Square Enix to avoid large-scale internal development after Final Fantasy XIII-2

It is well documented that the development of Final Fantasy XIII was fraught with difficulty, and that Square Enix wished to get its franchise back on track. While the game sold very well, it came at a much higher cost than the company would have liked.

"The development time was quite long," admitted Motomu Toriyama, director of FFXIII and FXIII-2, at GDC Taipei. "Within our company, developing on PlayStation for Final Fantasy XIII we required a huge amount of graphical data. ... At the peak, there were over 200 people working on it.” The breakdown there was 180 artists, 30 programmers, and 36 game designers.

[DivineAssault]

start all over square.. after FFXII, the series took a nosedive... obviously what worked in the past is good, & turning summons into vehicles was a very insulting & stupid thing to do with a FF game.. Plus we dont like button mashing so either go back to turn base combat or get some help from namco tales devs on real time battle systems.. XII worked pretty good tho

[Neckbear]

"Plus we dont like button mashing so either go back to turn base combat or get some help from namco tales devs on real time battle systems"

You hate button mashing but want them to go back to combat systems that consisted on pressing a single button over and over, or want them to get help from the developers of a series that's known for being a huge buttonmashing fest?

Just...what? That's the most contradictory phrase I've seen in my life.

[malypso]

LMAO OMG I was thinking the same thing! If anything they should try something like FFXII or even something along the lines of Grandia 2 or 3. I don't really like MMO style fighting but even Xenoblade Chronicles had an excellent fighting system, and that was on the Wii; maybe something like that.

[Godmars290]

Except that "button mashing" in the case DivineAssault is talking about is a concluding act to multiple choices. Deciding weather to go with a normal, special attack or a magic spell. A potion or just to run away.

Actual button mashing is just hitting one or a group of buttons for random results.

"asdl;fajkd;fksd;afsdjps osdjasdhafs;dhaf"

That's button mashing. Just like hitting "X" repeatedly in FFXII was.

[TheBlackSmoke]

Lol what a load of BS, the HUGE over exaggeration of the internet strikes again. There is NO way you could of beaten FF13 by just mashing x the whole way through. If you didn't use paradigms to set up strategies you would never be able to complete the game. The only instance where spamming X works is on lower level enemies, just like EVERY other JRPG including everyone's beloved FF7.

[DivineAssault]

im sorry, switching to heal, sentinal, & some others w the RL buttons then continuing with pressing x... I wont begin a debate about your love for XIII so go debate it with the critics & whoever else DIDNT buy it here in the west... They didnt buy it for a reason.. & no towns??? Maybe u enjoy that style with transformer summons but i didnt..

[Styxoric]

I agree on the summons part.

[ScubbaSteve]

Michael Bay better stay out of my other FF titles!

[PshycoNinja]

So basically:

"Since XIII and XIII-2 sucked so hard we wont be making epic games anymore. Don't blame me, I am creative. That's why I told Wada to hold out on Nomura's Final Fantasy. So I can drag the series through the mud before he got his opportunity." -Toriyama

[Alos88]

"for larger-scale development we will be doing more distributed and outsourced development to reach our targets on time."
They must have outsourced FFXIII Versus development to Valve.

[delosisland]

Lol nice one. Yeah that game better come out one day. I'm super excited to play it one day, even as an "xbot" or whatever derogatory term you guys use these days.

[HmongAmerican]

Don't stop Square, just keep bushing and release more game. You still have a customer.

[HarvesterOSarow]

If they keep it up, one day they will have "A" customer...as in singular.

[NYC_Gamer]

SE is changing into a full time publisher

[aiBreeze]

Probably a good thing seeing as they're failing as a developer these days.

[mochachino]

I think a some of Japanses devs need to rethink how they organize the development of AAA games. It takes them forever to make them or an insane amount of money, look at GT5 and Last Guardian for example.

Not saying the same never occurs in the west (Duke Nukem) but 3 Gears, 4 Halo's, 4 Forza's, 4 Assassins Creed, 3 Uncharted, Two Infamous, 3 COD each studio, 3 Mass Effects - the list goes on and each games (maybe with the exception of COD) seemed long enough and different enough from their predecessor to be considered more than just $60 expansion packs.

[iamlegend9999]

Lmao, people love to complain. I hope they at least finish the story, i love the Xlll series.

[Qrphe]

I freaking loved the summons and battle system overall. Combat would've been improved if you could actually switch party leaders.
If FFXIII-2 would've been the goal when FFXIII was being developed, it would've become one of my favories FFs most likely.

[GupX19A]

FFXIII-2 is awesome, it just got a bad rep from the original. This is another sad day for Eidos, formerly known as Square Enix.

[LordMe]

... No more large scale INTERNAL development...

I think we are going to get an outsourced FF game now... And we all know how well that goes!

[BitbyDeath]

Kingdom Hearts 2 has the best combat system IMO. They need to incorporate that style in all their games.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Not in all of their games. But Versus is supposed to have something similar.

[humbleopinion]

Buying Eidos seems more and more like the smartest move SE has ever done. Not only that it netted them some of the most popular and diverse franchises (Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief, etc), but it seems that in the proccess they learned more about western and more agile and efficient development techniques.

And if the new Angi Philosophy demo is any indication of their future tech, then I am pretty happy with the direction SE is heading tech-wise. It was the best looking demonstration this E3.

[SegaKnuckles86]

Square-Enix hungry for money. Starve the beast and he will learn to hunt again.