Kingdom Hearts Director: PS4 is "Too Much"

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Protip for Nomura:

Just make the games you want to make. We don't need more bloated game budgets. If you just make good games, your fans will buy your Final Fantasies, Dragon Quests and Kingdom Hearts...es, no matter how much or little processing power and memory they're using.

The man wanted to make FF15 a musical. He has far too many ideas. The fact that he can now realize more of them is both horrifying and wonderful.

I did play the handheld titles. They were good. Not anywhere near as good as the numbered titles, but good. I still think he would be better putting effort into a single great game than a half dozen smaller projects.

As much as I loved it, KH2 was objectively worse than the handheld games in virtually every conceivable way. Aside from maybe level design, art, and story. The gameplay simply does not hold up in any way.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's not really all that special compared to quality PCs, and that distinction will only decrease as time goes on.
But then again, traditionally most AAA Japanese developers/publishers would rather swallow->shit roofing nails before even thinking of developing for anything other than a console.

 

[Fox12]

Protip for Nomura:

Just make the games you want to make. We don't need more bloated game budgets. If you just make good games, your fans will buy your Final Fantasies, Dragon Quests and Kingdom Hearts...es, no matter how much or little processing power and memory they're using.

The man wanted to make FF15 a musical. He has far too many ideas. The fact that he can now realize more of them is both horrifying and wonderful.

I did play the handheld titles. They were good. Not anywhere near as good as the numbered titles, but good. I still think he would be better putting effort into a single great game than a half dozen smaller projects.

As much as I loved it, KH2 was objectively worse than the handheld games in virtually every conceivable way. Aside from maybe level design, art, and story. The gameplay simply does not hold up in any way.

Really? I actually liked it more gameplay wise. I thought it had more flare to it. To be fair, my friends are pretty split on that one. It does show its age somewhat, I'll admit, but it's still one of my favorite titles. That could be nostalgia talking though.

He wanted to make FF15 a musical? really? Haha, I do love Nomura, even if he does overstretch himself. I always saw him as somewhat overzealous, which sometimes gets him into trouble, but there are far worse things to be than overzealous. Atleast he's passionate about his work. It's a wonderful "flaw" to have. Unfortunately, whenever I get to play FF15, I'm going to picture Noctus singing his lines in a booming baritone.

 

[Saltyk]

Since PS4 harddrive is freely swappable, I'm thinking it's best to throw an SSD inside and let the operating system (plus most frequently-played games) install onto it. It will really FLY if that is possible, removing one of my biggest gripes with consoles - loading times!

I think most console players have become so used to sitting idly through 30-60sec loading screens that they don't even notice it anymore, which is sad because during the cartridge/cassette era loading times were almost non-existent.

I play on consoles all the time. What are these loading times of which you speak? I don't know them.

In all seriousness, loading screens are virtually a thing of the past on consoles. Games like Uncharted have one loading screen at the start of your gaming session. It lasts for a bit, but from then on, there are no more loading screens. I can't even remember them in most games I've played. If they are there, they go by so fast I forget they exist.

Unless you're playing a Bioware game. Those games tend to have some long and bountiful loading screens that pop up every 15 or 20 minutes it seems.

 

[Xman490]

If all that RAM - of which 50% is probably not assigned to gaming - is too much, then surely Nomura's team can bring Kingdom Hearts 3 to the Wii U! Right? The Wii U market is definitely the target for a Disney re-imagining game, right?

 

[Vausch]

Um...Nomura, you're not obligated to use the PS4's hardware to its fullest extent. It's just there for you to use, not saying you absolutely have to.

 

[Drummodino]

I thought loading times had been basically eliminated this gen.

Games like Uncharted 2, Killzone 3, Resistance 2, God of War 3 didn't have any loading screens at all. And (with the exception of games like Mass Effect) the games that had them generally had them pretty small, nothing as bad as Burnout 3 on the PS2.

Whereas I tend to play older PC games and on a laptop, so for me stuff like KotoR still seems pretty packed with loading

I play on consoles all the time. What are these loading times of which you speak? I don't know them.

In all seriousness, loading screens are virtually a thing of the past on consoles. Games like Uncharted have one loading screen at the start of your gaming session. It lasts for a bit, but from then on, there are no more loading screens. I can't even remember them in most games I've played. If they are there, they go by so fast I forget they exist.

Unless you're playing a Bioware game. Those games tend to have some long and bountiful loading screens that pop up every 15 or 20 minutes it seems.

