Love Ain’t Here Anymore

Things change. Sometimes we accept them. Other times we don’t. Like bus fare price increases, your favourite cereal not in the BOGOF offer any more (that annoys me!), TV presenters being replaced, bands changing their image, a new Doctor Who… change occurs all the time. It even happens in video games. And like all other people, we do rant about it. Something you have possibly grown up with has changed drastically and you can’t help but feel angry, annoyed or even upset about it. I’m still upset over the cereal fiasco.

The biggest change in my gaming life was when I played Final Fantasy XII. It became one of my least favourite of the series, partly because of Vaan being the biggest pixel biatch in the Final Fantasy universe. But also because the battle system changed, the turn-based system was removed. It had been replaced with a real-time action system and I was horrified. What was wrong with the turn-based? Why get rid of something that was good? That is one of the reasons RPGs appeal to me, the turn-based battle systems. It gives me a chance to figure out my next move and plan everything out. I can’t help myself, I’m a planner. Which is why first-person shooters and action games are rarely played by me. I panic and therefore I can’t plan anything out because I’m not in a safe comfort zone of a turn-based battle. I have to move around on the screen and avoid the enemy. I never completed Final Fantasy XII because I panicked and fumbled with the system so much that I just gave up. There was too much on screen for me to keep track.

Many people complain that turn-based battles are bad and boring. There’s no action, just sitting waiting for your turn to come around again; I guess that’s why those are the people that like stuff like Halo, Army of Two, Kane & Lynch, etc. Not all my RPGs are turn based, though. I have the Fable series, Tales of series, Fallout, Oblivion, etc. But the reason why I can handle those RPGs is because none of them were ever turn-based, not that I can recall anyhoo.

I guess I’m being a pretty stubborn person when it comes to games. But I don’t like the new Final Fantasy battle system and I’ve accepted that Square Enix may have scrapped the whole turn based RPG idea altogether. It sadly means for me that I probably won’t bother with another Final Fantasy game and I’ve been playing them for about 12 years now. I know this won’t change how the company is or how popular the games are, I just needed to vent out about how sad it can be when something like turn-based combat, that has been around for many, many moons in RPGs gets pushed aside for real-time. If I wanted a real-time action game, then I would go play one. But when I want a turn-based game, I have to go back to my PS1 and PS2 games. At least Square Enix did a good job with Lost Odyssey!