But why does it matter that they're western titles? FF is as big if not bigger than some of those said Western games that XIII-2 should have received the same hype levels as the western sequels.
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Lightning Returns starts to appear in Los Angeles
- Thread starter Perfo
- Start date
But why does it matter that they're western titles? FF is as big if not bigger than some of those said Western games that XIII-2 should have received the same hype levels as the western sequels.
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
Once Versus is shown, it's all over for Lightning
So it'll never be over for Lightning, then?
Well, the man certainly keeps busy. I wonder how long the character designing process actually takes for each of those games.
Additionally, how much he may have had complete for Versus before full production began. Are production bibles at all common in Japan?
Best thing will be to see the face of Kagari when she'll notice that this year S-E is going to push the hell out of LR
It's still not Versus' time, except for the brief re-announcement I mean. LR will have all the attentions from the press.
We'll certainly see more of LR and probably have a show demo available, but I can't say I see them really pushing the game, at least in the west.
I imagine that the re-announcement, no matter how brief, will get more attention than anything else they have to offer. Unless they announce KHIII or something as well.
And yet, in 2009 there on that hotel Lightning, Snow and Vanille were. Right now, the budget they have for LR marketing is probably a fraction of what they got for 13. What they did for 13-2 was less than what they did for Hitman Absolution, for Deus Ex Revolution, for Tomb Raider. There's no question that the amount of 'push' for LR is not going to be as fabulously great as Perfo imagines.
Street Fighter 4, Marvel vs. Capcom, Gran Turismo 5 (probably more in Europe than in NA though, because Europe loves it more?), Dark Souls.
And what does being a western title or a Japanese title have to do with hype, especially when it comes to sequels? 13 had its fair share of hype, and yet somehow its sequel wasn't quite so welcome. Either 13-2 showed significant improvement and content that made it worth praising and hyping, or it didn't. If you're cutting out all the western games just to boost the perception of 13-2, then isn't that an admission of the lack of push behind the title?
My point is that Japanese games have not gotten the level of advertising/ hype since FF13 and as a result, sales of these games have dropped akin to the drop from 13 to 13-2. All of those games did not sell super well here either (though fighting games and GT has a MUCH higher audience than JRPGs nowadays). What I keep getting at is that sales of JPN titles have dropped across the board and FF13-2's lower sales were not an exception or 'fan outcry', but the unfortunate norm.
There is nowhere to really go that would be safe. Noel's time in 700 AF with the "white sand" is actually crystal debris from Cocoon crashing into Pulse. It's like if a huge asteroid hits the earth. The debris could be so thick that it literally blocks out the sun and kills all plantlife, resulting in a dead planet. Judging from the extent of the crystal debris, I think most soil was probably ruined as well. Yeul's small tribe of nomads somehow managed to survive, probably due to her ability to see the future.
It's possible Hope could have created some super underground bunker and survived, but Cocoon crashing into Pulse is basically the apocalypse either way.
And yet it still doesnt mean much, at that time there were no new gen consoles coming out. And now SE could be focusing in other areas/medium to advertise it.
I like to see how badly this game will be received in the reviews, FF13-2 still got average 7-8 scores mostly. This one is a bit different, if people start comparing it with games in action/adventure genre considering the new elements they are trying and one character nature of the game, I think it might fare quite horribly. Visually I think it looks worse than 13-2 too so far.
There was. One of the alternate endings was actually a civil war between the splinter groups on Pulse. One group of people never truly let go of their old lives on Cocoon and so it makes sense that they'd huddle around it and bulid on top of old technology that was left over. They followed the Academy, and lived lives of relative leisure once technology advanced.
The other group decided to leave and set up a new life out in the wilds of Pulse. You see this group in the Archyltte Steppe, and the two groups grow hostile to each other over hundreds of years and become territorial. The Pulsian wilds tribe thought the Academy was trying to ressurect the Fal'cie and did not trust them (they kind of were, with Adam).
Meccanical
Member
I'm more looking forward to how poorly it will sell so I can make fun of the people that called Lightning "iconic".
Pfft...iconic.
/predictions
200k NPD, tops. 40k in UK (I think from the numbers we got 13-2 was like ~80k or something close to that, so with that in mind). 13-2 was pretty much a no show in rest of Europe not named France from what I remember, lol.
Don't think it would do well in Japan either, it didn't have particularly good word of mouth from user reviews etc. I'd go JP+Asia 500k tops
I give it ~1m sell through ww in first few months and they ship 2.5m copies (lol). Get back to this post when the time comes. #confident
PshycoNinja
Member
Again you are deriving your conclusions based on what you want to believe and not the facts that were presented. We talked about this yesterday. If you don't want to acknowledge that then fine but don't throw in ridiculous statements like "oh that's not the case for Japanese games" when other big Japanese games have done more then fine.
*I am done*
http://textsfromffxiii.tumblr.com/image/30470993437
SoraanTribal
Member
Once Versus is shown, it's all over for Lightning
That is one reason why I'm a little concerned Versus *wont* show up at E3 this year. Not sure if SE will want the re-announcement of Versus to overshadow Lightning Returns. I mean, no one will be talking about LR at all if Versus gets shown again (not that the press will be talking about LR all that much to begin with during this particular E3, but you know what I mean).
I dunno... I still have some hope it'll be there, but trying to not get too excited yet.
I can't comment on GT or Dark Souls but SF4 was hyped, well received (emphasis on well received) and sold remarkably, what you said about it not selling well in the west is not true. The dropoff from SF4 to its sequel SSF4 was no way near as significant as what 13 to 13-2 was (in fact [url="http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2011/feb/02/super-street-fighter-4-sold-16-million-copies/]they sold more than their original predicted goal[/url]).
