Financial stuff

[Dreddz]

I expect to see alot more titles go multiplatform, this isnt the PS2 days where you could just make a title for the PS2 and know you were open to a big enough fanbase to get strong sales for your games.

That said im happier when developers decide to stay exclusive to one console, as multiplatform titles are made quality is lost in the process.

[Bolivar]

I don't think "make games with wider appeal" means "make Western-style RPGs."

There's a multitude of reasons to believe that SE/Yoichi Wada would mean that. For one, we all know, as well as they do, that FF brings in more money than Dragon Quest because of North America. Mr. Wada himself has expressed several times over his desire to seek out this audience, not to mention the company creating shooter and RTS-themed RPG's with Dirge of Cerberus and Revenant Wings. We've also seen it with other trends in development, which brings me to my next point.

I never found XII to be a "western RPG" and offline MMO most certainly but hardly a western style RPG. Of anything it reminded me of FFV. Of anything, I feel XII reintroduces alot of elements that have gone missing in the franchise in the last few years. What I've seen and heard of Last Remnant has never given me the idea of a western RPG either but then again the project doesn't suit my taste to begin with so I know very little about it outside of the fact that a major character is being tailored made for western audiences (the brain dead ones anyway ) so I can't really comment.

Akitoshi Kawazu himself has stated in interviews that FFXII was made with western gamers in mind, expecting that it would be especially well received in North America, and that they purposely tried to contrast the the qualities of FFX specifically which were considered too linear or too restrictive. Furthermore, I think anyone familiar with PC RPGs over the last 10 years could easily discern the more western elements. Everything from the map-approach to the visual presentation of battles was a large departure from what Final Fantasy and the JRPG canon has been. Furthermore, the game is best played like a western RPG - going out to discover new regions and dungeons in order to seek out the best equipment for your characters. When the game is played like a JRPG, as in the player participating in a story, the player easily finds him/herself underleveled and underequipped.

The Last Remnant, as with FFXII, has been easily recognized as having certain qualities that might be more appealing to a western audience, and there is such a sweeping acknowledgment of this on the net alone that it would be futile for me to entertain the idea that it isn't.

[Wolf Kanno]

I never found XII to be a "western RPG" and offline MMO most certainly but hardly a western style RPG. Of anything it reminded me of FFV. Of anything, I feel XII reintroduces alot of elements that have gone missing in the franchise in the last few years. What I've seen and heard of Last Remnant has never given me the idea of a western RPG either but then again the project doesn't suit my taste to begin with so I know very little about it outside of the fact that a major character is being tailored made for western audiences (the brain dead ones anyway ) so I can't really comment.

Akitoshi Kawazu himself has stated in interviews that FFXII was made with western gamers in mind, expecting that it would be especially well received in North America, and that they purposely tried to contrast the the qualities of FFX specifically which were considered too linear or too restrictive. Furthermore, I think anyone familiar with PC RPGs over the last 10 years could easily discern the more western elements. Everything from the map-approach to the visual presentation of battles was a large departure from what Final Fantasy and the JRPG canon has been. Furthermore, the game is best played like a western RPG - going out to discover new regions and dungeons in order to seek out the best equipment for your characters. When the game is played like a JRPG, as in the player participating in a story, the player easily finds him/herself underleveled and underequipped.

The Last Remnant, as with FFXII, has been easily recognized as having certain qualities that might be more appealing to a western audience, and there is such a sweeping acknowledgment of this on the net alone that it would be futile for me to entertain the idea that it isn't.

I feel the comical thing about all this is the fact that exploration was originally an element in early JRPG (and even many well known JRPG series today) hell even the early titles many people claim started the genre had pretty heavy exploration elements so its difficult for me to say its an element not in the genre itself though it did almost completely disappear in the PS2 generation of RPGs. I will concur that XII had some western elements but nothing that would have been foreign to a DQ fan. I won't argue the point but I do feel its silly that JRPG's are considered to have no exploration/stat tweaking but alas it seems to be common knowledge on the web that they don't...

[Avarice-ness]

That's what happens when you only produce spin offs and sequels.

