I' ve never been a fan of the turnbased RPGs such as Final Fantasy, but I' ve always loved their stories and most of all there FMVs.

They should make an extra disk or somin for others to enjoy there great stories and videos without haveing to go thru the actual game. Somthing along those lines, I think would be cool.

But I guess it' d be extra work if they did that, but it' s just a thought, you know what I mean?

Well they are coming out with the Final Fantasy 7 movie.
Take a look around there are trailers out there.

o yes ive seen them and boy did i drool over' m. But i dont expect that for every RPG..heheh it would be nice tho. Maybe somin like a compalation of the FMVs.

Xenosaga, from what I hear, is mainly FMV. That you will sit and watch a 45 minute cutscences
That there is more movie than game

Raven: That' s one of those myths that are blown so far out of proportion by ADD-afflicted twitch gamers who think that a 4-minute FMV is a half-hour. Let me give you the statistics on XenoSaga right here-

There is a total of 2 hrs. and 13 minutes of non-interactive game time (i.e., 133 minutes). There is 40-60 hours of gameplay, depending on what kind of time you wish to put into it. So let' s say 50 hours (or 3000 minutes) for the sake of argument.

You do the math. It' s about 4%, just so you know. ;

Mass X: As for your idea...basically all you' re asking for is to keep straight-action, no-story games the way they are, and watch movies separately. You can do that with the games you have now, and your DVDs. The RPGs that you' re talking about have FMV and cut-scenes to help tell the story, which is arguably the most important part of an RPG. That must be coupled with the gameplay in order to have the full experience. They' re two parts of the whole, IMO. FMVs by themselves probably wouldn' t make much sense without the script or other parts of the game behind it...

Ya I know. BUt thats what i was thinkin. like have the full script..or the mian parts in a readable form, then when you get to a FMV you clikc a button or somin. Not fully thought out but somthing like that.

Oi i just thought of somin...the DVD that came with Shenmue 2, what was that about?

Sorry I was misinformed
The majority of the reviews that I read stated that the game was more FMV than it was actual gameplay.

Then those reviewers played the first hour and stopped. It' s so strange how breaks in the action are deemed as taking ten times longer than they actually do...

Mass X: So let' s face it- all you really want is an animated or computer designed DVD movie. Time to check out Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

nah i just cant handle the repetitive random rapings in turn-based style in order to see the very badass FMV and press on in a story...whiich is why i cant wait for Final Fanatasy:Advent Children. but ya in the long run i guess i just want a movie with the artistic style and story telling of FF im so lazy muahahahaha

I can' t wait for FF: AC either. Looks awesome! I thought FF: TSW was pretty entertaining imo. Most seemed to dislike it though.

I liked the spirits within for what it was but to me it wasnt a FF movie.
Where was the magic? The black mages in top hats? The moogles!!? WHere were the moogles?!?!
Not a bad movie, it just wasnt remotely close to a final fantasy game

Raven: It wasn' t supposed to be.

Mass X: You can think they' re " repetitive" if you want, but to me, they' re the freshest thing in video games, due to the fact that every game with turn-based combat is entirely different. And I mean, ENTIRELY. From FF to Suikoden to Legaia to Wild Arms to Grandia to Skies of Arcadia...they' re all different in every possible way, and all require a different kind of strategy and a different style of playing.

What I call repetitive are the constant run ' n gun games that NEVER change. ' cough' FPS ' cough' They' re fun and everything, but let' s face it- games like UT 2k4 are fantastic, but it' s nothing more than DOOM with enhanced graphics. You want innovation? Look RPG, for the most part.

I myself prefer the real-time RPGs. They to require stratagy (take a look at the Jade Empire docs). As for FPS I agree, the innovation left a long way back, luckily games like Unreal Championship 2 are finding this out and are actually throwing in some new stuff. Even DOOM 3 was said to be tunring towards a more fear factor style instead of run and shoot nehting that even twitches.

It also depends on the type of stradegy you prefer tho. Sports games have there real-life strategy, while racing games also hold another type. To some even FPS require strategy (Rainbow Six 3 definatly). Turn-based has quite a bit of strategy, but its just not my type.

I also have a big thing for fluidty and choreography, so that my turn my veiw on things a bit also.

For the most part, I have yet to find a real-time RPG that has strategy that even comes close to some of the more complex turn-based games I' ve played. I mean, what did I do in Baldurs Gate and Icewindale and Neverwinter Nights? Hack ' n slash, memorize a spell, rest, repeat. Those games have been basically identical for seven years (more of a PC/Western Dev. complaint than anything else). KotoR had more strategy than that, but I still don' t think it requires half the strategy you need in games like Suikoden or FF. I think the reason is because the developers make it turn-based for on purpose; to give the player time to think about their next move, and in turn, making the gameplay challenging enough so that it' s not just " press button fast and hope."

I understand what you' re saying, though. I play both types for the sake of diversity. The best real-time RPG for 2004 is Champions of Norrath, with Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance II following right behind. I love both of ' em to death (although neither as much as FF X or FF X-2).

I like FMVs a lot. I don' t care how long they may be, as long as there good! They really pull the plot together nicely. Some of these newer RPGs should have interactive cut scences (i.e. shenmue 2, resident evil 4)

As someone mentioned earlier, Shenmue 2 on the Xbox comes with an extra disc that is basically the cut scenes from the game.

Your point is well taken though. I tend to favor gameplay over story most of the time, but I find it really frustrating in RPGs when I forget what' s going on in the story because I' ve been battling too much.

All RPGs should come with a library of all the clips you' ve seen so far, or at the very least some sort of in-depth journal that covers what you' ve been doing. That' ll help those people like me who sometime neglect a game for a while and then come back to it only to find that they have no idea where they are story-wise.

Both FF X and FF X-2 have a cinema arena in Luca where you can go and view any movie or listen to any soundtrack whenever you want...provided you buy the sphere first in FF X. I think they' re automatically put there in FF X-2.

Hmm that actually sounds pretty cool

I have absolutely no problem with cut scenes. They are necessary and thus should remain.

I suppose I should elaborate. By cut scene, I mean cinemas using the in game graphics engine, rather than FMV.


You see, FMV is starting to get on my nerves. It' s not indicative of the in game graphical quality and as such does little to maintain a solid visual standard throught the game.


Whenever I watch an FMV segment, I' m always reminded that the in game graphics are far from what I and the developers themselves would deem the very best. FMV is, at best, a taste of generations to come. At worst, it' s a tease of what' s in store for the future.

FMV is an industry to itself (aka Pixar). Whether the use of FMV, or rather the temptation of FMV can be avoided, is another matter entirely. How many commercials for games use FMV rather than in game footage to sell themselves? Far too many - not all of them, but enough to sway already naive casual players.

Well, seeing as how I' d put both FF X and FF X-2 in my top 10 of this generation, I' d say it IS pretty cool. But that' s only about 1% of the greatness, IMO.