Fraggle Fantasy

[MidgarFanatic]

There are some strange things going on in the world of Final Fantasy lately folks… have you seen this?

There’s this one called Crystal Chronicles, and was meant to represent an epic return of the franchise to Nintendo after the wise abandonment to the Sony platform long long ago. It features these weird munchkins with huge “puppy-dog eyes” and one of them has the head of an onion, and they're followed by another creature who walks around with a metal version of Madonna’s pointy-cone bra. XD I kid you not friends!!!

When the excitement of battle begins, you realize there is something oddly familiar in what you are seeing. It’s quickly apparent that the monsters are all simplified re-hashes of the designs used for FFIX. So you are essentially cheated right-off-the-bat out of having any chance of experiencing some originality from the monsters in this game. Furthermore, the game play itself involved with the battle system is immediately confusing, and by the time you finally understand what’s involved you realize that it’s just too dull to deserve a continuing demand on your attention.

What is more, after playing for quite some time, you realize you have been denied of any CGI cut scenes which have been such a beautiful and prominent treat in FF games. But even if you had them it wouldn’t matter, the story lacks any real power or emotion; the playable characters get no deep back-stories or strong plot motivations that can even begin to compare to the characters from the twelve games developed for the main FF series. Not a single character has even yet to emerge as an underground fan favorite. (no Cloud Strifes, Celes Chers, or Vincent Valentines here folks) In short it all just looks and feels cheap. It feels like it was yanked out of Square/Enix’s dusty basement and was tossed to Nintendo like a bone. LOL Oh boy I’m terrible.

And then there is another Fraggle Fantasy which I think is even worse. The bane is known as Kingdom Hearts. Several characters from the past FF games walk around and interact with popular Walt Disney characters!!! OMG what is going on here?!!! As an older fan of the FF series, let me just tell you that this is like some freak horror show for me. I am certainly not a fan of all things Disney; however, even this is not the single reason I find this game so alien. There is nothing more pointless than a story which pulls a sloppy job at merging two iconic movements together like this. It just keeps reminding me of that ridiculous Hanna-Barbera cult-classic The Flintstones meet The Jetsons movie I saw as a kid, LOL. The whole concept from start to finish is just absolutely bizarre.

But hey, maybe you think this sounds like a cool idea? Well if that doesn’t weird you out, maybe the following will… The main character is a young boy who lives in a four-star tree house with a few other children on a tiny island completely estranged from adults. They spend their days trying to survive by playing blitzball, rolling logs around on the beach, and hunting for seagull eggs (where’s all the Lord of the Flies material I ask ya?!!! Heh) Eventually the battle between light and dark begins, and the characters must travel between alternate worlds in a gummi spaceship built by a couple of chipmunks. (Pfft, like that old storyline hasn’t been reused a hundred times before. :P) In an attempt to sum up the remaining story simply and without any spoilers, upon entering the different worlds the player must seal the gateways leading to them by using a blunt weapon called a Keyblade which the main character uses to bash in the brain’s of cute, tiny black creatures which crawl out of the walls. LOL... again I'm totally serious.

The graphics were good, but they failed to dazzle. The story’s concept was meant to be a humorous self-abasement, but it wasn’t amusing at all. This game was meant to be upbeat and magical and yet it haunted me more than any other “scary” video game I’ve ever played.

These Fraggle Fantasys are like weird mutated clones of some well-established classics... GET OFF MY LEGACY MAN!!! LOL But in all seriousness... I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with these games, and I think it’s great if any of you have played some of these and have enjoyed them. I myself have played one of these “mutant clones” XD and really enjoyed it, although it was a long time ago and was called Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

My main issue here is that I am just not convinced that they deserve to bear the title of Final Fantasy within their names; not even as a tagline. The connection of the name FF should not be thrown around so loosely… these examples I’ve mentioned just don’t seem genuine to me. If these games are good then people will want to play them for what they are (and not because they are a FF game)… and video gamers will know how to find them.

The way I see it, nothing beats originality, and I’m just not convinced that these games either have it… or manage to pull it off.

[Terminal Est]

I own Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles...and for some reason I could never quite fathom, I was never able to finish it. I think I must have proceeded as far as the third or fourth area. Something completely turned me off, and perhaps I have some answers as to what, now.

I noticed the low quality plot right away, and the fighting system was shoddy enough to make me turn away. I never did think of that when purchasing the game though, because of its brand name. A disappointment indeed, and I believe that the entire rehash aspect of such is the reason why.

Also I bloody hate Kingdom Hearts and its near like asinine context, again I must agree. I did not enjoy to see some legendary characters such as Aerith or Squall appearing out of nowhere for reasons devoid on any substantial justification, when considering their importance in most Final Fantasy games. In fact, it disgusted me, and that was the content alone. Sephiroth is supposed to be DEAD. He attempted to become a GOD-WHAT the hell is he doing hanging around with MICKEY MOUSE?!
I could rant about the entire cash in aspect this so blatantly suggests, but people DO find it fun, so...I am naught but a jaded pessimist. The combat system was gross, too. Very well established, and this is just me, as I am completely obsessed with numbers and making decisions.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest-although certainly not one of the better Final Fantasy titles, it did have that entire genuine feel, even if it was a bit boring and had the most clichéd plot ever.
Still, it has its innovative moments such as ''deteriorating enemies'' which I completely loved, and some actually very well established character personalities, considering the sort of grade this Final Fantasy training wheels was. I did go through it like, thrice.

