110°

Why I think Final Fantasy 13 Failed

Clayton Donaldson expands on a conversation once held with Xander Davis as to what steps can be taken to save the Final Fantasy Series

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velocitygamer.com
Godmars2904094d ago

FF13 fails because they couldn't use the hardware involved properly.

izumo_lee4094d ago

Also i read that the development of the game was in disarray. Each department did not agree in the direction the game was headed, and do you know is to blame for that.

Oh! the director Toriyama. It is his job to guide the team isn't it? It failed once he was named head of the main series.

wishingW3L4094d ago (Edited 4094d ago )

to this date I still don't understand how Square let that man direct the main FF series after FFX-2. The closest thing to a decent game that he has directed was Bahamut Lagoon and that game was a mess (only ultra niche nostalgia lovers dare to defend it).

I remember there was an interview with Sakaguchi about FF7 and he made fun of Toriyama because he always gave the weirdest ideas for the game and the team never agreed with him (he was against killing Aeris BTW). Sakaguchi gave some examples but I don't remember them now (edit: I remembered about one, the mistery panties! google it) and I tried to look for a link but couldn't find one but I think that after FFX-2 you should get my point. He just doesn't give a crap about consistency. lol

But what I fear the most is that if a FF7 remake ever happens you can be sure that Toriyama will be the one at the helm and he will ruin it.

Irishguy954094d ago (Edited 4094d ago )

Toriyama was responible for the first 4-5 hours of FF7/

He's not a terrible develpor, he's actually quite good, but ONLY if he has someone else to guide him through his own ****ed up mind.

Toriyama was apparently going too far with the Cloud cross dressing scene and wanted the infamous childrens panties in. Where everyone else went "Woah woah, this is WAY too far, what are you on Toriyama there are limits you sick bastard"

Well..yeah. Toriyama never deserved the position of lead producer I don't know what madness led to that.

Dwalls11714094d ago

Well financially ff13 did not fail it sold over 6million units I think...

But what stopped it from maybe selling 9 or 10 million was how much square enix dumbed down the game.....microsoft was very popular at the time so square made the dumb decision to make this game multiplat....and due to the major technical limitations of 360, instead of putting their heart and soul, blood sweat and tears, throwing everything but the kitchen sink in it making it the huge deep experience we wanted....they dumbed it down and the product we got was ff13.....

ThanatosDMC4094d ago

It sold on name alone. FF13-2 didnt sell as much... I wonder why.

Same concept with Diablo 3. Sold 10+ million on name alone, but I highly doubt an expansion will sell as much after the crap they pulled by releasing an unfinished game.

Kalowest4094d ago

"I think Final Fantasy 13 Failed" because Motomu Toriyama was put in charge.

user39158004094d ago

Why it failed? Cause the game suck, I bought the first and finish it and to be honest, t was a linear game, with the lack of RPG worth been a jrpg. They tried to make it one way without branching off and to make matters worse, the playability nd level ups were awefull. It was like giving someone new and told them make an rpg of what you think it is, it lost the foundation from the first XI FF and what we have was pure garbage. Played the first. skip the second and now I will missed the third. Why? because they have zero vision, square suck now ever since the father of RPG was fired. Why ghe get fired? Because squaresoft wanted to make a movie and have hironobu do it, even when he told them the cost was too much and management did not care. This is what happens when management/executives and directors get inbolved, utter garbage comes out. Who gets fired? Employees of course its their fault. SquareEnix suck and squaresoft ruled.

Pozzle4094d ago (Edited 4094d ago )

Putting the blame on its lack of PS3 exclusivity isn't the way to go. Square made an average game. And it probably STILL would have been an average game even if it was a PS3 exclusive.

There's no reason a games developer can't make a great game on ANY hardware. The hardware has nothing to do with the lousy story, confusing dialogue, monotonous gameplay and bizarre design choices. That's Square's fault.

Godmars2904094d ago

Really missing why most here agreeing with me, yet the disagrees.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4094d ago
first1NFANTRY4094d ago (Edited 4094d ago )

It failed because it tried to appeal to a lager/casual audience instead of focusing on it's strengths from past iterations. Also the dvd9 format didn't help at all.

