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Does Final Fantasy have the most negative fanbase out there?

SOLDIER

Member
Err, they're plenty positive when good things happen? This is a pretty nothing question.

There's a ton of love for FFXIV, World of FF (from the people who actually played it I suppose), etc.

But it's super hard to be nice about stuff like FF Explorers, a ton of the mobile efforts, Arianna Grande integration, yada yada.

Did Arianna replace Tifa as the new heroine in FFVII?

It's a one-off optional party member from a mobile game you probably aren't playing. Who gives a shit?

I can understand getting angry over Gackt being a canon villain near Sephiroth's level, sure. But something that has zero bearing whatsoever like Cup Noodles (which at least they decided to have fun with)? Boo freaking hoo.
 
Imagine being given the best cooked meal you've ever experienced consistently throughout your childhood - enjoying these lovely meals well into your adulthood - you could eat them over and over.

Then imagine the chef that cooked those meals promises the tastiest most delicious meal ever..... and you wait ten long years for it. During this period you have meals from this chef but you start finding hairs, fingernails, the occasional insect or whatever. You still enjoy the main meal but these little complaints start spoiling it and as time goes on you start finding more and more disgusting shit and less and less of the lovely delicious meals you enjoy

Then imagine after ten long years of waiting for the promised meal - it turns up.

It looks incredible.

You cut into it - all the signs point to party in my mouth.

It's dogshit.

You call it negative fanbase - I call it "where the fuck is my promise?"
 

Mediking

Member
Did Arianna replace Tifa as the new heroine in FFVII?

It's a one-off optional party member from a mobile game you probably aren't playing. Who gives a shit?

I can understand getting angry over Gackt being a canon villain near Sephiroth's level, sure. But something that has zero bearing whatsoever like Cup Noodles (which at least they decided to have fun with)? Boo freaking hoo.

Its the Internet though... something you like is pretty much destined to get slammed by someone on the Internet.

Don't let it bother you. Just listen to valid criticism and laugh at the memes.
 

redcrayon

Member
When a game series has been running for 30 years and comprises dozens of titles, its inevitable that the people that care enough about it to discuss it on a forum are going to have strong opinions that don't all line up. I've seen different posters claim that almost all of them are the best/worst ever, and just like Zelda opinion tends to soften slightly with time.

Heavy negative opinions tend to dominate immediately after launch as generally people find it easier to write a thread pointing out flaws than they do to write a praise thread that doesn't come across as gushing PR fluff, and often the reason to write such a thread seems to be feelings of deflatement after months/years of hype.
 

etking

Banned
Square Enix destrooyed one of the very best game franchises in the world. So why should the fanbase be positive?
 

Gnomist

Member
I think the exact opposite as the OP. FF has a pretty dedicated and sometimes rabid fanbase that is incredibly accepting of whatever fumbling seems to happen with the series. Go visit any FFXV thread that devolves into Stella talk to get an idea of how far it can go. Just because some people have more realistic expectations of release dates or laugh at utterly nonsensical game titles or prefer the older style of RPGs to the newer ones doesn't mean they're spoiled or entitled or negative. It means they have opinions like everyone else.
 

SOLDIER

Member
Square enix is notorious for mishandling these major beloved IPs, they did this to themselves

I'll gladly join in the lynching whenever something like Parasite Eve gets brought up.

But how many times have you read the phrase "I refuse to like FFXV because FFXIII burned me so bad"?

The negativity gets so bad that people won't acknowledge whenever something good happens with FF. That's not to say you're required to acknowledge them: If you didn't like FFXV, WoFF, or any of the most recent attempts, that's fine.

But I get the feeling a lot of the complaints are born from pettiness, or arguing about a product they never even played.
 

CGwizz

Member
No, Bioware fanbase is the worst, there is this group that buys the game day 1 but will fucking complain and complain in every thread.


Typical phrases made by them:

"After mass effect 1 it was all shit."

"Bioware is dead after that ending..."
 

Strings

Member
Did Arianna replace Tifa as the new heroine in FFVII?

It's a one-off optional party member from a mobile game you probably aren't playing. Who gives a shit?

I can understand getting angry over Gackt being a canon villain near Sephiroth's level, sure. But something that has zero bearing whatsoever like Cup Noodles (which at least they decided to have fun with)? Boo freaking hoo.

I don't give a shit? I don't think anyone on this forum really does. Square does though, and that's bizarre.

