapters in a fruit loop story.

3

Seriously? Does this look like fun to you?

A story which, no matter how ostensibly insane, is really just the same as the one in the last game - seemingly insignificant hero defies odds to save world. These plots are always played out by a cast of deliriously over-the-top characters, who look like what would happen if Jedward raided a hair dye factory and a giant's armoury.

Final Fantasy is the standard bearer for giant swords and mental hair-dos. Weapons like Cloud's Buster Sword and Squalls Gunblade are ten-foot tall physics-defying monstrosities only overshadowed by the bizarre barnets our heroes sport.

Or are they heroines? So androgynous are the characters in Final Fantasy that it's often hard to tell. Perfect skin, gentle smiles, beautiful long-lashed eyes - these are just some of the features boasted by the series' male characters. They've surely been the biggest cause of sexual confusion amongst adolescent males since Bugs Bunny put on a dress and lipstick.

4

More spiky-haired goings-on than a Jedward convention at a hair gel factory.

Even putting the silly characters and daft storytelling aside for a moment, there's no hiding the fact that the FF games just aren't much fun. They feel like a chore, a daily grind. They don't offer the pleasurable distraction I want and expect from a game.

To make matters worse, there's a never-ending tide of them. More than 30 iterations hit the shelves in the last decade alone. Having laboriously completed a Final Fantasy game, there's barely time to catch your breath before the next one turns up to eat away at your social life.

FF requires the kind of commitment I'm just not willing to make in the pursuit of entertainment. And certainly not for a series of games which feels increasingly mechanical compared to modern Western RPGs. I'd rather play Fallout and Mass Effect, games which don't force you to play out a storyboarded journey but which let you shape your own adventure.

As for Final Fantasy, I hope the next instalment in the series will live up to its name.

Picture of Daniel.

About Daniel Bettridge

Read more articles from Daniel by visiting the Daniel Bettridge archive page.

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Comments (141) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • TheNinkyNonk #1 1 year ago

    Couldn't agree more

  • altitude2k #2 1 year ago

    Gahhhhhhhh indeed.

  • Trigga_Tybalt #3 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:43:01 23-02-2012

  • ParamedicFoetus #4 1 year ago

    There's always going to be games that aren't to everyone's tastes. I personally don't enjoy the Gears of War franchise, so I don't play them and they don't bother me.
    There seem to be a ton of people trashing on Final Fantasy at the moment, a far more interesting article would be from someone who enjoys them explaining what they do well, there are some people who like them, right?

  • MrChuckles #5 1 year ago

    I don't hate Katie Waissel as i'm not sad enough to watch any of the shows she has actually been on and therefore haven't been subjected to whyever her music or personality is awful.

    Back to this article. It's funny how every other article in the 'Why I Hate' has been an interesting and reasoned arguement about someone who likes a franchise but also hates it. This is just about why they hate something, makes them sounds like a 12 year old fanboy, or considering they watch xfactor, likely fangirl..

    FF for me, yeah, love/hate really. The deep tactical play is great, the repetition is bloody annoying.

  • altitude2k #6 1 year ago

    Actually, ParamedicFoetus, I think these "hate" articles are refreshing. People who love games tend to give good reasons as to why they love them, which is great. Haters, however, tend to just badmouth said games with no real weight to their argument.

    Having someone give reasonable opinions as to their distaste is not such a bad thing.

  • Diogo_Ribeiro #7 1 year ago

    "At the moment"? It's not like criticism of it hasn't been around for years.

  • slivir #8 1 year ago

    I think I'm the only one in the world who actually enjoyed the first half of ff13 more than the second...

  • Paperghost #9 1 year ago

    I loved FF games, but drifted away from the series quite a bit with the more recent titles. FF13 broke my brain so much it caused me to rant endlessly (warning: long, long post).

    Based on the most recent title, they'd have to come up with something special to have me pick up any further games. possibly my biggest letdown of the last year apart from crackdown 2.

    / typo
    Edited by Paperghost at 11/01/11 @ 14:43

  • itamae #10 1 year ago

    Up until a few years ago I would have vehemently disagreed with this article and defended Final Fantasy with near-religious fervour. But after the disappointments that were FF X, XI, XII, and XIII I'm inclined to agree with everything I've just read.

    By the way, XIII does not miraculously get good after twenty hours, it just gets a little bit less bad.

  • MojoDex #11 1 year ago

    These plots are always played out by a cast of deliriously over-the-top characters, who look like what would happen if Jedward raided a hair dye factory and a giant's armoury

    i lol'd
    Edited by MojoDex at 11/01/11 @ 14:17

  • MattEdWithCheese #12 1 year ago

    couldn't disagree more,

    battles are turn based as that generally promotes strategy without alienating people who aren't good at action games

    I don't think any of the FF's I've played were amazing save XII and crisis core. I loved XIII although primarily for the battle system.

    even if the story tends to be similar each time in terms of rebels vs evil empires at least the setting changes every time beyond the tolkienesque dwarves, elves and goblins i get in western rpgs. but some people like that, doesn't make their view any less valid...

  • fabiosooner #13 1 year ago

    I never really liked Final Fantasy, but you lost me when you wrote "I play games because I want to avoid anything that remotely resembles self-improvement". If the series irritates someone who's capable of writing something like this, FF must be doing something right.

  • Nuronv #14 1 year ago

    I Hate what Square have done to the final fantasy series, does that count?

  • Shinetop #15 1 year ago

    Weird. When I saw the title, I thought "Great! Finally someone who also hates the Final Fantasy games!"

    And then... I just can't agree with most of the stuff Daniel has written. Gee, it doesn't make sense that people take turns in turnbased combat? Has that ever been an argument to denounce chess? Or Civilization? If Daniel's argument was that turnbased isn't a suitable mechanic for this type of game, I'd agree, but he's denouncing turnbased as a whole because it "doesn't make sense".

    And what's this weak "I don't feel like reading" argument? If this was Myst, sure, but I wonder how Daniel ever managed to get through an adventure game in the non-talkie days if he can't put up with the amount of text in a Final Fantasy game.

    Take on the nonsense characters. The lack of personality. The "It's sort of fantasy sci fi whatever we feel like really so essentially nothing" universe. The hair. The utterly daft ingame graphics next to the high quality cutscenes. The shallow storylines full of cheap emotion. The hordes of fanboys throwing up the pretense of depth ("Aeris DIES!";). Anything but the lame reasons given here.

  • galerian86 #16 1 year ago

    FF13 battle system is decent, IMO. Not great, like End of Eternity. But yes, a game that take 20 hours to get good, is hard to recommend. I think if it doesn't carry the Final Fantasy names, it would be rated much, much lower.

  • linksdad #17 1 year ago

    I can see where these articles are developing. The logical conclusion surely has to be: Why I hate... why I hate articles

  • sheldipez #18 1 year ago

    Played FF7 & FF8 through to disc 3 and few dozen hours into FF10.

    I don't hate them the games just not for me.

    Every single aspect of the games are tedious apart from the soundtrack for FF7 which I thought really used the CD format well, it makes the game more enjoyable in the way John Williams' score for Star Wars 1-3 makes the movies a little bit watchable (but still not recommended).

    Tried dozen or so JRPGs and they're really just not for me.

