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Role Playing (Games) PlayStation (Games) XBox (Games)

Final Fantasy Creator on Xbox 360, PS3 77

Posted by Zonk from the get-your-rpg-on dept.
Anonymous PC Gamer writes "I'm now in the acceptance phase of reading console war coverage. It's just not going away, and it won't until one stands victorious. Throwing his considerable voice into the din is Final Fantasy creator Hironubu Sakaguchi, currently working on Xbox 360 titles with Mistwalker Studios. In a concise, revealing interview with Gamespot Sakaguchi-san gives a simple, honest outlook on developing for the current console scene that cuts both ways (PS3 'really challenging', XBox 360 has 'poor' documentation). On competing with his former series, Final Fantasy: 'I'm willing to break them into pieces, crush them at my feet. [laughs]'"
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Final Fantasy Creator on Xbox 360, PS3 More

Final Fantasy Creator on Xbox 360, PS3

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  • 'I'm willing to break them into pieces, crush them at my feet. [laughs]'" I take it that the false modesty thing doesn't translate into Japanese :-D

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pluvius ( 734915 )
      He's probably only half-joking. I can't imagine that Sakaguchi harbors any good feelings towards Square after the way it treated him.

      Rob

  • Only 1, Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RingDev ( 879105 ) on Monday March 19, 2007 @03:24PM (#18404783) Homepage Journal
    "I'm now in the acceptance phase of reading console war coverage. It's just not going away, and it won't until one stands victorious"

    Uhh, why? Is there some unwritten law that states that there can be only one console? Having 3 different consoles gives us different type of technology, different functional designs, price competition, and all sorts of great stuff.

    Think about it, if there were only "one" console, and all others were decimated in sales years ago...How long would it take to get a rumble pack? An integrated DVD player? The Cell processor? The Wii Mote? HD video out?

    Heck, if we didn't have MS, Sony, AND Nintendo, the only changes to the console industry would be a yearly upgrade to processing power so that the latest driving and football sims could have marginally better graphics. There would be no financial gain by doing anything more risky.

    So personally, I hope they all succeed. I hope they all turn a profit. And I hope they all continue to drive innovation in the console market.

    -Rick
    • Yes, it's the highlander school of consoles!

      What planet are you from? Possibly Earth?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by VJ42 ( 860241 ) *

      Uhh, why? Is there some unwritten law that states that there can be only one console?
      I think he means one console in the LoTR sense: One Console to rule them all, One Console to find them; One Console to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

      Sure the you can have the consoles of the elves or dwaves, but we all know that everyone really wants the One Console. ;P

    • "I'm now in the acceptance phase of reading console war coverage. It's just not going away, and it won't until one stands victorious"

      Uhh, why? Is there some unwritten law that states that there can be only one console?

      No, the unwritten law is that there will always be console wars.

      Except it's written here. You just have to decode it.

      Communication is as much about what you don't say as what you do. Note that the above sentence doesn't tell you when one console will stand victorious. That's because it w

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Fozzyuw ( 950608 )

      Heck, if we didn't have MS, Sony, AND Nintendo, the only changes to the console industry would be a yearly upgrade to processing power so that the latest driving and football sims could have marginally better graphics.

      Sounds like most MS office or XP -> Vista upgrades. =)

      Cheers,
      Fozzy

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      Is there some unwritten law that states that there can be only one console? Having 3 different consoles gives us different type of technology, different functional designs, price competition, and all sorts of great stuff.
      But which of the three consoles supports the efforts of microstudios to make innovative multiplayer games available?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pluvius ( 734915 )
        But which of the three consoles supports the efforts of microstudios to make innovative multiplayer games available?

        I believe all three companies have plans for that sort of thing. Microsoft is the only one that's fully underway as of yet to my knowledge, but the PS3 is also getting indie downloadable games, though I'm not sure how many of them feature MP support.

        Rob

        • Ninendo has also announced dev kits for indies. Problem is, they currently seem to have a shortage of dev kits since all big developers are moving to the Wii. In February, they postponed the dev kit release for indies :-( [kotaku.com]

          Not sure where this is standing now. It seems at least some indies are getting dev kits, because there have been some Wii games announcement from them in the past few days.

