Final Fantasy XIII Spoiler Thread (SPOILERS)

[The Twilight Mexican]

So, Square-Enix has come out to say what "went wrong" with FFXIII....

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/10/exclusive_behind_the_scenes_of_3.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+gamesetwatch+%28GameSetWatch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

"Even before the current generation of consoles was introduced, it was obvious that the game market in the West was gaining momentum, and we couldn’t ignore it."

Welcome to the 1980s, SE!

Square Enix, folks: Ahead of the times since some future date.



Seriously, though, if these guys didn't actually sit down and put their heads together on how the fucking game would be played until the demo included with ACC came along -- a demo that was released only eight months before FFXIII itself -- then there's little fucking wonder it lacked so much gameplay content.

And really is a miracle that it's as playable as it is.

 

[Glaurung]

Wasn't the demo only in Japanese?

 

[Dana Scully]

Yes.

Which made it all the more fun to play.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS BUTTON DOES BUT IT HAS MORE KATAKANA THAN THE REST OF THEM SO IT MUST BE BETTER

 

[ForceStealer]

Yeah it came out while I was in Japan, that was fun My Japanese was at its best then so I could actually read the menus. (Still couldn't quite follow their speech though).

 

[Glaurung]

I thought so, but I wasn't sure

Japanese companies should stop thinking that Japan is the center of the world and they should start having in mind that the rest of the world migh have an equal or higher number of gaming population.

 

[Splintered]

Weird though, the concept and gameplay weren't realized until much later. But I liked the concept and I loved the gameplay out of everything. At least unless I'm misinterpreting something, does "concept" was story concept? I had problems with a lot of its execution, but the base frame work of having your characters the people who will destroy the world is a fun idea.

I actually like how open this is. But I'm a nerd and like reading how developers make games and all the problems that come with it.

 

[Glaurung]

Weird though, the concept and gameplay weren't realized until much later. But I liked the concept and I loved the gameplay out of everything. At least unless I'm misinterpreting something, does "concept" was story concept? I had problems with a lot of its execution, but the base frame work of having your characters the people who will destroy the world is a fun idea.

I actually like how open this is. But I'm a nerd and like reading how developers make games and all the problems that come with it.

I think this sentence says it all:

it was also the first time that everyone could see exactly how the assets they worked on would function within the game

Meaning that they got people programming without a hint of what they were doing things for. For the is an utter miscommunication inside the company and now I realize it's a miracle it even saw the light.

 

[Splintered]

Moar scans,

http://community.livejournal.com/ff_xiii/177009.html

 

[Makoeyes987]

So, Square-Enix has come out to say what "went wrong" with FFXIII....

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/10...atch+(GameSetWatch)&utm_content=Google+Reader


Makes me wonder what they're going to do about FFIV, but that's beside the point.

Jesus Christ, what a disorganized mess.

S-E basically locked a bunch of developers in a room who were fapping to their own demo movie, and told them to build the game from scratch. No wonder shit went so sour.

 

[Strangelove]

No wonder shit went so sour.

you're an idiot

 

[Makoeyes987]

you're an idiot

You're a weeabo

 

[Strangelove]

You're a weeabo

I can't deny that.

And you can't deny what I said

 

[Makoeyes987]

Hey, I can too!

 

[Alex Strife]

But you didn't!

 

[ForceStealer]

Point: Alex.

 

[Strangelove]

So now Mako has stopped being a jerk I've been looking at the scans from the Ultimania Omega and did a couple of Ikeda's comments on her concept art (the extra comments, not the text on the images themselves).

Spoiler

Dajh

At first Dajh's profile said he was 9, but when I read the scenario I got a slightly more childlike image, so I decided to make him a smaller size that you'd just want to pick up and give him a hug, and drew him envisioning him to be 6~7 years old. I expanded on the detail that he liked chocobos which was there from the start, so I decided to make it so that his clothes were bought from a shop focusing on chocobo merchandise. Dajh's favourite is a round emblem with a chocobo motif, the reason being "because it looks a little like the employer's mark on Sazh's shoulder" (laughs). He get his large eyes and hair type from Sazh, but I also imagine that maybe his mouth and small body is from his mother who doesn't appear in the game.


Amoda

For Amoda, I got a suggestion from the scenario writer to "make him just like Kubota (Hideo Kubota: character modelling director/ > P.449)". I was in a different section at the time so I didn't know Kubota, but the instance I actually met him the image came to me. In this game the colouring symbolises the character of the different armed forces, so in contrast to the PSICOM uniforms which are unitarily black, Lightning's Guardian Corps are brighter overall and use more colour. The GC noncommissioned officer (see the righthand page) uniforms were also based on Lightning's outfit. These people show up in the scene in Euride Gorge where they help Dajh.


Rigdy [Rygdea]

Rygdea's body used the same outfit as the members of the Cavalry, I only designed his face. They said that he was a character who couldn't cost much as far as the polygon model or animation went, so I drew a version with short hair as well. But the person in charge of modelling made the long haired version out of enthusiesm for keeping with that design. For his sky blue eyes and auburn hair* I drew upon him being in the Cavalry, who fly around the skies, and gave it the meaning of him being the closest person to the sky. His profile saying he has both a laxness and courage, for example he can be a bit carefree but he has a sharp mind and is skilled at his work, yet he's cheerful and caring, so in keeping with that I tried showing his chest and giving him stubble.

