Final Fantasy X-3 is happening and it just sounds weird

[LightspeedJack]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but as I am sure some of you are aware the HD release of Final Fantasy X and X-2 has just been released in Japan and with it some tertiary material, the contents of which are rather disturbing. There are two pieces of new material released, one is a 35 minute audio drama on the disc and the other is a novella set (seemingly) after the events of FFX-2 and is sold separately.

You can watch the audio drama with english subtitles here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJd3Tfu5ulY

You can read about the novella here:
http://4playernetwork.com/blog/2014/01/final-fantasy-x-25-or-square-enix-is-ruining-basically-everything/

To cut a long story short; this audio drama basically has Sin return seemingly out of the blue with Yuna coming forward to once again fight, essentially making the ending of FFX entirely worthless. Not to mention the weird stuff with Tidus having a lady on the side and Yuna dumping him? Really? Can't they just be happily ever after?

It's in the novella though that stuff gets really weird. I mean, Tidus kicks a bomb and DIES!? What?! The mentions of graphic violence and sexual content shocked me as well as Final Fantasy has never been a series to include such things. Don't get me wrong I have no problem with graphic violence and sex but it simply does not belong in this story.

As a massive fan of FFX I am obviously dismayed at this news. FFX DEFINITELY does not need ANOTHER sequel, especially one that seems to be completely pulled out nowhere. This news has honestly convinced me that everyone at Squeenix is completely bonkers and has pretty much snuffed out any excitement I had for FFXV.

Also here is an article of a dev saying that if the HD collections suceed FFX-3 will be in the works:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130888-Dev-Final-Fantasy-X-3-Could-Happen-With-Fan-Demand

I guess it's time we all boycott it then!

 

[Gizmo1990]

It has been crucified in Japan.

But not will not sour my love of X, I care not what people say FFX is my 3rd favorite FF and still one of my favorite games of all time and I forgive x-2 for all the things wrong with it because of the 100% ending. Anything after that I will just ignore/declare not cannon in my head.

I did it with Star Wars, I did it with Mass Effect and I did it with Dragon Age whats one more series.

Edit: I just read what is ment to happen in the 30 min audio episode at the end of x/x-2 remaster and SE can go fuck themselves. I will keep my x-2 happily ever after ending and they can go ahead and fuck it all up so they can crap out another sequal.

XII was disappointing, XIII was just plain bad but this. I am done with this series. Never again.

 

[scorptatious]

As I said in the previous thread:

I enjoyed X. I didn't like it's sequel at all however. I have doubts this game will be any good if it does get made.

Personally, I'd rather they remake IX. Love that game to bits.

 

[LightspeedJack]

Apparently it is fanfiction that was accidently published by SE.
http://www.p4rgaming.com/square-enix-accidentally-publishes-fanfiction-for-the-final-fantasy-x-2-5-novel/

Unfortunately that is a satirical gaming news site. That article is a joke.

 

[Risingblade]

Well now I have to buy the HD collections. I do want a X-3 to happen though, as do a lot of other people.

 

[verdant monkai]

This doesn't sound official.

Seeming as square's idea of successful is around $7,000,000 worldwide profit. I doubt FF X-3 will happen.

FF X is my favourite instalment in the series. I haven't played FF X-2 yet as the wide spread condemnation has put me off. That and I dont want to play as Rikku.

If FF X-2 was bad why is an X-3 a good idea?

Why dont they just make FF 7-2 and earn more money than any company ever?

Why have there been three FF 13 games?

Why do moogles still have to be a thing?

Why does no one like me?

 

[AuronFtw]

A prequel following the only interesting characters (Auron, Braska and Jecht) would be fantastic. A sequel following the parade of bland, vapid dipshits starring in X-2 would be a disaster of X-2 proportions. Pretty much the only thing X-2 got "right" was the combat, the rest was droll, tedious, boring, grindy or just downright annoying... like every line of spoken dialog delivered by any character anywhere in the game. They even fucked up Blitzball, turning an almost-interesting and certainly engaging RPG soccer minigame into Football Manager 2002. Snore.

Pretty much the only times I woke up from my daze while playing X-2 was when Gippal, Nooj or Baralai were around, because they were roughly twenty times more interesting than Yunsnore, Rikzzz, and pain. Hell, a X-2 featuring those three as the main cast would have been great, with political elements and rallying support from their communities to vie for power over Spira instead of 3 herpderps trying to find a hunky boy in their day off from shopping for more clothes. God that game was terrible.

