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What's next for the Final Fantasy franchise?

I still don't understand the hate for Vaan and Penelo What was wrong with them other than not contributing much to the plot. I thought they were far more harmless than some of the FFXIII characters.

I never heard much about Penelo. Was she really that... Non-existent?
 
Vaan's personality was just kind of bland. I don't think he imparted much of an impact on the story good or bad.

I think he would be less hated if he was less shirtless.

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I think it's just the usual THE NEWEST FF IS THE WORST FF EVER.

FF fans have very, very selective memories, and also are somewhat homophobic.
 
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[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/liGSb.jpg[IMG]

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I think it's just the usual THE NEWEST FF IS THE WORST FF EVER.

FF fans have very, very selective memories, and also are somewhat homophobic.[/QUOTE]

Hey now, I was speaking for what others seem to think, I have no problem with Vaan really (the first line of my post)
 
I never heard much about Penelo. Was she really that... Non-existent?

She was just kind of.. there. Didn't contribute anything except to serve as Vaan's friend/possible love interest (but not really?) And she is utterly eclipsed by the rest of the cast when it comes to personality.
 
Hey now, I was speaking for what others seem to think, I have no problem with Vaan really (the first line of my post)

I wasn't implying you did...just a general commentary on the community. The amount of people screaming GAY at Vaan's pic was the biggest cry since...they saw Tidus' pic and screamed the same thing.

There's guys in this thread whining about the prettyboy clothing but it's been that way since FF1.
 
Vaan's personality was just kind of bland. I don't think he imparted much of an impact on the story good or bad.

I think he would be less hated if he was less shirtless.

Didn't work for this guy:

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Didn't work for this guy:

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/thumb/4/42/Snow_alternate_outfit.jpg/300px-Snow_alternate_outfit.jpg[img][/QUOTE]

Well here's the thing. Vaan's personality is forgettable, I don't remember his role much at all.

Snow's "Hero!" schtick...sticks with you.

I guess what I'm saying is that the hate against Vaan seems sorta superficial, against Snow maybe a tad less so.

I dunno, every has their opinions.
 
The sad part is Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey were my two favorite RPGs of this gen. They felt like more Square Enix games then Square Enix games actually did. That is the direction Final Fantasy should be going in.

This is where I'm at. I haven't bothered with a FF game since FFX. I hear FF12 was pretty good, but the MMO-style "everyone on autopilot" battle system turned me off.

Lost Odyssey had some problems (battles taking too long, too many / much emphasis on rings and therefore stealing) but it was one of my favorite RPGs to date. It bucked the teenage protagonist schtick and had a nice multi-generation theme, along with the whole concept of immortals interacting with their own descendants.

I liked FFX but it was way too easy. I think my last really-enjoyed FF was FF9 with its retro design and archetypal role characters. Even the wonderful FF6 and the pretty good FF7 got muddled down in their "everyone can do some of everything" mechanics eventually.
 
Either Square goes back to basics or the series will continue to run itself into the ground.

And by going back to basics, I'm not talking about re-releasing the Golden-Era Final Fantasy titles every fucking year for whatever handheld is currently on the market.
They need to take a long, hard look at what made the older games the complex-yet-charming adventures that they were.

My thoughts exactly.
Except the word "charming". That word means nothing.
 
The sad part is Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey were my two favorite RPGs of this gen. They felt like more Square Enix games then Square Enix games actually did. That is the direction Final Fantasy should be going in.

Couldn't disagree more, at least for Lost Odyssey. LO's style is what Final Fantasy should be moving away from. Slow, cumbersome, boring battles are not going to propel FF back into good favor with gamers. Lost Odyssey had a battle system that made most SNES RPGs look advanced.
 
Is Crystal Chronicles dead?
Cause I love the CC series. Its everything that FF should be to me, except the battle system
Its about kids over coming immense odds, adventuring with friends, and FANTASY.
And these badass motherfuckers.
Ffcc_yuke_artwork.jpg

I would buy whatever system the next CC came out on.
 
The LAST thing I want them to do is to make a FF7remake...
SE cant recognise a good game from a 30 hour tunnel right now, so if they were to make a FF7remake the would just waste it. Just leave it for some better time.

IMO the next logical step would be to find another director, another musician (the current one doesn't fit this gen), and make a FFXV that is bold and original in gameplay.
 
