Fuck Off Square Enix!

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

So on a recommendation, and after reading some positive reviews, I picked up a copy of Bravely Default. It's a relatively new JRPG for the 3DS made by Square Enix.

What really caught my eye about this game was the job system. I love RPG's with job systems. They barely exist in the new paradigm of gaming, and it makes an already amazing genre of games exponentially more interesting.

I'm 20 minutes into Bravely Default and I'm already in love with it. Hand-drawn art style with 3D character models? Yes please! Job system? Check. Interesting and innovative battle mechanics? Cool! ..."Sleep Points" you stock up by putting your 3DS in sleep mode, that you can buy with real world money? ...god fucking dammit Square Enix.

I get it. I understand the world we live in. Micro-transactions are part of the industry now. But come on. This is a JRPG. If gaming had an old, respectable grandfather, the JRPG would be it. I just couldn't believe that while playign this amazing little handheld game - a throwback to the old school Nintendo/Square mentality - a little chat bubble pops up to tell me I can visit the eShop to spend real money on little tokens that help me play the game easier.

It takes you out of the experience. It takes a giant shit on the atmosphere. You're getting into this interesting game, exploring its mechanics, learning the characters...and they just pull you out of it. Slap you in the face with "real world" bullshit.

JUST LET ME SUSPEND REALITY AND PLAY THIS FUCKING VIDEO GAME!!

So that's my rant for the evening. What's up with you guys?

 

[klunderbunker]

That Square Enix made Kingdom Hearts so it can do no wrong.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

The game is supposedly really good. Probably the best game Square has put out in years. Title should be "Final Fantasy: Not Complete Shit". But the minute the little bubble came up and was like, "hey...you know how you have real money sitting in your bank account that you totally don't want...?" I closed my 3DS and haven't opened it back up. It just totally killed the vibe for me.

 

[The Butcher]

If the game is as good as I've heard/read then I'd overlook it. I've put up with worse to get through lesser games. I get where you're coming from, though. Nothing is sacred anymore. Sushi-X is ninja rolling in his grave.

 

[klunderbunker]

The game is supposedly really good. Probably the best game Square has put out in years. Title should be "Final Fantasy: Not Complete Shit". But the minute the little bubble came up and was like, "hey...you know how you have real money sitting in your bank account that you totally don't want...?" I closed my 3DS and haven't opened it back up. It just totally killed the vibe for me.

That's part of the reason I've retired as a gamer. I don't want to hear about all this online stuff or gaming stores or whatever else. I want a controller and a TV. Also preferably a couch to sit on but I figured that was implied.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

Times have changed. The average gamer used to be someone who who could play 30-40 hours a week no problem, but now the average gamer is a 30 year old with a job and family and can't devote all the time required to fully immerse yourself in a game, so the gaming industry changed to try to accommodate that. First it was easier games. I'm not that old, but I am old enough to remember games that didn't have checkpoints or save points. Hell I remember games where if you died, you had to start all over. Now that seems crazy. It didn't stop there though, so micro transactions became a thing.

I'm in two minds about them. One the one hand, I have no issue if someone wants to pay two bucks to buy a different outfit for their character. Purely cosmetic things, no issue at all. Its the pay to win scheme that ruins a lot of games for me. Its part of the reason I don't pay League of Legends. Other than it being one of the worst communities out there, I'm unwilling to pay twenty, thirty dollars to get the better characters. Sure I could play the game, grind away with the low tier characters and work my way up (which is how gaming should be), but each time I enter a game I'm getting bent over a barrel by guys who have shelled out money for the game. Pay to win is a bullshit dynamic that is only hurting the gaming industry, but unfortunately is here to stay.

It doesn't help that gamers are among the most self entitled community in the world today. Seriously, we are awful people who expect everything handed to us and most of us would rather pay fifteen bucks to unlock all the content in a game as opposed to actually playing it.

Oh and lol Killam sux.

 

[Gelgarin]

The game gets a bit shit around the third iteration - you'll understand what that means once you're there - the overarching plot is quite intriguing though. The microtransactions are wholly gratuitous, you miss nothing by ignoring them, and they actually take away from the gameplay experience.

