Tom, boy, you got it right. This is exactly what Richard Garriott was lamenting when he said that game designers today just plain suck! And why not, if the big studios don't really give a crap about good game design as long as the visuals are spectacular? This is also where Nintendo tends to shine, outdoing and outselling the boring sameness of Xbox and PS.
I look forward to Shroud of the Avatar to show everyone how to design a decent game the right way, and all of the great, independent games that are bound to come out for GameStick and Ouya. And in the mean time, great titles on mobile such as Sword and Sworcery and the many independent casual games are doing a great job on tiny budgets.
If violence in video games and movies doesn't cause violence in real life, then I guess we should bring back smoking in movies and TV, Joe Camel ads, ads for sugary cereals, even allow swearing and hardcore sex on network TV! After all, according to most of the comments here, what people see and hear has no affect on their behavior! Sounds reasonable to me!
@danusty @gouldjw @Printul_Noptii Wholeheartedly agreed. But I still think 7 was far and away better than anything that came after it. FF6 was one of those rare moments in gaming history that I think would be difficult, if not impossible to recapture in a new (non-remake) game. It might be setting the bar a bit too high to say that Square has to make a masterpiece of that spectacular level to be successful again. Of course, they should aim for that, but if they fall short and make a game at least as good as 7 in terms of story and vision, I'd call that a success.
@Printul_Noptii @gouldjw I wasn't too thrilled with 8 or 9 either. I really liked 13, but it was definitely just a lot of eye candy and not a lot of storytelling or non-linear gameplay. Fantastic graphics, but that just doesn't make for a truly extraordinary game like 6 or 7.
FF 6 and 7 were the pinnacle for Square. It's too bad they've been so focused on animation and cut scenes and unable to recreate the same level of storytelling that made those two games so spectacular. FF 6 was just a bunch of sprites, yet still ranks as probably the best FF game to date. Get back to the story and ease up on the graphics! Or, at least remake those two in full HD glory and they'll be great hits for the company.
@cavs25 @gouldjw Did you ever think that maybe he has a right to think highly of himself? Do you have any inkling of what it takes to accomplish what he has accomplished in his life? Damn, there's such a sense of entitlement out there, such a sense of "you're not so great"ism. This guy has earned the right to think highly of himself because he's a damn genius and has accomplished so much in this industry. You and I have no idea what it takes to do his job. You call him pompous because he knows he's good and states it openly? What the hell have you accomplished in your life? Run a company? Developed a multi-million-selling RPG? Or sat on your ass in your mom's basement calling other people assholes and douchebags for having the gall to achieve excellence?
Realize that you are not great, you have not achieved great things, but other people have, and they deserve to be lauded for it, not torn down by nobodies.
Just goes to show, you can't make a true statement without the whining class coming out of the woodwork to take you out of context and complain about their own victimhood. Same reason we'll never get an honest politician - the honest folks are torn to shreds.
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