Square Enix Wants To Release A Major Final Fantasy Game Every 1-2 Years

[Catherine]

Just because they want to do it doesn't mean they're going to do it.
If I recall correctly they also want to do a VII remake but they aren't going to because it would be 'way too much work'.

Who knows though, now that they've mastered the new engines and stuff, maybe they'll be capable of this.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

"I feel if we work hard, cooperate as a team and push our creativity and productivity to their limit, we can produce a major Final Fantasy title every two years"

"Will they be good?"

"No comment"

 

[AvecAloes]

Yeah, I said that the Call of Duty games were pretty much all the same game, as far as gameplay/mechanics/basics go.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

In December 2010, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said that the company "won't annualise" its biggest franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. He told Reuters that doing so would threaten their quality and risk burning out consumers.

-Wikipedia, commenting on Rockstar's success model

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Although when I think about it, to be fair;

http://psx.ign.com/articles/077/077806p1.html

All of the old Final Fantasies were released a year or two apart. Keep in mind that was back when FF was fresh to death and hot fire and fun as fuck. Think they can repeat the same formula?

 

[DrakeClawfang]

No. It's not SE's fault in and of itself, games today are simply more expensive and more complex in both technology and gameplay than they were ten-fifteen years ago.

 

[Ⓐaron]

To be fair, if they reuse the same engine in several games that should help reduce development time somewhat. But it definitely shouldn't reduce the amount of time needed to make games to a year or two, given how much work needs to go into things like animating character models. Unless they vastly expand the size of their staff, quality will suffer if they try to adhere to the "new title every year or two" model. But then, Square Enix don't seem to give much of a shit about quality lately.

 

[Guts]

No. It's not SE's fault in and of itself, games today are simply more expensive and more complex in both technology and gameplay than they were ten-fifteen years ago.

your move

 

[Max Payne]

No. It's not SE's fault in and of itself, games today are simply more expensive and more complex in both technology and gameplay than they were ten-fifteen years ago.

Yet dozens of other developers are coping just fine.

EDIT: Deus Ex is an amazing game.

 

[Guts]

Just abridge an FFXII, Skyrim sized world with a World Map, you don't need to render everything at once you tits.

Hurdur if we don't do a whole planet it won't be an FF game. Hurdur not planning and funneling everything into a tunnel in the last five minutes. Oh give me a break.

 

[Geostigma]

I dont have much to say that has not been said already.

I think from a managerial stand point and view SE should reconsider whom they have in charge of making there games.
Its obvious people in SE are making bad choices and in the end both the company and the gamers suffer. Its just sad that SE cant wrap there heads around it and realize that gamers think there games are crap because they are indeed crap rather then think up excuses as to why we think it may be crap.

TL;DR, SE needs to fire some employees and hire some decent game devs.

 

[Guts]

Had a cool system in mind. Imagine a world map like FFVIIs where there are zones visually representing Midgar etc and take you there, but then like on real maps or weather graphs there are rings coming out from certain areas. Say, if there was a ring around Cosmo Canyon, guarding it... You'd need to go into a plains/waistland type area like many of FFXII's locales, and likewise you'd need to traverse it the other way to leave for the world map when exiting. That is, if they are guarded. (Kalm wouldn't be.)

It might provide that feeling of travel they feel is absolutely essential or that a World Map might mire. But you can't render a whole planet!

STOP FATHER, YOU'RE GOING TO RENDER THE WHOLE PLANET. STOP, FATHER STOP IT!

 

[Max Payne]

I'm still saddened that SE wants to convince us that FFVII's planet is so fucking small that traveling to the other side of the planet takes a few hours.

 

[Guts]

At least it's not Spira. My word.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I've said it before; Final Fantasies have always had shitty worldbuilding. Fantastic stories, characters, locales, events, and interesting worlds, but shitty worldbuilding. They know how to dream up a cool setting, but almost every FF has been awful at actually connecting the world's logic to make sense out of itself and actually function somewhat like a real world with detail.

The only FF with good worldbuilding was FFXII, and that's because Yasumi Matsuno helmed it, who is really fucking good at worldbuilding (see; Tactics Ogre).

I am not ragging on FF, I am only expressing a criticism that they need to overcome if they're going to keep this going.

 

[Guts]

I'll admit I enjoy the ill conceived and eclectic pacing of many FF worlds, purely because they indeed defy logic and this places them outside the realm of predictability. When things don't make sense, it kind of catches my ability to rationalize and fashion things into order off point, creating an experience as hurried and downright crazy as real life itself can be in a roundabout way.

