By next FFT, I mean real one, not another FFXII spin off. Those were alright, I guess.
Chronologically, it would occur some time after the events surrounding FFXII, but long before those in War of the Lions.It’s theme: Genocide. It is a darker story and world, though I don’t know if it will have much Shakespearean structure.
The backstory of the game is as follows: War has ravaged Ivalice for centuries. Rapidly developing technology coupled with magickal might has left entire regions in ruins, countless losses of life sustained, and merely over the clans’ rights to land and natural resources. Just as society itself seems on the brink of annihilation, the people of Ivalice make a decisive stand, and refuse to pay clans until they put down their arms and stop fighting. Some clans resist, and the church has a hand in helping quell the few that stubbornly cling to their turpitude. Finally it seems the ages of darkness and horror are at an end. Yet all does not sit well. Transgressions so profound do not simply fade away, society must have someone to blame. A scapegoat for its misdeeds. But since every clan was merely doing its ordained work, it must not be a single person or organization. It must be the unHumes! Radical words like these are quiet and whispered enough at first, but over the decades, children are raised to distrust anything non-hume. Why was my father or mother taken away from me for their warmongering? Of course many resist the growing tide of racism and bigotry, but it’s only a matter of time before Humes band together to subdue the other peoples of Ivalice.
At first there is no great culling. The Vierra and Bangaa and Seeq and Nu Mou who are captured are made to serve as slaves. Better to put their unique skills to use than simply qipe them out, despite their malcontent. It is not until rebellious armed groups of non-humes begin making strategic strikes against Hume cities that the more outspoken members of society raise the call for a “purge”. As the movement gains in strength, the stage is set. Humes are the only peoples that the world needs; tis far more secure and prosperous thus. The killing begins. Into this world a hero is born, one that will not be recorded in history. A hume, raised to hate non-humes, until something dramatic turns his world upside down.
I also think St. Ajora should be incorporated into the story somehow.
Correction, Nintendo has. They pushed for a more general-audiences series of games. I think the designers figured it’d be best for business so they went with it.
…I will never understand why people think the original FFT was good. It’s just… it really, really, redefined what it meant for games to suck It was probably the worst Square game before Chrono Cross. And the FFTA games, while not great, rip the original right the fuck apart. “Raped the franchise?” What the… what? I… what?
I don’t think the first FFT was poorly written; it was just too convoluted, and, oh yeah, ended pretty tragically. Now I’ve got nothing against Shakespearean tragedies, in fact I have watched them sometimes. But you know where I do it? In movies, books or plays. In a Final Fantasy game, I expect EPIC stories with cool powers and Saving the World in the end. I don’t think that’s asking for too much. If you want to do Final Fantasy: MacBeth, be my guest, but let me know what I’m getting before I buy it. >_<
I used to think the story was why I hated FFT, but I was wrong. The real reason is SO much SIMPLER: Lack of gameplay. You press very few buttons to perform actions, there are really long waiting periods between button-pressing, and the actions your characters do take are unpredictable enough for me to feel like I have little influence on how the game plays out. I think the story sucks. I haven’t changed my mind about that, but if I played games for story, two of my favourites wouldn’t be Tetris and Minesweeper. I play games to give myself something to DO, to feel like my mind and my hands are being tested in a way that offers gratification, or at least to feel like I have more influence in some world, somewhere, than I do in this one. And I hate FFT because it just doesn’t deliver any of that. My body isn’t being tested because hey, 10 minute battles that should take 30 seconds. Not exactly pushing the limits of the CNS. And my mind isn’t being tested because hey, you can select the same command in the same situation 20 times and get 20 radically different results, all having nothing to do with what the game predicted for you. So there goes the tactics angle. The world it offers worked well when it was recycled for FF12, but FFT didn’t give you any real way to explore it, so there that is. I don’t know what else to say. People must like it because they feel sorry for it, or something. Because it was a game that “meant well.” I have no idea what else it could be, but I can’t be fucked to find out. I hate this game to the point that I feel like it’s my responsibility to WARN my fellow gamers about the waste of time it is. Peace out.
To me, the meat of the gameplay was in the planning phases before battles where your choices made the next few battles a breeze or a pain. Of course the classes were so unbalanced that its harder to not bend the game over your knee given the right ability/class choices (or in the classic strategy of many players, sit in a corner yelling and screaming til the game gives up and lets you win).
That said, the enemy AI in this game is damn near brilliant (in comparison to normal video game AI) but will rarely have anything worth a damn to work with.
As for the story, its no more pretentious than anything else from the era. It just manages to get away with it a lot better than the rest (even in face of its abysmal translation) thanks to things like pacing, pacing, and…well…pacing. (Seriously any other RPG from the PSX era, S, T, A, or otherwise, are all over the loving place in terms of shit going down versus the corpus amounts of filler and exposition thrown around.)
I loved one thing about FFT: the Job system. I liked it SO much I played the game again just to create a party with one of EVERY possible class type, and each with ALL the class’s special abilities. In my first playthrough I also got every optional character, including Cloud.If I ever play it again, I might make a party with monsters instead (one of each too.)
Yeah, I remember that being an issue I had with most enemies. They were clever enough to use their skills, but they rarely had anything worthwhile to throw at me. There are a few instances where you better kill [X] fast or they’ll tear you a new one (Chapter 2, Bariaus Hill. FUCK those two summoners), but most of the time they have little but straightforward melee classes, while I had supremely convoluted overpowered class hybrids.
Anyhow… I would be really surprised to ever see a proper sequel. FFT was far too sober for what Squeenix has been doing, and FFXII is a good example of what the current company is aiming for. It was originally meant to star a middle-aged guy and be about politics. We ended up with a shirtless effeminate squirt and a princess in a miniskirt chasing magic rocks. I’d much rather they leave their hands off the franchise altogether than have them fuck the FFT plot. Let them screw around with prequels in the XII timeframe as much as they want, just stay the hell away from Ramza.
It was probably the worst Square game before Chrono Cross. And the FFTA games, while not great, rip the original right the fuck apart. “Raped the franchise?” What the… what? I… what? 