You own Square-Enix: What's the next step for Final Fantasy?

[MacGuges]

This next suggestion may sound odd, but go back to being able to name things. I always named the main character after me and the supporting characters after the friend that they acted the most like (except in the case of 10 and 8 in which case I named the Aeons/GFs in that manner). By allowing the character that sort of customization it makes the story so much more personal and will involve the character so much more than wha 13 did by saying "Here are some people, watch what they do."

Though I've always been happy to play with the characters with their original names, I can understand why many players enjoyed naming their own hero. It's clear that customizable names were a casualty of the push towards ever more technically sophisticated story presentation. You may have noticed that nobody used Tidus' name in FFX, because Square did not want to create a dissonant feeling for players who had changed his name. Square's writers must have been very frustrated by that rule because they abandoned it (and customizable names) for XII & XIII.

I know some Japanese dating sim games have experimented with voice generation for player names, so it's not inconceivable a new FF would include similar tech to allow players to hear their heroes' names called after they'd customized them.

Also? Vivi FTW

He was a plucky little dude, wasn't he?

 

[MuroKhan]

What would I do personally? I would end Final Fantasy on 15, and make it as a "back to basics" type of game, using the bare minimum of my impressive graphics to save enough room for the voice acting and the massive world for the player to enjoy. I would do my research and find -the- best in RPG storytellers from those that had worked at Enix to make a basic, well told plot that gives the player a sense of satisfaction of everything that transpires, and as well makes use for each character, which will be limited to at least five characters.

Once that game is complete, I would have the development crew focus on Enix oriented games and modernize them (Actriser and Terranigma being my central thoughts).

 

[jonyboy13]

Keep the world(s) and change the gameplay and genres.

 

[William Ossiss]

no more final fantasy games. ever again.

damn things are over rated anyway...

or take it back to basic turn based strategies.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I just looked at the new trailer and it looks boring as hell... ugh

 

[MercurySteam]

Stop making FF games. Period.

 

[AgDr_ODST]

pour 10 years+ of time and effort into remaking the fanboys 'beloved' Final Fantasy 7 and just for kicks and to screw with diehards have it first release on the whatever console Microsoft is hawking....and if the little shits that have whined/cried/begged/demanded and critics don't give it between a 9.0 and a perfect 10 either end the whole damn franchise right there or start developing all titles after the VII remake for Microsoft consoles

 

[Devon Dent]

Carefully and slowly take it around back, to the shed and reinact old yeller, with the FFseries playing the dog.

 

[Drill Man]

From reading this thread, everyone wants something completely different from the FF franchise. I think that's one of the problems they have with making these games. Sure, the ever-growing amount of cutscenes and fascination with angsty characters seem to be something generally disagreed upon, but if any of the ideas in this thread came to fruition there would be a couple hundred thousand people who hated it just because it's not what they wanted.

That being said, I think Square-Enix should put the series on a hiatus after FFXV. Their ocean of ideas is pretty much overfished. Let the world of RPGs evolve and see where it can take the series in 10 or 15 years.

The company has tons of IPs they can push in the meantime.

Kingdom Hearts
Dragon Quest
Parasite Eve
Xenogears
Tomb Raider
Secret of blahblahblah
Front Mission
Threads of Fate
Bushido Blade

These can all be continued/revived and Square might not even notice their missing FF.

I would, of course, have this culminate in the most outrageously hyped revamp ever.

The numbers on the sequels are getting way too high now to be easily marketable. I would revert back to just Final Fantasy, or maybe add a subtitle to the end of the name.

My personal Final Fantasy would have some kind of small evolution on the RPG formula that's used in the future, but would go back to the medieval or steampunk settings of the original 6 games. It would feature the Job System of FF5 or Tactics with some modifications for a different playstyle.

Characters will be as not obnoxious as is possible. In this regard, voice actors will have to be chosen REALLY carefully.

Cities. More of them. No more of this "only 6 cities in the entire world" nonsense. One of the greatest things about classic FF is the unique, charming cities that had stories of their own. In FF 1-9, the cities themselves were characters. Zozo. Burmecia. Midgar. You liked these cities and cared about them.

Final Fantasy is fixable. But is Square-Enix willing to spend the time and money to fix what's broken and try to make something truly great?



tldr: more Quina.

 

[Thomas Hoops]

Make something with a huge emphasis on exploration. Game world doesn't have to be massive, but should be detailed enough to make exploration organic and fun, with NPCs having more of an impact on the main characters, choice words and inquiries leading to lengthy investigations, hidden dungeons you never have to go to if you don't want.

Perhaps convert playonline or whatever it's called into a dedicated server for releasing free DLC for all new games, a la DQ9, or at the least a rolling real time bazaar marketplace.

Also make Makoto from Enchanted Arms the protagonist in every final fantasy from now on. Raging effeminate mincing saxophonist for the win

 

[ScumbagEddie]

Seriously, an end to the franchise. I'm burned out on it.

 

[Stako]

The last FF game I played was Dissidia 012, but I'm REALLY dissapointed - it wasnt worth the money. It's practicly the same game, but with more characters and maps and a new menu. It's more of an expansion. And I've noticed that most of the new FF games are the same things rehashed again. I think it's time FF to go in a new direction, drop the RPG aspect and go as something between Dirge of Cerberus and Dissidia. Meaning Dissidia style moves and menus and gameplay like DoC - a story, characters, FREE WILL FOR EVERYONE'S SAKE and just epic real time moves that we know Squre Enix can maka happen. By the way by Free Will I mean that I don't like the fact that Square makes me play with stupid characters that I don't give a damn about all the time. Either give us a character creator or a character selection screen - that's what I say, because if I had to play as Lightning from FF13 a FOURTH TIME in the story of FFD012 I would have given up on the damn game! What's up with that anyway? She's not a main character and they MAKE us play with her 3 times for no reason.
I don't think the reboots are a nice idea. Neither do I agree that constant needles sequels are in place either. Sure, make some remakes of the calssics, but stop as some point. Now FFIV is coming out for the PSP as a remake, but I dont mind about this one - it's my favorite with VII, but still I can't handle the gameplay, maybe I'm saying all of this because I like the stories, but the gameplay pokes me in the eyes all of the time with a lolipop - it looks nice, but it plays BORING AS HELL.