Either way, I'm a fan but I do not buy sequels or spin-offs, I only want to play remakes (GBA or DS) and new games in the series.

Gamers or not, Squeenix needs to understand that when a gamer loses faith in the people who are mistreating their games (AKA making Spin-Off games for the sole want of money) they lose faith in the quality of games.
Thus the games turn into people like me, a gamer who won't play any spin-off or sequels because they are not made with the same love and heart that was put into the originals.

At this point though, Squeenix goes down the drain. Oh well. I lost hope in their company long ago.

[Bolivar]

I never found XII to be a "western RPG" and offline MMO most certainly but hardly a western style RPG. Of anything it reminded me of FFV. Of anything, I feel XII reintroduces alot of elements that have gone missing in the franchise in the last few years. What I've seen and heard of Last Remnant has never given me the idea of a western RPG either but then again the project doesn't suit my taste to begin with so I know very little about it outside of the fact that a major character is being tailored made for western audiences (the brain dead ones anyway ) so I can't really comment.

Akitoshi Kawazu himself has stated in interviews that FFXII was made with western gamers in mind, expecting that it would be especially well received in North America, and that they purposely tried to contrast the the qualities of FFX specifically which were considered too linear or too restrictive. Furthermore, I think anyone familiar with PC RPGs over the last 10 years could easily discern the more western elements. Everything from the map-approach to the visual presentation of battles was a large departure from what Final Fantasy and the JRPG canon has been. Furthermore, the game is best played like a western RPG - going out to discover new regions and dungeons in order to seek out the best equipment for your characters. When the game is played like a JRPG, as in the player participating in a story, the player easily finds him/herself underleveled and underequipped.

The Last Remnant, as with FFXII, has been easily recognized as having certain qualities that might be more appealing to a western audience, and there is such a sweeping acknowledgment of this on the net alone that it would be futile for me to entertain the idea that it isn't.

I feel the comical thing about all this is the fact that exploration was originally an element in early JRPG (and even many well known JRPG series today) hell even the early titles many people claim started the genre had pretty heavy exploration elements so its difficult for me to say its an element not in the genre itself though it did almost completely disappear in the PS2 generation of RPGs. I will concur that XII had some western elements but nothing that would have been foreign to a DQ fan. I won't argue the point but I do feel its silly that JRPG's are considered to have no exploration/stat tweaking but alas it seems to be common knowledge on the web that they don't...

I don't think anyone on the net proposes that JRPG's lack exploration/stat tweaking, only that it does it in noticeably different ways. We're also foregoing many other differences others might pick up, little things such as the free camera, when the more traditional japanese style is to use a fixed, cinematic angle.

Also, some of the earlier games which defined the east's style in the genre gave only the illusion of exploration, as any area you find is something you would inevitably have to encounter, anyway. The fourth installment of the FF franchise had a total of, what, 3 optional "quests" (if you could even call them that): Excalibur, Phantom Beast World, and Bahamut if I remember correctly.

[Wolf Kanno]

V-VII had many open-ended optional parts and even VIII did to a point though I doubt many people cared about them FFIII also has many optional places as a few towns and villages are completely optional. IV is in fact mostly on rails but it does have the Sylph cave, Land of Summoned Beasts quest, Adamant Quest as well as a optional town (the Mythril city, I can't remember its name) and the Castle of the Ninja's is actually optional.

I never felt the camera position is important cause there is enough variation on both sides to make it a moot point. I find when people compare the two styles its always using the pinnacle of each genre, For JRPGs its usually the Tales series or Aiterler Iris and for western its Morrowind. Personally I don't think this is a fair assessment. FF has always walked a thin line between both styles even though it spawned the JRPG genre, I've personally felt it was balanced enough not to be pigeoned holed into until they made X. But that's just my observation on the subject.

[Heath]

That's what happens when you only produce spin offs and sequels.

Either way, I'm a fan but I do not buy sequels or spin-offs, I only want to play remakes (GBA or DS) and new games in the series.

