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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Final Fantasy II Programmer gives the most ridiculous but realistic answer for why the Ultima glitch was not fixed.

Xxain on 20 October 2014

At the time, when Square tested the game out and saw the Ultima bug, it was definitely a problem, and Sakaguchi said “How did this happen? Fix it.” However, the person that programmed it replied with the following statement:

 

“All of that legendary stuff, it dates back to an age that didn’t even have proper techniques. If you were to look at such things now in the present’s point-of-view, it would be natural that they look inferior. For this reason, it’s a given that Ultima’s abilities would be bad.”

 

“As for those who struggled and ultimately acquired it only to find out that it’s useless… well, that’s something that often happens in life. So, I’m not going to fix it!”

 

Naturally, Sakaguchi was rather irritated by that reply and said “whatever, just give me the source,” so he could fix it himself. As it turned out, the programmer had ciphered the source, so he ended up being the only one who could do anything with it, and it was just left the way it was.


Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2014/10/20/final-fantasys-first-ultima-spell-useless/#ltqWvU0UkCq4Vbxl.99


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TurboElder on 20 October 2014

This was the last day in his job ;)



Xxain on 20 October 2014

This is such a double edged answer:

For being a paid developer, what the hell answer is that!? but when you think about it in game perspective, it does make sense.



ghost_of_fazz on 20 October 2014

Well, the NES Final Fantasy games were all a buggy mess to begin with.



Xxain on 20 October 2014
RolStoppable said:
Xxain said:
This is such a double edged answer:

For being a paid developer, what the hell answer is that!? but when you think about it in game perspective, it does make sense.

Why? Is FF II the odd one out? Because the classic FF games usually took place in worlds where ancient technology was superior.


That is just because though. In JRPG's or Japanese games in general, there is always some legendary monster, magic, or weapon ext that did some unprecedented damage in the past but was some how locked away/sealed/lost. With growing technology, what is to say that same *insert whatever power* is still a threat? Unless in game world is stagnant or just ignorant surely over time they would attempt to develop new technology to counter it. Maybe in FF II past having HP over 500 was not common, so ultima  was just wiping armies out. As people trained harder breaking past 500 HP limit and had armor with greater M Def .... Ultima may not be as destructive.  



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XanderXT on 20 October 2014

Wow, what a jerk.



justiceiro on 20 October 2014

Was this quest fundamental? I don't remenber acquiring such spell.

Any way, you are not looking at this at the rigth perspective, neither was the programmer, really. Altougth its truth that with time, technology gets better, religion, on the other side, gets "worse". You know, most of the religions from the past are now death, and we have no idea what their deity did, or how could them be pleased, or invoked.

If we follow this logic, army power got better(like they actually did on FF2, really, with all that plying machine and stuff), but spell were than weaker, because traditions were forgotten.



"Hardware design isn’t about making the most powerful thing you can.
Today most hardware design is left to other companies, but when you make hardware without taking into account the needs of the eventual software developers, you end up with bloated hardware full of pointless excess. From the outset one must consider design from both a hardware and software perspective."

Gunpei Yoko

vivster on 21 October 2014

How can you cipher code? If the game can read it, every programmer on the team must be able to decipher it.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

RenCutypoison on 21 October 2014
vivster said:
How can you cipher code? If the game can read it, every programmer on the team must be able to decipher it.


Can every programmer on your team read disassembled code ?



vivster on 21 October 2014
RenCutypoison said:
vivster said:
How can you cipher code? If the game can read it, every programmer on the team must be able to decipher it.


Can every programmer on your team read disassembled code ?

Of course they can. Then again, they are a team of professionals :P



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.