Wada Discusses the future
President and CEO of Square Enix Yoichi Wada was recently interviewed by Edge to talk about the future of the company.
One question asks about the set in stone certain style of Japanese development, which some might say has reached its peak with Final Fantasy XIII, and how he thinks these kinds of big-budget, long-in-development Japanese games stand up in the current climate.
“I believe Final Fantasy XIII is going be something special, and that it’s going to be well received by the audience. But whether we are going to continue to internally create this type of game remains to be seen, because I actually feel that the team that was involved with Final Fantasy XIII should next move on to create and generate some ‘next generation’ forms of play.
Internally and externally I feel there’s an expectation of Square Enix to offer something new, and I really think that the Final Fantasy team could create something completely different, but at the moment they’re strictly catering to the particular audience they have now.”
Click the link below to read the rest of the Edge interview with Yoichi Wada.
An Audience With: Yoichi Wada | Edge Online
Edit: Oops i made a mistake and put this in the general FF thread, maybe it should be in the general SE thread?
You remind me of someone from Gamefaqs...
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Originally Posted by
Rad Bromance
I'm all about new. Seriously, I love all the old FFs but XII was a freaking breath of fresh air.
Can someone explain to me what an "up to date" game is though? I hear this a lot now about both gameplay and graphics...like, if it isn't an FPS that looks like Crysis and plays like Halo now it's somehow "behind the times".
I disliked intensely the "fresh air' claim.
Nothing personal against you friend.
I 've thought about making a thread about what SHOULD be in an FF game.
For me I liked the towns and villages and npcs talking to you and finding out little nuggets of info from them.
Up to date to me has a lot to do with technical graphics abilities, reaching the zenith of what is possible technologically with the system.
well obviously they sacrificed story and character
development in FFXII for gameplay.
That's a much bigger mistake in my view than the reverse.:roll2
I didn't feel FFX was a tedious interactive movie but the previous poster is entitled to his/her opinion.
I thought FFXII was very tedious.
I don't think that FFXIII will meet all our expectations.
It will be good in some ways and fail in others. A mixed bag.
:)
EoFF's Official Final Fantasy XII Apologist ^_^
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Originally Posted by
VeloZer0
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Originally Posted by
Wolf Kanno
Story segments might as well end with four choices popping up:
Save
Shop
Battle random enemies
Next Cutscene
Cause at least we can really streamline this and not even have to waste our time with dungeons if thought isn't even going to be put into it. :roll2
Though you meant it to be satirical that reminds me a lot of FFT, which worked out rather well plot and game play wise.
That's true, but SRPGs by tradition rarely use dungeons and the few series I can think of that tried were not exactly great titles to begin with (stares at Arc The Lad series). Also, combat is still randomized in FFT so its more like FFX. In XIII you can choose (assuming these roads are large enough to evade them or else this will have Xenosaga II's problem) to engage enemies since you can see them on the map. :p
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Originally Posted by
champagne supernova
I think VIII had quite a few reasons to go into towns. The first is Triple Triad, which was always quite fun. Then there were numerous side-quests and little Easter Eggs hidden away. Then there is Winhill and Shumi Village which both have 2 side-quests each (if I recall properly), all of which were quite fun, as well as (especially in Shumi Village) fleshing out a lot of the characters (such as Laguna) and the Shumi people as a whole. So, don't really get your point for VIII.
You actually learn more about Laguna reading his Timber Maniacs articles than actually visiting some of the places he's been (like the Shumi Viallage) also the items won from doing the Chocobo quest in Winhill and the Elder's fetch quests in Shumi Village are hardly worth the trouble. Hell, even the Chocobo Forest quest is not worth it unless you're trying to complete getting all the TT Cards. This is kinda the problem with most of the optional content in VIII, its not really immediately useful. Getting the Rare Materia in the Chocobo Breeding quest or getting access to high level gear for underleveled characters early in IX through the Chocobo Hot and Cold have immediate gratification that not only helps completionist but also scrubs who don't know better.
VIII's system is so abusive getting said items is really just to say you did than actually being practical. I don't think I even knew about a few of them until several playthroughs later and in the end all it really does is allow me to divert my attention when I get to the boring parts of the story. As for Triple Triad, you can get most of the cards just playing the students in Balamb, you only miss out on the rare cards and considering refining them is only useful if you don't know what you are doing then I once again must disagree with Triple Triad being useful beyond the initial common cards.
Granted, I do enjoy collecting all the cards, I'm just saying the lack of adequate shops makes going into towns a chore since you are only there to talk to one person so you can win the card you need. Outside of Deiling and Balamb, most towns really don't change their dialogue too much from the first time you're there.
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X I understand a little bit more, although speaking to the people in towns and finding out how they've been affected by Sin again fleshes out some of the story. And I enjoyed playing Blitzball (I am a FIFA nuthead, so that could explain it) and needed to find players. And if you wanted other things to do, you could customise your weapons and armour and do other cool things too (sorry, I played X a long long long long time ago).