The LAST thing I want them to do is to make a FF7remake...
SE cant recognise a good game from a 30 hour tunnel right now, so if they were to make a FF7remake the would just waste it. Just leave it for some better time.

IMO the next logical step would be to find another director, another musician (the current one doesn't fit this gen), and make a FFXV that is bold and original in gameplay.

How does a musician not fit a generation? lol

Nevermind the fact that SE has the most talented composers in the industry, imo.
 
Is Crystal Chronicles dead?
Cause I love the CC series. Its everything that FF should be to me, except the battle system
Its about kids over coming immense odds, adventuring with friends, and FANTASY.
And these badass motherfuckers.

I would buy whatever system the next CC came out on.

You know what you're talking about. CC is amazing, especially the first game for GCN. And Yukes are godly.

*brofist*
 
I wasn't implying you did...just a general commentary on the community. The amount of people screaming GAY at Vaan's pic was the biggest cry since...they saw Tidus' pic and screamed the same thing.

There's guys in this thread whining about the prettyboy clothing but it's been that way since FF1.

I don't think it is about the design or being shirtless or not. He was just subpar. Way worse than every other character. Brought the whole experience down for me. Penelo was there only for Vaan. You remove Vaan, *poof* Penelo disappears.

FF12's cast was >--< this close to being perfect. Vaan and Penelo denied that.
 
I don't think it is about the design or being shirtless or not. He was just subpar. Way worse than every other character. Brought the whole experience down for me. Penelo was there only for Vaan. You remove Vaan, *poof* Penelo disappears.

FF12's cast was >--< this close to being perfect. Vaan and Penelo denied that.

FF12 only had two good, well developed characters (Ashe and Balthier). Basch and Fran were hardly any more important to the story than Vaan, and by and large don't do much of anything either. People tend to let Basch slide because he's cool looking, has a cool attitude, and people think it's wrong that Vaan replaced him as the main character (even though Basch was actually a replacement main character for Balthier). Fran is nothing more than Balthier's Penelo.
 
The same youthful Japanese aesthetics that people have been complaining about with the FF brand since X came out ten years ago.
How does Versus look anything like Final Fantasy X? From a visual point of view, they are very different games. They have completely different atmospheres. Even Noctis gives off a completely different vibe than any Nomura main character before, so he probably won't annoy people like characters like Tidus, Snow etc. do (even if his looks don't win people over).

There's certainly much less problem than XIII, but again: topic of discussion involves things that can appeal to a Western audience rather than simply fail to offend.
I still don't see how Versus is so horrendous looking to western gamers that they simply can't like it. The game looks almost nothing like any Final Fantasy before so using Final Fantasy X as some kind of example how it can't be appealing to western gamers (especially when X has plenty of fans in the west and is one of the best selling games in the franchise) is kind of dumb.

It's got that certain Japanese style and there are people who are immediately turned off by that kind of thing, but who really gives a fuck about those people? They aren't the gamers Square Enix should be trying to reach because they probably have no interest in Square Enix games. It's enough if Square Enix can appeal to gamers who aren't as closed-minded. It's good that it doesn't try to emulate WRPGs and there are plenty of people who appreciate that kind of style over WRPGs.

And again, I ask you, how is this so appalling to people?
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Or this?
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Or this?
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or this?
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I'm not saying people will love those character designs, but they are the kind that don't get in the way of the kind of gamers' game purchasing decisions that dislike Japanese ANIMUUU stuff, especially if the game itself looks interesting enough. And I'm more than positive than a lot of western gamers would think those characters look decent and with the right kind of trailer might even become interested in the game when they see those kinds of characters interacting with each other + with some intense action scenes (like the Dragoon fight).

What I'm talking about in the point you're arguing here is very much a specific approach to world design that Versus isn't taking. The approach Versus does take may well be great, it's just not the same.
Gah, maybe it's not exactly the same as XII, but it's SIMILAR. You talked about having a world where the fields were of similar scale as the rest of the game and where you had some freedom to go where ever you want to but with a tighter narrative push forward. Versus' world might be divided into bigger areas, but the footage we've seen makes it pretty clear XII has been a big influence on it


Because there's not much use arguing point-by-point with a position that's so far gone from reality.
How? It's YOUR position that has no evidence to back it up, other than the "long" development time. Nomura has discussed the progression of Versus XIII's development many times and even from the small snippets we've seen, there's been CLEAR progress (as in, the January 2011 trailer looks significantly better than the teaser they showed in the Summer of 2010). They've talked how they've implemented the new lighting system, finished the locations of the game, how they've handled cutscenes in a new way, how they are adding new gameplay features etc. That doesn't sound like a game that's in development hell (which, again, would mean that the game isn't advancing at all or it has had numerous iterations, none of which have worked and they would've needed to begin it all over again). Versus XIII's development might've advanced slower than they had anticipated, but that isn't "development hell", it's just slower progress and nothing to get so negative about.