Gamers or not, Squeenix needs to understand that when a gamer loses faith in the people who are mistreating their games (AKA making Spin-Off games for the sole want of money) they lose faith in the quality of games.
Thus the games turn into people like me, a gamer who won't play any spin-off or sequels because they are not made with the same love and heart that was put into the originals.

At this point though, Squeenix goes down the drain. Oh well. I lost hope in their company long ago.

I generally agree with you; I still think they can produce some excellent games but I wish they'd try and do some more original stuff. As much as I do like Final Fantasy, it can only go on for so long. I appreciate that sequels and spin-offs are probably pretty bankable to succeed to a certain point, but at the end of a day a company like Square is a business first and foremost. Having said that, I did enjoy FFTA and have heard some good things about FFX-2. And the remakes of the SNES Final Fantasies (or ports or whatever) have been pretty good and FFIV-DS is looking nice too.

[Ouch!]

Remakes are okay to an extent. As I was never allowed to own a console until the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 were released, I originally missed out on a lot of the early Final Fantasy titles. I was only able to play FFVII and FFVIII on the PC until I got my PS2 (I had yet to learn of the existence of ROMs at this point), and that was about when Square Enix had just started churning out the first ports of the early games--Anthologies, Chronicles, and Origins.

Since it's release, I think Final Fantasy I has been rereleased three times for three separate gaming consoles: there was the PSX release, the GBA release, and the PSP release. Quite honestly, I think this is quickly becoming ridiculous.

I understand, to an extent. The release of Origins was a welcome one. The release of Dawn of Souls was a smart business decision by Square Enix given how much the video game market has moved towards handheld gaming. The PSP release, however, was excessive.

I mind remakes far less than ports. As long as they put enough effort into making the game more than a just rehashed experience (as I hope they've done with FFIV DS), they're welcome to it. Remakes seem to kill ports, too, which is always a good thing, I think.

Certainly SE expected these types of results. As others have mentioned, 2007 lacked a new Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest title; and by now Square Enix is well aware what their biggest money makers are. I'm hoping both Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery do well. If both of these succeed, I hope it queues the company to continue to produce more original titles.

I also think that we should expect to see more multiplatform titles. The pros and cons of multiplatform games are an entirely different discussion, but I do think that multiplatform releases allow companies to reach wider audiences and thus encourage them to be a little more experimental in your approach. Releasing a new RPG on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, for example, is a lot safer than releasing it on only one of the two (PS3 because of it's lower market share--unless that's changed, I stopped paying attention to console wars--and the Xbox 360 because of its stigma as a primarily FPS console).

I hope this is a wake up call to SE and not a queue for them to assume an even more conservative business model. Squaresoft and Enix were known as leaders of the RPG genre--you can't be a leader by rehashing things over and over, and I hope they know that.

[Nifleheim7]

Certainly SE expected these types of results. As others have mentioned, 2007 lacked a new Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest title; and by now Square Enix is well aware what their biggest money makers are. I'm hoping both Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery do well. If both of these succeed, I hope it queues the company to continue to produce more original titles.

I agree with you,and i also want to see new IP's coming from them.But i wonder if those new titles are trully original when it comes to their content.A new IP doesn't guarantee an original game.
Imo,Squarenix's development policy behind the main Final Fantasy titles is very creative and i hope they continue to do so.

[Wolf Kanno]

Multi-platform would be a good approach, especially in the RPG market cause outside of technical specs, it shouldn't suffer the major problems of multi-platform games, i.e. interface issues due to controller designs. I honestly feel SE should go this route as first party exclusives don't really carry any benefit for the 3rd party developer IMO.

One thing I've been speculating on though... Do you think part of SE's remake/sequel bent is due partly to the merger in the extent that SE itself has no real competition on the marketplace? I'm pretty sure globally, SE controls most of the RPG market now; but do you think its possible, that part of the reason for the absence of original IPs is because they no longer have major competition? I'm just throwing this out to debate.

[Jessweeee♪]

WAIT DOES THIS MEAN I WILL NEVER EVER SEE A SEQUEL FOR THREADS OF FATE EVER?


Haet u sqwahr.