Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

They aren't attacking all the sailboats, just a few, the majority they either swim along with and leave alone or there are no sightings. They are targeting specific boats for reasons that haven't been discovered yet.

Some think it's bottom paint color, possibly depth instruments, motors running vs sailing, rudder shape, keel shape, or some other factor. There is a site tracking some of the interactions and many have reported they were left alone, others said their rudders were destroyed. A few said the Orcas played with the rudder then swam off, others said they just rammed it and disappeared in under a minute. Some were destroyed, others weren't. Some reported they watched the boat until the motor came on, then they went for the rudder and left.

There is no consistency, but it's not all boats, they are picking certain ones and leaving the rest alone for some reason.

No one's arguing against the fact that Orcas are highly intelligent, DO hunt in packs/pods, and use team tactics against their prey. And no one's arguing that clearly at least a couple pods have started purposely engaging with boats, but as Iamaman states, its not all boats, and every boat they mess with is destroyed.. Sometimes it appears they're just curious, find out what they want, and move on. Other times they check it out, and decide to take action.

As we've both stated multiple times- the truth is probably some lead female was hurt by a propeller of a shipping boat and that's put the entire pod on the defensive, and smaller (than shipping vessels) boats are getting the brunt of their retaliation.

There's a pretty big difference between "orcas are intelligent, and they hunt in packs" vs "orcas are targeting the mega rich".

Part of me wonders if people were getting in the habit of throwing fish scraps at them off the back and they got used to being fed, then are poking/prodding to get fish and slamming the rudder if they don't get it. A few of the interactions I read sounded like they were waiting behind the boat watching for something before doing anything. One said they kinda lightly wiggled the rudder, then poked up for a bit and watched, repeating this a few times until they destroyed it and swam off.

This doesn't really align with the ones that get damaged in under a minute though. There's really no consistency, which is what's kinda baffling.

It's not really like DMC very much. DMC is more technical and has the actively updating your style points/combat ranking for your looping combos and stuff.

FFXVI is more like Kingdom Hearts or the new God of Wars. You get some skill trees to amp up and learn new skills, which are simple button combos of like, Jump > Attack or Hold Attack etc. Of course, the movement is a lot more fluid than GoW, and there's actually aerial combos, so there's that. There's also telegraphs and ways to dodge/parry attacks that are harder to pull off than similar things in GoW. Idk, to me it's like a Sekiro-Lite with far more astounding visuals.

I think it's a good thing that they finally made a mainline game fully action oriented, too. Y'all can naysay all you want, but the series has been trying to head that direction for years with all the various hybrid systems they keep using, so this is what SE has wanted to do for a long time. I'd rather this than the clunky combat of XV, for sure.

Sakaguchi has been playing through it too and posting screenshots with his feelings on Twitter. He's quite astounded and pleased by it, so hey, if the creator of the OG Final Fantasy likes it, maybe don't write it off?

If he starts to like John Madden, that's fine, I'm not going to call John Madden 2024 Final Fantasy 17

(do they still make john madden games lol, maybe FIFA fits better)

it looks like a great game. And SE is quite free to develop as they see appropriate- I just don't see the need to call it a Final Fantasy game, in particular a numbered title.

If it is not called Final Fantasy then it won't have the budget that it received. SE doesn't care about any game that isn't named FF/DQ, at least not in past a few years.

At least calling it FF gives Yoshi-P the pressure to make a good game. So it's whatever.

Also genre change isn't uncommon. Yakuza changed genre, Assassin's creed changed genre. FF just has more hate with a bigger fan base.

16 is so mid, the hype and stellar reviews are so forced. Here's something to look forward to tho

Let's just slap FF on everything, I guess.

I've seen this exact statement said about almost every FF after X. Funnilly enough, given where we are, most frequently against the MMOs.
From what I've heard people were saying it about VII back in the day even.
We get it, you prefer FF2 or FF6 or FF10, or whatever it is you've convinced yourself is the cutoff for "real FF". Everyone will always have their preferences. But that doesn't mean that what came later isn't Final Fantasy, just that you prefer the older ones.

I mean "final fantasy" has been what it was for 30 years.

Pretty standard fare. Even the movies, spinoffs, card games. It's unrecognizable as a single character slasher.

Ok, ok, dirge of cerberus *** it up too.

Every reason you list for it being "okay" is just corporate doublespeak.