  • berelain #19 1 year ago

    Gods these articles are getting increasingly ridiculous. They feel like desperate attempts to grab hits, which coming from a website like Eurogamer really shouldn't be needed. Opinion pieces are fine, but don't trump them up as big feature articles. And whilst most of these articles have been interesting, reasoned pieces, this just feels like a fanboy rant.

  • Praetorianer #20 1 year ago

    Badly written, focusing mainly on FFXIII and its weaknesses and completely ignoring most of the other installments. Your rant is even more tedious than FFXIII at its worst moments.

  • leethompson #21 1 year ago

    I just registered to comment on this. Not happy at all. This really isn't the sort of article Eurogamer should be doing. Very disappointing.

  • Vyggo #22 1 year ago

    First, I don't care about FF at all, no hate and no love, but this kind of reasoning always seems extremely silly to me:
    * Cutscenes -> go watch a movie
    * Story -> go read a book

    You can do this with the town you live too:
    * Lakes -> Lake district has more beautiful lakes
    * Mountains -> Wales has the highest mountains
    * Shopping -> London has the best shopping

    It's how these aspects come together to create an experience together that people find appealing. If you dissect ME2 into seperate things you can find games that do each of those things better too, but still it is game of the year.
    Edited by Vyggo at 11/01/11 @ 14:32

  • Toothball #23 1 year ago

    Was a bit dubious at the start of the article, as it seemed like it was heading toward a Western versus Japan RPG rant. It's nice being involved in a well told story sometimes, and it's just as nice to carve your own. Most of the other points about the series itself are sound, although both pen & paper RPGs and tabletop wargaming also feature turn-based combat. You just don't normally think of it in the same terms.

  • kinky_mong #24 1 year ago

    Hate is a powerful word. How often does it really apply? I'm not a fan of novelty crisp flavours or the Black-Eyed Peas, but do I truly hate them? Probably not. However, it's the only word which comes close to describing how I feel when about certain things. To name three: Katie Waissel, designer baby clothes and Final Fantasy.

    So let me get this straight, you think hate is too strong a word for the Black Eyed Peas, a band with the worst discography of crap ever peddled out and one of the main offenders in the rise of autotune heavy R'n'B tripe in the last few years. However you're happy to throw the word around when describing some pantomime villain on a talent show?

    Perspective please.

    Agree with the Final Fantasy hate though, even if the article was just a list of decades old clichés.

  • gelf #25 1 year ago

    Agree with Shinetop. I dont really like FF anymore myself but the arguments in this article seem easily the worst of all these recent "why I hate" features, just sounds like a usual anti-fanboy rant.

    I did go off FF around the time of X, realised there are much better JRPGs out there.

    Edited by gelf at 11/01/11 @ 14:40

  • Ignatius_Cheese #26 1 year ago

    The last 4 main FF titles are hardly representative of the overall franchise, merely the recent (mis)direction Square-Enix has taken it.

    Perhaps a more accurate article title would be "Why I Hate... Final Fantasy X and beyond". Not quite as catchy or inflammatory to be fair.

  • KrazyFace #27 1 year ago

    I get this article.

    @Shinetop; I think what they're trying to say about turn-based battles in an FF game is that in this day and age, it makes no scense. Turn-based battles were made because (at the time) computers just couldn't calculate these complicated battles in real time, and now they can. I've often asked myself why FF hasn't moved on in this respect, and become real-time. It would certianly give me an incentive to try them again. In the case of games like Civ or Chess, these are very different games because you're commaning whole armies/nations and not just a small group of strangley haired lady-boys.

    As for the rest of the article, I say; well done! A good read that made me laugh, not enough of those around.

  • Eraysor #28 1 year ago

    7, 8, 9, and to a lesser extent 10 were excellent, but the last two have been a bit rubbish. 13 was terrible.

  • FogHeart #29 1 year ago

    My first and only experience of playing Final Fantasy ended when I came up against turn-based combat. It was a bit off-putting to watch my team step forward and tickle docile enemies and then step back in line, and then stand docile as they enemy strode forward and slapped them hard.

    <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwLirQS2-o">Or, I am Palin, the game is Cleese</a href>

  • butler` #30 1 year ago

    Humm.

    I love Final Fantasy, and I can honestly say I reakon I could better deconstruct what is bad about them. I found a bunch of your points a bit weak, perhaps forced. There again, I'm not published on EG, so what do I know? :p

  • sonicyoda #31 1 year ago

    THANK. FUCKING. YOU.

    Seriously, we should be friends.

  • Schiraman #32 1 year ago

    I really hated FFXIII, so I won't even try to defend that - but the best of the FF games are a world away from that dreary mess.

    I appreciate a good shooter or action game as much as anyone, but turn-based games have their place as well, and gaming as a whole is richer for their inclusion. Turn-based battles aren't better or worse than real-time ones - just different, and suited to different sorts of games.

    As for damming FF for its androgynous characters, I can't say they're always to my taste - but at least they make a change from the endless procession of thick-necked space marines presented to us by most Western developers ;)

  • PierrePressure #33 1 year ago

    I'm not a massive Final Fantasy fan so I am able to look at the games subjectively.
    FFVII is my favourite game of all time though and subsequently the first FF game I played. It was just perfect (to me) at the time.
    VIII and X are the only others I have played that game close to the feeling of VII.
    Now whenever I play them, the awkward plot and script just tend to make me cringe.
    I think Final Fantasy could do with being handed over to someone else - just to add some originality and, hopefully, a story that makes sense.

  • Apaar #34 1 year ago

    Several games in the series are among the best of the genre. Of course, if one doesn't like JRPGs one wont ever like Final Fantasy. Though during the 00s the series has really crumbled. In my opinion the last good one was IX. I really adore that game.

  • Zerobob #35 1 year ago

    "I saw games as a form of escapism. I wanted to shoot an endless procession of faceless henchmen, not discover an all-new arena for social exclusion"

    I've never though of it like that before, but I think this is exactly right. Why play something on a console that you can play as a turn-based board game? FF gameplay is as dull as you could possibly make it and the combat menus too extensive and wordy.

    That aside, I've always been put off by the fact nothing ever seems in the slightest bit coherent in any Final Fantasy game; everything is completely random to a point that nothing has any impact.

    For these reasons, I'm out.

  • coolbritannia #36 1 year ago

    I agree, complete non event in gaming for me.

  • menage #37 1 year ago

    I liked the older FF (VI, VII and IX) games, when they were just games and not game simulators (fucking FFXIII).

    Edited by menage at 11/01/11 @ 14:57

  • TonyHarrison #38 1 year ago

    I've never liked FF. Friends of mine are always trying to get me into it, but I can't. The sad thing is that when I tell them why I can't, these normally rational people come back at you with the kind of religious fervour that you'd expect to hear in an evangelical church in the southern American states if you went in to one with a copy of 'The God Delusion' held high above your head.

    It's actually quite disturbing watching them transform like that... I blame Final Fantasy for it.

  • Canyarion #39 1 year ago

    Final Fantasy, it consumes my life
    And that is probably why I'll never have a wife

  • glottis0 #40 1 year ago

    @TonyHarrison - slightly confused analogy as Dawkins is almost as zealous about atheism as fanboys are about FF (not that I don't agree completely with all things he says).

