Concepts/Ideas you wish FF games implemented but haven't yet.

[Blade]

I was having a conversation with my fellow mechaphile Kaihedgie about the Magitek Armors in FF6/FF13/FF14/FF15 and how they are used mostly as afterthoughts in the games they've been in.

Not really even something you could take advantage of or hijack, but just a post-game unlock, if even that.

What the heck?

FF13 even demonstrated the idea of a summon you could RIDE, but it was limited to cutscenes and short battle events.

It's like they have all these excellent ideas but just CANNOT get them to connect or operate well.

There's so much good stuff out there they could do but haven't. I've seen Batman games pull off more over-the-top ideas than most FFs have tried.

As a prospecting game designer, I want to KNOW what people want to see... Even examples of ways it can be done.

Well, that's what this thread is for. Brainstorming ways to make a better RPG than Square-Enix!

[Minato]

I know it makes cutscenes more difficult but I feel they can do another try at a hireable partymember like Shadow. But in a more expansive game where he doesn't just appear and reappear but rather leads his own life in the gameworld

[ChipNoir]

I've been fascinated by the idea of a Noir-Horror FF world. I know a lot of what VII was going to be got channeled into Parasite Eve, but there's also still a lot that got lost even in that transference.

[Lucis Caelum]

Blade wrote:

I was having a conversation with my fellow mechaphile Kaihedgie about the Magitek Armors in FF6/FF13/FF14/FF15 and how they are used mostly as afterthoughts in the games they've been in.

Not really even something you could take advantage of or hijack, but just a post-game unlock, if even that.

What the heck?

FF13 even demonstrated the idea of a summon you could RIDE, but it was limited to cutscenes and short battle events.

It's like they have all these excellent ideas but just CANNOT get them to connect or operate well.

For the Magitek Armor thing, my reasoning is that they are not something that they could constantly and consitently put/use as part of the core game loop in meaningful ways and thus they were not worth investing effort in making them usable. In simpler terms, why waste effort in something that won't be used a lot (or can't justify having it as something crucially needed for the experience).

[The Twilight Mexican]

All of FFVII's mini-games say hi.

[Obsidian Fire]

^In one of the FFXIV developer streams around the 4.1 patch, the devs said that most of the FFVII mini-games were a result of having too many (board) programmers working on the game.

As far as ridable mecha go... FFXIV's new PvP mode is going to have them.

[X-SOLDIER]

For a number of reasons: I wanna see something where Chocobos are solidly integrated into the very core game experience.

Like it's you as the main character and your Chocobo through thick and thin, and the other folk you meet along the way on X mission to stop whatever force of darkness. When you start out, you name & design your Chocobo companion to your liking (colour and whatnot), and then you use them to go from A to B to start your journey. They don't work like a character, but sometimes they'll dash into battle to assist you, and you'll get some moves that call on them for help. Then there're times where they can't follow you in somewhere, and you don't get those benefits. You'll have minigames where you can choose to race them, and there're other integrated IX-like hot-cold minigames with them as well, so that you can hunt for items for the both of you to use.

I also think it'd be cool to have that as another FF game focus really heavily on the fantasy elements of it, because that seems more important in a setting with little to no technology. Take some of the little fantastical things from all of the games to build the world: Mogs (big and small), Chocobos, Moomba, Black Mages, etc. Make the airships like boats, and cannons are about the only technological weaponry there. Big on magic and spells as a source of all your technology-equivalent things, so that the Summons and other things really stand out as being overwhelmingly powerful, but it's all grounded by the sort of "me & my chocobo" viewpoint to keep the scope in check.


Also, the Chocobo ALWAYS overcomes the trials and things where it might even be at risk to try and save you. No dying heroically. Moments of being separated and reuniting are fine. Happy ending with you & the chocobo required.




X

[ChipNoir]

I think they were working on something like that, using a bizzaro track-ball set up control, but the idea fell by the wayside.

I'm very surprised a serious attempt at a chocobo breeding and racing game has never been tried. I know there was some facebook mobile game, but that hardly counts.

[Blade]

On that subject, Bartz and Boco come to mind. Was really nice the way of life Bartz had in FFV.

Odin had a similar relationship with Lightning in FFXIIILR.

[Lex]

X, Lightning Returns kinda does all that with the chocobo.

