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[BocoDragon]

This game has a dangerously high amount of sappy asian melodrama going on... It's not inappropriate for FF, necessarily, but it's charting a course towards a certain type of audience. I fear for the GAF threads in the years ahead...

On the other hand, I am grateful that there is some sort of FF game being delivered 2 years after the last one. That's a reasonable timeframe... With the development schedule of XIII and Versus, I was worried we'd have no more console FF games for years.

 

[Omikaru]

Like:
- No Leona Lewis.
- The awesome FFXIII battle system is back.
- February is a nice time for me, since I won't be playing anything else at that time.
- More open gameplay, it seems.

Dislike:
- The voice acting/script. God. A shame, because I thought FFXIII's voice acting wasn't so bad.
- Time travelling. Whilst I should be excited about this, FFXIII's writers had trouble with a relatively linear story. I don't want to think about how they'll handle contradictions.

I'll probably enjoy it, as I enjoyed FFXIII in a switch-your-brain-off kind of way, but at least these trailers have demonstrated that I need to expect subpar voice work and a hammy time travelling story.

 

[Zoe]

Yeah, that's why I'm more confused as to why he comes to that conclusion. It's just so randomly out there.

Cause they found her dagger near the pillar.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

The shitty song and that god awful moogle dub drags the whole trailers down a good peg or two

Still, at least it appears more interesting than XIII

 

[ULTROS!]

Is it confirmed that the JP PS3 version song will be the US PS3 version song too?

Well, the Japanese song is much better than My Hands, but I like Kimi Ga Irukara more.

 

[MooMoo]

Speaking of 360, was it playable during TGS? Kinda wondering if it didn't suffer compression problems like FFXIII 360.

I have a feeling it will, sadly. Maybe it was the interview Kagari had with them, but I remember reading somewhere on these forums that when asked about how they felt about the 360 graphics for FF13, they pretty much responded that they thought it looked fine. Makes me inclined to believe they'll do little to try to up the visual parity.

Also at the trailers: Did someone say contradiction?!?! Unlike FF13 where the words matched the mouthing pretty well, it seemed pretty off in the new trailers to me.

 

[dramatis]

Outside of the grass, I think the new characters have better character models than Lightning/Serah, whose heads were probably recycled.

In any case the new girl sounds rather vapid and boring.

Is it confirmed that the JP PS3 version song will be the US PS3 version song too?

Well, the Japanese song is much better than My Hands, but I like Kimi Ga Irukara more.

Both the JP and ENG songs have the same music, it's just that one is sung in Japanese and one is sung in English. From what I can hear, both artists are okay at best.

Kimi ga iru kara and Eternal Love both sounded better without vocals, so who knows.

 

[Zoe]

Is it confirmed that the JP PS3 version song will be the US PS3 version song too?

Well, the Japanese song is much better than My Hands, but I like Kimi Ga Irukara more.

Fukui's site said Charice's version is the worldwide theme.

 

[Deleted member 20920]

Is it confirmed that the JP PS3 version song will be the US PS3 version song too?

Well, the Japanese song is much better than My Hands, but I like Kimi Ga Irukara more.

I think it's Japanese version for Japan and English version for rest of the world.

Also

Pulse Vestige is back

Wonder if it's Anima who is inside and whether it's in the future or the past.

 

[Famassu]

Also at the trailers: Did someone say contradiction?!?! Unlike FF13 where the words matched the mouthing pretty well, it seemed pretty off in the new trailers to me.

That's because the English voices were just tacked on top of the Japanese version's trailer. The final game & past trailers from the actual English version have shown that they are lip-syncing the game for the English voices too.

 

[Narolf]

Wallpapers from the official site.

1920*1080

• Mog
• Serah
• Noel
• Lightning
• Noel, Serah and Kaias

1280*1084

• Mog
• Serah
• Noel
• Lightning
• Noel, Serah and Kaias

 

[Perfo]

Did someone reported this already?
Japanese version of the Xbox 360 Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yy6cqgRhd4&feature=player_embedded

edit.
I just became a MEMBER on gaf, YAY!

 

[rvy]

How come they don't let me push the Dislike button?

 

[desu]

Eh what did I see in the xbox trailer? Weird ...

