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Nomura Interview on FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII [Development Clarification]
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
thetechkid
Member
We needed something after the Duke came out.
To Far Away Times
Member
Pre-Production? After five years?
mysticwhip
Banned
hhahahahahaahahahaahahahsahahahahahha
No. Fabula Nova Crystalis project's planning started in '03 (coming up with the connecting mythology, figuring out what games would be a part of it etc.), Nomura didn't really start doing much with Versus until after Kingdom Hearts II was released in December '05. He knew what his next project would be long before that and probably had some ideas for it, but it wasn't until KHII was released that he started fleshing out everything he had in mind for the project, while the KH team still worked on localizing KHII for US & European release as well as developing KHII Final Mix.
Kinda like what is going on with KHIII, atm. He already knows that will be his next big project after Versus, but he's still too focused on Versus (& KH3D) that he won't have the time to start really planning it after Versus is out.
Rei no Otaku
Member
Jem.artwalknoon said:
gundamkyoukai
Member
SE need more people , they have one set of people that make all there HD games it seems.
Nomura must be using a team that's even smaller than it takes to a make a psp game while everyone else was working on FFXIII and now FFXIII -2 and some handheld games.
Then again this is a problem with Japanese companies they still stuck on ps2 teams and want to make huge HD games.
Nomura must be using a team that's even smaller than it takes to a make a psp game while everyone else was working on FFXIII and now FFXIII -2 and some handheld games.
Then again this is a problem with Japanese companies they still stuck on ps2 teams and want to make huge HD games.
PeakPointMatrix
Member
What a clusterfuck of a production. I guess the only plus is that KH3 will be a PS4 game.
There is a zero chance that the games name will remain versus, it being in pre production and FFXIII-2 releasing this year means that by the time Versus is ready, FFXIII will be long gone so would not make any sense keeping the Versus name. Let's be optimistic here and say the game releases in 2013, it will have been 4 years since the Japan release of FFXIII. This is soooooooo gonna be renamed into a mainline title. Budget wise I would not be surprised if the budget was not spiralling out of control which many assume such as myself, knowing this is still in pre production surely means that not many people are working on the game currently. Kinda begs the question of what the KH team has been doing all that time, perhaps helping to complete FFXIII-2. Feels horrible knowing I wasted £425 on promises, GT5 turned out like shit and Versus will probably not even release on the system. Knowing that the other two manufacturers made shitty consoles and games this gen softens the blow slightly though, just picked the most expensive turd. 
2008 was around the time I stopped caring for this game. It was obvious then it wouldn't be out for at least another couple years and here we are a couple years later and it is still in that state of development. Almost want this to go down the path of Duke Nukem Forever, lmao. This game will probably get renamed and be on the Playstation 4 with how long it is taking. Good thing I haven't liked Square since 2001.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
I think FFvsXIII may end up releasing too dated to be called FFXV. Looked kind of dated compared to KH:BBS and KH3D when it was shown, how will it look compared to 2014 games? Could end up being an averagish project and I think Square needs FFXV to be a GotY level game.
What are they doing?
Seriously, WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
This game was announced at E3 2006. TWO THOUSAND AND SIX. And they're still in pre-production? Pre-production.
What is wrong with Square? SERIOUSLY. WHAT THE HELL.
They're into some 3d Realms/Team Bondi type delays with every game they come out with. For some reason it takes them a million years to come out with every single game, and it's not like they're substantially better than everything else out there. WHAT IS GOING ON?
Seriously, WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
This game was announced at E3 2006. TWO THOUSAND AND SIX. And they're still in pre-production? Pre-production.
What is wrong with Square? SERIOUSLY. WHAT THE HELL.
They're into some 3d Realms/Team Bondi type delays with every game they come out with. For some reason it takes them a million years to come out with every single game, and it's not like they're substantially better than everything else out there. WHAT IS GOING ON?
