-PLATFORMS-
Please stop focusing so much on the mobile market -- or have that too, if you want (diversifying is great, as well as smart), but not so much at the expense of console gaming. Most of your longtime fans are throughly disillusioned with your current model at this point.
It's not that we don't like change, are drunk on nostalgia, or only think Old School Is Cool -- it's that the company used to put more thought into the design of its products. I've been buying and playing your products for 20 years, and somewhere along the way, you guys started to spend less time on what we would be doing in the game and more time on showing us a mildly interactive movie -- which brings me to:
-GRAPHICS OBSESSION-
You got drunk on graphics and started to think that was all we cared about. It's not. I still play games like "Chrono Trigger" today, because they're well designed, fun and immersive.
Making everything as shiny as possible does not equate to being immersive. Look at the feedback you got on FFXIII's world -- it was shiny as anything ever has been, sure, and pretty. But that was about it.
I will give you props for recognizing the need to develop NPCs and the like more for the sequels to that game, and for allowing the graphics to simply be sufficient rather than the recipient of all the work effort, so it's possible that the lesson was learned already. I'm sorry for harping on this to the extent that I do (there will be other stuff further down), but this has been SUCH a problem with you guys that I need to know YOU know where the ball was dropped.
When you have guys like Yoshinori Kitase uttering absurdities like "A remake of Final Fantasy VII would take 40 years if the graphics were done right" -- NO. Just no! That's out-of-touch bonkers talk, and somebody needs to set the record straight.
I personally don't even need that FFVII remake (I'd rather SE focus on new ideas), but if it looked even as good as FFX (meaning when it was originally released; not even necessarily the HD re-release), people would be happy.
Fans don't care about graphics to the extent that Yoshinori Kitase thinks we do. Seriously.
We just want to play fun, immersive games with compelling storylines and memorable characters -- and, again, understand that "immersive" does not mean "Feed me more graphics! I want to be able to count the blades of grass between that Behemoth's toes! I want to know how many feathers are on that Chocobo's butt! I want to see my reflection in that rock!"
Sure, we all like a pretty game, but I don't need to be able to count all the individual strands of hair on Lightning's head, and I'm not going to do it even if you promise me I have the option. I will never be that bored -- and if I get to where I'm more interested in knowing that than getting on with playing the game, it doesn't speak well for the rest of the game design anyway.
Long story short: You don't need your talent to spend three days polishing the same rock. Have them design a serviceable rock and then put them on another task. I promise you the artists who designed the worlds of "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Skyrim" did not approach every singular geological formation like it was the last work they would do in their lifetime.
And those are immersive, expansive, beautiful worlds.
-DIVERSITY-
Just as diversifying the platforms you develop games for is the right move, so, too, is diversifying the representation for the gamers out there in the world consuming your products. You have more than White (with occasional Asian features) gamers. You have people older than 20 or 25 or 30 playing your games (I'm about to be 29 myself). You have fans who aren't heterosexual. You have fans with non-binary gender identities.
If Marvel -- a company that has been set in its ways for a lot longer than Square Enix has been around -- is finally getting this, there's no reason SE shouldn't.
Keep in mind that I say all this as a White(-looking), heterosexual male who identifies with masculinity. However, I live in a diverse world. I know diverse people who partake of your products. I want that reflected in the stuff we enjoy.
We all very much appreciate the lesbian couple in FFXIII (Fang and Vanille), but it's still disappointing that SE didn't feel confident enough in itself to be more overt with the romantic side of their relationship. It was still beautifully done, mind you, and I appreciate both the fact that it was done and that it was done without making a spectacle over homosexuality within the narrative itself -- but the effort often feels half-hearted when other official materials describes them as being "like sisters" when this is clearly more of a Korra/Asami thing in the work itself.
It's equally disappointing that Sazh -- the only racial minority representative in XIII's cast, as well as the only character over 30 (40 even!) -- fell by the wayside in both of FFXIII's sequels. In the first game, he provided the most grounded and humanizing perspective, as well as offered the most relatable angle into the story for me personally in the form of his story as a father wanting to protect his child.
