12.14.06
The Neverending Story
Joystiq reports that Square-Enix is going to give the world of Ivalice the same attention that it gave FF7’s world and The World of Mana, by announcing the Ivalice Alliance. So far the newly-spun series includes a PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, subtitled “The Lion War” in case there was any doubt. I’m actually psyched about this because my own PSP had been getting kind of dusty… all right, so I could really give less than two craps about it since my PSP is effectively worthless, but I guess it’s kind of like RIFTS coming out for the nGage– one good game coming WAY too late. I’m actually with Joystiq on this one in saying that a downloadable copy of FFT would have been my preferred way of going about it; still, a new localization of the game is not immediately worth either the $40 for a copy of a game I already own or the $608 for the PS3 I would need to download it, coupled with the cost of actually downloading it.
The other game announced in the set (which also includes the already-known DS title FFXII: Revenant Wings) is Final Fantasy Tactics A2: The Sealed Black Book. While I certainly do not share the hatred for the Advance variant of FFT that some series purists (read: fanboys) do, the one thing that worries me most about A2 is that the system it is in development for has not yet been nailed down. It could be the DS or it could be the GBA; I am quite surprised that S-E is still continuing to support the GBA as much as they are, given that Game Boy Color titles trickled down to almost nil after June ‘01 (there was Shantae in summer ‘02, which I know of for certain, but… uh… nothing else, it seems). Still, I would absolutely love the chance to go back into a tactical version of Ivalice for a new story. While FF12 definitely brings the political intrigue, the game itself has been less than gripping. Case in point, I haven’t booted it up since Thanksgiving. I hope to rectify this this upcoming weekend, but we shall see.
In case you’re wondering, I only have the PSP for Valkyrie Profile and Lumines. Maybe also for Crisis Core, but I’m not exactly holding my breath here.
Not much else going on right now. I still owe you guys a pastoral entry, so expect that within a day or two. Along with the announcement of a ’special’ surprise. Heh heh heh. Later, folks.
Ismail Saeed said,
12.14.06 at 7:18 am
So, someone who liked FF Tactics but didn’t like what they did with Tactics Advance is a series purist?
Considering the “series” is two games as of this writing, it strikes me as pretty legit to like one more than the other.
It’s like people who preferred Zelda 1 when Zelda 2 came out being called purists or fanboys. :)
I have no real voucher in either one (though the judges would annoy me, I think) but this just struck me as odd.
John said,
12.14.06 at 7:52 am
Not exactly. I probably should have put the word “purist” in quotes, as that’s a word I lifted directly from a few of the nastier ‘Stiq comments. Myself, I happen to like the original over the new one as well (marginally), but I can see the merits of both. The “purist”/fanboy crack was aimed at folks who can’t; and more at those who were, in that thread, saying “FFTA2 sucks, don’t buy it” before anything seriously concrete is released about it.
Liking one over the other is fine. Saying: “By using the FFT name, one would expect it to be as good as the original, even if it was different. Unfortunately it was complete ass. [insert fifteen various repeats of 'FFTA was ass' here]” is a complete other thing.
I’d rather not go into the whole FFT/FFTA debate again, as basically we’ve done that before; but the thing is that I don’t particularly agree with folks who say that the games had that much of a difference in quality.
Ramen Junkie said,
12.14.06 at 10:00 am
Meh, The DS playes GBA games. If you don’t need to make a game that uses both screens why not just make a GBA game.
I’m also thinking that DS games and GBA games can interact if they are designed to so maybe there is some substance behind that and Revenant Wings.
Third, if they are going to reuse the TTFA1 “engine” it would kind of make sense for it to be on the same platform.
Grey said,
12.15.06 at 12:27 am
Don’t be too surprised at the lingering interest in the GBA. The console’s sales figures are stil on part with the DS and the PS2. It’s also easier to program for than the DS in that you don’t feel forced into adding touchscreen functionality when it’s really not needed.
Avenger said,
12.15.06 at 6:33 pm
Just because you don’t think they differed too much in quality doesn’t mean people who preferred one over the other are fanboys. Fanboys of what? I liked one game and not the other, and I am far from understanding how that could make me a “fanboy.”
This is how descriptive terms lose meaning through over-misuse.