LogFAQs > #967146791

MechaKirby posted...

Which ones?

Final Fantasy IX in particular gets a pass because it has a strong beginning but from a narrative standpoint completely collapses 2/3 of the way through the story (and arguably becomes an incoherent mess), while also having a mechanically broken battle system (the ATB gauge is outright broken, it is not programmed to work correctly). It's a testament of how much a mindshare can control a fandom. Also gave Square Enix the first green light that they could do whatever they wanted without reprocussion. It's finally starting to pay them back 20 years later when they highly invested into the NFT scam and are potentially in a position where some of their IPs are going to be bought out.

Tales of Veseperia is a midling entry to the series, with characters that do not play very well (compared to both Symphonia and Abyss as they share the same development team). At the time Team Destiny produced way better games (Destiny DC and Graces f) than Team Symphonia, but in the end when the two teams merged we just got garbage (besides maybe Zestiria which has very fluid combat). Also the story is pretty middling. Also Tales games have aged pretty poorly, especially from that era. Very trope heavy from a story perspective.

I'm not going to get into how everything that's wrong with FFVII:R is what's wrong with modern Square Enix. They do not even create JRPGs anymore, they just create atmospheric action games (and DQXII is going to have the same issue sadly) with RPG mechanics strapped on them (e.g. they strapped an entire turn based battle system onto an action game to please fans after they got negative press they did not expect). The recent rumors that Sony could buy the rights to the series are really interesting as this type of game is what makes Sony successful.

Xenoblade will always be a knockoff of an actual good JRPG series (Xenosaga). "Action JRPG" combat that's not highly tuned like Monster Hunter (or the "good" tales games I guess) is always awful.