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Stella has been removed from FFXV; Itamuro writing game; Demo 2 June 9; FFXV not @ E3

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
I haven't been misled really. From the very first moment Luna was shown it was obvious that she was Stella's replacement, they just didn't clearly said it until today, but Tabata and the rest avoiding the question made it more than clear than Stella was gone. Also, we didn't really know anything about her. Did Stella even speak¿ I don't think we even heard her talk once. I really don't get everyone's attachment to a character that was barely shown and we got almost no information about.
Also, Luna seems cooler imo.

I've also seen you being really negative about Nomura not being in the project anymore but I think that with him gone, the game actually has a chance to exist. If the project was left on Nomura's hands, no matter what the reason, it'd most likely be cancelled or in a limbo like The Last Guardian
unless that one shows up at E3
. Tabata's version of the game looks great. We've tried the demo and seen a LOT of info since last TGS. Give the man an opportunity.

I know you have much more info than everyone else here and I respect you a lot as a FF fan and gamer Kagari but your constant negativity towards FFXV seems very unfair to me. We were all skeptical, yes. But now with the demo out and them saying what they're aiming to achieve I'm confident that the game will be very cool and interesting.

Like I said, my problem with him was keeping this stuff hidden for months while claiming to be so open and transparent.
 

Klossen

Banned
I'm not defending the 9 (possibly 11) year dev cycle. But video games are not as simplistic as the ps1/ps2 days anymore when you could get away with a smaller team.

A team of 200-300 individual people have been working on this game everyday since 2013. A lot more work is involved.

And I have to wonder if all that extra work justifies the ridiculous dev cycles and creators getting burned. I'm sure as hell not having more fun now than I did playing all those simpler PSX/PS2 FF games.
 

True Fire

Member
I still feel like XV will be better than what Versus XIII would have ended up being.

As a writer, I truly believe that a second pair of eyes revising a story is always a good thing, especially when we know Versus XIII was the brainchild of Nomura, the mastermind behind the incomprehensible Kingdom Hearts series.

It seems like Tabata is watering down the story and making the game a bit more gameplay-oriented, which I don't necessarily mind either. XIII's problem is that it had too much story, jam packed into a hallway simulator. And Final Fantasy is, all things considered, a game.
 
I haven't been misled really. From the very first moment Luna was shown it was obvious that she was Stella's replacement, they just didn't clearly said it until today, but Tabata and the rest avoiding the question made it more than clear than Stella was gone. Also, we didn't really know anything about her. Did Stella even speak¿ I don't think we even heard her talk once. I really don't get everyone's attachment to a character that was barely shown and we got almost no information about.
Also, Luna seems cooler imo.

I've also seen you being really negative about Nomura not being in the project anymore but I think that with him gone, the game actually has a chance to exist. If the project was left on Nomura's hands, no matter what the reason, it'd most likely be cancelled or in a limbo like The Last Guardian
unless that one shows up at E3
. Tabata's version of the game looks great. We've tried the demo and seen a LOT of info since last TGS. Give the man an opportunity.

I know you have much more info than everyone else here and I respect you a lot as a FF fan and gamer Kagari but your constant negativity towards FFXV seems very unfair to me. We were all skeptical, yes. But now with the demo out and them saying what they're aiming to achieve I'm confident that the game will be very cool and interesting.

So what you're saying is that they tried to misled, but they actually failed to misled you.
 

B.K.

Member
Versus XIII should have been cancelled years ago and XV should have been a completely original concept. It's been nothing but one mistake and one clusterfuck after another since 2006. The entire Fabula Nova Crystalis series was a mistake.
 

TRI Mike

Member
My only real problems with the game after I tried it were the targeting system, lack of team attacks and not being able to beat the shit out of the giant creatures. All of them are fixed in 2.0.

I'm ready for Gamescom.
 

Gbraga

Member
Like I said, my problem with him was keeping this stuff hidden for months while claiming to be so open and transparent.

I'd say he was, at least by S-E standards. We're hearing a lot more from him in the past few months than we ever did from Nomura during Versus' development.

Things change during development, I don't think it's so different that people who were excited about Versus for what they showed will no longer find anything like it in XV. I don't think he was misleading people when he was saying there was nothing to worry about, it's just classic damage control.
 
Dissidia writer also working on the game? Hype dropped like a rock. I have never skipped cutscenes until I played Dissidia.
 
I'd say he was, at least by S-E standards. We're hearing a lot more from him in the past few months than we ever did from Nomura during Versus' development.

Things change during development, I don't think it's so different that people who were excited about Versus for what they showed will no longer find anything like it in XV. I don't think he was misleading people when he was saying there was nothing to worry about, it's just classic damage control.
But was nomura even able to talk about versus? I don't think he was as square was always trying to focus on some other game; 13 and 14. Seems like he got the short end of the stick.

