• 2May 13

  AQWBlaZer91 Channel Update: 02/05/2013: Final Fantasy Franchise Rant

  AQWBlaZer91 Channel Update: 02/05/2013: Final Fantasy Franchise Rant

  

  The Final Fantasy series by Square (now known as Square Enix) was originally developed in 1987 for the Japanese Famicom and was ported to many different game consoles including the American NES release, PlayStation game systems and the Gameboy Advance. The series became popular to both fans and critics alike with plenty of new instalments and sequels. However after Final Fantasy X was released for the PS2, it showcased impressive gameplay as well as cool storyline and characters, graphics and sound. After when Final Fantasy X became a massive success, by 2002 marked the beginning of the series downfall. This blog will explain about the problems with the series as of now.

  

  With the exception of the remakes and ports of the old games that originally didnt make it to Europe originally on the PS1, GBA, DS and the PSP. The series started it's downfall with Final Fantasy XI for the PC, FFXI didn't become a single player RPG experience instead it was developed into a MMO RPG where players from over the world. The biggest problem with the game was that it was a pay to play game as part of the PlayOnline Network and every time you died you lose EXP that you earned which was actually stupid. It also had a cumbersome initial registration setup and the game featured overcrowded camp-sites while others say that it was unoriginal. Dispute these problems it managed to become one of the most profitable titles and earned a few medals even if some people thought that an MMO being part of the main series was a bad idea. It had 5 missions packs but why the fifth one had to come out so late in 2013 is just plain dumb.

  

  The next bad Final Fantasy game is Final Fantasy X-2 and personally this where the series really begun to take it's turn against the fans. Square Soft merged with it's rival Enix so that they can become Square Enix and so the disaster begun for Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy X-2 was liked by some others since it did returned to the Active Time Battles and the traditional levelling system. Other then that the game had Yuna returning along with Riku and also a character named Paine to turn the game into one that's rather girly which does disgust me whenever I dare play it. People personally think the graphics haven't changed from the original X title while personally I don't think it's worth complaining about aside from the framerate and large black bars that covers about 15% of the screen. I do say that the girls themselves should have donned better outfits on. Other complaints of the game involve the storyline progression which is very disjointed, the minigames being unenjoyable and the soundtrack sometimes sounding very inappropriate. It may have been an impressive selling game but honesty this is one Final Fantasy that makes me feel uncomfortable playing.

  

  After a long while another main Final Fantasy instalment came for the PS2 that was Final Fantasy XII. It had great impressions when you watched the intro only for it to be destroyed when you actually play it. I wish I could excuse the use of the License Board system if it wasn't for the game's atrocious Gambit system and ridiculous combat. Also correct me if I'm wrong but my friend who has this game has told me that the game has tried to create a sandbox style environment but ended failing miserably but I'm not really sure if he's right about it. Don't get me wrong the characters, storyline as well as the graphics were impressive but however it's the entire gameplay that kills it entirely. On top of everything there's a super boss that takes literally hours to beat which is super ridiculous. I honestly can't believe that this game sold well and that people tend to defend it. Personally I think Revenant Wings on the DS was way better then that pile of trash.

  

  Next up is Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus for the PlayStation 2 and let me tell you, Square Enix simply made a generic Third Person Shooter that featured Vincent as your main character. It might have told an interesting story but however it's gameplay was beyond question. First up the melee combat is frustrating no thanks to the awkward camera controls, it has blend and linear level design and worst of all it wasn't even in the least fun and the enemy AI was just plain dumb and weak. I really couldn't believe that this rubbish shooter dared to carry Final Fantasy VII's great name and allow Vincent to simply destroy it with this trash. Hey, at least Crisis Core made up for that embarrassment.

  

  Just when the Final Fantasy handhelds had a very good spot in the fans another main instalment in the series came out for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that was Final Fantasy XIII. Gamers have waited a very long time for this game to come and when it did it became one of the most disappointing squeals and to be perfectly honest it doesn't surprise me when XII disappointed me so much. It had a convoluted storyline with uninteresting characters like unlikeable main character Lightning, Snow and cowardly boy Hope. Alongside the bad characters and story the game design was just so linear as you were just walking through lengthy corridors and also the battle system was just simply garbage. You only controlled one character which has it's own abilities and summoning. The worst thing about the battles is that it always relays on mashing the same attack over and over for a few minutes before it finally dies and also when the leader dies it's Game Over regardless if your allies are still alive. This is one of the biggest offences that this game commits and fans and some critics claim it to be one of the worst instalments in the series but I claim that it comes close to being one from all the later ones I've seen.