  • nooneyouknow #41 1 year ago

    combat menus too extensive and wordy

    Really..? Aren't the combat menus;

    Attack
    Special
    Magic
    Item
    ?
    Pretty much the same as every turn-based RPG out there? Seriously - too wordy? How could it be any less?

  • geeza2020 #42 1 year ago

    I loved Final fantasy games when they were games, and not 40 hour long trudges through one long corridor. I still cant believe just how much of a festering turd FFXIII is. I mean, 7, 8 and 9 were fantastic, 10 a bit of a disappointment, 12 just a bit dull, but 13 was a fucking car crash. So if you base your opinion on the whole series around FFXIII, then yes, its total crap.

  • StooMonster #43 1 year ago

    I once "RANDOM BATTLE" tried to play "RANDOM BATTLE" the first PlayStation Final Fantasy "RANDOM BATTLE" on PS1, the "RANDOM BATTLE" random battles put me off "RANDOM BATTLE" for life.

    Not sure it that's really how it went, but that's how I remember it and hence have never purchased another one since.

  • Feanor #44 1 year ago

    "Never has there been a more inaccessible franchise than Final Fantasy."

    That's rubbish, there are tons of games that are harder to get into than FF. You must be retarded.

  • SteveHolt #45 1 year ago

    I like JRPGs - I'm usually doing one per year -, but FFs have always left me cold.

    I played every entry since 7, and the only positives things I have to say are that FF8's trading cards mini-game was stupidly addictive, that FF9's characters were somewhat likeable, that I enjoyed FF10's combat system and that FF13 is a GREAT looking game. I don't remember anything about my FF7 playthrough, and I hated everything about FF12.

  • Feanor #46 1 year ago

    "Or are they heroines? So androgynous are the characters in Final Fantasy that it's often hard to tell. Perfect skin, gentle smiles, beautiful long-lashed eyes - these are just some of the features boasted by the series' male characters. They've surely been the biggest cause of sexual confusion amongst adolescent males since Bugs Bunny put on a dress and lipstick."

    Sazh and Snow sure look like dudes to me, and Lightning, Fang & Vanille are all very feminine. I think the writer is projecting his own issues onto the franchise, or saw that picture of Vaan with the apple and assumed all FF characters look like that.

  • Whitster #47 1 year ago

    I wonder if the person writing this has ever played FFXII, no reading as it's all voice acted and no turn based fights as it all happens in real time. Might be more up his alley.

    However judging by the comment I seem to be the only person in the world that enjoyed that one.

  • linea #48 1 year ago

    This is a bit of a disappointment, coming after the excellent "Why I Hate... Achievements" article.

    I'm all for opinion pieces and generally have really enjoyed this series of articles but this one really doesn't seem particularly well-considered.

  • Perjoss #49 1 year ago

    how is this an RPG anyway?

  • crabdamage #50 1 year ago

    Popular game series + fanboy baiting headline + thinly veiled argument = site MEGA hits 111

    Just looks a little desperate EG.

  • sfp_noodle #51 1 year ago

    Final Fantasy 7 is my favourite game of all time. I also loved FF8, but not equally. I missed the FF9 train as I was kinda burned out after playing FF7 and 8 back to back. I thought FFX was ok but not brilliant. Also, I do feel that a lot of reviewers at the time got distracted by the awesome graphics and cut-scenes. In fact, I could say the same about FF13. It's pretty sure, but lacks in pretty much everything else.

    This article is not really very analytical. It's more of a long-winded rant. I mean the guy pretty much admits to preferring shooting no-face soldiers repeatedly instead of giving an RPG with genuine depth a chance. I think someone who loves Final Fantasy could give a far better arguement for why they hate certain elements or parts in the series as they understand it better. If Eg paid me enough, I'd write 2 pages worth too, but they're not so I'll leave it at that.

  • MiY4MOTO #52 1 year ago

    Hear, hear! Up with this sort of thing!

    Couldn't agree more & never a truer word spoken (or written down).

  • harryriedl #53 1 year ago

    Final Fantasy A game I never really got played 6-7 on a mates PS but got bored at the 3 hour mark. FF and metal gear solid are two series i don't get at all.

    Agree with the article.
    Not sure if its because I don't like JRPG's (last one i liked was Pokemon blue)

  • justsomeone #54 1 year ago

    one of the bigger problems with FF games is encapsulated by the fact that i've played one of them, one of the recent ones, and i've no idea which one it was - i do better when the game i'm playing has a name...

    also, the other big problem is demonstrated by the fact i didn't get round to finishing it, despite playing a good deal of it. it just got increasingly complicated and i couldn't be bothered making the effort to learn all the new tricks the combat was trying to make me do. that was nearly 100 hours in according to the relevant menu.

    so i can't say i liked it either.

    finally tho, daniel, if you enjoyed playing DandD i'm not sure how you can subsequently claim you don't like turn-based combat...

  • asphaltcowboy #55 1 year ago

    Amen brother! I have not enjoyed any of the FF games I've played.

    I do have beautiful, long-lashed eyes though ;)

  • MiY4MOTO #56 1 year ago

    lol at a being neg'd for a comment simply supporting an article about someone having an opinion!

    Personally I've never liked a Final Fantasy game. I've bought FF7, and received promo / pre-release copies of FF8,9 & 10. I bought the re-releases of the earlier games on PS1 when they came out & tried to play each and every one, because people who's opinion I respected suggested that I should.

    And I thought they were all mad, or at least playing a different game to the one I tried. I never lasted more than a few hours on each & every one, only to be told that if I'd given it another [insert number between 10 & 20] hours that it gets [insert adjective ranging from 'better' to 'really good']. This seemed like madness to me, my time is worth more to me than that.

    If I'm not enjoying a film I generally don't sit through it to the end, just like I won't eat a sandwich I don't like or listen to Justin Bieber.

    There are JRPGs I have liked from the 8-bit / 16-bit era in particular the Ys games, but Final Fantasy has never floated my boat. I've been through exactly the same process with the Command & Conquer series only I stopped trying to like them after Tiberium Sun.
    Edited by MiY4MOTO at 11/01/11 @ 16:01

  • MrWonderstuff #57 1 year ago

    Really don't get on with JRPGs in general - maybe its my D&D roots but western RPGs have always given me my fix.

  • dudefella #58 1 year ago

    This is a terrible, lazy article. Not because I disagree with the writer but because of the way it's written. "Why are the battles turn-based anyway?" Are you fucking kidding, guy? Really? Go home and be a family man.

    It's a rant without any sort of argumentation other than "WHY DO THE MEN LOOK LIKE GIRLS HERPDERP" "I DONT LIKE READING IN GAMES" and other inane drivel. This is far, far below Eurogamer's standards. Very disappointed.
    Edited by dudefella at 11/01/11 @ 16:08

  • Bartacus #59 1 year ago

    Fantastic I agree with the author but I also see that different games are good not all games can be suited to 1 style of play.
    Edited by Bartacus at 11/01/11 @ 16:20

  • schachmatt #60 1 year ago

    What doesn't make sense to me is that an D&D nerd complains about turn-based combat.

  • metalangel #61 1 year ago

    "If I wanted to" (to reuse what seems to be the author's favourite saying) read some boring, blinkered trash, there's hundreds of fanboy sites out there I could visit. I come here for news and reviews, not cynical op-eds like this.

