On Unreasonable Expectations

[auronlu]

 For so many years, I have seen of FFVI as the best of the series, that I think I built up my expectations too high.

I'm mostly cranky because I just got killed for the second time in as many days by yet another timed fetch-quest. I hate those. Hate hate hate hate hate...ahem. So I will now be playing through the Floating Island sequence and its timed-quest again, and then, if I survive, I can look forward to the timed-quest that just killed me. Hello, arthritis!

But it's not just the timed-quest problem. I've come to realize that I depend more than anything else on characterization— mannerisms, speaking styles, personalities, past histories, interactions, dialog, speeches.  Follow that up with worldbuilding and interesting settings. And then, at the bottom of the priority heap, plot. Sounds a lot like my writing. I also wither up and die in urban and technological dystopias, which is why Midgar has always given me trouble (luckily, FFVII has some well-defined characters, dialog and interactions). 

Or maybe I just don't like clowns. Or maybe I'm confused because the cackling purple octopus seems like it belongs in a much sillier game than the rest.

I don't know. There are character developments, and Celes is interesting (like Beatrix in IX, except as a PC). But I still feel like I'm bumbling around Twilight Town waiting for the party to gel. It's a huge, huge cast of characters, and since they can't count on any one set of party members at any time, there's a lot less person-specific dialog and moments.

It's not really that I dislike VI, but after everything I've heard, I expected it to knock my socks off, and so far, no luck. Whereas V, with all its shallowness and early-early RPG simplicity, amused me more. Maybe because it was more lightweight. But I still got to know the main party's characters better, because there were only 4-5 of them, and they all had something to say at major plot points. VI can't, again, because only a few of the characters are fixed for any given scene.

I had no idea I was so dialog-driven.

Kefka helps, because he's got distinct mannerisms and animations, but few of the characters do.

The funny thing is, I'll take choppy voice acting (X) and worse translations (V), so long as there's enough information that I can figure out what people are supposed to sound like. It's the same way I can listen to fiction (Dorothy Sayers, Justira's writing, Ellnyx's writing) read aloud by my lousy text-to-speech program and fill in the real voices in my head. 

Then again, I am consistently backwards from everyone else; my favorites are X, XII,XIII, V, VIII, roughly in that order.

P.S.  Updated Flist from DOINK friendmeme; apologies. I thought when I added someone as a friend it granted access, too..*peers at DW*

Comments

[mako_lies]

I've just been playing through V and VI, too. I started with VI (mostly because I'd gotten farther in V as a kid, and wanted to give VI another try). I can definitely see what you're getting at. For sure, I find the gameplay of V more fun (mostly because it has the class system and is pretty similar to Tactics, which is by far my favorite game gameplay-wise). Dying seems to be a common occurrence in VI, especially when the game randomly decides such and such character needs to be in your party. The dialogue is a little off-putting (I think the GBA translation did the dialogue a little better?)

And then there's just the truly weird stuff, like Ultros and Locke's dead girlfriend in the basement (which will never stop freaking me out).


That being said, I think what I really enjoy about VI is the heart a lot of the characters have, which can be a little lost amongst the sea of characters. I love Edgar and Sabin's story, and how hard Terra tries, Celes's journey is really heartwarming too, especially considering where she's come from. I think that's why I'm finding myself liking it, despite a lot of the things I see wrong with it? I don't know. The dialogue's shallowness is really hard to deal with, but... I don't know... some of it just works?

(It also gets a little better after the floating continent, just FYI. Shadow's dreams are really poignant, and there are some things with Gau that are really nice, as well. And there are more character-specific moments, as well. So that helps a little.)


Um. Hm. I apparently have strong feelings about this, haha?

[auronlu]

Maybe it's just as well I got killed in that house in Tzen; I'll go back once more to the Floating Continent and try to keep from losing Shadow.

Locke's dead girlfriend is indeed odd.

A few more character-specific moments are, I think, all I need. I'll be patient.

[leasspell_dael]

(Just going to pop in here to say, when you reach the point where it gives you the option to jump to the airship, sit back and relax. The time *can't* run out at that point. It gets to 3 seconds, and then it'll disappear and Shadow will show up.)

[thene]

Can I ask why you saw FFVI as the 'best', then? /bit confused

I guess this isn't a popular view but I think FFVI gets unduly put on a pedestal because it was ahead of its time and led to some great headcanon for a lot of people...but in and of itself, it just isn't as interesting as many of the later games IMO. (I prefer IV to VI, too).

I've never finished V but what you say of it reminds me of how I think of III...it's just four characters and it's shallow and simple but there's a LOT of material there to build on, some of which is more adult than it first looks.