I haven't played FF X-2 yet as the wide spread condemnation has put me off. That and I dont want to play as Rikku.

I would only recommend it if you wanted to play a parody of Final Fantasy. It has some of the characters from a good game, in the same setting as the good game, but pretty much nothing else is good. The dialog is both over the top outrageous and hilariously stupid, poorly delivered from a variety of B-list voice actors. The writing is terrible, the story goes nowhere and has no resolution, the (many) minigames are all less engaging than Blitzball or even Triple Triad, but luckily you don't have to play them much (although, iirc, you still have to get a "perfect" time on each of the timed ones in order to get a 100% completion).

There are snippets of a good game buried in the pile of shlock. You get occasional cutscenes of more interesting characters doing more interesting things, but you quickly return to the parade of silliness and mundane bullshit following the 3 dipshits on their quest to get more dresses. And the 100% completion I mentioned? It's utterly insane. I mean, I'm a person that would struggle to do a 100% completion in an actually good game - but in this pile of trash, it was just the final joke icing on a cake made entirely of laughter.

You have to talk to every NPC in the game, you have to complete every minigame with the best result, you have to get every dress and sphere grid in the game, and the game is split into 5 acts, requiring you to return to each area multiple times, a single fuckup anywhere on the journey easily leading to a missed 100%, which you don't "see coming" until you get to chapter 5 and the game says oh, fuck you, you weren't following the guide closely enough, so no 100% for you.

Basically comparing the openings is all you need to do. X opens with a badass underwater soccer game getting interrupted by a giant monster blasting the entire city with laser beams, all to a death metal track playing in the background... while X-2 opens with the stuttering summoner herpderp doing a pop concert while herpderps 2 and 3 watch. And you learn quickly that it wasn't even Yuna, so that takes even more meaning out of the intro. What a pile of shit.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I enjoyed X but it was the last decent FF in my opinion largely due to Sakaguchi leaving Squaresoft. Since then I enjoyed the shit out of Mistwalker games (Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey respectively) while seeing Squeenix trash what I loved about FF. Except the few releases like Dissidia and its prequel and Crisis Core (seemingly one of the few who did like it). Kingdom Hearts is the last bastion of good that I feel Squeenix can do and I am praying 3 doesn't turn out to be shit.

 

[Cybylt]

Why have there been three FF 13 games?

Because the director of it has a lot of sway in the company and Lightning is his every fetish made whole.

Not even exaggerating that, sadly, the guy put up a shrine to her in the dev office.

 

[rcs619]

Why have there been three FF 13 games?

Because the director of it has a lot of sway in the company and Lightning is his every fetish made whole.

Not even exaggerating that, sadly, the guy put up a shrine to her in the dev office.

Yep, and that's probably one of the biggest problems with Square this last generation. All the series they have access to, all the memorable characters and stories, and all the creative folks employed by them and the character they decide to make the focus of nearly all of their efforts for an entire gaming generation is... Lightning. While I may have liked her original design (but geez, has she gotten silly looking in the following games), she has all the emotional expression and depth of a damp rock. She isn't quite as bad as Cloud or Squall, but she is very much part of that same sort of character archetype. Serious, broody, aloof and generally the focus of their respective game/manga/anime despite them almost always being the least interesting character in the cast.

It's kind of a shame to see an entire company basically trying to force a franchise into existence around a single, not very interesting character, instead of trying to create new worlds, new stories, or maybe actually putting out a main-series Kingdom Hearts game (it's only been, what, 10 years since Kingdom Hearts 2?). What ever happened to Enix when Square absorbed it anyway? There were like, two mediocre Star Ocean games, and then... nothing. Maybe we could get a new (not terrible) Star Ocean game? Or how about we make a new Valkyrie Profile to try and undo the terrible things Valkyrie Profile 2 did to the franchise?

The fact that they turned Final Fantasy X into a multi-game franchise kind of boggles my mind too. I still argue that Final Fantasy X had the best battle system of the turn-based Final Fantasies, but overall, it was kind of a weak game, with a story that was even more convoluted than usual towards the end. Not to mention the fact that Tidus is probably the worst main character in the whole franchise (he barely ranks above Vaan for me, and that's only because he actually has some relevance to the plot of his own game).