* In Japanese this is トビ色, which means 'black kite colour' referring to the breed of bird, thus the sky imagery.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

So now Mako has stopped being a jerk

Really? Where was I that day?

 

[Splintered]

So now Mako has stopped being a jerk I've been looking at the scans from the Ultimania Omega and did a couple of Ikeda's comments on her concept art (the extra comments, not the text on the images themselves).

Spoiler

Dajh

At first Dajh's profile said he was 9, but when I read the scenario I got a slightly more childlike image, so I decided to make him a smaller size that you'd just want to pick up and give him a hug, and drew him envisioning him to be 6~7 years old. I expanded on the detail that he liked chocobos which was there from the start, so I decided to make it so that his clothes were bought from a shop focusing on chocobo merchandise. Dajh's favourite is a round emblem with a chocobo motif, the reason being "because it looks a little like the employer's mark on Sazh's shoulder" (laughs). He get his large eyes and hair type from Sazh, but I also imagine that maybe his mouth and small body is from his mother who doesn't appear in the game.


Amoda

For Amoda, I got a suggestion from the scenario writer to "make him just like Kubota (Hideo Kubota: character modelling director/ > P.449)". I was in a different section at the time so I didn't know Kubota, but the instance I actually met him the image came to me. In this game the colouring symbolises the character of the different armed forces, so in contrast to the PSICOM uniforms which are unitarily black, Lightning's Guardian Corps are brighter overall and use more colour. The GC noncommissioned officer (see the righthand page) uniforms were also based on Lightning's outfit. These people show up in the scene in Euride Gorge where they help Dajh.


Rigdy [Rygdea]

Rygdea's body used the same outfit as the members of the Cavalry, I only designed his face. They said that he was a character who couldn't cost much as far as the polygon model or animation went, so I drew a version with short hair as well. But the person in charge of modelling made the long haired version out of enthusiesm for keeping with that design. For his sky blue eyes and auburn hair* I drew upon him being in the Cavalry, who fly around the skies, and gave it the meaning of him being the closest person to the sky. His profile saying he has both a laxness and courage, for example he can be a bit carefree but he has a sharp mind and is skilled at his work, yet he's cheerful and caring, so in keeping with that I tried showing his chest and giving him stubble.

* In Japanese this is トビ色, which means 'black kite colour' referring to the breed of bird, thus the sky imagery.

You are my hero.

This may or may not be sad on my part.

 

[Cannon_Fodder]

You are my hero.

This may or may not be sad on my part.

Hito's everyone's hero, don't feel bad.

 

[Strangelove]

You are my hero.

Just as planned.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

If I were into dudes, hito. That's all I'm sayin'.

 

[Strangelove]

I really like where this is going.

Also, in exchange for not having gotten anything else done today, one other random point: Menrva (is that how you spell it, the owl's name?) is actually a kind of fal'Cie, which is the reason why it has a face on its chest.

 

[Splintered]

I really like where this is going.

Also, in exchange for not having gotten anything else done today, one other random point: Menrva (is that how you spell it, the owl's name?) is actually a kind of fal'Cie, which is the reason why it has a face on its chest.

Well now Orphan's second form kind of makes much more sense since it is made up of three samebutdifferent entities. I always assumed that Menrva was just a part of Barthandelus. But I guess it forms the left half?

Speaking of which, I loved Orphan's second and third forms. As a design they were amazing. Sure, being a tablet didn't really make sense, but it looked a hella cool.

Anyway, is it just me and my imagination or does the second form kind of remind you of the Modonna. It would go hand in hand with the religious iconography seen all over the place (although I never quite got why they chose that route. I mean I sort of understand why- but I felt that other games just did it better, like FFX)

Or am I super later to the party?

 

[Strangelove]

I couldn't resist looking at what the comments for Orphan said now.

(I didn't mention it before, but those other comments were all Ikeda IIRC. These are by Nakano, who designed all three of Orphan's forms.)

Spoiler

Nakano: I was told by the planning side that I was free to do what I wanted except for two points, "since it is an 'orphan' make it appear as a child" and "the child form comes after it transforms, and before it becomes a child make it extravagant". For the 1st form I used an orphan's parents as the motif, and the reason the 2nd form appears after defeating the 1st was to give it the meaning of 'being born from the loss of its parents'-- so 'being born as an orphan'. Initially I heard that Dysley would transforms into Orphan, so on the right side of the 1st form I included a face that looked like Barthandelus. The mother on the left side is god Lindzei (the god that had the fal'Cie create Cocoon/ >P.198) as Dysley envisioned it, but it differs from its actual appearance and more sinister.

I found it interesting that in the concept art they call the Cocoon fal'Cie brand the 'Lindzei mark'.

And while I was looking at the concept art, the names they give each form of Orphan:

First Form: Monolith
Second Form: Mercurial Defence
Third Form: Defenceless State

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

::fap fap fap fap::

Bring your face here, hito darling.

Awesome info! Thanks for that, dude. All that stuff about Orphan was a treasure trove.

It would go hand in hand with the religious iconography seen all over the place (although I never quite got why they chose that route. I mean I sort of understand why- but I felt that other games just did it better, like FFX)

I agree. FFXIII's religious iconography almost felt out of place. I love how it all looks, don't get me wrong. It just feels a little bit forced because the Sanctum and fal'Cie weren't really worshipped the way Yevon was in FFX.