Wired: Final Fantasy Isn’t Dying. It’s Already Dead

Looking through the thread, It seems as though most of the people agreeing with the article are people that simply grew out of FF, specifically those that are reminiscing about FF6 and/or FF9. Frankly, I don't think SE is trying to retain all their older generation fans and are instead focusing on what appeals to their younger generation of fans. Whereas WRPGs are largely targeted towards adult gamers, JRPGs are largely targeted at teens so the fact that many older gamers are migrating over from JRPGs to WRPGs is not at all surprising (additionally, a western developed game would naturally appeal more easily to someone accustomed to western media).

That said, there are always new gamers coming into the market and FF games are still among the highest selling RPGs around (most RPG developers wish they could get XIII-2's sales, despite how poor they look for the series). It may be true that fewer new gamers are coming into the franchise and/or older players are dropping out of it faster than before, but that alone is only proof of the franchise being in decline (a slow one) but it's still a far cry from being dead.

Their sales are bad only from a historical franchise point-of-view and the people that complain the most about the franchise are people that grew up on it but no longer play the games (and in many cases, they haven't since FF9). All this doom and gloom over the franchise in recent years seems completely overblown to me and it's primarily coming from people that don't play JRPGs anyway.

P.S. On the argument of XIII's sales, what does it matter if it sold 5M or 6M copies? A multi-million selling game is still a hell of an accomplishment. Very few games break 1M in sales, especially within the RPG genre.
 

Haha!

That thread brings back disturbing memories. Anyway, as that same thread you linked says, you obtain the 'Orthopedic Underwear' in the Nibelheim flashback. I think your mod may be a fan translation.

Is it Tifa's Bootstrap by any chance? Once I've got all Steam achievements I plan on giving some of these mods a whirl, only done music ones so far.

On-Topic: FFXV will, if it keeps the promises it seems to have made, presumably hit like VII did. Plus, the FFXIV:ARR beta topics seem to be quite positive in general. In fact, it is actually convincing me to try an MMO.
 
Yup. Gotta agree with everything you said here. Loved X, but X-2 really does look like the game that brought the beginning of the end for the series.

Nope. X-2 had nothing to do with it. It was FFXI followed by FFXII. FFXI barely anyone played (it was a good MMO it wasted a few years of my life) but had a huge barrier to entry on PS2 and a monthly fee.

Then we got FFXII which had amazing ideas in its setting and open world map to explore but the characters and story were just forgettable. And the battle system was ok but it was received negatively by most fans since it was MMO the offline version. Maybe if Matsuno wasn't forced to leave and finish his game this would have been the best FF but nothing can be done now.

FFXIII was supposed to be the one that brough FF back to glory but oh what a spectacular failure the FFXIII series has been.
 
I think, regardless of how good you consider FFX-2, it did set the absolute worst precedent for the series ever. Here they are, before FFXV has even released, and they're already talking about FFXV-2. Fuck off, SE.

I think it speaks volumes of the state the series is in that, here, at the start of a new generation, their premier mainline Final Fantasy being announced in conjunction with the new consoles is a game they announced before the PS3 launched. Holy christ.
I'd say both of those come from the hard reality of trying to make the prettiest games in the business with the largest game worlds.

By the time you get to the PS2 era, asset-reusing side stories become prudent.

By the time of the PS3 era, the time to deliver one of these games meant that a game could languish in development hell for years on end.

Obviously some studio could have weathered these challenges (ie through heavy outsourcing to international studios, like Ubisoft). But I think many of the pitfalls Square fell into would have been faced by many studios that decided they were going to make pretty and expansive game world in the 90s. As the tech demands grew, the single studio system that once printed gold would eventually be forced to recycle work, and fail to meet deadlines.
 
I'm pretty sure the health reasons were a farce for simply Matsuno not wanting to deal with fighting over the vision of a world he wanted over the shortsightedness of the executive meddling and basically threw in the towel.

Agreed. Apparently, Basch was originally supposed to be the main character but I don't think the company took a liking to have an older, more hardened character being the lead.

I feel like the FF series needs entries with different directors, producers, etc. Nomura and Toriyama have their hands way too deep in the pockets of the franchise. Their takes on the FF world have become trite and worn out, and their lesser roles in FFXII is partially why the game was such a breath of fresh air to me.
 
i think the last good was was FFX. XIII was absolutely terrible. they gotta do a serious revamp to get it back in good with the core set who loved it, but i think it's far from dead.
 
What does it mean to be the Localization Executive Producer?

I think those are two separate titles. Localization AND Executive Producer.

I won't claim to be an expert on Japanese business to say exactly what those jobs entail, however. Note that he had the same job for FFX.

Interesting quote:

Development of Final Fantasy X began in 1999 and was first presented at the 2000 Square Millennium Event together with Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XI, although this early version greatly differs from the final game. Although Hironobu Sakaguchi showed doubts about the transition from 2D to 3D backgrounds, voice acting, and real-time storytelling, he also stated the success of the series was due to constantly changing development and trying out new things.
 
Haha!

