Interesting that your fave aspects are ordered characters first, world building second, story third. Story is often one of the weaker parts of the FF games, even when the game is incredibly engaging good and the story still reasonably good. For me, only the Ivalice series (which only has one game as a numbered FF) has very solid plotting with highly engaging stories, but the Ivalice series was written by someone who normally doesn't write numbered FF games. Excluding FFXII and looking only at games developed by the core FF team, FFX is probably the best story by far (with great characters and an amazingly interesting world). In contrast, FF8's story is completely out to lunch by the time the time loop and climax are revealed, but the characters and world (and game play, and internal card game) are so engaging that I just don't care that the story falls apart. And I love FF8's cast.
When you say that you aren't sure why Spira and Ivalice are your two main FF fandoms, I wonder if it is because Spira and Ivalice are the most fleshed out FF worlds so far *and* the stories of FFX and FFXII hang together very well. I can easily picture a solid novelization of FFX or FFXII (and have read a few). But a novelization of some of the other games? It would take creative plot hole filling in many cases. Or very cheeky humor!
Also interesting that you did NOT list game play or game mechanics on your list of top three reasons. This really fascinates me (from a professional POV, HCI and all) because game play and game mechanics are something that designers and developers obsess over but, in reality, many RPG players (or, at least, one large market segment of those players) probably just want that aspect to fade into the background and NOT get in the way of enjoying the characters, world, story, and fun-factor. Playing DA:O on the PS3 drove me to rarely heard cursing and swearing at the damn controls/play/mechanics and finally declaring that if I ever play it again, I will only play the PC version. Yet, the characters+world+plot were so engaging that I soldiered through the horrors of PS3 interface, playing idk... 125 hrs? 140 hrs? on my PS3 completing the full game plus all DLCs.
Interesting comments about how ME fails a little bit. Still haven't gotten far in ME1 because of work/life.
Also concerned about FFXV and wondering if my interest in the FF games (and Ivalice franchise) will become more of a nostalgia thing rather than an ongoing thing. FFXIII was a huge disappointment for me.
Sorry to have missed this when you posted - work tore me away from internet... :(
When you say that you aren't sure why Spira and Ivalice are your two main FF fandoms, I wonder if it is because Spira and Ivalice are the most fleshed out FF worlds so far *and* the stories of FFX and FFXII hang together very well. I can easily picture a solid novelization of FFX or FFXII (and have read a few). But a novelization of some of the other games? It would take creative plot hole filling in many cases. Or very cheeky humor!
Also interesting that you did NOT list game play or game mechanics on your list of top three reasons. This really fascinates me (from a professional POV, HCI and all) because game play and game mechanics are something that designers and developers obsess over but, in reality, many RPG players (or, at least, one large market segment of those players) probably just want that aspect to fade into the background and NOT get in the way of enjoying the characters, world, story, and fun-factor. Playing DA:O on the PS3 drove me to rarely heard cursing and swearing at the damn controls/play/mechanics and finally declaring that if I ever play it again, I will only play the PC version. Yet, the characters+world+plot were so engaging that I soldiered through the horrors of PS3 interface, playing idk... 125 hrs? 140 hrs? on my PS3 completing the full game plus all DLCs.
Interesting comments about how ME fails a little bit. Still haven't gotten far in ME1 because of work/life.
Also concerned about FFXV and wondering if my interest in the FF games (and Ivalice franchise) will become more of a nostalgia thing rather than an ongoing thing. FFXIII was a huge disappointment for me.