Former Squaresoft President Calls SE a "Complete Failure" with "No vision."

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

That's cause you are stupid. you should try more.

I'd have to find the time.

 

[ForceStealer]

You should check out ACC, Matthew. As I've said before, it likely isn't going to change your mind about the movie one way or the other, but it is undeniably superior.

 

[Clourline]

I'd have to find the time.

What do you mean by that you have so much free time! You have alot more free time than me!

 

[Geostigma]

That.

Had it not been titled (or mis-titled imo) Final Fantasy it would probably have fared a lot better. Final Fantasy has a huge history attached to it, and to have a movie that barely talked about it disappointed me hugely. I know, I know people will scream 'no fanservice!' but if they didn't care to treat with fanservice why even associate it with Final Fantasy at all? They could have done just fine with The Spirits Within. At least some people wouldn't have felt like they were misled (I know at least I felt that way...).

One could argue that it not having anything to do with past game titles would actually be relevant fan service to the Final Fantasy of that time.


I like TSW for what it is.
A movie with plot (aka not a terribad action movie like AC).
The characters actually felt like a real team dynamic and they were built upon fairly well imo.
(honestly the only decent characters built into AC were Rude and Reno)

Unlike in AC where all the other characters were just there rather then in the movie (aka half assed script, good job writing a script with minimal character interaction).

An established villain archetype that is believable and poses a realistic threat.
(sephiroth is a threat but its so meh).

Im sure someone will argue that ACC is better then AC, but honestly Im not sold on it. Movies arent like video games you cant just "patch" in extra bits and make it a 1.5hd mix in hopes to erase the viewers memory of the first shitty film.

I'm not saying its the best movie ever made, but its definitely the best movie thats ever come out of a Square(enix) production house.

Not to mention if you watch TSW today the level of quality and finesse applied to the character models is pretty mind blowing when you realize this movie is over 10 years old now.

 

[Dawnbreaker]

AC might not be a good movie (I can't honestly say it was good, no matter how entertaining it was) but at least it didn't fake me out. It didn't pretend to be anything other than what it was: fanservice. And while being obviously fanservice might be offensive to some, I can enjoy a movie based on what it was intended to be, not on what it pretends to be. I honestly fell asleep while watching TSW, which isn't a compliment, as you can imagine. Maybe if I had watched more of it I would like it better, but I doubt it. I felt jilted.

And I couldn't give two shits about character models. If a movie bores me, it bores me, no matter how pretty it was.

 

[Geostigma]

but its so peeerrrrty

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I've honestly never gotten why people feel that TSW "wasn't Final Fantasy." Not only was it centered around the core metaphysical concept of FFVII (which brought many of those same angry fans into the franchise to begin with), but at that time, "change" was the official theme of Final Fantasy (Sakaguchi actually said this in an interview once).

I don't know what folks were expecting. It could have been cuter at times and more fanservicey -- and maybe that's what it needed, if only to make it not so damn heavy all the time -- but what standard are we going by when we say it wasn't FF or we were misled? I've been wondering for the past 11 years and never seen a satisfactory explanation.

 

[Shademp]

I've honestly never gotten why people feel that TSW "wasn't Final Fantasy."

Maybe because the characters are too grounded in reality? There are no superhuman feats, no summoned beasts, no "magic users" or similar. Titles like FFVII and FFVIII were sci-fi but mixed with magic. Spirits Within was 95% sci-fi that flirted with magic but still did so in scientific terms.

That's part of the presentation that always made TSW boring to me (if you end up looking for a "Final Fantasy" experience).

 

[Gym Leader Devil]

Spirits Within was 95% sci-fi that flirted with magic but still did so in scientific terms..

Prof. Hojo would approve.

 

[Ite]

Sorry for contributing to this North-Corel-scale thread derailment, BUT

It didn't feel like an FF because it was set on Earth. At the end of the day, it was dead in the water. Setting it in reality prevented them from having magic or beast characters.

And also because instead of developing a lovable party of diversely-classed characters, they established a decently likeable party of normal people with guns and killed them all off half-way through the movie, before they got a chance to develop any of them.