A lot of console games have a very long loading time at the beginning of the game but then they tend to have very few load screens in-game. The Last of Us had a horribly long start up time but it was fine once you got into the actual game.

 

[shrekfan246]

As much as I loved it, KH2 was objectively worse than the handheld games in virtually every conceivable way. Aside from maybe level design, art, and story. The gameplay simply does not hold up in any way.

As a person who has been going through the entire Kingdom Hearts franchise again on each game's "Proud" difficulty and attempting to 100% them all (the closest I've gotten is 99%, but oh well) and is currently on II Final Mix again... I think you might be getting II confused with I.

Don't get me wrong, Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance play very well, but there are a lot of little things that just make them less overall satisfying in comparison. The lack of soft combo finishers, for one, though Birth by Sleep goes the other way with it by making the Command Styles and finish commands that activate all the damn time. The Command Deck as well is both a step forward and step backward; It streamlines the use of spells and abilities, but removing the requirement of managing MP removed an entire level from the depth of the combat system. Especially compared to II, where using Cure spells used all of your MP regardless of how much you still had left.

In addition, the once again altered camera. It may just be a personal gripe, but the zoomed out camera of II allows for much freer-feeling combat arenas, whereas the cameras for BBS and DDD feel as constrictive as the first game's.

I suppose I'm just speaking from my own personal experiences, but I think that II has the best combat of the franchise, while I has the best level design, Birth by Sleep has the best plot, and I or Dream Drop Distance have the best writing so far. BBS and DDD aren't far behind II, but I disagree that they eclipse it.

 

[BrotherRool]

A lot of console games have a very long loading time at the beginning of the game but then they tend to have very few load screens in-game. The Last of Us had a horribly long start up time but it was fine once you got into the actual game.

Are you talking about literally the first time you play it (because PS3 games hide an install behind the loading screen the very first time you play the game that can make it look like it's loading for multiple minutes) or between putting the disc in and pressing 'continue'?

 

[lord.jeff]

I think this is a mindset that developers need to get out if they ever want to start turning a profit again. Simply because you have access to a large pool of resources, doesn't mean your game has to make full use of every single one, pushed to the extreme graphically.
I mean, I am a PC gamer and no computer game has ever come anywhere close to pushing what my PC can do. Do I rage about it? Not even a little bit. Hell, I LIKE playing sprite based games and such. I'll take solid gameplay, aesthetics, and music, etc, over graphics any day.

Agreed completely, my computer easily out preforms any current console yet one of the last games I played is Bunny Must Die, a metriodvania style game that wouldn't even be top tier graphics on the PS2.

 

[Neta]

Maybe they could make a World of Mana game that actually uses a whole world?

 

[kortin]

So, I kept waiting patiently and watched as handheld title after handheld title got released. Years upon years I couldn't play Kingdom Hearts, mostly because I couldn't get the handheld games and my PS2 is on the fritz. But, I waited. It's bound to come, right? IT'S BOUND TO CO- Ah, on the PS4. A console I can't afford. GOOD.

Soon? you will be able to play/see pretty much every KH game on the PS3.


Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix has:

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (basically, they add a whole bunch of new shit)
Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (Chain of Memories, but for the PS3 with HD graphics)
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (just a movie, you don't get to play this one)

Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD ReMix (Soon?) has:

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix (same thing as above)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix (same thing as above)
Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded (speculated to be the same as 358/2 days)


Basically it lets you play every single important game, and see the ones needed to fill in some story.

As much as I loved it, KH2 was objectively worse than the handheld games in virtually every conceivable way. Aside from maybe level design, art, and story. The gameplay simply does not hold up in any way.

Objectively? No way. Not at all. Subjectively, sure, you can say that it's worse. I really enjoyed KH2's gameplay AND BBS's gameplay. DDD is pretty decent, but I really can't stand flowmotion outside of it. It's fun for that game and that game alone. Fortunately, flowmotion seems to be something that only exists because they're in Sleeping Worlds, so I don't think we'll see it in KH3.

I'm incredibly interested if they include the Command Deck in KH3. Can't see why they wouldn't, but they've surprised me before.

 

[Rad Party God]

Didn't another game developer say the same thing? More power means more money and work for the company. As before I'm confused, but I'm guessing they're used to the previous build and are outside of their comfort zones. Which is good. That means we might see some innovation since they're not relying on their older skills. Change or die.

The devs of the new Killzone said that more power on the PS4 means more work and more budget.

