I have been doing a lot of research lately about Squaresoft, Square Enix and the Final Fantasy Series. What fans of Square say just doesn’t make sense. How can a great series like Final Fantasy go in so many bad directions after Final Fantasy X? How can a merging of two companies affect the quality of a series that’s known for great gameplay, storytelling, and characters? What I found wasn’t because of the company but rather a certain director.
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Hironobu is no longer with Square, it is a terrible loss, but the one man who can fill his shoes is Tetsuya Nomura. He NEEDS to have direct control over the Final Fantasy series. That is why I have such high hopes for Versus XIII, because he has control over that project. I know it will be fantastic!
either that or start nurchuring some young talent and get them to direct. toriyamas games are just too feminine,cliche,bad ambiance, and just flat out doesnt have a final fantasy vibe to it.
good article by the by
-Bring back strategic game play of FF1-10 (not FF13 which plays itself with auto battle)
-Hire some good script writers to make good stories like past FF's.
-Fire Wada and Toriyama !!!
-Bring back world map
-Bring back Airship, Chocobo's, Moogles for the FF vibe
-Bring back Mini games e.g gold saucer, tetra master, blitzball
-Secret/Hard bosses e.g Emerald Weapon. In FF13-2 you have to pay DLC to fight hard bosses like Omega weapon, which sucks !
....and Square Enix wonders why they have so much fan backlash
So it's not like it's entirely the teams fault.
everything you say is bob on :) i agree with everything, i just long for the day i play a ff game and im buzzing as much as i was with ff7,8,9 and 10
come on square, stop faffing with the formula and just make a propa ff game again :)
I have a feeling most people saying that it sucked because it was linear have never played a FF before this gen.
Freedom has NEVER been what FF is known for. Final Fantasy was great in the past because of the engrossing story, world and characters it offered, NOT because of the freedom it had.
I think Colwyn is comparing FF13 to games like the Elder Scrolls because he hasnt played any other FF games and therefore compares it to todays RPG standards that are dominated by WRPG characteristics.
IMO it's obvious that you are a newcomer to FF games if you think that FF13's main default was linearity. It was pretty much all the rest that made dissapointing, the linearity wouldnt have been a problem if the game was actually interesting like almost all other FF's.
Major downfall of the series.
The rest of the problems with the game are in my previous comments somewhere.
And there you go wrecking your point. Go back and play FF7. I restarted three days ago. Remember how you were where you were and had no choice until it was time to leave Midgard? Is that not the same linearity you're condemning now? Even when you get to the world map you can only go as far into exploration as the next town and chocobo farm. The only things you can do are A: Continue the story. B: Grind exp. The formula for Final Fantasy is pretty consistent throughout the series. FFXIII did remove towns and varied sidequests which is extra lame. But they are all linear for much of the game. Everything opens up near the end.
It also helps to have interesting environments to take your mind off the linearity. FFXIII lacked "life" until you got to Gran Pulse, so you were very much aware that you were walking in a straight line playing as characters you weren't interested in or even hated.
COME ON!! <_<
At first you didn't have much freedom in FFVII but then you got an airship and could do the gold chocobo sidequest, go to the golden saucer, do the knight of the round side-quest, do the ultimate weapon side-quests, fight the weapons that were scattered around the world-map, do the side-quest about defending the egg that played like a strategy game, etc.
There's a huge difference in freedom when you speak about FFXIII and compare it to the older ones people. So stop twisting things trying to say that older FF games played like corridor shooters because the only freedom you had on FFXIII was on Pulse and you could do crap there. Just grind like crazy....
Games like FFVII and FFX don't FEEL linear (even though they are) because it always feels like you're progressing through the story and exploring a vast world...and when you aren't doing those things, you can still wander around towns, breed chocobos, explore caverns, complete sidequests. In FFXIII all you do is run from point A to point B, sometimes with very few cutscenes in between. So it doesn't feel like you're progressing through a story or exploring a vast and exciting new area. It just feels like you're running from the start of the game to the end of the game...with a bunch of random encounters thrown in between.
1) Yoichi Wada--While many of Square Best like Kitase, Tabata and Nomura are still there, Wada has proven time and again that he isn't properly managing this company.
2) Toriyama directing the main series--He's not an entirely bad director. But Tabata (The man behind Final Fantasy Type-0) is a much better director. Kitase was also the director of 7, and he's quite excellent as well. Toriyama's biggest games have been X-2 and XIII. He's a nice guy, but he should be the one working on FF side games
3) The Departure of Sakaguchi - The man with the original vision has left. If you notice, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, had more Final Fantasy elements than XIII did. He was the soul of Final Fantasy.
