Recent Content by Cloudiroth7

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Am i the only one?

Sara said: ↑

Oh God, I would love that... A Kingdom Hearts MMO.

But then I can see about five hundred thousand clones of Riku and Sora running around with just numbers after their names. So eh... Maybe not. But playing as Riku fighting Sora for some reason in KHIII would be awesome.
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lol I that could happen unless they have nothing thing that resembles what sora or riku wear, their hairstyle, or their voices I mean every character can be completely different. for example it might be a crappy one but on byond they have a few good naruto, bleach ,and even dbz games where you can customize your own character and I don't see naruto ichigo and goku everywhere in those games. the game allow you to bring out your creativity to customize your own fantasy character with the powers you want him to have and I truly believe if they did a kh game with full customizable characters it would be amazing

Post by: Cloudiroth7, May 22, 2013 in forum: General & Upcoming Kingdom Hearts
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Am i the only one?

playing as riku would be awesome...but what if the made it so you could make your own keyblade wielder, choose from a set of animations to make your own moves especially specials, and make it online...now that would be pure awesomeness

Post by: Cloudiroth7, May 22, 2013 in forum: General & Upcoming Kingdom Hearts
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Kingdom Hearts III Kingdom Hearts 3 to be PS4 exclusive (rumor).

from the Microsoft conference that happened yesterday doesn't see like many people especially Microsoft fans are too happy with the XboxOne so far looks like ps4 sales will be high unless Microsoft pulls something fantastic out at E3 because they messed their conference up big time...didn't show any games except forza 5.....so it may be an exclusive for real

Post by: Cloudiroth7, May 22, 2013 in forum: General & Upcoming Kingdom Hearts
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Square-Enix Is Final Fantasy falling apart?

Sforzato said: ↑

All right, this thread begs a question in particular, and I can tell from a cursory glance of the posts so far that it's been brought up. But I'm just gonna set aside my feelings on XIII for a second, because there are other more pertinent things to talk about - trends that can be traced much farther back.

Now, I started with FFVII, but I have since reached back into the series to the more memorable 16-bit titles; the only ones I haven't touched (yet) are the first three. I've also played chunks of XII and XIII. The thing I notice is that, over the years, the more the technology that powers the series has evolved, the more Square and Square Enix have begun to take control away from the player. Until FFX, there really was no such thing as a "cut scene" in Final Fantasy. What we got instead were short CG scenes as a reward for reaching certain milestones in the game. They're short because they take up a lot of processing power, but that's what makes them so sweet; the developers knew they'd have to fit as much as they could into as short a frame of time.

More importantly, in lieu of fully realized cut scenes, often the story was advanced by long stretches of dialogue. But even these weren't ever completely hands-off; every now and then Square would throw a curveball at you, with one character interrupting another's speech bubble, or posing a choice to you, or allowing you freedom of movement while someone was talking. That meant you never put down your controller. It kept you invested, kept you alert, made you feel like you were always in control, even at points where you had to hand it over.

As much as I love Final Fantasy X, I believe it was the start of some disconcerting trends in the Squaresoft design philosophy. Kingdom Hearts showed shades of this as well. They started to take control away from the player. They started telling the story without the player instead of depending on you to advance. They completely mistook what fans loved about the series to date: the richness and depth of setting and the feeling of actually playing a role in a grand epic, slaying dragons, discovering grand treasures, raging against the heavens themselves, what have you. They began to phase that out and focus on more pretty things, more CGI. This is what led to KHII being a clunky piece of garbage, I believe it's partially responsible for the quality of Final Fantasy XIII, and it's probably a piece of the "Why hasn't Versus XIII been released yet" puzzle.

But it's only one point of interest, and there are many more. If you compare Squaresoft's list of games to Square Enix's, you'll probably notice that they didn't start going crazy with ports, sequels, and spin-offs until they made that merger. (That's also around the time these flashier main series entries started coming out, but no need to beat a dead horse.) Square Enix is a nostalgia factory. A recycling plant of video games. Squaresoft created all these beautiful titles, kickstarted so many excellent series, and it seems that their successor is just trying to cash in on that instead of continue the tradition. I can name the number of unique, enjoyable Squeenix titles I've played on one hand, whereas I'd need an extra person to help me with the Square games.

If it seems like I'm pining for the old days too, well, you might be right about that. But I'm also not one to deny the bare facts. This started with Squaresoft. All of the games that brought about this change can be traced back to the original company. Hell, Square put out X-2, and that was a disaster in all but the combat. But we don't exactly blame Notorious B.I.G. for the collapse of mainstream rap, and we shouldn't blame Square for doing what worked, especially since they never exaggerated it to Square Enix's degree. (Of course, maybe Nomura's the P. Diddy in this analogy, but I wouldn't know enough to follow up on that.) SE is the one who put out All the Bravest, and that might be the greatest travesty of a "game" anyone's ever heard of. It's pretty clear, no matter how long Square had the ball, Squeenix snatched it up and took off like a shot.

