h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

* my best GPP impersonation *
~~ Glad to be of service ~~

Fine....anyone any more comments?

I'm so glad you've plugged away at this, as it's turned into a cracking entry. It still needs a bit of polishing here and there though. I've usually recommended to Researchers that the best way to see if a sentence works is to read it out loud. What might appear okay on the page/screen can often sound disjointed and awkward when read aloud, and this is the key. If it's tricky to say, it will be tricky to read for someone who's approaching the subject for the first time.

Here's a few customary comments, which I hope aren't too intimidating in one go:


Intro
The title should read 'Final Fantasy' - the videogame series. Keep it simple.

The first line should read 'Final Fantasy (or FF) is one of the longest running series...' to get rid of the repetition of 'series' and also to explain the 'FF' abbreviation at the very beginning.

Next sentence: 'main series of games have' should be 'has'. Instead of repeating 'series' again and again, you could just refer to 'the range' a few times, or 'FF's heritage' or 'FF traditions' if discussing the games in terms of the common traits and themes.

The Company

Suggest a little rejigging here:
Generally known as 'Square', Final Fantasy is the most successful title from a company also known at various times as 'Square Co. Ltd' and 'SquareSoft'Their merger in April 2003 with the Enix Corporation (who had previously made the RPG series Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior) led to the creation of Square Enix Co. Ltd.. Between Final Fantasy V and VI, Square was also responsible for the English language version of the original Breath of Fire game when originally released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (or SNES) in 1993.

'including a possible meeting with Sephiroth, from FFVII' - is a meeting with Sephiroth something that only happens sometimes in the game, or are you trying to hint that it happens without actually confirming it? This could be a bit spoillery for some people, so I'd suggest dropping this line.

The Games
I'd bring that second paragraph up. There's no need to break into another paragraph there as you're still writing about the same thing. Rather than 'As per usual', try 'As is common in the games market' as it explains HOW it's usual for non-gamers (ie, it's normal for all games, not just FF titles).

I don't understand what you're saying in that second para though, sorry. It needs heavy rethinking I'm afraid.

'The series is largely simple from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy X...in Japan at least.' Are you trying to say that the basic gameplay remains consistent throughout the games? Can I suggest firstly that the bulk of this para should appear later on, in the Playing the game section?

I'd also suggest mentioning in this overview that the basic structure to each game remains consistent throughout the series. The player has a group of characters that make up a party. They explore envoronments and occasionally encounter enemies; such encounters transport them into an arena view where the player must select menu options to control the characters and where success or failure is largely a matter of points lost (see below for more details).

Characters
A thought here: Characters tend to stick within certain archetypes: our hero is usually a rebel with a fiery, impulsive, even selfish personality, who must learn the importance of the bigger picture; a female lead often provides the love interest and tends to be a student of magic or sorcery; a secondary hero tends to be the muscle - determined, single-minded and utterly loyal; a transport expert will usually show up in some form and the traditions of the game is that this character is always called Cid, even though there's seldom direct continuity between any of the Cids across the games. (tie this into the part about Biggs and Wedge).


Monsters
Monsters and enemies also appear with regularity, even if their names change, and they are often linked to basic elements - fire, air, water and lightning - which give them strengths and weaknesses.

I'd question that Tonberry is stupid. He's determined and initially VERY hard to defeat. He's the nearest thing Final Fantasy has to a serial killer like Michael Myers from Halloween because no matter what you do he keeps on coming... eek!

And I love the fact that you save the 'final' explanation for the end. That's quite witty that.

Phew.

I'll back away now while you throw stuff at the screen. Honest - you're *so* nearly there

Thanks; don't worry about the number of comments, as at least it means interest is being shown and there is hope for it yet. I'm ot going to go into a rage or anything.

The rest of this post will be very boring and detailed to a almost pathetic level. It's more of a personal checklist while I'm going through than something that casual viewers need to read - although I have a few comments where I'm asking what you think. I'm writing this in the process of the edit, so forgive tense changes

Corrected title as suggested.
Replaced first "series" with "canon" - personal preference; if you feel it doesn't work or whatever give me a yell and I'll change it. I put the (FF) in there as you suggested; removed the later instance.
To avoid reuse of "series" I changed it to "The main games" - and in this case it remains as "have". Odd I should need to have this mentioned - normally I'm pretty good at avoiding echoed words.

Jimster, I'm afraid I've copied your opening paragraph for "The Company" wholesale, with added italics tags. If you object, say so and I'll rewrite it myself.
The "possible" meeting with Sephiroth I used because he's an optional boss - one of the famed sidequests. I believe he's only available on one version of the game (I think the American one, but may be wrong), making it even more only "possible". But point taken about it being a potential "spoiler", so I'll cut it out.

The bit at the start of "The Games" is just my writing style becoming a bit TOO obvious, really.

Damn, just gone and closed the window with my edit in. Go through and rewrite it since my last update....

I've rewritten the first few pars of "The Games", adding some stuff in about the basic set-up and HOPEFULLY making it better. Feedbacdk appreciated.

I've put in the stuff about the character archetypes: basically the same as you've said, but this time in my own words. In interests of being utterly honest I've tried to explain this only applies to games with specific characters (as opposed to I and III), but it probably reads awfully - I may rewrite this even before any feedback.

I haven't put in the bits about elements - do you think they need a mention specifically? If so, I'll try and work out where they can fit in.

The "stupid" reference regarding Tonberries was just my opinion on their appearance, but I wasn't keen on it anyway. Out it comes - I've now rewritten their entire entry a bit, mainly so that I can say "Trust No-one" at the end. Oh well, I'm a Random Quot(ations!) Guild Member - you have to excuse me.