The thing is, unlike R*'s games (which, btw, people weren't constantly whining about not being released), Versus HASN'T been in development for that long. It was announced 5 years ago but it hasn't been in development for 5 years (announced in 2006, almost no work done until late 2007/early 2008 apart from maybe a small team getting the project started). All this talk about mismanagement and crap is just people being ignorant of the whole way they've been going about the project. It hasn't taken so long because "lulz, they don't have their act together", it's been taking so long because they've got the freedom to do so. Instead of rushing out a game that lacks a lot of the things they'd wanted to do, they are taking their time with it.Raitosaito said:
Seriously, for a lot people whining so much about the shortness of today's games and a lot of features being left out because there's no time to add them to a lot of games (and them being added later as DLC), there sure is a lot of complaining when Square Enix gives their developers the time they need to plan it out and make it a game they want to make. I'd think that'd be a good thing, but apparently it's not.
Oh well, Nomura still confirmed them starting the VA recordings sometime last year, so that means they were at a point in development then where they could start doing that. That, to me, would imply that they are somewhat far along with the development and progressing with it steadily.
And the point still stands that it's not "nothing" they've been doing all this time. It's not like they only have 1 hour worth of content at the moment like some people seem to think, they just probably don't have the full team working full-time on it (maybe some are helping with XIII-2 or KH3D). Until we know exactly what Nomura means by "full production", this whole "ZOMG THEY STILL AT PRE-PRODUCTION, SQUARE ENIX WORST DEVELOPER IN DA WORLD CONFIRMED" hysteria is laughably over-blown. It quite likely doesn't mean the kind of pre-production a lot of other games have where they maybe have some rough gameplay-shit together with some environments that are filled with white blocks. The January '11 trailer clearly shows that they have been past that kind of phase in development for quite some time.
Dissidia, Birth By Sleep, The World Ends With You and a lot of others didn't take "a million years." It's mostly these 3 FF games that have taken a long time and apart from XIII, they have their (good) reasons for the "delays"
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
I really think they should turn this into Final Fantasy 15 and maybe even make it a PS4 launch game. Seriously, that's how ridiculous this development cycle has gotten! They're just taking way too long. Make FFXIII-2 the complimentary game VSXIII was supposed to be and since VSXIII looks different anyway, it can get away with being FF15.
I guess we won't see Kingdom Hearts 3 until PS5? And the crazy thing is, I don't know if I'm joking about that!
I guess we won't see Kingdom Hearts 3 until PS5? And the crazy thing is, I don't know if I'm joking about that!
IchigoSharingan
Member
ITT: We realize SE is irrelevant and hopelessly broken.
Urban Scholar
Member
I know in threads, I often rag on this game and it's bad development cycle but I seriously thought it would be here in 1 year + tops. This though....yeah...
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
I think Square would have to be mad if this didn't turn into Final Fantasy XV.
Raitosaito
Member
Famassu said:
So why did you even bring up R* games as an example to begin with? And by the looks of most R* game threads, I'm pretty sure the bitching about development time is pretty prevalent.
Unless this is the netherverse.
And I never said FFV13 had mismanagement problems, just all the things from his interviews are pointing at the fact that this game still doesn't seem to have a real focus on the development side yet.
Urban Scholar
Member
Raitosaito said:
Not bagging on you but this is the understatement of the year.
Rahxephon91
Banned
Eh whatever. They are taking forever for a game that I'm not exactly sure is going to be good. So I've pretty much lost interests at this time.
At least the pretty promising XIII-2 is coming pretty quickly.
At least the pretty promising XIII-2 is coming pretty quickly.
Just to bring out recent games that have had long development cycles without everyone going all "developer of game X is worst ever and don't give a shit about them anymore." While, yes, it has taken long for Type-0 & Versus, Square Enix has still managed to release some great games like Birth By Sleep, The World Ends With You, Dissidia etc. in time.Raitosaito said:
And I don't get why you ignore most of my other points in my posts, a lot of my arguments don't base on R* taking a long time with their games (and, btw, Last Guardian isn't a Rockstar game). There are reasons why Versus is taking so long and none of them have to do with reasons like "they don't know what they are doing" or "lulz, shitty devs having huge problems" (well, apart from the Crystal Tools fiasco but Square Enix isn't alone with having some initial problems adjusting to "next-gen" development, they just have taken their time to get past those problems instead of releasing games that are in horribly incomplete state, which has cause the development times to be longer than they perhaps otherwise would have).
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
Ha. So Squeenix is trying to get rid of exclusivity when 2014 and the new generation of consoles is here. If Squeenix is making it for the next gen it won´t be PS3 exclusive.
