Support NeoGAF

7DollarHagane · Jan 10, 2017

An interesting what if scenario- what if instead of being a critical and commercial disaster, final fantasy the spirits within had become a star wars or marvel cinematic universe type hit and instant franchise starter?

I admit this line of thinking comes from reading the polygon FF7 piece. Square really was on top of the world at the time of the movie's development. A major success in a mainstream cultural way could have made them into something similar to what marvel is today.

I think that movie is one of the turning points where you see the opportunity for the games industry shifting to Western domination with the soon to happen PS2 and Xbox generation.

Would the games industry continue to have been led by japanese developers as they were in the 90s and early 2000s? Would it just have increased the pridefulness and of their leadership and delayed another inevitable out of control failure?

Nobody knows for sure but I think it's an interesting idea to think about and might be one of the most important points in history for the games industry. If that movie doesn't get made or doesn't fail, things change a lot for the following 10-15 years.

SomedayTheFire · Jan 10, 2017

They fuck it up somehow else.

The Elite · Jan 10, 2017

I am worried that they think Spirits Within is what people are looking for in an FF game. I'm not sure it's a great outcome creatively but it would have done Square a lot of good financially and we would have obviously seen theatrical sequels.

Stallion Dan · Jan 10, 2017

Wasn't the plan to reuse the main character in other movies, almost like she was a real actress.

7DollarHagane · Jan 10, 2017

DoctorWho said:
I am worried that they think Spirits Within is what people are looking for in an FF game. I'm not sure it's a great outcome creatively but it would have done Square a lot of good financially and we would have obviously seen theatrical sequels.

This is assuming that the movie is not the movie we got but something else that was almost universally liked and well received.

Kissenkopf · Jan 10, 2017

Stallion Dan said:
Wasn't the plan to reuse the main character in other movies, almost like she was a real actress.

Yes, I remember that they said that.

Now that turned out rather well.

Transistor · Jan 10, 2017

I actually liked the Spirits Within

SoulUnison · Jan 10, 2017

If it'd been a huge hit we probably would have gotten a game version of it, or a direct sequel as a game.

It might've even been/become a mainline title.

7DollarHagane · Jan 10, 2017

Transistor said:
I actually liked the Spirits Within

I saw it in the theater the night before release at an employee showing. I did as well, but I know it's mostly because of the technical feats it accomplished. The other people I went with were bored by it.

Lumpy Onion · Jan 10, 2017

Transistor said:
I actually liked the Spirits Within

I thought it was a pretty intelligent sci fi movie. I was disappointed at first with lack of FF elements like magic, summons, and Chocobos but on recent watches it seemed alright.

mazpratim · Jan 10, 2017

.

Basileus777 · Jan 10, 2017

Sakaguchi buys Pixar.

CanUKlehead · Jan 10, 2017

TSW's performance was edit: a catalyst to the Squaresoft-Enix merger no, even if indirectly?

Might be interesting how each would've evolved differently.

thefro · Jan 10, 2017

Square would probably be competing with Disney/Pixar in the CG animated film market.

Razgriz-Specter · Jan 10, 2017

Stallion Dan said:
Wasn't the plan to reuse the main character in other movies, almost like she was a real actress.

Should have thrown her in Kingdom Hearts as a random,
or make her a joke in World of Final Fantasy.

Adaren · Jan 10, 2017

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within-2

Aki Ross Returns: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Transistor said:
I actually liked the Spirits Within

I watched it on TV a few times when I was a kid. Don't remember the details, but I liked it enough to rewatch it, so it couldn't have been awful.

Glass Rebel · Jan 10, 2017

Stallion Dan said:
Wasn't the plan to reuse the main character in other movies, almost like she was a real actress.

I guess that's where the inspiration for Lightning came from.

NinjamicWZ · Jan 10, 2017

Transistor said:
I actually liked the Spirits Within

Same. Not favorite movie material by any means, but I liked it at the time and for many years until the CG just got too dated and empty for the spectacle to carry it. Now I just think "it was ok"

Shame the blow it dealt to Square for so long.

Meowster · Jan 10, 2017

Transistor said:
I actually liked the Spirits Within

It's a competent movie, still great to look at today. I'd still watch it over Kingsglaive and Advent Children.

whalleywhat · Jan 10, 2017

mazpratim said:
.

Fucking hipsters.

vainglorious · Jan 10, 2017

I love Spirits Within because I think it represents the pinnacle of what Squaresoft was at the end of the 90s. A creative force that was brave enough to throw some serious money at unconvential and challenging ideas for the time. And since the movie's failure and the company's merger with Enix we have yet another risk adverse by the numbers AAA games developer.

Kuraudo · Jan 10, 2017

Disney buy Squaresoft. Game production ceases to focus on film.

Fandangox · Jan 10, 2017

Paging my accountant

7DollarHagane · Jan 10, 2017

NinjamicWZ said:
Same. Not favorite movie material by any means, but I liked it at the time and for many years until the CG just got too dated and empty for the spectacle to carry it. Now I just think "it was ok"

Shame the blow it dealt to Square for so long.

Wada says in the polygon article that when he came on in 2000 they were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Amazing that things can shift so quickly from the 1996-1999 FF7 and FF8 releases. Both of those were absolutely huge and they released plenty of other successful titles between then.

