The problem with Square Enix and making action games, is that they just fucking suck ass at it. Really started at 13. The intricacies of the paradigm system flowed well enough. It just got obnoxious trying to farm. "Why can't I auto this spawn over and over?" When you had to run this 23 aerial combo bullshit to kill a single good xp mob. It was like how Blizzard did BFA. Designed the game with all your abilities, then cut back on em. So your play feels like shit until you get a solid set of combos with the various paradigm shifts.
XIV is XIV, I didn't really play it much, just enough to know it was 100x better than XI. Kind of a different genre for combat from what I'd call "action".
XV with its Press the X Button simulator, if you want to call that "action".
VII Remake, you can tell they're coming to grips with converting their ideas into usable, real world actions, though it's still clunky as fuck, simplistic as fuck, where even on Hard the combat was still mostly a joke. One thing that makes or breaks a game for me is how the controls work. Precision, think Mario 64. Or "clunky" and unforgiving like The Witcher? It was more towards the clunky side, but didn't have enough monster density to let you really get comfortable fighting. Nothing lasted long enough, except for big boss fights that were pretty critical about movement and proper spells, in a way it ends up being a lot to chew on in the moment. And it was very short. So playing the whole thing never gave that comforting satisfaction when you level, gear, and feel like a badass in combat. Remake also made me hate Aerith, love Jessie, become ambivalent about the main character, and generally not care about the story because they decided to fuck it all up. Though the graphics and emotional response fried my brain when I watched that opening cinematic for the first time, just like it did back in 1997.
Going back to XIII, I really didn't mind the combat, it's just that *everything else* was flat stupid or ridiculous. Levels and areas were pretty uninspired. Characters were pretty much all annoying. And the pink hair, woke, girl power that carried over from X-2. Speaking of, for a game whose story is completely inconsequential, X-2 had the last solid combat experience that wasn't quite turn base, wasn't quite action, that played really well, and in an interesting manner. Like a grown up version of X.
My impressions of this video? Pathetic. Square usually nails these teasers, I mean shit even the one for 12 was goddamn amazing, nailed the aesthetic, intrigue, even with its chibi and bunny ears. Unfortunately for 12, like 8, the real enemy is pretty detached from the story until the very end. I like that unique, weird shit that's present in most good FF. 12 combat was just an automation simulator, you didn't even have to do anything during combat if you set it up well enough. That's very poor design.
This is a scratch video that shows off poor animation, modeling is fine, texturing is plastic and poorly done in a lot of places. You can clearly see the Devil May Cry combat aspect, which I assume means it's going to play like XV'ish. The aesthetic feels like XV. I didn't like pretty much anything about XV. MMO trash style. It's also loaded with MEMBA BERRIES: Ifirit, Shiva, Malboro, castles, oh goody crystals! Memba those from FFV? Capped off with 2010's gritty, somber version of the FF theme. To be fair, the crystals were apart of nearly every game, even if they weren't specifically named such, or used for the same purpose - like material, espers, etc.
FF1: Castles, getting killed by sharks on a ship in the first 15 minutes. Lots of farming menial shit. Pure turn based. No action meter. Regular leveling by killing monsters.
FF2 (J): More of the same, but with leveling by using abilities or weapons.
FF3 (J): Same as 1, with JOB system.
FF4: Fully realizes the last 3 games. Best experienced on the PSP.
FF5 (J): FF4 with job system. Best experienced on the GBA.
FF6: Another leap, graphically, but a very different aesthetic. Still pretty solid turn based.
FF7: Weapon equipped materia, again with the psuedo ancient/future aesthetic, Midgar like a future "castle". Somewhere in the previous games, the turn meter was added, and 7 added the action meter, making combat more "active". Limit meter.
FF8: Only real change was sucking spells out of shit. Card game. Very modern aesthetic.
FF9: Simplified combat compared to 7 and 8. Very fantasy mixed with castles and knights and shit.
FF10: Introduced the sphere grid.
FF11: MMO. Very FF aesthetic, but Wii graphics.
FF12: Combat automation. Interesting visual aesthetic. Not properly realized, since it released on the cusp of the PS3 overtaking the PS2.
FF13: Active combat, paradigm shifting, paradigm assignments sort of like having various available "jobs" per character. Combos. Aerial attacks.
FF14: MMO. Again, very FF aesthetic. Late gen PS3 graphics.
FF15: What even is the combat. I played 20 hours just spamming the x button. Maybe a dash here or there. Modern fantasy - cars and castles.
FF7R: Active combat, synergies with different characters. Forced, limited team dynamics. Made the sun shine in Midgar slums (artificially).