What I'm saying is that a lot of what they're doing is difficult to be positive about. They widely publicize a ton of stuff that hurts them (the December Pro patch, that sort of thing).
 

tei15

Member
FF fans aren't necessarily the worst, but pretty much up there together with Zelda, Souls, SMT/Persona fans.
 
It's probably a mixture of the fans and that the games have been lackluster for around a decade or so.
If the games were still great they'd have little to complain about
 
I think Metroid fans are a lot more negative than Final Fantasy fans, even for some of the more mixed games in recent years I've never seen much more than some disappointment and cynicism around the series. It doesn't compare at all to the anger directed towards Nintendo for Other M and sheer bile at Federation Force. More anger at their IP protecting actions towards AM2R even though they did the same with a Pokemon game and that community didn't lash out in the same manner.
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Don't kid yourself the fanbase around your favorite franchise isn't a special snowflake.
Maybe get outside your bubble a bit and you'll notice fanbases can be pretty negative everywhere. Like have you even ever read a moba subreddit?

Thing is in most cases negativity does have a reason. Some communities/devs embrace it(hello dota) to the best of their capabilities and fix all their shit if possible. Others like to coddle their favorite game ignoring all the problems making progress for it toxic and slow(hello diablo3 or any blizzard game among others).
 

Kyari

Member
There is also misplaced anger over trivial things like the latest carnival event, which is a free and optional event that has no bearing on the main game itself.

I mean it's more to do with the perception of wasted development time/money that could have been used to "finish the game"
 
In my childhood Final Fantasy was by far my most favorite video game series along the Metal Gear series.

I feel like both series are done for.

Final Fantasy for example has died for me after Final Fantasy XII. I didn't enjoyed XIII nor it's sequels they throw at us (where no one asked for them). Then I wanted Type-0 to play but it wasn't localised and now we got it for the PS4 but it feels like a Vita game. My biggest hope was Versus XIII but they replaced that by XV and I didn't enjoyed it either. And most of all it annoys me that it seems they care more about online and mobile games than the main series. So yes, I might be on the negative side of the fanbase. At this rate I am not even hyped for FFVII Remake

It's just my opinion. You don't have to agree on that.
 
I've been a verbally contributing member of the FF fanbase since being introduced to tiny video game bulletin boards back in 1993.

Ugh... typing that out certainly makes me feel old....

But 'most negative'?
No more than any other large fanbase I've seen. I think it's just natural when you have an entertainment product that attracts millions of fans you're going to get the good, the bad, and the ugly. You'll get sweet stories of entry A changing one's life and in the next post get the opinion that entry A and B sucks and C is the GOAT. You'll get those that trust the developers and show patience. You'll get those that feel slighted and lash out.
You'll get list wars (oh god the fucking list wars). You'll get passionate breakdowns of why the entry you hate is wonderful and why your favorite entry isn't as good. You might get a "This." response to one of your posts. You might get someone telling you your tastes are shit because you appreciate a redesign of a popular character.

It goes on and on, but in 24 years I haven't seen anything that outright makes me believe the FF fanbase is more or less negative than, say, the Star Wars fanbase... or the Resident Evil fanbase... or the Led Zeppelin fanbase... or the Midwest Polka fanbase, etc.

Like what you like and try to do it in a respectful manner. Or jump head-first into the melee of bloodshot-eyed fans with your fists swinging. It's a broad virtual world out there. If negativity bothers you, try to inject a positive perspective whenever possible. :)
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
You really take negative feedback about Final Fantasy too personally

I've been playing Final Fantasy since 1 on the NES.

It's not surprising to see fans of the series cautious or negative.

Final Fantasy XII had a crappy protag in Vaan. The story also floundered.

Final Fantasy XIII released to being a walking corridor game. A lot of people just don't like Lightning and didn't like how they tried to shove her into everything afterwards. Because a large amount of people don't like Lightning, the people that do make it very loud that they do.

We had to deal with Toriyama's delusions for years.

Final Fantasy XIV launched in a disastrous state. Frankly the fact that they were able to salvage it, thanks Yoshi-P!, at all is a miracle.

Square Enix (Tabata) has turned trolling into an art form.

Final Fantasy XV was released in a rushed and unfinished state.
 