  • justsomeone #62 1 year ago

    the news and reviews sections are clearly marked as such, metalangel - no need for you to accidentally read an entire article that you didn't want, or comment on same...

    the op-ed articles are easy to spot (the "i" in "i hate" is the giveaway)

  • disappointed #63 1 year ago

    OK, give it up. The Why I Hate/Love... articles have reached their limit. They've become boring and predictable and serve as lightning rods for fanboyism. There are many ways of looking at things beyond love and hate. An article about why Final Fantasy needs a rethink, for example, would be far more interesting. The series no longer guarantees rave reviews and gameplay that was engaging on the SNES feels clumsy next to the likes of Mass Effect and Fallout. There's still a lot of potential there for something interesting but they need to shake things up and abandon old tropes that no longer make any sense. And so does Eurogamer.

  • The_Asking #64 1 year ago

    He'd rather play games "which don't force you to play out a storyboarded journey but which let you shape your own adventure". Why is that so important?

    JRPGs have a whole host of problems but I don't think linearity is one of them and I don't get why everyone has a problem with it. I would far rather a game told a deep and engrossing linear story than do what many western RPGs do and secrafice the story's meaning for freedom of choice.

    With games like Fable where every bonus power or weapon you get for being good is mirrrored by one gotten for being evil, I just think what's the point?

    If some guy has a great story he wants to make into a game, I see no reason why he should be forced to write 10 other stories just so he can tick the "has player choices!" or "has multiple endings!" box. It doesn't bother me when I read a book or watch a film and it doesn't bother me when I play a game either. Of course, done well choices can enhance a game but at worst they are like when a soap opera asks viewers to vote on what they want to happen to the characters - shallow.

    None of that changes the fact that the linear stories JRPGs do tell are often dire. I loath them, just not because the are linear.

    Edited by The_Asking at 11/01/11 @ 16:27

  • Darren #65 1 year ago

    Apart from FFVII, which was memorable for its strong characters/story and the fact it was the first RPG I played, all the other games in the series I've tried have been pretty much forgettable once completed and dragged on far, far too long. Cliched characters, linear gameplay and predictable storylines are part and parcel of your average Japanese RPG anyway but I'm eternally thankful for developers like BioWare and Bethesda for taking a tired old genre and making something far more interesting out of it. FFXIII was a very pretty game for sure but depressingly dull to play and very dated gameplay wise.

  • Makeem95 #66 1 year ago

    The last Final Fantasy I enjoyed was XII, everything since then has bored me. Though I'm hoping XIII Versus turns things around.
    I'm probably more hopeful of the Dragon Quest franchise, but wish they'd release something on the PSP or PS3.

  • Akira_Tenshi #67 1 year ago

    I still get a lot of enjoyment from FF games. I do agree it's not what it once was but i'm still a fan.

  • FenderMaster #68 1 year ago

    turn based combat is fine, the real issue is random battles. if every fight felt important, i wouldn't mind FF battle systems at all, it's just the grind, throwing enemies in your way just to make a 5 minute walk into a 30 minute walk, it's a means of padding game length. XIII mercifully didn't have random battles, but it was still guilty of artificially extending a 20 hour experience into an 80 hour one by forcing you to fight the same plant monster or wolf thing hundreds of times. Strategy goes out the window, you've already beaten this combination of monsters hundreds of times, it's just a chore...

    i must admit i kind of like the "androgynous" jrpg heroes, maybe they need to be a little bit more masculine, but it's nothing a moustache wouldn't fix, and it's infinitely prefereable to the bland western hero with the shaved head/bald/short back and sides, built like a fridge, and voiced by Nolan North (i like Drake though...)

  • Osahi #69 1 year ago

    Great article, althougj I couldn't agree less. Final Fantasy kickstarted my love for games when I played VIII as an 11 year old and IX is up there with my top 5 games of Ever or so. Something in the formula makes me forget all the bad parts and gets me hookes like Pete Doherty on whatever he's on right now.

    I grant you don't like chrono trigger and Dragon Quest either? It might be more of a genre thingie (JRPG's are different than those who are based on board games with fancy dices). I hate StarCraft. But that's just because I hate RTS :p

  • albertofustinoni #70 1 year ago

    Troll article is troll... slow news day? The basically just rehashes every cliche about JRPGs we've been reading on the net in recent years.
    And seriously, playing the "man or woman?" card using Lightning's picture is fail: shock and awe at a girl looking girly.
    At least Yahtsee is funny when doing the same.

  • metalangel #71 1 year ago

    @justsomeone: so you're saying I shouldn't say if I don't like something, I should just ignore it?

  • Mark1412 #72 1 year ago

    Great read.

  • 43n1m4 #73 1 year ago

    I'm not sure what to think of these 'Why I hate.." articles. But FFXIII was not only a disaster as a game, it also had the worst characters and the most incomprehensive story in recent memory. I came back to the series, the last one I played was the now ancient FFVII, expecting the series to have developed to new heights, just to see the glaring issues with most JRPGs be even more pronounced in FFXIII - the games equivalent of a landfill. For what it's worth, though, I don't think the series should be judged by the latest outing alone.

  • Hei #74 1 year ago

    When i read this article, i was wondering if this was an humorictic one

  • technicianTed #75 1 year ago

    The moment a baby chick flew out the black dudes afro, that was enough for me.

    15 years ago bizarre things like that were funny to see, but we're all a bit older now and the silliness of it all was too much to take.
    And that australian voice acted girl who went oooooo and ahhhhh a lot, i want to throttle her i really do.

    I hated FF13 with a passion.

  • BillyBrush #76 1 year ago

    FF is awful, it's big and mainstream though, so any sites who have ambitions to be big and mainstream (yoo hoo) will focus a lot of attention on it, and the next one...moreso than better games which are more niche (they might still cover those, to be truly mainstream you must cover every niche after all). And that's it with FF...it's just 'big' and creates a virtuous circle for anything associated (websites, mags, plush toy makers, you name it) hence it stays big. The last one still shifted millions as far as i'm aware.

    Not a very good article in my opinion daniel, soz to be harsh.

  • Cheapshot #77 1 year ago

    I feel sorry for this writer. Final Fantasy may have taken a nosedive into a pile of horse shit lately, but the franchise still just has an *aura* about it that cannot be explained by man, the opera house bit in Final Fantasy VI, the dance sequence in FFVIII - there's just so much class and a raw emotion on display that is, I think unique to videogames.

    There were so many wow moments in FF games that pushed narrative boundaries at the time when we were all playing Ridge Racer and Tekken. Sure, random battles are a bit tedious, but you were always rewarded for your work so well and even though it was kind of artificial it always gave you the feeling you were on this long, long journey and the time investment really pulls you into the world you're in and all that.

    JRPG's always remind me of my childhood in a warm, nostalgic way, unlike the western stuff they were so imaginative and took you to these crazy and unthinkable worlds, the characters were always likeable and/or badass, and the storylines were deep and almost poetic in that distinctive Japanese way. I grew up playing these games and this petulant badly written article kind of takes the piss out of all that with no solid reasons to back it up, so... stop it, alright?

