Final Fantasy XV

[Xagzan]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Well, part of that is certainly because NNK is a poorly-designed game more than anything else...

Well, I've only gotten to Ding Dong Dell, and I'll admit there are some questionable design choices, like the running speed and freakin unavoidable battles, but it still has a ways to go before I'd call it poorly designed.

[ZGoten]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Bigger companies for mainstream titles put more money into developing the game and promoting it via advertisements.

Final Fantasy is anything but a niche game, so S-E naturally would expect several million copies sold.

Let's say for example that the next mainline 3D Mario game only sells 1 million copies. Considering its history would you honestly consider that number to be a success?


Perhaps there is a bit of a "power creep" on expectations, but the fact is that bigger titles have high expectations for success placed on them.

You have to differentiate between "success" and "major hit", which was the initial topic. If Atlus managed to sell a million copies of Persona 5, that would probably be a huge success for them, since they usually rely less on advertising and graphics, which results in lower production costs than say those of a Final Fantasy. In order to be a major hit, though, you need great media awareness, you need consumers left and right yelling how great of a game this is. You need to be able to look back on it 10 years later and say that this game was indeed exceptionally well and often received. So "succes" and "major hit" have two very different meanings, which is why the last major JRPG hit was Pokemon Black and White in 2010.

[Mad Pierrot]

http://gematsu.com/2013/04/rumor-fin...ing-to-ps3-ps4

VERSUS for both PS3 and PS4?

[Vajra]

Originally Posted by amaterasu4

http://gematsu.com/2013/04/rumor-fin...ing-to-ps3-ps4

VERSUS for both PS3 and PS4?

But first it needs to come out of pre-conception stages and just get made already!

[Mad Pierrot]

Sony is planning a big announcement in the next weeks but I'm getting tired of all that Dilly Dally Shilly Shally.

[Vajra]

The announcement will be; "please continue to be patient and wait with us. FF vs XIII now 10% complete!" *is 10% too much?

[Sides]

Originally Posted by Phirk

The announcement will be; "please continue to be patient and wait with us. FF vs XIII now 10% complete!" *is 10% too much?

Well if it is only 10%, then we have at least one launch game for the PS5 confirmed ^^

[Chaos2Frozen]

We could always force them to announce something by saying that they secretly cancelled it...

[kenjiharima]

FF13 Versus Developed in 13 years lol

[Chaos2Frozen]

Pfft, obviously they would announce that Platinum is taking over development

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

Pfft, obviously they would announce that Platinum is taking over development

Noctis: I think it's time for Noctis to let him rip!

Final boss: Nanocrystals son!

[Chaos2Frozen]

He's the lightning in that night

Seriously, a final fantasy hack n' slash by P*... just imagine

[Folenfant]

I'm trying to visualize a trailer for Versus that shows gameplay at E3 and it just isn't coming to mind as something that could conceivably happen and I draw a blank. At this point I'm just so used to Square Enix blowing golden opportunities to execute a positive PR moment that I just cannot see them doing it. Like I just cannot visualize Square Enix actually doing something that involves....something. Do they even do that sort of thing anymore?

In all seriousness though and more positive news regarding Square Enix's dust in the wind fortunes I just came across this article earlier today and I have to say it almost sounds like this Matsuda guy might have a clue and could conceivably start to turn the company around if he's successful. The specific passage I liked was:

Originally Posted by Yosuke Matsuda + Escapist

"As the sheer amount of and diversification of game and entertainment products is increasing, I believe it is difficult to move forward on the assumption that many products can cover the tastes of the entire world, and sell across the entire world," he continued.

Many believe that Japanese developers trying to "westernize" their games in pursuit of larger profits are missing the point; That the unique, Japanese flavor is what attracted gamers to these games in the first place. If Matsuda is suggesting a system in which Japanese games are free to be Japanese rather than pale imitations of Western titles, that sounds great.

So basically do what just about every other JRPG company (Atlus, Namco Bandai, Sting, Gust etc) is doing......that idea sounds just crazy enough to work!