That thread brings back disturbing memories. Anyway, as that same thread you linked says, you obtain the 'Orthopedic Underwear' in the Nibelheim flashback. I think your mod may be a fan translation.

Is it Tifa's Bootstrap by any chance? Once I've got all Steam achievements I plan on giving some of these mods a whirl, only done music ones so far.

On-Topic: FFXV will, if it keeps the promises it seems to have made, presumably hit like VII did. Plus, the FFXIV:ARR beta topics seem to be quite positive in general. In fact, it is actually convincing me to try an MMO.
Its great even on PS3.
 
Agreed. Apparently, Basch was originally supposed to be the main character but I don't think the company took a liking to have an older, more hardened character being the lead.

I feel like the FF series needs entries with different directors, producers, etc. Nomura and Toriyama have their hands way too deep in the pockets of the franchise. Their takes on the FF world have become trite and worn out, and their lesser roles in FFXII is partially why the game was such a breath of fresh air to me.
I very much agree. I wish there were way more diverse teams working on these games. As of right now, it's pretty much determined by 1.5 house auteurs. :P

It should be set up more like a Hollywood studio, with multiple, diverse projects going on. Maybe even hire a few producers and scenario writers from outside.
 
Been dead since 1997. Brief glimmer of hope in FF9 and FF12, but the writing was on the wall when FF7 turned out to be so heavily influenced by Evangelion.
 
Nope. X-2 had nothing to do with it. It was FFXI followed by FFXII. FFXI barely anyone played (it was a good MMO it wasted a few years of my life) but had a huge barrier to entry on PS2 and a monthly fee.

Are you insane? Let me point something out to you...

Square Enix’s CEO Yoichi Wada told an audience at VanaFest 2012 (which celebrates Final Fantasy’s MMO foray) that “looking at profitability [for Square Enix], [Final Fantasy XI is at] the top of all past Final Fantasy games.” That’s not exactly hard to believe, considering he qualified that statement by talking about how overall playtime since the game launched exceeds 200,000 total years.

So, the FF that everyone and their mother bitched about? Probably saved SE's ass for many, many years.
 
I think with XIV fixed Final Fantasy's real problem is its insistence on carrying on the XIII series and reminding us of what we hate so much.

If they had left it dead and there was no LR, I think the narrative would be completely different.
 
I think those are two separate titles. Localization AND Executive Producer.

I won't claim to be an expert on Japanese business to say exactly what those jobs entail, however. Note that he had the same job for FFX.

They seem to be the same thing. Just watched the X-2 credits.

Interesting quote indeed.
 
They seem to be the same thing. Just watched the X-2 credits.

Interesting quote indeed.


Makes sense to me.

So yeah, all those people screaming about FFx-2 or how they need to bring Sakaguchi back...they don't know what they're talking about.


The quote is especially interesting in the face of all the people saying "Gotta go back to the early days" when Sakaguchi himself said that change is good.
 
Makes sense to me.

So yeah, all those people screaming about FFx-2 or how they need to bring Sakaguchi back...they don't know what they're talking about.

Worse than people saying FF11 was badly received.

Oh please. You are gonna blame him for that? It was a genuine experiment. Up until then FF never had a sequel.

As stated before Sakaguchi did more then just supervise games.

And change is good. But change for the sake of change is not.
 
A lot of folks didn't like the charlies angels look and feel to it. The actual combat was fun though.

I generally play JRPGs almost entirely for the combat and upgrade systems. If I didn't, I wouldn't play many JRPGs, since I find most have stories and characters that are fucking idiotic. At least X-2 realized what it was, and went for it in being lighthearted and fun and nonsensical with cute girls. I'll take that any day over the usual, too serious for it's own good, brooding, reluctant hero, save the universe bullshit.
 
The reason why I would consider those figures on the slide 'sales' is that the Japan reported number is quite close to the public Japan reported number (LTD right now is 1.9 million). Of course, it's possible that SE refers to its shipments as 'sales' to present a better picture.

The publisher can also track sales, mostly because retailers can go back and say, your game isn't selling, we're going to lower the price, and you are going to have to cover the lost revenue.

In any case, 6.6 million is a shipment number, not a sales number, and it's much more likely that the sales number is 5.6 million than it is 6.6 million or even 6 million, given the data we have at hand. Since you demanded the sources and you got them, you know saying "6.6 million sales" is a load of garbage. You are welcome to continue blundering about insisting 13 sold 6.6 million despite being corrected, because that's apparently what Perfo and the Lightning defense force do anyway.

You're awfully righteous for a guy who just posted numbers that don't back you up without understanding what they are, and then claimed that your guess is probably right anyway. Why not just admit you're mistaken, like you're asking others to do?

All of the worldwide sales numbers that come from Square Enix are shipment numbers, period. Worldwide sell through numbers don't exist.
 
Oh please. You are gonna blame him for that? It was a genuine experiment. Up until then FF never had a sequel.

As stated before Sakaguchi did more then just supervise games.

And change is good. But change for the sake of change is not.

I'm not the one saying FFX-2 was bad or that it ruined the company? You may be confusing me with someone else.