Ok, those are the two points everyone sees coming. But I think there's a third item to address, which I don't hear people talk about very often. Squaresoft, and even moreso Square Enix, love to experiment. And what both companies definitely have in common is they're not very good at it. Exhibit A: The Bouncer. I picked this game up for less than ten dollars back in the early 2000's, and I thought I was getting a bargain. Then I sat down with it for an hour and realized I'd been scammed. "Unplayable" is generous; "a steaming pile of the devil's excrement" is a compliment. If you managed not only to endure that game, but beat it, you might actually be the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama. And that was early Square! Square Enix would go on to release such "memorable" titles as Dirge of Cerberus - which I honestly liked a lot, mind you, but I can still admit it has its share of problems. FFXI was such a radical break from formula that I barely know any FF fans who've actually played it at length, and I'm told that XIV is disliked even by MMO fans.

Now, at the same time, these experiments occasionally yield beautiful results; after all, what else can we call Kingdom Hearts? And it's been successful enough to bring us all together here. The World Ends with You is another stand-out example, one that far too few of us have played for how brilliant and enchanting it is. The problem, sadly, is that Squeenix's win-loss ratio on these gambles is discouraging. They may have been able to afford these risks at one point, but now each hit they take is costing them dearly. I only foresee this ending one of two ways: Either they will stop taking risks entirely, leading to bland games that barely meet their sales goals and essentially have Square Enix living paycheck to paycheck; or they will continue to bet big bucks on these hit-and-miss experiments, and ultimately go under.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH I HATE FINAL FANTASY XIII. It's not even a f#$%♪@& fantasy! Every other game in the series has incorporated scant to moderate amounts of sci-fi elements, but retained the focus on the hero's journey, the wonderment of exploring a new realm and unlocking its mysteries, and the ultimate clash of good and evil. FFXIII is cyberpunk with magic. That's the plain and simple truth. Everyone with any ounce of purity is either a wuss or a ditz, and everyone else is either an insufferable jerk or crooked as an abortion clinic wire hanger. There's no fantastic world to explore because it just drags you along for the ride and feeds everything to you in journal entries and data files (JUST BECAUSE IT WORKS FOR MASS EFFECT DOESN'T MEAN IT WORKS FOR EVERYBODY, SQUEENIX). No one really learns anything in the end, except how utterly screwed they are.

This approach works fine for some people and some stories, but it's not Final Fantasy. Of all the myriad things Final Fantasy has been, it has never been this. There has never been so great a break from tradition before now; no matter how angsty the characters got, no matter how many flashy, beeping deelywhoppers they got to mess around with. This is in addition to faults in the combat and story in general, and there are plenty. So not only is it not Final Fantasy, but for what it is, it's not even that good! More italics are necessary to prove my point!

I believe Final Fantasy XIII is the culmination of the three cardinal flaws in Square Enix's design philosophy. It is flashy, it features lengthy cut scenes that move the game forward in baby steps, and it keeps control of the game away from the player. Many of its characters are shallow throwbacks to well-liked characters in Final Fantasy's history; this has been admitted. (Not the shallow part, that is, but the throwback part.) And it is such a dramatic step away from the classic formula, such a bold and dangerous foray into territories untested, that it couldn't help but receive some backlash - and really didn't come out much better for the effort than games where they just did what they do best.

Yes, Final Fantasy is falling apart. If Square Enix does not fix this, it is going to tank. I believe that with all my heart, now matter how it aches to think of it. It's their flagship series; if people lose interest in it, the company's options will start to shrink. I think Squeenix realizes this as well; it's probably why they acquired Eidos, though that doesn't seem to be going well, either. I just wish I knew what to do about it. They've been saved by miracles before, but those miracles came from bright minds with brilliant ideas, and the drive to make them a reality. Unfortunately, those kinds of people don't just turn up every day. Nomura's been at the wheel on several projects for a long time, and I believe he's trying his best, but one man can only provide so many ideas. After KHIII and VXIII finally come out, and maybe (crossing my fingers 'til they break) we see a bona fide TWEwY sequel, what else will he do? What else can he do?

I dunno, my forecasts for the Sonic franchise were as grim as this around the time Sonic '06 came out, and they managed to pick up the pieces. Maybe SE can manage it too. It just stings to see a company responsible for so many fond childhood memories suffering like this.

As an addendum can I just say that y'all need to stop hatin' on FFVIII that sh#% was fun LAGUNA'S BETTER THAN YOUR FAVORITE FF CHARACTER
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well I feel you on the huge drop of final fantasy titles in my opinion they could have brought dissidia to consoles....I mean I loved dissidia and if its on a console they can add way more characters and moves I mean the characters when from characters being turn based badasses to freely movable ultimate badasses who eat lighting and CRAP THUNDAAAHH!!!!!

Post by: Cloudiroth7, May 22, 2013 in forum: Gaming
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Which sephiroth battle tougher KH or KHII

Anti Axel said: ↑

uhmm i know its for both games so i dont know where to put it
but which one do you think its harder i think its Kh
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lol for me I know its kh1 sephiroth ive seen invincibility cheats fall before sephiroth in kh1 plus ive owned sephiroth in kh2 a great deal of times even on proud mode

Post by: Cloudiroth7, May 22, 2013 in forum: General & Upcoming Kingdom Hearts

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Recent Content by Cloudiroth7

Am i the only one?

Am i the only one?

Kingdom Hearts III Kingdom Hearts 3 to be PS4 exclusive (rumor).

Square-Enix Is Final Fantasy falling apart?

Which sephiroth battle tougher KH or KHII