Versus has every hallmark of a project in development hell, from the incredibly long development window
3 years isn't incredibly long.

through the complete lack of specificity regarding its scheduling
Type-0 had the same kind of "lack of specifity regarding its schedule" for the general public, yet suddenly they announced it's just 6 months away (though, with an eventual delay). That game was in no kind of development hell and neither is Versus. They've both had a similar kind of development schedule, the only difference being that Versus is a PS3 game and simply because of that developing it takes longer.

Also, we hardly knew ANYTHING about Agito/Type-0 before the re-reveal in this year's January. We know a shitton more about Versus XIII than we ever did about Type-0 or XIII at this point. We've seen plenty of different kind of gameplay in different environments, that's not something you could say about Agito or XIII until they were much closer to their release dates.

from the vagueness about the game's content
That's just the way Square Enix hypes their games (though sure, they've taken it to the extreme with Versus). At first it's silence, then maybe 4-6 months before release they start revealing stuff about the game at a growing pace, eventually having spoiled about 90% of the games by the time the games are released.

to its repeated no-shows at public events.
Again, there are reasons for this, reasons that other games have suffered from as well (though, given that Versus has been the game that comes after everything else, it's been Versus that has always had to step aside from the spotlight), from the marketing department not wanting games like Versus to overlap the marketing of releases that are closer to being finished & shipped, to them wanting to pick a date and basically prepare a spectacle out of the whole shindig. They say they've already picked the date for when they'll blow the lid of Versus XIII's silence, so I'm guessing they are planning something big. It just didn't happen to be Jump Festa (probably because XIII-2 had barely been released and they announced the date of their next big game, KH3D)

More specifically, it's getting exactly the same treatment as Square-Enix's previous vaporware projects like XII and XIII, where initial impressions are strung along for years and tiny pieces of information are meted out to hide the fact that the game is way behind the state it ought to be in.
Except we've actually SEEN Versus 1,5 years ago already, and again 11 months ago in surprisingly polished state considering how far it still was from release, and the trailer was showing more than just the intro with plenty of different kind of scenarios & gameplay mechanics, unlike XIII's which showed very little. How is it so hard to understand that they've just had a different approach to Versus XIII's development and mostly due to that it has taken so long? It's not the train-wreck that XIII still was a year before its release, neither did the director jump off the ship in the middle of the project. It's been advancing steadily. Perhaps slower than they initially thought it would, but it's still been advancing steadily. You're trying to create drama where there probably is none.

To argue with a straight face that Versus is not in development hell is nothing short of videogame Stockholm syndrome. You cannot possibly be examining the situation with a critical eye and draw this conclusion.
You are ignoring facts when making these development hell arguments, facts that make it pretty clear that it's not in any kind of development hell. I'm not saying they haven't had any problems or obstacles with the development, but that's just normal for any game of Versus XIII's scope & ambition, or hell, just game development in general.
 
I would pay MSRP for a true console sequel to CC. 4 player online parties or local, lots of varied dungeons, rewards from the bosses based on a level score promoting teamwork, unique high end weapons based on a race and class. For online play, the Wii U tablet could be the map that shows everyone's positions and such similar to the gba screen. On the other systems it could just be in a menu.

Remove the needs for so many attachments and other hardware.

Same level of awesome soundtrack and charming visuals. Build on the town building aspect a bit but not so much as to be distracting.

Bought
 
Oh yeah get all the staff to play the transcendent Final Fantasy IX with its mass-exploration, captivating world of lunacy, absolute clusterton of secrets, civilisations and optional quests, brave art style, stunning music and likeable characters.

Make them think "My God, we made this".

Then make them play Final Fantasy XIII to really hammer the point home.

This does make me wonder how much of the past Final Fantasy games currently SE developers have played. I think that should be a prerequisite before designing and helping to make one. Understand the past games by focusing on what made them great what was bad about them and then build from there.

