Why most new SquareSoft RPGs are not as good as the old ones

by Jean-Guillaume Paradis

First of all, I would like to say that I'm an avid role-playing fan, and a loyal follower of SquareSoft. Two months ago, I decided to complete once more time all the "old" RPGs I own ( FFI, IV, V, VI and Chrono Trigger ), just to see how well they compare to the current batch of role-playing games, and I must say that all the time I spent with these classic games remembered me why I truly was a fan of Squaresoft.

Like so many people out there, I must confess that I don't really love Final Fantasy VII. Of course, there are the obvious reasons ( mediocre music, stereotyped characters, form over content feeling... ), but a lot of the other things I didn't like can be explained by the new "trend" of Squaresoft games. Let me explain.

The thing that bugs me the most is that new "everyone can do everything" philosophy, which is taken to the extreme with the dreaded Materia system. Want that low-level punk to kick ass? Just give him those shiny little stones the leader have been holding since the beginning of the game, and watch him become a bad-ass!

Want to summon Knight of the Round with that sucker ( let's call him Cait Sith ) you are using for the first ( and only ) time? The solution is only a couple button presses away... In my view, this removes a lot of the individuality of the characters, and seriously hurt the game. In Final Fantasy IV, only Rydia could summon monsters, only Kain was able to jump, and Rosa was the only serious healer of the gang. That's why I felt attached to each one of them: they were unique, and the death of one of them could spell the doom of the entire party. When Rydia joins you in the Dwarves castle, I thought "Man! Now that this girl is here, my team is going to be indestructible!", which is not the case of course, but anyway. When you get Yuffie in FFVII, it's more like "Oh, another character. Great. I will just put her away for the now, but I SWEAR I will use her sometime later", which is, once again, not the case. Like the rest, she has no individuality, so why bother picking her over Vincent? Or Cid? I don't, I really don't know...

The same critism applies to the damage sytem. Why bother choosing between Cid and Tifa when they fight almost the same? The only real thing that differences them are of course those pesky limit breaks (more on that later), and even there, it's all pretty much of the same. The difference of damage done by Tifa (who fight big, ugly dragons with here fists...) and Cloud, armed with the all-powerful huge-sword-of-slashing-and-killing is minime. Same problem with magic damage, even when comparing Aeris to Barret. And for what I've seen ( and played ) of FFVIII, nothing has changed. Squall does an average of 50 points of damage ( on a critic blow ), while Rinoa does about 41-42 damage points per attack... That's about a 20% difference, which is not enough, by me. Using once again FFIV as an example, you can clearly see the difference between Cecil and Rydia within 2 minutes of gaming. Cecil hits for about 5000 damage ( at the end of the game ), while she does a weak 350 per attack... But she's got those big summons that hit real hard, and 5 times his magic power! But she don't even have half of his hit points, and can only equip robes... So let's put her in the back row to protect her! You see where I'm coming?

My next critic point are the limit breaks, or whatever name you give them. With FFVII, Square targeted a broader audience, so they had to do something to ensure that everyone, even that 6 year-old kid, had a chance to beat the game without having to level up to much, or develop good fighting strategies. Well that's simple! Just throw in some very powerful attacks that only work when you have been hit enough times, and everyone has a chance to beat that nasty boss. Even worse, in FFVIII you are encouraged to keep your party weak, so that you can use continously those killer attacks. Some of you will be quick to point that this system was present in FFVI, but we were lucky to use these desperate attacks more than once or twice in a game. So please, Square, won't you drop the limit break / desperation move system? Even if you lose a few new RPGs gamers, you would make the real ones a lot happier.

Then, there are those summons/calls/guardians. Most of them are gorgeous the first time you see them, and really show the talent of the artists who made the game. But some of them can last up to 1 minute. When you summon Bahamut Zero for the first, it's pretty darn cool. On the 50e time, it's a lot less fun. Couldn't there be an option to the summon's animation off, or at least, to shorten it? That would make everyone's life a lot easier.

And speaking of summons, I was very disapointed with the inclusion of a summon of such power as Knight of the Round Table in FFVII. The argument that it is "well" hidden doesn't excuse the fact that it totally destroy the play balance. There Sephiroth! You won't even have the time to move, because I have a secret weapon! KABOOM! And yeah, the game is over... Just remove this feature from future games, ok? Just because adding a super-powerful magic is cool doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Finally, there is a thing that bothers us uncounsciously, but is unfortunately inherent to the Playstation console, and it's the loading time. Old Final Fantasy games were fun to play because they were quick. From start to finish, a minor fight could be concluded in 15 seconds, which is not the case with the new RPGs. Loading the fight takes 5 seconds, the camera moves to show the ennemies, and only then the battle begins. Upon winning, you still have to wait a lenghty moment to get back to the map. Most of us are not conscient of this, but this issue makes the game instinctivly less appealing. Of course, I'm not targeting SquareSoft here. That good old Playstation uses a 2X CD-Rom ( who transfers data at a poor 300 Ko/sec, by the way ), so it is amazing how Square managed to make the loading time bearable, and I give them a lot of credit for it. But I'm just pointing out the facts here. Loading time hurts the game, want it or not.

So what do I what to say with all this? Not that recent Square games suck, absolutely not. But I just feel that in the process of adjusting their games to the new market and technology, Square has taken a small margin of fun out of their games. Of course, like the rest of you, I'm anxiously waiting the american release of Final Fantasy VIII. But not with the same kind of impatience I was waiting for Chrono Trigger.