Square Enix Wants a New Final Fantasy Every Year

[Tiamattt]

Uh, no thank you? The reason the western AAA titles can get away with it is because they're either simply upgrades of the same basic game concept, the first 2 being military FPSes whose premise are based off of recent or past events, or in AC's case a continuation of the same story/universe.

FFs don't work that way. Sure it's always save the world from blah blah blah rpg but they're always totally different worlds with different stories and game mechanics that makes them at least try to be unique from one and another, and that is one of the good things about FFs. And to make all that happen requires extra time that the other titles don't need. Not saying that they're bad or anything, they just have the benefit of focusing on making things different/better then the previous year compared to starting totally from scratch like a FF would.

Reason FF13-2 came out faster is simply because they had a preexisting base to work off of and just had to build off that. While I obvious didn't play it yet it wouldn't surprise me at all if it'll feel a little different but still obviously similar to 13, just like X-2 did with X.

TLR- I really don't feel like paying for the same game every year with a few minor tweets and different faces on it. If I was the type to waste his money like that I would be buying sport games.

 

[Epona]

Personally if they are going to be influenced by any type of western game or developer, it should be skyrim. You know, bring back the old exploration and knight errant style questing things that made earlier games good, rather then relying on turning it into a quick time event filled movie.

Or stop working on 5 ff games at once and actually finish one. What ever happened to the other Crystal based games meant to come out last year?

Heck, even take a page from Eidos and Just Cause 2, considering I'm fairly sure Rico made more money for you then Lightning.

If they take influence from Bethesda, let's hope they leave the "we leave some bugs in on purpose" philosophy out.

 

[Snotnarok]

Hahaha hoooo boy very funny Square, let's keep that focus on fixing your game development strategies since you've been pumping out garbage for the past few years. The shoddy Tactics port(very upset about that one), the Advanced series, Third Birthday, Final Fantasy XIII, the list goes on.

Seriously, I'm not even sure how they're still in business with the games being made from them.

 

[Sucal]

If they take influence from Bethesda, let's hope they leave the "we leave some bugs in on purpose" philosophy out.

Considering how many FF games have had stats and items that literally do not work as they were meant to and were still released anyway? Square doesn't even bother acknowledge there is a bug. Oh and no bethesda game was ever as buggy as the launch of FF14

 

[briankoontz]

All I want is for the title of a final fantasy game to be something other than terribly ironic.

Every year - another FINAL fantasy? At least rename the series.

Perpetual fantasy, perhaps.

 

[NickCaligo42]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh man, that was a good one, haha, ha...

Good luck with that, Square. Seriously, you can't do a game right in five years? I'd hate to see you trying to stick to a deadline.

The funny thing is, that's how we used to get Final Fantasy games. Every so often there'd be one that took like two or three years, but in its heyday they actually did crank a new one out each year. Problem with that strategy in this day and age being that... well... we'd be having them built on the FF13 engine.

 

[Zen Toombs]

-snip-

Ha. Hope that turns out well for them.

 

[Epona]

If they take influence from Bethesda, let's hope they leave the "we leave some bugs in on purpose" philosophy out.

Considering how many FF games have had stats and items that literally do not work as they were meant to and were still released anyway? Square doesn't even bother acknowledge there is a bug. Oh and no bethesda game was ever as buggy as the launch of FF14

You're serious? Bethesda day one bugs are legendary. I played Final Fantasy XIV at launch and it worked without texture loading problems and horrible framerate issues, that's not even getting into all the broken quests you find in a Bethesda game. Hell, if not for the modders the PC version of Oblivion would still have 1000+ more bugs than it has now.

Are you really going to pretend that Final Fantasy games are as buggy as TES games?

 

[Epona]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh man, that was a good one, haha, ha...

Good luck with that, Square. Seriously, you can't do a game right in five years? I'd hate to see you trying to stick to a deadline.

The funny thing is, that's how we used to get Final Fantasy games. Every so often there'd be one that took like two or three years, but in its heyday they actually did crank a new one out each year. Problem with that strategy in this day and age being that... well... we'd be having them built on the FF13 engine.

The Crystal Tools engine is fine as far as I could see in Final Fantasy XIII. The game sucked yeah but the engine looked pretty damn stable.

 

[Kirosilence]

They could get around that new engine problem by hiring a team to spend 3 years working on a new engine while they continue to make games on an old engine. Did they really make Final Fantasy X (a stunning PS2 game) on the same engine as Final Fantasy VII (a badly aged PS1 game)? It doesn't look like it and yet FF 10 was in that 4 year period I listed.

