Hope or Despair?

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm curious to know how people really feel about FFXIII and it's sequels and sidestories. Is it the most awesome thing you ever saw? Or do you look at it as though it's going to finally kill the series once and for all? Please try to be objective and play nice. :)

I'm mostly curious to know where the community as a whole stands on the idea of the FFXIII project.

[The Mog Ninja]

im looking forward to it far more than i was for 12, just because it seems SO MEGA AWESOME

[Little Blue]

im looking forward to it far more than i was for 12, just because it seems SO MEGA AWESOME

x2

Though I'm also sad about it since I'm not going to be able to afford the PS3 to play it on for quite a while...

[Bunny]

If it is done well, I am happy.
If it is not done well, I will be "okay, oops on SEs part. Try again plz."

No biggie, babies.

[f f freak]

I'm excited about it. I'm just a little worried that they've announced all this stuff for it that it might get a bit stressful for them maybe making them not as good as they could be.

[Renmiri]

Well 3 of the best SE people are in it: Nobuo Uematsu, Tetsuya, Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase.


:love: The legendary trio that did FFX :love:

You bet I'm hopeful !

:pinkelephant: :pinkelephant: :pinkelephant:

[No.78]

I thought the FFXIII initial trailer was awesome, makes my hairs stand on end. The VS XIII was cool too... I'm just generally excited ^^

[The Mog Ninja]

Well 3 of the best SE people are in it: Nobuo Uematsu, Tetsuya, Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase.


WHA!?!?!?!?!@?! didnt nobuo uematsu LEAVE after 10-2 or something???? but kitase and nomura and uematsu r V good

[Wolf Kanno]

Well 3 of the best SE people are in it: Nobuo Uematsu, Tetsuya, Nomura and Yoshinori Kitase.


WHA!?!?!?!?!@?! didnt nobuo uematsu LEAVE after 10-2 or something???? but kitase and nomura and uematsu r V good

Nobuo is doing the ending track for the game it appears, just like in FFXII. I believe the gentlemen who helped composed half of FFX's soundtrack as well as all of FFX-2's soundtrack is doing most of the music again for FFXIII.

[Yuriev's ghost]

It's on a 7th Gen console which I will probably never buy. Don't really care that much, but the premise for both XIII and vXIII sounds like they will pretty much be the epitome of the Nomura generation FFs. Most people will hate that, but I happen to predominantly like his ridiculously over-the-top costumes and bizarre “it has no practical use” weaponry so eh.

[Wolf Kanno]

Guess I'll be playing "devil's advocate" here...

To me, I'm actually quite taken back by what I see. Lightening looks like FFX-2 Yuna smashed together with Lady Ashe, the premise sounds good but Nomura has never written a story that I've liked so I'm definetly concerned about that.

The Summons... I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person who looks at it and thinks that it is ridiculously stupid idea! (MECHA SHIVA!?) Overall, I'm seeing what I saw in FFVII:AC and KH2, alot of fluff with no real substance. Over the top battles and cutscenes but no real proof of a sound story. I'm completely indifferent to FFversusXIII and Agito cause either their is little information about it or it just seems like it's pretty irrelevant.

I've never really liked Nomura and his team and I'm definetly getting some bad vibes out of this whole project. I'm trying my best to stay open minded, the story and battle mechanics seem intriguing, but everytime I start to gain some form of hope for the game, another cutscene or stupid interview comes up that just dashes it all away.

A guy who's only personal information the team thought was relevant was his shoe size? Not to mention he looks like an older version of the KH2 design of Seifer, Shiva turns into a bike? Which Lightening can ride into battle with? Sounds like a toy commercial... and magic is now just technology, thus removing the only element that Tetsuya seems to hate in his games. Fantasy... I don't mind technology and major sci-fi elements in my fantasy RPG's but outside of the "crystal" that is mentioned in the game it seems to be mostly sci-fi. Hopefully this last one will be fixed as more information comes out.

[Setzer Gabianni]

They've made sequels before releasing the game. They must be so full of it to think this is going to bring in millions. I would actually wait until the Japanese version got released, or tbh, the whole game be completely released before making such other titles. Makes more sense. FFXIII for all we know, could be the worst selling FF title ever.