This is my opinion on the subject, which automaticaly means that it wont ever happen.

 

[DanDeFool]

I would have us start producing 3D animated films and TV shows. I would also start taking on animation, graphics, and sound work from other game studios (since that's about all we're REALLY good at anymore).

Honestly, I think Square Enix could be the next great Japanese animation house if that's what they decided to focus on. Both Spirits Within and Advent Children were extremely beautiful and well-animated movies (Spirits Within to a lesser extent, obviously). If you could combine that level of animation with the storytelling quality of, say, Final Fantasy VI, then you'd have a world-beating combination as far as TV is concerned.

We might still develop games of our own, but they'll be shorter, more focused, uncomplicated games that focus on innovative game mechanics (that don't require huge amounts of grind, frustrating mini-games, and a 200-page strategy guide to make the most of) and tight storytelling (like the original Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG). We'd have a strict stipulation that the story campaign must be able to be finished in under 20 hours, and set a maximum of 40 hours total for full completion. There is no reason a game should take longer than that to finish, unless you mercilessly pad it out with the grind and mini-game shenanigans I mentioned earlier.

And if anyone even suggests having random encounters in any game, I will force them to disembowel themselves on the spot (or maybe just fire them). In my company, we balance our difficulty progression so the player doesn't have to get ambushed every five steps across the overworld, Goddammit!

In other words, we'd basically become BioWare.

If Square Enix's The Last Story can accomplish those objectives, then they'll have officially won me back as a customer. Otherwise, I just can't be bothered to play their games anymore.

 

[Buffoon]

Hmm. I'd just give Tetsuya Nomura, Yoshinori Kitase and Nobuo Uematsu a crapload of money and tell them to make the best game they can.

I don't expect this to be a popular suggestion on these forums, but eh, I'd enjoy the results.

 

[DanDeFool]

If I was them I'd go back and look at why final fantasy 7 was so successful and go from there.

Screw Final Fantasy VII. What they need to do is go back to Chrono Trigger.

That was the one and only Square RPG that didn't feel like a total slog to play through. FFVII included.

That's just my opinion, but I'll bet if you ran a poll of which game was better, Chrono Trigger would beat FFVII. It would be close, but I think Chrono Trigger would win.

 

[hellfist23]

Id invest time into making a legend of Dragoon sequal >_>

 

[Khada]

Remake FF7 with new graphics with no alteration to the plot and only minor updates to the mechanics to bring the brilliant game to the newer gamer generations.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

If I was them I'd go back and look at why final fantasy 7 was so successful and go from there.

Screw Final Fantasy VII. What they need to do is go back to Chrono Trigger.

That was the one and only Square RPG that didn't feel like a total slog to play through. FFVII included.

That's just my opinion, but I'll bet if you ran a poll of which game was better, Chrono Trigger would beat FFVII. It would be close, but I think Chrono Trigger would win.

I'm a big fan of Chrono Trigger but I think ff7 was more mainstream accepted. I have no probably with steampunk at all <3

 

[DanDeFool]

If I was them I'd go back and look at why final fantasy 7 was so successful and go from there.

Screw Final Fantasy VII. What they need to do is go back to Chrono Trigger.

That was the one and only Square RPG that didn't feel like a total slog to play through. FFVII included.

That's just my opinion, but I'll bet if you ran a poll of which game was better, Chrono Trigger would beat FFVII. It would be close, but I think Chrono Trigger would win.

I'm a big fan of Chrono Trigger but I think ff7 was more mainstream accepted. I have no probably with steampunk at all <3

I know FFVII is probably more popular than Chrono Trigger, but I honestly think Chrono Trigger was the better game. It was basically all the good parts of an RPG compressed into one highly streamlined package with virtually no grind or backtracking necessary to get the full experience. The challenge posed by the enemies was always balanced so that if you were playing straight through the game you were never over-leveled, or overpowered. The side-quests at the end all added to the story, in addition to unlocking each character's full potential.

Final Fantasy VII had a lot of the things that made Chrono Trigger good, but started the SquareSoft trend of padding out the good parts with unnecessary crap. It had random battles EVERYWHERE, irritating mini-games, and the story (while quite good) was really hard to follow at times. The latter point was mostly because it took hours and hours to advance the plot, and I wound up putting the game away for weeks at a time because I just couldn't bring myself to devote that much energy to it.

It also started along another trend which I never understood, which was making all the characters combat attributes almost completely interchangeable. Granted, this did give you more tactical flexibility, but I feel that a character's combat attributes should reflect their personality. The characters became completely generic in FFVIII, which was one one of the most irritating parts of that game, and they went back to more unique characters with FFX, which was one of the big reasons I actually liked that game.

In my assessment, the only thing FFVII had going for it over Chrono Trigger was that the main character actually participated in the story. Honestly, I'll never understand why anyone would ever make an RPG with a silent protagonist. It's like if Luke Skywalker only communicated by head nods, the occasional expression, and killing people throughout the entire Star Wars Trilogy. Yeah, you could probably make it work, but it would be much better if he actually, you know, had a character of some sort?