I think Final Fantasy CAN rise again, but it's going to take square willing to re-evaluate, and Wada willing to stand up as a leader and set the bar high for the teams working there.
I think Kitase should return as director. He was the director of VII, and he did a damn good job.
Totally agree
@dboyman
Sakaguchi is about to kill its new company, would be awesome if he comes back, but
I don't see it...
Japanese games are flimsy and shallow compared to alot of western games, and worst of all, they refuse to adapt and innovate.
ZIDANE,
QUINA,
TIDUS,
VAAN,
HOPE
Character designed has degraded indefinetly.
I don't really agree with that tbh. Cloud was pretty outgoing and friendly throughout FFVII (once you leave Midgar). Hell, one of the first things he does once they reach Kalm is explain to everyone what happened in Nibelheim. He isn't super chatty like Yuffie or even Cid...but he isn't overly quiet like Vincent or Squall. He was just a regular guy.
Sure FFX was good, but I really don't think game play wise it was up to par with 6-9.
Not even trolling. Thats the truth.
It's that simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
hang Wada and i hope Square unmerged from Enix
this whole mess started when the two of them merging >.<
edit: after reading this I found something funny. I don't know if I'm crazy but I swear I read this exact same article but written by a N4G user on his blog.
edit: http://n4g.com/user/blogpos...
Only good thing about FFX-2 was its battle system because everything else was really bad. I don't know about you but I couldn't stomach that Charlie's Angels vibe and the game couldn't be more cheesy and corny and the story was so bad is not even funny. And I mean bad story like totally pointless, retarded and unnecessary.
How can a franchise go from something like FFVI to FFX-2 is simply mind-blowingly.
And if that isn't proof enough, just look at The Third Birthday. Does Toriyama DELIBERATELY want to butcher already-established worlds and characters?!! Because it certainly seems that way! D;
And while there haven't been much console realises that are memorable, there hand-held titles are. And for the record, I am stoked for XIII-2
I disagree with you, XIII is no way the best RPG this gen. There are other RPGs better than XIII.
Lost Odyssey, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Valkyria Chronicles these are the ones I can think of now. I'm sure there're others out there that was more fun or better than the XIII.
All of them better games than XIII.
I'd recommend Eternal Sonata as a replacement. Playing through Resonance of Fate now, we'll see how that fares...
I said it was "ONE" of the best this gen. I happen to like most of the games you listed as well.
*watches Versus*
Oh yeah - I went there :p
Choosing to do a Final Fantasy movie wasn't a bad idea, but choosing to do a Final Fantasy movie that didn't resemble the games or a follow up to a specific game was a terrible choice.
How are you constantly beating up, killing, monsters in the game then all of a sudden you're in a boss battle, win, only to have them escape with little real rhyme or reason? Same thing with Seifer in XIII and Seymour in X. They were early symptoms of lazy story telling.
And that is XIII main problem. Anything else with XIII could have been more forgiven if its story made sense. XII may not have had a main one, but at least the situations and battles made more sense. They put you into the world and introduced you into the characters even if you were left puzzled if there was a main character.
@iamtehpwn:
Dude, I've loved the series till XIII, but at the same time admit that its not perfect.
I mean, tell me that I'm wrong about recycled boss fights. Or rather, recycled characters as boss fights and plot points.
If you play 1-6 it is decidedly different than 7 and 8...9 is back old school...I don't like FF10 (but I understand if it was your first)...but that started the down trend IMO.
To be honest it Started when FF 11 hit on the pc & ps2 .Back then online was a bad move for a main entry.
then FF 12 fell short of the glory that was FF 10. FF 13 could have regained most of its old fans if it stayed on the playstation only but instead they split the fan base right down the middle by bringing FF13 to the 360 thus creating a lack of loyalty to Square and turned it self into a Big Franchise with no home and no soul.
Additionally FFXIII was not the first Final Fantasy to go on the 360 - that would be XI.
Wow, just...wow.
So you must of been very disappointed when square jumped ship from Nintendo and went to Sony? because there was a lack of loyalty there when square tried to push its game to a wider audience.
Shame on you Square! Shame!
Related video
I read about it in an issue of Nintendo Power they even had some screenshots and everything.
