Just like a salmon, I do not like the Final Fantasy series. I never have. There, I said it. I have never owned a single Final Fantasy game, nor do I feel compelled to remedy my position in that regard. Oddly enough I am well aware of the fact that, as a gamer, playing through FFVII is almost a mandatory initiation, a right of passage into the gaming brotherhood even, but I still refuse to do so. For you see, while I have played and seen played many Final Fantasy games, I have never enjoyed playing them at all. The plotlines usually start off well, and then fall victim to randomsideplotanitis, in which the afflicted game's once coherent story becomes muddled with routine clichés and nonsensical plot-twists. The characters are all sexually confused androgynous things with mysterious pasts and Japanese quirks that confuse me sexually. And last but not least the gameplay itself consists of little more than menu scrolling and hours upon hours of repetitive battles that are necessary to partake in due to the game's excruciating leveling up system. The popularity of these games therefore eludes me, and instead of simply passing this game into the black void of forgotten titles, I am forced to validate my position on the subject because of its overwhelming popularity with gamers at large... thus the salmon and I share a kindred spirit, while the majority is more akin to the current.

     But my complaints with the series extend beyond Final Fantasy itself, and into the very genre it has begotten. In fact, I look at most turn based RPG's with a certain contempt, mostly for their gameplay. To me simply choosing a character's action out of a list of predetermined actions seems to nullify the videogame experience entirely. If I want to watch a swordsman hack away at the haunches of an irate dragon I have many options in terms of movies and television programs to choose from. However, if I want to feel as though I am hacking away at the aforementioned dragon with related personality difficulties, I look to see what videogames provide this experience (sadly both mediums fall short in fulfilling my lust for dragon haunches... sweet, sweet haunches). The natural progression of videogames has moved away from simply choosing actions to performing them in real time because the technology is now capable of doing so. Everything else about the Final Fantasy series has improved with time (character design not withstanding), from having real life orchestras perform the in game music to having some of the most breathtaking graphical cinematics, it doesn't make sense to use a system of gameplay that is literally a decade and a half old.

     And while I understand completely that in either case I am simply pushing a button and watching an action occur as a direct result of that, I am also aware that good games are generally ones that make me forget I am simply pushing a button. With turn based RPG's, this never happens. It makes me blatantly aware of the fact that I am playing a game when I simply choose from a list of assigned moves. But I digress. In short, turn based fighting seems to me much better suited for a board or card game, and to use that style in a videogame is wasting the potential of the medium. Real time fighting games still (or as FFXII may prove can) contain all the strategy, all the character building, all the depth of a turn based game, but present it in a fun and involving way. Turn based RPG's are restricting, boring, and they take me completely out of the videogame experience. For those reasons I will always frown upon the genre.