I was going to just post this in the Weekly Roundups thread (it should definitely be included there at the end of this week anyway) but I thought it might generate some interesting discussion.
Square Enix recently had a conference about the Agni's Philosophy tech demo, during which they listed 5 components that make a FF game.
Magic
Summoning
Gorgeous Beauty
Refinement
Change and Challenge
...explains a lot tbh. What five elements would you choose, and why? Notice the absence of "story" and "character development"... seems weird.
The absence of "story" does seem really jarring, and perhaps explanatory. I suppose "character development" could be wrapped up in "story", but to have both be absent from the list...and gorgeous beauty there...which honestly I can understand, you want to make the world beautiful and the graphics awesome and all that, but...story? Please? Unless they were just figuring that the mere title of Final Fantasy implies a story, because I guess it kind of technically does, but still. Still.
Ehh, I don't know. Putting it like that seems like a bit of a stretch to me. Design, sure, maybe, but the actual story/character development? But who knows what he actually meant, translations blah blah blah, I mean, even "gorgeous beauty" just sounds silly.
I'd almost say "Change and Challenge" include both story and character development as it's hard to have either story or character development without change or a challenge.
I could see how summoning is different then magic as more games have magic, but no summoning, but yeah, summoning is a part of magic in FF games.
They should have put in writing because people might come for the gameplay but they also stay for the story and characters.
I mean you want a story where the gamers actually are engaged in the story and want to see what happens to these people.A good story defiantly draws people in.
Its not just the gamplay that got people into Final Fantasy 7 buy it was the story that pulled people in and actually wish to see these people succeed at preventing the end of the world.
1. Immersive World/Setting
2. Epic Story/Characters ('epic' as in the genre)
3. Memorable Music
4. Beautiful Graphics (I hate to be a 'grafixx whore,' but it's true.)
5. New 'Built-from-the-ground-up' Gameplay with every main title.
A little wordy, but these are the elements that keep me coming back. For better or for worse...
1. Immersive World/Setting
2. Epic Story/Characters ('epic' as in the genre)
3. Memorable Music
4. Beautiful Graphics (I hate to be a 'grafixx whore,' but it's true.)
5. New 'Built-from-the-ground-up' Gameplay with every main title.
A little wordy, but these are the elements that keep me coming back. For better or for worse...
I don't like anything in a game except story and characters. Graphics have never been something that I cared about. It could all be pixels, but as long as the story is good then I'm good.
Also good music is nice. I don't like it when I have to turn the volume down over a song. A good example of this would be the games Magna Carta. Crimson Stigmata's music was horrible to me!
-Central underlying theme that can be applied to everybody's situation. They really need to let go of the Divinity complex that FXIII regurgitated from X and refine what they tried to do with the Ivalice politics from XII. Instead of "Oh we killed a god, everybody's problems are fixed," the antagonists need to have more meat/humanity to them. Something for the audience to digest, and I didn't get that after I finished the game. Turks were replaced with faceless Psycom troops, the main boss was an obviously derivative pope, and the lady with the glasses had no motivation and could have used more fleshing out,
but was practically killed off screen like Cid.
-A party of characters that add their own weight to the story, relevant assist characters. A job class for everybody, but with equal thought put into their backgrounds. I'm a monk player, but didn't like being hooked up with Snow, so maybe a few guest characters that share the same attributes, or go all out like Tactics did and let you pick your own. Hell, shake things up and make new classes like V, VI, and Tactics. You have a basic magic system to work with that's over 20 yrs old now. Get creative.
And for goodness sakes, make some more diverse characters. I miss playing as Cid, Barret, Auron, and Shadow. Where'd all the ninjas go btw? Or crazy optional characters like Yetis and Vincent Valentines?
-If you're going to allow sequels, plan for them in advance. Can be a general plan that can be worked out later in production, but at least to where you'll have a game that's just as significant as the first.
-Decent side-quests that can become pretty substantial on their own. VII tried too hard, but they could have fixed that if you could get some decent swag and it didn't make me feel so bad when I didn't win the first time. I still dread the Rufus march.
-And this just goes with all Square Enix games, so they already have this down, I'll just lump it all together: Art, music, cutscenes, pop songs, battle system, 80-100 hour gameplay (it can have some monotony, but let's try to be as meaty as possible). Actually, let's tone down the pop songs unless they go back to the classic stuff like IX, or have Uematsu do a main orchestra theme again like I-VII. Stuff that's relevant to the game.
I'd like them scrapped entirely, I still remember the cringefest of 'Eyes on Me' but at the time I thought it was a one off, how wrong I was. I wish they could just keep things instrumental.
I seriously hate the forced inclusion of pop songs. Even Eyes on Me, although I could actually see the purpose of that song considering Laguna and Julia. But ever since then, at best it's been awkward.
At worst, it actually takes away from the scene like in XIII-2's ending
the happy pop song at the end CONTINUES to play after your main character dies, and the other one screams in despair. It doesn't even bother to turn off while he mourns her, and only decides OH SHIT THIS IS A BAD IDEA after the world ends.
Loved "Eyes On Me," and the juxtaposition of that song in XIII-2's ending with what was happening on-screen is actually one of the few things I liked about that game's story presentation.
Why would they include story and character development? the first final fantasy had neither of those(okay, it had a small semblance of a story, but it still didn't have character development), *cough* but then again, they included summoning so SORRY FFI AND II, APPARENTLY YOU AREN'T REAL FINAL FANTASIES! Hehehehe...
Blegh, Eyes on Me. The only pop song that added anything positive to a game would probably be 1000 Words. I actually like both Redemption and Why as songs, but neither added anything to their respective games, the latter probably detracted.
I like all of those as songs, and really liked the way "1,000 Words" was used in X-2. "Redemption" worked well enough, and most days I like how "Why?" was used, but I think the ending may have been more powerful with a silent moment after Cloud's scream. Probably should have had Zack die right as he said the "living legacy" line and his hand fell as well.
Why would they include story and character development? the first final fantasy had neither of those(okay, it had a small semblance of a story, but it still didn't have character development), *cough* but then again, they included summoning so SORRY FFI AND II, APPARENTLY YOU AREN'T REAL FINAL FANTASIES! Hehehehe...
For its time FFI had a brilliant story. Most console gamers expected the game to end when you defeated the first boss, saved the Princess and went home.
TSW doesn't have over half the things on here. And if those are the five elements they prioritize when making a new FF, no wonder my interest in these games has slowly waned since X.
My 5:
-Engaging story
-Swords and Magic
-Innovative Gameplay
-State of the Art Graphics
-Brilliant Music
- Graphics not a priority: I honestly couldn't give two shits about graphics. If they want some intense graphical sequence, that is what FMVs were for.
- Story-writing: They need to put in more resources for story writing. This'd include character development, etc.
- Dynamic RPG elements: Hard to explain, but the gameplay that FFV-FFXII had was acceptable (and possibly pre-FFV and FFXI, which I haven't played). I really liked the direction FFXII was going actually.
- Amazing Music: Almost all music of Uematsu's day had something special about it. Very little filler. That's what needs to happen again.
- Contiguous environments: A world map with towns and dungeons (etc) that you can walk into.
Also when writing don't make the story too light or too dark.You need a bit of both to make it work.Making it too light will make it taste like diabetes while a too dark setting will induce Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy in the gamers because its too depressing.
So,when writing avoid the eight deadly words" I don't care what happens to these people".
When you realize you have written characters that know one can relate to or feel for then you know your story is a dud.Plus writing a cast full of jerks will also hurt the story because no one will root for a bunch of jerks who don't even have a heart of gold.
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