  • miiiguel #78 1 year ago

    Didn't like this article. I don't think FFXIII is that good a game (Last Remnant, gameplay, and story wise is a much better game), though it's still video-game history. And it's pretty, and stylish. This article is not. Soz.

  • Goodfella #79 1 year ago

    This article should be called 'Why I Hate FFXIII', I've mostly enjoyed the rest of the games except for that piece of turd.

  • intpleeus #80 1 year ago

    The first twenty hours of Final Fantasy XIII were okay, for me. I actually disliked the ostensibly open-world excursion to Pulse more than the on-rails extended opening. Pulse was devoid of anything interesting, and it came at a stage in the story that totally ruined the pacing. FFXIII will probably be the last Square-Enix game that I ever buy, not because it was terrible, but because there are much better games out there to spend time and money on. Overall, I am glad that I did not buy it brand new and at launch, but I do not regret buying it when I did.

    Almost no videogame is deserving of hate -- derision maybe, but hate? No.

  • Stuz359 #81 1 year ago

    My biggest problem with the FF games has always been the combat. For so long in the game (I mean about 20 hours worth too), you can vanquish any enemy you meet by pressing A (or X) repeatedly. Then you come to a boss and suddenly you have to have a strategy, what's all that about. For 20 hours I have had to use no strategy, either in terms of combat or levelling up, now I die constantly because I haven't levelled up in the right way.

  • Nephirion #82 1 year ago

    I'm still Waiting for Why I Hate Call of Duty, but I guess that's never going to happen.

  • Scimarad #83 1 year ago

    Oh, get the hell out of here!! Final Fantasy hates YOU:)

  • PBz0r #84 1 year ago

    Nothing new here. Your argument would've been more convincing if you could point out some of the undeniably positive aspects of Final Fantasy, but as it stands, you're just going through every single part of gameplay and presentation and saying "it sucks balls because I don't like it" like most forum goons with the same opinion. You seem convinced you know the reasons why fans like it (trust me, no one played FFX for the Blitzball), but in the end I can only conclude that you just don't get it. If your preferences lie elsewhere, I can see that (though I fail to understand how WoW is any less turn-based than, say, FFXII). But you seem to argue the games are actually bad, that they are more of a grind than western RPG's, which is utter bollocks, save maybe for total non-RPGs like Mass Effect 2.

    I should also mention how easy it is to find fault with a franchise sporting around 50 instalments, which are all more or less different games, a lot of which have a fatal flaw SOMEWHERE along the way, be it drawing magic, Blitzball or, well, most of FFXIII, which is a game most Final Fantasy fans spit upon. An equally sound argument would be that wRPG's are bad because Oblivion has poor AI, Planescape: Torment has too much dialogue, Fable didn't live up to its hype and I don't like the gunplay in Mass Effect.
    Edited by PBz0r at 11/01/11 @ 17:51

  • Scimarad #85 1 year ago

    Having actually read the article now rather than just reacting to the headline, I have to agree with the vast majority of the posts saying the writer is making some truly ridiculous points. Definitely the worst of these articles so far and I'm not just saying that because I like (or liked) FF.

  • man.the.king #86 1 year ago

    Like many of the posters on here, I'm not a fan of FFXIII either, but after reading Daniel Bettridge's article, I felt as if this was an article written by a 14-year-old COD aficionado and approved by a 15-year old school newspaper editor.

  • SpookyTang #87 1 year ago

    I do enjoy these "why i hate .." articles but this one was very poor and seemed forced to get some fanboy reaction. If this is the route these articles are going to take then i'll be avoiding them as i can read bollocks like this x100 on gamefaqs.

  • Sanya #88 1 year ago

    Gameplay of this game is just to connect beautiful video rolics,nothing more,it's too long

  • Xardan #89 1 year ago

    Way to go eurogamer. Please continue to express your opinion in such a way and disregard the rabid fanboys that may amass to challenge it.

  • PierrePressure #90 1 year ago

    How about a Final Fantasy made by Eidos Montreal? I'd be interested.

  • King_Edward #91 1 year ago

    Reads more like an attack on the genre as a whole. Some of it I agreed with, most of it was drivel.

  • Luckyjim #92 1 year ago

    In my opinion, FF games give JRPGs a bad rep. There's still a lot of great stuff out-there.

  • Presidenton #93 1 year ago

    This article would of been a much more interesting read if the writer wasn't so clearly biased against the series. It honestly seems like he's only played XIII and read up on what the most hated parts of the previous games were. Shabby to say the least.....

  • Feanor #94 1 year ago

    "The last Final Fantasy I enjoyed was XII, everything since then has bored me."

    There's only been one proper FF game since then - FFXIII.

  • darkmorgado #95 1 year ago

    So then, less an article about why you hate Final Fantasy, and more an article about why you hate Role Playing Games.

  • Miths #96 1 year ago

    @darkmorgado

    That was pretty much my impression as well after reading this rant.
    I'm not a big fan of JRPGs either (tried as I have to like a number of them, including playing FFXIII for a good 12 hours or so, I just can't stomach the typical characters, dialogue and to a lesser extent the typical storyline themes - I do tend to rather like their take on turn based combat though), but I'm a big fan of Western RPGs in general, from the completely turn based like Fallout 1 and 2, over the semi-turn based like the old Infinity Engine games (BG1+2, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale etc.) to those with real-time combat like the Elderscrolls series, all the way to the shooter/RPG hybrids like the fantastic Mass Effect series.

  • Capa26 #97 1 year ago

    Another week another poor-take-on-a-Yahtzee-esque article.

    Opinion is fine, but these are just pointlessly antagonistic, mostly unfounded and witless articles which don't fit with the tone of the site in any way.

  • HandOfBeadle #98 1 year ago

    Final Fantasy XIII is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.

    Textbook.

  • Bobbus74 #99 1 year ago

    Final Fantasy eh? Don't hate it but it's just not my thing. I've tried to "get it" but I just find the whole turn-based random battle set-up extremely repetitive, monotonous and dull.
    Edited by Bobbus74 at 11/01/11 @ 20:19

  • dagas #100 1 year ago

    7-10 were great, and maybe the new ones would be as well if I wasn't a decade too old for their target demographic.

  • wittynic #101 1 year ago

    the guy starts an article about how he hates turn-based combat and reading by admitting he likes dungeons and dragons. the game were you ROLL DICE to decide combat and read from a rule book and scenario to make the game move ahead. HMMM.

  • mr2ange #102 1 year ago

    I've always wanted to get into the FF games, i tried 7 but just got bored so quickly, and i love turn based games as the strategy is key. Xcom ufo (although entirely different) was and is one of my favorite games of all time.

    I revisited the RPG world once Eternal Sonata came out on ps3, and even though some people thought it a little shallow, i thought the combat system was absolutely perfect - enough timing based skill as well as turn based.

    If Eternal Sonata gets a sequel then i'll be all over it like a rash.

    -Just to add, i have nothing against FF games, i know the audience loves them, and they must have some magic that i tragically cant see. I hope they do continue but do contain some evolution rather than being too similar to each other.

  • metalangel #103 1 year ago

    Yeah, not all JRPGs are "bad".

    Eternal Sonata and Skies Of Arcadia, for example.

    Plus, Western devs could do well to learn a thing or two from them. I wish my character in New Vegas could be as beautiful as one from FFXIV, for example. How about some beautiful, colorful fantasy worlds, too? Almost every location in Eternal Sonata was captivating to look at.