I completely agree with your issue MidgarFanatic, and this is also one of the reasons I have strayed from the series recently. Merely because it bears the title Final Fantasy, it gives itself the right to be anything and completely disregards interesting and strong content and replace this with superficial cameo appearances or elements, and most often then not, these are there for looks and looks alone-just because it has the name. Cease milking away VII's success with your crappy shooters dang it!

Even the mascot gets its own mundane adventure now?
When are we going to see ''Mog's Super Funhouse Adventure in Bahamut Land''?

Too many spin offs, and in my opinion one of the last ones which was great came out ten years ago; Final Fantasy Tactics.

Final Fantasy became popular for a reason, and that is because of the series first installments, but it slowly seems to be forgetting its roots. Although it can be debated and this is merely opinion only, Chrono Cross deceived me in much the same ways. It was a fantastic game for what it was-but to me, it did not capture the essence of Chrono Trigger, and perhaps it should have a bit, since it had the name.

However, this is the bane of success. Square started out by creating some unique and great projects-but these projects were genuine art. It was done because people wanted to do it. They had no expectations to meet, and nobody to obey to.

But now that the company has grown, they have to give the fans what they wish for, and wanting it or not, gaming does evolve. They must abide to their own success in order to keep it. Does it make any sense?

It is like Cradle of Filth-now that they have become the ''mainstream'' of underground metal, they cannot shock people as much, because more people are hearing it now, and they will fall if they pursue their unconventional roots, those which they had started with. Because standard audiences simply cannot swallow it.

How many characters commit suicide in Final Fantasy games now?

Square may be a bit different, in the case that Final Fantasy VII in particular has brought the role playing genre from out of the closet. It established the genre as respectable and fun for gaming, while before this, in America at least, role playing was perceived as obscure and unnatural.

Inevitably, this arouses new fans, and different fans then from us older ones. They must follow their success, once again.

These days I look to companies like Atlus, as they are not known so much, for fun and innovation. When they get the Shinra Syndrome, there will be other small, but honest companies to look to.

Edit-

OH MY GOD. I wrote this entire huge post, and while it was processing my request to post it, my computer shut off on me. I was SO afraid I had lost the post.

*Falls over in relief.*

[Revenant]

Cradle of Filth?! The ''mainstream'' of underground metal? Ha! No doubt!

As for me, I just can not belive that all FF from first till last are conected by logical storyline! I havent seen all those FF so I can't understand...

[Miss Lockheart]

And yet JET and Firesnake have been trying to convince me to play Kingdom Hearts games. Sorry fellas

[NeoFighter5]

thank God i read this. . . .i was goin to buy kingdom hearts. . .now i know better. . .i choose dirge of cerberus instead( a better choice?). . .by the way, i think the 13 compilation will bring much needed vitality and strength to the series. . .and i think im getting shot for that.. . .

[Zotar]

Originally Posted by Terminal Est

Edit-

OH MY GOD. I wrote this entire huge post, and while it was processing my request to post it, my computer shut off on me. I was SO afraid I had lost the post.

*Falls over in relief.*

That would have been a tragidy indeed.

I liked Kingdom Hearts untill I found Winnie the Pooh. That killed my faith in video games. But once i got around the mega-mixup of characters, the game is actually kind of fun. I make a point never to visit 100-acre wood (Aka "POOville)...

[Terminal Est]

As for me, I just can not belive that all FF from first till last are conected by logical storyline! I havent seen all those FF so I can't understand...

Well, none of the Final Fantasy titles are actually related with one another-they are all to be taken as different, individualistic adventures, aside from the spin offs like Dirge of Cerberus or Crisis Core.

Some of them, of course, have returning elements, like the moogles, chocobos, enemies or summons, and a few of them (FF Tactics, FF Tactics Advance and FFXII-as well as Vagrant Story which are not part of the series.) occur in a world named Ivalice. But none of them were ever directly linked by any specific events, characters or timelines.

[JET73L]

Okay, a lot of the side games I've never played, but of the more game-like and less extended mini-game like games I have played, thatI bothered remembering:

Dirge of Cerberus: Worth playing as a first person shooter, not worth playing as an FF game. (unless one is a major Vincent fanatic, not saying any names but directly implying someone here)

Crystal Chronicles: Or whichever the GAmecube one from a few years back was. Hated what I managed to play of it. May have been good later on, but if it would have been, it wouldn;t have been worth playing throught the suckiness to get to the reasonable.

Tactics: Played one of the GBA versions a while back. It was okay. Not great, but worth playing.

