Various stuffs about FF

[A Black Falcon]

There's a big difference between simply using something as the name for a summon and basing your whole game's story off of something, though... there definitely should be a higher standard for the latter. Of course since it is a new story and not simply one of the old myths again it won't (and probably shouldn't) be precisely accurate, but they definitely could do a better job...

You want the references to be so buried you can't find them? Why? Are fantasy or sci-fi universes ever truly wholly unique or are they always partially influenced from past things? I don't think you can avoid influence... but given that, why would it be better to hide it? I mean, if you're doing an ancient Norse game, you should base it off of Norse mythology in some fashion. If it's some other world that just happens to use a lot of Norse words or whatever (see something like Riviera) that's somewhat different... I don't expect "accuracy" there where they were just trying to use the words in a different context. The same goes for summons and stuff. Oh, sure, I'd still like to see more attention to detail than many games do, but oh well...

I mean, if a game can actually create a cohesive, believable new fantasy universe then sure that's good, but often that goal is not achieved and you end up with something that seems half Earth mythology and half silly mess, plot and game universe wise... stuff like D&D gameworlds do a really good job of creating believable, consistent worlds, but Japanese RPGs are often far behind on this regard, with much more generic settings that mix lots of influences (or just specific ones) together without an obvious plan as to how the place actually works... this shows through in game systems too. Note how in most JRPGs the player party and enemies don't run on the same rules... they don't have to bother with magic points (most old JRPGs), or have only a two-stage charge bar instead of three (Riviera), or don't have two separate lines (Etrian Odyssey), etc, etc... Western RPGs, with few exceptions, just don't work that way. But if you don't have a clearly defined gameworld and mythology in the first place, why would you create a set of consistent gameplay rules for it?

SRPGs aren't like that at all of course, but they are strategy games. :)

(And yes, I know D&D isn't perfect. The "treasure economy" where you have normal people and cheap normal goods and then all the buried treasure your adventurers keep finding and expensive stuff for them to buy somehow coexisting is kind of silly, for instance. Why doesn't all that treasure completely unbalance D&D world economies? :D)