[auronlu]

A lot of my old fandom friends have VI as their favorite, or one of their favorites, and expressed delight when I said I was going to get around to playing it finally. I was also swayed by glowing reviews when I went to Amazon to purchase it.

So I built my expectations on that. Whereas I'd heard FFV might not be worth playing (and had not heard of Faris), so I was pleasantly surprised.

Maybe my experience shows how much I'm swayed by opinions. Or maybe it's proof I'm contrarian!

I'll probably be happier with it once the Floating Continent music isn't on infinite replay in my head, as it has been for several days.

[saharasnow]

The story only starts to really reveal and more angst when you get to the second part of the game.

I guess it was given such place in fans' hearts was also because a lot of us grew up with it.

[heavenscalyx]

*whistles innocently* Persona 3 and 4 have a setting for making the combats easier so people can enjoy the story more.

[auronlu]

Thanks for reminding me! Persona and Dragon Age are on my longterm List. :)

(There, now I get Faris and Utena in the same space, as I'm pretty sure the latter is slightly inspired by the former. Of course, Faris' in-game sprite has the pink hair.)

[leasspell_dael]

I gotta say, it's my favourite of the series, but as someone above pointed out, a lot of that is nostalgia and the fact it was ahead of its time.

Second-half of the game gives all of the characters their chance to have time in the spotlight, and is a lot more unstructured which I know a lot of people like.

Do you mind if I ask which version you're playing? (SNES/PSX/GBA)

[auronlu]

PSX. On the Playstation 3, in fact.

I should probably look up the GBA script, as I kept doing with V.

[cumuluscastle]

I don't think it's the best game ever, but then again, it does hold the distinction of being the first FF I ever actually played (didn't finish it then) on a rented Super NES.

I like the way the espers are much more human in this one and I think that Terra's half esper status is very interesting (although the scene with Maduin and Madonna and the sparklies will forever make me bust a gut).

In my case I am also feeling a lot of nostalgia though. I didn't like FFXIII at all and I barely dragged myself through FFXII. This is mostly because of the game play. I feel like that's the way the games are going for good too. So I feel like I might be parting ways with the new Final Fantasies for good and that's why it's a relief that I haven't finished all of the old ones yet.

Anyway, both times I've quit FFVI in the past it's been because of the turning point of the game. I get sort of lost in the second part of the game.

[auronlu]

Whereas I utterly and totally ADORED the gambit system in XII, having been raised a programmer, but I can see why it would make traditional gamers tear their hair. Oh, I had such fun setting up and testing gambits, then seizing control and manually overriding them. Fly, my pretties, fly, fly!

XIII's battle system was not my favorite, but it had enough strategy that I could make do. Took me a while to get the hang of it, though. I come from an alternate tradition of FPS games like Tomb Raider, Doom and Marathon, so I do a little better with live-action fighting. Watching Fang and Lightning whack things into the sky and then fly up to whop them a la Hong Kong Cinema also entertained me hugely.

Back to VI: Yes, the sparklies were... sparkly. At least there were no vampires involved!

I'm spoiled by playing through X first of all of them. It makes such a difference which one you finish. (I started with VIII, but my game console -- I was playing it on a Mac, actually-- always froze after the Lunar Cry animation, so it was some years before I saw the game's ending.)

[cumuluscastle]

FFVIII, I am convinced has the buggiest FMVs of all time. I am pretty sure it is straight up a design flaw. I lost three copies of the game to that freezing action you're talking about.

It's not live-action fighting I mind, though. I'm a former WoW player among other things (although I don't like FPSs). It's the horrible mutant combination of menu-style and live-action that's causing me to become mutinous. Pick one, dang it! I've pretty officially defected to Dragon Age, but then again, the first game in that series was better than the second, so . . .

Finishing X first would make a difference, I think. The story and characters are really the strong point in X, for sure. I actually finished IX first, although I already owned VII and VIII at the time. Go figure!

[lassarina]

So I am actually in the midst of replaying this for my friend right now, and watching it with a critical eye--no, it's probably not as good, objectively, as I think it is, but it was my first fully-played FF. My dad suckered me straight into it with the opera--he left an extra save there while I was with my grandmother for the summer, and when I got home, he was like LOOK LOOK LOOK YOU GOTTA SEE THIS. (I still have his notes--ten pages of legal paper, and his scratchy handwriting, with quests and weaknesses of monsters.)

So yes, it is coloured by nostalgia for me. Celes was my first video game love--like really seriously I want to be this woman--but I would agree with prior comments that the best is yet to come in terms of interactions. Some of it is sort of a crapshoot based on who you bring to any given scene, but even looking at it with the critical eye of things I've seen in other games--like the Persona games--it's still my favourite.

(The access/subscribe split is a thing I love about DW, honestly.)