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Final Fantasy XV interview: Tabata talks delays, Versus, fan expectation and more

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Gbraga

Member
I'd actually be alarmed if I played a jRPG that spoke like a Hollywood movie or whatever it is that we perceive to be "normal". I'd feel like some of the secret sauce is missing. It has a theatrical style of its own that is definitively part of its charm.

Of course, even having said that, there are obviously instances of sub-par dialogue in that particularly "anime" way.

I'm right there with you. If I want The Witcher, I can just play The Witcher, there's a great trilogy of those games already out. I want a japanese game, with all the jank that might come with the package.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I think what Jason is getting at is simple:

jfUDAhj.gif


If you're OK with this, great! The body language in FFXV probably won't bother you.

If you're not OK with this then you will be sad :( like Crossing Eden.
I'm fine with this. Anime game is anime.
 

Skilletor

Member
I'm right there with you. If I want The Witcher, I can just play The Witcher, there's a great trilogy of those games already out. I want a japanese game, with all the jank that might come with the package.

I agree. It's why I play them.

Though I could do without the "Yuffie/Selphi/Gladio's sister" trope. lol
 

Ishida

Banned
I'm right there with you. If I want The Witcher, I can just play The Witcher, there's a great trilogy of those games already out. I want a japanese game, with all the jank that might come with the package.

Yep.

Also the dialogue of The Witcher 3 bored me to death.
 

duckroll

Member
I don't think that 12-19 demographic is really an excuse when you consider how much good media is made for that age group, (outside of Japan at least). I don't think it's because the audiences have gotten older either, I view it as standards changing overtime thanks to things getting better in one area of the world while it stagnates in another area of the world.

This isn't about good media for the demographic, this is about RPGs for that demographic. The problem with anime and light novels in Japan making people who do not consume those medium roll their eyes and laugh is the exact same problem that the west has with young adult fiction. Twilight, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent. Filled with stupid tropes, power fantasies for young people, rage against the system cliches, terrible dialogue, overdramatic garbage. If RPGs from the west were written for those audiences, it would be garbage too. In fact, we actually know that for a fact, just look at any thread talking about the writing in Blizzard games. :p
 

Koozek

Member
I just want to know if the logo was always supposed to show seemingly Ardryn or if they changed that. Did he always have that one wing costume? I'm not sure, he was in one of the old trailer but it's not really clear to see I think.
Wait a minute. I never made that connection :O Also "one-winged angel".

EDIT: Oh, and yeah, the concept art on the bottom is from 2011 or so.

irz3jxx.jpg

maxresdefault.jpg

EK6nDgR.jpg
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
I'm right there with you. If I want The Witcher, I can just play The Witcher, there's a great trilogy of those games already out. I want a japanese game, with all the jank that might come with the package.
The witcher isn't even an outlier. That's the issue. It shouldn't be expected that a Japanese game will have subpar writing and dialogue, that sort of complacency is how we got here in the first place.

I'm fine with this. Anime game is anime.
Aside from the hairstyles this is the most realistic looking FF game. "Based on reality" on all that.

This isn't about good media for the demographic, this is about RPGs for that demographic. The problem with anime and light novels in Japan making people who do not consume those medium roll their eyes and laugh is the exact same problem that the west has with young adult fiction. Twilight, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent. Filled with stupid tropes, power fantasies for young people, rage against the system cliches, terrible dialogue, overdramatic garbage. If RPGs from the west were written for those audiences, it would be garbage too. In fact, we actually know that for a fact, just look at any thread talking about the writing in Blizzard games. :p
I see what you're saying, I've only seen the first hunger games and that was some genuinely good stuff, can't say the same for twilight, maze runner, and divergent as those are pretty terrible films. I suppose they do share the same tropes as anime like a really bland self insert protagonist being the norm and ofc all the tropes and metaphors for adult life and exams and shit which is really grating.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
This isn't about good media for the demographic, this is about RPGs for that demographic. The problem with anime and light novels in Japan making people who do not consume those medium roll their eyes and laugh is the exact same problem that the west has with young adult fiction. Twilight, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent. Filled with stupid tropes, power fantasies for young people, rage against the system cliches, terrible dialogue, overdramatic garbage. If RPGs from the west were written for those audiences, it would be garbage too. In fact, we actually know that for a fact, just look at any thread talking about the writing in Blizzard games. :p

That's also a great point.
 