    • /agree Thanks Rick. You nailed it on the head right there.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      So personally, I hope they all succeed. I hope they all turn a profit. And I hope they all continue to drive innovation in the console market.

      Uh, Nintendo's already turning a profit - they don't sell consoles for a loss. Even though the Wii is probably pretty close to cost of production (retailer price), Nintendo's not in the hole. A retailer makes around $12 per Wii console (not including expenses, i.e., gross profit), which is more than say a PS3 (around $3) and a Xbox360 (about $5).

      So technically, Ninten

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      You aren't wrong in what you hope...but you miss the point completely. He isn't saying that one console needs to destroy the others so they don't exsit...he is saying that we are going to have to read stupid articles about the console war until there is one clear winner.

  • What Wii Said (Score:2, Informative)

    by RyoShin ( 610051 )
    The summary leaves the Wii completely out of the picture for some reason, though it is talked about in the article (albeit sparingly). Here are a few quotes (most of them, I believe).

    HS: ... And with the Wii, the system is not that powerful, and it's not HD. But the fact is that there are not a lot of homes that have HD TVs. So I feel, for example, at my place, the screen I have is not in HD. So when I play the games, both for the Wii and 360, it's hard to tell the difference. But with the Wii, it's relativ

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pembo13 ( 770295 )
      At some point I guess I may understand what is wrong with fictional characters looking like dolls.
    • I think the Wii probably said "Meanwhile, while you go on about graphics, my expanded player base dwarves yours."

      • I think the Wii probably said "Meanwhile, while you go on about graphics, my expanded player base dwarves yours."

        To be fair, Sakaguchi-san (like several others) appear to be obsessed about graphics because, well, that's a main draw for their specific genre of games. The Final Fantasy franchise, which he is most famous for, also happens to boast some of the most impressive looking graphics for each generation. Critics of the Japanese RPG genre will complain that the actual storylines and gameplay for J-RPGs

        • How funny, then, that Dragon Quest IX is coming out on the DS. It'll be interesting to see how it does with the system's graphical limitations compared to the game's predecessors. And yes, to those doubters out there, this is going to be the DQIX, as in it's not planned for any other systems and it is officially the next installment in the series.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jchenx ( 267053 )

            How funny, then, that Dragon Quest IX is coming out on the DS. It'll be interesting to see how it does with the system's graphical limitations compared to the game's predecessors. And yes, to those doubters out there, this is going to be the DQIX, as in it's not planned for any other systems and it is officially the next installment in the series.

            Actually, I think the DQ series is becoming a good example of how to make a game look good, without necessarily requiring "immense graphical power". We all know th

            • Oh, I'm definitely looking forward to it. I have no intention to buy any of the next-gen systems any time soon, but I already have the DS and I could care less about graphics, so long as I can understand what I'm looking at. My only concern right now is how much game they can fit on a DS cart. I've seen developers of much less ambitious games complain about the cart sizes. Rocket Slime was cute, but over quickly and had no lasting replay value for me. DQ Monsters: Joker looks pretty snazzy, although I've on

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by jchenx ( 267053 )

                I'm crossing my fingers that Squeenix continues the increased GBA and DS lovin' it's been showing recently for a while.

                My only concern with Squeenix loving the DS is that being a portable title may limit the immersiveness of the experience. When I'm playing a traditional RPG, I usually set aside a long period of time (a couple hours) for me to play it. I do so on my couch, in front of a TV, all focused on the game. However, when I'm playing with my DS, that's usually not the case. I'm often only playing for

                • When I'm playing a traditional RPG, I usually set aside a long period of time (a couple hours) for me to play it. I do so on my couch, in front of a TV, all focused on the game. However, when I'm playing with my DS, that's usually not the case.

                  I'm usually playing DS while sitting in a hot bubble bath. Very immersive. I recommend it :-)

                  That's actually why I'm only 30 hourse into Twilight Princess: Can't play it while taking a bath :-)

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Churla ( 936633 )
      Does his company have a vested interest in seeing the platform they are doing most of their development work on succeed? Probably so.

      Is that platform the Wii? Probably not.

      What I wonder is what Nintendo has up it's sleep in the hardware development cycle. They could be playing the "get the Wii established, then in a year or two when the costs are going down come out with the HD version." I really don't know.

      I also don't agree with him over Wii Sports, the models in that game do exactly what they need to.
      • Obviously, the guy is a legend in his own right and deserves some respect, but I'm going to take issue with the following statement:

        On the motion-sensor front, I've been intimately involved in creating role-playing games. It's all I've been doing, so when I look at the RPG space, there's not a huge need for motion sensing. So I'm not that interested in that aspect of the technology. But take the 360 controller, for example, which is actually the best one that I've seen, especially the analog. And it's easy

        • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          This guy makes games that ideally have hundreds of hours of gameplay. People get tired of waving their controller around after a while. They also start to attribute something off to the game when the controller motion doesn't faithfully match up. Case in point: in zelda, you wave the wiimote around and it more or less triggers one of a few canned sword-swing motions. It's hardly a sophisticated animatronics rig.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by king-manic ( 409855 )
          That sounds a bit narrow-sighted to me, if not overly biased. Let's avoid the "next-gen/previous-gen" feature debate - the Wii really is drawing in audiences based on the motion-sensing party games. That's what's selling the system right now. To throw out motion-sensing just because it might not pertain to your field right now is wrong, IMO. What he says and what he does are two separate things, and he might make a motion sensing RPG down the line, but the guy makes his money off the 360 so he needs to sell
          • It does yes, but the steering wheel feature in Call of Duty 3 is pretty cool (if only throttle were better positioned) and shaking it to do melee attacks is also intuitive.

        • Re:Yes, a little shilly in there (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Monday March 19, 2007 @04:54PM (#18406013)
          Well, he probably didn't know the interview was going to be featured on the so-Wii-it's-insane Slashdot Games site.

          It's not like he dissed the Wii, said it was a horrible idea and Nintendo is going to hell for inventing it. He just said he likes Zelda, doesn't like Wii Sports, and doesn't think the Wii is a good fit for the type of games he makes. That's it. Posters here make it sound like he insulted Nintendo or something.
          • This is Blasphemy!
            This is Madness!
          • Actually, I'm not really a fan of the Wii. I am a fan of the PS3, but I do agree with him that the SIXAXIS motion sensing is not as responsive as it should be - some kind of calibration needs to be built in I think. However, I also think that motion sensing technology is really where game design is bound to go. It's almost as interactive as the field can get.
        • The Wiimote concept doesn't excite him as a developer and he doesn't think it'd be useful for his RPGs, so he must be a corporate shill? That seems like a bit of a jump in logic.
      • If this generation hasn't amply shown it: Past platform results do nto dictate future performance.Wii might dominate 10:1 like the Ps2 did to have the Wii2 come in 2nd or third liek the Ps3 is currently.

    • HS: The characters are bad. They look like dolls.


      Do they indeed? [gamespot.com]
    • Hmm...

      Dolls vs. androgynous waif-boys that make Leonardo De Caprio look buff 'n manly...

      Decisions, decisions...

      (And yes, I know he didn't do FF XII)

  • poor documentation / marketing... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aapold ( 753705 ) on Monday March 19, 2007 @03:47PM (#18405091) Homepage Journal
    Gee, if you took one thing away from the interview about microsoft it wouldn't be "poor documentation", it would be that their marketing is awful. He did complain that it takes time to translate the documentation of the unreal engine docs into japanese, and in that respect the documentation is poor. But I think it incorrect to make that the summary of what he thinks about the 360. He was pretty positive about it overall, and this complaints about marketing are more to the tune of its a great system, too bad the marketing is preventing it from succeeding.

    The part where the interviewer turns to the Microsoft PR guy and says, "you should be taking notes" rings particularly true...
  • To quote the article:

    GS: With this generation, Sony and Nintendo are doing different things from each other and also from Microsoft. Each has its own strategy this time. What do you think of their individual approaches? Do the things they're doing make you want to develop for either of their systems?

    HS: [in English] Ah, Kutaragi-san's architecture...seven DSPs and a low-powered CPU. I don't like the PS3's architecture.
    Oooh, snap!
    • Notice he didn't say, "I don't like the PS3's architecture, and it's so distasteful to me that this will be the last FF title I will develop for it." He's got an opinion, he's entitled to it. Apparently his misgivings haven't prevented him from committing to FFXIV on PS3.

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