Wired: Final Fantasy Isnt Dying. Its Already Dead
- Thread starter Poetic.Injustice
- Start date
PshycoNinja
Member
I was at E3.
I am a game programmer.
I have many friends in the NA and EU branches of SE. Trust me when I say that PR representative where this all sprang from was misinformed.
Manmademan
Member
Dark Octave
Banned
LOL Spot on. This is what FF has become.Some of my friends would like a word with you.
And a lot of it is the ambition described, everything about the game sounds like a return to form in terms of the openness of titles like FFVI brought into the modern era. Could certainly not live up to it but I see no real reason not to be excited or at the very least hopeful. Nomura seems to be very aware of what people disliked about XIII and liked about older titles.
Nope.
Everything about XV is what Final Fantasy needs. I have full faith in Nomura and his talented team.
MaschinenZimmer
Banned
You guys are crazy, FF 13-3 is the first FF I am actually interested in. Lighting looks delicious and I hope they continue that road.
Even assuming Final Fantasy dies (which I wouldn't call until XV comes out. XIII had decent enough sales), I think 20 years after the fact is past the statute of limitations for which you can relate its demise to betraying Nintendo.
CrimsonCrescendo
Banned
That's what they promise. Whether or not they'll succeed in the execution or even basic implementation still has to be seen.
Shalashaska161
Member
I actually liked FF XIII, but XIII-2 never grabbed me and XIV being an online game meant it was never for me. In fact, Square hasn't given me a reason to care about the series since FF: Four Heroes of Light (another game I liked) on the DS way back in 2010. Type-0 was something I was excited to play, but it never got localized.
And Lightning Returns, even if it ends up being a good game is far from being a traditional Final Fantasy. This means the series is going to go a minimum of 5 years, likely 6 between flagship traditional releases.
So I can see why this article got published. It's pretty hard to stay interested in the series when all Square seems able to release is awful iOS games and Final Fantasy IV remakes. XV did have an amazing trailer, and with Nomura at the helm I'm optimistic that it will turn out great. But the days of Final Fantasy commanding such a large portion of gamer mind share is over, and Square only has themselves to blame.
And Lightning Returns, even if it ends up being a good game is far from being a traditional Final Fantasy. This means the series is going to go a minimum of 5 years, likely 6 between flagship traditional releases.
So I can see why this article got published. It's pretty hard to stay interested in the series when all Square seems able to release is awful iOS games and Final Fantasy IV remakes. XV did have an amazing trailer, and with Nomura at the helm I'm optimistic that it will turn out great. But the days of Final Fantasy commanding such a large portion of gamer mind share is over, and Square only has themselves to blame.
Chance Hale
Member
Heh, we shall see how they handle the entourage so to speak. XV, despite some of the J-Pop(/boy band comparison) esqe designs is quite different in tone than the idol shenanigans that X-2 gets a lot of flak for. They've also said certain characters haven't been revealed but I doubt it'll be an all boys club. And even if so it could make sense in context of the royal family Noctis comes from.
DidntKnowJack
Member
It's diminished somewhat, but hardly dead. Nonsense article is nonsense.
What'cha you got against the Backstreet boys?! They made I Want It That Way.
Nonexistinghero
Banned
It's dead. It's become a full-on action-RPG that seems to continue the trend of focusing on storytelling first, gameplay second. Outside of that, people are only excited because they're easily impressed by fancy graphics. It's sad how a 1-minute X teaser trailer shows more actual gameplay than FFXV does in a 4+ minute gameplay trailer.
Yep the reveals of XIII-3, XIV relaunch, and XV killed the franchise for me. And I enjoyed every minute of XI, XII, XIII, and XIII-2. But I can't care about these three new games.
