*A doorway is drawn out of nowhere and opens to reveal Pendragon*

Greetings. My rant today is about Final Fantasy and how its been going lately. XIII and XIII-2 were ok steps into new territory, but I think Square-Enix has become too obessed with MMORPGS and trying to be edgy. With XIV being another MMORPG, I think SE needs to step back and rethink what made the series so great before they do XV.

Here's some thoughts I've put in:

1: Return to the classic turn-based battle system. This made for some real challenges in battle. Sure, some think this is outdated or only for handhelds. But I disagree. I think the series needs to go back to this system, either active-timed or patient (where your enemy will wait until you make a desicion to attack before they move as well). After all, this worked for the IV, VI, VII, and X. The programmers can think of more stragetic based battles like VI's Ultima Weapon or X's Yunalesca instead of the haphazard and rather tedious "switch your roles" system that XIII created. It just seems to me that many of XIII-2's battles, especially the DLC, are more like "switch now or the enemy will get to pound you while you heal up" instead of real stragety. I'm not opposed to a more real-time battle system like XII or FF's cousin, Kingdom Hearts, but I think its time we need to go back to classic RPG brass tacks.

I want a challenging boss I can beat because I outsmarted him through preparation, exploting his weaknesses, and keeping my team strong and alive. FFXIII and XIII-2 are more like "you lost because you didn't use the right team setting and/or at the right time", not because of your stats.

2: Tone the sci-fi setting. I think this rather limits the fantasy part of the series. I think XV needs to be more fantasy. I don't mind if high-technology exists, but I think we need something more closer to FFVII or maybe even IV. Airships are acceptable, but let's have more of a reason to see more classic weapons and fighting styles like swords, fists, etc. Maybe the sci-fi setting could be more like not everything has it. I could picture a good plot setting to have poor and middle class people live in less-technology based parts of a city while the rich elite live in the more advanced parts.

3: Go for development, not fan-service. Lightning's ok, but I think we need characters who are more developed and we grow to like because of what they do and who they are, not just what they look like. Let's take Cecil from IV for example. Here we have a guy who was expected to stain his hands with blood for the good of a kingdom and he becomes a Dark Knight. But he always remorses about his descions, even later on in the game. Eventually after being betrayed and having some character development, he undergoes a trial to rid himself of his black powers and past and becomes a holy paladin. And then Cecil works to save his best friend, Kain, even when they became fierce enemies and rivals for Rosa.


For a change of pace in heroes, I think we need a main hero who has a past like an experienced war hero. He's seen war, he's seen the best and the worst of the world, and is unsure of his place in it. Or he must resolve himself to better protect those he loves. Heck, maybe for some real indivuality, maybe the next FF hero should be an older adult (like 25-30) and even a young father. Seeing how this hero facing the issues of protecting his family really would make for an interesting story. Many FF fans are older now and probably wouldn't mind playing a hero closer to their actual age. And its not unheard to have a protagonist that old.

As for a villian, let's go back to more human type villians and those we face countless times. Golbez (IV) was great because he always seemed to be one step ahead of the heroes and yet so mysterious. Kefka (VI) was one of the all-time best FF villians for his sadistic and warped personality and how he goes from a lowly yes-man to killing his emperor and becomes a nihilistic god of the world. And with so many fans of him, I don't think I need to explain Sephiroth (VII).

I'm not opposed to having a multiple race cast (like seen in XII); in fact, I find that appealing. If there are other sentient beings besides humans in the world, then we should have members of them in our team. Plus, as I will mention later, will make it better to differiate the party members.


4: Explorable world. Cutting down on this really dismisses the potential of graphics and creating a beautiful world. FFXV should have you going to towns, cities, exploring vast dugeons, and all that in between. No cut-aways, no choose-your-stage settings, etc. If you want to get to that place, you have to travel there yourself. I don't mind the addition of vehicles or such to speed up (that's what chocobos are for!) or reach areas you can't like on ships or airships. And this makes for some much potential of extra-game content.

5: Music. What happened to the classic fanfare, SE? Even FFXII gave us the classic victory theme when we beat a critical and/or important boss.

6: Character Building. The characters of FFXV should be more indivual and not basically clones with slightly different stats and abilities. The classic formula for the early FF heroes was usually this: Hero with great physical strength and maybe some spells, black mage, healer, pure fighter, thief, etc. X did a good job of this by giving characters skill trees, but making it very hard for everyone to learn everything. The heroes of XV need to be different in various ways. It also can make for stragety and who to take for different battles. For example, one boss may be very vulnerable to magic and thus your spellcasters are needed, while another is very strong and requires your more sturdy characters to hold out for the whole battle as they pound away on him.

In addition, if there are more than just humans, that can make the party even more indivual. There may be spells an elf-like race can only use, but they lack the physical parameters of, say, a beast-man type race. In the end, it all comes down to the player's fighting style, stragety, and character preferance.

Also, I think grinding should not be tedious. Let characters not in the party get xp too, but maybe at a lower rate so you have a reason to switch them around too. FFXIII-2 did come up with additional ways to level up (such as fragments give you points for the crystalarium); maybe side-quests and accomplish certain tasks will give you xp and other ways to build yourself up so you don't have to spend hours hacking and slashing enemies.

Final Fantasy is a classic series, so I think it would do the creators some good to listen to the fans and look back to what made the series so good in the first place. Sure better technology is good, but we can't forget the past too.

Now if you excuse me, I have another appointment I must hurry to. Luckily, Perry the Platypus lent his fruit hat *Puts on a fruit hat. A gorilla smashes through the wall and picks up Pendragon before smashing a hole in the floor. The gorilla carries off Pendragon*