I played through a few parts at a friends house and i'm glad i still haven't bought it. There are better rpg's out there which could use the attention

Qrphe4094d ago

The choice of taking a break from the main storyline and screwing around everywhere in the world instead.
They went from making the most open-world FF game (XII) to the most linear one.

Outside_ofthe_Box4094d ago

***"They went from making the most open-world FF game (XII) to the most linear one."***

EXACTLY! FF13 failed because it was SUPER LINEAR. Huge step back from the open world of FF12 and not to mention the poor battle system.

animegamingnerd4094d ago (Edited 4094d ago )

who ever thought making a RPG linear was good idea should never work in this industry

Nerdmaster4094d ago

FFX was very linear and it's one of the best RPGs ever made. Linearity isn't the reason why FFXIII sucks.

Gamer394094d ago

Simply, boring and very linear.
I want old FF games style next-gen, VI, VII, VIII, IX. But i think its only dream..

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130°

Yuji Naka guilty of insider trading breaks silence to accuse Square Enix producer of lies

Yuji Naka was fined $1.2 million and given a suspended jail sentence for the crime.

Profchaos8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

I find his comments around how Balan turned out to be very insightful as to why the game is trash. He basically apologises for its existence

solideagle7d ago

can you please give some of us who don't know anything about this, a summary of what happened?

Chocoburger7d ago

Balan was knowingly rushed out by S-E, it had an extremely short dev cycle and was fairly low budget.
Naka was the game's director until near the end when he was fired or perhaps he quit, I forgot.

carrotcakeag6d ago

@Chocoburger Yeah they did fire and replace him which caused him to unload a bunch of rants about the company. The project only existed because of Naka in the first place, he convinced Square to give him one shot at making a platformer. They gave him an opportunity but pulled the rug out before he was done for reasons not explained.

90°

Top ‘Dragon Quest’ Producer Steps Down in Square Enix Overhaul

The top producer of Square Enix flagship Dragon Quest franchise is stepping down from the role, following delays in developing the next installment of the popular series.

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bnnbloomberg.ca
shinoff218312d ago

Please o please don't turn dragon quest into final fantasy square enix we dont wont that. Dragon quest works well just as it I. Plus you'll piss off Japanese fans to.

jznrpg10d ago

Hopefully they don’t. From this it doesn’t sound like that is the case and development is just taking too long.

280°

Sony Taps Bungie's Head of Revenue to Lead Live-Service Games

Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.

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techraptor.net
ChasterMies13d ago

Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.

just_looken13d ago

The new temp boss is the sony cfo bean counter so i can see this being a thing get every penny.

Cacabunga13d ago

PlayStation officially losing it.. fans will never support gaas games

just_looken13d ago

@car

The new boss did a interview in japan he wants to tap into the mobile market like nintendio so he give 0 fucks about gamers/fans

https://www.pushsquare.com/...

Redemption-6413d ago

@Cacabunga
You only speak for you and those who think like you, but most fans will support what they want. Playstation and PC fans are literally supporting Helldivers 2 and that is a gaas. Maybe you wouldn't, but many more would if they like it.

Huey_My_D_Long13d ago

@Redemption-64
Look, Im not making any judgement calls about this guy, but I will say that Helldivers 2 GaaS model is unique to Helldivers, and legit the only other game I can think of thats similiar was the Avengers game except HD2 pass is still better.
The fact that you can earn in game currency in a way that doesnt make you feel like you have to grind forever, as well you being able work on that pass that you bought...on your own time without a time limit...that right there is fucking huge to me, and I can't name any game other than avengers that avoided trapping players with FOMO logic...I think GaaS on HD2 shouldn't be compared to the rest of the industry...it should be copied.

Einhander197213d ago

Cacabunga

Helldivers 2...

Redemption-64

In Europe it's a 60 40 split favoring PC.
In the US its a 60 40 split favoring PS5.

So PlayStation owners supported the game just fine, it's not getting carried by PC or anything like that.

FinalFantasyFanatic13d ago

@just_looken,
I'm perfectly fine with the way Nintendo entered the mobile market, I never touched their mobile games, meanwhile, the console/handheld stayed the way it is. As for being a bean counter, he's probably going to reel in these massive budgets that Sony's studios have had lately, I haven't played Spiderman 2, but I cannot see how they almost tripled the budget for that game.