I, III, IV, VI, and IX were always my favorites, but I was happy how much the other titles tried to do and often succeeded. V had a terrible story/characters/world but a great battle system, VII was an ugly mishmash of art and gameplay styles but had plenty of moments of brilliant fantasy. VIII totally decoupled many of the elements of the game from each other, but each element engaged on its own terms and it still has the best summons/cutscenes. X killed off some of my favorite exploration aspects and the random encounters became a bit one-dimensional, but in return we did get unprecedented graphics and storytelling. X-2 was a silly rehash but the battle system was fresh and the characters occasionally shone through. XI was an MMO but it was coherent and engaging in a way no MMO since has been, and incredible music even without Uemtasu. XII petered out in the end and didn't quite feel like Final Fantasy but it was certainly unique and accomplished. XIII had an atrocious script and was completely linear but the battle system and monster designs were some of the best the series has ever seen. XIII-2 had a little bit more charm and feeling to it, and kept the great battle system without spending the first 12 hours slowly teaching it to you.
I, III, IV, VI, and IX were always my favorites, but I was happy how much the other titles tried to do and often succeeded. V had a terrible story/characters/world but a great battle system, VII was an ugly mishmash of art and gameplay styles but had plenty of moments of brilliant fantasy. VIII totally decoupled many of the elements of the game from each other, but each element engaged on its own terms and it still has the best summons/cutscenes. X killed off some of my favorite exploration aspects and the random encounters became a bit one-dimensional, but in return we did get unprecedented graphics and storytelling. X-2 was a silly rehash but the battle system was fresh and the characters occasionally shone through. XI was an MMO but it was coherent and engaging in a way no MMO since has been, and incredible music even without Uemtasu. XII petered out in the end and didn't quite feel like Final Fantasy but it was certainly unique and accomplished. XIII had an atrocious script and was completely linear but the battle system and monster designs were some of the best the series has ever seen. XIII-2 had a little bit more charm and feeling to it, and kept the great battle system without spending the first 12 hours slowly teaching it to you.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as the story is good.
chickdigger802
Banned
wasn't all the 'return to form' stuff what se advertised for 13-2?
Dark Octave
Banned
It really is. What we have now is a series of games that share nothing in common but the same name.
I would say VII, as much as I love it, is the catalyst that set this shitstorm in motion. Once Gooch left, it was like chickens left to the wolves at that point.
Chance Hale
Member
Kingdom Hearts games have more "gameplay" than nearly every non mmo Final Fantasy out there. The series has never had the challenge(aside from maybe FFIV) and battle system complexities of the SMT games. FFXII and XIII are the first games in the series in a long time to actually feature challenge and more in-depth involvement.
Why would we even doubt that?
FFXIII basically turn out how they described.
They are making an open world Final Fantasy with big focus on exploration and sidequests.
That's the good shit right there IMO.
Law Abiding Stranger
Banned
Some people have problems that FFXV is male oriented?
Why does it matter?
Why does it matter?
Meccanical
Member
Yeah, and I think people forgot about this.
If everyone was paying attention they should have never been excited for FFXIII in the first place.
Chance Hale
Member
I hope Nomura increases Noctis's junk size before release
. And gets rid of the cargo pants
The dude was the heart and soul of the franchise. You can argue that Mistwalker's output is somewhat spotty but those games feel like Final Fantasy in a way the actual series hasn't since X.
That1BlackGuy
Member
I bet he didn't consider sales when formulating this article as the tone reeks of it. However, I can assume that even if he would have he'd just use relative scale to bend the numbers for his argument/position. Subjective quality aside, Final Fantasy as a brand still sells more than a vast majority of other JRPGs, it is an outlier within its genre.
This seems like "I don't like Lightning Returns, so therefore lets ostracize any fans of the product and make a hyperbolic statement to subliminally belittle them."
This seems like "I don't like Lightning Returns, so therefore lets ostracize any fans of the product and make a hyperbolic statement to subliminally belittle them."
Because for many people the Final Fantasy franchise had great diverse cast's with a good amount of female and male characters. That also meant lot's of people becoming attached to the female characters. This becomes disappointing because gaming isn't very progressive with minorities and females but a series that has been for most of it's lifetime, has now decided to change that, hence people being upset.
Before someone brings up X-2, it's not the same. It's a sequel, and female cast's are extremely rare in gaming.
jimmythepage
Member
Should make a new franchise for those likes you, Waifu Fantasy or Final Waifu.