-riding the coattails of a successful franchise to fund something new, hoping that just name recognition, not the actual product, creates sales

-other franchises have done it, so its ok for FF even though their fanbase is more loyal.

Again, I think it looks great. And if you really wanted to ride the coattails of Final Fantasy, then give it a simple colon. Something like "Final Fantasy: Expedition" or "Final Fantasy: A Prince's Tale". That's how Dirge of Cerberus worked, and wasn't nearly this level of complaint.

Again I focus on the fact that its a numbered aspect of the franchise.

Literally only 5 FF games, mainline, werent turn based in some Form. 11, 12, 14, 15 , 16. It's not a stretch to say that gameplay style "isn't FF"

For me personally, i don't mind its action based but i don't think all the rave reviews and hype are deserved. I swear it feels like yet another successful ad campaign. Have you seen the massive ad push behind this game? Now people calling it games of the year lol.

Really horrible forced British accents, linear as hell, quick time events... I went away on a trip but what i played was just okay, def not game of the year. It all feels like 14 in its DNA, even down to the horrible side quests and weird tropes, feeding the poor a bowl a soup and having them say crap in old English and also saying "***" repeatedly.

Of course these opinions aren't popular with the hype machine in full effect, anytime you post these comments the yoshi pipi squad comes in to harass you lol. Damn you boomer, just accept the complete change, next you will like your FF call of duty game of the decade

If they had just called it FF: soulsborn there wouldn't even be a conversation.

Megaman has 8 billion platformers, and some rpgs and some other weird ***but they all stay in their own lane and no one cares.

If capcom makes megaman: battle network 9, but calls it Megaman 12, they're gonna see some shitstorm action.

It wasn't movies for 12 years, and then it was.
It wasn't card games for 22 years, and then it was
FF Tactics is also a different genre, but we'll conveniently ignore that because you personally approve of that specific change.
FF can try new things, regardless of whether you're personally interested or not.

It's just like Leon said. This exact same line of thought was bandied about when XI came out, and again years later when XIV got popular (by Zoomers who didn't know XI was online lol).

"Why did they have to make it a mainline title? Why wasn't it just Final Fantasy: Online?"

Because they want Final Fantasy to encompass everything!

Final Fantasy DID NOT remain static for 30 years.

Final Fantasies 1 through 3 (1987 to 1990) are turn based initiative battle systems, where you input your entire party's commands, and then the battle plays out by AGI and unseen initiative rolls for who goes when each turn.

Final Fantasy IV through IX (1991 to 2000) use the ATB system, which features the option to have enemies wait for your inputs or to be active while your characters wait for their turns based on their speed and haste.

FFX (2001) uses a slightly adjusted system called the Conditional Turn Based which is like ATB on wait but a bit less pressure/more refined.

FFXI (2002) uses real time menu based combat, subject to latency with auto attacks as the default option for fighting.

FFXII (2006) uses the "active dimension battle" system, similar to XI but with agro lines and auto piloted NPCs.

FFXIII (2009) uses a variant on the ATB system that incorporate multiple ATB bars that fill to allow you more actions per round.

FFXIV 1.0 (2010) - Real time hotbar based, but with menu like descriptions.

FFXIV 2.0 (2013)- Real time action with 2.5second Global Cooldown

FFXV (2016) - Real time action, but clunky real time action with an optional wait mode, where if you stop pressing buttons, the battle stops and waits.

FFXVI (2023) - Real time action. Smooth and simple.

And that's to say nothing of the specific progression systems that are different in each entry.

So FF changed within its first 4 years of existence, on its 4th entry, and then stayed largely the same for about 10 years, and then changed drastically, only dipping back into its old ways with new features added for a single entry.

Maybe SE knows their potential target audience well. :P

I wouldn't buy a big budget action adventure game set in medieval fantasy. Or any kind of AAA action game really, it's just not my thing.

I didn't buy God of War, Tomb Raider, DmC5 (Brought 4 and refunded it after 1hr), Ghost of Tsushima, Elden ring, Monster Hunters, Last of Us, Horizon, Hogwarts Legacy.... I hated Dark Souls too.

Quality doesn't matter. God of war is a metacritic 94/100 game but I am still not interested.

But I would buy an action adventure game with the name Final Fantasy on it. I saw a screenshot of FF16 which says "Potion" "Fire" on the UI and Summons and Chocobo. I am sold immediately, because I have feelings for these things.

