Sinister western influence? That's your own interpretation of my words. I meant that it is a gaming mechanic that the west have implemented profusely in their games lately, specially in shooters. No way around the fact that the japanese gaming companies are looking to attract western gamers through gaming mechanics that are popular here.

Resident Evil 5 is kind of a poster child for that. Everything in the game was adapted to the mechanic and to me, the game suffered heavily for it. That's the kind of thing I don't want to happen to The Last Story. It's rather obvious, however, that the kind of implementation needed for shooters and action games has nothing to do with the one needed for a RPG, but I don't like the basic concept of the mechanic and would happily live without it in this game.

That's fine, but.... it's not an inherently western thing. The things that made RE5 more Western is somethign that deserves a topic of its own, but it wasn't down to jsut co-op.

It's just disingenuous to treat co-op as a Western thing. That's all I'm saying.

Well, no.

I'm also saying that there's no real reason to think that this is a co-op mechanic.

You have a gathering skill that seems similar to a taunt/aggro thing. Apparently, only 2 characters are depicted. One appears to be busy taunting while the other has to sneak around the foes to cast a spell... And Sakaguchi has already mentioned it won't be turn based. Maybe the feeling stems from my experiences with the games I play, but I still got a co-op vibe from it.
I'll play the wait and see game now.

looks pretty cool. can tell there will be a lot of strategy involved.

i wouldnt mind if it had co-op, as long as the devs dont try to focus on it..

I have played Star Ocean 2 and Til The End of Time and you're right, it wouldn't interfere with anything. I just got a different concept from those images. A video or an explanation directly from the devs will shed doubts soon.

I dunno I don't get a co-op vibe form this after the gameplay explanation.


@Khuutra

No I don't think the SSNES FF's had CO-Op, it was Secret of mana that had co-op, I think FF9 had co-op too, not certain though (in battle mode obviously)

@speedfrom

actually the west has been moving AWAY from same console co-op compared to last gen, its mostly online co-op now. Splitscreen/same screen co-op is basically gone. Please stop trying to make up negatives when there aren't any yet.

Co-op is co-op, be it online or splitscreen. Since I shared *MY* dislike for it, nothing is being made up.

Actually FF6 did have Co-op.

As is Earthbound.

I don't remember FF6 having co-op, I think I played it on the GBA though.