People have weird ideas about what emo means these days. From a 37 year old's point of view based on what emo meant back when I was in my 20's. It seems to have spawned into a fashion statement in the past 15 years.Neither was Tidus (as goofy and infamous as he was), or Vaan for that matter (or Balthier, Ashe or Basche, if we're being particular about who the main character was)..
I liked the characters in X since they actually had backstories and were meaningful. Unlike FF12 where I literally could not care at all about any of them. Zero character development in that game which I need in my FF games.
People have weird ideas about what emo means these days. From a 37 year old's point of view based on what emo meant back when I was in my 20's. It seems to have spawned into a fashion statement in the past 15 years.
Emo originally stands for outwardly emotional. The term came from bands, particularly softcore pop Punk and bands like Simple plan, who cry on stage during their performances.
Tidus was a loud whiny kid with Daddy issues. Of course he was Emo.
He threw emotional tantrums, whined about how Daddy didn't hug him enough and dressed in a Yellow and blue zippered Ledenhosen. At one point in the game, he had Auron by the lapels shrieking "Its all your fault" over and over in a high speed whine while hopping up and down.
I actually empathized with Jecht for trying to toughen the little twerp up because he WAS a wimpy kid.
By the end of the game, at least he matured a little.
Cloud wasn't emo until Advent children. Till then he was kind of a jerk at times.
Squall was actually the opposite of emo. To be emo, you generally have to be outwardly emotional. He did not show emotions at all(In fact he tried to repress them) and was an annoying overthinking quiet loner(brooding ******). If anything, he was a typical goth without the suicidal thoughts.
9 was so annoying I don't remember most of the characters. Played through it twice just to complete everything, but it is terribly overrated. I feel the same about all the 13 games, except almost nobody likes those games. 13 was almost as linear as 10.
Vaan wasn't emo at all. He dressed like a fruitcake, but for the most part he was just a tagalong. Played through every game from 1 to 12 in the last 6 months and I forgot how much I enjoyed 12's open world and I was surprised at how NON whiny Vaan was because I had not played it in so long.
12 was for the hardcore gamers who played since FF1.
Back when we could give a **** about story and want solid gameplay with open world exploration. 12 eats X for breakfast for me.
X was a linear piece of crap built for people who need their hands held in a straight line to the end(In fact 13 and X were much the same). But oh! It had a good story..........with a whiny emo main character.
I still don't see how Tidus character resonates with some people. I just can't empathize with his character at all. by the middle of the story, I was happy to see his dad was trying to toughen him up because he was such a whiny wimp. I would do the same.
They really should break final fantasy into 2 series. 1 for people who love story and playthrough and 1 for people who like gameplay and exploring challenging areas they are not experienced enough for yet, but possibly getting that awesome treasure early.
Gameplay in FFX was fantastic....
FFX's gameplay was turn based perfection. And the sphere grid was revolutionary for its time (and parroted in countless JRPGs since). The sphere grid in the remaster was even better, offering a ton of customization.
The story and character complaints in FFX are all valid, but criticizing its gameplay is barking up the wrong tree. It's the best turn based system of all time by several critical accounts, all of whom I agree with.
Edit: It's important to differentiate the linearity of world exploration and level design from the turn based combat itself. When I say FFX's gameplay was "perfect" I'm referring only to the turn based combat/sphere grid/equipment. There were obvious issues with linearity in the level and dungeon designs.
FFX's combat was me using Quick Attack on everything until it died.
Persona has better turn based combat.
FFX's gameplay was turn based perfection. And the sphere grid was revolutionary for its time (and parroted in countless JRPGs since). The sphere grid in the remaster was even better, offering a ton of customization.
The story and character complaints in FFX are all valid, but criticizing its gameplay is barking up the wrong tree. It's the best turn based system of all time by several critical accounts, all of whom I agree with.
Edit: It's important to differentiate the linearity of world exploration and level design from the turn based combat itself. When I say FFX's gameplay was "perfect" I'm referring only to the turn based combat/sphere grid/equipment. There were obvious issues with linearity in the level and dungeon designs.
Or just having Aeons charged before battle.FFX's combat was me using Quick Attack on everything until it died.
Persona has better turn based combat.
FFX's gameplay was turn based perfection. And the sphere grid was revolutionary for its time (and parroted in countless JRPGs since). The sphere grid in the remaster was even better, offering a ton of customization.
The story and character complaints in FFX are all valid, but criticizing its gameplay is barking up the wrong tree. It's the best turn based system of all time by several critical accounts, all of whom I agree with.
Edit: It's important to differentiate the linearity of world exploration and level design from the turn based combat itself. When I say FFX's gameplay was "perfect" I'm referring only to the turn based combat/sphere grid/equipment. There were obvious issues with linearity in the level and dungeon designs.
Not to me. Its all part of my gameplay experience. The combat system was a decent take on the existing system. I preferred Materia and Espers, etc. Better than Drawing, ill give it that. 12 blew it away despite its giant leap from the norm
None of these listed games are turn based. FF6, 7, 8, and 12 are all variants of the ATB system introduced in 4.
Edit: Do people here understand the difference between turn based and ATB variant combat systems? I saw Grandia mentioned, as well. Again, not turn based.
Regardless, Grandia freezes time when it's time to input commands. There's no argument whatsoever against the idea that Grandia, at least, is a turn based system.Agree to disagree, I guess. Time is a major element to effective combat in VI, VII, etc., whereas X was truly based on sequential, conditional turns. ATB fundamentally changes combat for me because it adds a time constraint. But maybe that's just me.
Yeah, if you have to wait for a meter to fill for it to be a character's "turn", it's turn based. XII is the only one before XV that even pushed that line and I'd still argue it's more turn based than not.
Arguing games like IV, VI, VII, etc are not turn-based because of the ATB (which you can even turn off) is quibbling to the extreme.
And while we're on the topic, I quite enjoyed Eternal Sonata's system - each character/enemy had distinct turns, but during your turn you had a set amount of time (depending on the chapter) to do whatever you wanted. The plot may have fallen apart towards the end, but the changing of the ground rules as you progress chapters helped keep combat fresh.
Agree to disagree, I guess. Time is a major element to effective combat in VI, VII, etc., whereas X was truly based on sequential, conditional turns. ATB fundamentally changes combat for me because it adds a time constraint. But maybe that's just me.
Regardless, Grandia freezes time when it's time to input commands. There's no argument whatsoever against the idea that Grandia, at least, is a turn based system.
I can buy some of the ATB FFs as technically turn based games, but not Grandia 2. If anything, Grandia helped pioneer action RPGs.