But the villain was compelling, the metaphysics were cool, and the action was thrilling and un-obnoxious. More than I can say for AC, DoC, or FFXIII.

 

[Ⓐaron]

In addition to what Ite said, a lot of the things people expect from a Final Fantasy title were nowhere to be seen. No Shiva and Ifrit, no chocobos, no moogles, very little magic.

It was still a pretty good sci-fi film, but it didn't really feel like a Final Fantasy title.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Gracias, folks.

So, bullet points would be:

-Too grounded in reality/clash in presentation
-Half-assed character development

This argument does make a certain degree of sense to me, I admit. I had not really considered before what setting the story on Earth did. It instantly limited the range of what they could do metaphysically (at least without a damn good explanation), as it simultaneously limited the amount of the fantastical an audience would be willing to swallow.

So, basically, it limited their creative options and left the viewer's suspension of disbelief in a precarious position from the start.

Interesting. I had never thought about it this way before.

Again, thanks for the input, guys.

 

[Tennyo]

TSW didn't have a dude with a huge sword. THAT'S where it went wrong.

 

[Geostigma]

They had pretty big guns though

 

[Cthulhu]

And monsters, too .

 

[Blade]

Three words about this tweet: "Saw this coming."

Honestly I'm surprised Amano and Uematsu still do work for Square-Enix in this day and age (to say nothing of Nomura). I also kinda hoped Tri-Ace would be doing bigger and better things, but there's been wider and wider gaps of production for them on stuff.

I can only hope they do something "Dissidia-wise" for the PS Vita someday.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

What do you mean by that you have so much free time! You have alot more free time than me!

There are too many games higher in priority on the list of games I'd like to play than non-FF or KH SE games for me to get around to playing any any time soon.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

You should check out ACC, Matthew. As I've said before, it likely isn't going to change your mind about the movie one way or the other, but it is undeniably superior.

I'd need the money to buy it, or a way to watch it legally for free. For now, all I've got is TLS article explaining the differences between AC and ACC.

 

[Captain Jack Harkness]

i have a lot of english version ACC on my pc.

 

[ForceStealer]

I'd need the money to buy it, or a way to watch it legally for free. For now, all I've got is TLS article explaining the differences between AC and ACC.

It is $7.88. And will ship for free if you've got other stuff to buy.

 

[Hisako]

And also because instead of developing a lovable party of diversely-classed characters, they established a decently likeable party of normal people with guns and killed them all off half-way through the movie, before they got a chance to develop any of them.

I think considering the pedigree of the voice cast and the way they handled the acting, I'd say they were a slight cut above "decently likeable", but that's just me.

I mean what Final Fantasy title can boast having Steve Buscemi pretty much playing as himself?

OT: Like most other people here I'm certainly not surprised by those sorts of remarks being made, but I'd be more inclined to take them at face value if, you know, other people directly involved in the change in creative direction had any corroborative input into that sentiment.

As it stands it just sounds like a dude who worked for the Squaresoft board who's mad that they tanked, and is taking the opportunity to hurl some hurt.

 

[enziro]

I don't regard SE as being a complete failure on the whole. They've taken the safe road in recent years and haven't been particularly ambitious. That sucks but it doesn't surprise me because most other major game companies have done exactly the same. Every company has its ups and downs. Future decisions will show if they've learned from their mistakes - and I think they're capable of doing that. For example, they delayed the release of Deus Ex: Human Revolution by several months because they felt the quality wasn't up to par. That's an example of a company that has standards. Now they need to set a new standard and be more ambitious.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

It is $7.88. And will ship for free if you've got other stuff to buy.

And I have a little over $2, and no job. Come Christmas I should be able to afford it and more, thanks to Christmas money. I could buy it then. Though I'm not sure if my DVD player can play blu-ray.

 

[Captain Jack Harkness]

only blu-ray can play blu-ray, unless you have a PS3

 

[Cthulhu]

only blu-ray can play blu-ray, unless you have a PS3

And a PS3 has a blu-ray player, so, .

Have you tried what everyone else does and pirate it?