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Square Enix on the five concepts that define Final Fantasy

Teletraan1 said:
I would kill for either of those style of game in 1080p. Could you imagine proper hand drawn sprites in that resolution. How beautiful that game would look. Or 1080p pre rendered backdrops with Super High Poly character models that have light sources/shadows as they would be cast from how the pre rendered scene was originally lit. They should make games in this style even if they aren't called Final Fantasy. Revive some other games or make a new IP. You can make new IPs. If the game is good enough you can build new IP. Nobody knew what a Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, Uncharted or Bioshock was last gen. People would go nuts for a return to form with updated ideas.
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I have been saying how much I miss pre rendered backgrounds and how much I want them to come back.

I mean hell it worked for REmake, still one of the best looking games ever made.
 
MagiusNecros said:
I've come to realize that if Square is vague about something, it usually means they are full of shit.
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I'm still irritated. If it weren't for that asinine 'gorgeous beauty not in the 2D games' remark, I wouldn't be so bothered by the article overall.

I do think the prerendered backgrounds in the PS1-era FFs are absolutely beautiful, as discussed in the FF Community Thread in the past.
 
XBDhr.png


Now that people are talking about blood in FF, I wonder how they would have depicted this scene with modern tools.

Anyways, I love sprites in games, so they are certainly beautiful to me.
 
Crakatak187 said:
Here's the real answer to them.

1.Lightning
2.Lightning
3.Lightning
4.Lightning
5.Lightning
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You know I had a dream last night, I walked into gamestop and there was like a whole shelf of Final Fantasy games from the SNES up, only there were Lightning stickers on the box art.

Just slapped, right on top of the case, for no reason.

I WISH I was joking.
 
Soul_Pie said:
I actually miss pre-rendered backgrounds you know. I still think Final Fantasy IX is the most beautiful in the series despite its technical limitations.
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Resident Evil Remake really makes me want to see a major developer try their hand at pre-rendered backgrounds with modern consoles. But it doesn't seem like that'll happen. And if it did it almost certainly wouldn't be Square.
 
I had a dream that GILGAMESH twisted Lightning into a Pretzel which made him go to Auntie Anne's and steal all the Pretzels.

It was awesome.

And yes this happened recently.

-----------------------------------------

If Square is really worried about the FF brand, wouldn't they say something about Type 0 and Versus like big time?
 
MagiusNecros said:
I had a dream that GILGAMESH twisted Lightning into a Pretzel which made him go to Auntie Anne's and steal all the Pretzels.

It was awesome.

And yes this happened recently.

-----------------------------------------

If Square is really worried about the FF brand, wouldn't they say something about Type 0 and Versus like big time?
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That depends on if they really think that Type 0/Versus would help the brand, or more if they would overshadow Lightning Returns. At this point even a rerelease of Type 0 won't do that unless taken outside of Japan and who knows when it comes to Versus.

Maybe if they ever unchain Nomura and actually let him talk about the Project we will see if they have any confidence in it.
 
Nostalgia
Nostalgia
Nostalgia
Cheap Remakes
Profit

Those are the 5 defining concepts of "modern" Final Fantasy.
 
MagiusNecros said:
Well choosing Toriyama to fly their Airship is a sign of the lack of common sense while Ito, their genius gameplay designer is fiddling with their coffee machine and making free iOS games on the side.
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I wonder what he's up to...

I know "Making FFXV" is a popular theory but considering they have 700 people working on FFXIV Baby give me one more chance edition I don't think that's the case
 
TruePrime said:
That depends on if they really think that Type 0/Versus would help the brand, or more if they would overshadow Lightning Returns. At this point even a rerelease of Type 0 won't do that unless taken outside of Japan and who knows when it comes to Versus.

Maybe if they ever unchain Nomura and actually let him talk about the Project we will see if they have any confidence in it.
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I think it's a given that Versus would overshadow LR... just look what happens on this very forum when anything even remotely related to Versus XIII surfaces.
 
Woo-Fu said:
Nostalgia
Nostalgia
Nostalgia
Cheap Remakes
Profit

Those are the 5 defining concepts of "modern" Final Fantasy.
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When was the last time they remade anything FF? IV DS/ IV Complete? They haven't been doing a whole lot of that lately.

Kagari said:
I think it's a given that Versus would overshadow LR... just look what happens on this very forum when anything even remotely related to Versus XIII surfaces.
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I have no doubt that it would, but that doesn't matter so long as Nomura doesn't/isn't allowed to talk about the damn thing.
 
