Well here's my take on CC. I think the universal praise it was recieving added in with some lofty expectations really set myself up to be dissapointed, but then I look at Mitsuda's past soundtracks. You have the thematicly rich Chrono Trigger and the dark brooding almost religous tones of Xenogears and in my eyes CC falls short of those amazing scores. Although I will say that 3.13 Life ~ Faraway Promise ~ is the finest 6 min of music I've ever heard from Mitsuda, but as a whole it falls short IMO.

Sean Bires, chocobos, pointy hat mages, broadswords and castles don't MAKE a Final Fantasy, it such trivial things as that have to be present to MAKE it a FF, then you had better start re-thinking a few things. The series even in it's most sci-fi stages of FFVII and FFVIII are connected using existing themes of 'life', 'exsistence' and 'struggle' and the storyline of the movie has those present in them, so it will have the 'essence' of FF in it. In fact FF: TSW and FFIX have the exact same themes. I just hope people can see this film for what it is, another amazing work of art crafted by Sakaguchi...not some pre-conceived notion of what 'fantasy' or, most importantly 'Final Fantasy' is.

And don't try and defend the film by saying I have no understanding of CG. Yeah, the CG looks nice and the budget looks big. ...that hardly makes a film better (lost in space?). I don't put much faith in those big-name sci-fi movies anymore.

Oh, and once you play enough Squaresoft games, you begin to realize that they become very routine very quickly... even moreso with the newer ones. Combat is just a excersize of brainlessly hitting the same menu commands over and over, nomatter how much they tweak the old system. Character developments become very predictable and obvious once you know how Squaresoft games work. It's all routine and it's all the same once you play enough of those Squaresoft games (I'm playing through XenoGears now though... heard that was really good/underrated).

That's why I recommended FF:Tactics... the plot was complicated enough to force the user to go back and watch previous developments and cutscenes, and character betrails were very frequent (important party members turn on you mid-battle often). Corruption is often a difficult-to-notice motive behind characters who seem to be the heros throughout the game. ...and the combat system (although somewhat borrowed from SNES Ogre Battle) was new and refreshing enough to keep combat from becoming routine.

Gaming needs to be fresh, experimental and original (like Thief: The Dark Project, Planescape, etc.)

and I have no real beef with the music. It's pretty good for a playstation synth

Speaking of which, I hope you don't honestly believe that swearing a lot and calling things 'retarded' will lend your arguments any credence here. It just makes you sound like a semi-rebellious 12-year-old.

As for Squaresoft games, after watching us all talk about how much we play them and how much we know about them and enjoy them, do you really expect to be able to lecture us on 'what to expect once you've played them enough?' That's pretty pretentious of you, especially considering that the things that you seem to look for in a good game are a new interface and character development system. Sure, I'll take that over varied and interesting storylines any day. Woops, sorry, that was more sh-t.

On top of it all, you expect to be able to criticize the movie because it 'hardly looks like anything from any Final Fantasy setting?' I defy you to show me how the setting and circumstances in FF VII relate to those in FFI or FFII. Even better, I want you to show me in a 30-second trailer that appeals to a broad audience.

Oh, and by the way, there's no such thing as a 'betrail' or a 'hight.' If you're going to be pretentious, supercilious, pompous, and overbearing, try to do it with some credibility.

About FF settings... They generally take place in a medieval setting mixed with some technology strongly mixed with magic. The movie appears to be about space, guns, and some screaming aliens, oh yay.

Oh, and I thought the trailers to Gattaca and Dark City (...theatre trailers. I'll admit the TV trailers for Dark City were terrible) were pretty good. You could tell there was something refreshingly different in the air...

and on your 30 second trailer challenge... The FF trailer was far over 30 seconds.

Oh, looks like someone didn't play (or quit after losing patience trying to figure out) Tactics.

and I didn't play FF1 or 2... that's far before they became a popular franchise. A friend of mine (big squaresoft fan) told me they were dumb anyway.

about the setting again... read what Observer previously posted.

Well, at least we seem to agree the gameplay's bad. You hit the attack button... alot. And the plots and characters seem to become more and more formulaic and predictable with each new FF release. It's cool when you're new to those kinds of stories, but I've watched too many animes to be impressed by recycled Squaresoft stories. Oh well, this screenshot has inspired me to pick up Xenogears again

As for the movie, I haven't seen it, no, but I'm still willing to look forward to it, based on what I've seen and on what I've come to expect from Square. If you want to insist on downplaying it so as not to have your hopes dashed, that is your prerogative, but I think you're underestimating it.

I'm sorry, I can't accept your description of FF settings. Neither FFVII nor FFVIII took place in anything like a medieval setting, nor did FFVI/III or FFV/II have any real resemblance to medieval times. If you haven't played FFI or FFII, then that leaves you with at best half of the games in a setting that could be reasonably defined as 'medieval.' I'm not going to bother to try defending the movie at this point, since we've agreed that, neither of us having seen it, we don't really know what we're arguing about

I never saw a theater trailer for Dark City...I think. Anyway, the one I remember (probably TV) sucked, and so did the Gattaca one I remember. Again, that may have been a TV or video trailer.

I don't think the length of the FF trailer is worth quibbling about. The settings I put forth couldn't easily be related in a three-minute short, aside from saying "well, they both have chocobos, magic, and, uh...Cid."

I will agree with you that square tends to standardize some of their gameplay, and that the FF series in particular relies on a consistent interface. I submit, though, that Half-life has basically the same gameplay as Doom (run, shoot, run, shoot) but is an infinitely better game. If you haven't played it, I highly recommend it. Also, if you like Square-style storytelling at all, but want different gameplay, I recommend the following: Parasite Eve (1 & 2) and Vagrant Story, both by Square, and Star Ocean: The Second Story. Xenogears is another good example, but you're already playing it. Also, Legend of Legaia and Jade Cocoon are both good for a while. And the 'Mana' games (Secret of, Legend Of). I'm sure I'll think of more...

As for your false assumtion that I haven't played (and thoroughly enjoyed) FF Tactics, I don't why you'd think that. I love that game.

Oh, we've all played Half-Life, hehe. It wasn't horribly innovative, as you've mentioned, but it's definitely the best of the fast-paced first-person shooting genre (single player). I tend to lean more towards innovative games than I do just "overall good" games. ... I can't really word that sentance better. I'll admit that most/all of the Squaresoft RPG's are definitely well-made products. I just don't like them too much since I can't find much that's new with each Square RPG release. I'd rather play games that try to be a little innovative, even if they're low-budget (Thief: The Dark Project, Terra Nova SFC, Jagged Alliance 2, X-COM Apocalypse, Tribes, etc.), or lack the sense of solidity that other games have. I despise Diablo 2, and I'll take Tribes over hop-around-like-a-kangaroo-with-a-rocket-although-it-makes-no-real-sense Unreal Tournament (or Quake 3) any day.

(edited... stupid UBB code...)