The Future of Final Fantasy

Pixel

Pixel

The Pixie King
Where do you see the Final Fantasy franchise going in the next 10 years? Do you think they'll do more remakes, concentrate on core numbered entries, or branch out more to smaller projects?

I figured Id try to cobble together opinions for a video, like with the last one. Also, if you can remember any developer interviews or anything that give clues to their intents, that would be really useful.
 
Jason Tandro

Jason Tandro

Banned
AKA
Jason Tandro, Doc Brown, Santa Christ, FearAddict, Thibault Stormrunner, RN: Micah Rodney
Well Claymore shared this one in the FF8 Discussion: FF8 Remake?

Which indicates they might be following a holding pattern of reliving the glory years.

--


Personally if I had to guess based on Squeenix's track record from the previous 10 years I would guess the following. I was listing this off and realized that I could set it to "The 12 Days of Christmas" which wasn't my original intent, but what the hell it's 6 AM and I'm hopped up on Energy Shot so let's do this.

In the 10 Years Ahead, Squeenix Will Deliver Me:
10 - Ports of FF1
9 - Strange Corporate Tie-Ins
8 - Steam Re-Releases
7 - DLCs for XV
6 - Spin-Off Titles
5 - Mobile Gaaaaaames
4 - XIV Expansions
3 - OVAs
2 - HD Remakes
And 1 new Main Series Title.

Thank you, thank you. I'm here all night. :monster:
 
Ghost X

Ghost X

Moderator
My pessimistic prediction is they go all Hollywood with okay-ish remakes and reboots :P. Until the old guard running the show get booted and new blood with fresh ideas come in, they'll probably go where they think the money is, etc. Relive the glory days. Little creative effort / little desire to develop new IPs, and if they do, they'll absolutely saturate it with subtle and overt homages to earlier FFs, just so even your demented grandfather knows it is an FF game :P. They need to tone down on that shit, imo :P.

I could imagine another remake or 2 (a full-on remake like they're doing with FFVII) in the space of 10 years. I'm hoping they might rework some of the classic FF stories, say FF1-6, put a bit more depth in them. I wouldn't mind some further exploration of the FFVIII universe as well. Bit of untapped potential there.

There might be another MMO, and maybe 2 more numbered FFs in the space of ten years that have multi-platform tie-ins (like FFXV), and pachinko machines. Many many pachinko machines, or is that
#fuck
Konami. That and freemium mobile game apps, etc. Every single way they can attempt to get cash out of you, they'll attempt. There might be live action movies? :P. j/k.

Okay, more positive stuff now :awesome:. Never know where new technology will take us. There might be more virtual reality games, or augmented reality ones. Who bloody knows :P. Imagine viewing a scene from any angle of your choosing, or being on of the actual characters in a fully immersive environment. That'd be pretty cool... if it was more than a Prompto shooting simulator.

, given this is more of my wishlist, but I'll stick it here anyway: With the numbered titles, I sure hope they just don't stick with realism. Do something stylistic again. Give me a full on contemporary graphics Yoshitaka Amano FF. I wanna see this, and this, and this, in 3D immersive environments n' shit, completely in that style. Or -- given I said new blood -- give some other artist a try.

I don't think I'll get my MGS-style FF game (:awesome:), maybe there might be a minecraft style one, like they did with Dragon Quest :P.
 
C

ChipNoir

Pro Adventurer
The thing that I keep in mind is all the 'heads' here are middle aged.
Tetsuya Nomura: 47
Yasumi Matsuno: 52
Yoshinori Kitase: 50
Motomu Toriyama: Not on record, but he looks easily at least 45
Hajima Tabata: 42

Those are just the highlighted directors that I could find ages/pictures for. There's scores other.

None of these guys are 'old' persay, but there's a definite trend in Japan where once you're a certain age and have worked within a game company for enough time, you get shoved up to Producer status, and never go back. It's already happened to Kitase.

It's also notable that all the people who were old enough to start with the earlier generations are now in their 30's, putting them at the age where they could start progressing towards lead positions.

So we'll have this entire new generation of directors that will have a hardcore nostalgia for 87-2001. I can definetly see them pushing for a return to older styles, provided the board of execs allows them to. So it's going to be a push-pull war between creative choice and financial goals.
 
The Twilight Mexican

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
Jason Tandro said:
Well Claymore shared this one in the FF8 Discussion: FF8 Remake?

Which indicates they might be following a holding pattern of reliving the glory years.
Click to expand...

They've been doing that for a while already anyway, but I just need to point out how much both that article and the "interview" it cites are clickbait dogshit. We don't even get told what question prompted that response about hypothetical things that may (i.e. could, but probably won't) happen.

They just make it look like this dude at Square was so eager to let the world know "FF8 Remake a Possibility, Says Square Director" (dude never even calls attention to FFVIII specifically) or "The man at the helm of Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age has teased Square Enix remaking more Final Fantasy titles."

