FFXIV single-player prequel trilogy?

[Mjollnir]

Based on this article that the mighty Sagacyte Luxaloix drew my attention to on Twitter, I got to reasoning why the trademark for "Prequel Trilogy" just registered by Square-Enix couldn't be a prequel to FFXIV.

There are a ton of FF fans out there who love the single-player games in the series, but will not touch MMOs due to the stigma of subscription - at least a dozen of my RL friends are in this boat and though a few have promised to give the upcoming ARR Free Trial a go, I think that a PREQUEL TRILOGY would go a long way to introducing those players to Hydaelyn.

Not only would such an endeavour make use of the FFXIV assets the company already has, but the expansion of lore and history would positively impact the MMO, making the world deeper and richer.

I'm pretty sure that most of you reading this would buy the trilogy too, especially if each chapter came with a new minion...


Hell, even if this particular trademark ends up just being for a trilogy of mobile apps to precursor the release of FFXV, I think the idea of single-player FFXIV prequels is fantastic.

WHO WANTS??

[Enkidoh]

I doubt that has anything to do with ARR - as FFXIV ARR is a subscription based game, a single-player tie-in would only detract from subs (after all, why bother paying for an MMO when you can experience the same world in a single player game that you don't have to pay to play?).

Np, if anything, this 'prequel trilogy' thing is probably actually connected to FFXV, as I remember back last year when Nomura first announced that Versus XIII was being renamed as FFXV, that it was mentioned that the game's storyline was going to be told in 'installments', so that would mean sequels, prequels and tie-ins, like what happened with FFXIII. So hence this is probably a FFXV prequel.

[Defteros]

If it's not FFXIII/Lighting related, I can accept whatever they are making.

[Nandalowell]

I'd play it.

[FritoBandito]

I'd play it. Maybe like a prequel to 1.0, a single-player retelling of 1.0 (redesigned, not recycled), and events leading up to 2.0?

[Tupsi]

It's likely the remaster of XIII games or something related to FFVII, again. XIV doesn't have the depth for that kind of treatment yet.

[TheRogueX]

I'd play it. Maybe like a prequel to 1.0, a single-player retelling of 1.0 (redesigned, not recycled), and events leading up to 2.0?

This. I would play this.

[Duelle]

I'd play it. Maybe like a prequel to 1.0, a single-player retelling of 1.0 (redesigned, not recycled), and events leading up to 2.0?

If we're talking prequel, it would be more likely for it to be a story featuring the Circle of Knowing, the discovery of whatshername and the events that fill in the gaps between the flashbacks we've seen during the main story and what we see in ARR. Who knows, the fangirls would probably love the idea of playing as Thancred or something.

[Sivara]

As someone who used to work in game journalism for years, I can tell you that trademark filings are never definite and they don't always mean anything. Case in point: SE trademarked "Chrono Break" several years ago and the RPG community freaked out and became convinced that a third Chrono game definitely was in the works. SE eventually dropped the trademark. It's possible that they were planning a third game (or merely considering it) and it just didn't work out, but it's also possible that it was a business tactic to temporarily safeguard the name or gauge consumer interest.

Companies trademark stuff all the time for one reason or another; sometimes it develops into something, and sometimes it just evaporates after a few years. Sometimes companies will just trademark something for a while to keep it out of the hands of competitors or to prevent fan-made works from infringing on their own properties (remember SE's C&D against the fan-made Chrono Trigger remake a while back?).

Simply put, unless they announce something concrete, the news isn't really that exciting, especially since the trademarked name is very generic.

[Tupsi]

Simply put, unless they announce something concrete, the news isn't really that exciting, especially since the trademarked name is very generic.

To be fair though: When they trademarked a lot of XI's expansions we immediately knew it was such with the only exception being "Scars of War" - Then they later announced it. They dropped the Chrono Break TM shortly before announcing the DS remake/port of Chrono Trigger I believe.