Race to the Finish

[Skyblade]

Is it just me, or is this game feeling a little rushed? Production has been going for maybe a year, and we already have English screenshots? We're expecting a 2011 Japanese release of a game that was only being talked about theoretically in 2010. Is no one else worried about the speed of development and what it is going to do to the final product?

[Jessweeee♪]

Not really. I mean when does a game ever get released on the first announced release date? It's pretty weird that the first screen shots ever released ever are in English though. I imagine they can also save themselves some time recycling old data, and from what we've heard so far it seems like the battle system will be mostly the same with some minor improvements.

[Del Murder]

Yes, I am worried. SE hurried FFXIV and look where that got. I hope they learn from their mistakes and take the time to make a quailty game instead of relying on quantity of releases or timing them to take advantage of the most hype.

[DMKA]

I thought the same thing about Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood which was out in less than a year, and it turned out to be one of my favorite games this gen.

Combine this with the fact that there was tons of useable material cut from FFXIII? Nope, not worried in the least. :D

[Ouch!]

There are a number of reusable assets from Final Fantasy XIII, an unprecedented amount of cut content (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/13/square-enix-cut-a-games-worth-of-content-from-final-fantasy-xii/), and the entire framework established by the previous game. A reduced development cycle is hardly a surprise, and frankly, because Square Enix is so notoriously bad about sharing information with its fans, we have no idea when development on a sequel began in earnest. Given that even the battle system seems to remain largely unchanged, I'm not surprised that they're burning through this.