Worst Final Fantasy Lead

[chaosrage 0]

How is the finger wagging or Kefka spazzing out any different than Sephiroth's evil laugh,  Cait Sith's dance, Rinoa putting her arms behind her back and leaning foward,  Squall grabbing his forhead in frustration or Steiner jumping up and down? All of the polygon games have a bunch of those little animations, if not more.

Facial expressions. FF7 didn't have any. Hell, the characters didn't even have mouths.

[Jingus 0]

Yeah, why is it that in the recent games, they've gotten the graphics to look so beautiful and amazing, but have still not mastered the simple art of putting expressive lines on a character's face? I mean, for chrissake, your average Dilbert cartoon has more expressive faces than most of the recent FF games.

[EricMM 0]

They're TRYING. I remember facial expressions in FFX2. They're just not as good.

 

I think it's a LOT harder to manipulate thousands of polygons as deftly as it is to simply display a different set of sprites for the face.

[chirs3 0]

How is the finger wagging or Kefka spazzing out any different than Sephiroth's evil laugh,  Cait Sith's dance, Rinoa putting her arms behind her back and leaning foward,  Squall grabbing his forhead in frustration or Steiner jumping up and down? All of the polygon games have a bunch of those little animations, if not more.

Facial expressions. FF7 didn't have any. Hell, the characters didn't even have mouths.

Exactly. The FF series has improved as far as body language goes, but there's something really stupid about seeing Squall do his AIR CHOP OF ANGER with a completely flat face, or Cloud do his MASSIVE MIGRAINE OW animation with a completely flat face, etc.

 

I'm not saying it would be easy - I know nothing of PS2's technical capacity or limits, so maybe it's really not possible. I'm just saying that, so far, no title in the FF series has matched VI's cast in terms of visual expression.

[Anya 0]

Eh, I have a hard time taking VI's sprites' emotion seriously. Yeah, they have faces, but they're still little deformed sprites.

 

VII, VIII and IX's graphics haven't aged well though.

[EricMM 0]

Suikoden 3 and Skies of Arcadia did a great compromise.

 

relatively flat faces over polygons.

 

I don't care about how many polys is in every tooth, I'd just rather see a face than no face. I'd rather it was articulate. Since it's much much easier to paint a face and have that change than it is to render so many polygons, they should've used that tech on the PSX games. IF they could...

[Guest Doomsault]

********SPOILER*********

Okay so I don't know how to do a spoiler box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me clear this up first, Squall did not die at the end of FF8! If you watch after the credits, he is hugging Rinoa and watching fireworks.

 

Anyway, Squall is fucking cool and you can all go to hell. He starts out as the misunderstood social outcast and then finds himself during the adventure, how can you go wrong?

[LaParkaMarka 0]

I don't care about how many polys is in every tooth, I'd just rather see a face than no face. I'd rather it was articulate. Since it's much much easier to paint a face and have that change than it is to render so many polygons, they should've used that tech on the PSX games. IF they could...

Disgaea managed facial expressions just fine, both on the in game characters and the little 2d cutscene stills. That game is so awesome.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

there are actual facial expressions (which even the newest ones haven't nailed down yet - 90% of FFX-2 is the cardboard faced Yuna). There's wagging of fingers (which even the newest ones can't do yet, goddamn clumpy FFX-2 hands).

Wha?? FFX and FFX2 were really great, in terms of realistic graphics. Okay, maybe cardboard-faced Yuna is a bit of a letdown, but the voices [usually] and the movements more than make up for it. One scene that comes to mind for that is the scene at Bevelle in ch1, where you first meet the Praetor [sp?] The movements were extremely realistic with little to no lagging.

 

By the way, Sakura, what did you think of the leader of the Al Bhed Machine Faction? I forget his name. Heh...my reaction pretty much matched Yuna's: total staring. I'm like...whoah! He's a hottie! Interview? What interview? I just wanna see more of him. What I find amusing is that he's totally different from that one artwork [where it has Nooj, Baralei, and him on there.]

[Mecha Mummy 0]

Question: How does Butz/Bartz NOT have the most votes? At least Squall has an actual personality and character.

[Anya 0]

I did not think much of Gippal, in fact it really bugged me when he was in Yuna's face. He came off as obnoxious to me.

 

I liked Baralai though.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Disgaea managed facial expressions just fine, both on the in game characters and the little 2d cutscene stills. That game is so awesome.

I desperately want to play this but I can't find it at Blockbuster. Where the hell can I find it without having to shell out $50? Any online rental places?

[chaosrage 0]

Question: How does Butz/Bartz NOT have the most votes? At least Squall has an actual personality and character.

No personality is better than asshole personality. I'm shocked that Squall doesn't have 50%.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

Question: How does Butz/Bartz NOT have the most votes? At least Squall has an actual personality and character.

No personality is better than asshole personality. I'm shocked that Squall doesn't have 50%.

I'm surprised that Yuna has any votes; so far, I think she's doing a wonderful job in FFX2.

[chirs3 0]

Disgaea managed facial expressions just fine, both on the in game characters and the little 2d cutscene stills. That game is so awesome.

I desperately want to play this but I can't find it at Blockbuster. Where the hell can I find it without having to shell out $50? Any online rental places?

Both Hollywood Video's near me have at least one copy available for rent. Got any near you?

[LaParkaMarka 0]

There's an online rental place that Penny Arcade was shilling for a while. If you're American you should be able to use it. I remember the artist at that site getting Disgaea through it. I think the company was called Gamefly.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Disgaea managed facial expressions just fine, both on the in game characters and the little 2d cutscene stills. That game is so awesome.

I desperately want to play this but I can't find it at Blockbuster. Where the hell can I find it without having to shell out $50? Any online rental places?

Both Hollywood Video's near me have at least one copy available for rent. Got any near you?

Blah. There's a bunch in Charlottesville, where I go to college, but of course I'm home for the break. I'm going to hit up Video Library tomorrow, and if that fails going to look for the online place LaParkaMarka mentioned.