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Final Fantasy 13 - A Storm Gathers

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duckroll said:
Regarding Ito as a FF director, I think there's one huge element which is being overlooked here. Ito is a great gameplay designer. His experience and expertise is in systems design. But FF is a story-driven RPG series, which relies equally on the gameplay and the narrative to succeed. In the past, Ito has either been a gameplay/battle director, while the heavy lifting of the scenario and story/cutscene direction has always been handled by other people.

On FFVI, he was the gameplay side director, while Kitase was the story side director. Kitase was in-charge of all scenario elements, putting the story together, directing the cutscenes, etc, with other staff members pitching in to help flesh out these aspects of the game.

On FFIX, he was working off a story draft Sakaguchi left behind, and there was a lot of assistance from Square USA and Visual Works to handle the cutscenes and stuff. Even then, the story was pretty much a huge mess and was carried entirely by the retro-FF art direction and the great FMVs.

On FFXII, again he was the gameplay director replacing Matsuno when he left. All the visuals elements were taken charge by Minagawa, while Kawazu took over as a producer and basically brought the other staff in to help with the scenario and finishing up of the game.

When Ito produced and directed FFXII International all by himself, all the changes and improvements were gameplay mechanics. None of the scenario was touched or improved on, and there were no additional content at all because there was no staff for it, and Ito can't do that sort of thing on his own with a skeleton crew.

So with all that in mind, as a huge fan of the contributions Ito has made to FF over the decades, I really have to wonder - can he handle a big new FF game all by himself? Who would he rope in to work on the story and scenario? Is he experienced enough to be able to tell if the staff under him are doing a good job with regards to event scene direction and script?

It seems to me that these days, all the FF directors are selected based on their ability to contribute their ownership to the story and characters. Toriyama, Nomura, and Tabata are all responsible for the base scenarios on their respective FNC games. And both Toriyama and Nomura are also experienced in personally overseeing the cinematic direction of their games. This seems to be an area where Ito might simply be unable to contribute in, which explains why he might be doing nothing these days. :(
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Fantastic post and I'm glad you pointed this out, as a lot of people seem to have built up Ito to be some kind of potential 'savior' for the FF series.
As much as I respect his contributions over the years, as you pointed out, he has never fully taken the reins of a FF.

I'd personally like to see it happen (even though IX and XII are two of my least favorites in the series), simply due to his longevity with the series and the chance to get a FF that might be completely different in style/tone to the Kitase/Nojima/Toriyama FFs.

I wonder, though- if enough time passes, would S-E ever consider getting the old 'band back together' for a future FF: i.e. designed/produced by Sakaguchi, music by Uematsu, art direction by Yoshitaka Amano, directed by Kitase, battle direction by Ito, etc.?
Maybe a PoP2008 graphic style that could reflect Amano's art style (something that many of us long time FF fans have wanted to see for a LONG time)?

A guy can dream, right? :}
 
Father_Brain said:
Can APZonerunner say how many announcements he's teasing? One or more?
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There is 1 FFXIII announcement (a new game or some sort) and 1 FFXIV announcement (probably release date/window)

EDIT: I guess he says "two articles on the future of FF13" but @SQEX_Members_NA confirmed that there is only those 2 announcements to be made. At least for the NA announcement.
 
Seda said:
There is 1 FFXIII announcement (a new game or some sort) and 1 FFXIV announcement (probably release date/window)

EDIT: I guess he says "two articles on the future of FF13" but @SQEX_Members_NA confirmed that there is only those 2 announcements to be made. At least for the NA announcement.
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That's what I had assumed beforehand, but the two articles, multiple images, and the mention of "one big thing" that's too obvious to tease might suggest multiple announcements. Probably is just the one, though.
 
Father_Brain said:
That's what I had assumed beforehand, but the two articles, multiple images, and the mention of "one big thing" that's too obvious to tease might suggest multiple announcements. Probably is just the one, though.
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The two articles is just one announcement article and one opinion article.

Seda said:
When's the thread going up?
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Later tonight... it's still not for another 10 1/2 hours you know.
 
Kagari said:
The two articles is just one announcement article and one opinion article.




Later tonight... it's still not for another 10 1/2 hours you know.
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An opinion piece along the lines of "ah come on Square, why Lightning again? Type-0 or Versus would have been much better"?
 
Mario007 said:
Well in that case I'm quite curious to see what it is!

Also well done on the Type-0 campaign on twitter Kagari. Us europeans should do the same with Square Enix Europe
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It's just an opinion on how SE has commented before on making FF a yearly release. Kitase commented as much back when XIII-2 released.
 
I would be all over a free-flow action battle system centered around a single party member (Lightning).

I'm also a bit bummed they didn't do this years before with the character I felt would have been perfect for the concept (Tifa).

Speaking of which, what's that FFVII stream supposed to be? Probably just more "Man FFVII sure was the best, right? Thank you for continuing to love this old game, and no we're not going to remake it. Please buy more copies!"
 
SOLDIER said:
I would be all over a free-flow action battle system centered around a single party member (Lightning).

I'm also a bit bummed they didn't do this years before with the character I felt would have been perfect for the concept (Tifa).

Speaking of which, what's that FFVII stream supposed to be? Probably just more "Man FFVII sure was the best, right? Thank you for continuing to love this old game, and no we're not going to remake it. Please buy more copies!"
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3DS remake? It has been rumored for a while...

Or a Before Crisis remake for iOS, lol.
 
