What could have been...

[Wolf Kanno]

So I'm going through old interview archives when I stumble upon this little gem...

RPGFan News - Yasumi Matsuno Talks Final Fantasy XII

The part I find most intriguing (and the topic of this thread) was the fact the game was once going to have interactive airship battles. Any thoughts? Memories of Skies of Arcadia? Do you think it would have helped or hindered the game?

P.S. And for the love of god let's not reduce this to a "Squeenix needs to bring back airships and the world map!" cause we already have like three of these types of threads in the FFXII forums and I know we have a recent one in the General FF forums.:rolleyes2

[Hazzard]

I wouldn't of liked it. That's stripping the Final Fantasy, and putting in Star Wars.

Thank god they never done that, but we could of done with a bit of activity on board the airship. Like at least chat to the party, or something like the Airports in the game; where you can pick leisure or just rest. That would of been nice.

[Renmiri]

I would have loved it. XII didn't have a decent minigame and the airship battles could have sub'ed for it.

[Bolivar]

^I don't know about that, i thought the racing one was pretty fun in Balfonheim. Not up to FF mini-game par, but it wasn't bad.

Airship battles, hm??? Well a whole part of my analysis thread was about how this game was too much like Star Wars, and that would've been the icing on the cake... or the last nail in the coffin i should say. But i've grown to appreciate this game alot more, so maybe it would've been cool.

I do kind of feel like the whole theme of the skies was pushed to the side, i thought it was going to have a bigger role, with vaan wanting to be a sky pirate, having two in your party, and floating continents being brought back.

I don't know, i guess it could have went either way, but seeing how alot of matsuno's ideas seem to have not been executed as fun as they could have been, it may have just been mediocre.

[Cap'n Basch]

I don't think it could be well implemented as a mini-game. You certainly could throw it in, but it would be as dire as Blitzball was in terms of gameplay.

As a sequel like Revenant Wings, there's no reason it couldn't work, since it would be the focus rather than an aside to the main game.

[Slothy]

I don't think it would have really worked well with the story itself. You could throw it in, but it would seem out of place. Afterall, who are these characters going to fight except the Empire, and how are they going to match a fleet of ships without the help of an entire nation and immediately starting a war? It'd be a nice idea in theory, but it wouldn't have suited the game. Maybe as an event that happens once, maybe twice, it would have been fine but it wouldn't have worked as a major mini game if you ask me.

[Setzer Gabianni]

I would have loved it. XII didn't have a decent minigame and the airship battles could have sub'ed for it.

XII had more interesting and fun sidequests compared to X. The only thing worthwhile sidequesty wise was Blitzball.

[Renmiri]

I would have loved it. XII didn't have a decent minigame and the airship battles could have sub'ed for it.

XII had more interesting and fun sidequests compared to X. The only thing worthwhile sidequesty wise was Blitzball.

Blitzball pwns the entire XII game

[Raebus]

Blitzball = Terrible to play with horrible controls, to me atleast and I soon got bored.

[Hazzard]

Blitzball with disgustingly crap.

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't think I would have liked it as a minigame but rather as a scripted event like a few people have mentioned.

Though it could have been done like a random encounter system when moving through place to place by airship. It could have been presented like the random encounters in FFT. Then the battles themselves could be the airship itself fighting random imperial patrols and various monsters. The could have made it cinematic by using the ATB system.


Also blitzball is a horribly boring minigame. The only minigame probably worse than blitzball is IX's god awful Tetra Master card game. They are both just terrible and require next to no real skill... and yes I am implying that VII's hoops minigame was more challenging and fun than either of these games.

[Hazzard]

I like Wolf Kanno's idea, but the bad thing with that, is that it would of made the game even more tiring-resulting in pissing me off. Big time.

[Setzer Gabianni]

I would have loved it. XII didn't have a decent minigame and the airship battles could have sub'ed for it.

XII had more interesting and fun sidequests compared to X. The only thing worthwhile sidequesty wise was Blitzball.

Blitzball pwns the entire XII game

No it doesn't?

[LunarWeaver]

The Skies of Arcadia air battles actually bored me, but I have a comfortable assumption that this game would have done it in a way I would have enjoyed. Sure, I think it would be a welcome addition. Matsuno sure pulled a Takahashi with his ambition for this project.

[Renmiri]

Forgive them Yevon, they know not of what they speak :rolleyes2