 

[Perfo]

For a moment I thought you were surprised about grass!...
Grass... actually, GRASS!
There's GRASS!
WOOOOO (lol ~)

 

[Toth]

So let's recap what we know based on these trailers:

Spoiler

Timeline
1. Lightning disappears suddenly (as per the FFXIII epilogue) after everyone is de-crystalized.
2. Hope finds Lightning's knife and Snow assumes she began part of the crystal pillar like Fang and Vanille. -speculation- ending of FF13 has been suddenly changed and only Serah is aware of it.
3. Serah is confused because Lightning was right next to her. No one appears to have remembered this. -speculation- Everything from the de-crystallization of the heroes to Snow finally receiving Lightning's blessing to marry has been altered.
4. Snow and Serah live in New Bodham. Snow and Serah still have not married, probably because he feels guilty Lightning isn't there and Serah is still convinced something is wrong. Gotta be the hero and all. Snow eventually believes Serah's claim that Lightning was unfrozen and with them. He sets off to find her then so that they can be reunited and make Serah happy. Serah remains with Team Nora in New Bodhum
5. The time gate crashes into Pulse from space. Monsters attack.
6. Noel emerges and meets Serah.
7. The two begin to travel through time to find Lightning and save the future. -speculation - Serah meets an alt. future version of Lightning at this time who compels her to use the gate to save history?

Characters
Kaias appears to be hunting Noel and Sarah because they are messing with time and creating paradoxes. He is also attacking Lightning in the invisible realm. He is apparently immortal. -speculation- Kaias is the agent/avatar of Lindzei who has come to destroy Muin who he believes is in the shrine Lightning is protecting -

Lightning is in the invisible realm protecting Etro's shrine from Kaias. She somehow meets Noel and sends him to Serah. -speculation - Lighting / Etro saves Noel from dying at the end of the trailer and sends him back?

Locations
A Pulse Vestige-like machine appears over Eden and turns people to Cie'th. Is this Pulse or Lindzei itself making their appearance

Anything else I missed?

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Yay Grimoire Weiss (NieR) VA is Kais. A huge shame the writing quality will be a severe downgrade compared to NieR.

I'm not to worried about the lip syncing since that seems like something that will be worked on later in development. I remember the lip sync in the first XIII English trailer was off as well.

I'm pretty temped to wait for the Chinese version of the game since that will have JP voices with Eng subs.

For a moment I thought you were surprised about grass!...
Grass... actually, GRASS!
There's GRASS!
WOOOOO (lol ~)

I'm glad. Xenoblade has spoiled me and made be a grass whore.

 

[Chiave]

Wow, I'm impressed with a couple of things. Hope is grown up and manly! Or at least I thought he was till he showed up again in the trailer. Maybe that was a new female character that just looked like him... I didn't see the KH reference coming, holy shit. The song they chose turned me off and the melodrama did as well.

 

[Twilight Princess]

the future....is changing?

 

[Pooya]

http://release.square-enix.com/na/2011/09/20_01.html

there is a short prologue in the English PR there.

here:

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 PROLOGUE

She defied her destiny. She set out to vanquish the false gods enslaving mankind.
After the war, the world was no longer the same. Humans reigned victorious and their gods were no more. Their utopia fell from the sky and became one with Pulse, the underworld crawling with beasts and fiends. It marked the beginning of a new era.
However, she was nowhere to be seen. Everyone believed she was gone—with the exception of one, her sister, Serah.
Three years later—
A meteorite disrupts the serenity of a peaceful village. Time is distorted; bloodthirsty monsters are released within the confines of the secluded town.
Amidst the chaos, Serah is saved by a stranger who goes by the name of Noel. A hunter from the future, he bears an important message.
"She is waiting for you," he says. "Come with me if you want to see her again."
She is Lightning—protector of the goddess who rules the realm of death and chaos, the one–and–only sister of Serah.
"I need to see her. I need to see my sister." Her heart brimming with hope, a determined Serah sets off on an adventure to reunite with her sister, her family, her world.

 

[Jinfash]

Spoiler

It's pretty obvious that Kaia is trying to kill Noel because the only way he can die is through that paradox.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

I know it was popular to rag on Nojima here for a while (especially around KH2's release), but my god... I would take his writing 100 times over Toriyama.


Nojima's working on VsXIII though, right? Did he do Type 0 as well?

 

[Perfo]

Nojima's working on VsXIII though, right?

Yes.

Did he do Type 0 as well?

Nope
I think Hajime Tabata and Daisuke Watanabe are handling the scenario there.

 

[RaijinFY]

That trailer was just plain terrible....

 

[RaijinFY]

Yes.



Nope
I think Hajime Tabata and Daisuke Watanabe are handling the scenario there.

YYiiiikes...

 

[Perfo]

YYiiiikes...

... but he was also credited for FFXII and KHII. Motomu Toriyama is the main problem here

That was supposed to reassure anyone?

FFXIII's script is far worse than those two :\
FFXIII-2 though will set new standards for the industry!

 

[RaijinFY]

... but he was also credited for FFXII and KHII. Motomu Toriyama is the main problem here

That was supposed to reassure anyone?

 

[MrDenny]

Noel's monologue is hilarously similar to Lightning's monologue haha.

