I just can't wait, I just can't wait...um, what will it do exactly? I wish there were a list of features, but oh well...

Hmm, I wonder if it will have polygon capabilities such as the TMapPoly that was disabled in V2... This really makes me wonder if I should just wait until V3 is done to start working on my game...

If any of the Dev team are reading this, I have a question...Will the releases of V3 be compatible with each other? For example, if you take an original V2 game and use the 2.5 executable, bad things happen. So if someone makes a game for the original release of V3, will there be any significant changes afterward that would discourage someone from making games with V3 right after the release?

Lol But don't tell anyone an exact release date yet...I remember what happened on IRC the last time the day that V2 was supposed to be released. :) Never seen so many angry people in a single IRC channel before...O.O

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Secret of Evermore was made by Square USA. Whereas Final Fantasy and those other great games were made in Japan. I kinda' makes you wonder how US companies can always come out with total crap for console RPGs. Take Shadow Madness, for example(eew).

-rpgking

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Out of clutter, find simplicity. -Einstein

nt

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I quite agree. SoE and FF: Mystic Quest were Square America's brief attempts at competing with their Japanese brethren, and they were both miserable failures (though I actually KINDA liked Mystic Quest -- at least it had a few innovations and a half-decent soundtrack, if nothing else!). But otherwise, Square could do no wrong in my book.

Until Final Fantasy VIII, anyway. That was the turning point for me.

Since FF8, I've only liked ONE SQUARE GAME (FF9) that I've played. PERIOD. It seemed almost like Square's focus shifted from characters and story to gameplay. As a result, we were getting bombarded with innovative games with brand new ideas for gameplay but CRAP for story and characters (look at Chrono Cross -- how the hell are you supposed to work 44 playable characters into a short game like that when the story is so flimsy to begin with?!).

I wish Square would go back to the way they were. But alas... until they do, my new SquareSoft is Sugar & Rockets, and my new Final Fantasy is Popolocrois. (:

-Tom

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This is, once again, something which varies from person to person. In my case, I'd MUCH rather get my ENTIRE GAME ENGINE programmed FIRST, because the game engine is the most tedious part of any game creation project. Once the engine is done, you can put your full effort into the plot, characters, etc., and not have that horrid programming nightmare looming over you. (:

Unfortunately, my creative mind works faster than my un-lazy-drive, so I have a rough plot summary finished LOOOOOONG before the game engine. (: But, in this case, that may have worked out for the best, ne? (:

-Tom

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I usually don't participate in these kinds of discussions. But I take personal offense when people put down my game. I know it's just a game and I shouldn't, but I do. I thoroughly enjoyed 8 (and 1,4,6,7 and 9 for that matter). Like you said about 9, you don't NEED originality, it just has to be GOOD. (Although, I don't see what was unoriginal about 9.) You don't NEED any one thing in a game. It's either good or it ain't.
I don't really understand your comments on FF8, like your plot twist summary and what's so awful about it. And your description of the train scene. Since when do physics matter? And when you're in the military, if you're assigned to guard the president, it doesn't much matter whether you like him or not.

The wannabes
Squall - Cloud.
Well, they are both heroes in games. But I never heard Squall once mention any adoration for Cloud (or even act like him for that matter).

Seifer - Sephiroth
Ok, that's...uh...what?
Sephiroth - former teacher, now bad evil guy, boss of game.
Seifer - childhood rival, now harmless henchman.
What's the connection here? Did you actually play the game? Why don't you compare Sephiroth to Ultimecia? Because there is no comparison there. Seph was a joke, a disapointing ending to a great game. It's like having great sex, but unable to achieve climax you know?

Quistis has a human trait, what's wrong with that?
Could you please elaborate on Irvine and Zell.

The GF system was not complicated, it was just different. Maybe you haven't noticed, but every FF has had a different magic and skills system than any other one. Which is one of the many reasons why the series is so good.

I hope this doesn't sound like a flame or nothing, like I said, I don't normally participate in these. But, but, I just can't sit idle while you unjustifiably insult my baby. My beautiful, beautiful baby.

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OK, fair enough. Allow me to rebut. (:

The big plot twist: "We all grew up together, we just forgot." This is, in itself, soooooo incredibly unlikely to begin with... and even if the likelihood of it doesn't matter, it also feels VERY VERY forced, like the writes just wanted to shock the player, and nothing more. Now add to this the fact that Irvine knew, he just "didn't want to say anything", and you get the REALLY bad part... not only did Square wimp out with a TERRIBLY TERRIBLY contrived plot twist, but then they didn't even bother putting the effort into thinking up a REASONABLE excuse for Irvine's unspoken knowledge... they just basically made his character too dumb to say anything!!

The physics of the train scene: I cannot like a game which has main characters I cannot identify with. And I cannot identify with characters who come up with ridiculously over-elaborate ideas to do fairly simple things. ESPECIALLY when these ideas involve defying physics, when a much more traditional breaking-and-entering plan would do nicely. (: But basically, the way I see it is... if you're going so far as to contruct a robotic replica of the president of a corporation in order to kidnap him... then you're just not using much common sense... 'cause let's face it, there MUST be an easier, more cost-effective way than THAT! (:

Squall as a Cloud wannabe: I didn't mean this LITERALLY, of course... I meant it more in the sense that the writers seemed to want to play off of the success of Cloud as a hero, and thus they created Squall "in his image". They seemed to almost be working with the idea that Cloud was a popular hero because he (A) had a somewhat mysterious past, (B) was prone to mood swings, and (C) was "dark" and "disturbed". So rather than realizing that what REALLY made Cloud great was his awesome development THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE GAME, they just assigned these qualities to Squall seemingly at random, and basically turned him into something of a pompous a-hole who acted unnecessarily meanly toward everyone. He showed the same TYPES of personality traits as Squall, but used them much less effectively, making him the second-weakest hero in FF history (Tidus being the worst).

Seifer as a Sephiroth wannabe: Same sort of thing as with Cloud/Squall. Besides the obvious similarity in their names, Seifer was meant to exhibit many of the same qualities that made Sephiroth popular as a villain, but didn't have anywhere NEAR the motives that Sephiroth had to act that way. As a result, Seifer, too, seemed like a pompous a-hole. (:

And are you dissing Sephiroth? Without a doubt, Sephiroth is THE coolest game villain, EVER. Everything about him, from personality to motive, is perfection in villainy. He has never been matched, and never will be.

True about Quistis. This was a matter of personal taste more than anything. I just plain DIDN'T LIKE Quistis. But the personality was there, so I suppose I have no right to complain.

As for Zell and Irvine, these two exhibited ZERO character development. Zell at least had his hot dogs. (: But Irvine especially seemed to have almost NO personality, AT ALL, PERIOD. And, for all intents and purposes, the player never felt any closer to either Zell or Irvine after beating the game than he/she did upon first meeting them. They never "came alive" like a good RPG character should... they just existed, off in the sidelines. Very, very weak characters.

And yes, smart-aleck, of COURSE I'm aware that the magic and skills system is different in every FF game. I just happen to find FF8's to be the most annoying and least appealing of all 10 games (and yes, I have played all 10, and seen them all through to their conclusions except for 2j, 5, and 10). FF8's battle system was barnone more annoying to keep track of than in any other games, and drawing magic is quite possibly the DUMBEST idea Square has ever come up with. I applaud them for at least coming up with a good BATTLE system for FF10, which overall I don't like... but FF8 didn't even have THAT!!

As for FF9, I don't personally believe it to be all that unoriginal (except for the obvious intended throwbacks to the previous games in the series, which I consider more nostalgic than unoriginal), but FF9's "lack of originality" is the biggest complaint the game receives, so I made a point of refuting it before anyone said anything about it. (: But personally, I loved FF9, and it's definitely in my top three or four FF games (FF7 is definitely at the top, probably with FF6 or FF4 behind it, then FF9, then FF3j).

Anyhoo, I meant no offense with any of this... but IMHO, FF8 was a black eye from which Square may never recover. I (and, indeed, a good number of my friends) will never trust Square wholeheartedly again, and it's all because of FF8 that this came to be.

-Tom

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Yeah, I really was disappointed with the last boss especially. I'm not sure what that was all about. Maybe they were nearing the development time they were given or something, but I was expecting a little more of a finale. But I love the rest of the game...There is this one particular music that I like - its the music in Ivor Tower once it's abandoned. It gives me chills for some reason...

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