Square failed epically in playtesting FF13

[MatParker116]

http://kotaku.com/5666353/final-fantasy-xiii-developers-couldnt-cater-to-a-western-audience

"Linearity and command-based battles were two of the features being perceived negatively. This was something that the team was very conscious about, and there were concerns about whether JRPGs would still be accepted in the West. Because Final Fantasy XIII's mission was to succeed worldwide, we could not ignore this issue, as we felt it could deeply affect the future of the franchise."

So focus testing sessions were held in Western markets. And they achieved...well, nothing.

"Unfortunately, we were already quite far along in development, and knew it would be too late to implement most of the feedback from the player test sessions. Even so, we still signed up for the opportunity, as this would be our only chance before the game's release to see how Western players would respond to all that we had been working on."

Testing should of been done much earlier in development and fyi Sqyare stop hiring idiots to write your scripts.

 

[Sassafrass]

Eh, I found it to be the second best FF I've played. Admittedly, I jumped into the series at VII and haven't played any of them before VII but it was certainly a good fun game for me, only being beat by X.

It was fun for me, had a good story once you got your head around it and started paying attention and the linearity was similar to FFX before you got the airship so I didn't find that a problem at all. But as for the news, yeah, Square did drop the ball a little on the play-testing issue, should've done it a bit earlier.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Why playtest that late into development in the first place? Whatever. They learned from their mistakes, meaning future Square games will likely have proper playtesting.

As for FF13:

I'm Western. I liked it.

Then again, I like nearly any game I play these days. Except for Red Dead Redemption. Probably because it didn't have fake radio. And that I dislike Westerns that aren't named "Blazing Saddles".

 

[manythings]

Why playtest that late into development in the first place? Whatever. They learned from their mistakes, meaning future Square games will likely have proper playtesting.

I'm Western. I liked it.

Then again, I like nearly any game I play these days. Except for Red Dead Redemption.

I'd say playtests are a requirement nowadays, even if they are just plain ignored. It's not like this is the first game that was made in Japan that just didn't give western players what they wanted *cough* Dead Rising *cough*. Excuse me.

 

[Dexiro]

It comes across that they really aren't that good at making games, despite all their experience.

You make prototypes early in development and playtest on them. Then you continue making prototypes and getting feedback until you have the finished product.

 

[twistedheat15]

Why playtest that late into development in the first place? Whatever. They learned from their mistakes, meaning future Square games will likely have proper playtesting.

lol guess you haven't seen FF14 then. SE learned nothing, they'll pretty much sit on their ass going "damn westerner know nothing of our art!"

 

[omegawyrm]

Eh, I liked it a lot, and everyone I know outside the internet seems to have enjoyed it, so it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Why playtest that late into development in the first place? Whatever. They learned from their mistakes, meaning future Square games will likely have proper playtesting.

lol guess you haven't seen FF14 then. SE learned nothing, they'll pretty much sit on their ass going "damn westerner know nothing of our art!"

That came out about 6 months later.

>_>

It was already far into development, too.

 

[8-Bit Grin]

Square fail at a lot.

They can't even milk a franchise right anymore >_>

This... made me chuckle a little.

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

We get it. You don't like the game. While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, you're harping on a game that came out over 6 months ago. Just let it go already. The people who liked it can continue having fond memories of the game without having to hear others complain for the next 5 years, and the people who didn't like it can move on to games they do like.

 

[For.I.Am.Mad]

I thought the battle system was fine but there could've been improvements. The killer for the story is that the first five hours they don't explain the basics of what's going on in actual gameplay. You need to take 15 minutes and read the cliff notes in the menus. It's like they saw what Mass Effect did but didn't really get why Bioware did it. The cliff notes are for things that are not important to the main story.

And even then it's still a little confusing. In my head I would just replace fal'Cie with Greek God. It was basically war of the gods.

Even then, it's probably my favorite of series. I think a lot people don't like the battle system because it's pretty damn fast.

 

[twistedheat15]

Why playtest that late into development in the first place? Whatever. They learned from their mistakes, meaning future Square games will likely have proper playtesting.

lol guess you haven't seen FF14 then. SE learned nothing, they'll pretty much sit on their ass going "damn westerner know nothing of our art!"

That came out about 6 months later.