It's just really, really weird to see the direction Square-Enix has gone in this last generation or so.

 

[AuronFtw]

I enjoyed X but it was the last decent FF in my opinion largely due to Sakaguchi leaving Squaresoft.

Definitely agreed

6-10 were all "great" JRPGs IMO, each having some aspect (usually many) that was truly unique or just really really well done. X, also IMO, was the least great of the bunch, trading some of the magic of the predecessors for an overabundance of flashy cutscenes and shitty voice acting. But after the merge, and losing Sakaguchi, they just plummeted in quality very quickly. 12 and X-2 were both wrought with problems, and FF13: Linear Hallway Exploration was just a disaster area.

One of the (many) problems I think is the combat of the new games. A lot of people bash menu-driven combat for being "boring," but at least you're actually playing the game, you know? In 12 and 13, you set up your party in advance and when the combat actually starts they go on autopilot. And autopilot is all you need for 99% of the non-boss encounters, which means that, for a lot of the game, you aren't doing shit. You're sitting there for long cutscenes, you're sitting there for long dialog sections, and you're sitting there through most of the combat as well, only occasionally stepping in to use a healing ability or change an elemental attack. That's a hundred times more boring than slower menu driven combat where you're actually *playing the game*. Oddly enough, I think X-2 hit the sweet spot - it was active enough combat to do things like combo chains, but you were still in charge of issuing commands to each fighter, so combat was still an engaging experience. After that, though, the autopilot marathons just turned me off.

 

[Brian Tams]

Ignore it. That's what I do when shit hits the fan, and creators fuck up their own worlds (Star Wars Episode I? Indiana Jones IV? I don't know what you're talking about.)

It may sound petty and childish, and it is to a certain degree, but I've been a whole lot happier for it.

I also love Final Fantasy X, and plan on getting the HD remastering of it. Reading that horrible piece of awful fan fiction-esque writing hurt me.

So I ignore it. Final Fantasy X ended at the end of the game. I'm happy with that.

 

[Cybylt]

Why have there been three FF 13 games?

Because the director of it has a lot of sway in the company and Lightning is his every fetish made whole.

Not even exaggerating that, sadly, the guy put up a shrine to her in the dev office.

Yep, and that's probably one of the biggest problems with Square this last generation. All the series they have access to, all the memorable characters and stories, and all the creative folks employed by them and the character they decide to make the focus of nearly all of their efforts for an entire gaming generation is... Lightning. While I may have liked her original design (but geez, has she gotten silly looking in the following games), she has all the emotional expression and depth of a damp rock. She isn't quite as bad as Cloud or Squall, but she is very much part of that same sort of character archetype. Serious, broody, aloof and generally the focus of their respective game/manga/anime despite them almost always being the least interesting character in the cast.

It's kind of a shame to see an entire company basically trying to force a franchise into existence around a single, not very interesting character, instead of trying to create new worlds, new stories, or maybe actually putting out a main-series Kingdom Hearts game (it's only been, what, 10 years since Kingdom Hearts 2?). What ever happened to Enix when Square absorbed it anyway? There were like, two mediocre Star Ocean games, and then... nothing. Maybe we could get a new (not terrible) Star Ocean game? Or how about we make a new Valkyrie Profile to try and undo the terrible things Valkyrie Profile 2 did to the franchise?

The fact that they turned Final Fantasy X into a multi-game franchise kind of boggles my mind too. I still argue that Final Fantasy X had the best battle system of the turn-based Final Fantasies, but overall, it was kind of a weak game, with a story that was even more convoluted than usual towards the end. Not to mention the fact that Tidus is probably the worst main character in the whole franchise (he barely ranks above Vaan for me, and that's only because he actually has some relevance to the plot of his own game).

It's just really, really weird to see the direction Square-Enix has gone in this last generation or so.

Star Ocean was Tri-Ace and they left after being forced into projects they didn't want to do and given the third-string localization teams which lead to Star Ocean 4 and Infinite Undiscovery's voicing. Hell, their first Star Ocean under Square went all super meta about a company called Sphere homogenizing an entire world.