And let the JRPG fans have their proper FF.
I'm seriously starting to think I have better taste than some of you guys haha.
I just can't understand how someone can't see the ambition and epic potential of XV, do they lack imagination?
If you read anything about XV, you would realize that the game is ambitious BECAUSE of the gameplay and huge open world, not just because of the graphics. Your judging a book by it's cover without opening it.
People are so hurt by Toriyama's games that they are taking it out on Nomura and his talented team, who are FULLY capable of bringing their goals to reality.
Oh well, each to their own.
MagiusNecros
Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Relevant.
They're trying to make a combat system that looks like a fight sequence from that shitty Final Fantasy VII CG movie. It has been their dream since they announced FFXIII. In the end they're going to serve a system where you control one character and all the "awesome" moments will be quicktime events.
Are you talking about Toriyama's team?
Yoshida's team?
Nomura's team?
Someone else's team?
Or just all of the different FF teams?
TreasureHunterG
Banned
Word. Especially if your like me and enjoy Final Fantasy for the world exploration, towns, sidequests etc.
Moon_frogger
Member
Seriously though, they gave lightning a boob job. That's disgusting. Series isn't dead but I won't demean myself by buying into this overhyped marketing based garbage.
Are you for real? I count at least 2 major female characters and perhaps many more unannounced ones.
If the chocobo and moogle minorities will represent, remains to be seen.
How could you even judge such a thing without even having played the game.You don't know the screen time of each of these characters.
Even though they listened to this criticism it's still a weak argument.
Dark Octave
Banned
I agree 100% especially with their earliest works Blue Dragon and Lost Odyessey.
lol Namura wanted to make XV a musical at one point. This is who we have as one of the head figures in charge of what was once my favorite franchise. Everybody in the game looks like him as well.
Law Abiding Stranger
Banned
I don't think it matters really, at least for me.
Male oriented, female oriented, it is all good as long as the characters are well written and it makes sense in the context of the story.
It seems all of the main characters in FFXV know each other since childhood, seems refreshing.
It's funny because I was excited for XIII because the trailers looked like some sort of 'FF7-2', the train, the female Cloud, the midgar-esque Cocoon. Too bad you stay in Midgar for 90% of the the game though, eh?
I also thought they would follow up FF12 by improving the systems in it and not doing a complete 180 and going from best party control system to the worst.
If only I had known it was Toryiama directing it back then, I would not have been nearly as hyped. At one point I planned to spend over $100 importing the Advent Children Blu-Ray in order to play the XIII demo from how hyped I was for the previously stated reasons. If only I had known, if only.
While I was spending a lot of time on game sites even back in 2006, I only knew a few developer names, like Kojima or Nomura, names like Toryiama, or Ito, were too much in the background for me to care at the time. I have made it my place to know these days though.
ALL of them. Any team that works on the series, since the only FF that even had hints of really returning to greatness was FFXII, and that's only because it had Matsuno, and it still ended up a mess by the end. I say that as someone who probably thinks FFXII is one of his favorite FFs.
I think I'm gonna go to a cave and avoid all you negative nancy's. Then when XV comes out I'll say "I told you so"
That's incredibly immature I know, but the negative nancy's are driving me nuts haha.
I mean I already have to deal with this crap every time I enter a Nintendo thread.
That's incredibly immature I know, but the negative nancy's are driving me nuts haha.
I mean I already have to deal with this crap every time I enter a Nintendo thread.
You don't see hints of greatness from XV?
What's the metric for an "I told you so"? Metacritic lol
Persona86 said:
I literally have hardly seen anything about the game. There are things I like about and things that concern me, but it's too early for me to say anything about where I'll end up on that. Positives at the moment - large explorable overworld, seemingly more open ended, vehicles, visuals. Negatives - I feel the combat seems very shallow right now, and I don't want FF to become a pure action RPG.
Edit: I'm really hoping it turns out well, though. I'm starting to lose hope in the series and I would like to see a return to form.