[Little Blue]

Technically, they're not sequels like VII Compliation or X / X-2. They just happen to share mythos and a name (I think), and other than that are completely independant from each other. From what I understand so far, they could easily be released as XIII, XIV etc, if they wanted a mobile game (XIII Agito) being called something like FF XV :p

[Hazzard]

I hate the look of that-(XV) I think their probably gonna start giving the new FF titles names now, instead of just some roman numerals.

[Wolf Kanno]

Technically, they're not sequels like VII Compliation or X / X-2. They just happen to share mythos and a name (I think), and other than that are completely independant from each other. From what I understand so far, they could easily be released as XIII, XIV etc, if they wanted a mobile game (XIII Agito) being called something like FF XV :p


VersusXIII takes place in the same world as well as Agito. They all share the same world and mythology. When they were first talking about it, Nomura said Versus took place at the same time as XIII but in different parts of the world. I don't think it's going that route anymore and I believe I heard that Versus now takes place at a different time period from XIII.

As for Agito, all we know is that it is connected to the XIII universe, and that it is going to be on a cell phone that doesn't exist yet. But I agree Setzer, I think Squenix is getting ahead of themselves and are acting like they can do no wrong. For you Nomura fans, you better hope this doesn't turn out to be another "Spirits Within" for Squenix or you can say goodbye to Nomura...

[Jhei]

@ Wolf Kanno: FF XIII and FF Versus XIII, and even Agito XIII DO NOT share the same world, and it has already been confirmed. They only share the same mythology of Crystals, but they do not share the exact same story, gameplay, characters, or even atmosphere.

Also, Nomura isn't going to be the director of XIII, he's the director of Versus XIII. Toriyama is the director for XIII. Also, I agree with Duality, these three XIII titles are probably going to be so different from each other that they could easily be called XIII, IV, and XV.

Anyhow, the differences are already obvious. XIII's Crystals has the power to create, and they're like Gods, only different... Lightning was even chosen to destroy the world by one of the 'Crystals'. Meanwhile Versus XIII's Crystals are simply objects that hold power, much like the traditional FF Crystals... and only one Crystal is left in the world of Versus XIII... so yeah, it is so different.. I'm not so sure about Agito though.

So I disagree that Square is getting ahead of themselves because these 3 games appear to be going in very different directions.

[Mitch]

Nobuo is doing the ending track for the game it appears, just like in FFXII. I believe the gentlemen who helped composed half of FFX's soundtrack as well as all of FFX-2's soundtrack is doing most of the music again for FFXIII.

Oh dear god save us.

[Wolf Kanno]

@ Wolf Kanno: FF XIII and FF Versus XIII, and even Agito XIII DO NOT share the same world, and it has already been confirmed. They only share the same mythology of Crystals, but they do not share the exact same story, gameplay, characters, or even atmosphere.

I stand corrected :laughing:


Also, Nomura isn't going to be the director of XIII, he's the director of Versus XIII. Toriyama is the director for XIII. Also, I agree with Duality, these three XIII titles are probably going to be so different from each other that they could easily be called XIII, IV, and XV.

I never said he was directing XIII:p But I believe he's writing it's storyline. That's why I mention I don't care for his writing style cause it's associated with some major disappointments for me (FFVII, KHII, and FFVII:AC)

[Yuriev's ghost]

Nomura has never written any of the plots for the FF series. He has been the prime character designer since FFVII and directed the Kingdom Hearts series, FFAC and FF vXIII but has never been given a writing credit for any of them. Yoshinori Kitase/Kazushige Nojima are the men you're looking for. As per usual, Nomura is just the character designer for FFXIII.

[Wolf Kanno]

Nomura has never written any of the plots for the FF series. He has been the prime character designer since FFVII and directed the Kingdom Hearts series, FFAC and FF vXIII but has never been given a writing credit for any of them. Yoshinori Kitase/Kazushige Nojima are the men you're looking for. As per usual, Nomura is just the character designer for FFXIII.

Check again... FFVII's screenplay was adapted by an original story by Tetsuyo Nomura and Hironobu Sakaguchi. I'll have to check again with KH but I believe it's a similiar circumstance.

EDITGA! I checked with the KH games. He created the original concept for KH series. But he is credited with being a scenario writer in KH2

Also I checked again and saw that I was wrong about the composer. Sorry for that, He helped compose FFX's soundtrack as well as Dirge of Cerberus.

[Yuriev's ghost]

I'm not sure how much of Nomura/Sakaguchi's original scenario made it into the final game, but I was always given the impression it was changed substantially at some points (the original script didn't involve the death of Aerith and didn't include the character Tifa, for example). Of course, I've never read the original script so I can't really comment further.

