Admittedly, they managed to band-aid it back together in the sequels, but just imagine what it would have been if everything had gone according to plan.Art director Isamu Kamikokuryo revealed that many additional scenarios such as Lightning's home, which were functioning in an unreleased build during development, were left out of the final version due to concerns about the game's length and volume.
Toriyama said in an interview that the team was unable to make them as graphically appealing as the rest of the game and chose to eliminate them.
Similarly, Final Fantasy XII could have been the best game in the main series. It had the most interesting and three-dimensional villains, an ambitious and sprawling world that comes so close to feeling really alive, some fantastic dialogue-writing, and a highly-political plot with a lot of potential. The problem was its utter lack of focus. It's torn between the more typically "Final Fantasy" elements and the more explicitly Matsuno elements. For instance, while I actually think using Vaan as an audience surrogate to explain the stranger parts of the world was a good idea, the problem was that he really, really did not gel with the rest of the cast.Eclipse Dragon said:1...2....3....
Final Fantasy 13.
Ambitious abstract storyline, poorly presented.
Ambitious take on the battle system (your mileage may vary)
Ambitious three game structure, later split apart in favor of direct sequels.
Ambitious environments, fully exploreable, scrapped
Admittedly, they managed to band-aid it back together in the sequels, but just imagine what it would have been if everything had gone according to plan.Art director Isamu Kamikokuryo revealed that many additional scenarios such as Lightning's home, which were functioning in an unreleased build during development, were left out of the final version due to concerns about the game's length and volume.
Toriyama said in an interview that the team was unable to make them as graphically appealing as the rest of the game and chose to eliminate them.
I wonder if it had more or less wasted potential than the sequels, considering they had so many opportunities to fix the problems with XIII and instead managed to somehow flub it even harder.Eclipse Dragon said:Final Fantasy 13.
I'm pretty sure that after the mass exodus of all the talent IW had, MW3 was completely doomed and had no potential to begin with.Brownie80 said:AHEM*MW3*AHEM.
Are there any particular scripts you are thinking about?the hidden eagle said:I'll add ME3 to the list of recent Bioware games I felt had plenty of wasted potential,.One only has to look at the scrapped scripts to know that game could've been great if there were't two ego driven men on the writing team.
I wouldn't though say XII had much wasted potential, or at least "the most" wasted potential. It was at war with itself, but it did manage to accomplish all the things you've listed above. XII is actually one of my favorites, I didn't think at first I'd like Balthier and Fran, but they grew on me as characters, Ashe is pleasantly reserved and more interesting than Lightning (IMO), even Penelo is less annoying than other FF characters who share the same trope. The villains are cool (judges are just awesome, need I say more?), The world is beautiful and open (The Giza plains have seasons), there's a great variety in scenery, (compare the Giza plains to the Sandsea).ScrabbitRabbit said:Similarly, Final Fantasy XII could have been the best game in the main series. It had the most interesting and three-dimensional villains, an ambitious and sprawling world that comes so close to feeling really alive, some fantastic dialogue-writing, and a highly-political plot with a lot of potential. The problem was its utter lack of focus. It's torn between the more typically "Final Fantasy" elements and the more explicitly Matsuno elements. For instance, while I actually think using Vaan as an audience surrogate to explain the stranger parts of the world was a good idea, the problem was that he really, really did not gel with the rest of the cast.
Your mileage may vary.shrekfan246 said:I wonder if it had more or less wasted potential than the sequels, considering they had so many opportunities to fix the problems with XIII and instead managed to somehow flub it even harder.
It still "felt" like a Final Fantasy game to me, at least as I understand modern Final Fantasy games. As in Final Fantasy X with more lasers and corridors. It just represents the accumulation of everything I wished the series would get away from (The gameplay vs graphics ratio is way imbalanced), but that's me, some people loved it.shrekfan246 said:But yeah, I'll probably have to go with that one too. As a person who loved every single-player Final Fantasy from VII to XII, XIII didn't even feel like Final Fantasy.
But I mean, my other choices would be like... Sonic Generations because Sega decided not to support it with extra levels after release and appear to have moved away from that amazing style of gameplay presently.
To be fair with Mass Effect 3 The citadel DLC is like my favorite DLC ever. But I guess that just kinda highlights it's wasted potential.the hidden eagle said:I'll add ME3 to the list of recent Bioware games I felt had plenty of wasted potential,.One only has to look at the scrapped scripts to know that game could've been great if there were't two ego driven men on the writing team.Bebus said:DA2, I'd say.
Personal tragic story, set in a single city, plenty of potential political intrigue... they could have made Kirkwall alive, given importance to so many characters and events, but it all just... fell flat into a mire of disconnected story, dull setting, repetitive combat and copy/pasted dungeons.
I don't hate DA2, but see it as the skeleton of a giant. They just needed more time and more ambition to flesh it out.