All you guys posting Ned are late, it's been posted pages ago.
 
The amount of Stella/Luna outrage feels similar to the Alisha outrage from Tales of Zestria. In both cases you barely knew anything about them, and yet people still form these "attachments" to characters they know nothing about. I don't know why people do this to themselves. Assume nothing, expect anything and the sting of unrealized expectations won't hurt as much.
 
Like I said, my problem with him was keeping this stuff hidden for months while claiming to be so open and transparent.

Yeah that's pretty contradictory.
Though maybe they were waiting until the demo was out so people could build some confidence in FFXV's potential, rather than merely being told X,Y and Z were being scrapped (with nothing to show afterwards)
 
Dissidia writer also working on the game? Hype dropped like a rock. I have never skipped cutscenes until I played Dissidia.
It is not Dissidia writer. The Dissidia writer was Daisuke Watanabe. The one writing FF XV scenario is a brand new writer who has worked on Dissidia previously, but not as a writer.
 

Reveirg

Member
No, he claimed for months that there was nothing to worry about, nothing had changed. Then he proceeded to go on about transparency and listening to fan feedback, etc etc while repeating to fans - namely Versus fans - that things were okay.

This stuff was hidden for months, and it's not just the exclusion of Stella but entire scenes have been removed including the original opening, and they changed Nojima's script and brought in another script writer.

I stopped 100% trusting Tabata when he went on about how he designed the Warping mechanic after having developed the Overdive in The 3rd Birthday, and generally appropriating himself Versus' design even though he wasn't part of the dev team when those things were revealed. He constantly goes out of his way to avoid pronouncing the name "Nomura".

It became obvious that he's not as transparent as he'd make us believe.
 

LuuKyK

Member
Dissidia writer also working on the game? Hype dropped like a rock. I have never skipped cutscenes until I played Dissidia.

Honestly there is not much you can do with a crossover with so many different characters regarding the plot. This is totally different.
 

Gbraga

Member
But was nomura even able to talk about versus? I don't think he was as square was always trying to focus on some other game; 13 and 14. Seems like he got the short end of the stick.

All you guys posting Ned are late, it's been posted pages ago.

Hm, good point, but the same can be applied to Tabata, right? We also don't know how much he is or isn't allowed to talk about, I assume he can't just say "fuck this shit, I'm the director, I'll do whatever I want. No one says a word about Stella being dead until I say otherwise!"

Yeah that's pretty contradictory.
Though maybe they were waiting until the demo was out so people could build some confidence in FFXV's potential, rather than merely being told X,Y and Z were being scrapped (with nothing to show afterwards)

Yeah, exactly. "This game is now called FF XV, Tabata is the new director, Nomura is out, the party scene you've seen so many times is gone, Stella is gone, please be excited" doesn't really work.
 
So you are claiming that this all happened after the XV E3 reveal (and Nomura's removal), the past couple of months? Because this is a shocker if true.

To me it sounds like Nomura was already out the door by the time XV was announced at e3-2013 and was forced to do that announcement during the reveal, nothing more humiliating than that.
 
I'm actually OK with them skipping E3. If they had continued to promise a trailer and then show only old footage (as they were planning to do), I would have been deeply disappointed. I'm glad the Western offices told them it was a bad idea and shut them down. I can wait for Gamescom.
 

rhandino

Banned
I haven't been misled really. From the very first moment Luna was shown it was obvious that she was Stella's replacement, they just didn't clearly said it until today, but Tabata and the rest avoiding the question made it more than clear than Stella was gone. Also, we didn't really know anything about her. Did Stella even speak¿ I don't think we even heard her talk once. I really don't get everyone's attachment to a character that was barely shown and we got almost no information about.
Also, Luna seems cooler imo.
Vs XIII - 2011 Trailer

D8SiinC.png

From memory she was very assertive and direct with Noctis...
 

TRI Mike

Member
I'd say he was, at least by S-E standards. We're hearing a lot more from him in the past few months than we ever did from Nomura during Versus' development.

Things change during development, I don't think it's so different that people who were excited about Versus for what they showed will no longer find anything like it in XV. I don't think he was misleading people when he was saying there was nothing to worry about, it's just classic damage control.

Exactly, people seem to have an idea in their minds of what Versus was going to be like when to be honest we almost didn't see any gameplay or had info about the real plot, lore and characters. (Stella never even spoke as far as I'm concerned). So now that XV is different from that perfect construct of a JRPG they built in their minds they're complaining.

I genuinely think the game looks and plays great and just want more info at this point.
 
To me it sounds like Nomura was already out the door by the time XV was announced at e3-2013 and was forced to do that announcement during the reveal, nothing more humiliating than that.
You are forgetting a lot of stuff then.... because he just didn't do the announcement and disappear into thin air.