I'm saying that the people complaining are just making things up about the games they like/dislike. Blaming or praising people for things they did / did not work on, for example.
 
I should play X-2 someday so I can see what all the fuss is about. Like, I dunno. Some day. At the moment I'm suffering some serious series fatigue, though.
 
I'm not the one saying FFX-2 was bad or that it ruined the company? You may be confusing me with someone else.

I'm saying that the people complaining are just making things up about the games they like/dislike. Blaming or praising people for things they did / did not work on, for example.

People will always complain. People complained when XII was out and about. You'll never be able to please everyone.
 
I think Kohler is right here. FF6 and 7 were serious, epic games that tackled serious themes. Now they're making a game with boob physics.

Now is a funny time to get upset about boobs in Final Fantasy games.

yOFGHTe.gif
 
Yet Square today is in worse shape than it was before the Enix merger.

It was facing bankruptcy after Spirits Within.

Do you have any numbers to suggest it's facing bankruptcy now?

Of course it made the most money. I did not mean from a profit perspective. More from general fanbase

FF11 is 11 years old and just got an expansion released this year.

There's more people playing FF11 daily than any other FF from 11 years ago.
 
Haha!

That thread brings back disturbing memories. Anyway, as that same thread you linked says, you obtain the 'Orthopedic Underwear' in the Nibelheim flashback. I think your mod may be a fan translation.

Is it Tifa's Bootstrap by any chance? Once I've got all Steam achievements I plan on giving some of these mods a whirl, only done music ones so far.

On-Topic: FFXV will, if it keeps the promises it seems to have made, presumably hit like VII did. Plus, the FFXIV:ARR beta topics seem to be quite positive in general. In fact, it is actually convincing me to try an MMO.

Heheh :-)

One of the mods fixes script errors and provides better translations, this one from Final Fantasy 7 International I believe. I don't have the Steam version and I believe there might be compatiblity issues with it. Check out the qhimm forum and find a guide to setting up BOOTLEG, it handles installation of every FF7 mod you could need with a GUI, can be a pain getting what you want having to completely reinstall for each minor change though. Script fixes are part of Menu Overhaul.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13212.0
 
When Square sells the inevitable "FF13 Triology" pack, I'm going to buy it and throw it in a ditch somewhere.

No, you're supposed to carry it to mount Enix and throw it into the cracks of Square.

You fool! You've doomed us all to the third age of Final Fantasy XIII sequels after sequels after sequels!
 
Heheh :-)

One of the mods fixes script errors and provides better translations, this one from Final Fantasy 7 International I believe. I don't have the Steam version and I believe there might be compatiblity issues with it. Check out the qhimm forum and find a guide to setting up BOOTLEG, it handles installation of every FF7 mod you could need with a GUI, can be a pain getting what you want having to completely reinstall for each minor change though. Script fixes are part of Menu Overhaul.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13212.0

Thanks :)
 
Wasn't there a thread here on gaf that went into detail how Square actually wasn't in the dire situation it's made to be believed it was in following TSW and that Wada and another executive forced Sakaguchi out?
 
I think Kohler is right here. FF6 and 7 were serious, epic games that tackled serious themes. Now they're making a game with boob physics.

FF7 has boob jiggling.
Replaying the game right now, Tifa's tits jiggle like crazy when they escape from Shinra and jump into the car.
 
It was facing bankruptcy after Spirits Within.

Do you have any numbers to suggest it's facing bankruptcy now?



FF11 is 11 years old and just got an expansion released this year.

There's more people playing FF11 daily than any other FF from 11 years ago.

Yes that's because it is a MMO and those last for a long time. But its all the same people playing it for years the hardcore FF11 players. I used to be one of them.

But in terms of pure numbers of unique players I doubt it has passed any of the single player FF games. I remember when I used to play there were around 500k-1 million players subscribed. Which is great but even at its peak but that doesn't mean a majority of the fanbase has played it or atleast played to the extent an MMO requires to be played.
 
Plus, it's pretty insane and toxic to fire the man behind most of (if not all) the company's success after one big fuck up.
 
pGOenM2.gif


Well.... I mean, I'm sure what the kneejerk defense will be, but they aren't that far off. The future FF games will still move some units. But its best days are very likely behind it.

Square was making profits again by 2002, before they merged with Enix. And their market capitalization was higher then than it is now.

The complete failure of FFXIV and Square/Enix/Eidos's repeated near-misses on big bets in the AAA space are costing the company just as much as Spirits Within did then.

That's actually rather interesting.
 
The Tifa thing is missing the point. Tifa wasn't the focal point of that game.

This coming from someone that doesn't care for FF7.

Square played up Lightning as a serious, mature protagonist for 13. She was the focal pount of 13. A male Cloud sans pouting.

Now they're fucking with her cup size to solely titilate.

Square hilariously bungled Final Fantasy this generation.

On top of that, JRPGs clearly are no longer the massive AAA blockbusters they used to be in years past.

I loved FF12 and really wish Matsuno got to finish his vision, but I think that title made more sense as a Tactics Ogre game.
 
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