They've gone on to much better things since they've left, thankfully, with Resonance of Fate being their attempt at experimental position based combat and an episodic story, followed by... oddly enough, helping Square try to improve the combat for 13-2 and Lightning Returns. Their latest was Beyond the Labyrinth which I don't think got localized and now they're helping Sega with Phantasy Star Nova which is supposed to be this kind of condensed version of Phantasy Star Online 2 for Vita with a focus on boss fights.

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

my only real complaint with FFX was how you leveled, and mostly dealing with the fact that i couldn't freely movie about the board and go on side paths.

 

[RJ 17]

XII was disappointing, XIII was just plain bad but this. I am done with this series. Never again.

What's REALLY funny is that I said pretty much the same thing after I finished FFX, only in my version of the above declaration, XII was replaced by VIII, and XIII was replaced with IX. :3

Well, technically 10-2 was the last FF game I ever played, but I refuse to acknowledge I even put that in my PS2. I rented it, played it for about 2 hours, and returned it the same day saying it didn't work for some reason. The guy offered to let me check out a different copy of the game, but I said I'd rather just get a different game all together.

From what I've heard, I haven't missed much since I gave up on the series at that point. Beyond that, I'll go ahead and refrain from my usual chorus of how terrible FFX was. I'm tired of being a party pooper and after I made a survey topic on the subject of Final Fantasy, I came to realize something about the people that absolutely love all the FF games that I can't stand: for the most part they're at least 10 years younger than me. So new FF's for a new generation, I suppose, and I'm just an old fuddy-duddy who prefers the classics that he grew up with.

 

[Xathos]

Weird sounding? Sure, but if they are going to make a FFX-3 game, I'm almost positive I'm going to get it. Having Sin come back could be interesting, and the Audio Drama makes it seem like crazy stuff is happening all over. Yuna and Tidus not really being together is strange, but depending on how the game would take it, its possible for it to make sense. Basically, gotta wait and see how everything turns out.

Now, as for that Novella, I find it hilarious that Tidus dies from kicking a bomb he thought was a Blitzball and having his dismembered head roll towards Yuna. I'm not saying this out of hatred for his character or Yuna's, I just find it to be a funny messed up event that I think needs to be clarified. Like, why a random bomb? Why die like that? As for the sexual content, I would have to see what that entails (although the link you posted does make it sound...icky.), though I honestly don't have a problem with Tidus joking around that he can't focus on fighting because he finds Yuna sexy. Unless its like...4 pages of Tidus just ogling Yuna or something, in which case...no thanks.

Going at face value with a lack of details and just some small things I've heard, I'm going to say that the Audio Drama sounds fine (and will probably be a bit better in English? Who knows, its possible. Translations and all that.), while the Novella sounds the very opposite of fine.

And FFX-3 is most certainly happening. This is Square Enix, the guys who make CGI trailers based on some early character art and a story synopsis found on post it notes from its various employees when they aren't looking and expect the games to be made. C'mon now. The moment you saw the new Yuna (looking very pretty BTW) and Tidus, this game got confirmed. The whole, "The HD collection will have to do well" is just smoke and mirrors.

But like I said, FFX-3 sounds good to me. They didn't need to do it, but if its good, then what the hell. I mean, right now it just sounds like it'll be meh at best, but hey, early development. I know people like to cry fowl at everything SE does, but I'm keeping things optimistic. If it fails then...people will forget about it just like they forgot about DMC2.

 

[Frankster]

FF-X was the last final fantasy I liked, really hope they don't go out and desecrate its corpse :/

I will fan rage if they shoe horn in sin's return, that story thread was closed permanently with the death of Yu Yevon, not to mention would render the events of that game completely pointless.

 

[AuronFtw]

I'll go ahead and refrain from my usual chorus of how terrible FFX was. I'm tired of being a party pooper and after I made a survey topic on the subject of Final Fantasy, I came to realize something about the people that absolutely love all the FF games that I can't stand: for the most part they're at least 10 years younger than me. So new FF's for a new generation, I suppose, and I'm just an old fuddy-duddy who prefers the classics that he grew up with.

It's mostly that they lack a frame of reference? I didn't play FF6 until I was in college, for example, and I played it in a tiny emulator on my computer (left my GBA and all my games at home when I moved). I was 20, had played all the more recent ones including x-2 and 12, but 6 grabbed me in a way that the recent ones completely failed to. The music, the characters, the story arcs, even the item selection, it was all superior in 6... a sprite-driven mostly 2d with some cheesy fake 3d world map stuff game from many consoles ago.