Yep.

Also the dialogue of The Witcher 3 bored me to death.

As someone incredibly hyped for XV, W3 dialogue is damn fine. It's a bit up and down (not surprising given script length), but, at its best, it's almost like a more action packed post-communist Eastern European satire. Like Vaclav Havel wrote Game of Thrones while consulting heavily with Kurosawa.

I don't think it's at all a good stand in for AAA Western game writing, really doing its own thing.

The witcher isn't even an outlier. ....

Not in terms of voice acting and direction. But in terms of writing style and quality? It's a good 3 s.d. from the AAA Western mean.
 

Skilletor

Member
The witcher isn't even an outlier. That's the issue. It shouldn't be expected that a Japanese game will have subpar writing and dialogue, that sort of complacency is how we got here in the first place.


Aside from the hairstyles this is the most realistic looking FF game. "Based on reality" on all that.

Anime has tons of different artstyles.
 

Koozek

Member
This isn't about good media for the demographic, this is about RPGs for that demographic. The problem with anime and light novels in Japan making people who do not consume those medium roll their eyes and laugh is the exact same problem that the west has with young adult fiction. Twilight, Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent. Filled with stupid tropes, power fantasies for young people, rage against the system cliches, terrible dialogue, overdramatic garbage. If RPGs from the west were written for those audiences, it would be garbage too. In fact, we actually know that for a fact, just look at any thread talking about the writing in Blizzard games. :p
Good point.

The witcher isn't even an outlier. That's the issue. It shouldn't be expected that a Japanese game will have subpar writing and dialogue, that sort of complacency is how we got here in the first place.
Agreed. FF has to finally do something about its writing. Get fresh blood, maybe from outside the Anime/game industry.
 

Gbraga

Member
I think what Jason is getting at is simple:

jfUDAhj.gif


If you're OK with this, great! The body language in FFXV probably won't bother you.

If you're not OK with this then you will be sad :( like Crossing Eden.

I'm in the middle of the road, I guess. I'm totally fine with this kind of anime shit, I love it, even, but it's not very well done here. The animation itself isn't very good or natural, and it doesn't fit with the more realistic models. It should be quite a bit mor subtle.

I'm ok with exaggerated body language when the visual style is a lot more stylized.

Like this:

dGrhVlZ.gif


On the far opposite side, another game that bothers me with the way characters move in cutscenes and dialogue is The Witcher 3, it's so weird, it feels like people are waiting until it's their turn to talk to even start reacting. The editing of those scenes is also pretty bad, but much improved from the second game.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Aside from the hairstyles this is the most realistic looking FF game. "Based on reality" on all that.
Have you actually been led by that to believe this game isnt unabashedly anime?

It's Final Fantasy. I presume this game will have giggling genki girls, melodramatic angst and histrionics, and villains who smugly pose and say "hrmph".

I'd honestly say that someone put off by that is looking at the wrong series.
 

Koozek

Member
I just want to know if the logo was always supposed to show seemingly Ardryn or if they changed that. Did he always have that one wing costume? I'm not sure, he was in one of the old trailer but it's not really clear to see I think.
The concept art on the bottom in my post above is from 2010/2011 or so, btw.

Koozek, is that the same woman's face in all 3 pics?! :)
Hm, don't know what you mean?^^
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Anime has tons of different artstyles.
It does but games are a bit more homogenous than anime. And there's a lot more of sticking to the same tropes instead of branching out.

Good point.


Agreed. FF has to finally do something about its writing. Get fresh blood, maybe from outside the Anime/game industry.
Eastern media can be genuinely good that's why I hate the insinuation that Japanese is supposed or expected to be bad. Or that that's part of their culture. As if people would suddenly be in an uproar if we got a JRPG with a incredibly well written or even up to par dialogue.

Have you actually been led by that to believe this game isnt unabashedly anime?

It's Final Fantasy. I presume this game will have giggling genki girls, melodramatic angst and histrionics, and villains who smugly pose and say "hrmph".