I don't think anything like that exists for KH, at any rate.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm not sure how much of Nomura/Sakaguchi's original scenario made it into the final game, but I was always given the impression it was changed substantially at some points (the original script didn't involve the death of Aerith and didn't include the character Tifa, for example). Of course, I've never read the original script so I can't really comment further.

I don't think anything like that exists for KH, at any rate.

Arieth's death was in the script. I remember Nomura mentioning it in an article in EGM around the time Advent Children was coming out. Only Cloud, Aerith, and Barret existed in the original script and he goes onto talk about how they were debating who to kill. It was a rather amusing story actually...

[Yuriev's ghost]

Source (http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~geksiong/papers/sts145/Squaresoft%20and%20FF7.htm) (check the 'Let’s just kill Aeris…' section). Not that I'm refuting that there were only three protagonists in the beginning though, I've heard that as well.

[Wolf Kanno]

Source (http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~geksiong/papers/sts145/Squaresoft%20and%20FF7.htm)(check the 'Let’s just kill Aeris…' section). Not that I'm refuting that there were only three protagonists in the beginning though, I've heard that as well.

I can't get access to the site:cry:

My source comes from EGM issue 196 October 2005. It's on page 104 in a section called Afterthoughts: Final Fantasy VII. It features an interview with Director Yoshinori Kitase (director) and Tetsuya Nomura(character designer/battle director/ and co-author) and I quote:



EGM: We heard that the death of Aerith and the creation of Tifa both originated in a phone call between you two...

Tetsuya Nomura: It's funny, some magazine ran that story, but only the beginning and the ending of it. People think that I wanted to kill off Aerith and replace her with Tifa as the main character! [Laughs] The actual conversation between Mr. Kitase and myself was very, very long. Originally, there were only going to be three characters in the entire game: Cloud, Barrett, and Aerith. Can you imagine that? And we knew even in the early concept stage that one character would have to die. But we only had three to choose from. I mean Cloud's the main character, so you can't really kill him. And Barrett... well, that's maybe too obvious. But we had to pick between Aerith and Barrett. We debated this for a long time, but in the end decided to sacrifice Aerith.[/B]


The next question asked, is if they chose her to increase the drama and Nomura says yes. He mentions it being a tradition in the FFseries to kill off a character for dramatic effect but in the past it was always tough and gruff "last man standing" guys like Barrett. He chose Aerith cause he felt it would catch everyone off guard.

I'm not sure if it's enough to satisfy, but it looks like they had extra stuff on the 1UP.com website... so if they keep anything that old it should be there.;)

[LunarWeaver]

VII is the only story that Nomura has ever once been credited on in the Final Fantasy series, but people act like he wrote VII, VIII, X, and X-2 all by himself. I have said this before, but Kitase, Nojima, and concering X and X-2 Toriyama, were the main forces behind those titles and they are responsible for them. Kitase even directed everybody's favorite VI, so what's the big deal here.

To blame those games on Nomura is like saying you didn't like Final Fantasy XII and it's all Akihiko Yoshida's fault. It wouldn't make any sense. Even the first Kingdom Hearts had Nojima, Daisuke Watanabe (who worked on Final Fantasy XII's scenario too), and Jun Akiyama as scenario writers. That's a lotta folks. Nojima also wrote the base for Advent Children. Still, as Nomura was the actual director for both KH games and AC, I can't imagine he wasn't very involved with the plots as far as what goes and stays and changes, and especially KH2 where he is credited as part of the writing staff.

I will never quite understand why people hate Nomura so much for things he didn't even do. Even as a character designer, he gets too much crap. There are more famous artists out there like Akira Toriyama or the group CLAMP that have characters looking much more alike each other than his, but he gets so much heat. If he had made XII's characters, I would have never heard the freakin' end of it. Thank god it was Yoshida who made characters that look exactly like his so that I didn't have to wade through thread after thread of bitching.

And I'm looking forward to both very much, as I have yet to find a Final Fantasy game that I have not enjoyed. Every company whores out their flagship, and I don't really blame them for it. Most of the time, it just isn't announced. Silent Hill had 3 and 4 and a Play Novel for handhelds all going on at once, it just wasn't announced all at once, ya know. It's the same thing here. Christ, the word "Mario" is on 4,000 fucking games a year.