It also sounds like this might mark the end of the now seemingly ill-fated Fabula Nova Crystallis project which when I first played FFXIII I suggested to a friend was set up as a misguided gambit to try to attract the CoD audience with it's leaning towards small streamlined maps, flashy graphics, canned animations and semi-rail guided pacing.

The potential downside for this from Western gamer perspective though is of course that it could mean that Square Enix has gotten the wrong message that Western gamers are no longer interested in what they could be offering and that it could mean even fewer overseas releases from a company that has already apparently all but given up on releasing some of it's recent Japanese hits overseas. Were it not for Nintendo we would not be getting Bravely Default after all and that thought scares me. What gives me hope that Matsuda does get it though is the "Japanese games being free to be Japanese" passage, but I guess we'll see in due time what they plan to do.

Also here's one more quote from Matsuda that came out today:

Originally Posted by Matsuda

"Making customers wait for years with little to no information is being dishonest to them. We need to shift to a business model where we frequently interact with our customers for our products that are in‐development and/or prior to being sold, have our customers understand games under development, and finally make sure we develop games that meet their expectations."

Well now, this guy hasn't even fully taken over the reigns and already it seems like he's doing a better job at trying to repair Square Enix image than the ever bumbling and impersonal Wada ever did. It seems silly to have to say this, but I'm actually glad they've finally said something about that glaring issue. Actually bothering to address the concerns of gamers was something I never felt Wada made any sort of attempt at, I mean the guy was practically a cipher that only seemed to talk in strictly business terms and it always felt like he could not possibly care less about how low Square Enix image was sinking with it's fans under his watch. It almost feels at that point that just about anybody could have done a better job of being the face of a company like Square Enix than Yoichi Wada, but lets see what this Matsuda fellow does. For the first time in a while, simply because Square Enix bothered to talk straight with it's fans for the first time in years I'm somewhat confident about the companies future involving me as a consumer of it's products for the first time this decade.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

Pfft, obviously they would announce that Platinum is taking over development

New Meme(not pun) "Can't do it right? Platnum it!"

[Chaos2Frozen]

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

New Meme(not pun) "Can't do it right? Platnum it!"

Platinum Games - Fixing Japanese games since 2011.

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by kenjiharima

FF13 Versus Developed in 13 years lol

Quoted for truth...

This has to be the 3rd or 4th time Versus was supposed to make some big showing at E3.

[Mad Pierrot]

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/05/29...fantasy-games/

Famitsu Provides Development Status Update On Final Fantasy Games. Final Fantasy X HD – 80%

Final Fantasy X-2 HD – 65%

Final Fantasy VIII (PC) – 80%

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – 70% They didn't mention Versus...

[Iron Maw]

Originally Posted by Folenfant

ISo basically do what just about every other JRPG company (Atlus, Namco Bandai, Sting, Gust etc) is doing......that idea sounds just crazy enough to work!

Wait, why are you comparing NB to those others? They aren't a primary JRPG developer and their much larger than those companies. Besides westernization is being pursed by most of major Japanese developers and publishers (i.e Capcom, Namco, Konami, Sega etc). This group SE that belongs too, the others are too small (not to mention too regional) and don't generate nearly the profit from to west to care.

Besides FFXIII's linearity has little to do with CoD, you forget that FFX was nearly just as linear. It hid better that's all, it's still as Japanese as FF has ever been. I don't SE does westernization anymore either, their last attempt was Mindjack and that was like 3 years ago.

[Frailty]

Originally Posted by Iron Maw

Wait, why are you comparing NB to those others? They aren't a primary JRPG developer and their much larger than those companies.

really? I thought they are since the Tales of... series is pretty huge right now

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Frailty

really? I thought they are since the Tales of... series is pretty huge right now

Only in Japan. It's still a niche series in NA.

Even then, they still develop games other than RPGs like Idolm@ster, Soul Calibur, and Naruto/One Piece beatemups compared to companies like Atlus and SE who develop primarily RPGs with very few exceptions.


Back on to Versus, if they haven't scrapped development for it, more than likely it'll just a prettier version of Kingdom Hearts' combat since that seems to be all SE is capable of in terms of action games.