Personally I think it's total BS, just because you have "more", doesn't mean these stupid devs need to squeeze every GB available, for once, I'd just like a console game with fun and tight gameplay that runs on 1080p at 60 fps, doesn't matter if it has the latest shaders and what have you.

 

[KazeAizen]

Since PS4 harddrive is freely swappable, I'm thinking it's best to throw an SSD inside and let the operating system (plus most frequently-played games) install onto it. It will really FLY if that is possible, removing one of my biggest gripes with consoles - loading times!

I think most console players have become so used to sitting idly through 30-60sec loading screens that they don't even notice it anymore, which is sad because during the cartridge/cassette era loading times were almost non-existent.

Your right we don't. Because they aren't near that bad anymore. At least the quality ones. Hell one game gave me stuff to do during a loading screen. Bayonetta did it right for its genre. For any major loading screen give the player control of the character and let them practice. Even keep it there if they like. Problem is devs don't do that as often as they should and when they don't and also have large loading times it tends to weigh on you.

 

[KazeAizen]

Didn't another game developer say the same thing? More power means more money and work for the company. As before I'm confused, but I'm guessing they're used to the previous build and are outside of their comfort zones. Which is good. That means we might see some innovation since they're not relying on their older skills. Change or die.

The devs of the new Killzone said that more power on the PS4 means more work and more budget.

Personally I think it's total BS, just because you have "more", doesn't mean these stupid devs need to squeeze every GB available, for once, I'd just like a console game with fun and tight gameplay that runs on 1080p at 60 fps, doesn't matter if it has the latest shaders and what have you.

Then convert to the Wii U and start playing Nintendo games.

 

[Rad Party God]

Spoiler: Snip.

Didn't another game developer say the same thing? More power means more money and work for the company. As before I'm confused, but I'm guessing they're used to the previous build and are outside of their comfort zones. Which is good. That means we might see some innovation since they're not relying on their older skills. Change or die.

The devs of the new Killzone said that more power on the PS4 means more work and more budget.

Personally I think it's total BS, just because you have "more", doesn't mean these stupid devs need to squeeze every GB available, for once, I'd just like a console game with fun and tight gameplay that runs on 1080p at 60 fps, doesn't matter if it has the latest shaders and what have you.

Then convert to the Wii U and start playing Nintendo games.

Belive me, I'm a massive fan of Nintendo's games and I was "this" close to say something related on the subject, but around these parts, Nintendo isn't very popular :/ (at least the Wii or Wii U).

 

[KazeAizen]

Nomura on Ps3: It's taking me a decade to make one game because the system isn't strong enough for me to make the game I want to make. It can't support Versus 13 as is.

Nomura on PS4: It's got too much power, I don't know what to do with it. Now the expectations are too high.

Mr. Nomura, it's not Sony's fault that expectations are too high for you decade long super game... I like your former stuff, but seriously, pull yourself together and finish a project for once.

"finish a project for once."? What? He just finished a project and it was released last month. A year ago Dream Drop Distance also released. There was another Kingdom Hearts game a year before that as well!

Nomura is too spread out, and in a way, this symbolizes everything wrong with Square right now. Too many minor spinoffs and not nearly enough major console releases. Many fans wanted Kingdom Hearts 3 to be released, but eight years later they haven't even STARTED making the game. All we've seen was the tech demo. Why the wait? Oh yeah, because the team that makes KH is busy making Final Fantasy Versus 13... a game that was announced when the PS3 was released, and is still in development. Since then THREE ff13 games have been released, all failing to meet Squares expectations. He's since worked on multiple hand held titles, none of which meet his normal quality, while his two biggest projects, KH3 and FF Versus, sit in developmental hell. If he focused on one major project at a time this wouldn't be the confusing mess it is.

Now, most of this I blame on the former president, since I have to assume he was probably responsible for much of the confusion. I don't remember Nomura having this problem before. The Kingdom Hearts spin-offs are decent appetizers, but the fans are ready for some meat.

Which obviously the new President is quickly rectifying.

FF Versus XIII is now finally being pushed out the door. Final Fantasy XIV got a from the ground up rebuild. Kingdom Hearts 3 finally has content to show and is in development which is far more then can be said for Valve and Half Life 3. Also I think people undercut the Final Fantasy XIII saga. XIII-1 in retrospect was not bad but not good either. XIII-2 on the other hand was such a solid game and did what a sequel should do. Expand on the original and fix what was wrong which it does on so many levels. A truly good Final Fantasy game. Anyway he's on point now. Besides the 1.5 and 2.5 releases are a sign of good will I think. I mean they are finally releasing the Final Mix versions of the KH games to the rest of the world. Those two games will prove it or not but I think its safe to say Square Enix is back on point and doing the right thing.