@Redemption-64,
That's an exception to the rule, I'm expecting a lot of these GAAS games from Sony to fail, to be fair, they only need a few to succeed, but I would have preferred that they put more of their resources into other types of games.

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DivineHand12513d ago

True their monetization is driving players away and at the same time, their decision to chop out content and convoluted systems is keeping new players away from the game.

Joe91313d ago

I don't think that will happen based on how things worked out at Naughty Dog now that we know what we do, seems they had the option to fully commit to live service games or stay making single player experences so they gave up on their live service game. We are not sure how things came about with Bend making a live service game but I hope that was not a forced situation. Sony doesnt seem like they are forcing studios to switch up but we will see, Sony's bread and butter is single player games it is how they dominated the console market.

Obscure_Observer13d ago

Yeah, I though Sony learned something from all their failures in the LS segment under Bungie´s disastrous leadership and supervision which led to games been cancelled, studios closed and all the people laid off.

Looks like Bungie still plays a major role in Sony´s LS initiative and Sony is not backtracking on their GaaS plans.

S2Killinit13d ago (Edited 13d ago )

Are we forgetting that Destiny is also a highly successful franchise? I feel like that definitely deserves mention here.

Besides, there is no reason why a person cant learn from past experiences.

Joe91312d ago

I agree, people act as if Destiny flopped when it came out lol it took 9 to 10 years for the numbers to fall yet people are still playing it add the success of Helldivers 2 no wonder Sony is going forward down this path.

S2Killinit12d ago

Personally, I see no problem with Sony also having service games as long as they make good ones, and more importantly they deliver the AAA story driven games that they are known for. So yeah, I agree 100% with you.

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Christopher13d ago

I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.

CrimsonWing6913d ago (Edited 13d ago )

Honestly, what’s to learn from? How to make people happily continuously dump money into a single game over its life-time? Buy season passes continuously for several years with a smile on our faces?

GaaS is a design decision that is everything wrong with this industry. The fact that Helldivers 2 did so well and people defend the monetization because it was $40 and is a fun game, scares the sh*t out of me to see that the door is open and all shift will probably be to replicate that in future games. We already know the ROI for traditional game dev cost isn’t doing it for them.

I thought with Jimbo leaving we’d see a change for the better… I’m not so sure now.

S2Killinit12d ago

Service games are being offered by everyone. Sony cannot afford to only create single player AAA games. No one can. They already said they will be doing both.

Abnor_Mal13d ago (Edited 13d ago )

Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.

Christopher13d ago

They play long-time existing live service games like CoD, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the like. Mass majority of new live service games are considered failures and aren't moving gamers away from older games.

just_looken13d ago

Yep the huge issue with live service is they need paid players along with a reason to play them.

You forgot mobile market that also taps into that player base as well as the eve online style games there is only a certain amount of krakens/whales blind supporters compared to the amount of live service games we have its not sustainable math wise.

700 restaurants making food for every seat for 1000-3000 eaters just does not work out

Einhander197213d ago (Edited 13d ago )

Christopher

I am not a big live service fan and literally own zero of the games you listed, but that is not true, unless you call games that aren't the top games to be failures.

There are tons of live service games that are profitable.

Games don't have to be the biggest game ever they just need to make more than they cost.

I challenge you to show professionally prepared data that shows that more live service games fail than make enough to keep going.

Because all the data that I have seen shows that live service is less of a gamble than making a big AAA budget game which needs to survive off retail sales.

FinalFantasyFanatic13d ago

I sometimes wonder if we're at saturation point, where it's hard for a new game to join those ranks unless it's particularly exceptional, people only have so much time and money to devote to these types of games.

romulus2313d ago

Correction, they have no issue playing good live service games

shinoff218313d ago

Lol it's not even a quarter of the ps5s sold. Helldivers may have been a hit but let's not say most are enjoying it because truth is most(the real most ) don't care about it.

S2Killinit12d ago (Edited 12d ago )

I play what is fun. If a live service game is good I’ll play it as long as its not a money scheme which Helldivers is not.

And Im a single player gamer.

mastershredder13d ago

How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.

crazyCoconuts13d ago

Headline truncated:
"... off a cliff"

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