[Wolf Kanno]

As a director, he would have the power to change the story as much as he see's fit for any number of reasons. It's why most creative types clamor for the Directing chair rather than be the screen play writer. Though technically the producers have the most power within a production...

The only designs the man has ever done that I liked was FFVII's but that's cause I liked the heavy anime look. But I don't really hate him as an artist, though I'm indifferent to his style. I know fully well he didn't write VIII, X, or X-2. I was disappointed with his work in FFVII:AC and KH2 specifically. His directing style seems to always be about showing off unrealistic combat scenes which over shadow the writing. Not that the writing in KH2 was good or anything:rolleyes2. It's just so... "bad" Hollywood... More style than substance. It's the impression I got when I saw FFXIII and it's spawn. That's why I have doubts cause I didn't feel like I saw anything but pretty graphics, future societies, and bad Hong Kong action film shenanigans. The plot is intriguing but with Tesuya's new team (the one that worked on FFX and FFX-2, of which I dont like either) I have little to hope for in the story based on their track record.

Now, chances are I am worring for nothing. The game will actually be really good and fun to play. Chances are, my gut instinct is right and it's going to be pretty bad (for me at least). But that's the chance you take when trying anything new. I'm really trying to be open minded with this game but I already dislike what I've seen of the world design and I still feel the Transformer Summons are a stupid idea that can never be taken seriously. It's like the game is trying too hard to be "cool" and "hip" and heaven forbid "extreme"...

As for Nomura...

The fact is, now that Sakaguchi is gone Nomura has sorta've been thrust into his position so I think 80% of the time they credit him for it even if he had little to do with it. I mean Sakaguchi worked on both FFVII and FFVIII and the haters of both games will generally mention Nomura (heaven forbid that Sakaguchi is not infallible when it comes to game design...) even though he worked somewhat intimately in VII he did have little to do with VIII outside of world design... so fans will generally blame the "new" element in the equation when it turns out bad.

I may have been a tad out of line when I said Nomura hates fantasy but I allude that to his modern design style for his characters. He seems to like modern and sci-fi elements more than anything. The closest he ever gets to fantasy is his non-human characters anf to some degree FFX, though I feel FFX's designs are modern updates of more "traditional" clothing...

[Yuriev's ghost]

I can't get access to the site
No idea why access has suddenly been blocked to that site. Try this (http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:HHoxMvQbQ8cJ:xenon.stanford.edu/~geksiong/papers/sts145/Squaresoft%2520and%2520FF7.pdf+Coming+To+America+the+making+of+Final+Fantasy+VII&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=au) link for a HTML version of the PDF.

[Croyles]

They all share the same world and mythology.

No, they dont. They share the same mythology, nothing else.

Once again all people can do is whine and be pessimistic when hardly ANYTHING has been shown about the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

They all share the same world and mythology.

No, they dont. They share the same mythology, nothing else.

Once again all people can do is whine and be pessimistic when hardly ANYTHING has been shown about the game.

Someone already pointed that out to me and I acknowledged that I was wrong. Please read all the posts;)

I'm just concerened. I love my series and it's been going in a bad direction for awhile. I see FFXIII (well what little and insignificant info they've given about it) to be the epitome of this direction. I'm really going to try to be open minded about it, but believing that it's going to be automatically good and wonderful just means you're a tool. I don't have any rose-tinted sun glasses. I lost them years ago when I kept having my expectations betrayed. You need to have someone go against the hype and be somewhat realistic about this. Am I whiny? Maybe... Am I pessimistic? No, I'm more of a Nihilist actually:D

Oh, and Yuriev. I'm reading the document now. Thanks for the link.

[edczxcvbnm]

That trailer looks like crap. Maybe Versus XIII will be cool but square is shooting 0 for ten trizabizillion when it comes to action oriented games.

[Hazzard]

That trailer looks like crap. Maybe Versus XIII will be cool but square is shooting 0 for ten trizabizillion when it comes to action oriented games.

Hmmm...A very controversial comment with no backup or evidence on why the trailer appears to be in your eyes, 'crap'.:mad:

[Melodies_of_life]

I, also am looking forward to XIII more than I was XII. I think that the trailer looks great considering that I have only seen one of them, I can't wait for it to come out.!.!! :D

I am kind of sad that it is on a different platform, and I'm not sure about there being a sequal. To me sequals never live up to the one before it game-play wise, but story wise sequals have been great. Talking about X and X-2.