  • Gastrian #104 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Discalceaterabbit #105 1 year ago

    Hey, at least Katie Waisel had, at least, attempted to become a popstar via the hard channel.
    Now Cher Lloyd.....

    Oh, and FF XIII is one of the worst examples of entertainment to ever be consigned to digital media.
    I find it difficult to understand how anyone can regard it as a game, let alone a good one.
    Edited by Discalceaterabbit at 11/01/11 @ 22:11

  • Dogs-in-Hats #106 1 year ago

    I vaguely remember enjoying 9.
    But I broadly agree with the article,This type of game has had its day.

  • mr2ange #107 1 year ago

    @Metal Angel

    Yes Eternal Sonata had utterly beautiful environments, unfortunately they are rather static, but this is down to the nature of the game type. I would love to see that kind of environment used in other types of game.

    Also why cant we have online MMO's with the kind of gameplay that demon's souls has???
    I mean MMO's have their area, but why the hell cant we have REAL combat? you know, more than just a few lame clicks of a mouse, then watch while the character does 3 anims that are totally disconnected from anything else in the world.

    Thats when MMO's will come back on my radar, and i will once again sit in a dark room for hours on end, then wake up one morning and say, shit where did that year go?

  • kupocake #108 1 year ago

    I'm somewhat confused by the opening of the article... if Katie whatsherface is mentioned, this makes the article writer British, correct? The mention of the NES throws me. There was no European Final Fantasy before 7, so why the angst about growing up with this shadowy turd waiting in the wings?

    It's easy to lose perspective, but here, in Europe, in 1997, Final Fantasy was a one game phenomenon. Even by the time Final Fantasy IX came out, there was only a European release every two years. After a year in which two numbered Final Fantasies were launched, that seems pretty crazy, doesn't it?

    As apathetic as I now feel to the series, my opinion is always going to be coloured by the fact that Final Fantasy VII received a PC Zone Classic in the first ever games magazine I purchased. And frankly, if Charlie Brooker says a game is cool (because or in spite of it featuring Crossdressing), it may be just cool.

    Though not quite as cool as the first time you hear about it, and wonder how on earth you're going to understand a game that has six prequels.
    Edited by kupocake at 11/01/11 @ 22:29

  • Climhazzard #109 1 year ago

    The simple fact is i love Final Fantasy and don't give a damn what everyone else's opinion is and thats how it should be. I will say that FFXIII didn't live up to expectations at all but i liked some of the characters more so than the last couple of games.

    Eurogamer i remember gave Final Fantasy XII 10/10 mostly because of the battle system, which i hated by the way. It had a pretty bland cast of characters who were totally forgettable and i only remember one of them because he appeared in FF Tactics A2.

    Overall if you don't like Final Fantasy im guessing JRPG's aren't your sort of game. Just don't be slating it just because you don't like it. I hate Grand Theft Auto, Need for Speed Fall Out but i wouldn't say they're bad games just because of my own opinion. Some people need to chill out a bit.

  • rommy667 #110 1 year ago

    These are the worst most boring zzzzzzzzz games ever.

  • lagoonalight #111 1 year ago

    WTF is this garbage. Okay, I was looking for a rational article. Some of it might be. The other 3/4 not so much. The errors have already been pointed out because they look like subjective, idiotic, ruminations on pointless and airless debates about things nobody cares to hear. Turn based combat. He just lost me on the whole article there. What the hell was all that about? Half or more of the rest is the same pointless banter about things that don't reall need to be changed. What needs to be changed has been discussed already, e.g., exploration, story competence, weird characters.

    Mind you the part about the translations. Umm, I don't think the japanese version is going to blow your mind guy. They have more than likely translated this game well at this point. It's probably the writers that need some help just as it has been for some time.
    Edited by lagoonalight at 11/01/11 @ 23:36

  • cjs #112 1 year ago

    I rather liked the other articles in this series, even when I disagreed with them, because they pointed out some of the problems facing specific games and the computer gaming arts as a whole.

    This, on the other hand is a simple whine about one man's personal taste, with nothing else redeeming to offer or think about.

    Worse yet, even as an argument for only one personal taste, it's lame. Hating turn-based combat, even without an analysis of its bad points, is one thing, but comparing reading a few dozen lines of character dialogue to reading a novel? The man's either just trying to provoke us, or he's an idiot; I'm not sure which. The wildly-thrown complaint about cut-scenes hits a lot more games than RPGs (Uncharted 2! Fail!) and moaning about "the same hero story" goes beyond games to dismiss a good chunk of our narrative arts since before Homer.

    Come on, Eurogamer. The "Why I Hate..." series is a good idea, but you need competent writing, or at least competent thinking, to make this more than a tedious whine-fest.

  • sirballen #113 1 year ago

    I agree with the article's sentiment, but the points he makes are pretty weak to me... I'm not sure if my arguments are any better, but still: in the instalments where the combat is old school turn based, there is little-to-no skill involved in regular battles, they give almost no satisfaction. They are usually over too quickly, are far too frequent. Also, I think random encounters were due to hardvare limitations in the first few games. They should have been removed as soon as possible, since they effectively disencourage exploration of new areas, or off the beaten path places - hmm, maybe there's a chest at the end of this road, but I won't risk getting attacked again, because A) it will futher drain my mana/health, B) I cannot friggin bear another cookie cutter battle with painfully long intro and victory sequences...
    When they have some variant of the active time battle system... That's propably even worse. They've tried to add some urgency, or player skill requirement to the battles, but the method just fails. It's kinda the same experience as looking up a name in the phonebook - against the clock.
    + When they have an open overworld, it's trial and error which areas you can enter without getting beaten by high level creeps, plus you often have little idea where to go next, and you have to bump into every random villager to find out. By the way, while I understand it's a JRPG thing to tell a linear tale, giving less important NPCs, like guards a friggin dialog tree would go a long way toward creating more immersion.
    Oh yeah, immersion. You're strollin in a desert, you bump into a hyena and a giant bird which spits lightning. Oh cool, you say, thats the local fauna. Next encounter: its another hyena, and three desert bandits. So much for the wildlife theory... By lumping every adversary into the same 'monster' category, the games make you feel like your heroes are going through some theme park ride. For me it makes really difficult to take anything seriously in the game, and when something significant comes up in the story, the intended emotional effect totally eludes me.
    Speaking of story, only FF7 was capable of holding my interest long enough to get the story really going, and I admit, it kinda is really good. If you observe it as a standalone entity. But sadly it's packaged into a gameworld which alienates me from the characters, and gameplay which is as fun as managing an Excel spreadsheet.
    Further gripes: half of effective gametime is spent in menus, long summoning animations, just too much random.
    Omigad HUGE wall of text.

    tl:Dr Chore-like gameplay and archaic design effectively destroys good story.