"That's quite witty that" - really? People don't tend to say that to me....thanks anyway.

OK, that's all the points addressed. Thanks for the comments, and the compliments. I await further feedback!

Oh, and one more thing - I removed the rubbish about FFXII being released in August in Britain, due to being utterly and blatently untrue. I blame the HMV website, which gave me that handy hint. As I now understand it (although this info is already a month or so old), August 2004 was the original release date for it in JAPAN, but has now been postponed to early 2005 - meaning not in Britain until 2006, quite possibly. Argh..............Final Fantasy deficiency......withdrawal symptons........

Oh well, I'll have to go and buy the PlayStation versions of the old games (or the GBA ones, once they're out). Then I might actually know what I'm talking about!

Just thought I'd point this out...

"Yojimbo" means "Mercenary" in Japanese. A Yojimbo was a Samurai who sold his skills for coin, and hence you have to pay him in FFX to get him to fight.

It does?
But...but...that means I can't use the stuff about him NOT being based on the cartoon samuri rabbit, if I just say "Yojimbo" is the Japanese for "mercenary"...oh....

Oh well, I've put in the point, but have been briefly 'sidetracked' so that I can still mention Usagi Yojimbo. Thanks for the info.

OK, I've read through it and removed some of the echoed words - really bad in some cases.

Also, in a quick check I found the FF I & II GBA conversion should be available in Britain on 10th Dec. So actually available shortly into the New Year, with any luck. Note to self - hence do not buy FFOrigins; get VI instead.

Btw, just in case anyone knows...I've heard FF Anthology (PlayStation re-release of FF IV & V) doesn't work on the PS2. Is this true?

FF Anthology (FFIV and FFV) does indeed run on the PS2 (at least, the PAL version does).

Saturday 21st August 2004 - LQ notes to self not to buy FF Origins for PlayStation

Monday 23rd August 2004 - LQ buys FF Origins for PlayStation.

Oh well - at least I might know what I'm talking about shortly...

Well, I'm already quite a way through FF6 myself, so that could be for the best as regards separate Entries on the games...

You might add a link for the benefit of those who've never heard of Usagi Yojimbo, e.g. http://www.usagiyojimbo.com/intro/uyhistory.html

Sephiroth's appearance in Kingdom Hearts (leastways, I think that's what you were talking about) gets a mention in my FF7 Entry, in the name of glorious pedantry, so the information is still here somewhere.

Good idea for the link - I'd never heard of him until I Googled Yojimbo.

Reminds me: quite possibly final chance - do you want to be credited as a researcher, RFJS? After all, you have done quite a lot...

Credit me if you really want to, but I'm not worried about it; the actual writing is all yours.

Yar Kramer (U46995) said this on another thread:

"But here's my take on it: they are both [mine and RFJS_'s article on FFVII] MIRED in excessive detail. And the Final Fantasy one isn't QUITE organized as well as it could be, either. This isn't supposed to be an in-depth guide to the whole franchise -- just an entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which isn't supposed to be read as a term-paper. Nobody's gonna want to read all that STUFF except people who already know most of it. I'm not saying you should shred it down until you get something to the effect of "mostly harmless", just something that would inform the casual reader."

My response:

"Hmmmmm......I suppose so. Right, I'll start thinking about what I can edit out. Although I'll probably keep it as it is on my website. Thanks for the advice, even if it stings a little. As they say, "the fact the treatment hurts means it's working"."

Others agree, before I start cutting down?
Also, would it be better/worse if I were to split it into two or three entries?

Well, you know what I think of the whole affair... You can easily transfer the full version of this to another Entry -- even expand upon it, if you want to -- and cut down the original (rather than create a shorter version elsewhere, which would have to go through incubation and get a new PR thread). Then again, it's this long because we asked you to add stuff, isn't it? As for splitting it, we're already planning to have separate Entries on the games with this as a hub; with our enthusiasm for detail being shouted down, I'm not sure splitting the hub into multiple Entries would meet with that much rapture...

At any rate, you can put as much detail as you please into an unedited Entry, and it'll be part of the Guide and will come up on searches. As for the Edited Guide, I really don't know how the casual reader's mind is supposed to work.

Right, I've created another version to leave in the unedited guide, which is just how this one is at the minute...A3002419. Heh...it'd be the ultimate irony if I got a shorter version into the EG, then someone found my longer version and put that forwards as an update for it, "'cos it's more detailed..."

Anyway, to stop dreaming...

I'm now going to start cutting down on it. The main thing I'm going to get rid of is the "Evolution of the series" - it didn't turn out how I wanted; it's not really that much use in my opinion, and it's ridiculously long....

Hold on...try again...

A3002419

That's what I put before...

Anyway...looks much better without the evolution bit. More manageable size, as well.

What do y'all think?

Personally, going back to the detail debate, the more detailed an edited entry is the better. But that is just my personal view

Researcher PSG

Biggs and Wedge get a cameo in Final Fantasy VI.


Is it worth mentioning Final Fantasy Anthology and Origins?


But Final Fantasy XI is definately on it's way to Europe... it's being released this month or next on PC

'Personally, going back to the detail debate, the more detailed an edited entry is the better. But that is just my personal view'

Hear, hear.

However, as LQ and I have been finding out, that view isn't as widely shared as it might be.

At least a more detailed version will be in the unedited Guide, and the shorter version will be there in the E.G. for people without the time or interest to read the longer one.