Hydrogen Bluebird
Member
I think the thread title needs to be edited or maybe not, but pre-production for this game looks epic based on this gameplay trailer.
I mean it is obvious that SE has done something, otherwise they wouldn't even show gameplay footage.
I mean it is obvious that SE has done something, otherwise they wouldn't even show gameplay footage.
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
Same here. LA Noire and GT5 were two of the most expensive games ever made and they were in production over 5-6 years.Josh7289 said:
Also, can't believe it's still in pre-production. I doubt it's two years. Looks more like another 5!
Raitosaito
Member
Krev said:
This
SkylineRKR
Member
I wonder how strong that 'XIII' brand still is. FFXIII was being slagged and Agito dropped it (as did the whole FNC thing i believe). It also begins to sound retro by now. Maybe they'll just end up calling it FF: Versus?
They announced it. That doesn't have to mean anything. They alledgedly didn't work on Versus when FFXIII was in production. And now they're busy developing XIII-2.
Maybe the time they actually spent developing the game isn't even a full year.
Thing is that S-E announced this way too early. They could announce it today, then release within 2 years and no one would find it a weird development cycle.
Josh7289 said:
They announced it. That doesn't have to mean anything. They alledgedly didn't work on Versus when FFXIII was in production. And now they're busy developing XIII-2.
Maybe the time they actually spent developing the game isn't even a full year.
Thing is that S-E announced this way too early. They could announce it today, then release within 2 years and no one would find it a weird development cycle.
Rahxephon91
Banned
The last trailer with the gameplay. I doubt that was target render, the game pretty much looked exactly like a FFXIII engine game.KyteTron said:
Raitosaito
Member
Famassu said:
When did I state LG being a R* game? I only stated the working conditions in those games. You are clearly grasping for straws here at this point. I read the other reasons you have for the development time, but they didn't really seem relevant. I mean one of them was "We don't see content and people complain due to development time," or something like that. Looking at FF13 and it's linear approach even though it was in development for 4-5 years, I think the "super long development time=tons of content" point seems moot.
Also, you can't state a point and say "Whoa, I said other stuff too, so bringing up R* doesn't matter now."
As I have stated earlier, I don't think they are mismanaging the game, but they just don't seem to have reach that far the the development cycle of the game. I never stated they didn't know what they were doing.
You clearly only see what you want to see.
JasonUresti
Member
So, is this going to be the project where Nomura shits the bed so badly that Square says "Fuck it", and cuts him loose?
nelsonroyale
Member
Bloody hell...
On the one hand, the game sounds like the Final Fantasy I want SE to make. On the other hand, its beginning to seem like it will never be made... Just cancel FFXII-2 and complete this damnit. If this doesn't get released and FFXIII-2 does...well I am finished with SE
On the one hand, the game sounds like the Final Fantasy I want SE to make. On the other hand, its beginning to seem like it will never be made... Just cancel FFXII-2 and complete this damnit. If this doesn't get released and FFXIII-2 does...well I am finished with SE
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
I don't understand lately what's going on in Square Enix with all this "interacting cutscenes". What do they mean? That we can freely move the camera during those? And what's for? Lost Odyssey once gave me this option, and I never felt to use it. Boh?
Anyway, the game seems still far, but I bet a 2012 Fall release it's still plenty possible, unless Square Enix has another big game for that year to launch replacing its release.
Anyway, the game seems still far, but I bet a 2012 Fall release it's still plenty possible, unless Square Enix has another big game for that year to launch replacing its release.
GhostWriter24
Member
Why they don't can the whole project and him as well is beyond me.JasonUresti said:
Rahxephon91
Banned
Seeing as how Square has handled XIII and Versus, I just couldn't see things that way. They have skipped several shows were showing games would have been appropriate. Why put in all that effort for a small Square only show? Sure you can turn this argument on it's side, perhaps they just threw that footage together because it was a Square only show and it hasn't appeared at other shows because it was just thrown together footage. But then there's also the fact that they actually made that footage publicly free of charge on their own youtube channel. That didn't really happen with those early FFXIII trailers. Which they ignored when it came to the actual rollout for XIII.Krev said:
So I think that footage was pretty representable of what Versus is. I believe it is actual Versus footage and not a target render or something. But I'm no expert.