 

[Ty Burna]

Yeah I was gonna say you really don't need the SP to finish the game. It's just a sort of: "Well if you want to make the game easier, buy stuff from us!".

Game's easy as you want to make it with the difficulty settings.

 

[Rayne]

Hah, I opened this thinking it would be a rant about the god-awful port of Final Fantasy XIII they just released on Steam.

I bought it ($15) since I don't own a dedicated console and likely won't ever, so I haven't previously gotten a chance to play the game. It's like playing a version on a shitty emulator. My PC is decently above recommended specs (although not a gaming rig); it should be able to run the game decently. Or, rather, it would, if the port put any kind of load onto my GPU, which it doesn't- it runs almost entirely off of the CPU.

On the flip side of the coin, people that have dedicated gaming rigs are complaining that the complete lack of graphics options, as well as being locked to 720p, don't let them take advantage of their computing power; you don't want to run this on your flat screen TV. There's a mod fix that's been released for this, but... isn't that what's supposed to be done in-house?

Squeenix appears to be in the IP monetizing business these days. I feel better about my $15 purchase of FFV for my phone than I do FFXIII.

 

[Alastor]

I also never understood the rant against such features in single player games if it doesn't affect the overall story/gameplay at all. It isn't like you are in competition with anyone to reach the end game faster.

 

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

The microtransaction element is shitty but totally unrequired. It doesn't take away from the game if you don't use it, which is fine. It seems to be literally a "win button" which I never needed.

Plot is alright. Repetitive at a certain point though as Gelgarin mentioned.

Characters are also rather meh, even Ringabel and Edea who do occasionally make me laugh.

Overall it was a nice throwback game though.

 

[Lee]

I just want Dragon Quest VII released legally here!

 

[Good Golly It's Ollie]

The objectively best JRPGs for the last say, five years, for me are as follows:

1) Xenoblade - has a unique localisation and somewhat non-standard plot. The characters are all really likable.

2) The Last Story - again great localisation and different gameplay from the genre norm. Again great characters.

3) Kingdom Hearts 3D - it's a Kingdom Hearts, with cute collectible monsters. Instant win. However, it is necessary to have played all the others to figure out what the hell is going on, and they're all on a bunch of different systems. Thank God for the HD collection versions.

4) Tales of Xillia/Xillia 2 - No other series of JRPGs does characterisation as good as Tales. All the player characters are likable. It also doesn't take itself super-seriously like Final Fantasy does, it's a great balance of comedy/drama.

5) Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2/Lightning Returns - I have a fair bit to say about this. It is actually criminally underrated in my opinion. They're never afraid to shake up the formula at Square. The battle system appears simple and "press X to win" on the surface but actually requires a deep understanding of equip setups and party synergy if you go for optional bosses. The game can be done fairly casualish but the extra elements did appeal to me. The characters sometimes say narmy or gratuitously edgy things at times, and the plot & dialogue is very melodramatic, but has one of the best-developed and well-rounded casts of the whole series really, when you look at it sensibly and take off your jaded nostalgia goggles. Character wise, my main criticism is Lightning feels like she's trying too hard to be cool, but then this is sort of an aspect of her character anyway.

There is a lot of railroading the player in the first one, but the last two alleviated this and really are you playing a Final Fantasy for an open-world but characterless world (Elder Scrolls)? No, you're not.

Would have included Fire Emblem Awakening but am classing it under strategy game, and Pokemon too but that is practically a genre unto itself.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

That's part of the reason I've retired as a gamer. I don't want to hear about all this online stuff or gaming stores or whatever else. I want a controller and a TV. Also preferably a couch to sit on but I figured that was implied.

I used to consider myself a "hardcore gamer", but these days I'd take a Wii U and Mario Kart and my 3DS over anything else on the market. I'm the core demo for the PS4 and XBone and all its (lack of) games, and I give more shits about Toad getting his own game in December, and a Nintendo shooter based on squids.

Oh, and I've completely managed to ignore the microtransactions, and forgot they existed. Like what others have said, the game is what you make of it. You can adjust the difficulty in several unique ways without any real consequence. The rant was more or less just my immediate reaction to the game constantly wanting me to connect with other people and use all the online functionality. JUST LET ME PLAY A GAME ALONE LIKE A LOSER!