A203D said:
darkknightkryta said:
A203D said:
scottie said:
the_bloodwalker said:
scottie said:
FFXIII may have been an incredible game, but it is targeted at too wide an audience, and it left many hardcore RPG fans feeling left out.
I think that it is way too early to call one of the biggest franchises in existence dead. FFXIII expanded the franchise, albeit at the cost of some existing fans. FFXIV sounds shit from reviews, but no-one ever likes the MMO FFs. FFXV will have a tough task to keep the new fans and apologise to those who didn't like XIII, but far from an impossible task
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FFXIII didn't really expanded the franchise. It was released on two consoles. Multiplatform release is not considered expanding, but having a larger market increasing the chances of success of the game.
Expansion would mean that SquareEnix did the homework to answer two questions:
- Why there are gamers that have never played a FF game before
- Why are there fans feeling left out?
I don't think FF XIII and XIV have an answer of these questions, and I'm afraid XV will not either.
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PS2 has outsold the PS360 combined, this is not a userbase issue - FFXIII expanded the franchise.
FFXIII is aimed (more so that earlier FFs) at those who feel that RPGs are generally too slow paced, and require the use of complicated guides in order to produce the best party, and that is why more people are willing to play FF
I can't speak for everyone, but the main criticisms levelled at FFXIII from fans of either FF or RPGs in general are that the game is too linear, and the combat system leaves you without enough control.
As I already said, this doesn't make it a bad game. It's just not aimed at me as much as I would like
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i think the answer to both of the_bloodwalkers questions is (and in response to your post scottie: that SE is trying to reach the sales success of FF7, with about 10mil units shipped/sold.
and since Sakaguchi has left, Kitase is the head of production team 1, and for some reason he and production team 1 seem to think the way to reach that success is to draw from influences like FPS and creating something that isnt an RPG:
Oh and heres an interview with Kitase: http://www.gamegrep.com/previews/30446-final_fantasy_xiii_not_an_rpg_says_producer_new_1up_exclusive_screens/
he talks about why FF13 is NOT an RPG, and about how series is becoming more like an interactive movie. Toriyama discusses how FF13 is more like an FPS than an RPG and some of the methods he used to make it like that. but of course this isnt really what western gamers want, not to mention the admission made by SE that the 5 years spent with Crystal Tools 'may' have been a mistake!
Wada allowed this because hes not a game designer, hes a buisness man; but this is why i dont agree with the direction the series has gone in and their methodology and design philiosophy for making FF13 that way.
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I think things were different when they started work on the White Engine; I'm guessing Square was planning to make a lot of ps3 games. Then someone decided to make a 360 port of FInal Fantasy XIII and that's when things went bad; they spent too much time porting the engine to the 360 and PC that Final Fantasy 13's development couldn't really take off until much later. And while FInal Fantasy 13 looks great, it's pretty much outdated and can't do much other than cutscenes. So now all that time put into the white engine is going down the drain, cause probably Final Fantasy VS 13 is going to be the last game to use the engine. I think it was just a miscalculation on their tech department and too many decisions being changed; made developers spend a good year or so on the engine before they could start using it. Now with hardware refresh on the horizon (New consoles are going to be announced pretty soon.) Square isn't going to be able to pump out too many more games. Just bad management decisions if you ask me. (Not refering to the 360 port of Final Fantasy, but rather how they went about the port). Oh and they raided most of the development team of FInal Fantasy Vs 13 to finish FInal Fantasy 13 (Which is why Nomura is practically nowhere with his game). So they spent 4 years and 2 development teams on an engine that so far only 1 game has used and they only have 1 other game in development using it.
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Well i didnt know that Crystal Tools was this much of a failure. as for new consoles, i doubt that we'll get them for a little bit yet, so i think SE still has one last chance with FF15 this gen, this does also call into question Wada's management style. i didnt think Wada was accountable before... but it seems that he may well be. if indeed they dont use Crystal Tools again, then its completely unacceptable, its been a waste of 5 years, for 1 game, that had such a mixed reception.
and Crystal Tools may have been miscalculations from the tech department, but i think it is Kitase who is responsible for scrapping 1 year of dev time on the PS2 and creating a new HD engine, however i didnt know that it was only good for cutscenes. is it not designed for other things??
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30639/Game_Developer_October_Issue_Showcases_Final_Fantasy_XIII_Companies_To_Watch.php
found this link and part of the development team discuss how FF13s development was disjointed and well poorly managed it would seem. until the demo came out and rectified some of the problems, but i mean there is clearly things that are wrong with the way the team were managed.
Edit: its seems that are deep rooted problems at the managment level that is rotting the series from the inside imo.
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