>_>

It was already far into development, too.

But it's still failing hard. Instead of testing further and ironing out the shitting interface that beta testers have been telling them the entire time, and having a better product in march when the ps3 game launches, they choice to try to throw a 1/2 assed pc version out and now it's kicking them in the ass hard. Not to mention they said the entire time they was making the game that the pc, and ps3 version would launch at the same time, now most of the ps3 user waiting for the game has already been turned off by it.

 

[CrankyStorming]

I loved FF13 and am FUCKING sick of everyone moaning about a great game just because it didnt have towns and was for the most part run down corridor kill repeat. So fucking what. It was too linear is the most bullshit excuse for not liking a Final Fantasy game there ever could be. Fuck all you haters bollocks to the lot of you.

Considering that pretty much all of the games that came before it had at least some sort of exploratry element to them, I think peoples complaints of linearity are perfectly reasonable. Though personally, I'm pretty sure it was the nonsense story, shallow characters and Quick Time Event battle system that put me off.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

I loved FF13 and am FUCKING sick of everyone moaning about a great game just because it didnt have towns and was for the most part run down corridor kill repeat. So fucking what. It was too linear is the most bullshit excuse for not liking a Final Fantasy game there ever could be. Fuck all you haters bollocks to the lot of you.

Considering that pretty much all of the games that came before it had at least some sort of exploratry element to them, I think peoples complaints of linearity are perfectly reasonable. Though personally, I'm pretty sure it was the nonsense story, shallow characters and Quick Time Event battle system that put me off.

What? The linear thing I agree with but, it's fantasy, the story made perfect sense but it wasn't realistic if that's what you mean, the characters were infact very deep if you didn't play the game for an hour and expect every character in the game to have a 60 hour long backstory told to you in that hour and when the hell was it QTE, infact this game is probably one of the only current games NOT to use QTE. Did you even play it?

 

[Wolfram23]

Well, I definitely thought it was a pretty terrible game. As a stand alone it wasn't good, and as a part of the FF series it was almost shameful in certain aspects.

Sure looked pretty, tho.

 

[CrankyStorming]

when the hell was it QTE, infact this game is probably one of the only current games NOT to use QTE. Did you even play it?

It's Quick Time Events if all you do is wait for the prompt to press a button.

 

[Zhukov]

Square fail at a lot.

They can't even milk a franchise right anymore >_>

This made me laugh.

Thanks.

 

[Exort]

So wait, they actually did play test it?

 

[GloatingSwine]

I'm fairly sure no-one in this thread knows what Playtesting actually means.

Here's the news, folks. Playtesting is a process by which you figure out whether your system works, not by which you decide what your system should be.

Final Fantasy XIII was obviously playtested rather a lot, because it's system is incredibly solid at doing what it was intended to do. Whether you like what it was intended to do is nothing to do with the presence or otherwise of good playtesting.

 

[Mcface]

http://kotaku.com/5666353/final-fantasy-xiii-developers-couldnt-cater-to-a-western-audience

"Linearity and command-based battles were two of the features being perceived negatively. This was something that the team was very conscious about, and there were concerns about whether JRPGs would still be accepted in the West. Because Final Fantasy XIII's mission was to succeed worldwide, we could not ignore this issue, as we felt it could deeply affect the future of the franchise."

So focus testing sessions were held in Western markets. And they achieved...well, nothing.

"Unfortunately, we were already quite far along in development, and knew it would be too late to implement most of the feedback from the player test sessions. Even so, we still signed up for the opportunity, as this would be our only chance before the game's release to see how Western players would respond to all that we had been working on."

Testing should of been done much earlier in development and fyi Sqyare stop hiring idiots to write your scripts.

I loved FF13 and I am out of polite ways to go about this so imma resort to the local west midlands part of my personality.

I loved FF13 and am FUCKING sick of everyone moaning about a great game just because it didnt have towns and was for the most part run down corridor kill repeat. So fucking what. It was too linear is the most bullshit excuse for not liking a Final Fantasy game there ever could be. Fuck all you haters bollocks to the lot of you.

Lol.. your argument = "So what if it sucks? I HAVE CAPS LOCK, and it's FINAL FANTASY! IT HAS TO BE GOOD"

Obvious fanboy is obvious.