Kingdom Hearts: Okay, the first one was pretty good, not necessarily as a traditional RPG, but as a subgenre as itsel;f. The second console game was better at least some of the reasonable FF games, and maybe as good as the better games in the series. Hard to tell, I liked them for different reasons. But KHis not to be.. erm.. the word where you scoff at something. Yes! not to be scorned. Some of it may have been silly (a result of Disney's influence) or sentimental out of context, but overall they were reallly good (the first for the somewhat younger crowd, the second for those same gamers but half a decade older)

[MidgarFanatic]

Greetings friends. Well I’m really surprised at the number of positive responses from this little number, I knew there were a lot of Kingdom Hearts fans on this forum so I thought I was just gonna get absolutely skewered for this one. Haha.

Looks like I got off pretty easy, XD… but allow me to add an appendix.

Originally Posted by NeoFighter5

thank God i read this. . . .i was goin to buy kingdom hearts. . .now i know better. . .i choose dirge of cerberus instead( a better choice?)

As Terminal Est touched on, as the FF titles begin to age, a younger generation is inevitably taking over the direction of the series and making it their own. As a result, the Kingdom Hearts series has been influenced by the voices and interests of today’s younger gamers and, as a result, has become incredibly popular. I see this as a sort of a “made-for-you” style game of today’s modern age. This is not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing, for there is obviously a market for this. I simply object to the game’s perversive use of many of the FF characters I have come to love. Alas, if you like the style and art of the Disney Corporation then you would probably like this game, and you are spared the confusion of having to know anything about the FF character’s previous story lines in order to enjoy it.

As for Dirge of Cerberus… well, I don’t think anything has ever gone quite so wrong with an RPG sequel before, and probably never will again as a result of this game’s very obvious flaws and public embarrassment. But we all know my opinions on this game, we have beaten this dead horse enough in various threads in this forum, so I guess I’ll just leave it at that.

But of all the spin-offs that have been released, I would have to agree with Terminal Est that FF Tactics has stood out so far as the best of the shoddy bunch. Hot off the coattails of FFVII, the original FF Tactics for the Sony PlayStation was mountainous in it’s endeavors to be sure. If you are an old fogy like me (and may I daresay Terminal Est ) and were an experienced gamer when this title was first released, you would of seen a time when Square really decided to stretch some creative muscle and master their skills at battle strategy. The story became less important (but didn’t disappear); instead the decisions and actions of the players were based on something far more technical… art of war. They began to experiment with things like area-of-effect damage and rotatable isometric playing fields and, well, it was all delightful. I remember playing a similar game called Ogre Battle long ago when strategy RPGs were just emerging into the mainstream. It was definately audacious, but it didn’t capture the finer elements of the battle system that Square perfected in FF Tactics.

Although over extended periods of gameplay I usually find myself characterizing strategy RPGs as somewhat vexing and often cumbersome, I nonetheless believe the Tactics series is as good as a FF spin-off we are ever likely to see… but nothing would make me more happy than to one day be proven wrong.

It is of course worth noting that there is an inherent uniqueness between the spin-offs and the sequels. My initial post was about the FF spin-offs. But although the sequels are far more rare, they are usually just as bad. Aside from the FFVII compilation I suppose the most obvious example would be FFX-2. When I finished playing FFX I was content with how the story ended, even if it was a rather sad albeit touching summary. After all, FFX was above all else intended to act as a heartbreaking fantasy love story. And overall this worked… it was sad, but I liked it. I didn’t need a sequel about a bunch of girls who ran around and changed their wardrobe constantly in mid-battle to tell me how the story REALLY panned out!!! Come on Square.

But what is true for spin-offs usually hold true for the sequels as well... they are not necessarily bad games, per se, they just haven’t traditionally lived up to the expectations of their epic connections.

Originally Posted by Terminal Est

Well, none of the Final Fantasy titles are actually related with one another-they are all to be taken as different, individualistic adventures, aside from the spin offs like Dirge of Cerberus or Crisis Core.

Some of them, of course, have returning elements, like the moogles, chocobos, enemies or summons, and a few of them (FF Tactics, FF Tactics Advance and FFXII-as well as Vagrant Story which are not part of the series.) occur in a world named Ivalice. But none of them were ever directly linked by any specific events, characters or timelines.

LOL, ah yes, thank you T, you are always like the forum’s wise encyclopedia who always has the perfect way of explaining things… Exactly.

Addendum:
There is an interesting bit of trivia about my initial post which I’m actually surprised nobody brought up. I used the word “Fraggle” for a reason, so named after the “mutant clone” relatives of The Muppets... so I curse this name upon the FF spin-offs discussed in this thread. And allow me to share one more bone-chilling prospect with you friends… I feel it is very dangerous that the image and character rights of the Jim Henson Muppets are owned by Disney, after all, nothing would be more terrifying to me than to see the Fraggles end up on the next installment of Kingdom Hearts... God help us all if they do. LOL

[Revenant]

Oh well, it seems many things are going to be clearer now.

Originally Posted by Miss Lockheart

And yet JET and Firesnake have been trying to convince me to play Kingdom Hearts games. Sorry fellas

And why would they do that for? ^_^