Nomura was then attending subsequent events and promoting FF XV. He also did interviews till Paris Game Week and was also present on stage there. I mean we don't get to see him much but he was there, promoting FF XV after the E3 reveal.

So no, he didn't exit until the end of 2013 atleast.
 
Hm, good point, but the same can be applied to Tabata, right? We also don't know how much he is or isn't allowed to talk about, I assume he can't just say "fuck this shit, I'm the director, I'll do whatever I want. No one says a word about Stella being dead until I say otherwise!"



Yeah, exactly. "This game is now called FF XV, Tabata is the new director, Nomura is out, the party scene you've seen so many times is gone, Stella is gone, please be excited" doesn't really work.
But he's been able to show and talk way more about the game than nomura ever was. But this is all just speculation though so we'll never know, I'd love to find out exactly what happened behind the scenes one day.
 

Geg

Member
I stopped 100% trusting Tabata when he went on about how he designed the Warping mechanic after having developed the Overdive in The 3rd Birthday, and generally appropriating himself Versus' design even though he wasn't part of the dev team when those things were revealed. He constantly goes out of his way to avoid pronouncing the name "Nomura".

It became obvious that he's not as transparent as he'd make us believe.

As far as we know the actual mechanics of warping probably weren't in a working state at the time he joined the project
 

dwr

Member
Btw it's kinda funny how they're now blaming the Italian guy for Cindy's design lol. Cindy while goofy is the least of my concerns.

In defense of the italian guy Roberto Ferrari, he was probably commissioned to design Cyndy that way, if it's even his work.

Most of his stuff I found is pretty tame.

If you want I found her sister in law blog, where there's some of his works. Some of them are old, old works though, dating back to '96.

A few may be considered NSFW, BEWARE! link
 

Gbraga

Member
Exactly, people seem to have an idea in their minds of what Versus was going to be like when to be honest we almost didn't see any gameplay or had info about the real plot, lore and characters. (Stella never even spoke as far as I'm concerned). So now that XV is different from that perfect construct of a JRPG they built in their minds they're complaining.

I genuinely think the game looks and plays great and just want more info at this point.

Same goes for the writer thing, tbh. People were excited about the in-game dialogue from the demo, (mostly) everyone agreed that it was pretty good and helped to develop the main characters, but then we get a name and people start freaking out.

Even if it was the Dissidia writer, why does that invalidade what we actually played?


Oh, so she was still Stella in 2013? The game was already in full production at that time, I assume?

That's the one part that concerns me, why did they drastically change the story so late in development? This game will never be released, I swear.
 

Philippo

Member
Yes, for months now.
This wasn't the only skeleton in Tabata's closet either. I wonder if he'll ever share the rest.

Like I said, my problem with him was keeping this stuff hidden for months while claiming to be so open and transparent.

If i may ask, what do you expect from the game as of now? For example i too am bummed about it not being VsXIII anymore but i see a lot of, if not the same, potential in its current state, while you often write about it like you've lost all the hype. Is it because you don't like the changes so much, or maybe you don't trust the running dev team on developing a good game? Or maybe some secret secret stuff like this whole Stelluna thing? I'm just curious
 

Kagari

Crystal Bearer
If i may ask, what do you expect from the game as of now? For example i too am bummed about it not being VsXIII anymore but i see a lot of, if not the same, potential in its current state, while you often write about it like you've lost all the hype. Is it because you don't like the changes so much, or maybe you don't trust the running dev team on developing a good game? Or maybe some secret secret stuff like this whole Stelluna thing? I'm just curious

No more fan feedback nonsense.
No more tech demos
No more Duscae.

Just make a good game. Final Fantasy on a single-player level needs to be captivating again.
If anything they should have scrapped everything and made XV an entirely new concept. There hasn't been a new FF concept since 2006 now.
 
But he's been able to show and talk way more about the game than nomura ever was. But this is all just speculation though so we'll never know, I'd love to find out exactly what happened behind the scenes one day.

I think that's because back in the day (under Nomura) the game was more concept than actual product - can't really talk about a game when it's so early (at least, I'd say that's the norm in the industry) because it's subject to so much change. Now the game is in full production they can talk about it freely, and I'd argue they're purposely being very open about it (and accepting feedback etc. based on the demo) to make up for lack of communication during it's earlier development.
SE's fault here was the length of time between the original concept (Versus) and the actual product taking shape (as FFXV), because people grew attached to the original concepts.
 

Geg

Member
Same goes for the writer thing, tbh. People were excited about the in-game dialogue from the demo, (mostly) everyone agreed that it was pretty good and helped to develop the main characters, but then we get a name and people start freaking out.

Even if it was the Dissidia writer, why does that invalidade what we actually played?

Honestly I assumed the demo was still Nojima so if that was really done by Itamuro and the new writing team I'm fine with it.
 
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