SE to churn out a FF title/year?!

[Lucifer]

My Opinion > your opinion

Also FFXIII is pretty damn similar to FFVI in the sense that you don't have as much control over your party compared to, say, FFX. FFVI fanboys are by far the most delusional in the franchise. I thought FFXIII and FFVI were both equally fun. Deal with it.

Fun in a video game meant for entertainment? Stop the horse shit already.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

My Opinion > your opinion

Also FFXIII is pretty damn similar to FFVI in the sense that you don't have as much control over your party compared to, say, FFX. FFVI fanboys are by far the most delusional in the franchise. I thought FFXIII and FFVI were both equally fun. Deal with it.

I'm confused, FFVI with Terra, Sabin, Locke, and Edgar? Or FFVII with Cloud and Sephiroth *the orchestra starts playing One-Winged Angel* "Stop it!!!" *orchestra stops*

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

@Omega_Hack: You're right about the character growth aspects. FF6 had some character growth, but I recall moreso discovering more about a character. FF7, I can only recall Cloud growing near the end of disc 2. FF10 and FF13 do have character growth, which I think is something I overlook in older games due to nostalgia.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

http://www.gamesthirst.com/2011/11/2...t-square-enix/

I don't know even where to begin to understand this logic.

Past 2 FF titles have damaged the brand equity and to make more money let's make more FF games at a faster rate!!!

Yes because we all know XIII and XIV would be much greater games with even less content.

I wonder what this means to the resources available for XIV's development?

tldr: Open-ended RPGs like Elder Scrolls and BioWare have influenced our tastes, making linear games harder to succeed. Nostalgia affects our judgment of the past. I liked FF13's battle mechanics. Customized tools, plug-ins, or modifications will take longer than taking advantage of an existing engine and tools. Good chunk of Assassin's Creed groundwork setup during revival of Prince of Persia games.

Extended: Looking at the article, I'm thinking that whenever someone is making a host of their own tools and/or heavily tweaking an existing engine, it's going to add a good chunk of time to the development cycle. I think some of this ties into where the Unreal engine is seen as a Western market engine, designed for Western games. But I'm on the fence about this and I think I see why SE did what they did.

The Gap
The gap between the FF games was about the same gap as usual when releasing for the next gen console (i.e. FF7, FF10, FF13). Games like Morrowind and Star Wars:KoTOR return at breaking the walls of PC RPGs on a console, then Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Dragon Age come out solidifying the impact of player choice on the story and the world. So this time, the gap came at a bad time for JRPGs.

Familiar is better
On the Japanese consumer side of the equation, my observation has been "familiar is better". Even Western consumers may have developed the nostalgia preference over time if they were used to Japanese consoles and games. Games like Wizardry/Xth Generation/Etrian Odyssey kick out develop-worthy sales in Japan, but in a Western market, they don't sell well enough to keep localization up. *kisses Dark Spire and the recent Wizardry PSN release*

Enjoyed Final Fantasy 13 Re: FF13, one of the first things I did was take off auto-battle. In a game where two of your party members are A.I. controlled and intended to be linear for a long time, I don't want the computer playing the only character I do have control of. I imagine for those that did not like the game, auto-battle may have played a subconscious factor in it. At least in FF12 gambit system, you had to customize the gambits akin to Dragon Age's tactic slots. The three things I didn't like about FF13 were the motion capture being too similar to all other Japanese motion capture, Hope's angst, and never feeling safe (town hub) ~ albeit that's good for the theme.

Franchise Churning Out Games
On the Assassin's Creed side, I do recall a new Assassin's game every year with distance between Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 as I've received an Assassin's Creed as a birthday gift except for 2008 (I think I got a box of Frosted Mini Wheats instead). The company was planning a one-shot, they didn't anticipate they would have to make a sequel. The animations and maneuvering mechanics started years ago with the Prince of Persia games and adapting those to a new environment. They have a concept of stealth by blending and set off to Assassin's Creed. Plus, PoP loyalists seem to have disliked the last two Prince of Persia games (came after the fact), a new presentation has shown more fruitful results thusfar.

The graphics were adjusted between 1 and 2, models adjusted between 2 and Brotherhood, and again between Brotherhood and Revelations (Desmond is hot again). UbiSoft allocating their offices across the globe to create assets for the game and do the international release bid. There's a large chunk of text to localize for these as well, the script, optional script, and database. A new city (or cities) are created with a variety of dungeons and settings on top of that. The two main differences I see are 1) no comparable gameplay of products out there, so they don't have to compare and compete in the same genre (where people will compare MMORPGs to each other quite easily, so you don't want to be behind feature-wise) and 2) releasing content on an annual basis, rather than an expected release on a monthly basis.

I apologize for the incoherence, this was not typed in one sitting or even consecutively.

[grandm]

@Omega_Hack: You're right about the character growth aspects. FF6 had some character growth, but I recall moreso discovering more about a character. FF7, I can only recall Cloud growing near the end of disc 2. FF10 and FF13 do have character growth, which I think is something I overlook in older games due to nostalgia.