Tom Nook · Jan 10, 2017

The main character would get another movie. The Same 3D model character would get another movie that is outside Final Fantasy.

Aki Ross was designed to be as realistic as possible; Square Pictures intended for the CGI character to be the world's first artificial actress to appear in multiple films in multiple roles.

Tom Nook · Jan 10, 2017

Transistor said:
I actually liked the Spirits Within

Me too.

120v · Jan 11, 2017

i always believed if the movie were released a few years earlier it'd successful, at least a cult hit. a fully CGI movie not aimed at kids would be a big deal in the late 90s, but by 2001 it wasn't particularly impressive

anyway regarding OP i think it'd have affected the movie industry more than gaming. Square would have a film division but since that industry is such a crapshoot it could've gone either way later into the decade

LordOfLore · Jan 11, 2017

Would the Gooch still have thrown 140 million at the movie or are we talking about a world where someone reined him in before he went past 40 as planned?

The_Endgamer · Jan 11, 2017

Such a feat of human engineering. Nothing really like it when it came out.

Would've been great if it was paired up with a much more interesting story. Hell, if they released FFVII: Advent Children at that time instead it would've been much more watchable for the majority of audiences.

Related: Here's one of my favourite articles on the tech surrounding the film.

https://www.inverse.com/article/17234-the-final-fantasy-film-bombed-but-its-motion-capture-revolutionized-hollywood

Pinko Marx · Jan 11, 2017

HD development still catches SQE with their pants down along with the inevitable rise of mobile and the company is much like it is today.

Åkami · Jan 11, 2017

I figure the biggest thing that happens is Square doesn't merge with Enix, but don't see much changing apart from that.

Like maybe they'd make more bad movies but not much more.

L Thammy · Jan 11, 2017

The Last Story is an official Final Fantasy game.
Enix is still a cooler company with little to no American presence.

Bowl0l · Jan 11, 2017

In that alternate world, we will have a weekly TV series starring Lightning.

Human Trashcan · Jan 11, 2017

Square would've had enough money to finish FFXV

Deleted member 20920 · Jan 11, 2017

Ōkami;228043218 said:
I figure the biggest thing that happens is Square doesn't merge with Enix, but don't see much changing apart from that.

Like maybe they'd make more bad movies but not much more.

If the movie was a success they would have merged even earlier.

Big Chungus · Jan 11, 2017

it was weird when the main character was wearing a bikini in an issue of Stuff.

FStubbs · Jan 11, 2017

Ōkami;228043218 said:
I figure the biggest thing that happens is Square doesn't merge with Enix, but don't see much changing apart from that.

Like maybe they'd make more bad movies but not much more.

I thought it was the opposite, that the movie lost so much money Enix got cold feet for a second about the merger. which was happening anyway.

30yearsofhurt · Jan 11, 2017

Sakaguchi doesn't get the can and never becomes the hip-hop god he is today.

MagnaderAlpha · Jan 11, 2017

DoctorWho said:
I am worried that they think Spirits Within is what people are looking for in an FF game. I'm not sure it's a great outcome creatively but it would have done Square a lot of good financially and we would have obviously seen theatrical sequels.

Kinda like what happened with the Resident Evil series and how the ones after 4 (well, parts of 4 did, as well) echoed the "stylized action" seen in the Paul W.S. Anderson movies.

ronaldthump · Jan 11, 2017

all their CGI movies still have that same stithed uncanny valley/CGIness to them.

maybe they shouldn't have tried to do it when they did. It'd possibly be better in 2017ish.

also

The Matrix Animated had a really great CGI sequence which was great. Non of the whole FF hokeyness with names and lore. Straight action and intensity.

Het_Nkik · Jan 11, 2017

fna84 said:
it was weird when the main character was wearing a bikini in an issue of Stuff.

It was Maxim. And she also had hard nips. All very strange indeed.

WaterAstro · Jan 11, 2017

Final Fantasy franchise would be a shooter, probably be like Mass Effect, and Nolan North will be the main voice actor.

caffeware · Jan 11, 2017

Squaresoft becames a hardware company directly competing with Sony.

Choppasmith · Jan 11, 2017

mazpratim said:
.

What's this from?

I remember being excited over Sakaguchi's comments about using "Aki" as a digital actress and that the next film would likely be more "traditional" fantasy.

It's one of those films where I don't REALLY hate it or anything but I feel like "once was enough" in regards to watching it.

CertifiedFP · Jan 11, 2017

Spirits Within is a hit.

Enix merger happens even faster as Enix executives do not fear that they'd be propping up Sakaguchi's sinking ship and do not need to be convinced otherwise in order to go forward with a merger that had been in planning for years.

sixteen-bit · Jan 11, 2017

mazpratim said:
.

I forgot when they used to make plasmas that small

duckroll · Jan 11, 2017

Thinking a non-musical, non-children's animated film can be a big hit theatrical is not alternate history, it's alternate reality.

Support NeoGAF

Alternate History: Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within is a huge hit.

Banned

Member

BOSS

Member

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Deleted member 20920

Unconfirmed Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Banned

Member

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads