Ten Years of FFXIII?

IGN is reporting that the next game in the Final Fantasy series will probably be around for quite a while. If Square/Enix has anything to say about it, we'll be playing the FFXIII family of games for the next ten years. "Although speaking with a Nintendo magazine, Hashimoto brought up Final Fantasy XIII as a comparison for Square Enix's decision to expand upon the FFVII storyline through the Compilation project years after the game's original release. 'Different from something like VII, which we expanded upon afterwards, with Fabula Nova Crystallis FFXIII, we've thought about an expansive world setting from the start. Under the idea of wanting everyone to be sucked into the world for 10 years, we're preparing a number of categories.' He likened this approach to films like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings." Chris Kohler took the time to point out that, in the same interview, the Square folks stated they're still not entirely convinced about this whole Virtual Console thing. "We feel that the Japanese game market still requires [physical] media. Also, FF and Dragon Quest are played by a wide range of users, from children to adults, so there are limitations when you consider the problems that we would have with billing systems."

Which kind of games?

So, is this going to be like a "lots of games in Ivalice" kind of thing that they're doing with FF12 and the newer FFTactics games, or a bunch of spinoffs a la FF7 (of dubious quality)?

I've always been a fan of the game worlds that SquareEnix has been able to craft, even if there are some standards and similarities between all of them. Being able to explore more of the "extra stuff" would hopefully lead to a more developed backstory, making it even more entertaining to play through games multiple times (as long as they actually stay consistent, of course). I just really don't have any interest, though, in playing 10 years worth of melodramatic end-of-world tales... in the same world. Get kind of monotonous, ya know?

Square is in for a rude surprise.

"There is no FF7 but FF7"

That is, I don't think any of the Final Fantasy games to come will have the staying power that 7 has had. Making a business strategy around a franchise of a sequel that is still a long ways off doesn't seem to be too bright.

Re:Square is in for a rude surprise.

FF7 was only "great" to those that didn't play FF3(6). Even the nerfed American version of FF3 was better than FF7 in terms of everything other than the ability to play FMV.

Re:Square is in for a rude surprise.

It was a lot harder to develop an attachment for the previous games, when all we had were sprites.

Yeah, because, you know, it's was harder to development attachment to characters in books before we made movie version of them, because all we had were words.</sarcasm>

Re:Square is in for a rude surprise.

I honestly feel that the reason that 6 isn't addressed anymore is due to how the game isn't a set of characters and their melodramatic relationships, but rather more of a "group of adventurers from around the globe who group together to defeat evil." The WoR portion is largely what the "aftermath" of most games are, and there are signs of the world recovering. Kefka is largely absent other than the occasional show of power and prevention of any real order developing. When he is defeated, there are no questionable towns, no weird alliances or government programs that could, potentially, continue. The Esper thing is resolved and the world can essentially get back to normal.

Even worse for spin-offs, there's little to really address before the story occurs, and many people in the story have no story-based history. Celes has a minor amount of history in the main story, but everyone else is sort of convinced of the problem and realizes that action needs to be taken.

Compare that to 7, where a band of individuals is fighting a government power. The real enemy, though, is a crazy guy with a mom-complex. When he's defeated, the government programs and all of the technology associated with it don't just disappear. Likewise, there's a huge history of the conspiracies built up in the game. A lot of it is terribly cliche, but it's ripe for expansion in spin-off games.

To me, though, that's also why I really like 6 a lot more. It felt like a full game, and you play the story from beginning to end. You start basically right where the real action begins and where the empire starts to make its moves, and it ends after a hell of a lot happens -- after the climax, after the denoument, at the real "end." FF4 is similar, although it peppers the world with more "mysterious old things from an advanced civilization" which are really just holdover themes from FF1-3. 7 felt like a snapshot, like the story was picked up in the middle and here are the characters. They're introduced and typecast as soon as you meet them, and nothing really changes. There are some twists in the story but the events don't really change the world. In fact, the prevention of any major change is pretty much the underlying element. Compared to 6, where you ride huge changes all the way through (from the discovery of magic, to the use of magic, to the destruction of the world and how it changes past locations, up to people coming to grips with the change and growing past it).

Sadly, it means that it's not a good market for sequels, but I think that's simply testament to how good of a story it was.

There's no "final" in Final Fantasy

S-E better damn well hope that XIII at its core, is a good game with an interesting world, and more than just eye candy. Otherwise you have 10 years of crap... if they make it that long.

Whatever happened to their creative credo of making completely new worlds in each game? Did the almighty yen/dollar/gil finally crush that spirit?

...and the Gamestop employee explodes

"Yeah, uh, I want FF XII IV, FF VII VII and FF II XI. Got that?" [ Boom ]

Ten Years?

Ten years? I'd be surprised if FFXIII was the only title in that span of time.

Why should I care about FF?

N.F.I.
As a PC Gamer and Adventure, Adventure/Action genre fan... what's so great about the whole FF series that there are that many sequels?

Still waiting for Bahamut Lagoon II

So if they are putting all their effort into this, how long do I have to wait for Bahamut Lagoon II?

Lucky Them

Final fantasy XIII? Ten years of lucky # 13.

The engine keeps getting gutted and turned inside out and remade yet it always remains distinctively Final Fantasy. As far as maintaining a franchise goes, Square's done well to not dilute the ingredients too much. Nothing stands still for too long. But TFA isn't talking about that. It's talking about story.

What I always liked about the Final Fantasy series is that, storywise, it wipes it all clean and starts anew. Some characters keep reappearing on and off in various forms like Cid and Moogles and Dark Mage, but essentially each one is an alternate universe with the same kinds of archetypes. Even though Rydia != Terra != Aeris and so on, they all fit into an archtype of the mysterious female lead. It's always been neat looking through the entire world drawn up and picking out the disillusioned, the rebel, the troublemaker, and so on.

When this nonsense started with FFX-2, it started an age of what amounts to Square being lazy. EACH WORLD depicted was supposed to be large and expansive and deep.

Now instead of being creative for the next ten years they're going to mix things up in the same universe?

Back to the game engine. It gets reworked and Square can get away with it because they trash all the backstory and start anew. How is the coherancy going to work out when you have 10 years (that's, what, 5 games?) in the same universe but 5 different game engines? Maybe they're going to cut that out, too.

What a shame.

Ho-hum

Square makes an announcement like this at least once for every Final Fantasy title they release. Just recently, we heard that we'll be playing FF7 games for the next fifteen years and FF12 games for the next five.

The FF series has been fantastic for a long time, but Square is notorious for having eyes much bigger than its stomach, so to speak. Just look at the colossal failure that was The Spirits Within, or the canceled PS2 ports of FF7, FF8 and FF9. Or the floundering PlayOnline service, which is only a fraction of the massive online gaming platform they proclaimed it to be. Or Chrono Break, the Chrono Trigger sequel we were promised more than half a decade ago. Come to think of it, it's no wonder they get along so well with Sony.

Not to mention that this kind of thing would be better viewed as a threat than a promise. Remember Final Fantasy X-2? Come to think of it, has any of their spinoff games been worthwhile? The last one I played was Dirge of Cerberus, which was only playable because of its setting. The game itself was bland and uninspired.

I don't know if this kind of thing is endemic to Japanese companies, but as it is, Square has a reputation up there with 3D Realms and the early days of Ion Storm. I kind of figured that the overly ambitious promises would stay buried with Square (the company they basically destroyed), but they've apparently found their way to Squeenix, too.

And seriously, shouldn't they at least release the first game? For all we know, it could be three years late or just completely unplayable. You have to build momentum before you can ride it.

More likely different versions on different boxes

FF XIII is being ported to the Wii and xBox360 right now, so that's an extra year.

Then they port it to the handhelds for the next gen of handhelds.

Then they have it as a free download on the next gen after that.

I can see 10 years.

FFXIII part 10

Hmmm... I say go for it. If Square-Enix is going to spend millions of dollars with some of the best talent creating the universe for FFXIII, why not exploit it? We see this all the time in science fiction and fantasy, why can't it work for video games? It doesn't mean that every FFXIII game will be good, but how many times have we finished a game and thought, "wow, I really liked those characters/cities/culture/history/bad guys/etc. I would love to play another game in that universe." I would love to play another Chrono game, or another game in the world of Final Fantasy 6. Square gave us a taste of this with FFX-2, and even though the game wasn't your typical Square RPG, it sold gobs because it was a direct sequel to a much loved game.

I know that new ideas and such are grand, but sometimes I just like the old stuff. If I fall in love with the FFXIII world (and can afford a PS3), then I would love more games in that world.

wow

Is there an audience for fighting the same beast over and over again, and watching the same cut scene "magic spell" repeatedly for 10 years?

Foolish assumption

We have FF7 going for a long time not because Square planned on it. Like it or not it is the most visible and well known FF that ever existed so eventually they figured out you could make a game that mentions Sephiroth might be in it and sell a respectable amount. I have heard of people who went out and got Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix because they added another scene with Sephiroth in it. Nothing wrong with taking advantage of a mega-popular game that somehow kept people coming back.

But it is foolish to assume a game that is still being developed will have a following comparable to arguably one of the most loyal game following that ever existed. FF7 is definitely the most visible PSX RPG, arguably most visible in the entire PSX era, possibly most visible ever. Now the Zelda franchise beats FF7, but that's a franchise. It's stupid to assume your next game is also going to be the most visible game ever (whether FF13 or FF7 is actually that great is actually not important). It is fine to think big, but they're basically counting chickens before they even hatch. Xenosaga originally was supposed to be a 6 part game. The game flopped and they cut it off at 3. All the great planning in the world won't mean anything if the game isn't what the public wants.

Well, it worked for GTA III...

Seriously, GTA III came out in, what, 2000? It's 2007 and We're just now getting the next installment after: GTA3, GTA3: Vice City, GTA3: San Andreas, GTA3: Liberty City Stories, GTA3: Vice City Stories...

Nobody has any complaints about that. GTAIV probably won't be any more different from GTAIII than GTAIII was from San Andreas.

Finish FFXII first

I'd much rather see FFXII fleshed out first. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like they cut out a huge chunk of story toward the end. It's like they got halfway through the plot they'd originally worked out, realized they were running way behind schedule, and just jumped ahead to the last couple chapters after coming up with a tiny amount of connecting material to lessen the severity of the sudden jolt in the story.

It's sad, too -- up until the sudden skip to the ending, FFXII's storyline was shaping up as a good contender for my favorite of the series.

Without spoiling any specifics, I'll say by way of example that it felt like there was a lot more backstory to cover regarding the main villain and his non-human associate. And there was a major part of the world heavily referred to but never seen.

My FF want list

Drop the Roman Numbers already! I actually would like "sequels" and such for FF. What would I really like? No more end of the word/got to save the entire world quests. This is something that the FF series sucks at. Each of them starts with a small group that should just be happy to survive on their own adventures. And theses small groups level up and take down empires. And all tech cultures are evil because they pollute and trees and mana are automatically good.

Just once, I'd like a FF game where you were from the techy culture and they were the good guys, fighting against the evil Gaia/Zerg Living Planet Monsters. I really like playing around in the FF worlds that last on FFXII was really fun, but I could do without their overwhelming plot. Why can't they have a world with more city states and wars and such. There are tons of things that could make an interesting world besides saving the world from the evil menace. How about us getting to be the evil menace for a change? I wasn't as thrilled with FFXII after just playing Radatia story and Dragon Quest 8. Those worlds were just more fun to be in and watch than FFXII. FFXII was like most of the background characters were just copied and pasted and there were tons of them with a one or two dialog sentences. Why was this disappointing? Because although Radiata Stories sucked on some of the graphics, the level of detail in the characters and where you could follow them on their day and night cycles rocked. (And you could follow the characters around and get different responses instead of the same phrase over and over again.) I was expecting FFXII to out do that. It's like they only tried outdoing the previous FF games and not borrowing what was fun from other RPGs.

the 'final fantasy' model is broken.

The final fantasy RPG model is an evolutionary dead end. The problem isn't so much what these type of RPGs are, but rather what they aren't: a game. I like the idea of playing a game that has a deep story line but it has to present some kind of challenge as well. 'Combat' is merely rote memorization and the 'secrets' are just a ploy to get you to shell out an extra 20 bucks for the strategy guide.

These sort of RPGs give video games a bad name. An RPG can be done well. Ultima Online is perhaps the finest example in my book. Combat had dynamics even if it was horribly unbalanced (only a handful of viable skill/stat combinations) and the economies were real in a way that nobody who has followed has been able to replicate (which was what I thought made the game a faithful rpg).

World of Warcraft, despite its massive shortcomings, is also light years ahead of this style of game. Player versus player and raid combat introduce dynamics that something like Final Fantasy can never hope to replicate. Now I disagree with the premises that raiding and pvp were designed with in warcraft but they are good ideas and do have a future. Namely - more isn't harder, and that goes both with respect to personnel requirements and time investment.

Final fantasy is simply the spiritual successor to Dragon Quest, and we all know how 'great' of a 'game' that is.

To point, though, it isn't surprising that they're going to continue to milk their greatest success. They're taking a page out of a novelist's book. The wheel of time is a shining example of this mentality.

On the other end of the spectrum there is Oblivion, which in my book is just as big of a piece of shit as Final fantasy is.

Subtitles, NOT Numbers!

Square really needs to learn to use subtitles instead of numbers for Final Fantasy. The games aren't connected in anyway (they're not even set in the same universes!) and are thus not sequels. When an actual sequel does come along however, you get some idiotic sounding name like Final Fantasy X-2. I mean, really now, what the hell.

OK!

I think it's a right move. It's obvious that SE will be creating more FFs, so to me it's better to see a development on one of the 13 FFs instead of waiting for Final Fantasy XXI in 2017.

What if the FFXIII universe sucks?

I don't know about you guys, but while I enjoyed the new gameplay mechanics in FFXII, I was not a fan of its universe, its story, nor of its characters and such. It was much too bland for my tastes, albeit more realistic than some of the earlier games (FFX, etc.).

So, my worry is that perhaps the FFXIII universe won't be interesting either. If that's the case, then regular fans of the series may be put off, and we'll have to wait a decade before we see something different. Obviously this can work the opposite as well. In any case, this is rather risky for Square-Enix.

I could care less about Final Fantasy

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but really I could care less. I bought a PS1 because of FFVII, and when I got done with it... eh! I went back and played "FF III" on my SNES. For me the Final Fantasy series has gone on a decline since its transition from Nintendo. I haven't played XII yet, but seriously I'm not too sure I want to drop $50 on a game I'll play once like I have most of the other FFs in the last decade. And honestly, FF XIII is looking to be nothing more than eye-candy, and there is no way I will buy a PS3 just for one game I may or may not enjoy.

I honestly wish Square-Enix would go back to some of their other franchises. How long has it been since Square made Rad Racer? The Chrono series has just been sitting there idle, and while Cross was decent I'm still waiting for a sequel in true faith to the original. And, dare I say it, what happened to Secret of Evermore? I know the IP was basically a joke, but seriously that is a world that could really be built onto and expanded! DQ IX is on the horizon at least! Ten years of FF XIII just doesn't get me too excited.

Bullshit

"Also, FF and Dragon Quest are played by a wide range of users, from children to adults, so there are limitations when you consider the problems that we would have with billing systems"

OK, we've seen the original Final Fantasy re-released on the WonderSwan Color, the PlayStation, the Game Boy Advance, mobile phones, and soon the PSP. Dragon Quest has had almost as many re-releases (SFC, GBC, mobile). The only "limitations" I'm seeing here is that Square-Enix would be limited in their ability to continue pumping out future rehashes and expecting all the fanboys to keep on repurchasing the same thing over and over and over again.