I also think they have dug themselves a big hole by making the games so CG heavy. It's expected and that expectation is resulting in some very bad design choices because of how much time and money is needed to make the games. The lack of towns and overworld in FFXIII because of how expensive and time consuming it supposedly it would have been at the graphical level they were making the game at.
 
FF12 only had two good, well developed characters (Ashe and Balthier). Basch and Fran were hardly any more important to the story than Vaan, and by and large don't do much of anything either. People tend to let Basch slide because he's cool looking, has a cool attitude, and people think it's wrong that Vaan replaced him as the main character (even though Basch was actually a replacement main character for Balthier). Fran is nothing more than Balthier's Penelo.


I always liked Basch, but he wouldn't have made a good main character. He was too quiet for that I think. Ashe would have made a good main character.
I agree on Fran, she had barely any personality and was just there to be Balthier's Chewbacca and fan-fap-fodder rolled in one.
 
1. remake ff7 so the gaming community will be happy (I wouldn't care... after crisis core I don't think I want to hear anyone from 7 talk ever again)

2. kill the series off

I can't take another voice acted "coming of age" + "us against the gods" story line. FF12 was my favourite until that occuria shit took over. Focus on the war!!

I don't think they will ever right the ship again. The quality difference between FF and other AAA games is staggering. There are no signs to show that their development process is going to change anytime soon
 
I'd be fine with gambits returning, just not having to buy or unlock them as you go. That was pointless.

Yes. Otherwise, gambits were pretty awesome.

He directed and produced FFXII: ZIJS.

That was more than four years ago, man.

EDIT @Famassu: Keep in mind that people's opinions of character designs relate to their experience with titles involving designs of a similar style. If a design reminds someone of VIII, for example, and that person HATED VIII, it's not doing the new title any favors. For all the praise people heap onto FF for how it consistently innovates in both gameplay and setting, it amazes me that folks have no issue with it using virtually the same art style, only enhanced, in VIII, X, X-2, XII, XIII, and now XIII-2. Perhaps if they came up with an entirely distinct storyline from prior titles, they should entertain the idea of developing an art style that better reflects the tone of it.

EDIT @ Blitzzz: Your 'Focus on the war!!' comment is dead-fucking-on.
 
Same people, same results. Don't let anyone in Kitase's production group do it. Create a new team a la EAD Tokyo. Restructure the production groups if you have to.

Final Fantasy has gotten more melodramatic and garish since FFX (i.e. Toriyama's directorial debut). They did the right thing and took it out of his hands for XII, then did an about face and gave it right back. XII made important advancements to the series that were simply thrown out the window by Toriyama/Kitase.

The battle system directors and planners seem to know what they're doing, but Toriyama's bumbling has it wallowing in uninteresting drama and overly-scripted gameplay.

Hirotuki Ito would be a fine choice to direct, but since Kitase and co. have stuffed him into a closet I guess that's not an option. We're stuck with Toriyama's vision of (bad) story-driven gameplay verus Ito's more balanced vision.

Still, a completely new creative team without any ties to these people would be ideal.
 
Hirotuki Ito would be a fine choice to direct, but since Kitase and co. have stuffed him into a closet I guess that's not an option. We're stuck with Toriyama's vision of (bad) story-driven gameplay verus Ito's more balanced vision.
Ito is currently working on a large unannounced project, he was promoted to producer/ director by Wada after FFXII and, if I'm not wrong, that means he has his own team now.

Hopefully, Ito's next game is FFXV and a good writer gets hired to handle the story for that project.
 
Ito is currently working on a large unannounced project, he was promoted to producer/ director by Wada after FFXII and, if I'm not wrong, that means he has his own team now.

What? Since when? Source? I've never heard about this. Much less Wada actually having a hand in picking creative staff for anything.
 
That was more than four years ago, man.

That's the thing, nothing since then...but he's supposedly on a secret project now. Could be FFXV...or an iOS game...or a Facebook game.

And to answer duckroll, apparently the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania is where this came from. Or so says wiki, however reliable that might be. Could just be completely made up.
 
Okay can some of you guys give me a flow chart on who exactly is responsible for what at Square Enix through the years?
 
Rumor: Square Enix to announce Final Fantasy XV at E3 2012

The rumor stated that the game would be announced at a special Square Enix E3 2012 press conference and that the game would be seeing a launch across multiple platforms. This includes the PC, Nintendo’s Wii U, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Source.

