"We Waited Five Years for This???"

I was so disappointed with this game! Sure it has terrific graphics! And yes of course they beat the previous Final Fantasy games graphics because it's newer! Graphics do improve quite a bit with each release. The battle system was good too, even though the license system was kind of weird I thought, but it's ok I guess. What wasn't great was the story line and the lack of personality from any of the characters with the exception of maybe Penelo.

I have been a Final Fantasy fan since I played the very first one as a kid. It has been my all-time favorite game ever since I first played. I have owned, played, and beaten them all, including Final Fantasy XII. Every single Final Fantasy game, (until this one), has always left you on the edge of your seat! You become part of the game! You had to save the world and nothing was going to make you put your controller down! You'd play all day and night for days at a time! The players had distinctive personalities. Some you loved, and some you hated! But this one... I barely remember their names and it's only been a few weeks since I finished it...

If you make a game with awesome graphics and add tons of different monsters to kill kids now-days seem to be happy! Sure they'll give it a 10. It had super graphics. Wow! They are so easily impressed with a few extra pixels... Don't they care about a story line? Yeah maybe this game has some sort of a vague one, but nothing that even comes close to measuring up to a single one of the previous Final Fantasy games. It's like they took 5 years to make a game that's 75 percent graphics, 20 percent side quests, and about 5 percent related to the actual main story line. It's sad...

In 5 years you would think they could have added just a little personality to the players, came up with a little emotional content, had at least some sort of story line that would make you not want to put the controller down so easily! The most emotional point for me in this game was when Basch and Fran were trying to keep the ship from crashing near the end. That lasted for what? Maybe 5 minutes?

I guess I expected something more for the 5 years I waited... I'm still trying to figure out why it took 5 years to make this game. The cheesy story seemed like something they just threw together at the last minute. I felt like when they made this game they spent the whole 5 years on the graphics and side quests then some boss came in and said: "Hey we only got 2 weeks left to release this so lets rap it up now!" Then they threw something together and didn't have any time left to add in personalities for the characters. They were probably like, "Hey! All kids need is some cool graphics and monsters now-days! They'll love it! Don't worry about a story or any personalities for the characters! Let's just get this thing rapped up!"

I gave this game a 5 mainly because of the time it took to make it. I don't see any reason it took 5 years to make this! Seriously, gaming consoles change faster than that now! By the time they release another Final Fantasy the Play Station 5 will be out at this rate! I also gave it a 5 because of all that it lacked. It's really nothing more than an average game with great graphics! Yes it has lots of side quests that do not really pertain to the game itself also, but I'm rating the actual game and not the side quests that take you away from the story line in many cases. Again it's like they were there saying, "Hey! This story line is so short and pointless! Less add in a ton of side quests to take up their time!" If the story line was long enough to justify the overshadowing side quests it might have been ok, but don't give us ten times the amount of side quests as actual main story line game play. I mean sure side quests are great, but it's supposed to be more about the game than the side quests isn't it? And if you noticed many of the side quest monsters were much more difficult that the pathetic main story line bosses. I went through the main bosses with my eyes closed.

Another somewhat annoying aspect of the game is the randomness of the treasures. When you open a chest it might contain the one rare weapon you can only obtain in that one chest or it may contain a few gil... So then you get to play reset and try again for however long it takes to randomly get what you're after. That is if you even know which chest it's in. Oh and opening all the chests you find is a no no also now. If you happen to open the wrong chest in a dungeon on one side of the world, that Zodiac spear you so desperately want won't be in it's chest on the other side of the world. Is this fun for anyone out there? I can't imagine anyone that would say yes, but then again, there must be or why would they do that?

Some people wonder why some of us are being so hard on this game. The reason is it wasn't what we expected! It didn't measure up to what we were used to waiting for. (And waiting a lot less time for that matter also!) We wanted a Final Fantasy game, not some game with "Wow" graphics. Well sure we did want "Wow" graphics, but we wanted more and deserved more for the long wait! But we didn't get it. What we got was a game not really even in the same category as the previous games. Why even call it Final Fantasy if it isn't going to be up to par with what we've grown to expect?

I've noticed some people saying you shouldn't compare this game with the previous Final Fantasy games... Now think about that for a second... If it's a "Final Fantasy" game why shouldn't we compare it with "Final Fantasy" games??? I mean you compare sports games, first person shooter games, and any other game to the previous ones in the series don't you? And as with most other games in a series we at least expect them to be as good if not better then the previous ones. Don't we? I mean at least we hope that they're close to being as good I would hope!

Anyway, this game has ended my long time devotion to the Final Fantasy series. I will always love those old games, but in my heart Final Fantasy has died. I'd just as soon play 20 other RPG's. This one wasn't a bit more special than the average great graphic RPG with the possible exception of tons of side quests. They should have named this one Final Fantasy Side Quests! Cause the side quests take up about 90 percent of the game, if not more than that! Leaving you with an actual main story line that you could easily complete in a day if you had the level to kill everything.

I feel most of the old gamers who have grown up with Final Fantasy probably feel about like I do. Most of the new gamers who didn't may love this game. If you do then that's cool, but I do feel sorry for you. I'm sorry that you won't ever know what Final Fantasy was in the beginning. Oh and I can understand the younger players who might say they've played the old games and didn't like them as much. Sure when you are used to amazing graphics it's hard to get into a game that has older graphics, some even 2D. But if somehow we could take the graphics out of it all and just look at the story, which is what a game is all about anyway, (at least it is to me), you could maybe then understand why a lot of people are terribly disappointed...

One can only hope that the people at Square Soft (or whoever they are now days), will listen to the pleas from their old players, the players who have been loyal to Final Fantasy throughout the entire series. I hope that because they have succeeded in "wowing" a few kids with their amazing graphics and latest game glutted with sideline content that they won't stray away permanently from what made the previous games legendary. That they won't feel they no longer need to add personality to the players and story lines that put blockbuster movies to shame. Don't get lazy on us Square Soft! Bring back the "real" Final Fantasy games that we grew up with and have grown to love! Put some effort into the next 5 years or 10 years or however long it takes for you to release Final Fantasy XIII and don't disappoint us or indeed it may truly be the very Final Fantasy for me and many others...

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 04/19/07