Unpopular Final Fantasy opinions

[AvecAloes]

You missed nothing! Bump dat thread!

 

[looneymoon]

Sephiroth is such an exceedingly dumb character. So much so that I get the biggest wave of secondhand embarrassment if someone now, in this year of 2018, describes him in any variation of "cool" or "compelling."

 

[Tennyo]

^Agreed. There's nothing interesting about him on his own. He's just... there to be the antagonist to Cloud. I didn't start to find him remotely interesting until Crisis Core.

 

[Keveh Kins]

^^^^

Sephiroth is kinda teenage cool, methinks. He's lots of style, light on substance. I remember thinking he was the shit when I was in that 12 to 15 age bracket, dude with long hair, dressed in black with super powers and he's the most powerful being on the Planet, with a litany of kickass theme tunes associated with him. That's exactly how teenage Kevin wanted to carry himself, with bells tolling and choirs signing in (possibly garbled) Latin everywhere he went.

Then ya get older and you realise that there's more important stuff, and what was cool to you then isn't really as cool to you anymore, ala Sephiroth. I still like him as a character, but the shine has definitely worn off.

 

[ForceStealer]

I can't say that I ever felt anything about him as a character, but rather as an effective villain. Not the type who as a foil to the heroes, but rather as a distant sword of Damocles that the game dangles over the party for much of the story. More an unstoppable force than a personal villain.

 

[Lulcielid]

The franchise never was strategily "deep", this applies to all games (turn based games included). Spamming attack and using curatives every so often was always 4/5 times the most effective and dominant strategy.

To be clear, I personally don't find this to be a deal breaker nor something needed for them.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

[[So what?? Bring it back!!]] Edit: Somehow didn't see there were recent posts, the last one I saw was "bummed I missed this". Ahem...

Let's see...

I love VIII, including its infamous childhood-connection (mostly for the way it makes everyone's motivations subconscious)

I still believe humanity was destroyed at the end of VII, and I LIKE believing it, feeling like it ties into the game's themes and ending quite perfectly as opposed to the limp-to-the-finish that was AC

I would've rather have had followups/narrative side-content (like OTWTAS) for almost any of the FF's OTHER than 7, X, and 13

I'm okay with X and its laugh. Falsers gonna false.

Also, it was a longgg while ago now, but I was fascinated by someone's post decrying the white/logo box art, because in the US we've always had character/scene driven box art, and when I first saw a foreign copy I was entranced by its simple, symbol-driven minimalism. Grass is always greener, eh?

 

[leadmyskeptic]

^^^^

Sephiroth is kinda teenage cool

This is how I feel about Aerith. Later on, I grew up, and started liking Tifa

 

[Ite]

I still believe humanity was destroyed at the end of VII, and I LIKE believing it, feeling like it ties into the game's themes and ending quite perfectly as opposed to the limp-to-the-finish that was AC

^this this a thousand times this. At the very least, I like that the game was purposefully ambiguous about it, as to facilitate a conversation (aka good art).

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Yes!! Exactly. For some reason, I find it deeply frustrating when people need every thread tied up nice and tight in bold lines for them to consider a work of art satisfactory. Finishing a novel, film, etc, and having someone else go "Well, that was great, but...what happened after they drove away at the end?? Where were they going?? Did he get the girl or not?? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO FEEL?!" et cetera, et cetera, is always disappointing to me. There's obviously lots of ways to go about a narrative, but there's a LOT to be said for tasteful ambiguity, in my opinion (and I'm glad I'm not the only one )

 

[Obsidian Fire]

I think ambiguity does different things for different people. I love ambiguity because for me, the fun part of interacting with a work is by asking questions about the work. It's not even that I want those questions to have a definitive answer either. It's that questioning a work lets me get a lot more mileage out of it then I would otherwise. I just like the problem-solving process more then I like actually solving a problem.

Having every little plot point figured out for me means that when I finish a work, there's nowhere else for me to go with it and that's almost a let-down.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

Yeah, it creates a sort of 'covenant' between artist and audience, that one will create and the other will throw themselves in and sift through, interpret. I'm not sure how in works in the world of game-plotting, but nowadays you hear more and more about Studios getting involved in the writing process, and demanding rewrites because getting a return on a big-budget film is considered a bigger risk, and they often don't "trust" (lacking a better word) audiences to be up to something like that, or to want it. So they sand down the jagged edges, connect the dots, all that. I think that's a shame. But I know plenty of people who feel just the opposite, who'll pull their hair out at having to get involved in that way, feeling like the work was incomplete, like they'd been stiffed. I just finally saw "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" the other night, and both I and the person I saw it with were quite taken with it...the way it ended, on the other hand, was a source of controversy.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Lots of people want solid answers from their fiction. They don't like loose ends or ambiguity. As Obsidian phrased it, they don't want there to be 'anywhere further to go' after the story ends. If people were content to leave ambiguous or incomplete stories ambiguous and incomplete, there would be no fanfiction.

 

[leadmyskeptic]

You're absolutely right there, can't argue with that. But at the same time, even if it's a strong impulse for a group of people (I'd say that actually committing to fan-fiction is still a pretty niche/superfanny thing at this point, but wanting full resolution is not) doesn't mean that it's ideal, or even a good thing. But that's just one take on it.