  

  Just when remakes of the old Final Fantasy games where starting to feel stale, Square Enix announced and then released Final Fantasy XIII-2 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. I played the demo and I'll say this, they did improve the battle system but only a tiny bit and they did add a monster capturing system and also making the game non linear. These pluses aside the game had a more uninteresting storyline which was confusing and disappointing and the characters with it's only exception was the main villain were weak. The battle system was still rather simplistic and shallow and the use of cinematic actions lacked any impact. What I really hated about the game are the Trigger Events where you need to press either one of the face buttons to select a piece of dialogue to advance and some of the choices are just plain stupid. One of them where you got a choice to use a control device against a boss named Atlus was the worst. You can either ask Mog, ask someone you don't know, say you don't know or select I live in the moment. Why couldn't you just say let's control the device and weaken him since fighting him at his full power kills us in one hit. It's just like the game wants to troll you or something. Some people said that the game's boss battles are often frustrating and they get more annoying later on. Overall this game is a better then the original XIII but however there are still some major annoyances that didn't make it fun to enjoy.

  

  Before the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 there was announcement of Final Fantasy XIV and when the trailer got to the end it was going to be another online Final Fantasy game which was going to make it extremely disappointing. Not only was the battle system completely broken but the interface was terrible, the sound effects were annoying and worst of there's very little to no depth to the gameplay at all. The worst news of this game is that it is getting a reboot since the company recognizes the problems of the original game. All I can say is that I am extremely disappointed to have seen the announcement and wish the game would just die already.

  

  If you thought all those were bad then you mistaken, there is no other terrible Final Fantasy game then the abysmal All the Bravest for the IPads. Simply Bitgroove and Square Enix simply took the sprites from the other games as well as the fanmade ones and made a rubbish game where you simply flick the screen where your allies are and then they attack automatically. Worst problems is that the game was blend and simple, your hand would ache even after only a few minutes of playing it and finally it used the microtransaction deal where stuff in the game such as Hourglasses (which acts as Phoenix Downs) to adding extra characters costed real life money when you have dozens of Gil in your hand that you want to spend it on. It was well criticised by critics and fans alike for any lack of gameplay depth, character customization, no story, and very expensive in app purchases for basic gameplay functionality. It should be called the worst game in the entire franchise and it makes me so mad that I want to throw any copies of the game into a fire. It's just absolute criminal.

  

  The only good Final Fantasy games this generation has done is Dissidia for the PSP which is an excellent fighting game, Final Fantasy IV for the DS which is brilliant and Crisis Core which was pretty good if difficult to learn and master. Some other like Theatrhythm were alright as well. However when it comes down to seeing all the newer games in the series is just insulting. I'm not happy to announce that there are more games on the way.

  

  Yes guys there are more bad Final Fantasy games coming with the exception of the HD remake of Final Fantasy X which will be great to see as long as the company doesn't destroy the game. I'm still of upset that X-2 will be included as well.

  

  As for the bad ones there is going to be Lightning Returns which upon seeing the game's screenshots looks like a PlayStation 2 game which ensures utter disappointment. A Realm Reborn which I already said that it was going to try an improve on the games problems while in my opinions make it possibly worse and finally recently there was an announcement of a Final Fantasy Tactics port for the Ipads which brings a company known as Mobage which have been well known for having their games use the microtransaction deal. It's not going to be any surprise that this trash is going to be as bad as the others.

  

  With the series being a fantastic innovative RPG series for fans, it's just insulting that Square Enix is just being absolutely lazy with their titles but still gaining money from their sales. At least now they are losing their money over their titles. Unless they can something about their Final Fantasy titles and get on with Versus XIII instead of screwing around with the franchise, otherwise I wish the series could just die along with the company.

  

  I know I was bashing the series for a long while but it's just absolutely terrible that Square Enix could get this lazy on an extremely popular franchise and the company should know better. I'm glad that I did the right thing and ignored the other games and chose Namco Bandai's Tales Of Series which has answered the fans call.

  That is why I'm going to take out every Final Fantasy related hero and villain in the franchise so that they'll regret disappointment they unleashed on us. That is why I'm now called The Bringer of Tales and Slayer of Fantasy. Then I'll be able avenge the fans fir what Square Enix has done.

  

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  Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)

  GAME ON!!!!!

