My point about story and other aspects taking a hit is extremely valid and actually still relevant - time, money, and resources were prioritized to GRAPHICS GRAPHICS GRAPHICS AND all the programming problems and troubleshooting with new mechanics like 3D....this always leads to everything else suffering just so something can look pretty and sell based off a trailer or picture Ad.
The Genesis literally had "High Definition Graphics" and "16-Bit" printed in big bold letters on the machine it self. I'm sorry, boyo, but this is
not something that started with 3D by a long shot.
Final Fantasy VII is an adequate example. Very haphazard translation, story wasn't quite finished in many places, not a lot of time of energy went into new or unique gameplay...they were spending everything on the FMVs and the 3D aspect, FFVIII is an even worse example. Again programmers and designers are learning brand new things while they are making games....like a child trying to talk when they are still learning a language. Every new gimmick or new mechanic has that effect.
As a life long fan of JRPGs and Final Fantasy this is wrong. Kind of.
While yes, a lot of the budget for FFVII and VIII went into OMG GRAPHICS you can't forget that this was also the case for Square's late game efforts on the SNES, with Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger's monstrously detailed sprites and abundance use of mode 7 being a good example of this. And while we're on the topic of SNES era Squenix games, let's jump onto the narrative train.
Was FFVII's translation bad? Yes. Did it have loose ends? Yes. But guess what, so did the games before it. FFVII isn't even close to being my favorite game in the series and still willing to say that it had the best, the most ambitious and engaging narrative of the entire series at that point. FFI barely has a story, II is a footnotes version of Star Wars (until you get to the Emperor coming back from the dead and all that jazz), III also barely has a story, IV reads like something that was made up as you went along, although I do praise V for centering around a tight cast of likable characters instead of trying to astound you with twists, same goes for VI but to much lesser extent.
Now lets just onto the game play wagon. To say that VII and VIII, ESPECIALLY VIII, had their game play neglected in favor of graphics is just wrong. VII finally mastered the ATB system to make it fast and fun, introduced Limit Breaks which were well balanced to give you a rush of power but not let you steamroll the game, Materia topped every previous entry's character customization thanks to its flexibility.
VIII, on the other hand, went wild with where it took its game play. Junctioning is a crazy unique (although obviously inspired by FFVI's Espers) system that provides a ton of options for the player. Spells have charged and can be equipped to boost stats and provide other things on top of the stat boosts provided by the junctioned guardian. Christ, this game had TRIPLE GORRAM TRIAD in it, which was a crazy fun and engaging card game in and of itself. To say that these games didn't put a lot of energy into making the game play new or unique is just wrong.
Let's look at the Wii next and the era of motion controls being the new "thing" to to get bros and gals stoked on gaming again. Wii ended up being a joke, even the slow trickle of 1st party games suffered if they had motion controls, 3rd parties had no idea what they were doing so we got badly made baby motion carnival games. Then Playstation and MS of course had to jump on the motion train, both failing. All that time and money wasted, all the resources that could have been pumped into a whole library of things we'll never get to see. An amazing developer like RARE was pretty much ruined since they went all in with a sub-par gimmick.
Motion controls were dumb. Then again, disc based games also had similar problems, so eh.
On that note, I don't think Rare is that great of a dev, or has ever been that great of a dev, so that's an unpopular opinion for ya.
Every new mechanic or gimmick good or bad by default sacrifices other aspects of games and sets back the quality of everything until the new "thing" is properly learned or mastered. I'm just not a fan of this constant forced reset just to try and wow consumers and beat competition....quality and mastery of making games seems to always take a back seat.
Sticking to 2D isn't the answer. It was a style that was mastered in the early 90s, had 3D never came around game would have just stagnated.
Also I would partially agree that story has gotten a little bit better,
I'm pretty sure Persona 4 complex characters and small-town murder mystery is miles above Link to the Past's "save the world because destiny says so" thing.
And then you get weird things like the bad rushed voice acting in such a massive Zelda game, in part Nintendo being naive but also not being able to allocate the proper time to it.
I think BotW's forgettable voice acting is more on Nintendo. For whatever reason Nintendo is always behind the curb on these things, which is kind of embarrassing that Metal Gear Solid, a game from the late 90s, has more emotional and convincing voice acting.
FallenHero
