A letter to Square

[Abriael]

But we're not just talking about "A" game, we're talking about a game "franchise". And grading a game, especially one that belongs to such a popular franchise, isn't as easy as just saying "Hey, it's pretty good, it passes" or "Hey, it's pretty good, it fails". Call of Duty is a shooter franchise, for instance. Now suppose Activision (I think they're who develop those annoying games) made the next Call of Duty game a friggin RPG? It could be a good RPG, heck it could be one of the best. But do you really think it's going to go over well with the fans of the COD franchise? Saying "If it's good, it should work" is a shallow, black and white way of looking at it. You have many things to take into consideration here.

Unfitting comparison. Final Fantasy XIII is still a RPG. Square Enix didn't change genre. They merely tried to find some evolution *within* the genre.

Comparing FFXIII with Activision turning Call of Duty into a RPG is completely unfitting, as that would be a radical change of genre. You can compare it with something like Activision trying to put some RPG elements within the Call of Duty franchise.

Guess what? That's exactly what they did. And it worked very well.

Games are always going to get backlash, no matter how good or great they are. Welcome to the game industry, lol.

The fact that it happens doesn't make it good, and doesn't mean we should encourage and justify it when it's irrational. And in this case it mostly is.

However, backlash from fans caused by taking out staple elements that were in a franchise are, imo, quite understood and rather expected.

And then they complain when the game industry is stagnant. No, I'm sorry. There's nothing rational in demanding that developers always abide to the same formula. Numbered Final Fantasy games aren't even sequel of each other, mind you.

Demanding formulaic developement over and over is just stifling creativity. After thirteen (actually more) episode, it's time to allow developers to try something new.

The more you stifle creativity and evolution, the more the fanbase will shrink (because some people just get tired of playing the same games over and over, and it's harder for games based on older concepts to gain new fans), condemning the franchise to obscurity on the long run.

That's one of the reasons why devs always look for ways to evolve their formula.

Besides, I sure wouldn't want to be in the shoes of developers that have to abide to formulaic development without room for change. It'd become an extremely boring and frustrating job very, very fast (honestly, I wouldn't want to be in the shoes of anyone on the FFXIV staff mind you, because they have to deal with a fanbase portions of which I don't hesitate to define downright nasty, sorry).

Want to know what helps evolution and innovation? Criticism.

Constructive and rational criticism. Of which I see very little from certain fringes of the FF fanbase (and from part of the press).

SE wanted to try something new with FFXIII. Fair enough. However, evolution did not really have to come at the price of taking things out of the game that customers have had with the franchise for decades.

The more you anchor change to old elements the less change you'll be able to instill. And after a while you'll just grind it to a halt.

Perhaps the linear collar-and-leash approach to progressing through a game is an "evolution" in your opinion. But to me, it's the opposite of that. Freedom of exploration (among other things absent from FFXIII) are loved by the people who have been with the franchise for years.

You're still talking for the "people who have been with the franchise for years". I'm "people who have been with the franchise for years" (Since the Final Fantasy as a matter of fact). You don't represent me, thank you very much

You don't even have any tangible element to demonstrate that you represent a real majority.

It's also a lot easier to make a game in which you just have to progress from point A to B than to make one in which the world is more open and exploration is possible.

Not necessarily. Some parts of it are easier, some parts of it are harder. Linear games have entirely different (and more stringent) pacing requirements than open world games, for instance.

Mind you, I find it rather funny that you and some others continue to describe the previous Final Fantasy games as some open world miracles, as for most of them the open world "freedom" was just a mere illusion, as progression was extremely linear. Sure, you could go around, but that gave you almost nothing and you had to return to the linear path in order to get any kind of progression.

Open world games are games that allow you to progress in multiple directions freely. Final Fantasy games have never been part of that group. Final Fantasy XIII just removed the illusion, and just for half of the game.

The "freedom of exploration" you're holding up as a banner never existed in anything else than very few limited elements and part of Final Fantasy XII (the story of which suffered in exchange for the limited freedom). Anywhere else it was an illusion.

Want "freedom of exploration"? You're playing the wrong franchise.

Please do let that sink.