Revelations from Fan Festival 2016 Tokyo

[Belhi]

I generally agree and part of me holding my judgement is how much the rest of the expansions allows the game to imprint its own identity. For me its integrating the ideas seamlessly into the existing world which is most important. FF games always reference other FF games. Its bound to happen. As long as its a good story and fits I generally don't mind too much.

I never played FF 3. When I did the CT originally I had no idea it was a reference. I just thought it was an awesome story that introduced an ancient civilisation to the world. As a result I really didn't mind when I discovered it was. It fit in seamlessly to the world and it was epic. If they can do the same with Return to Ivalice I will probably be fine with it. My biggest fear would be if we had a 'you go through a magical portal to another world and that world is Ivalice!' scenario. That would really put me off the content.

I didn't have the same issues with Shadow of Mhach. I don't think that FF has mined Celtic mythology quite like this before to provide inspiration for its story. I also wouldn't necessarily call sky pirates a call back since they are a pretty common fantasy concept.

[Yasuhiro]

I still think there's a connection to Ivalice already since most of the mobs in this game are from there.
FFXII

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cataract_Aevis

FFXIV

When I did the CT originally I had no idea it was a reference.

Really? Final Fantasy III's Crystal Tower is like one of the most iconic things in classic Final Fantasy.

[Slatersev]

Really? Final Fantasy III's Crystal Tower is like one of the most iconic things in classic Final Fantasy.

FF3 has easily one of the smallest imprints in the series. 1 was the OG and 2 had the Emperor take over Heaven AND Hell which people remember better then anything in 3, afterwards the series started it's actual rise into the mainstream with 4. 3 is forgotten by most. So much so that most people only know anything about it from Dissidia. Onion Knight is more well known these days then anybody in 3 and he is not even from the original game OR the remake. Cloud of Darkness is more well known for her multiple crossovers in other games.

People know more on the average about The After Years then they do about 3, and that's not an exaggeration.

Ivalice by comparison is an absolutely beloved setting that has only grown more popular over the years with the rise of one of it's major original inspirations ASOIAF/GOT becoming a global phenom and making people go/look back on it with even more appreciation.

[Yasuhiro]

FF3 has easily one of the smallest imprints in the series.

Oh yeah I understand that but looking on the FF wikia now the CT has been in a great number of things, that's how I found out about it being in III when it was a map in Duodecium.

[Enkidoh]

Ivalice by comparison is an absolutely beloved setting that has only grown more popular over the years with the rise of one of it's major original inspirations ASOIAF/GOT becoming a global phenom and making people go/look back on it with even more appreciation.

The first Ivalice set game was actually a spinoff though (FF Tactics), and was more clearly based on real-world history (the 50-Year War and the Lion War being obvious expies of England's Hundred Year War and the War of the Roses), given a fantasy spin. FFXII's story was, rather more more modern, it had a very similar concept and narrative to Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope, only with chocobos and in Ivalice, and FF Tactics Advance was not even a 'true' Ivalice game insomuch it was more that it used the old trope of "real world children discover some mystical artifact that sucks them into a fantasy world and they have adventures" and thus the 'Ivalice' in it wasn't even a 'real' place.

I haven't played Tactics A2 though, so I can't be the judge of that, other than I heard it had a similar scenario to the first Tactics Advance game. Vagrant Story doesn't really count as Matsuno didn't even plan on having it as an Ivalice-set game originally (it was originally planned to be the first game in an entirely new series), only to be retconned into Ivalice later.

So saying George R.R. Martin's pension fund series 'inspired' the Ivalice games is like saying H.G. Wells inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars. Sure there are vague concepts that are shared in those works, but they're common tropes of the genre and hardly 'created' by the earlier work. I'm really sorry if it seems like I am attacking you here, as it's not my intention (and I have to admit I do love FFT and liked FFXII even though it was a deeply flawed game). I just wanted to show that the Ivalice games were not as directly inspired by recent middlemen but by general ideas and concepts that are standard to the science-fiction and fantasy genres in general (and even real world history). But I digress.

[Slatersev]

So saying George R.R. Martin's pension fund series 'inspired' the Ivalice games is like saying H.G. Wells inspired George Lucas to make Star Wars. Sure there are vague concepts that are shared in those works, but they're common tropes of the genre and hardly 'created' by the earlier work. I'm really sorry if it seems like I am attacking you here, as it's not my intention (and I have to admit I do love FFT and liked FFXII even though it was a deeply flawed game). I just wanted to show that the Ivalice games were not as directly inspired by recent middlemen but by general ideas and concepts that are standard to the science-fiction and fantasy genres in general (and even real world history). But I digress.

I said ONE of it's major inspirations. One that he talks about all the time. Obviously more went into Ivalice then just ASOIAF, but it was absolutely a direct influence. This is not conjure, Matsuno talks about it on facebook all the time along with everything else that interests him. How he was a huge fan of it the nineties before it blew up and how after it did go global suddenly people were going back and taking another look at Ivalice and finding new appreciation for 12's political themes which were controversial/seen as "boring" as hell when 12 came out. And how it also used the War of the Roses as a major inspiration.

Hell he has even mentioned nerding out super hard when the FFT Remake had Agrias directly give a shout out " Lord Dycedarg and the duke would use her as a pawn in their game of thrones!"