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Anyone else miss being able to roam a world map? Flying airships? I truly hate what the series has become after IX!

Maybe I'm completely ignorant, or just tired... what was the major change?

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote (BlitzSage @ 7th October 2010 00:05)

Maybe I'm completely ignorant, or just tired... what was the major change?

it went from the overworld system in ff 1-9 and replaced it with the navigation system from x-xiii (xiv?) in which there are just big areas linked together and you cant pilot an airship directly.

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Quote (Chaos163 @ 7th October 2010 04:12)

Anyone else miss being able to roam a world map? Flying airships? I truly hate what the series has become after IX!

I definitely don't hate what happened after IX. Namely, FFX. However, I found the lack of a world map a bit sad for nostalgic values. I liked what they did in FFX quite a bit where you could visit places by airship or travel through from one to another by foot. I also really liked the map system used in FFXII, where each area of the world could be explored realistically and where each area was connected to those around it: this felt like an expansion of the world setup in FFX to me. But I certainly would enjoy playing a game with a world map in the more traditional-FF sense again.

You may be interested to see this news post from a couple months ago relating to, among other things, the map system that Nomura is going for in FFVersusXIII.

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Oooooh, I didn't understand what you were talking about. Hmm, I don't know how major it is. Well, maybe it is. In the older games it created a different feel while you were on the overworld screen. For some reason, it made the world bigger to me, because, well, it's like an interactive map screen, walking to the next destination, like looking at a globe and moving from Africa to Asia or something. It's a shorter distance, yet it's like a map, scaled down. It makes it feel like you're in an actual world, if that makes sense.

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Praise Be To Helix!

Quote

blitzsage

Oooooh, I didn't understand what you were talking about. Hmm, I don't know how major it is. Well, maybe it is. In the older games it created a different feel while you were on the overworld screen. For some reason.

I haven't gotten there yet,i'm still following the linear path the story gives you.

I am at disk 2 about half way through probably and still can't explore yet.


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I thought I was the only one but I see I was wrong. I miss the old map system as well. I mean at the rate things are going they might as well put Mario style map system and do away with Chocobos and airships. I mean they already ruined the battle system from what I heard. In fact last new FF I played was FF X and it played more like Dragon Quest only dumbed down.

I also think it could be they are in competition with many knock offs of they're map and battle system they needed to well maybe different themselves? Or it could be they thought we grew tired of the same old map/battle systems.

All together 3D graphics I think is whats been killing our beloved series they started concentrating on graphics when that happened story quality went down.

Of course IV and VI put the series on the map especially VI. But VII (I know I recommended Cloud for another game when really even I'm tired of him) was overrated . Story was good for a few years but then we look back VI had I keep forgetting how many characters and the story revolved around pretty much all of them from each of they're first appearances to the end of the game. VII they put Cloud as the permanent leader

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

with exception of Tifa at certain points.

Put bunch of stupid side quest. The two secret characters were put in the instruction manual basically making them not too secret.

Possible spoilers: highlight to view

Killed off one.

Making only a few characters. But woo the graphics were good.

Next they focus on improving those graphics FF VIII we all know what happened there. I liked it but then again I'll like almost any game. Then they tried to go back to they're roots 4 Characters even though they still had a permanent leader for the game. But the story was decent the characters were pretty cool. But the graphics a lot of people will say sucked even though non of the characters were human I don't think and thus was IX. I thought the Graphics were just as good as VIII. Everyones a critic.

Now where am I going with all this. The failure of VIII story and IX graphics. They probably thought it was repetitiveness that was killing the series. When it was over hyping VII bad story writing in VIII. IX being to cartoon like. So they took the battle system revamped it redesigned the map to segments that pretty much go forward with exception of the grid map style air ship having a couple secrets . So then they release the first video game sequel X2 hoping to milk X some more. Plus VII AC and VII DoC hoping to bring back VII and it did bring it back in it's true light of why did we like it so much back then? Why did I like the cheap story.

About the only reason I'd play VII is if it was remade on the PS3 or DS even then I may not. But at least it still played like FF. After IX true FF games fell into oblivion. Oh well I hope this shines a little bit of light on the situation. If not I got 12 years of 100% Final Fantasy brand monkey off my shoulder. Now lets discuss The plague known as Poke'mon. JK

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I do miss the world maps and airships that were actually flyable.

The world map and airship stuff is supposedly making a return in Final Fantasy XIII Versus, though.

Personally, I wish that for FFXIV, whenever it may come, they go back to the medieval times for a game, like how they did with FFIX. Do that, give us the classic airships, world maps, towns, ect. Quit giving us these mediocre games. Come out with another classic, Square!

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To me, Final Fantasy has slowly lost the illusions that make the games feel like worlds, and not like games.

The World Map is just one. Giving that illusion of a larger world, as said previously by others. When it's just a selection screen on an airship, it loses that sparkle.

There have been many illusions lost, but the world map is one we didn't really need to lose. We lost it because the developers seem to favour Operation Straight Line now, despite having how many games before give you almost no directions on where to go?

Just another pointless change, really, when there are so many other things in the series that are genuine flaws now.


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-George Santayana

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Hm....I don't know. Though I'm definitely be considered an "old school gamer" and I prefer the first 6 games to the next 7 by a wide, wide margin, the loss of the world map isn't one of the things I'd bring up when talking about how 'they don't make em like they used to'. Though I agree that the 'game on rails' style of X and XIII isn't what I look for in an RPG, I didn't really mind how they took care of the problem in XII, a game with plenty of problems, for sure, but its engine isn't one of them. So I guess I'm indifferent to a world map; it's nice when the game has one, but it's hardly game-breaking for me if it doesn't.

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"If art doesn't risk upsetting expectations and challenging its audience, it can only stagnate."

I actually don't like world maps. I'll put up with it if I have to, but I prefer it if there isn't one in the first place. I always feel like I'm lost on the darn thing, and that there isn't a sense of cohesion when I'm trying to go from one location on it to another. It makes me bored and irate, really. I'm finding that the more RPGs I play, the more I prefer exploring dungeons, checking every nook and cranny for gear, and solving the puzzles.

The best example I can think of to explain my feelings is Tales of Symphonia. While I'm still in the middle of a playthrough, I can safely say I prefer dungeon segments to segments on the world map. On the world map, I often get lost, and become easily frusturated because the place I need to get to is obscured in one way. I don't feel this way in dungeons, because I know I'm SUPPOSED to not know where to go next. That I'm SUPOSED to be scratching my head as to know what to do. That I can still have fun puzzling things out. That even if I'm lost, I'm likely to stumble on treasure, or a memory gem. And that there is, 98% of the time, a definite way to progress farther.

This post has been edited by Smash Genesis on 7th October 2010 17:49

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