NahaNago

Member
i wouldn't say negative but the fanbase is probably burnt out if they have been fans for a long time. Square needs to rebuild i guess trust back up when releasing games. FF15 was announced what like 10 years before, kingdom hearts 3 release date is nowhere to be found with the announcement trailer from 2013, final fantasy 13 was split between those who hated it and loved it, and ff7 is episodic. I think folks are simply just a bit more realistic when it comes to final fantasy and square due to past history. Out of the 3 original ff games mentioned only world of final fantasy had for the most part drama free release , ff14 is on 2.0, and ff15 was mentioned earlier. Don't announce your games too early!!!

edit: i have no idea when ff7 is being released but If i had to guess i would say 2019 since i think Q1 2018 will be dedicated to kingdom hearts 3. Plus i think they are gonna milk ff7 like a mother with it being released on ps4 and it having an upgraded port for ps5and finally being released on pc in 2020.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
I mean any major franchise will have a very toxic community with a mix of sheepish headcases that take any criticism as an afront to their personal values.

Thankfully you do often get some level-headed minds that creep in now and again. Sadly, when mixed with the nutjobs that cannot abide any criticism, constructive or otherwise, you get circular bitchfests that lead nowhere.

Metal Gear easily deserves mention.
 

kromeo

Member
It's probably a mixture of the fans and that the games have been lackluster for around a decade or so.
If the games were still great they'd have little to complain about

Every game since VII has had large amounts of moaning before and after release, just more so for the last few
 

Holundrian

Unconfirmed Member
Pretty much this.

Strangely, interacting with people in FF14, which you might think would be a perfect storm of cranks, has been super positive in my experience.

Wow so strange, indeed it's incredible that generalization of millions of fans doesn't always work!!!
Imagine if you engage on this board you can also have very positive discussions just have to ignore the people that just want to flamebait as well the people that just get off on their fan fanaticism. It's like magic.
Like come one people, you gotta be kidding me.

You really take negative feedback about Final Fantasy too personally

I've been playing Final Fantasy since 1 on the NES.

It's not surprising to see fans of the series cautious or negative.

Final Fantasy XII had a crappy protag in Vaan. The story also floundered.

Final Fantasy XIII released to being a walking corridor game. A lot of people just don't like Lightning and didn't like how they tried to shove her into everything afterwards. Because a large amount of people don't like Lightning, the people that do make it very loud that they do.

We had to deal with Toriyama's delusions for years.

Final Fantasy XIV launched in a disastrous state. Frankly the fact that they were able to salvage it, thanks Yoshi-P!, at all is a miracle.

Square Enix (Kitase) has turned trolling into an art form.

Final Fantasy XV was released in a rushed and unfinished state.

Rename the thread to fanboys of anything are the worst.
 
I've had a much worse time with Persona fans hating on Final Fantasy than FF fans hating on their own series.

This works with other series aswell

"I've had a much worse time with Nintendo fans hating on Sonic than Sonic fans hating on their own series."
 

Arkeband

Banned
Pretty much this.

Strangely, interacting with people in FF14, which you might think would be a perfect storm of cranks, has been super positive in my experience.

FF14 isn't aimed at MMO veterans, so you get a lot of newbies who are amazed and thankful that they're even online in the first place and don't really see what's missing in regards to where the rest of the industry is. If you want to get into an actual discussion about actual game mechanics, implementation, and development, you'll have people chiming in about how 'negative' you're being - you're harshing their catgirl buzz, man, just be positive 100% of the time or LEAVE.

And you get this same reaction from FFXV fans despite its shortcomings. Some people have a need for something they wanted for so long to be perfect that they lash out when its integrity is questioned. They're not really here to discuss a game warts and all, they're just here to further justify their purchase.
 

mieumieu

Member
Being a long running series you will always find fans who thinks the series went downhill with a specific entry they don't like.

"The series went downhill with 7/8/10/12/13" are all variations of the same theme. And they are all FUCKING STUPID.

No it didn't. After a somewhat disappointing FFXIII they made it up with XIII-2 and LR which are great gameplay-wise.

I treat each entry as their own anyway.
 

Mariip

Member
I thought ff fanbase was pessimistic until i started reading manga again, if you wanna get depressed try reading magi while discussing it online, it's awful. I don't even know why those people are still reading it, or why they've started reading it at all :|

FF fanbase is different, it is divided, for everyone who dislikes a game there is someone that loves it, even for FFXV who was a mess plotwise there are still a lot of people who just dig the world and characters enough to hold that game dearly in their hearts, FF just has had many changes and they appeal to different types of people, really, it's nowhere near a fanbase where everybody hates all those games
 
I don't think they're fans, very often you get people who claim to never having seen a FF game with, say, good story or good mechanics, and i always wonder what the hell have they been doing playing these games if they never saw anything positive in them. I simply suspect they never have.
 
