Instructinator

Final Fantasy, two games in one

All of the games in the ever popular final fantasy series have a few things in common. One of the core elements that these games always share is the “Battle system”. In the beginning this was done because the most effective way to display combat and the most effective way to navigate a map for the purposes of exploration were different. So rather than toning down the combat system or making the exploration weaker, they decided to make a hard cut between the two.

Now, here in the land of 3D this problem no longer exists. But the fans of the series are so used to this setup that it cannot change. For other RPGs though in this generation I think it is a bit of a copycat cop-out to cut to battle. This is an old design standard that can be replaced with more transparent design.

RPGs don’t need to be two games in one anymore, they can now be a smooth integration of these gameplay standards.

Jeff Mundee Jan 29th 2004