MagiusNecros said:
I had a dream that GILGAMESH twisted Lightning into a Pretzel which made him go to Auntie Anne's and steal all the Pretzels.

It was awesome.

And yes this happened recently.
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I've just watched the Simpson's episode where Marge makes pretzels today, it can't be coincidence. I can imagine a scene: "And the character who will star in the next Final Fantasy is the one with the number 00013... LIGHTNING!"
Every other character starts throwing pretzels at Lightning while she takes a car to get out of there. The pretzels thrown finally KO Toriyama while he tries to calm the furious audience.
 
Where's "adventure"?

If these are their core concepts, I'll be keeping a low expectation of the series for the foreseeable future.
 
Kagari said:
I think it's a given that Versus would overshadow LR... just look what happens on this very forum when anything even remotely related to Versus XIII surfaces.
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It's a shame they don't realize I ain't buying anything SE related unless it's Versus, Type-0, or Bravely Default.


...

Maayyybe KH 2.5HD if that ever comes over.
 
You know what one concept that the original Final Fantasies were BIG on.

Friendship.

How did they blow over that one.
 
I was waiting to see when they'd say Lightning as one of those reasons.

Also the 2D games not being beautiful? Seriously?
 
"Gorgeous beauty" is glaringly redundant. Glad to see change on there though. The games have displeased as of late, but I infinitely respect the way Square refuses to let it stagnate. "At least it's different!" is of course a shitty argument for quality, so I never make it. But I'm happy about the fact I can honestly say I've never seen someone complain about XIII or any other FF being the same old shit. It's the one thing that I think puts the franchise firmly above Tales and the reason Dragon Quest VIII is the only DQ I've played and the only one I need to.
 
Snakeyes said:
Careful, we don't need even more corny power of friendship dialogue in our FF after XIII.
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Didn't help them in XIII series.

They essentially did what Hades wanted which had to be intervened by something stupider then they were which in turn turned that story on it's head in the sequel where we got even stupider characters to control who single-handily recreated a global FFV Phantom Village effect.

Good job.

And now we get Lightning Returns Versus-0
 
Gentleman Jack said:
sDaKY.jpg


It's nice that they have some kind of vision for every Final Fantasy game but it doesn't look like they're following through on "change" when the they've pumped out/are pumping out -2, -3 sequels and MMOs bearing the franchise tag.
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The MMOs are the last places to cast blame here. Both have been long, involved, full-budget, and far more ambitious than any of the SP titles; one of 11's expansions is in serious contention in the "best FF story" thread we have going, 11's system itself is pretty much undebatably both the biggest shakeup since FF4 and the most refined, and 14's visuals and aesthetics are both series peaks (though the game itself was -too- experimental in all the wrong places.)
 
1. Expensive cut-scenes
2. Spiky-haired protagonist
3. Dark/brown-haired female character
4. Chocobo/cactuar/the usual bestiary
5. Sad Japanese theme song.
 
I was thinking I'd just be offended by the lack of towns and world map, but dissing the sprite FFs is a tad worse

Someone needs to ask about the five things to Sakaguchi, I wonder how much it'll differ
 
Kagari said:
http://www.4gamer.net/games/032/G003263/20121126072/

The original source.
There's also a list of typical non-FF elements such as blood, wounds, dirt, dark, shy character, etc.
Which incidentally exist in FF Type-0 and Versus XIII.
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I'm confused. Do they mean FF doesn't have those things? Because in 6 we see Kefka stab Leo and the screen turns red.

Meccanical said:
They have the talent, it's just that the talented ones aren't in charge.
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Instead it's the mad men, I see.

Wish I could get a game with Tabata, Shimomura and Matsuno's involvement.
 
Mandoric said:
The MMOs are the last places to cast blame here.
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I'm mostly objecting to XIV, since it's an evolution of XI and not representative of the same leap taken between X and XI, or XI and XII. I'm also judging it by its release quality, not the rebirth. I could be wrong, maybe they're taking a more of these 'five concepts' head-on with XIV 2.0 but 1.0 was a lot of treading water in concepts straight up copied from XI.
 
It kind of feels like they're following a specific formula, I wish they didn't do that. I'm fine with high production values, flashy visuals and stuff because that's what I've come to expect from the series nowadays, but the primary motive should be immersing the player into the fantasy world they've created and doing everything it takes to achieve that--music, great story, visuals, addictive gameplay, etc. It's about executing these elements well.

I can't really pinpoint what went wrong with the last few games, there are a lot of reasons but they just didn't feel like Final Fantasy games.
 
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