  • Posted May 2, 2013 7:26 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 26Apr 13

  AQWBlaZer91 Channel Update: 26/04/2013: Tales Of Phantasia PS1 Completion

  AQWBlaZer91 Channel Update: 26/04/2013: Tales Of Phantasia PS1 Mania Mode Completion

  

  After so many months from September 2012 to April 2013 I've finally finished my playthrough of Tales Of Phantasia on the PlayStation on the Mania Difficulty. I used the Fan-Translation patches of Absolute Zero for a while till the Phantasian Productions English was finally released in the New Year. I'm really sorry that I took so long to actually finish the game due to mostly other reviews that I have been working on, the first impression of the PS4 as well as joining in at the Ad Libitum's Facebook page where fans of the Tales Of Series can have fun Role Playing as the characters from different games, I role play as Phillia Felice from Tales of Destiny and it's a shame my favourites such as Kratos, Cress and Asch were all taken so I had no choice but though I could have done Leon if I had the chance but oh well it doesn't matter. Maybe if Cress's role player were to quit and be removed then I'll take that chance and get him.

  I also kept having Internet problems where the Network Broadband kept on going on and off all the time. Thankfully I got a brand new connection and so far it's worked wonderfully for me and I never had any problems with it at all and got it set up on my Wii, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo 3DS and I'm glad it's all resolved.

  I also was meant to be doing the Final Fantasy Marathon but I stopped it for a while to do some Light Gun games and I still have plenty of do, so when I finish up Tales Of Phantasia again I'll finally get on with some more Light Gun games, starting with Lethal Enforcers I & II on the PlayStation.

  In the future I'll have to sort out my accounts so that I can focus on my work in the future. So again I'm really sorry for how long it took to finish it but I hope I can motivate myself easier in the future.

  Subscribe to my channel on Gamespot, Raptr, DevaintART, Facebook and Youtube for Reviews, Countdowns, Images and Videos

  Written by Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)

  Game On!

  • Posted Apr 26, 2013 7:21 am GMT
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• 26Mar 13

  AQWBlaZer91's First Impressions: PlayStation 4

  AQWBlaZer91's First Impressions: PlayStation 4

  

  Ever since the original PlayStation games console was released back in 1994, Sony always aimed really high when it came to quality titles. For over 2 decades their newer systems introduced new levels of graphical qualities as well as new gameplay elements. These new consoles followed from the PlayStation 2 in 2000 and the PlayStation 3 in 2006. The PlayStation 2 became one of the industry's best selling game consoles of all time and also the PlayStation 3 while having a terrible launch price still managed to sell quite well and it became a strong competitor towards Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.

  Sony now unveils their announcement of their next PlayStation game system which is no surprisingly the PlayStation 4. I watched through the archived version of the live stream of the PlayStation 4 presentation on Youtube. The systems designer Mark Cerny who has worked on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 along with other companies like Naughty Dog showcases the console's specifications and also the brand new Dual Shock 4 controller, however they did not show us the system itself but we do learn about the specifications of the system.

  

  The new controller features the traditional PlayStation buttons but however it has a new design look which looks cool, it's wireless and also it has some changes to it. The Start and Select buttons have been placed into one a single Options menu, the trigger buttons have been redesigned, the joysticks will feature a concave surface, similar to that of the Xbox 360 controller and finally it has one new button, the Share button. This button allows you to share your gameplay experience you had by enabling you to upload videos based on how well you performed. It allows people to watch your gameplay videos that you share to the public on the game's website. There are also other new features added to the controller like the Touch Pad for inputting commands, a Light Bar for easier way to identify players, a headphone jack for enhanced social interactions and they finally enhanced the vibration capabilities and reduced the controller lates for actions in games.

  

  In addition to the new Dual Shock 4 controller they did quickly show off the second controller called the Stero Camera which detects the 3D movement of the controller.

  

  As for the system's specifications they announced, it is said that it's going to be equipped with a Supercharged PC Architecture which allows the system to play at it's full potential as a gaming platform. For the CPU they announced that it's going to have an X86 CPU core for programming expertise, an Enhanced PC GPU for easily developing games in the console's early life cycle as well as giving the system's graphics potential in the future. As for the system's memory they were happy to announce that it have about 8GB Unified memory for achieving the best for game as well as additional content creation on the platform for the hard drive to have.

  

  They got to show us the live demos of the upcoming games as well as the graphical capabilities of the system. The first demo they showed was the new Unreal Engine 4 rendered in real time which does look incredible.

  

  Their second demo showcased a million object simulation by Havok which showed very tiny objects falling at the same time which is running on the GPU (not the CPU) which is only a fraction of the PS4's power.

  

  Mark Cerny then reveals his latest project which will soon come for the PS4 called Knack. The trailer showcases it's character (of course named Knack) who has the explosive power of growth by allowing himself to gain magnetic parts to fight off against group of evil Orcs lead by Victor. The game itself is an action game where your growth building monster must beat up Orcs and also he can shrink back down to crawl into tiny places which looks very nice so far.