Also, please keep in mind that lion-wolf creatures (or whatever Red XIII's race is called in FFVII), animatronic cats (VII again) and other robots (multiple titles), Quina's race (FFIX), non-human Black Mages (IX again), clones (IX once more), Ronso (FFX), ghosts (X again), aliens (multiple titles), and Moogles don't count as diversity in representation. They especially don't count when they still manage to be White or vaguely Asian (e.g. Auron, Cecil, Kuja, Zidane).
You guys made significant progress with Fang/Vanille and Sazh in FFXIII, and I very much applaud you for it, but you also back slid after that first game in the Lightning Saga. There is still a lot of work needed in this area. It's clear now that SE has the talent and ability to do diverse representation justice without resorting to caricatures, stereotypes and playing diversification off for laughs -- you just need to do it.
-HAVING FUN & THE HAPPY MEDIUM-
This applies in a couple of ways.
For the first, think about all the memorable sequences in a game like FFVII where the regular gameplay was changed up a bit at times, like with the highway chase on the motorcycles. Not only did it put you in the setting more, but how much less memorable would that have been playing out as just a cutscene the player couldn't interact with? How many missed opportunities were there in FFXIII for awesome, memorable set pieces like that? Think about the most memorable sequences of games in the "Uncharted" series -- FFXIII would have had us watch them all instead of be a participant!
Remember that video games are GAMES first and foremost. I know Kitase's first love was film, and he has done amazing things as a director (e.g. FFVII and FFVIII), but as part of that obsession with graphics discussed above, there's been a tendency to forget the fun factor in game design as well.
Remember to make games that you yourselves would have fun playing.
And now for the second point about having fun: Remember more of the whimsical stuff you used to do! Remember the interplay between it and the somber notes.
Part of the reason the Compilation of FFVII was such an artistic failure is that it failed to capture the atmosphere of the original game. For most of it, the aesthetics were washed out into lots of grey and oily black, whereas what people remember most about the original FFVII was the vibrant, cyberpunk "Blade Runner"-like design of Midgar. There were other colorful settings too.
Yes, the plot, themes and story of the game were dark subject matter, but they were also telling a story about LIFE -- which has many angles. An obsession with grim dark, like an obsession with graphics, misses the point. Horror is only horrific because it stands in contrast to something else.
Even when not going overboard trying to be so edgy, the mark was missed. Either everything was too heavy or there was a bizarre disconnect.
The best examples of getting these tones all wrong are found in Crisis Core and Dirge of Cerberus.
With Dirge, it just got laid on too thick. I appreciate channeling "Metal Gear Solid" (in all the many ways Dirge did so) as much as the next fan of Hideo Kojima's games, but the whimsy and self-awareness to contrast with all the other stuff that can be seen in Kojima's work (and the original FFVII!) was nowhere to be found here. I still enjoyed the game, mind you, but it needed a lot more grounding.
Crisis Core almost has the opposite problem from the rest of the Compilation of FFVII, but is still a good study in the value of hitting the right notes in tone, as demonstrated by hitting the wrong ones.
NPCs in CC almost seem unaware that they're part of their setting. They're like mannequins just taking up space and providing an occasional reason to perform some mundane task.
In the original game, Midgar's NPCs were PEOPLE -- angry about their situations even while they were funny and making the best of their crappy lives. Their characteristics stood in contrast to one another and to their surroundings -- the equally dingy yet vibrant city of Midgar that hummed and breathed with life. With authenticity.
Then we got Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus and Crisis Core. Dirge may have had a few more colors than the hopelessly desaturated AC, but both forgot to have fun. CC struck a better balance on the whole but still presented a lifeless Midgar.
I know it sounds like I'm complaining about too much grim dark in AC and Dirge yet not enough in CC, but that's not it at all. CC's story still took itself way too seriously (really, Angeal and Genesis, who cares that you have wings; just be who you want to be; grow up) and got the elements of its setting mixed up -- a desaturated Midgar with residents who seemed as content in the slums as on the upper plate.
You can drain the life and authenticity out of anything by forgetting life is all about a balance, and failing to represent it accordingly. Which is also a point that could be applied to diversity in representation above. I'll stop here, though.
Thank you for your time.