Really? "Teased"? Or did he get asked a dumbshit baiting question (conveniently hidden from readers) to which he gave a vague reply phrased in hypothetical diction, ultimately amounting to something less teasing than some episodes of "Spongebob Squarepants"?

But at least POS clickbait YouTubers like Final Fantasy Peasant can make videos with thumbnails advertising "FFVII WON'T BE THE ONLY REMAKE" and titles like "Square Enix Programmer/Director says fans will choose the next Final Fantasy remake," right?

Fuck all these people.

Ghost X said:
, given this is more of my wishlist, but I'll stick it here anyway: With the numbered titles, I sure hope they just don't stick with realism. Do something stylistic again. Give me a full on contemporary graphics Yoshitaka Amano FF. I wanna see this, and this, and this, in 3D immersive environments n' shit, completely in that style. Or -- given I said new blood -- give some other artist a try.

I don't think I'll get my MGS-style FF game (:awesome:), maybe there might be a minecraft style one, like they did with Dragon Quest :P.
Click to expand...

but I hope Amano's aesthetic stays far away from the actual games/movies. He's made undeniable contributions that I have to appreciate, but to my eyes, those can be succinctly described as others coming behind him to almost literally polish turds.

As for your MGS FF, they delivered that 11 years ago with Dirge of Cerberus. :monster:
 
Pixel

Pixel

The Pixie King
If I could bring myself to spout that much bullshit every time a tiny bit of "info" comes out our youtube channel would be 20x bigger.

I just started jotting down some notes on my phone so I can structure this

Remakes

PC ports
Nvidia presentation
Agni’s philosophy
Visual Fidelity

Difficulty of AAA development
Product placement to offset the cost
Media mix approach - books, movies, play arts, etc.
Multi-platform
Nintendo Switch

Unreal engine vs Luminous
Tug of war between creative choice and financial goals
 
Pixel

Pixel

The Pixie King
I'm not exactly a natural at this type of writing, but I figured I'd make a start and see where it goes. Im trying to make the article flow, rather than it just being a list.

The Future of Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy has always been an evolving franchise, fuelled by evolving technologies, evolving narrative, and evolving hairstyles. But it also relies heavily on nostalgia, designed to evoke feelings from bygone days.

Square enix face the daunting challenge of balancing its past and its future. With each new entry in the series, there are expectations for it to live up to each previous entry, but with everybody and their mother having their own idea of what Final Fantasy should be. As Tabata says, “Everyone has Final Fantasy disease.”

Over the years we’ve seen many remakes and re-releases of previous entries in the series, making them accessible on newer technologies, and for a new generation. This, of course, is going to continue.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is due out this July for PlayStation 4—based on the International Zodiac Job System version of the original game, which was only released in Japan. For anyone who only played the original Final Fantasy XII, The Zodiac Age will bring plenty of new content. Not only that, it also addresses a few criticisms of the International Zodiac Job System version, making Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age the definitive version of Final Fantasy XII.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake is also due out sometime within the next three years, Unlike the Final Fantasy XII remaster, this is a full remake of Final Fantasy VII and could differ from the original in many ways. Not just in the presentation of the story and game mechanics, but also in the way the game is released. It is being split into multiple games, although they haven’t stated how many or a timeframe for the release of each part.

Meanwhile, other remakes could be on the horizon, too. While some fans look ahead to Final Fantasy VIII and IX as entries that deserve remakes, back in 2015, Tetsuya Nomura commented on the fact that Final Fantasy V and VI have been overlooked. We’ve also heard that many in Square Enix would love to work on VI. In a recent interview, Zodiac Age director Takashi Katano stated that the next full remake could be largely determined by the response from fans: "We really have to hear their voices on that, if they want to see a remake or a remaster of a certain game then that's more likely to be the one we go for."

"I've personally been working at Square Enix for 20 years now and I've got a lot of memories from that time. I think the way that we look at it is not the game that [we] would like to remake it's really down to what the players, the fans, want to see."
Click to expand...
 
X-SOLDIER

X-SOLDIER

Harbinger O Great Justice
AKA
X
Tres mentioned this in the FFXV thread with a good quick summary look if you CBA to check the whole transcript.

This is my favourite bit from the NeoGaf Thread:

6WXv2Tl.png


PLEASE-BE-EXCITED-MEME-03172015.jpg






X :neo:
 
Theozilla

Theozilla

Kaiju Member


Figured this was the most appropriate thread to post this in since I didn't think it warranted its own. But the guy apparently collected and calculated the average review ratings Square Enix's most prolific (in terms of number of games worked on) FF directors have had over the years and ranked them in a list. The results were pretty interesting (though he made a brain-fart in the ordering of the 5th and 6th places, which he notes in the comment section of the video).

EDIT: Oh I also echo the sentiment that Yoko Taro should be given a chance to direct a Final Fantasy game. Personally, I think he could be a great fit for a FFVIII remake game since he knows how to do surrealism and atmosphere well.
 
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