kid_gloves

I am not a fan of how the remaster looks, not once while playing the original or the ps3 upres did I think "man I wish this game looked more realistic!". I firmly believe that in a decade from now when this remaster no longer looks "cutting edge" that peoples opinion of it will be much poorer than the more impressionistic and abstract original (or faithful ps3 port). Part of the originals greatness is its art style which seems very toned down in favor of a more realistic "alive" landscape.... but thematically the land being on the verge of death and barren was very important to me. and my enjoyment of it.

This is my favorite game and I am pretty disappointed in what I am seeing of the remaster. I guess I just do not understand what people are seeing in this that gets them excited, I would have much preferred just another ps3 style remaster and full HD and possibly 60fps over whatever this is supposed to be. If anything this reminds me of that 90s Psycho remake that was completely pointless.

@mattgiersoni: Yes this is what I was thinking was happening with people as well. The game rarely seems to go below 25 for me and mostly hovers around 30 during gameplay. But since it is uncapped you will see judder when panning the camera and to some that could create the illusion of running at a much lower frame rate. I don't really notice it much except for when you do arena battles or are cornered in an area and staring at a wall suddenly the frame rate seems to jump into the 50s which is super weird to experience.

I kinda wish they would allow for a 30fps cap just for consistency (and so my ps4 doesn't sound like a jet engine always) but I imagine that the pro can hit 40+ fps more frequently and it might have something to do with the multiplayer. Also MH games have always been uncapped as far as I can remember (first one I played was Freedom Unite on psp), it has always been a weird choice considering how they almost never get close to hitting 60fps.

I think the thing is that for me they only ever can add to a game and really never subtract. I am not a hunter of trophies in games (I have only platinumed maybe 4-5 games total) but in the rare case that I absolutely adore a game it gives me extra goals to try and reach while playing beyond a games normal end. I really hope they do not go away, they seem like a relatively easy thing to implement on the developer side at least.

The 1985 Apple II version which I believe is the first with limited graphics, we didn't have color screens at school though so I never knew it wasn't always green on green. I didn't know there was a text only version that was even older until Jeff brought it up.

I am a big fan of JRGPS of all eras and I will tell you right now that Kingdom Hearts is THE MOST byzantine and convoluted of all the games I have played. They get a lot of shit from people who haven't played them that is for sure but they are extremely at fault for near nonstop philosophical meandering that puts the rest of the genre to shame. I am usually the last person to agree with internet mobs about JRPGs in general, in fact I am often very defensive about them even mediocre games but the Kingdom Hearts franchise kinda lives entirely on fanservice.... either Disney or Square (take your pick). They are kinda the poster child of all the worst traits of the genre. Final Fantasy VII has nothing over Kingdom Hearts, it is like fanfiction made canon.

To be fair KH is aimed at much younger people, and almost all of its fans were children when they got into it. I just dont think it has anything for people coming to it later in life. It is like trying to get into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when you are 30 by watching the original animated show.

The thinking that FF games lately are about perfecting gameplay over having good storytelling to me seems like just scoring the results and applying it to their intent. No doubt the gameplay of the FF-12 on is by far the best part of them, but there is a lot of story and attempts at character development in them.... often to their detriment. I don't think its that they are de-emphasizing it so much as they are doing that part clearly worse and its easy to make the argument that its because they are spending less time on it. There are good fundamental starting points on all of the recent games, and a lot of time spent on making interesting worlds that they inhabit.... they just botch the part where there is any flow or arc in the middle. More like they have they have fantastic locations, settings, story, and character moments in mind and mostly developed... then someone at the end has to take all the pieces and jam it together to get an actual game out of their crazy dev cycle that is busting the bank. The battle system by contrast doesn't greatly depend on bringing it all together and can shine even when they fail at story.

I think you will hate Final Fantasy V. It has an interesting job system that people rave about, but pretty much everything else about it is a throwback to almost NES level RPG stylings. The characters, the plot, the world, it all has little driving force and it is pretty much a pure gameplay driven thing.... which is fine but we are talking 1992 version of that type of game. It is hard to keep grinding and putting up with that games older game design when the characters and plot dont even try to keep you going.

I think you will love/hate Final Fantasy VI much like you have most of the games in the series you have played up to this point. The story is a great driving force and it has a lot of real consequence and world changing events in it. The battle system is fine, something much more like FFIX with very different but very defined characters... but with a large cast. There is a lot to like about it even today.

Speaking of ATB systems in jrpgs though, i'd be interested to see you try a game like Grandia. It is a really good example of doing that type of battle system far better and making the timing of attacking/defending etc part of the gameplay that really matters and is fun. I will agree with you though that the ATB system in FF games (except 13) has been mostly an annoyance more than a benefit even if the end result is just a hard to read turn based game.

I would really like instead of doing kinda mobile looking remakes of these classic games they would take the original art assets and faithfully recreate these classic games, maybe adding more animation frames and tweaking the view so it fits 16:9 tvs..... fix any slowdown etc. I guess what I want instead of remakes are definitive editions, kinda like what we get of ps2 era games on ps3/ps4 where its the same game just with better frame rate and adjusted for modern tvs , updated controls, interface tweaks, etc.

I mean.... don't confuse doing everything in your power to improve your odds as being deluded. I don't think for a second he doesn't know what he did, someone who actually thought they did no wrong would probably be A LOT more animated in their reaction, its just that there is nothing to gain from not trying to disagree. Drivers make claims/arguments to the contrary when they are clearly at fault nearly every race and session.

@machofantastico: It wasn't a 10 second penalty, it was a 10 second stop-go penalty, the net effect is more like 30 seconds.

Hey look an entire podium of likable drivers!