  • Gastrian #114 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • citizenHUNTER #115 1 year ago

    This article is written with a pretty harsh tone and perhaps isn't the most balanced piece ever written but I do agree with the disliking of RPG's. I've never played a Final Fantasy game. Ever. I've tried a couple of RPG's along the road but they always felt incredibly dated, very stale and ridiculously repetitive. Everything I wanted an RPG game to be never really materialised. The one that came closest was Panzer Dragoon Saga but I only played the first disc (demo off a magazine) and regret never getting the full game. The thing that did annoy me about that game and my main gripe about ALL RPG's are the battles. Random, turn based battles that literally crop up out of nowhere completely shattering your immersion into the game world and storyline, to fight the same monsters over and over again, taking turns to do so.... it all just ruins it for me. Imagine if Ico thrust random battles or puzzles just as you're wandering about, battles and puzzles that don't even take place in the game world you were just in, but in some odd constantly reappearing piece of land.... no one would have been too impressed, so how do RPG's get away with it, just cos it's part of what makes ir an RPG.... I think they need to change with the times.

    For me RPG's have huge worlds and huge epic storylines... this is what I want to experience, and I think it's a great shame that every single one that I know of features turn based battles, and some still have random battles. Get rid!

    Shenmue was the one and only game which classed itself as an RPG which actually eschewed all of this. Most of the time you could just wander about soaking up the environment, the characters, the random people on the street, the storyline, even your wee dayjob driving the forklift truck for a while, you could go and play games in an arcade or rummage around your characters bedroom. The storyline and cutscenes were actually kinda interesting and focused on character development more than relentless plot development, and the few times you did fight were relatively decent. The QuickTime Events actually worked really well too. All in all a brilliant game showing exactly the path RPG's should have gone for, but nope.... (that was 10 years ago now too)

    Plus there wasn't an 'experience-point' in sight, the only real development was learning new fighting moves which was more realistic as you literally had to learn them yourself, you felt really engaged with the character, rather than grind over and over again in random battles to up your XP to let you buy a new fucking potion or whatever! In Shenmue I was never too great at the fighting sections but you could always get by with some perseverance, the game never held you back artificially, anyone could enjoy it. RPG's now still feel like a real throw back to 20 years ago...

    Fuck where is Shenmue 3 Yu Suzuki!!!!
    Edited by citizenHUNTER at 12/01/11 @ 04:24

  • CloudXIV #116 1 year ago

    That's some really serious hate there, but it's a personal opinion and I don't have a problem with that. It just puzzles me why did the author play so many FF games if he hates them so. I didn't western rpg games once, cause I just hated rts styled controls (like in Baldurs Gate), but it's different now since I can play games like Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls on consoles with a gamepad.

  • Tonne #117 1 year ago

    i have spent hunderds of hours happily playing FF. FF VIII was my first rpg en since then it's grown to be my favourite games.
    but then FF XIII happed. at first i was like the rest of the horde. happily screaming in joy when a new screenshot was releashed. but then i had to play the game and i would rather get my arse kicked by an MMAchampion then play it again.

  • SlackMaster #118 1 year ago

    The article just sounds like a bit of a bitch tbh... FF games used to be great in the 8 and 16bit era, but times have moved on and unfortunately while western RPG's are really pushing the bounderies of sandbox freedom, devs like Square-Enix are still re-using the same tired systems with just graphical updates.

    The voice acting and dialogue is also awful in their games and characters are so androgynous looking. I know many fashionable Japanese men have that slighly feminine look about them no-a-days but seriously why are so many JRPG characters like this?

  • SlackMaster #119 1 year ago

    If you're going to spend 20hrs plus with an RPG IMO the story has to draw you in as leveling and grinding will only take you so far. It's why I never played more than a few hours of Monster Hunter and why I eventually tired of PSO.

    Before the series moved to voice acting and you just read the text things seemed better and at least you could skip through crappy or mundane dialogue to get to the more interesting plot points. Now however although cutscenes etc are very well animated the shitty voice acting and awful dialogue you're forced to listen to just puts me off playing. So now the game still has lots of grinding and possibly a good story but buried in so much crap it's painful to sit through.

  • luis_guzman #120 1 year ago

    There's something to be said about the rage of a frothing, sexless, D&D nerd. It's the kind of rage that only years of being shoveled into high school lockers and being snubbed on Prom night can produce, but enough about my school years.
    Truth be told, I'm disappointed with Eurogamer. This is the kind of inflammatory, poorly written, whiney tripe that I would expect from IGN or a 13 year old Halo fan's blog. Constructive criticism I can appreciate, but this is just a weak and spiteful write up that could have been better executed by a lobotomized chimp with a typewriter. Oh and Dannyboy, I won't be holding my breath waiting for that "why I hate CoD" article. If there's any pride left at EG, the higher ups will have you canned in the near future.

  • MisterBee #121 1 year ago

    I do hate the Black-Eyed Peas.

  • MisterBee #122 1 year ago

    FF has put me right off JRPG. I grow up playing Secert of Mana, Zelda, Y's. But I never really got the FF series. FFVII got boring after disc 3. And I gave up on FFX after the end boss wiped my team with one hit. Since then I haven't touched a JRPG. I'm quite happy playing Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3, and The Witcher once I've finshed one or the other.

  • butler` #123 1 year ago

    Charlie Brooker's FFVII review makes quite a good read actually for anyone that may be interested.

  • Bigglesworth #124 1 year ago

    Wow, what an over-opiniated, ignorant article. Was this produced by a professional writer, or was it user-submitted?

  • respectyourelder #125 1 year ago

    I've really enjoyed all of the Opinion articles that have been published recently, but this one does just sound, as others have said, like someone ranting off about a series that clearly just isn't aimed at their particular gaming preferences.

    It's like when people try to tell me that football is just "22 people kicking a bag of air", it's the most basic throwaway judgment you can make without having really understood the game at all. If you don't like it, just don't play it.

    And another thing, why is FF XIII suddenly seen as an example that can justify opinion on an entire series? Yes, FF XIII is probably my least favourite of the series, and the opening 20 or so hours can be tedious, but to use that as a major fault of an entire franchise that has been going for 3 decades is a bit much. if the article was "Why I Hate FF XIII", fair enough.

    And last but not least, the thing that gets to me the most about gamers who don't like Turn-Based Combat... the old "it wouldn't happen in real life"... well yes, of course it wouldn't, as neither would so many other game mechanics. The fact is, your playing a game, based on strategy, and like most of the classic strategy games that were around long before video games (Chess, for example) you are tasked with out thinking your opponent with careful consideration of your next move, before they try to get the better of you. it's probably one of the oldest game mechanics ever invented, so to write it off with a criticism of it's merit's in the real world surely misses the point of what a game is at all.

    Phew, rant over.

  • ChuckNorris #126 1 year ago

    If you really want to read the good and the ugly of FF read this:

    [link url=http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=patff
    ]http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php...[/link]

    Balanced, witty, on-point and not retarded.

  • nnepveu #127 1 year ago

    I agree. I never really liked Final Fantasy Games my self., they always did seem to be rather laborious.
    @MattEdWithCheese

    Do you consider Fallout or Mass Effect Tolkienesque?

  • chicknstu #128 1 year ago

    Actually, I think the most rabid fans probably only got on the boat at 7. Which is the worst one. Everyone knows 4 is the best :)

  • fceccare #129 1 year ago

    "I play games because I want to avoid anything that remotely resembles self-improvement." funny statement but I'm afraid I could even agree with it........

  • Retro_ #130 1 year ago

    I enjoy the music within the FF games as much as the games themselves and for that reason, FFXII (12) was probably my favorite.