Kagari said:
It's just an opinion on how SE has commented before on making FF a yearly release. Kitase commented as much back when XIII-2 released.
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Oh yeah. I was thinking about it actually and honestly it shouldn't be a problem. You have two teams working on mainline series and one on the type series. You can release a final fantasy every year while giving each team 3 years dev tine which is plenty. I mean they you even have four year cycle if one year a spin off is released.
 
I really don't know what to expect which is why I'm excited. The way I see it, I thought XIII was okay with some good things about it but also some very bad things, and I thought XIII-2 was a legitimately good game with some elements that impressed me-- so I'm definitely not against XIII-3 if it's a fun game.

If this is XIII-3 I hope they further refine it and try to make it less... embarrassing. I thought the second half of XIII-2 was surprisingly dark and even eerie. The stuff with Serah in the warped dimension or whatever with this music was effectively eerie and even abstract. I really dug it.
 
If there's one thing that Square Enix is still good at, it's hyping up titles and making announcements. They're VERY good at that.

Shame they suck at just about everything else. Except for gaming soundtracks... FFXIII-2 had an amazing soundtrack.
But getting excited for tonight? Hell yeah! Pop that popcorn! It's going to be fun.
 
There was the idea from one of the Before Crisis devs ages ago that they would like to re-do it for 3DS. I favour that idea more so, but with the amount of big series coming to iOS these days, that would look more likely than 3DS.
 
Seda said:
There is 1 FFXIII announcement (a new game or some sort) and 1 FFXIV announcement (probably release date/window)

EDIT: I guess he says "two articles on the future of FF13" but @SQEX_Members_NA confirmed that there is only those 2 announcements to be made. At least for the NA announcement.
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As someone that follows FFXIV, there could be two other possible conclusions for the FFXIV announcement (and far more likely then a release window since Yoshida has said he doesn't want to talk about that till after beta testing begins). They could announce the start date of Alpha testing or an even more likely announcement is they finally announce the new class/job combo that they accidentally leaked two weeks ago on their site lol.
 
My early guess is that Snow is the main character and the story is about
him finding out about Serah's death which hurts him so bad that it just barely deflates his ego, and the game is the journey of his ascension back to hero status
.
 
brandonh83 said:
My early guess is that Snow is the main character and the story is about
him finding out about Serah's death which hurts him so bad that it just barely deflates his ego, and the game is the journey of his ascension back to hero status
.
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Don't jinx it. D:
 
Eh. Given the other guys usual stuff in terms of story & characters, I'd rather give Ito his shot at handling everything. FF needs variety to keep my interest. The tech demo was a nice change up from XIII & Versus, and that's what I want out of the series.
 
So with all that in mind, as a huge fan of the contributions Ito has made to FF over the decades, I really have to wonder - can he handle a big new FF game all by himself? Who would he rope in to work on the story and scenario? Is he experienced enough to be able to tell if the staff under him are doing a good job with regards to event scene direction and script?
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everyone is better than toryiama, in style and execution. Ff cannot meet new lows like nowadays.
 
SpaceBridge said:
Has SE trademarked anything FF13-3 related? I mean, last year we knew about 13-2 because of they had gotten the rights to the domain name.
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They have an as yet unaccounted for trademark on something called "Deathless". (There were two more terms, both linked to games SE has announced since.)

If you've played XIII-2, it doesn't take much to link "Desthless" to Lightning.
 
Watch the events of the new game with Lightning make her the Goddess over the world in which Versus XIII takes place.

Shit would be cool. (though yeah, they definitely will not be connected ;_;)
 
brandonh83 said:
My early guess is that Snow is the main character and the story is about
him finding out about Serah's death which hurts him so bad that it just barely deflates his ego, and the game is the journey of his ascension back to hero status
.
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LOL Lightning better be the fucking hero in this game, considering how hyped she is, the DLC of the last game, and her awful treatment in XIII-2.
 
I remember all the discussion over XIII-2, if it'd be a solo Lightning action game, and that first trailer completely makes it seem like it's about her, and the logo is her too. That whole reveal was a lie.
 
Just make something with an actual overworld again please Square.
Not going to happen with FFXIII-3, but I hope it's at least a step in that direction.
 
happy endings in cliche anime can be categorized in two groups imo;

1- Reunion with family and friends after long time apart => sisters are reunited
hopefully in afterlife when she dies.. (if such thing exist in FF13, don't know anymore) bitter sweet ending xD

2- Love interest, ahem and they lived happily ever after.

can't be any thing else from Toriyama.
 
Kagari said:
How is that a happy ending?
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Wait, is there something that has been talked about that I don't know of regarding happy endings?

I'm just trying to insinuate that (XIII-2 spoilers)
due to her connection with Etro, after her (Etro's) death the new game would somehow turn Lightning into the new goddess by the end of it to separate the realms again, but in the process she becomes that benevolent figure (which supposedly that mythos has been said to have a focus in Versus, iirc).

I mean, i'm just speculating, but well, yeah :/

brandonh83 said:
My early guess is that Snow is the main character and the story is about
him finding out about Serah's death which hurts him so bad that it just barely deflates his ego, and the game is the journey of his ascension back to hero status
.
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Michaelscott: NOOOOOOOO
 
StuBurns said:
I remember all the discussion over XIII-2, if it'd be a solo Lightning action game, and that first trailer completely makes it seem like it's about her, and the logo is her too. That whole reveal was a lie.
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Ugh, don't remind me.
we.are.the.armada said:
That would be a blast for me because I love Snow and NORA, ironically of course! I just started up FF13 and got to part where Maqui wants to take a nap during the machine gun firefight and gems like, "Heroes don't need plans" are dropped.
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Pretty sure Team NORA has been dead for about 450 years by the ending of FFXIII-2.
 
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