Tanaka or Yoshi?

[gifthorse]

Of the two directors, I think Tanaka had the better vision, but I think Yoshi is more personable and pragmatic. It's difficult to decide on who is better, because I think neither of them are the complete package.

Yoshi has mentioned recently that it was evident, even as a member of another development team within SE, that Tanaka's team was under a lot of pressure to get the game ready by September. So although its true that the game failed upon release, with many people leaving and never coming back, you must ask yourself just how much of that was due to Tanaka's poor leadership and how much of it was simply due to time restrictions.

It would have been so easy to make a clone of other games, but instead of doing that, the original SE development team tried to further the genre (active combat where positioning matters, ability to build your own job, intricate crafting and market system). And although people have stated that SE seemed out of touch with the MMO genre, some of the novel ideas they tried to implement seemed like a response to certain problems within other games.

Unfortunately for SE, their ideas never came to full form. But is it really fair to judge their ability on their half-completed task? Is it then really fair to say that the team failed under Tanaka's leadership?

If they were so pressed for time as they obviously were, could any team leader really bring out a better product than the one we received?

You can't help but feel a little bitter toward the original development team. But in terms of thinking about the future, I actually would prefer to have Tanaka back on board, leading the team. Doubtless, Yoshi brings alot to the game in terms of creating a dialogue between the staff and the community, something SE sorely lacked before release, but do you agree with the direction Yoshi is taking the game itself? Speaking for myself, I would prefer to have Tanaka at the helm.

[Betelgeuzah]

I'm still thinking this is Tanaka's project, so he should be the one to either save it or go down with it.

But whatever. They are working on the game still, which was unlikely in the first place. That's all that matters.

[Maxi_Irving]

You make some good points.

I personally prefer Yoshida. I love XI and Tanaka, but in comparision, he is very archaic. Despite people's complaints, Yoshida seems to have moderate understanding of modern MMO/gaming.

[Peregrine]

I think Tanaka makes a better producer. The man with a bold vision.
I think Yoshida makes a better lead game designer. The MMO vet. He knows how to create that vision.

Without Tanaka, Yoshida runs the risk of developing a pat MMO that he likes from an uninspired consolidation of what he's played. Without Tanaka, Yoshida may create something that isn't its own. That's not Final Fantasy.

Without Yoshida, Tanaka just doesn't know how to work the MMO scene. God love him but if he's played ten hours of a MMO in his life I'll be a monkey's uncle.

I dunno what Komoto's role in any of this was, but Komoto should have been Yoshi-P.

The combination of Tanaka as Producer and Yoshida as director, I really like. With Yoshi-P doing almost all the talking because again. Not one of Tanaka's strong points.

Listen, ****ers! Shut up and listen!- Hiromichi "The Tank" Tanaka

[gifthorse]

I think Tanaka makes a better producer. The man with a bold vision.
I think Yoshida makes a better lead game designer. The MMO vet. He knows how to create that vision.

Without Tanaka, Yoshida runs the risk of developing a pat MMO that he likes from an uninspired consolidation of what he's played. Without Tanaka, Yoshida may create something that isn't its own. That's not Final Fantasy.

Without Yoshida, Tanaka just doesn't know how to work the MMO scene. God love him but if he's played ten hours of a MMO in his life I'll be a monkey's uncle.

I dunno what Komoto's role in any of this was, but Komoto should have been Yoshi-P.

The combination of Tanaka as Producer and Yoshida as director, I really like. With Yoshi-P doing almost all the talking because again. Not one of Tanaka's strong points.

Listen, ****ers! Shut up and listen!- Hiromichi "The Tank" Tanaka

Funny that that's almost a direct quote.

[Xatsh]

Both have their Positives and Negatives.

1) Tanaka although his release has failed, he has proven himself with many successes with game developments through his career including a successful mmo, and I feel with him at the lead it was guaranteed the game would not become a copy/paste of mainstream games that already exist, it would have that FF feel it would be different.

2) Yoshi on the other hand is the first person I ever seen in SE that talked with the playerbase which is a great thing and he has alot more MMO experience then Tanaka does. But he is alot less experianced then Tanaka in number of big name titles he worked on, he has never produced many final fantasys before (at least to my knowledge), and he was not big into ffxi from his comments about his favorite mmos. So with him I am extremely weary if he will be able to capture the Final Fantasy Feel or will he turn this into another shallow mainstream mmo experience. FFXI had a magic that caused it to be able to hold almost its whole playerbase for a decade which is almost unheard of in the mmo world. I just prey he remembers this is a final fantasy first and a mmo second.

So in the end it comes down to Tanaka with his experience and background with the FF series VS Yoshi a new player in the big titles of SE with more modern ideas, good PR, and more mmo experience. I say they both have positives and negatives.

[Munba]

I think Yoshi is making something really concrete to resuscitate the game but i hope he will not drop the old nice ideas still not released. Like the 'crafting players sinergy' to create something big (like a ship) or that special video (in the Vanadiel Event) in which we saw that sort of ship battle. I'm looking forward the Grand Companies for example just because it was an idea of the old team (by Tanaka?) but probably expanded now. We'll see.

Maybe a sinergy between Tanaka and Yoshi would have been perfect.

[gifthorse]

I think Yoshi is making something really concrete to resuscitate the game but i hope he will not drop the old nice ideas still not released. Like the 'crafting players sinergy' to create something big (like a ship) or that special video (in the Vanadiel Event) in which we saw that sort of ship battle. I'm looking forward the Grand Companies for example just because it was an idea of the old team (by Tanaka?) but probably expanded now. We'll see.

Maybe a sinergy between Tanaka and Yoshi would have been perfect.

One of the reasons I actually even call into question Yoshi's suitability as leader is because SE has basically stated they are - for now anyway - no longer working on companies in the same way that Tanaka's team envisioned.

Player-made ships and housing were some of the first things to get cancelled or put on hold while Yoshi's team works on The Grand Companies which will function more like quest-hubs by the sounds of them.

[Munba]

Player-made ships and housing were some of the first things to get cancelled or put on hold

I never heard about it. Where did you read it?

[Betelgeuzah]

I don't know, maybe you are actually quite close with the synergy talk after all. The 2 games are more interconnected than you might think. We share the same community reps, for example. The forums started at the same time, so they are co-operating with each other. It's still the same development division (3 iirc), led by Tanaka as far as I'm aware.