I am a long time player of Final Fantasy, played each one, got excited for each new game as they were announced, only with Final Fantasy XIII, did I begin to realize that I haven't enjoyed them as much as I used to. However, it isn't "ME", that has changed, but rather Square-Enix. I was hoping a return to the formula of RPG or ROLE PLAYING GAMES, only now, I discover not only will there be no world map, no vehicles, a crappy ACTION BASED SYSTEM, but no playable women. I am not a perverted guy, but am an adult woman.
Some of my favorite characters have included both men and women, since I am someone who loves to create and develop worlds and am more likely to go off of backstory, over sex. Mr. Nomura's statements about putting women in the game would be hard, is a turn off for me and I feel as if he has told me, I don't need bother playing this game. One of my more favorite characters has to be the "CELES" and "Locke" relationship, it's hinted about growing feelings between them, but it has tension, distrustful moments. This relationship is much better done than the Rosa and Cecil relationship, even if Cecil is one of my favorite characters, along with Kain.
I, of course, loved Reks over Vaan, as he would have had more passion and feelings than the boy toy, Vaan did. I, also, thought that the Ashe was a well done character with deep feelings about her loss and her determination and hatred of Captain Bash, who was well done, as well. He was very believable in his reactions and feelings. But the biggest questions has been, what's been happening with RPGs lately? Why have they fallen from grace, so to speak? I am a long time player and I am aware of the issues with old games, something I think needs to be spoken of and discussed.
Games in the 1980s had two ways of doing it: graphics or story, but not both.
That is a problem in the nutshell, only RPGs had world maps, which made it easier, so let's fast forward to about the 1990s, when those previously narrow games like ACTION or even games like Ninja Gaiden were platform games. They exploded, because now, it wasn't suddenly about graphics or story, but rather both, story and graphics. This is something that would continue over time, from the 1990s, 2000s, until today. Games that used to be quite narrow, became deeper and more complex, as they only suffered due to a lack of memory. Role Playing games, Japanese got a boost and became quite popular, only tapering off recently. Why? The answer is simple, actually.
RPGs despite their growth have not grown past what they were in the 1980s, only the maps are bigger. If they had grown much like the other games had, what would we be seeing these days? What should a REAL RPG look like? An open world, with aircraft or ships you can travel in (airships, if you were FINAL FANTASY), towns, main quest, side quests and plenty of places to explore. I will be honest, if they created an ENGINE each Gen, only tweaking the graphics as they used it... It would cut down on cost. But the question is: Is this what RPGs look like today?
The answer is NO, but rather they are long tunnels straight from point "A" to point "B", with QTE moments, cut scenes (not using game graphics) and bland characters, you could care less about. They have become anything than an RPG as a matter of fact, Square-Enix is facing a loss and I bet they are wondering why. With games like Final Fantasy XIII, that got three games, when people could barely swallow the first one, It's not too surprising that Square-Enix is facing hard times. The best female character they have is Laura Croft, which they bought with a studio that we all know. Other than that, when was the last female that truly felt like a female with her own strengths and problems, more than just boy problems.
The one character I am referring to is, of course, Celes from Final Fantasy VI, not Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII. Celes is one of the Generals from the Empire, who betrays them, and starts to have feelings for Locke. I wish this young woman had been the main character and Terra, was the side character, because she was far more interesting. Why she betrayed them? Her problems with Locke's lack of trust and his own problems/past. It isn't just about his feelings for her, as a matter of fact, she is as beautiful as she is deadly: that's Celes. As time passes, she begins to learn the truth. In my conclusion, Celes was a really powerful character, and one that might have changed the very beginning of the story.
When you compare Celes to "Lightning", you see that they don't even compare: Celes is 100% better than Lightning. In the end, why was Celes doing or had done the things that she was doing? Lightning in the end was trying to save a girl, even if that girl was her sister and the girl that Snow loved. In Final Fantasy VI, there was a wide variety of characters, who all had their reasons of hating the Empire, only minus Gau. They were various ages and in different positions in their lives, from Saban, Edgar, Celes..., only in later, "Final Fantasy" games that has completely vanished.
We, women, have been told by Final Fantasy that girls can't be anything other than love interests, side or background characters, and it's far worse than some of the crappy characters they've had in Final Fantasy. Yeah, with that reasoning, I will sooner play a "TALES OF...." games, before Final Fantasy, because, at least, ANIME has a wider variety of female characters than Square-Enix has. I am a woman and I love games, piss me off, I will rant. Just like you guys, I am passionate about gaming, sick of games holding our hands, or worse, leaving us to fend for ourselves. Yeah, give us the option of the tutorial, that's all we need and go from there. I, of course, never thought I would see a day when I would turn my nose at a "FINAL FANTASY" game that in recent times turned into a cliche sci fi game, doing the opposite of what their fans are actually saying and just doing whatever they want.
And they wonder why their games aren't selling, anymore? Hmm, I wonder why.