In my childhood Final Fantasy was by far my most favorite video game series along the Metal Gear series.

I feel like both series are done for.

Final Fantasy for example has died for me after Final Fantasy XII. I didn't enjoyed XIII nor it's sequels they throw at us (where no one asked for them). Then I wanted Type-0 to play but it wasn't localised and now we got it for the PS4 but it feels like a Vita game. My biggest hope was Versus XIII but they replaced that by XV and I didn't enjoyed it either. And most of all it annoys me that it seems they care more about online and mobile games than the main series. So yes, I might be on the negative side of the fanbase. At this rate I am not even hyped for FFVII Remake

It's just my opinion. You don't have to agree on that.

I don't have to.

I still completely do.
 
You really take negative feedback about Final Fantasy too personally

I've been playing Final Fantasy since 1 on the NES.

It's not surprising to see fans of the series cautious or negative.

Final Fantasy XII had a crappy protag in Vaan. The story also floundered.

Final Fantasy XIII released to being a walking corridor game. A lot of people just don't like Lightning and didn't like how they tried to shove her into everything afterwards. Because a large amount of people don't like Lightning, the people that do make it very loud that they do.

We had to deal with Toriyama's delusions for years.

Final Fantasy XIV launched in a disastrous state. Frankly the fact that they were able to salvage it, thanks Yoshi-P!, at all is a miracle.

Square Enix (Kitase) has turned trolling into an art form.

Final Fantasy XV was released in a rushed and unfinished state.

OMG the receipts though 💀 Drag him.
 

Meowster

Member
I think due to how every game is different, things will always be divided. Early fans weren't too happy with the direction VII took, VII fans were not expecting the huge shift that VIII gave them, and VII and VIII fans weren't pleased with IX being a total tonal shift. With X, XIII, and XV, you had people new to the franchise with their opinions on why "this is the best" and old fans say "this is the worst." Add in the mmos, and you have one of the most diverse (and divisive) fan bases in gaming.
 

royox

Member
People that played Final Fantasy since the NES or SNES era have a high standar of quality for FF games. You want every FF game to be FFVI, FFVII and FFIX good and that's hard, very hard. Of course they won't reach that standard releasing unfinished games like XV or a terrible mess like XIV1.0 and fans will react accordingly.

There are other fanbases that will eat everything dropped at their mouths and tell it's the best shit they've ever eaten.
 
I think due to how every game is different, things will always be divided. Early fans weren't too happy with the direction VII took, VII fans were not expecting the huge shift that VIII gave them, and VII and VIII fans weren't pleased with IX being a total tonal shift. With X, XIII, and XV, you had people new to the franchise with their opinions on why "this is the best" and old fans say "this is the worst." Add in the mmos, and you have one of the most diverse (and divisive) fan bases in gaming.

Excellent point.
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
That title belongs to the Zelda fanbase
Lol.... not even close. The Zelda fanbase is so tame. The worst I seen is "Skyward Sword is terrible"

Now FF and RE on the other hand? Individuals in those fanbases talk about how certain games in their respective series killed entire genres of gameplay, and you're an idiot if disagree with them.

Those fanbases have insane amounts of infighting. It's what you get when your franchise ranges different genres/playstyles. Look at Smash Bros as well.

Clearly you haven't played Sonic.
Oh wait, you win.

Sonic is one of those rare franchises where the number of detractors I know vastly outnumber the current fans. It's really sad.
 
FF14 isn't aimed at MMO veterans, so you get a lot of newbies who are amazed and thankful that they're even online in the first place and don't really see what's missing in regards to where the rest of the industry is. If you want to get into an actual discussion about actual game mechanics, implementation, and development, you'll have people chiming in about how 'negative' you're being - you're harshing their catgirl buzz, man, just be positive 100% of the time or LEAVE.

And you get this same reaction from FFXV fans despite its shortcomings. Some people have a need for something they wanted for so long to be perfect that they lash out when its integrity is questioned. They're not really here to discuss a game warts and all, they're just here to further justify their purchase.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth in that. I myself am a MMO noob so I know I see FF14 with rose-colored glasses that an MMO veteran might not. I try to be the type of person who welcomes discussion of a game even if it's critical of something I like!

But then you get something like the old "FF13 is the easiest Final Fantasy game because all you have to do is press A to win" which is factually untrue and so off-base that it's clear the person never played the game and is only repeating something they read online to get a rise out of fans. It can be hard not to let stuff like that get under your skin when it's incessant.
 
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