MVC3 had hype and also sold great (it sold best in NA) and while its sequel had lackluster sales, much like FF13 there were many complaints about the vanilla version - and to top it off the game was announced just a few months after its predecessor's release. Basically UMVC3 had a lot wrong going for it that it SHOULD have sold the way it did, though it should be noted that the game apparently has been consistently selling, even up until this year (it was released late 2011).
Is it really so hard to fathom that maybe, just maybe, the majority of people who bought and played FF13 didn't enjoy it so as a result, didn't bother with the sequel?
I doubt they care.
SoraanTribal
Member
I hope you're right. There's lots to be excited about for this E3, but the possibility of Versus being there is what is getting me pumped up the most.
PshycoNinja
Member
Then this should really pump you up:
The hotlist for E3 Part I
Got excited when they were talking about "New Final Fantasy" and showed Versus trailer footage. Killed my hype a little when they started to talk about LR
.
Edit: If I am not allowed to post a gif like that let me know Kagari so I can take it down.
At this point, they probably just wanna get lightning returns out the door. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole XIII trilogy is their internal test of the faster sequel thing with regards to production and stuff.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
FFX/X-2 costed so little – and will be bought only by fanatics – that doesn't make much sense wasting the budget on the marketing to reach consumers that you can reach without spending 1 euro. On the other hand Lightning Returns is a big AAA title that NEEDS a big marketing-push to sell, so expect them to go all out when the chances open.
FF and XIII (and I add RPGs on home consoles too) are bigger in the west, thus I can't see why they should skip marketing here. Add also to this that both XIII-2 and LR especially are designed to appeal (gameplay-wise) more to westerns than japaneses and you know where the cash for marketing will go.
PshycoNinja
Member
Fixed.
Well, being the face of the downfall of the series, I guess you could call her iconic
Yeah that's probably it.Actually that's a really good point that I never gave too much thought.
wat ? ._. These games will be released to the vita as well.There is NO rpg even remotely close to the level of FFX on that handheld...you can count on almost everyone to buy it. Also you can expect a lot more of FF fans to buy FFX than LR.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
TheJollyCorner
Member
I like you, Perfo, but.......
you're trolling us. All of this time. You have to be. It's getting too extreme now to be real life.
you're trolling us. All of this time. You have to be. It's getting too extreme now to be real life.
Implying LR only sales won't be from fanatics? wut.
Meccanical
Member
Perfo is one of my favorite Final Fantasy characters.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
What's the budget? I can only guess equal or more than XIII-2. And looking at the staff credits, that must have costed enough to consider it an AAA.
You're hate for this series is astonishing.
I want to be Lightning's champion.
Thank you T.T
Meccanical
Member
You already are Perfo. You already are.
TheJollyCorner
Member
Why in the world would the budget be more than XIII-2?
XIII-2 pulled in less than half of the overall sales of XIII.
If I recall, XIII did around 6 million worldwide, where XIII-2 did around 2.5 mil worldwide.
Why would S-E make the third game more expensive?
The_Hitcher89
Member
Out of interest, what percentage of FF fans would you say wanted a return to the FFXIII universe, and Lightining in particular?
I don't think they're redoing the voices.
Meccanical
Member
Impossible to gauge, we would have to start a poll.
I didn't even want Lightning the first time to be honest.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Equal or more I've said. The upgraded engine and it being the grand finale suggests me this game is going to be more "Big" than XIII-2, marketing wise, design wise, graphics wise, budget wise.
That doesn't mean it's getting nowhere close to XIII or Versus' budgets. Even if... those budgets were wasted more on the development than not quality of their games. So I'm not that concerned.
The one that bought XIII-2, more or less.
It's not by a long shot.
TheJollyCorner
Member
You might be right. Stranger things have happened.
However, aren't there rumors that they just dumped most (if not all) of LR's development off on Tri-Ace?
That leads me to believe S-E upper-management didn't care enough about it to push the full strength of Kitase's A-team to do it themselves.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
We'll see when we'll play it
Toriyama said that this time LR is developed all-in-house. Another proof this game will be more polished, thu probably costier than XIII-2.
Meccanical
Member
Does Kitase even have an A-team anymore?
It seems like most people I've seen on GAF and other places are pretty vocal about their dislike of XIII/Lightning, so it's hard to get an accurate count.
That said, she is pretty popular in Japan, despite the overall controversies of the series.
count me in for more Lightning
We'll see when we'll play it
I'll be playing it in 11 days so I'll let you know.
You forgot about XIV:ARR ?...Now that's a giant that NEEDS a lot of marketing push.They will probably focus on it more and for good reason.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Toriyama-san will share that on their new opened youtube channel ("S-E presents") so we'll see together
ARR is getting alot of push and it'll get even more by getting closer its release. But August is near – and summer, LR's momentum will be builded up soon after it.
TheJollyCorner
Member
Production Development 1 (or whatever they are called now).
I'd imagine most of them were either tossed into Versus development right after XIII released, XIV:ARR to help finish it, or right into XV or XVI. Maybe spread thin and tossed into all of the above?
Many of the staff working on XIII went to XIV, yes.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
And considering ARR's development is basically finished from a couple of months, probably they're now all on LR before moving into the next big AAA title they're cooking.
Mother of god: hype.
What about versus ? didn't it begin full production in sept 2011 ? Did come to a stop again ?