Xylia
Terrarian
So earlier today, I watched some Top 10 lists having to do with Final Fantasy.
Now as some background, I've not played FF13, 13-2, Type-0, Dissidia, etc. I've played X, a little of X-2, XI, XIV and of course all of them prior to X except for FF3 and After Years.
Well, I was watching this video, and I noticed that several clips of later Final Fantasy games (some of the clips I assume were from 13 and 13-2) had these ridiculously huge numbers all over the screen. I'd watch someone run at some ridiculously giant monster and I'd see 99,999 popping out of it again and again and again and again, and I'm sitting here rolling my eyes.
No, seriously. Stahp.
Not everybody is a little kid that gets goosebumps about arbitrary numbers. Large numbers only mean something when they actually convey something. For example, I get just as excited about doing 2,000 damage in Final Fantasy 1 (the only way to hit for 2,000 damage is to use a Black Belt; the best weapons on a Knight can only do 400-ish, and Black Mages can't get anywhere near that high, not even with Flare/Nuke) as I do when I do 8,000+ in Final Fantasy 4 (the only way that's possible without exploiting weakness is to get the Crystal Sword which many people miss on their way through the final dungeon due to it being difficult to see the path that leads to it).
The whole point in damage numbers is to convey how much damage you're doing compared to something's health. If everybody does 99,999 with every attack then it quickly becomes "blah". Just like when you start a game of Final Fantasy 1 (NES) out and two of your guys are doing 15s with their rapiers and your mages are doing 4-5 with their daggers and wooden hammers, you get the idea that the fighters with their rapiers are far more effective fighters. This continues through the game at a slow and even curve of rising power.
Contrast that to Final Fantasy 6. If you take the time to increase peoples' stats by equipping them with Espers when they gain levels, you can make it so that Relm (one of the weakest physical fighters in the game) can do 9,500+ with her paintbrush... oh wait, Mog does the same thing with his spear. And then the powerful knight Cyan uses the most powerful knight sword and does 9800.... wow. Ok? A little girl with a paintbrush is doing the same thing a knight with a legendary sword? *sigh*
That's when Big Number Syndrome starts to hit. You start filling the screen with ridiculously huge numbers that get difficult to keep track of after awhile (okay this thing has 10 billion HP and I hit it for 99,999 about 8 times... uh.... I need a calculator to calculate this!) and it seems to me that the huge numbers are only for the little kids who like lots of pretty pretty flashy flashy stuff.
I remember when Final Fantasy games were more about the story and (somewhat) strategic combat rather than finding the most overpowered move (FFX's Quick Hit anyone?) and spamming it repeatedly until the thing goes uncle, or until the thing does a total party kill on you (the number of clips where your group members have 10,000 HP and are getting hit with 100,000 are ridiculous).
Surely they can do better combat than that.
I'm glad Terraria decided to do actual game balance and stayed away from the "Dodge this or die instantly" kinda stuff. The only thing I know of like that is the Death Ray in Expert Mode. And that's the last boss and it is blockable by walls.
That, and another thing Final Fantasy games need to start doing.... enemy defense. You wouldn't need such ridiculously huge numbers if you had an Attack vs Defense scaling system. Say for example you have 10 Attack Power and the enemy has 1 Defense, so you do 9 damage, right? Well, later on the game you run into an enemy that has 10 Defense and now you're doing 1s. You gotta raise your attack power. Maybe at the end of the game, you've got 800ATP and the enemy has 600 Defense and you're doing 200s. But you go back to the beginning of the game and you're obliterating them with 800 damage attacks.
That way you get the sense of power without the ridiculous 5-digit numbers being necessary.
Now as some background, I've not played FF13, 13-2, Type-0, Dissidia, etc. I've played X, a little of X-2, XI, XIV and of course all of them prior to X except for FF3 and After Years.
Well, I was watching this video, and I noticed that several clips of later Final Fantasy games (some of the clips I assume were from 13 and 13-2) had these ridiculously huge numbers all over the screen. I'd watch someone run at some ridiculously giant monster and I'd see 99,999 popping out of it again and again and again and again, and I'm sitting here rolling my eyes.
No, seriously. Stahp.
Not everybody is a little kid that gets goosebumps about arbitrary numbers. Large numbers only mean something when they actually convey something. For example, I get just as excited about doing 2,000 damage in Final Fantasy 1 (the only way to hit for 2,000 damage is to use a Black Belt; the best weapons on a Knight can only do 400-ish, and Black Mages can't get anywhere near that high, not even with Flare/Nuke) as I do when I do 8,000+ in Final Fantasy 4 (the only way that's possible without exploiting weakness is to get the Crystal Sword which many people miss on their way through the final dungeon due to it being difficult to see the path that leads to it).
The whole point in damage numbers is to convey how much damage you're doing compared to something's health. If everybody does 99,999 with every attack then it quickly becomes "blah". Just like when you start a game of Final Fantasy 1 (NES) out and two of your guys are doing 15s with their rapiers and your mages are doing 4-5 with their daggers and wooden hammers, you get the idea that the fighters with their rapiers are far more effective fighters. This continues through the game at a slow and even curve of rising power.
Contrast that to Final Fantasy 6. If you take the time to increase peoples' stats by equipping them with Espers when they gain levels, you can make it so that Relm (one of the weakest physical fighters in the game) can do 9,500+ with her paintbrush... oh wait, Mog does the same thing with his spear. And then the powerful knight Cyan uses the most powerful knight sword and does 9800.... wow. Ok? A little girl with a paintbrush is doing the same thing a knight with a legendary sword? *sigh*
That's when Big Number Syndrome starts to hit. You start filling the screen with ridiculously huge numbers that get difficult to keep track of after awhile (okay this thing has 10 billion HP and I hit it for 99,999 about 8 times... uh.... I need a calculator to calculate this!) and it seems to me that the huge numbers are only for the little kids who like lots of pretty pretty flashy flashy stuff.
I remember when Final Fantasy games were more about the story and (somewhat) strategic combat rather than finding the most overpowered move (FFX's Quick Hit anyone?) and spamming it repeatedly until the thing goes uncle, or until the thing does a total party kill on you (the number of clips where your group members have 10,000 HP and are getting hit with 100,000 are ridiculous).
Surely they can do better combat than that.
I'm glad Terraria decided to do actual game balance and stayed away from the "Dodge this or die instantly" kinda stuff. The only thing I know of like that is the Death Ray in Expert Mode. And that's the last boss and it is blockable by walls.
That, and another thing Final Fantasy games need to start doing.... enemy defense. You wouldn't need such ridiculously huge numbers if you had an Attack vs Defense scaling system. Say for example you have 10 Attack Power and the enemy has 1 Defense, so you do 9 damage, right? Well, later on the game you run into an enemy that has 10 Defense and now you're doing 1s. You gotta raise your attack power. Maybe at the end of the game, you've got 800ATP and the enemy has 600 Defense and you're doing 200s. But you go back to the beginning of the game and you're obliterating them with 800 damage attacks.
That way you get the sense of power without the ridiculous 5-digit numbers being necessary.