Was posted at the Wii U thread.
 
Rumor: Square Enix to announce Final Fantasy XV at E3 2012

The rumor stated that the game would be announced at a special Square Enix E3 2012 press conference and that the game would be seeing a launch across multiple platforms. This includes the PC, Nintendo’s Wii U, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Source.

Was posted at the Wii U thread.

Well, there goes any chance of Versus being there.
 
And to answer duckroll, apparently the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System Ultimania is where this came from. Or so says wiki, however reliable that might be. Could just be completely made up.

That's interesting but seems odd at the same time, because in interviews that I read regarding the Zodiac Job System release of FFXII, Ito complained that the re-release had no extra original content that people usually expect from International re-releases because he had basically no staff and no team. He basically worked on tuning the gameplay changes himself, with a skeleton crew, and there was no one available at all to make new assets, areas, monsters, etc. He also said that he was the one leading the entire project because he was the only one available to do anything for the release at the time.

That doesn't sound like a promotion to me, and there's no indication that he's been working on any new project at all, much less a large scale one. After FFXII:I ZJS, he worked on supervising the remake of the systems in FFIV DS and tuning the boss battles. He didn't direct or produce that, so I'm not really inclined to believe that his role on FFXII:I ZJS was something that carried forward to future projects. Let's not forget that the game also bombed.
 
Rumor: Square Enix to announce Final Fantasy XV at E3 2012

The rumor stated that the game would be announced at a special Square Enix E3 2012 press conference and that the game would be seeing a launch across multiple platforms. This includes the PC, Nintendo’s Wii U, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Source.

Was posted at the Wii U thread.

Is the site related to this guy, who was banned by duckroll? http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=33659193&postcount=747
 
How does Versus look anything like Final Fantasy X?

Didn't say it did.

Gah, maybe it's not exactly the same as XII, but it's SIMILAR.

But not in any of the ways I was talking about. FFVII is "similar" to XII too when you squint right, but it doesn't fill the specific role I was talking about in bringing up XII's structure here.

How? It's YOUR position that has no evidence to back it up, other than the "long" development time

And the complete lack of meaingful public showings of the game, and the lack of anything but vague pronouncements about content, and the lack of even a vague release window. The treatment of Versus as a project closely mirrors the exact treatment XII and XIII got -- i.e. sporadic "reveals" focused mostly on pre-rendered imagery and thematics that string along the audience but give no concrete information to judge progress on. People were having this exact same argument about XII in 2005 with the exact same type of information supporting the game's smooth development -- it wasn't true then and it is extremely doubtful that it is true now.
 
And the complete lack of meaingful public showings of the game, and the lack of anything but vague pronouncements about content, and the lack of even a vague release window. The treatment of Versus as a project closely mirrors the exact treatment XII and XIII got -- i.e. sporadic "reveals" focused mostly on pre-rendered imagery and thematics that string along the audience but give no concrete information to judge progress on. People were having this exact same argument about XII in 2005 with the exact same type of information supporting the game's smooth development -- it wasn't true then and it is extremely doubtful that it is true now.

Yeah I mean, that Square Enix talks about reorganization after reorganization and actively studying Western development methodology implies that they're distinctly not happy with the performance of their current setup.
 
I hope the drop in sales gets SE to re evaluate the series. Hopefully they just don't brush it off and use ffXIV as a scapegoat again.
 
That's interesting but seems odd at the same time, because in interviews that I read regarding the Zodiac Job System release of FFXII, Ito complained that the re-release had no extra original content that people usually expect from International re-releases because he had basically no staff and no team. He basically worked on tuning the gameplay changes himself, with a skeleton crew, and there was no one available at all to make new assets, areas, monsters, etc. He also said that he was the one leading the entire project because he was the only one available to do anything for the release at the time.

That doesn't sound like a promotion to me, and there's no indication that he's been working on any new project at all, much less a large scale one. After FFXII:I ZJS, he worked on supervising the remake of the systems in FFIV DS and tuning the boss battles. He didn't direct or produce that, so I'm not really inclined to believe that his role on FFXII:I ZJS was something that carried forward to future projects. Let's not forget that the game also bombed.
Does anyone know if they still follow the multiple production team format? FFXII was Product Development Division 4 with Matsuno at the head, right? Has that team done anything since? Tactics Ogre?
 
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