And as far as the "wide range of users" concern, kids can save up their yen coins and buy Wii points cards in Japan the same as in the US, so credit cards aren't strictly required (as opposed to, say, the mobile phone versions of these games). The only difference here is Square-Enix's inability to putz around with the supply chain as easily as with other forms of distribution.

And where's the precious physical medium in mobile phone distributions, anyway?

Square-Enix has been hanging out with Disney too long: they don't want legitimate copies of the original games available for $5 a pop when they're too busy trying to milk more profit out of yet another re-release that's supposedly even better than the last re-release. Contrast this to Konami having no problem with offering Symphony of the Night on XBLA while planning to sell it on the PSP.

When will pride goeth?

This is from the company that six years ago was boasting about doing everything online (viz, FF XI, the strategy guide for FF IX, etc.) and plastering the PlayOnline.com [playonline.com] moniker everywhere it would fit. They don't seem to be talking about that grand plan much anymore.

Seriously, guys, all of your sequels have sucked (FFX-2, Dirge of Cerberus, etc.), and the you totally overlook the good work you've done on side-projects (e.g., all the Tactics and Kingdom Hearts games). We'll be happy if you just make a good new FF game in the main series every few years, and lay off the grand pronouncements.

Also, a new Chrono game wouldn't hurt. And maybe another Tobal or Ehrgeiz just for kicks.

Cash crop? Yeah...

The reason why the FF7 spinoffs weren't as great was for several reasons: there was minimal backstory given for the original game by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the series, and when he left a lot of that information and the original meanings behind the setting and characters. The reasons sequels were made to FF7 was because so many fans DEMANDED it! They would have done it earlier if they wanted to, trust me.

Now the fact that FFXIII's universe is going to be expansive and elaborate from the very beginning of its development is beneficial to the story. The spinoff games might not be as bad as the FFVII sequels. I still wish we got more of the Ivalice series, though. FFXII's gameplay was a huge improvement. Though I think the system would've been better with jobs instead of the licenses to earn abilities. And I can't wait to see the remade FFTactics, too! As well as FFXII: Revnant Wings. These games are made by the same team that developed Vagrant Story and FFTactics, so I know 100% I'm going to enjoy them. ...and they sure as hell had better improve the translation to the FFTactics remake! For goodness sakes, I had to play through the game six times to understand the story! On the other hand, I didn't even get bored once due to the huge amount of gameplay variety.

too much too soon

So I gotta wonder... will they make the mistake of giving the player too much too soon?

Another reason Final Fantasy 7 was wonderful was because it was incremental in expansion. I remember the feeling of amazement when I stepped out of Midgar for the first time and realized that the entire world was not within that city. But it sure felt like it!

And then the world got small really fast. Especially when you got the airship.

I just hope they don't fall in love with their expansive world and then try to give it to everyone without properly pacing it. But I also hope they don't force a player to sit through 10 hours of gameplay before seeing the world just to force a sense of pace.

They've been generally good about pacing in the past. I'm just worried about when they start talking about a single fantasy world lasting a decade... :\

square focusses too much on building brands...

and not enough on making good games.

Most of their games are cookie cutter crap, and they only draw a profit because occasionally they'll bother to put together an interesting story and throw a good game in the grab bag that is square's product line up. People buy their games, each time figuring they have about a 10% chance of it being another chrono trigger, but 9 times out of 10 the come back with some pretty forgettable games.

These secondary installments are just another way of milking money out of the few good games they make. Some *real* sequels to some of the really good games have come out of square would be nice, but instead we get psuedo sequels that can't stand on their own as a game, or once a real sequel to a crappy game like FFX.

whys FF so good?

i dont know why people love Final Fantasy so much, can someone explain?

FF4

Shoot, I'm still on Final Fantasy 4.