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Is It Possible To Just Appreciate It For What It Is!?


I know....this is probably just a whole page of me whining about people whining, but this is what this section is for, opinions, and this just happens to be mine. So if you want to yell at me for it then I suggest you hit the Discuss Features link down below instead of piling up my already suffering inbox. *cringe* Goodness knows it doesn't need another email added to it. Anyway, on with the subject.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I respect that, but the things I see people say about FF is equivalent to me as someone saying, "That the most horrible food I've ever tasted!", and then eating the rest of what they're complaining about. It's slightly ridiculous. Why play if you know you're just going to complain? Let me find particular complaints as examples.

Battle/Magic Systems - This one is a big one, because everyone hates something. I hardly hear any complaints about the 7th's battle system, so let's just skip to VIII and IX. In Final Fantasy VIII the magic/battle system was "Junctioning". It actually isn't as hard as people go on about, and actually quite helpful in building up your character's stats. That's most likely why armor was left out of the game. People were whining about how it was too hard to get. Well, it seems overwhelming at first, believe me, I about passed out when I saw it the first time, and I learned nothing from Quisits' lessons. But once I started using the Auto feature in the Junction menu, over an over I caught on quite quick. It actually became addicting to draw magic and boost up my characters.

In FF IX we went back to the old school ways of one major skill per person. Best explained as on person per white magic, one person per black magic, one thief, one knight, etc. People complained that this was too hard. Well, you'd have to be in kindergarten for this to be too hard. That's what RPG's are about, strategy, and maybe it's not Square's fault, maybe the person playing is just a lousy strategist. Hmm? Mostly it was the FF newbies that complained about this, because they weren't used to it from previous games. Well, I liked it, as I like all the systems. Variety keeps you from boredom folks.

Characters/FMV - This fits into one big whiny category. People feel the need to complain about one thing or another....hehe, but that's just the nature of the beast.

FF IV to VI - Biggest thing to whine over, "There's no FMV!!!". Course there isn't you spoiled brat. It's a Super Nintendo game. That's no reason not to play though. The story line and character development of these games are just as good if not better than FF VII through FF IX. People are so quick to judge before they play that they don't play them at all just because of the SNES graphics. It's called prejudice, and gets no one anywhere. Let me pretend that my first FF wasn't FF IV, that it was FF VII or FF VIII. Sure I might be a bit leery of trying something with such cheesy graphics, but I really truly love the series so, that I'd be willing to hush about it, and try it anyway. You never know, you may like it better. So neener, neener.

FF VII- Most often heard complaints here are, the people are deformed....well that what super deformed style is, and that's exactly what the game was meant to look like. Another popular moan is, it doesn't look as good as FF VIII. Well, FF VII was made before FF VIII so it's not going to be as polished. It was also Square's first venture on Playstation, so they weren't as familiar with PSX's capabilities. So again, neener neener!

FF VIII - This one's a biggie. Here we have people complaining there were too many FMV's and not enough intriguing story line. In the great words of Squall, ...whatever. Were you people not paying attention? Hello? I thought it was a pretty good story line. The succession of witches, a guy suffering from emotional retardation coming out of his shell because one girl believed in him. It's damn right gorgeous. And actually with how polished and cinematic the movies were, there weren't enough of them! I kept waiting through every black screen for a chance to go, "Oooo, ahhhh," again. So for a third time, neener, neener.

FF IX - This one just kills me....hehe. The number one complaint, "How come they don't look like the FF VIII characters?". Umm....because they aren't maybe? You see, again, Square wanted to go for a super deformed look like in FF VII, so therefore that's why they are super deformed. And another reason people bawl, "The FMV's in FF IX don't look as good as the FF VIII one's did!"......er not true. They looked better. Just because they character style was different, doesn't mean there's no extra polish to it, or that the backgrounds weren't ten times better, or that the character emotion wasn't better, or that details were more drawn out. Why is it, just because the characters don't look as realistic, the FMV's are magically bad? That doesn't make an FMV or story line bad, it makes the characters cuter and not as realistic. That's the only difference. So last but not least, neener neener.

I hope I've gotten my point across. Have I? Will you all hush now? Oh wait, that would be impossible. For as long as there lives the FF series, people will keep comparing the one before to the one next, even though they are completely different stories, with completely different characters, on completely different consoles. But at the very least hopefully I'll make you think twice before blurting out, "I hate it!" to a complete masterpiece.

- Rinoa

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