I'd like to see party banter in a game that lets me switch out characters a la dragon age. Yes there was party banter in XV but it doesn't have the same replayability.

[Omega]

There are a lot of basic game systems that are missing from most ff games. The first one that comes to mind is crafting. The only games that had any level of crafting were 8, 9, and 10 (12 doesn't quite count), but only 10 had actual customization. What I'd like to see is crafting on the level of materia, where it fundamentaslly changes how the character plays. For example, let's take Cloud and the Buster Sword. Maybe I'd like to play him as a speedy physical attacker, so I'd customize it to deal less damage while increasing speed and maybe crit rate. Mayybe I want him to just hit hard, so he would be slower but deal more damage. Maybe I want him to be tankier, so he's a bit heavier, slowing him down but increasing his defenses (he could hide behind it while defending lul). Magic? Sure, why not. Being able to shape your character's playstyles with weapon and armor customization would be great.

Then there's things like body part vulnerabilities, a la xenosaga, more sidequests (9 had the right idea here), and more superbosses (10 had several, 7 had two, it had like four, etc).

I like choice in my games, and not just in the dialogue, so things that let me play the game how i want to play are key.

[ChipNoir]

Grog wrote:

There are a lot of basic game systems that are missing from most ff games. The first one that comes to mind is crafting. The only games that had any level of crafting were 8, 9, and 10 (12 doesn't quite count), but only 10 had actual customization. What I'd like to see is crafting on the level of materia, where it fundamentaslly changes how the character plays. For example, let's take Cloud and the Buster Sword. Maybe I'd like to play him as a speedy physical attacker, so I'd customize it to deal less damage while increasing speed and maybe crit rate. Mayybe I want him to just hit hard, so he would be slower but deal more damage. Maybe I want him to be tankier, so he's a bit heavier, slowing him down but increasing his defenses (he could hide behind it while defending lul). Magic? Sure, why not. Being able to shape your character's playstyles with weapon and armor customization would be great.

Then there's things like body part vulnerabilities, a la xenosaga, more sidequests (9 had the right idea here), and more superbosses (10 had several, 7 had two, it had like four, etc).

I like choice in my games, and not just in the dialogue, so things that let me play the game how i want to play are key.

We've known for a while now that body part vulnerability is gonna be a thing in FFVII-R. And you can bet we're gonna have SOME sort of crafting element for keeping the gameplay fresh across possibly three whole games.

Plus that kinda thing would be extremely helpful for multi-player elements, which Square is now sniffing around quite intensely.

[Blade]

If there was one thing I always wanted, it was an Equipment System like FFXIV has that reflects your appearance.

I'm not talking job-class specific though that might come in to play, but a game that reflects on traditional FF equipment older games had.

A good example is Warrior of Light from Dissidia. His equipment evokes Amano a lot, which I loved design-wise. If you could change your equipment for your whole party (not just jackets or shirts like FFXV which is a modern take), it would invoke a very classic FF style that I appreciated.

[ChipNoir]

Blade wrote:

If there was one thing I always wanted, it was an Equipment System like FFXIV has that reflects your appearance.

I'm not talking job-class specific though that might come in to play, but a game that reflects on traditional FF equipment older games had.

A good example is Warrior of Light from Dissidia. His equipment evokes Amano a lot, which I loved design-wise. If you could change your equipment for your whole party (not just jackets or shirts like FFXV which is a modern take), it would invoke a very classic FF style that I appreciated.

Problem with that is form and function almost always clash in RPGs. Nothing sucks more than finding the armor you like the look of most has shit stats, or vice versa.

[Claymore]

I've always wanted a fully fledged context sensitive / timing combat system, and I felt really teased by the inclusion of pressing R1 for more damage in VIII. I'm really surprised that they haven't done something yet, as it helps bridge the gap between turn based and action gameplay. Something akin to the Shadow Hearts series, where you unleash a combo - of varying lengths - depending on if you succeed in pressing the onscreen button prompts.

But FF could go into a heck of a lot more depth. Pressing the correct button prompts could strengthen the base damage of a magic attack. Or a different combo could allow less damage but the feature to attack multiple targets. A second layer of this could be chaining combos together, allowing party members to work combinations together, including new fusions and outcomes of magic attacks.

The other thing was like Gog mentioned about specific body part targeting. I don't know how indepth the VIIR is going to be, but Vagrant Story was just amazing in that regard.