  

  Guerrilla Games manager has announced their next entry in the PlayStation exclusive Killzone series called Shadow Fall. He announced that the game will take place between the war against two different nations, The Vektan and the Helghast. In the demo you get to see some impressive new mechanics for an advanced looking FPS game. I've never played Killzone but really does look impressive so far.

  

  The next game this time announced by Evolution Studio's Matt Southern is Driveclub which they had plans to make over 9 years ago but wanted to wait for the right technology to do so. The gameplay trailer shows you the First person view of actually getting inside the car, belt up and finally starting up the car as well actually showing the mechanics of actually doing the career of a car club.

  

  Sucker Punch Productions reveals the next Infamous game subtitled Second Son which features a new protagonist Delsin Rowe who takes on a corporation who bend's on taking control of the citizens. In the trailer he blows away the security guards and I do say it should look enjoyable.

  

  They move on to Jonathon Blow the independent creator of the acclaimed Braid where he announces his latest project called The Witness. It's a First Person puzzle where you explore an uninhabited island to solve environmental puzzles such as moving some objects found on the island.

  

  David Cage from Quantic Dream tells us about the animations of character emotions as well as explaining the different polygons of his other games before explaining about the polygons in his upcoming game Beyond where he shows the emotions of one of the characters which looks cool.

  

  Media Molecule's director explains how the PlayStation Move's going to work with the PlayStation 4 with an application which will allow the players to be creative and interact with the application.

  

  Capcom has their announcement of their new project which is codenamed Panta Rhei. It's new graphical engine which is designed to truly take advantage of the PlayStation. They showcase a new game which is running with the new engine called Deep Down which I fought it was going to be a Dragon's Dogma sequel. The trailer reveals the gameplay where a group of warriors take on a powerful dragon. It looks really sweet.

  

  Square Enix has their announcement of their next Final Fantasy installment but what they have at the moment is a tech demo that they spent a whole year on. The trailer shows a invading group attacking a group of mages who are shot down and one girl of those mages manages to escape with the crystal that the mages were worshiping. At the moment I'm not bothered by it cause I really don't want to play anymore Final Fantasy cause it's possibly that Square Enix could make this one as bad as the other games so far and to be perfectly honest it really doesn't any near Fantasy quality. Biggest question, when are they ever going to make a good Final Fantasy installment?

  

  Ubisoft has announced their openworld game for the PS4 called WatchDogs which is designed to be one of the most impressive interactive experienced video games ever. The trailer reveals it's main character who can gain information using his device about the people around him and he can hack other people's bank account as well as ATM's. Eventually the game shows of the combat where you can track the criminal activity and chase the guy down. You can use the environment to your advantage to ensure the bad guy doesn't get away or to escape the camera's of the law. For a game like this, WatchDogs looks incredible and personally would like to play that game.

  

  Bizzard Entertainment finally announces Diablo 3 to the PlayStation 3 but also they plan to release Diablo 3 on the PlayStation 4 to fit to the consoles control scheme with 4 player co-op in one screen as well as other features.

  

  Finally they bring out Bungie alongside the publishers of Activision to unveil a First Person Shooter which will be a universe for players to customize their characters and will promise a great competitive and co-operative multiplayer experience for the PS4 as well as the 360 and PS3. Bungie calls this as their most ambitious project yet. That finally raps the PS4 games they have so far through the live stream.

  

  What the PlayStation 4 will do for it's gamers is to allow both see what games their friends are playing and also allow you to help a friend to help him/her to complete an obstacle that they can't do. They plan to reduce download time for the content that players want to none. They also plan to also take advantage of the PSVita by allowing the PS4 games to run on it via remote play. The system will be compatible with social apps like Facebook to be able to communicate with their friends.

  

  The PlayStation 4 will not however be compatible with PSOne, PS2 or PS3 games but however they are considering a workaround using Emulation and Cloud storage. Cloud storage will also allow hosts for downloading content as well as games and also like with the announced Xbox 720, the PS4 will prohibit the use of second hand games that are purchased in physical form. This approach could provide a point of differentiation with the successor to the Xbox 360.

  All third party game developers who have had amazing support for the PlayStation systems and they promise to give the system their support for the PS4.

  

  At the moment the PS4 looks like a promising system, however I do wish I could have seen the actual system itself but however if I ever decided to own this console then I would have problems running my old PlayStation 1 or 2 games. However I'll just stick to what I got and maybe I'll get a PS3 instead when I finish other PS1 and PS2 projects.

  Subscribe to my channel on Gamespot, Raptr, DevaintART, Facebook and Youtube for Reviews, Countdowns, Images and Videos

  Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)

  Game On!

  • Posted Mar 26, 2013 2:00 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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