Modern Warfare 3 was made with the same core engine as Quake 3, as an example. Chances are they iterated, (The PS2 and PSX kernel is very similar), and perhaps generated a new graphics pipeline to handle the tough stuff but it is quite possible that they used the same engine architecture. Either that or they had been developing PS2 tools long before they completed Final Fantasy IX. Both ways benefited from the recycling of old engines over multiple iterations, something they sadly didn't do for XIII.

Either way they managed to save time and money by using the same general engine, and simply iterating on it, like I assume they plan to so with Unreal.

 

[Trishbot]

Because the problem with FFXIII was it DIDN'T COME SOON ENOUGH, right?

I did some research. Since FFX-2,there have been over 30(!!!) Final Fantasy games released in some way or form. The LAST thing we need is MORE.

Seriously, FFXIII took awhile, but it STILL felt like it was missing so much... mainly likeable characters, a coherent plot, diversity in the game, and, you know, something FUN to do (unless you REALLY like Paradigm Shifting...)

 

[Fusioncode9]

How about releasing Versus XIII. I've been waiting for five fucking years!

 

[Epona]

They could get around that new engine problem by hiring a team to spend 3 years working on a new engine while they continue to make games on an old engine. Did they really make Final Fantasy X (a stunning PS2 game) on the same engine as Final Fantasy VII (a badly aged PS1 game)? It doesn't look like it and yet FF 10 was in that 4 year period I listed.

Modern Warfare 3 was made with the same core engine as Quake 3, as an example. Chances are they iterated, (The PS2 and PSX kernel is very similar), and perhaps generated a new graphics pipeline to handle the tough stuff but it is quite possible that they used the same engine architecture. Either that or they had been developing PS2 tools long before they completed Final Fantasy IX. Both ways benefited from the recycling of old engines over multiple iterations, something they sadly didn't do for XIII.

Either way they managed to save time and money by using the same general engine, and simply iterating on it, like I assume they plan to so with Unreal.

You remember how badly The Last Remnant turned out? That was developed on the Unreal Engine 3. I am actually glad they developed Crystal Tools for Final Fantasy XIII, that game ran alot smoother than The Last Remnant did. Now they can use Crystal Tools for more games and since it's their engine, they know exactly how to get the most out of it with the minimal amount of time and cost.

 

[mjc0961]

Square, have you ever heard of the expression "quality over quantity"?

Right now they have neither, and I guess they figured quantity was easier to achieve.

I mean Sonic Generations was good after all, nobody saw that coming! It is possible!

It was bad and I saw it coming a mile away.

(The PS2 and PSX kernel is very similar)

Considering the PSX is a PS2 with a DVR built in, "very similar" is an understatement. They're the same thing.

 

[UrieHusky]

Just because Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed does it doesn't mean its a good idea. But hey, movies only take about a year or less to make so if any one could pull it off Final Fantasy could.

'course! since Final Fantasy basically IS a CGI movie.

As for this idea, it sounds incredibly stupid to me but I hit the final straw with Square back when I played X-2.. so I can't say I'm passionate one way or another.
Good luck to them I 'spose

 

[Epona]

Because the problem with FFXIII was it DIDN'T COME SOON ENOUGH, right?

I did some research. Since FFX-2,there have been over 30(!!!) Final Fantasy games released in some way or form. The LAST thing we need is MORE.

Seriously, FFXIII took awhile, but it STILL felt like it was missing so much... mainly likeable characters, a coherent plot, diversity in the game, and, you know, something FUN to do (unless you REALLY like Paradigm Shifting...)

Spin offs don't count for this discussion, he is talking about releasing numbered titles more quickly. Actually, yes the wait for Final Fantasy XIII was too long and expectations were too high. Even if it had been an awesome game, it wouldn't have lived up to 5 years of expectations.

 

[SodaDew]

In theory, More time = Better quality so... Less time = Worse quality.

 

[NickCaligo42]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, oh man, that was a good one, haha, ha...

Good luck with that, Square. Seriously, you can't do a game right in five years? I'd hate to see you trying to stick to a deadline.

The funny thing is, that's how we used to get Final Fantasy games. Every so often there'd be one that took like two or three years, but in its heyday they actually did crank a new one out each year. Problem with that strategy in this day and age being that... well... we'd be having them built on the FF13 engine.

The Crystal Tools engine is fine as far as I could see in Final Fantasy XIII. The game sucked yeah but the engine looked pretty damn stable.

My concern is less the stability of the engine and more that they wouldn't do much with it and we'd just get a dead copy of FF13 every year. Even if the content and game flow are fixed, absolutely nothing can save that combat system.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I don't see yearly releases working out well...