Blitball gets boring once you assemble a good team since a high level Tidus = Instant win for your guys except against the cheating Al Bhed (how are they so good when they live in a smurfing desert?!)
The customizing of weapons and armor is actually a feature you get early in the game and doesn't require shops, so basically early on in the title the game makes all shops later on a moot gesture. Throw in the fact your party can one shot 90% of the normal monsters in the game without exploiting any weaknesses then even customizing becomes a moot gesture until you tackle the monster arena at the end of the game. I have a play through where I made lots of useful armor and weapons and then I have a game where my party members mostly used what they started with and I don't feel the difficulty of the game actually changed between the two.
The weapon system is an intriguing idea but its completely wasted by the games total lack of challenge. Most of X's big customization systems only become in-depth when you reach the end of the game to deal with the Monster Arena and once again I digress that this mostly exists to keep the player occupied as opposed to being useful to the overall game. The Gameplay is decidedly divorced from the story and main game seeing as how most of the features don't become practical until after you are strong enough to finish the game anyway.
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Whereas in XII, the only thing you really do, outside the main story, is hunt marks and fish. I know some people might dislike Blitzball and Triple Triad, but fishing is very lame. And hunting marks becomes very routine (and considering the optional bosses in VIII and X, not too unique to XII). Yes, the NPCs did adjust what they talked about, but really, it was nothing really special.
You forget that you are also exploring the world with some of the Mark Hunts since they exist in regions you normally wouldn't or couldn't reach until then. Several of them are also puzzles (Like Ultros only appearing if you have an all-female team), there are also several minor story quests like the Sisters on the Airship, the Viera looking for her soulmate, the moogle workers you run into, Jovy's quest to become a hero like Reks, and even the rare monster hunters. Not to mention several of the Mark Hunts actually tie up loose ends in the plot and I can say the Mark Hunts are a tad bit more involved with the overall game and story than most.
The Mark Hunts themselves offered a greater level of challenge than anything your party would be facing and handsomely rewarded you. Of course, like Chocobo Hot and Cold, its only usefulness was only good if you did them as early as possibly (usually shortly after they became available) but they also had the satisfaction of teaching you how to utilize the battle system better. Granted, I don't particulary care for Mr. "Waste My Time" Yiazmat but I'm not actually saying XII is perfect or its the ideal way to make a title. Like my above statements, I'm looking for something a little more mid-FF (SNES-PS1) life cycle that balanced both styles.
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And the combat system in XII was relatively weak compared to X and X-2. Yes, it made for a more free-flowing game, but seriously, there was generally less thought and therefore less entertainment. There are 2 reasons why I explored XII: it is very pretty (but so is X) and I am very curious.
I'll simply agree to disagree here as even I know this is a subjective issue cause personally I strongly disliked X's system and I never understood why people felt X-2's was so great, whereas I loved XII's. That's a debate for another day cause I seriously don't want to simply make this a X vs. XII debate or even a debate on whether X was good or not. I only brought up X cause its system is the closest to XIII within the series but in reality, XIII seems to actually be closer to Xenosaga Episode II's game design more than anything.
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And as for linear games with cut-scenes, here are 3 words and a number to illustrate how good it can be: Metal Gear Solid 4
Everyone seems to be missing my point here. I'm not completely against linear design as much as I'm against lazy linear design which is what I'm actually accusing X, XIII, and Xeno II of. Many of the old FF dungeons are fairly linear but they actually twist and turn so they don't feel linear, the dungoen design I'm calling out is when everything is a simple road. There is nothing "simple" about MGS4's level design and to be honest, if it is merely a straight path you know damn well that is the hardest part because of the nature of the game. RPGs don't offer that different style of gameplay, their only benefit from making asinine game design is to get you to the next story point faster and my question with this mentality is that if the story is so important that we have to dumb down the gameplay for it then why bother telling your story as a game? Why make the player suffer with bad design decisions if your story could just as easily be told as a movie or mini-series?
This has been my point, I'm not against linear game design just bad ones like X and Xeno II where everything is just a simple road to your next destination and there is no point to ever deviate cause there is nothing else to see or experience. Everything I've read about XIII's design gives me the impression the design team wanted to make a movie, not to create an immersive experience that combines gameplay with strong story telling. Cinematic movies were great for storytelling about two console generations ago, SE needs to learn how to combine this like other successful companies, what makes MGS4 more of a cinematic experience is that you actually get to control Snake during some of the most heart-wrenching developments and that's what makes those scenes the type of things that stay with you long after you finish playing. Despite my dislike of the game, Crisis Core's ending is far more poignant because the player actually gets to play Zack's losing battle... This is how you build immersion by combining gameplay with story telling instead of divorcing the two completely like in DoC.