 

[KazeAizen]

Spoiler: Snip.

Didn't another game developer say the same thing? More power means more money and work for the company. As before I'm confused, but I'm guessing they're used to the previous build and are outside of their comfort zones. Which is good. That means we might see some innovation since they're not relying on their older skills. Change or die.

The devs of the new Killzone said that more power on the PS4 means more work and more budget.

Personally I think it's total BS, just because you have "more", doesn't mean these stupid devs need to squeeze every GB available, for once, I'd just like a console game with fun and tight gameplay that runs on 1080p at 60 fps, doesn't matter if it has the latest shaders and what have you.

Then convert to the Wii U and start playing Nintendo games.

Belive me, I'm a massive fan of Nintendo's games and I was "this" close to say something related on the subject, but around these parts, Nintendo isn't very popular :/ (at least the Wii or Wii U).

Its a shame too. The first party titles on the Wii are so good that it totally justifies getting one for those alone. As for the Wii U its only problem is lack of content which is slowly being fixed with stuff like Wonderful 101 and Bayonetta 2. I think people are just to dang hard on them. I mean its not like the tried destroy ownership or make their console like a PC like other guys tried to do. Hopefully between Platinum and their growing indie market Nintendo will gain a little respect back.

Seriously though Platinum seems to be Nintendo finally finding their Rareware again. Now if only they could get Commcept on their team exclusively they'd have two winners. Though that second one won't happen probably.

 

[Arawn]

Didn't another game developer say the same thing? More power means more money and work for the company. As before I'm confused, but I'm guessing they're used to the previous build and are outside of their comfort zones. Which is good. That means we might see some innovation since they're not relying on their older skills. Change or die.

The devs of the new Killzone said that more power on the PS4 means more work and more budget.

Personally I think it's total BS, just because you have "more", doesn't mean these stupid devs need to squeeze every GB available, for once, I'd just like a console game with fun and tight gameplay that runs on 1080p at 60 fps, doesn't matter if it has the latest shaders and what have you.

Yeah, that's the one. In that one they equated the more man power would be required and thus more costs. They want to squeeze everything they can out of the system. I recall a reviewer of the systems claiming they barely look better than the current gen. So even if they squeeze it's going to be marginal improvement. Getting games more and more realistic isn't going to look much better than what we already have seen they said. Still it's worth a try. I hope they put just as much effort into making the game's system/mechanics just as engaging. Who cares if I can count each hair on their head, or smoke that moves when you touch it. Still it's Kingdom Hearts so we don't have to worry about that level of realism. It's going to be the usual cartoon goodness.

Since PS4 harddrive is freely swappable, I'm thinking it's best to throw an SSD inside and let the operating system (plus most frequently-played games) install onto it. It will really FLY if that is possible, removing one of my biggest gripes with consoles - loading times!

I think most console players have become so used to sitting idly through 30-60sec loading screens that they don't even notice it anymore, which is sad because during the cartridge/cassette era loading times were almost non-existent.

Loading screens aren't that bad(overall). I for one have never experienced a 60+ second loading time, but I guess it's possible. On PC I can get a 5-15 second loading screen; where on most console games about barely double (and that's being generous). The bigger and more extensive games get you're going to see a slight wait. Being seamless would be nice, but doubtful. Let's be honest; people aren't patient anymore. If it's not now, it's too long. Heck I know people that don't even bother to read the game manuals when they first install/boot a game. Not that many publishers include much of a manual nowadays; tutorial level ftw.

 

[weirdee]

Didn't another game developer say the same thing? More power means more money and work for the company. As before I'm confused, but I'm guessing they're used to the previous build and are outside of their comfort zones. Which is good. That means we might see some innovation since they're not relying on their older skills. Change or die.

The devs of the new Killzone said that more power on the PS4 means more work and more budget.

Personally I think it's total BS, just because you have "more", doesn't mean these stupid devs need to squeeze every GB available, for once, I'd just like a console game with fun and tight gameplay that runs on 1080p at 60 fps, doesn't matter if it has the latest shaders and what have you.

Then convert to the Wii U and start playing Nintendo games.

people would rather let the mainstream console industry die rather than do that

and i think they plan to make good on that threat