Instead of a FF game we had to settle for Quest 64*tear*
Last great FF was FF10, anyone else agree?
1. NPC just aren't space filler to make it looks like town. U can interaction w/ NPC and see how they react, NPC actually working or doing something different, u can buy houses, open your own shop, trading, etc ...WRPG tend to have a true ecosystem inplace that actually changes or evolves depeding on what gamers are doing, etc....I thought this is actually one of the most important aspect in creating a lively/organic world in RPG games.
2. WRPG allow choices, your decisions can alter the world in someways, or at least let u decided how u wanted to develop your character. JRPG relies heavily on telling a story and u are there for the ride. The problem with this is that, if the story doesn't hold up well or characters that no one cares about, etc...well that is it.
3.The World/settings in JRPG, though looks beautiful/artistic/fantasize more than WRPG, they are overall very static.
I believe JRPG can improve drastically if JP developers can implement the organic aspect of WRPG while keeping their artistic visions intact, and maybe less winy characters. They might even have an edge over WRPG since WRPG settings are usually very similar (WRPG go for realism more than fantasy types).
What SE needs to do to regain a lot of fans is cut the idea that they need to Westernize their games, not embrace the exact mindset that's brought them their problems in the first place. If I want to play a WRPG I'll buy one, I'm not going to get a FF game if I want a WRPG.
I'm not saying JRPG should follow WRPG, just take what is good about WRPG (the lively environment, the dynamic aspect of it like day/night cycle, interactive NPC,etc..) but keep the story and the fantasy setting intact. They don't even have to give full control of your character or choices either, but make sure the story are at least decent.
And yes, winy character has got to go.....i mean who the hell like winy characters?
Check out Persona 3 or 4 and you'll find a JRPG that has the traits you mention. They are still very much JRPGs though, and what makes them JRPGs is why I like them so much, just like what makes Skyrim and Dragon Age: Origins WRPGs is why I like them. Can they improve? Of course, games always have room for improvement, but I don't want them to lose what makes them unique.
As for whiny characters, usually they're implemented as a part of a "coming of age" story and evolve from whiny to courageous (think Luke Skywalker from Star Wars). Yes, they can be annoying, but there are some JRPGs that don't have them, although I do think they could do to have more of a variety in characters, which is why I'm hoping in vain for a new SaGa game like The Romancing SaGa on PS2.
I should correct myself a tiny bit, and say that Namco *could* make another Xenosaga, or Squeenix *could* make another Xenogears, as they own the properties. But either game would be done by a totally different team, as the team that made -saga and -gears belongs to Nintendo, and has for years.
Square - no
Squaresoft - no
Square Electronic arts - no
Square Enix - yes
Im in Chapter 10 and so far its been pretty awesome. I love that if the party leader dies, its game over, just retry.
FIRE WADA!
As for the multiplat BS, well, when you try to expand your fanbase, it can go either way, but be SURE to make your actual one buy your games....When SE was all about spurning MS exclusive games, their actual fanbase that was mostly, if not ALL OF THEM, on PS3 went on riot/rage FU SE rants.
Its a FACT that XIII was a game when exclusive and ANOTHER when it went multiplat (XIII-2 dont lie kids....). SE should've just port over to X360 and not screw the game as it did (and I do like XIII, its just not a great game).
As for Sakaguchi? I love FF games (played all FF games but XI and XIV) but his getting kicked out of SE was both a bless and a curse. Bless, because hes stuck in the past. His own company is barelly alive (his games are good, but not the second coming of Cloud or Terra...). A curse because it left space for dumbarsses like Wada to do what hes doing....
I've said time and time again, the talent on SE are leaving. The people who made Xenogears are gone (to nintendo, that dont give them the right amount of valor....THEY ARE GOLD!!!), the best devs that are still there are pretty much on the void of saying its quits with SE because of Wada stupid administration....I still have hope for VsXIII, but its not what it was 5 years ago.
Also those remarks are perhaps unfair when taken out from their original context. I'd like to see the articles / interviews they came from.
Also, I think Yoichi Wada has a lot to do it, he's like the Kotick of SE (albeit less pure evil), and I reckon he probably interferes with the creative process a bit too much, but I'd say that Kitase, being a huge creative force, is equally complicit.
Still, it remains to be seen if they've truly fumbled. XIII-2 might be great. Obviously there was that article about how it's "Bombing" in japan, but maybe that means it'll do better in the West? XIII did great in Japan and kind of worse here... but who knows.