wow, i really didnt realize that FO fans were really anti FF. to be brutally (and possibly stupidly) honest, i kinda like FF games. I could never possibly defend them as roleplaying games, since role playing implies an almost dungeon and dragon sense of existance where you create a character and act as him/her, doing anything and everything you can possibly think of. and roll dice while doing so.
and here i give my perks to the FF enterprise.
-they give me something to do when im bored.
-they actually RELEASE games regularly. Not saying anything about the quality of the games, since 8,9 and 10-2 were absolute trash (sadly enough i still own them). and im sure everyone will say all the other games are trash too.
-they (mostly) have decent to good storylines, even though most of them are so complex i feel like "jumping out a window" trying to figure them out. (by the way, i dont encourage jumping out windows. unless you're on the first floor and the window is open, this activity could cause serious injury/death)
-they have a pretty easy learning curve. honestly, that may be one of the things i like best about FF games. they arent complicated to learn, they dont require rule books or dice or dungeon masters to play. at first, if youre watching someone play X or 7 or 8 you think youll never figure it out, but once you start its pretty easy to catch on.
now to prevent my complete and utter flagrant, um...flaming, i will list all the bad things ive found out about the games.
-they have (almost) no replayability for at LEAST 5 years after you beat one/get bored of it.
-halfway through the game i just want to let someone else play and i just sit back and follow the story. I.E. the gameplay gets tedious.
-FFX-2. nuff' said.
-the side quests are annoying and harder to beat than the actual game. of course, that IS the point of them.
-The main characters DO have a few things in common, like amnesia, extra large swords (why do all the main characters have SWORDS?!), arch nemeses, love interests, etc.
-you always play as a goody goody. no option to be a baddy baddy...my god did i just say baddy baddy?
sheesh. and now i shall answer the first set of questions, verifying that i have too much free time.
1) I like the FF series cause they have anime-type plots and characters, and I like anime.
2) That would be the same bastard that gave Fallout, Diablo, Bard's Tale, Baldur's Gate, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Star Ocean, Phantasy Star, etc the RPG mark, and all of those were tight games, well, cept Diablo, which sucks now but everyone liked in the day. even people who hate Diablo now only hate it cause they liked it at one point. but back on topic, I dont know who that bastard is, but if someone finds out, they can think of another Genre to give all these games. Like action adventure maybe?
3) Because at the time there werent people around to tell them that RPGs could only mean that you could do whatever you wanted. By the time that was sorted out, so many games were RPGs that you had to create genres like MMORPGs and Open RPGs to actually describe games where you could do anything.
4) Theyre probably the same jerks that write gaming magazines, since most people get things they say out of books/magazines/tv/movies. and i dont see many gaming tv shows/movies/books.
5) I actually got alot of enjoyment from Omnislashing Sephiroth after he killed Aeris. Of course, that just means the writing was good enough to get an "illiterate bastard" to relate emotionally with the characters.
6) Americans are illiterate bastards because of people who translate things like "All your base are belong to us". And because they watch foreign films dubbed in English instead of bothering to read subtitles. Oh, by the way IM an illiterate American bastard.
Oh, and i can justify the existance of the FF series in two words:
CASH COW.
late.
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