I tend to chalk up my like of ff7 and ff8 to nostalgia (I still maintain that they're great games, but I *could* be blinded by some rose colored glasses) but that's not even a factor when I played 6 and 9, since I played them for the first time as an adult having never touched them previously. They're just flat better games than 12, 13, x-2 and all the other abominations that have come after. Deeper, more meaningful, better characters with less stupid tropes.

I mean, shit, compare Celes or Terra and their story arcs to Lightning. Lightning is definitely a strong, independent woman girl but her arc is *nothing* compared to the previous two. She's two dimensional and boring. A stock archetype of a character more than an "actual" character. Certainly nothing worth building a franchise of sequels on... as Squeenix found out.

That said, I disagree that FFX was "terrible." It was unarguably a step down in quality from the previous 4 titles, presumably making way for the flashy graphics and budget concerns re: voice acting, but it had one of the most coherent stories of any Final Fantasy, with all thematic elements and characters existing to reinforce the main plot. Even tidus' much-hated voice actor fit the role; he was raised as a spoiled brat, never having to try hard to achieve anything, gifted at watersoccer, just kind of cruising through life, and then he's dumped into a world he knows nothing about. His fear, indecision, and desire to return home are, over time, tampered by his attraction to yuna. The attraction is merely physical at first, but over time, as he learns the truth about her journey, his emotional maturation is displayed again and again, via his selfless desires to help her and even his ability to just wait patiently while she takes her time at each area, knowing that it's probably her last time there.

By the time he reaches the final battle, he's grown from a rash, ignorant child into a devoted young man, still idealistic and naive (which is common with young adults!) but much more mature. The game culminates in the simultaneous attacking of the religious figure, bringing closure to the (major) anti-religion aspects of the plot, while also facing Tidus off against his father, who represents the only thing left for him to "get over" to become a complete human being. And after the battle, they forgive and love each other, leaving Tidus a whole person, able to leave Yuna and return home (presumably to die with the rest of the Fayth), knowing he made a difference in her life, and realizing that it's not his place to stay by her side. Again, mature decision, enabled by his long and arduous journey.

His character arc is probably the most believable of any of the protags of FF, displaying a fairly wide range of human emotions in places you'd expect to actually see those emotions. A lot of people hate him right off the bat because he's an annoying ****, but... yeah, that's the point. Everyone is like that at some point in their lives; it's what being a child is about. But failing to see his growth and maturation throughout the game, coming in little bits at first but later making huge strides, particularly after big reveals regarding Yuna's destiny, would leave someone with the impression that tidus stays an annoying **** from beginning to end, which is absolutely not the case. He has an arc, a much more complete and believable one than even Cloud or Squall, complementing an overall story that is more coherent (but that's not even an argument, X's story actually makes sense from start to finish, no future sorceress time manipulation bullshit or convenient teleports via lifestream comas). I definitely like the "games" of FF7 and FF8 more than X, but I can't ever write X off as "terrible" because of how beautifully orchestrated the story was. The symbolism, the character development, the intertwining of Tidus' trust/responsibility/father figure struggles with Yuna's faith/pre-determined fate/personal sacrifice struggles... it was just damned well done. It almost makes up for Yuna's voice acting and Seymour's hair.

 

[SwimmingRock]

Why have there been three FF 13 games?

Because the director of it has a lot of sway in the company and Lightning is his every fetish made whole.

Not even exaggerating that, sadly, the guy put up a shrine to her in the dev office.

Ah. That explains why every female character in the FF13 games has pink hair. It took me several hours to figure out Sarah and Vanille aren't the same person.

OT: I read the p4r article first and thought it was a hilarious gag about the bomb-kicking death. I am still flabbergasted that is apparently real. I will definitely be avoiding this weird bullshit even though I loved X and liked X-2.

 

[lapan]

my only real complaint with FFX was how you leveled, and mostly dealing with the fact that i couldn't freely movie about the board and go on side paths.

That changes with you far you progress in the game, everyone can learn everything later. That said, i'm not gonna buy any FF X-3 if the story is anything like what has been foreshadowed.

I'd rather buy Bravely Default to show Square what i actually want