Legacy Of The Night wrote:
I agree.
srsly, though, there are a lot of games you can't change the outcomes to. Even if you can get a different ending, you only do so by fulfilling a few shallow criteria, so that's a dumb thing to complain about.
And you can't expect big action from a Final Fantasy game, because that's not what you play it for. If you want big action, play Tekken or something, which I could say is "utterly bollocks" as well, because all you do is memorize useless combos and mash buttons. And the random encounters can be a bit annoying, but they're a neccesary evil. How else are you gonna level up? There's nothing god awful about that.
I can play through them because I love them. Like I said, it's not at all about big action, it's a lot more about a gripping story, likeable characters, and that "epic sense" than anything. I just get wrapped up in them more than most other games I've played. So far I've beat I, II, VII, IX, and X, and I'm working on IV, VI, and VIII... I've got V and III... so I can play through pretty much all of them... at least all the ones I want to.
Also, Nobuo Uematsu is amazing. He's a bona fide musical hero of mine.
Woah now, comparing between different genres is perhaps a whole other (and huge) discussion

Played Mass Effect? Knights of the Old Republic and the sequel? You can change the outcome somewhat, get into a role by playing differently and actually leading conversations, have an impression on your followers by choice, plus the action is great in Mass Effect while being rather ok in Knights, but it can be both real time and paused during the action which makes for some more free gameplay. And the enemies are all there, not spawned in front of you every ten seconds.
This is how I imagine roleplaying games to be, although there's always lots of room for expansion. I figure I could say the same thing about Planescape Torment, Fallout and Baldur's Gate although I've played them way too little.
Maybe it's just my opinion on Japanese RPG's in general but they mostly feel inferior in some ways. They are too light on the "role"-playing aspects and lacking in gameplay.
All I'm saying is that the things I usually appreciate in games (in general actually) are seldom seen in a FF game and it's hard to see what people really love about them.
EDIT: Um, what thread is this?... Where am I? Thought this was the Now Gaming thread

Mass Effect is a great game, but there's really not as much freedom as you think. The dialogues almost always lead to the same conclusion no matter what you say, and nothing you do really changes the outcome that drastically.
I can't change your mind about Final Fantasy, so I won't even really try. I can see why people might not like them, but they're some of my favorite games ever. They're just not for everyone, I guess.