They can make FF into any genre and I'd buy it anyways. I brought FF15 even though it's action. I brought FF13 LR and CC FF7 even though it's one character and action-y. I don't care about the genre that much when it comes to FF lol.


If it's called FF without a numeral number in it then I wouldn't buy it. Like I never buy any FF crystal Chronicles games only because it doesn't have a number.

If it has numeral number then I'll buy it. I brought FF12: Revenant Wings, FF13-2 and FF13 LR, CC FF7, FFX-2 only because it has numeral numbers in it.

SE 100% knows the purchase behaviour of their target audience, which is probably people like me. it's obvious that they put "16" on the cover so people like me will buy it, and a PS5 with it. All as planned.

There is no point to complain about SE's decision because people like me exist lol. They are making this decision to get money out of my pocket, any other name won't work otherwise.

Nah, that's gonna be Tears of the Kingdom baby!

They've been very gradually shifting towards that direction for the longest time. It almost seems like they have this internal struggle with some people wanting to make a mechanically-heavy and deeply-strategic combat system, and people wanting to make something fast-paced and button-mashy, without a confident enough figurehead to put their foot down and say "No, THIS is how we're doing it". For the last decade and a half, they've been trying to please a broad audience instead of making an industry-pioneering, stand-out title.

In that sense, I'm glad they at least tried to make their game stand out. They still didn't have the confidence to completely abandon the RPG elements, which I'd argue hurts it more than helps it. But as Vyre said above, they've finally at least made a proper action game out of it. It almost has a gameplay identity.

I just never understood that debate. Turn based or ATB systems are just a gameplay style. They arent "outdated", its like any other style such as RTS, FPS, action rpg etc. I just feel they use the whole "turn based is dated with high end graphics" to force their way into popular markets to get max cash. No wonder hes eyeing s FPS game, next fortnite.

....you really don't see it, do you?

That almost perfectly encapsulates FF as a whole though, not just recently. The combat systems have frequently been capable of depth and strategy, but very rarely have they ever actually required it, instead allowing people to beat most things with nothing but basic attacks as long as they keep themselves alive. There's always been this schism of wanting more depth, but also wanting to let people faceroll through the story.

XVI is just another in the long line of this, with some people claiming boss fights are "damage sponges" while button mashing, yet then other people are beating the same bosses in only a couple of minutes because they're actually utilizing the depth the combat system is capable of.

As proof that add campaigns cannot make crap gleam like gold in the eyes of reviewers I offer two words.

Balan Wonderworld.

The changes to the FF numbered titles are jarring to players who have been around long enough to see the precedent set with previous titles. The name is synonymous with RPG so the pivot away from that isn't well received by a lot of folks. Not really surprising.

I feel it has more to do with what Yoshi-P's team is good at. Their team did FF14 which has a real time battle system with a focus on player's reaction speed check, so many design philosophy can be used in an action games too.

A turn based game has completely different design philosophy. Turn based game system has a focus on math, stats and skill interaction, wide variety of meaningful choices etc. A team that is good at designing an action game may not be good at designing a turn based games and vice versa.

To me it makes perfect sense that Yoshi-P prefer to make certain type of game that his team is good at, it's perfectly normal tbh.

It makes sense to make that kind of game.

It does not make sense to call it #16 in a series of completely different games.

How would Fast X be received if it was about knitting.
(regardless how good or bad it is)
((I've only seen 1 and 2, so don't @ me))

See what lol. I see how it works perfectly clear. But you insist things has to work the way you want when it doesn't.

The bottom line is FF without numbers is never considered as mainline within FF community and the sales were terrible in the past. FF Crystal Chronicles, Dissidia FF, FF mystic Quest, FF Origin, FF legend..... they've done it many many times. To the point that I can predict the sales result of "Final Fantasy: Prince's Journey": It's gonna be worse than "FF16" with the same content.

If buyers act this way then why force a change for "FF feels"?

FFXVI and all other FFs are about fantasy worlds with monsters, magic, swords, and stuff. Their battle systems are a means to an end for delivering fun and story. FFXVI does this.

Your idea that it's some stark and drastic difference is a non-sequitur.

FF COD sounds cool to me if I get to be Cid


I'd also play the f outta some Madden FF