    Back on Topic, FFXIII wasn't great but I certainly didn't hate it, especially once it opened up ( 30 or so hours in )

  • GaryStew1980 #131 1 year ago

    If I kept a Journal this is what it would be like reading it, well apart from the stuff about D&D, seriously whats up with those people they're even worse than the FF brigade. Everything he says is bang on though. Most of his complaints seem systematic in Japanese gaming. People give out about EA releasing yearly FIFA, Madden, Tiger Woods and NHL games but at least in 10 years they have changed something other than graphics. How can FF still use turn based action for the love of god? Street Fighter 14 Hyper Alpha Turbo Deadly Super Buzz is the same game as SFII except they have changed graphics and a few new characters.

    This rubbish of you have to spend 20 hours or wading through junk till you get to the good bits? Being Irish i have heard time and time again Guiness is an aquired taste, but why aquire a taste to something that tastes rank? You could eat sh*t every day eventually you would aquire a taste for it because your tastebuds, stomach and brain would get used to it, it doesnt mean you should. The cut scenes, ahh those cut scenes ever since the MGS2 final boss fight i have hated cutscenes that last more than 90 seconds. Nothing annoys me more than sitting through a 10-15 min cutscene thats boring and makes no sense to get to some game play that lasts 5 minutes and then it is back to another cutscene see MGS4. I played that game it took about 7 hours to beat, but i probably only had about 3 hours gameplay the rest was silly cut scenes which i actualy started to skip through as each got more boring that the previous.

    Resident Evil and Silent Hill type games are the same. Really its just the same game with prettier graphics that dont even really live up to the versions that were out 6-7 years ago. Unfortunately it seems western developers are starting to fall into the same trap isnt that right Activision as we get a 4th COD game in a row that uses the same engine, graphics and almost identical game play as COD4: MW.

    To be honest the only Japanese developer making anything fun at the moment is Nintendo and fair play at least they are innovative.

  • Ishmail #132 1 year ago

    "And last but not least, the thing that gets to me the most about gamers who don't like Turn-Based Combat... the old "it wouldn't happen in real life"... well yes, of course it wouldn't, as neither would so many other game mechanics."

    Exactly. In fact combat in most real time RPG's makes no sense at all in about a dozen different ways, and is about as abstract as it's possible to get. Most RPG's have no collision logic, no recoil or hit stun, you can be attacked by 5 people at the same time and still attack as normal. They have no wounds, bleeding or damage location modelling, you can still fight as normal after 5 axe blows to the head. And they no fatigue, you can run around all day carrying 5 suits of armour and then turn on a dime and shoot arrows at a rate of one per second. You almost might as well not bother with the animations and just have a bunch health bars and DPS values moving around the screen.

    When you take into account all of this the extra abstraction of turn based combat seems pretty innocuous to me. Fair enough if people don't agree but they should at least recognise that it's subjective.

    I haven't played FF so I don't know if they make TB work for them, but it's a valid design choice that lets you do things that can't be done in real time games.

  • darkphoenix #133 1 year ago

    Now this is one really bad article, what a mess...
    I've stood away from these "why I hate/love" until now, a wise decision I can see.
    Writer just rants about a game style he refuses to like.

    -Claims to dislike turn-based combat, although he's a D&D vet...
    -Complaints about text, yet praises Mass Effect or most western rpgs wich have as much - sometimes a lot more - reading than most jrpgs.
    -Is confused about the sexuality in jprg characters, yet feels right at home in Gears of War and similar clones homo-erotic fest, crowded with those macho sweaty all muscle-no brain marine n' gymn ( stereo ) types.

    ...and I could go on.... and on.

    Please, when writing an opinion article, show valid arguments and try not to undermine them yourself with your childish contraditions.
    Edited by darkphoenix at 12/01/11 @ 14:18

  • respectyourelder #134 1 year ago

    oh and using the same crappy Jedward joke (they dont even have spikey hair fwiw) in the body of the text and in the caption of the final screen shot = scraping the barrel in my book.

  • Nikanoru #135 1 year ago

    Yeahhhh.... I agree with a lot of people here, this doesn't read like an article but just some internet troll post written by a 16 year old. "there's no hiding the fact that the FF games just aren't much fun."??? Well, when I played them they damn well seemed fun to me, so there goes your "fact". Or did you misspell "opinion"?

    Also, I'm sure it's been mentioned lots of times but, PLEASE PLEASE for the love of god, when bashing on the series, will people stop using FF13 as an example of a proper Final Fantasy game? It just isn't.

  • Daryoon #136 1 year ago

    Could've been an interesting article, were it not just rehashing the same "I hate FF because..." arguments that have been around since FF7 became popular (and most of which, before then, were thrown around about anime in general!).

    But I guess ticking all the boxes increases SEO :p

  • gorf #137 1 year ago

    i once fell for the alure of final fantasy 7, had great reviews, visuals to die for, but even then playing it felt like i was watching fridge magnets. with the modern games of today, the ff series feels stale and old, a genre that has reached an evolutionary cul de sac. Now it lumbers on like A cyst that cannot be excised completly unaware of its own banality

  • TexMurphy01 #138 1 year ago

    I'm probably repeating what others have said, but this is more about impact than content. Others have torn the content apart and they were right.

    Give some good reasons and we'll come back. I give this review 4/10. Not terrible but could do a lot better.

  • Postumo #139 1 year ago

    You nailed it

  • ShiroBen #140 1 year ago

    FF used to be great, but starting with X (arguably IX) it began to lose its magic. X-2 was the first genuinely bad game in the series, XI was a (gnnnngh) MMO, and FFXII did little to redeem the franchise. FFXIII I just can't be bothered with at all, it's like game by game they've systematically taken away everything I loved about the series replaced it with increasingly unappealing character and monster designs, long, dull cutscenes, and a bizarre trend towards linearity and taking away control from the player.

    One game that I felt captured a little of the old FF spirit is Lost Odyssey, it surprised me with its fun mechanics and while the story is dull and drawn out and fairly unengaging, some of the characters are likeable and it has some nice moments. Another game that's nothing like FF but still a fun JRPG is Resonance of Fate, although the combat mechanic in that gets a little old after twenty hours or so.

  • Hal82 #141 1 year ago

    FFX was my first dive into the JRPG world and I absolutely loved the story and most of the characters. I loved them so much that I was able to endure the grind, the random battles, the slow running, the constant menu tinkering, the linearity, the blitzball and the repetition.
    At the time, all of that was an acceptable sacrifice if it meant the story (which was deeply multi-layered) can unfold.

    I ploughed through that game for hundreds of hours, completed it twice, maxed out all characters, unlocked all the Legendary Weapons, killed all the dark Aeons and even defeated Penance.

    I don't think I've put as much effort into any other game before or since, and for that reason, I will always look back on it with rose-tinted glasses. BUT, I can't imagine putting myself through all that again, the experience can never be replicated. It was an epic grind that can only really bear fruits once. To attempt it again would be a terrible misuse of time.

    I tried FFX-2, FFXII and Lost Odyssey but there was no magic there. They were a combination of ridiculous, overly pretentious and boring. In reality, FFX could probably also be described that way by most people, but since it was a new experience for me at the time, it keeps a special place in my mind.