Noel looks away from serah.
Lightning looks away from hope.
Noel talks about being the last survivor, and the last hope for them.
Lightning talks about becoming lightning so she can be strong for serah.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

The story stuff has my faith wavering again.

- Jan. announcement, more open playing fields, player choice, exploring the mythology -> Hype

- E3-ish reveal, Serah is main character, Mog, time travel, 2 characters + monsters, QTEs -> Facepalm

- Pre-TGS, Historiacrux, locations visited through multiple time periods -> Hype again

- 'Promise' & 'Despair' trailers, Kaias' body can't die, contradiction, contradiction, contradiction -> back to Facepalm

I hope the character and monster development systems are good.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

... but he was also credited for FFXII and KHII.

Exactly! More reason to be scared.

 

[Wilsongt]

Exactly! More reason to be scared.

Beginning of the story is great, middle is okay, 20 hours of Noel and Sarah having 30 seconds of dialogue, epic final boss, ending credits?

 

[Lady Bird]

Beginning of the story is great, middle is okay, 20 hours of Noel and Sarah having 30 seconds of dialogue, epic final boss, ending credits?

That only happened in FFXII (or are you talking about KH2??) because it actually had a good writer in charge until said writer had to leave, Watanabe came in to complete the story, and we got an extremely incomplete plot that started great and complex and went downhill as it became linear, boring and monotonous.

That being said, KH2's plot also did get worse through. And FFXIII's too. Both alternated between bland & linear; and convoluted, cheesy & messy. I see a trend.

Toriyama: master of exaggerated melodrama (for the sake of emotion!), huge plot contradictions and totally lame attempts at making things complex
+
Watanabe: master of making everything handled to him as boring, bland, monotonous and linear as possible
=
Today's generation of Square Enix RPGs.

 

[Dark Schala]

... but he was also credited for FFXII and KHII. Motomu Toriyama is the main problem here

This definitely doesn't make me feel better. Even if Motomu Toriyama seems rather controlling when it comes to the scenario and script (forcing Watanabe to rewrite a lot of parts of FFXIII, apparently), Watanabe's dialogue and writing tend to be rather dry.

I thought this quote from the Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Ultimania was funny (pulled from Wiki):

Watanabe has worked on every single Kingdom Hearts game released to date. Tetsuya Nomura, the creator of the series, personally finds Watanabe creating the scenario for the games very natural. Nomura believes that Watanabe's outlook on the overall story of the Kingdom Hearts series is in line with his own. Nomura recalls that when he first showed Watanabe an image of Ventus from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Watanabe instantly knew that the story would involve

Spoiler

the heart of Ventus going into Sora and lead to the physical image of Ventus becoming Roxas.

When Nomura realized that Watanabe already knew how it would all work out without him needing to explain it, he felt that there was another staff member that completely understood his logic behind the Kingdom Hearts mythology.

LOL.

 

[Beth Cyra]

This definitely doesn't make me feel better. Even if Motomu Toriyama seems rather controlling when it comes to the scenario and script (forcing Watanabe to rewrite a lot of parts of FFXIII, apparently), Watanabe's dialogue and writing tend to be rather dry.

I thought this quote from the Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Ultimania was funny (pulled from Wiki):

LOL.

Dear god, that is scary.

 

[Chiave]

That's funny as hell

 

[Reveirg]

He felt that there was another staff member that completely understood his logic behind the Kingdom Hearts mythology..

Good to know at least one PERSON understood the logic behind the KH mythology =D. Very funny indeed...

(This is coming from a KH fan by the way!)

Speaking of scenarists, who's writing KH3D and Type-0?

 

[SykoTech]

Despair trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53YR9vVn8yw

Hope they don't go too overboard with the QTEs. Song is alright, not as good as My Hands though.

Story....well, probably on the same level as the first I guess.

 

[brandonh83]

Anything was going to be better than My Hands, but it's actually somewhat listenable. Not quite as good as something like the FFXII theme song (love that song just shut the fuck up) but passable.

 

[Castor Krieg]

Guys, guys, I think we need to start approaching FF the same way we approach KH - story makes no fucking sense, good gameplay, SHINY, WEEEEEEEEEEE, wait for next game.

 

[Dark Schala]

Good to know at least one PERSON understood the logic behind the KH mythology =D. Very funny indeed...

(This is coming from a KH fan by the way!)

Speaking of scenarists, who's writing KH3D and Type-0?

Type-0: Daisuke Watanabe, Hajime Tabata

And judging who wrote all the previous KH games, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if Watanabe makes up a certain fraction of the writing team, since he's been credited in all the past games as scenario writer/scenario supervisor/plot supervisor/etc.

Anything was going to be better than My Hands, but it's actually somewhat listenable. Not quite as good as something like the FFXII theme song (love that song just shut the fuck up) but passable.

