2. Touch Pad Integration
The touch pad has already been a divisive aspect of the PS Vita, but it is undoubtedly a step in a positive direction that will eventually get gamers much more involved with the games they are playing, and what better game to demonstrate exactly how effectively the touch pad can be integrated into gameplay than Final Fantasy? Now I'm not suggesting that it should take over every aspect of the game, I have recently played Final Fantasy 3 on the Ipad and controlling characters movements via the touch screen is nowhere near as intrusive as I expected it to be, which I must admit I do see as a possibility for the touch pad. However, I feel like the touch pad could serve a much more useful and interesting feature if used during battles. Look back at Final Fantasy 8's Guardian Forces for a moment, all of those that caused damage to enemies also came with a learnable Boost ability, which would allow you to power up the Guardian Force during its animation, causing more damage to the enemy, but not at the risk of being too greedy and eventually leaving your Guardian Force doing less damage than it may have done originally, if not rectified in time. The touch pad could thus serve this same purpose in a Vita game, or a similar function at least. Maybe each summon that Final Fantasy Vita included could also learn a similar ability, but would have a different pattern that needed to be traced on the touch pad in order to power the summon up significantly, or at least they could all simply involve tracing your fingers across the pad. I feel as if this would keep you genuinely involved in battles, rather than just inputting a command and watching it take place in front of you, you would have to stay focused and perform the correct commands to make your attacks stronger and ensure you win battles. Having said that, the Final Fantasy series has always been renowned for, often crazy, mini-games, more on which in a moment, that would definitely suit the touch pad , in fact there are so many different contexts the pad could be used in that it basically seems a given that it will definitely be used in one form or another.