I'd honestly say that someone put off by that is looking at the wrong series.
Then maybe they shouldn't have made such efforts to make everything look more believable and stop calling it a fantasy based on reality, as in, what if a FF game took place in our world. Like, it's not bad to expect better in 2016.
 

Koozek

Member
fuck you guys stop spoiling the game by jumping to conclusions like this!!!!!

damn it!!!
crying-emoticon-293.png

Lol, I doubt there's a connection. Or, who knows, maybe we'll end up killing Ardyn who turns out to be a god, which I would find super boring and predictable :/ LR's ending was the absolute overkill and saturation point for me when it comes to this FF trope.
 
It does but games are a bit more homogenous than anime. And there's a lot more of sticking to the same tropes instead of branching out.


Eastern media can be genuinely good that's why I hate the insinuation that Japanese is supposed or expected to be bad. Or that that's part of their culture. As if people would suddenly be in an uproar if we got a JRPG with a incredibly well written or even up to par dialogue.

I don't think the writing in JRPGs is as blanket bad as you do, nor the writing in the west very good. But no denying the translations and voice direction of most big Japanese games could be better, can't argue with that.
 

duckroll

Member
Eastern media can be genuinely good that's why I hate the insinuation that Japanese is supposed or expected to be bad. Or that that's part of their culture. As if people would suddenly be in an uproar if we got a JRPG with a incredibly well written or even up to par dialogue.

JRPG != Japan. For all the silliness the series tends to have, Yakuza games still get a pretty good rep for cutscene direction and character portrayal. That's as Japanese as you can get, and a good example of how they're keeping up with the times even with less budget. The Souls games don't get a bad rep either, and there's actual debate if they should even be considered "JRPGs" because they don't fit the stereotype of.... JRPGs. So clearly the stigma is less about Japan at large, and more about a specific subset of output from Japan.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
I think the past two pages are on to something though. A lot of people who consume Japanese media are looking for stuff that's distinctly... Japanese.

There is some merit to wanting to reach out to a larger userbase rather than remaining inward-looking, but at the same time cranking that dial to 11 is just going to result in a culture shock.

It's sorta like Bollywood. People who dig Bollywood dig Bollywood because it's Bollywood. Take out the absurdly over-the-top action scenes and dance routines to appeal to a larger market, and it's no longer Bollywood even if the script was originally Hindi or Tamil or whatevs.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
JRPG != Japan. For all the silliness the series tends to have, Yakuza games still get a pretty good rep for cutscene direction and character portrayal. That's as Japanese as you can get, and a good example of how they're keeping up with the times even with less budget. The Souls games don't get a bad rep either, and there's actual debate if they should even be considered "JRPGs" because they don't fit the stereotype of.... JRPGs. So clearly the stigma is less about Japan at large, and more about a specific subset of output from Japan.

But even anime and manga based on this thread get that bad rep, when within that category we have huge differences of genre and implementation of stories based on the writer involved, even in specific genres where you would expect 100% homogeneity.

A little bit more nuance of thought in regards to opening the mind a bit more to the fact that "anime" is not just a super defined thing you can throw at a plot or characters and assume its bad or good is all we're saying.
 

Koozek

Member
See this is an interesting discussion for once instead of tired Versus crap.

What is considered to be the best-written Anime, btw?
 

duckroll

Member
It's sorta like Bollywood. People who dig Bollywood dig Bollywood because it's Bollywood. Take out the absurdly over-the-top action scenes and dance routines to appeal to a larger market, and it's no longer Bollywood even if the script was originally Hindi or Tamil or whatevs.

But let a British director tap into the perceived essence of a Bollywood film and express it without the absurdly over-the-top action scenes and dance routines to appeal to a larger market, and you get an Academy Award winner!
 
See this is an interesting discussion for once instead of tired Versus crap.

What is considered to be the best-written Anime, btw?

Hmmm, my favorites are Samurai Champloo and FLCL, but I'm hardly up-to-date. Oh, and Polar Bear Cafe is extremely on point writing wise for what it is.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I think the past two pages are on to something though. A lot of people who consume Japanese media are looking for stuff that's distinctly... Japanese.

There is some merit to wanting to reach out to a larger userbase rather than remaining inward-looking, but at the same time cranking that dial to 11 is just going to result in a culture shock.