Either way I'm still looking forward to it, I don't think it will be spoil the FF series. I just hope the sequals live up to its prequal.

[DLPB]

i decided to rejoin this forum and don't worry i won't be invloved in any arguments.

Well, I am optimistic with the new Final fantasy (13) since, although I disliked 12 alot, goes back to the main development team.

For those who don't know, 12 was written mainly by a different cast (who did vagrant story) to the ones that gave us the originals (especially psx).

So, all in all it should have a solid story and a solid gameplay factor. I haven't looked at many trailers but I did see 1 that looked pretty impressive.

The Ps3 is hugely superior to the ps2 and the FF team will more than likely push the system to the limit meaning as usual 10/10 graphics.

time will tell.

[Setzer Gabianni]

That trailer looks like crap. Maybe Versus XIII will be cool but square is shooting 0 for ten trizabizillion when it comes to action oriented games.

Hmmm...A very controversial comment with no backup or evidence on why the trailer appears to be in your eyes, 'crap'.:mad:

Graphically, it looks nice, but when I watched it myself, I didn't get a Final Fantasy feel off it.

At least I did with early trailers of XII.

[Hazzard]

I, also am looking forward to XIII more than I was XII. I think that the trailer looks great considering that I have only seen one of them, I can't wait for it to come out.!.!! :D

I am kind of sad that it is on a different platform, and I'm not sure about there being a sequal. To me sequals never live up to the one before it game-play wise, but story wise sequals have been great. Talking about X and X-2.

Either way I'm still looking forward to it, I don't think it will be spoil the FF series. I just hope the sequals live up to its prequal.

By the way, i think this has been said like a thousand times: There are no sequels to FF13 and they are all individual games which are situated in the same universe as FF13.
So don't get it twisted :rolleyes2

[Croyles]

By the way, i think this has been said like a thousand times: There are no sequels to FF13 and they are all individual games which are situated in the same universe mythology as FF13.
So don't get it twisted :rolleyes2

Sorry, people just NEED to get this right :)

[DLPB]

hopefully all these other "games" won't detract from the main Final fantasy. And thatnks for that correction Croyles. Was worried that it might be all in same universe etc etc

[Wolf Kanno]

Alright, I finally got a chance to read through the whole document you sent Yuriev. It does comfirm alot that I have heard as well but the article I quoted does state the correction to the "phone call" incedent.

Though I must say, it really does make you want to read the original script.


i decided to rejoin this forum and don't worry i won't be invloved in any arguments.

Well, I am optimistic with the new Final fantasy (13) since, although I disliked 12 alot, goes back to the main development team.

For those who don't know, 12 was written mainly by a different cast (who did vagrant story) to the ones that gave us the originals (especially psx).

So, all in all it should have a solid story and a solid gameplay factor. I haven't looked at many trailers but I did see 1 that looked pretty impressive.

The Ps3 is hugely superior to the ps2 and the FF team will more than likely push the system to the limit meaning as usual 10/10 graphics.

time will tell.

Yeah but I have issues with this team. I've never really cared for any of their efforts in the series so XIII doesn't exactly bode well for me I guess. The fact Nomura has been said to say that XIII will have alot in common with FFX especially worries me cause I find FFX to be the weakest entry in the series.

But I'll try to keep an open mind, who knows... Maybe I'll find it to be really good since I'm going in with pretty low expectations.




That trailer looks like crap. Maybe Versus XIII will be cool but square is shooting 0 for ten trizabizillion when it comes to action oriented games.

Hmmm...A very controversial comment with no backup or evidence on why the trailer appears to be in your eyes, 'crap'.:mad:

Graphically, it looks nice, but when I watched it myself, I didn't get a Final Fantasy feel off it.

At least I did with early trailers of XII.

The trailer just doesn't seem to have any real substance. It was basically a Hollywood violence and explosions galore. As a teaser trailer it's pretty good but it's not the action that brings me to the series. To be honest, XIII seems to be like the FFIX of the Kitase/Nojima/Nomura generation. The game already seems to have some sort of reference to VII, VIII, X, and KH. I don't believe this to be intentional though.

I still feel that Matsuno's team (FFT, Vagrant Story, FFTA, and FFXII) really knew how to embody the series better. The new team is trying to reinvent it; which isn't bad that they are trying I just don't care for the direction it's taking.

[DLPB]

Luckily I don't;) I find FF7 and X to be the 2 best of the series, so for me it is a big giant plus:)