I'm extremely fond of Distant Worlds (the FFXI theme song) myself. I love that song.

 

[Thoraxes]

I'm extremely fond of Distant Worlds (the FFXI theme song) myself. I love that song.

Seeing it live in concert was something magical. I had chills throughout my whole body the entire time.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

This definitely doesn't make me feel better. Even if Motomu Toriyama seems rather controlling when it comes to the scenario and script (forcing Watanabe to rewrite a lot of parts of FFXIII, apparently), Watanabe's dialogue and writing tend to be rather dry.

I thought this quote from the Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Ultimania was funny (pulled from Wiki):

LOL.

To be fair, the wiki articles on Square Enix people were all mostly written by a notorious Hiroyuki Itou fanboy. He has a history of always wording things in a carefully biased way that paints everyone connected to Kitase or Nomura as a bunch of weirdos and Itou as the better guy.

 

[Dark Schala]

To be fair, the wiki articles on Square Enix people were all mostly written by a notorious Hiroyuki Itou fanboy. He has a history of always wording things in a carefully biased way that paints everyone connected to Kitase or Nomura as a bunch of weirdos and Itou as the better guy.

We are severely veering off-topic, but... Perhaps I should have treated my post like an academic article and not used the Wiki article as a secondary source. There are usually hidden biases in Wiki articles so I genuinely dislike it when students use them as well.

It does kind of seem like Nomura's okay with trusting Watanabe with the scenario because he [Watanabe] is good at it (in, for example, a Famitsu interview from 2007). This does not have to be a bad thing (even if I do not like Watanabe`s work). If it all works out in the end, great. If it does not, then oh well. It has been a while since I have skimmed through the dev interviews in a copy of the BbS Ultimania, though (I read my friend's copy last year, I think? Been a while, at least.).

And what's wrong with Hiroyuki Ito? I miss him.

Anyway, back on-topic! I am happy we know the identity of the mysterious man now. Well, somewhat.

 

[Kagari]

... but he was also credited for FFXII and KHII. Motomu Toriyama is the main problem here




FFXIII's script is far worse than those two :\
FFXIII-2 though will set new standards for the industry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47ow4_Cmk0

 

[Lady Bird]

So Toriyama is the main story writer and Watanabe the main script writer of Square Enix now. Awesome evolution over the years. Glad those fools from Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and the likes are all gone. Every SE's story is now gonna be like KH's, FFXIII's and 3rd Birthday's.

 

[Kagari]

So Toriyama is the main story writer and Watanabe the main script writer of Square Enix now. Awesome evolution over the years. Glad those fools from Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and the likes are all gone. Every SE's story is now gonna be like KH's, FFXIII's and 3rd Birthday's.

;-;
At least Nomura got Nojima to do Versus.

 

[Lesiroth]

The songs in both trailers are terrible TBH, not to mention the whole game seems too much like an embarrassing show of emotions. I guess it could be due to a poorly made trailer.

 

[MechaX]

So Toriyama is the main story writer and Watanabe the main script writer of Square Enix now. Awesome evolution over the years. Glad those fools from Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and the likes are all gone. Every SE's story is now gonna be like KH's, FFXIII's and 3rd Birthday's.

Hey, we can also hope that SE assimilates Tri-Ace so SE can gain from their fantastic writers! Just imagine, the characters of XIII, with the story of 3rd Birthday and KH, with the plot-twists of Star Ocean 3 and 4!

 

[brandonh83]

I'm extremely fond of Distant Worlds (the FFXI theme song) myself. I love that song.

Giving it a listen. Never heard it before. I pretty much ignored everything related to FFXI.

 

[Reveirg]

Hey, we can also hope that SE assimilates Tri-Ace so SE can gain from their fantastic writers! Just imagine, the characters of XIII, with the story of 3rd Birthday and KH, with the plot-twists of Star Ocean 3 and 4!

Star Ocean 4 had plot twists???

(Ok I admit it, I started SKIPPING some cutscenes in the 2nd half of the game. For the record, I've played over 100 RPGs in my life and it was my FIRST TIME skipping scenes...)


And to get the subject back on track, I've been replaying FFXIII lately and the story really isn't that bad. The -writing- is a bit off by moments, but pretty good in others. It avoids a LOT of JRPG cliches:

-The hero is NOT a young angsty brown-haired man voiced by Johnny-Yong-whatever's-his-name whose home town has been destroyed and must now seek revenge.
-The whole premise is very different from the usual "save the world" plot -> the characters actually have a hard time finding their motivations, and don't even know what or who to fight
-The characters are pretty much all well developed, and the way some of them are paired for the first part of the game allows for an ensemble cast that interacts with each another.

These are only a few points but I feel that overall, the story had great potential, and part of it was well executed. Thus, I feel there's plenty of hope for XIII-2!