It's sorta like Bollywood. People who dig Bollywood dig Bollywood because it's Bollywood. Take out the absurdly over-the-top action scenes and dance routines to appeal to a larger market, and it's no longer Bollywood even if the script was originally Hindi or Tamil or whatevs.

That's also a good point, but i'd argue that what some people would argue is Japanese isn't necessarily because its Japanese, but because its a subset of Japan that they are exposed to and so paint with broad strokes so to speak.

What we know about plots from FF aren't even all the same. FF12, Tactics,games like 6..and then we have games like 1-5, games like 9, games like 7 or 8 or 10...

Its all different, depending on who you ask.
 

HeelPower

Member
Lol, I doubt there's a connection. Or, who knows, maybe we'll end up killing Ardyn who turns out to be a god, which I would find super boring and predictable :/ LR's ending was the absolute overkill and saturation point for me when it comes to this FF trope.

I have to agree with you..I am tired of it and I don't want.

But I think you hit the nail on the head with your analysis there.Let's not forget that FFXIII had its ending on the logo.Could be the same with XV.
 

Koozek

Member
Diamond is Unbreakable, obviously.
Hmm, will put it on my list if I ever find the time and mood for Animes someday.
Dunno about best but Cowboy Bebop and Steins;Gate immediately come to mind.

Bebop is one of my all-time fave shows in general
beSFiXF.png

Yoko Kanno composing for a FF would be a dream.


Btw, Monster is my favorite Anime besides Bebop. Haven't watched any for years now, except for Kids on the Slope a few years ago, and recently AJIN on Netflix. I just can't stand a lot of the tropes and VA anymore. And Moe is the worst thing that ever happened to mankind.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I think the past two pages are on to something though. A lot of people who consume Japanese media are looking for stuff that's distinctly... Japanese.

There is some merit to wanting to reach out to a larger userbase rather than remaining inward-looking, but at the same time cranking that dial to 11 is just going to result in a culture shock.

It's sorta like Bollywood. People who dig Bollywood dig Bollywood because it's Bollywood. Take out the absurdly over-the-top action scenes and dance routines to appeal to a larger market, and it's no longer Bollywood even if the script was originally Hindi or Tamil or whatevs.
Very much this.

Like I want great stories and good writing. But when some people are asking for "great stories and better writing", I wonder if what they really mean is that they wished it looked and sounded like natural American English dialogue. And I think if that were the case, they will have sanded off the edges of what I like about this.

I think FF should be a little embarrassingly earnest and melodramatic. I think it should have cutesy moments. I think it should sound very unlike what I am used to from Hollywood because the "other" is actually a part of the appeal.

I wish FF were more of a smart arthouse anime than a shounen anime, but that it is visibly Japanese and "other" is not a bug, it's a feature.
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
What is considered to be the best-written Anime, btw?

That depends on who your asking and what they specifically want from an anime in general. If we're talking in terms of mainstream critical acclaim(not popularity) Some would say Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. Others would pick movies like Ghost in the Shell 1995 or Akira or Grave of the firelies. There are those who would put the original Gundam 0079 up there.

For me, i can't really pick. There are too many i've seen. My favorite manga of all time though is Chrno Crusade. It has a sense of adventure and starts out fairly innocuously, but keeps on building to the point where there is nothing else to call it but a masterpiece of writing and fleshed out human like characters.

Wish there was an anime of it.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
JRPG != Japan. For all the silliness the series tends to have, Yakuza games still get a pretty good rep for cutscene direction and character portrayal. That's as Japanese as you can get, and a good example of how they're keeping up with the times even with less budget. The Souls games don't get a bad rep either, and there's actual debate if they should even be considered "JRPGs" because they don't fit the stereotype of.... JRPGs. So clearly the stigma is less about Japan at large, and more about a specific subset of output from Japan.
I realize that JRPGs!=Japan, but in a lot of discusses you find that some people consider it to be part of their culture to constantly stagnant and such. I actually think that part of the reason the Souls series is so successful is because of how little of an influence anime has on it, (besides unabashedly taking designs from Berserk). Really not into Yakuza so can't comment on that. I agree that the stigma shouldn't be about Japan specifically but from common tropes of JRPGs specifically, which are let's be honest, anime tropes.
 
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