MrBumble said:
Well... I played Fable 1, hence why Fable 2 is shit. Not that Fable 1 was incredible either...
Yeah I quit part way in because it's just plain boring. Oh, and don't forget the saving which saves you with all of your current stuff but sets you back to the latest checkpoint which is the beginning on an area for most of the game but during the tutorial, it's the beginning of the day.
Ausdoerrt said:
As for FFXII, I've played little of it since I don't have a PS2, but the system looked at least better than FFII. Also, at least they tried sth new. Standard FF TB system is just too old (and ATB is horrible), they really need an update. And FFXIII was just the opposite of that - streamlining something already overly simplified.
It's a singleplayer MMORPG that uses gambits (basically assemble custom AI for your entire party) to control combat. It's not new, it's full of design flaws, combat has minimal player input (movement is it), and there is minimal character differentiation. I pretty much expected it to be mediocre after playing the demo but an old roommate had it and it looked decent from what I saw of him playing it so I figured I'd give it a shot. I wouldn't say it's the worst game I've ever played but it's most definitely not a good game, I'd say it's mediocre at best. Granted, I made it worse by going for 100% completion but if the game's side content is that bad, it shouldn't be there at all.
Design flaws include:
-Combat being made into a movie being a big one
-Some excessively large, mostly empty areas, too sparse of story
-Story is too spread out over the game
-Two members of the cast are completely extraneous
-An experience system that results in every character being identical, maxes out too early, and just plain isn't very interesting
-The difference between characters is their stats, which differ minor amounts
-Crappy, grindy side content, one subset of which requiring a game guide
-The best weapon in the game has stupid lost forever requirements (this one is nitpicky)
-Pointless NPCs that you have to click through conversations with (can't walk away mid conversation)
FFX was really the best mechanically; the sphere grid was an excellent experience system which resulted in significant character differentiation and a certain degree of character customization. The combat system was a step forward, it got rid of the ATB crap and went for a TB system with different time being allotted to different abilities and where character speed was noticeably different. I think that if you build on it, you could make a very interesting, very tactical combat system. FFXIII seems to use a modified Chrono Cross system that is in some ways better and some ways worse (most notably lack of control of the entire party). I like the idea behind the system which was to make combat more fluid, it just didn't work out well. Honestly I think that Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG are two of the best Square TB systems but part of that is due to the rest of the games being so well designed and the complete lack of random encounters (which shouldn't have been in any game since Chrono Trigger). Honestly, I think they make better games, especially mechanically, when they do something other than Final Fantasy (Chrono Trigger, SMRPG, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics). Honestly I'm looking forward to seeing what FFXIII Versus turns out to be, it's been described to be mechanically similar to Kingdom Hearts, which I think is a great base to build on as it's a fun system, it's just too simple (and the games are too easy).
To an extent, I think that some third person hack n' slash games are starting to approach being excellent ARPGs. I hope that by the end of the decade that we see one that accomplishes that, bringing the kind of build options of say, Diablo 2, to the third person hack n' slash seems like it'd be a fucking gold mine. I see no reason to restrict the expansion of RPGs to FPS games, especially when you're talking about melee combat.
