Ideal this, Ideal that...

by Steel Gunner

[Editor's note: This is in Rebuttal to Nick Powell's editorial, and the quotes are from the editorial mentioned by the author in the first line.]

~ FF9 Propechy ~ Nick Powell ~ 3/3/2000

...First off, I'm really, REALLY hoping this is sarcasm at it's best. If it's not, then please consider me officially scared at some of the remarks here. Whether sarcasm or not, however, I'll add a number of points about this, which will serve to either paraphrase or act as a rebuttal to the original article depending on whether or not it was serious.

"...because we shouldn't be jumping to conclusions here...but I will, FF9 is going to RULE!"

::blows whistle:: Sir, I'll have to arrest you for illegal possession of a time machine. The truth is we don't know how good FF9 will be until it comes out. Companies can make mistakes, they can make very bad games that everyone thought would be good. The future is never certain, especially when people's opinions and beliefs come into play.

"Myself, and numerous others have thoroughly explained why the last two sequels were NOT BAD..."

...in /your/ opinion only. Just because you liked them does not automatically mean that every single person on the planet did. Some people liked them, some people hated them. Fact of life - you can't please everyone. And for once there is no exception to prove the rule.

"...as hard as that is for so many of you fungii to comprehend."

Way to win the audience over.

"So, seeing as how all eight (and the god-like Tactics off-shoot) Final Fantasies were superb..."

Again, in your opinion. Not in everyone's.

"...the next one will be to, that's just a given, would Square actually create a bad Final Fantasy at this point, with two more directly on the horizon? No."

The future is never a given - with the amount of attention and controversy about the quality and state of the Final Fantasy games nowadays, and given that they're now very much in the public eye rather than being some old SNES games, there is a lot of pressure for them to make FF9 a good game. A small slip-up and they could well get lambasted, and companies can make mistakes both large and small, whether new or well-established.

"That's what is called BAD BUSINESS for so many of you people who fail to realize that capitalism is kind of...you know...relevant!"

No, it's called a mistake. Bad business would be stopping the Final Fantasy series given the amount of money they're making from it now. The sad truth of the matter is that many people will buy Final Fantasy 9 and think it's good simply because of the two words at the start of the title. They won't look beyond the title at the quality of the game, they'll just automatically assume it's a good game because it's an FF game. Thus Square'll make a lot of money regardless. And that is the relevant capitalism - the fact that they know they'll be rolling in it no matter how good the game is.

"9 will be going back to its roots of swords and sorcery and black wizards and all that jazz, so none of you have any real right to complain at all..."

Um, sorry? Why not? Does everyone in the world prefer medieval RPGs to the point of automatically liking the game? Does everyone in the world even prefer medieval to say, cyberpunk? Fair enough, I prefer medieval, but I don't like seeing a standpoint like this. The world doesn't have one opinion. Again, you won't be able to please the entire world. This is why I'm hoping the editorial is sarcasm - otherwise, you're making the dangerously blinkered assumption that everyone's the same.

"I can't see the harm in not repealing the formula that's created a multi-million seller in the U.S."

Maybe because it might end up lacking in originality? Familiarity is a good thing but it can very easily be overdone, and an unoriginal game tends to be an unappealing one.

"Have many of you people seen that movie? Holy cow, is that not the prettiest damn thing you've ever seen!?!"

Not really, no, and neither is the FF10 movie particularly impressive. It's industry standard now that you have to provide a big movie that makes everyone in the surrounding area go 'ooo', so the fact that FF9 has a CG movie, no matter how good, is neither here nor there. By the time it comes out, plenty of other games will have that level of CG. As an aside here, I found Soulcalibur's introduction sequence far more impressive than FF8, and that's using the ingame character models rather than CG.

"This game is going to rock! PLEASE stop it with the all the mindless Square-bashing..."

You don't know it's going to rock. You may /think/ it rocks, but it won't rock everyone in the world as much as it will you, assuming your original prediction is correct. Looking at the other editorials, I can't see much mindless Square-bashing. What I do see is thoughts and reasons and opinions as to why Square must be careful. They've a lot of attention on them, so much so that even a small point against them will become large.

What I can see, however, is mindless Square worship. You said that every single FF game has ruled - have you even played FFs 1, 2 and 3 in order to have the proof to back up your claim? Even then, they don't rule to everyone - I didn't care much for 2, I didn't particularly like FF6 (gasp! That'll get me flamed for sure!) and I felt 7 was a little saccharine, especailly Cloud loving someone he knew for about 3 game days.

The crux of this is that you will never please everyone, but that's something you're either not seeing or not allowing yourself to see. People will think that FF9 is great. Others will not find it to their tastes. It's their opinion, just like your editorial is yours and this editorial is mine.

To round up, I'd like to applaud a couple of people. David Sanders, JMSourbeer and Zechael for their articles, in which they take the same standpoint as I do, albeit in a rather calmer and probably better expressed way.

I'll finish by reversing one of David's points, quoted below:-

"In short, you must first play a game to say whether it's good or bad. That is the only way to get an honest opinion of the game. If you still don't like, so what. At least you'll be justified in not liking it, although it will still only be your opinion."

This is a perfectly true and very good point, and the latter clause is particularly relevant to the article I was rebutting here.

And for the whole point of my article, look really closely at the first sentence. Mistakes can happen. Companies can do badly rather than well - it's certainly easier. We don't know what FF9 will be like. We can hope - but we won't all think the same thoughts about it when it's out.

Original Editorial: The FF9 Prophecy