Btw, I apologize if I de-railed this thread just as it was being Phoenix Down'd lol. Quick, everyone get back to airing yer Dirty Opinion Laundry!!

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I said before that I hate Cloud/Sephiroth fanfiction. Not only do I hate it, I also think it's totally ridiculous and implausible. But now I've found something I hate even more. Cloud/Genesis. Like, these guys never even MET in canon, except when Cloud was comatose and Genesis almost so.

I also hate people who think their fanons are canon. Probably not alone there.

 

[looneymoon]

Lots of people want solid answers from their fiction. They don't like loose ends or ambiguity. As Obsidian phrased it, they don't want there to be 'anywhere further to go' after the story ends. If people were content to leave ambiguous or incomplete stories ambiguous and incomplete, there would be no fanfiction.

See: Ridley Scott

 

[Clement Rage]

I usually feel like it's unrealistic if everything is neatly wrapped up in the end. Real worlds are complicated. Especially in detective stories, everything tends to end up tied neatly into one perfect package.

 

[CrashOuch]

My very most favourite book (The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks) has a super ambiguous ending (spoilers, sorry). The whole thing is a murder mystery, essentially, but the narrative doesn't follow the character who ultimately gets to the bottom of everything and finds the killer. When he's asked later what happened/how he managed to do it, he essentially says it doesn't matter, because he did manage it. I've seen a ton of reviews about how this is so stupid because surely the point is knowing how the 'main' focus of the book, the mystery, is wrapped up, but honestly I've always loved the ending. Not least because it means you can believe what you like about the character who gets to the bottom of it - maybe he became a killer to find a killer, maybe he kept his integrity intact, whatever it is that you want to believe about him.

tl;dr Yeah I really like ambiguity in stuff too

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Unpopular opinion: I think an appreciation for ambiguity is a sign of intelligence.

 

[Cthulhu]

Unpopular opinion: I think an appreciation for ambiguity is a sign of intelligence.

Don't say that too loudly, Nolan fanboys will feel their IQs raise even higher,

 

[Geostigma]

ITS A MACHINE THAT MAKES YOU ENTER OTHER PEOPLES DREAMS. IT DOESNT NEED AN EXPLANATION. OMFG

 

[Cthulhu]

what about the top tho

 

[T@ctic]

Why from Crisis Core is unlistenable.

lawd.... you probably don't know how relatable this is for me.

i consider the CC ost to be a masterpiece, ever since i was blessed to come across it in '13. i easily listened to the entire OST over 10x in that summer, and many MANY more times after that. my two brothers adore it as well (their favourite track is price of freedom ever since they accidentally heard it when i was watching a walkthrough) and i can catch my older/st brother humming some tracks even today. i consider this to be a 10/10 OST. but the one unlistenable track.....is why. my brothers used to play it to me at full max to torture me because they knew how god awful it was for all of us but especially myself. we forget such an abomination to music was ever created until one time when we're relistening to the OST and we come across it....just....

when i hear terrible music, i will make myself listen to it just once because heck, i'll never hear it again. but there is an exception to every rule, and why is it. i couldn't get past the first 20 seconds. i have such anger, fear and hatred of such a brain rotting song ruining such a beautiful soundtrack.
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not that this is negative as usually unpopular opinions are, but sorely because it really is unpopular on the fact that i haven't seen many people suggest it - i believe the next FF should feature the main characters of siblings. it can be two or three, the sex can all be the same but mixed is my first thought. all separate ages. twins/triplets are too cliched and are focused on too much compared to "regular" siblings.

unless there already is are sibling MCs in an FF and i don't know about it (yet).

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I'm 100% in agreement with you on this, Chewie.

I don't know anyone who likes Why.

Here are the lyrics, Google translate version:

The eyes of the eyes are fuzzy and can not be seen
Do you feel the bottom of your heart?
Even if you get everything in the world
Is that your happiness?
Why are you looking up at the lonely sky?
Why laugh and show me
I am not good at making words
Because I understand your personality
What happened long ago?
In your eyes that diverted your line of sight
I will be hugged by myself lonely night
Do you know that warmth?
Why Why are you particular about shape?
Why open your heart
I carried a big baggage.
Ability to accept you
Believe it is there ...
Free people are clumsy ...
A free person is uneasy ...
Why are you looking up at the lonely sky?
Why laugh and show me
I am not good at making words
Because I understand your personality
Please believe it.

Gonna go enter them in translation party now, it is good procrastination activity.

 

[Roger]

To get the unpopular Final Fantasy opinions get on track, I do like Why, though I didn't know what the lyrics meant nor do I like the CC ending that it is a part of.

Spoiler: FF with siblings for main characters

Cecil and Golbez are brothers, Faris and Lenne are sisters, FFII's Maria and Leon are siblings, Lightning and Serah of the FFXIII trilogy are sisters, making Snow Lightning's brother in law who calls her Sis all the time. FFXIV has Alphinaut and Alisaie for whom the mute player character is a supporting protagonist for.