FFVII was the best for this. I think FFIX was the only one consciously aware of it. But I concur that better world building would nonetheless be an asset to have as a capable talent, and they aren't really all that hard to second guess or surreal lately anyway. Versus world building looks terribly awful already.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

I'll admit I enjoy the ill conceived and eclectic pacing of many FF worlds, purely because they indeed defy logic and this places them outside the realm of predictability. When things don't make sense, it kind of catches my ability to rationalize and fashion things into order off point, creating an experience as hurried and downright crazy as real life itself can be in a roundabout way.

I don't mean what I think you mean; a wild and zany experience that's fantasy that places your suspension of disbelief for a ride.

I'm talking about shit that doesn't make sense in within itself; the adventure of FFVII taking place in a month and a half (a worldwide adventure no less that was mostly on foot), the fact that Shinra rules the world that's basically a bunch of disconnected dirt holes and the fact that after ALL of the Ultimanias, they're still silent on exactly what the world was like before Shinra and how this electric company-empire gained enough ground to get rich, defeat another empire, and take over the world that seems really fucking empty.

For starters.

 

[Guts]

Ah, that would be it then. Those are some glaring faults which are disappointing, aye.

The kind of senseless I like, though pulled off horribly in this example, is how stupid FFVIII's pacing and ideology was with it's characters. It's such an awkwardly bizarre series of events people think Squall was in a coma and dead for most of it, that one theory. I like things like that, taken to the extreme... And ironically not in FFVIII's case so much.

FFVII's mess of bad translations, inability to look visually coherent, mishmash of utterly random and often polarizing concepts just make it very hard to rationalize. And that's fun to me.

That isn't quite the same as glaring plot holes and terrible backstory, no, you're right. I still think that if they knit it as tightly as FFXII was then this sort of eccentricity would grow scarce, but they could easily build a good world designed to be this way if they wanted as well.

Man... Square has so many bases to touch.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

The kind of senseless I like, though pulled off horribly in this example, is how stupid FFVIII's pacing and ideology was with it's characters. It's such an awkwardly bizarre series of events people think Squall was in a coma and dead for most of it, that one theory. I like things like that, taken to the extreme... And ironically not in FFVIII's case so much.

FFVII's mess of bad translations, inability to look visually coherent, mishmash of utterly random and often polarizing concepts just make it very hard to rationalize. And that's fun to me.

That isn't quite the same as glaring plot holes and terrible backstory, no, you're right. I still think that if they knit it as tightly as FFXII was then this sort of eccentricity would grow scarce, but they could easily build a good world designed to be this way if they wanted as well.

Man... Square has so many bases to touch.

Well, I'm not really talking about character development or plot holes, I'm talking about pure world/setting building, but okay.

 

[Guts]

Concepts aren't necessarily (though can be sort of) the same thing, so you could have a fairly well woven and coherent world while still doing crazy shit provided it makes sense (like you implied.)

They never really had much of an incentive for explanation, it makes things like Lightning doing 11 ft jumps or FFVII before Midgar utterly baffling. I think they almost consciously attempt avoiding details like this, it's a shame they can't look at their worlds realistically.

I still think Matsuno's worlds aren't exotic enough to make more than a handful of mainline FF titles titles though, even if he never really got even one to himself entirely. (Regrettable, fuck Wada and Vaan.)

 

[Cat Rage Room]

They never really had much of an incentive for explanation, it makes things like Lightning doing 11 ft jumps

That's explained in the first hour or so; antigravity devices that allow soldiers to do those sort of feats. Even if that wasn't explained, that is an acceptable break of reality considering it's a fantasy game.

Uh I don't think we're quite on the same page here but it's cool I guess???

 

[Guts]

I played FFXIII in Japanese, heh, didn't check the datalogs. I can hear it reasonably well but not read it at all. I'm surprised they took the effort out of themselves to explain that.

What game has the second best world building to you besides XII, is it ironically XIII?

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Probably FFIX. As lighthearted as it is, it actually takes great pains to explain why its world is the way it is, whether its in the games or the Ultimanias.

 

[Makoeyes987]

FFIX however left several gaps in its explanation in its world scenario that had to be filled in with the FFIX Ultimania and its creator commentary.

Honestly, I'd say the distinction would go to FFVIII. The game had its own encyclopedia within the tutorial menu that had an entire overview of the plot thus far, the plot points, and the lore behind how FFVIII's world and magic worked. It seemed to be quite similar to FFXII's Clan Primer, honestly.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Just because they want to do it doesn't mean they're going to do it.
If I recall correctly they also want to do a VII remake but they aren't going to because it would be 'way too much work'.

The mission statement in the offices of Square Enix: "We're gonna give a fuck today. Well, maybe tomorrow."