have to disagree FF7 character growth

barret - eco warrior, with a little girl that is clearly not his, you find out a whole town hates him, you find out how he got his gun arm and became the dad to his best friends little girl, he best friend he has to duel and kill half way through the game, and you find out why he blames shinra for the whole thing

tifa - you find tifa in the slums of midgar, you find out how she was clouds childhood friend (complicated story with the whole cloud/zak mako memory thing but i'll not get into that) you find out how a popular village girl watches her village burn, and follows sephiroth to what seems her bloody end, only to be saved by a monk, so her growth is how she ended up being driven by her hate for sephiroth and became quite possibly the hardest lady in the world, and i never even touched the tifa - cloud -aerith love triangle

red xiii - you find this lovable dog/wolf sort of thing in a research lab, you find he can talk which is a shock, at first he seems like a very old very wise sage like charater, he seems to know the world is in pain, you go to his village, you find out he hates is father a cowardly traitor, and loves his mother, a brave guardian that gave he life for her village, at this point we realise Red is nothing more than a scared little boy that was lost and wanted to go home, and only by finding out the truth of his fathers heroism does he find the strength help you save the world

i really could go on about cid being screwed out of flying and hating shinra, vincent having a score to settle with sephiroth etc but thats it for now lol, in my opinion all characters had depth, growth, a sense that they had feelings which and experiences that made them the ppl they were. thats not me saying FF6 never i loved the characters in that game justas much

but i do have one last point. is it just coincidence that FF seems to lost some of its shine at the same time that Hironobu Sakaguchi left (i'm being diplomatic there lol)

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

have to disagree FF7 character growth

barret - eco warrior, with a little girl that is clearly not his, you find out a whole town hates him, you find out how he got his gun arm and became the dad to his best friends little girl, he best friend he has to duel and kill half way through the game, and you find out why he blames shinra for the whole thing

tifa - you find tifa in the slums of midgar, you find out how she was clouds childhood friend (complicated story with the whole cloud/zak mako memory thing but i'll not get into that) you find out how a popular village girl watches her village burn, and follows sephiroth to what seems her bloody end, only to be saved by a monk, so her growth is how she ended up being driven by her hate for sephiroth and became quite possibly the hardest lady in the world, and i never even touched the tifa - cloud -aerith love triangle

red xiii - you find this lovable dog/wolf sort of thing in a research lab, you find he can talk which is a shock, at first he seems like a very old very wise sage like charater, he seems to know the world is in pain, you go to his village, you find out he hates is father a cowardly traitor, and loves his mother, a brave guardian that gave he life for her village, at this point we realise Red is nothing more than a scared little boy that was lost and wanted to go home, and only by finding out the truth of his fathers heroism does he find the strength help you save the world

i really could go on about cid being screwed out of flying and hating shinra, vincent having a score to settle with sephiroth etc but thats it for now lol, in my opinion all characters had depth, growth, a sense that they had feelings which and experiences that made them the ppl they were. thats not me saying FF6 never i loved the characters in that game justas much

but i do have one last point. is it just coincidence that FF seems to lost some of its shine at the same time that Hironobu Sakaguchi left (i'm being diplomatic there lol)

For FF7, I viewed it as we're discovering more about the character's pasts and motives. But their beliefs are pretty much the same throughout the main storyline. Versus the characters are changing their perceptions of the world or their beliefs.

[Elexia]

It's a mix of things really.

People have "grown out" of actual RPGs and want everything fast paced action games which is why RPGs as of late really lost their charm, you could say Square lost some good talent, but they still pushed out good games. FF itself is a victim of mainstream gaming, not so much who left, because for the most part everyone who made FF what it is, from Art to programming is essentially still a part of the team or still willingly works with Square for some projects (i.e Nobuo.)

Also while VII had character growth, XIII's characters were a bit more human compared to the usual protagonists of the series.

[grandm]

For FF7, I viewed it as we're discovering more about the character's pasts and motives. But their beliefs are pretty much the same throughout the main storyline. Versus the characters are changing their perceptions of the world or their beliefs.

there was a bit of that as i say Red xiii, had a life changer where his whole views changed, yuffie had the point where she found out her dad was not a weak holiday home owner, and aerith journey of discovery was second to none with te way her story ended, but in that game every character was different had different reason for fighting and we found out about these ppl in different ways, the story as a whole was a masterpiece (if not very hard to keep track of in places)

my opinion FF4 FF6 and FF7 and possibly FF 5 had the greatest story's, not not to say i didnt like all the others, just as far as story goes they were great (the thing with opinions is every1 is allowed one. just remember only mine is correct lol)

[Zeref]

Faster does not necessarily means worse.
Assassin's Creed was always interesting in my opinion and certainly had no "lack of content"

I assume you're talking of each game individuall, as all together they're all the exact same thing done over and over and over and over and over again and than nothing is answered in the end.

In b4 Call of Final Duty Fantasy 4.0 Mobile Summoning, THe game will be endless ducking in linear levels and quick-time ev... oh wait, XIII is already all of that.

[AdvancedWind]

tldr: [FONT=Verdana] Open-ended RPGs like Elder Scrolls and BioWare have influenced our tastes, making linear games harder to succeed. Nostalgia affects our judgment of the past. I liked FF13's battle mechanics.

I like how nowadays people seem to frown at anything that isn't a pseudo-sandbox with dem "choices".

FFXIII is as linear as pretty much every other FF game, or almost every JRPG for that matter, it just didn't bother hiding it that much. Heck, FFX is regarded as one of the best in the series by some people (not me, mind you) and doesn't even has a Gran Pulseish area to break up the corridors that make up the rest of the game and not many seem to complain about that.

But nowadays any game that doesn't have six different endings and choices everywhere has a "simplistic, linear plot" and is instantly bashed.

Linearity doesn't equals bad same way as freedom also isn't inherently good. I sure as hell get bored with most sandbox WRPGs.

Everything I said also applies to classic, Turn Based battles, and as much as I also like more action based combat, I hope developers don't abandon that style as well. Sadly, SE seems to be going away from that.




And yes, ths rant is a bit offtopicish, but then again this entire thread is offtopic, so whatever.