| AbbathTheGrim said: This is something that I have been thinking about concerning the episodic approach this game will have and the fact that the next PlayStation is in the next corner. How do you expect, think that Square will approach the release of these episodes or think would be ok for Square to address game progress (leveling up, inventory and collection of items) when these episodes are likely to jump to PS5? A) Do you think all the episodes release both in PS4 and PS5? B) Could this "episodes" work more as stand alone games that, once you finish them, all gained levels and inventory are gone and you start in episode 2 (for example) on level 1 all over again? How do you like that idea? C) Maybe there are other examples out there of episodic games you think would be the best way to approach and continue progress between episodes? What would be the best approach? D) Could there be a way to "load" your saved game from episode 1 to episode 2? E) What is the best way for Square to address game progress between episodes? Would you care if progress is lost between episodes? F) Will I lose all my 1/35 Soldiers after I finish an episode? Discuss. |
A) Yes as the PS5 sounds like it'll use an X86 chip I suspect they'll have very similar developer environments with transferable saves made even easier by having cloud saves. It makes no sense to only release on the one console at this point.
B) There has to be some transfer of inventory or items. The story of FFVII is fairly fixed so they can't just do a reset every game that'd actually make any sense.
C) I see two main options:
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- Level cap each episode/game. Imagine the Ep1 has a level cap of 30 and you reach it. If you start a completely new game from Ep2 you'll have a default starting level of say 25, but load your save from Ep1 and it starts at 30.
- Mass Effect approach which allows them to tweak the system from episode to episode, but certain elements are transferred and a certain amount of advantage to the start as a reward for playing previous Eps.
A lot of episodic games aren't RPGs where you have levels and items. Or they have a habit of forcing you to lose everything at the start of each Ep anyway which FFVII can't do as I covered above. The only 2 examples I can think of in RPGs are from Bioware in Baldurs Gate and Mass Effect trilogy which is where the two examples above come from. I'm happy with either approach as long as it's implemented with a lot of thought towards balance.
D) This is not exactly a new concept and has been around since the late 90s.
E) The save files will store all the information needed for transfer to the next game. I don't see any reason for that not to be the case.
F) I imagine they'll make it into a collectable across all three games.
