Don't Hold Your Breath For FFXIII

IGN is reporting that the next chapter in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy XIII, has barely gotten into the production phase. "According to Sony's press materials, the highly anticipated RPG sequel is now 13% complete. Yes, a low, unlucky completion percentage. But thankfully it's not as low as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which is listed as 1.3%!" And remember, even if it's completed sometime late next year or early in 2009 folks in the states will probably have a wait while the game is localized.

They should just buy the strategy guide...

[halivar]

It's the only way *I* can ever finish a FF game 100%.

Somebody didn't get the joke...

[badasscat]

According to Sony's press materials, the highly anticipated RPG sequel is now 13% complete. Yes, a low, unlucky completion percentage. But thankfully it's not as low as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which is listed as 1.3%!

Let's see... FFXIII (as in 13) is 1.3% complete. FFXIII (as in 13) Vs. is 13% complete.

Hmmm... 13... 1.3%... 13%... see a pattern here?

It's a common Japanese piece of PR to release "completion" percentages that everybody there knows are always ludicrously arbitrary. Go to any game show in Japan or read any publication and you will see this number next to every game on display. A publisher can put whatever number they want there. Square Enix is obviously having a little fun with this convention.

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[Aladrin]

Maybe he didn't get the joke (I didn't realize they often releast percentages that are wholly inaccurate... Maybe because I don't find it funny), but you definitely did not get HIS joke.

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[rob1980]

Congratulations on rehashing a 15-year old complaint. If they cared whether you thought it was "final" or not, they would have changed the name long ago.

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[Hangin10]

I wasn't complaining, I was failing to be funny.

I'm not

[matt328]

Maybe by then the PS3 will down to the reasonable price of $99 I paid for my slim PS2.

$179

[Nazmun]

Thats my prediction for end of life cost of the ps3. Too many extra components in the ps3 like wifi, more video encoders/decoders, blu-ray, and most of all the hard drive which will always have a near fixed cost to the end. As platters gain in data density the lowest cost hd's cost as much to manufacture as higher density ones. I think thats the primary reason sony is gonna increase hd size over time (surprised ms isn't doing it).

In any case that alone adds like $30-$40 over the ps2 which still retails f

Don't Hold Your Breath

[Fozzyuw]

Don't Hold Your Breath For FFXIII

The only FF game I'm waiting to play is FFVII. When will they re-release this game for the DS, PSP, or other system? Otherwise, I'd like to play FFI, which I guess I can get GBA but it's 'advanced' with updated graphics. Bah, I want my 8-bit characters. hehe

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[moderatorrater]

I want to see them re-release it for the PS3. The tech demo they released a few years ago was, in my opinion, the most compelling thing about the PS3 to date, and it wasn't even a game. If they have FF7 come out again with gorgeous graphics, you'll see the PS3 really take off in sales.

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[Endo13]

Could not agree more. That's the single game release they could do that might influence me to buy a PS3

Why do we want FFVII remade again?

[Ayanami Rei]

It's one of the technically, emotionally, and stragetically weakest games they ever released. It just so happened to be the first one with 3D CGs on the PSX.

1) Little in the way of optional super-enemeies (compare FF IV, FF V, FF VI). I mean, you could fight Cactrots, and the Emerald and Ruby weapons. Yawn.

2) Junction system was not thouroughly tested, IMHO. You can make unanticipated (and seemingly absurd combinations) of materia that give you god powers, exploiting battle engine bugs. I mean, they were tr

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[bigstrat2003]

We want FFVII remade again because a good number of us (about half, in my experience) consider it to be the finest RPG Square has ever produced (the other half, in my experience, being proponents of FFVI). Just cause YOU don't like it doesn't mean a hell of a lot of other people don't. Your post is attempting to bring about another instance of one of the most pointless discussions since "Mac vs. PC".

Those of us who like FF7 honestly disagree with the points you made. We aren't, as we are so often accused,

You act as if...

[Ayanami Rei]

I never played it in the first place.

Guess what, it was my first FF too.

But then you play all the other ones in between waiting for releases and you get some perspective on the stories, characters, battle strategies, etc.

And like, FFVII is a popular franchise with a rich universe, but the gameplay wasn't that great. So unless they're going to make radical changes (I doubt it), then why get excited about a re-release? It's not like they used any FFVII-specific spell effects that would look SO COOL rendered

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[bigstrat2003]

But then you play all the other ones in between waiting for releases and you get some perspective on the stories, characters, battle strategies, etc

Yeah, I did that too. I still rate FF7 as the best in series, and is easily in my top 5 games overall (probably at #1, but it gets pretty fuzzy trying to rate legendary games against legendary games).

And like, FFVII is a popular franchise with a rich universe, but the gameplay wasn't that great. So unless they're going to make radical changes (I doubt it), then why get excited about a re-release? It's not like they used any FFVII-specific spell effects that would look SO COOL rendered in HD, relative to any other release.

Disagree. I think FF7 has great gameplay. Some things didn't work (Gold Saucer, I'm lookin' at you), but the materia system was incredible. It lent great customization to the game, and I still occasionally find out about really cool materia combos.

Why not take a property that was mildly popular, and redo that one instead, and ramp up the marketing and polish on that universe?

If you look at it from a fanservice perspective, you want to

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[Endo13]

The problem with your comment here is that 90% of it is simply your personal preference - and unfortunately for you, most of the FF series fans do not share your preference.

I know...

[Ayanami Rei]

Square-Enix is full of whores anyway. FFVII is definitely an easy sell on a remake.

Another reply comment made the Marathon/Halo remake connection. I _hope_ that Bungie would have the balls to do a remake of Marathon instead of Halo in the future. This strategy (take the underappreciated old and make new) has been very successful for other series (game, movie, TV) and I would like to see it happen.

It is inevitable what Square-Enix will.

But I don't have to like it!!!

VIII

[MikeFM]

When they re-release FF VIII for PS3 or a modern PC I'll probably buy it. I loved 7, 8, and 9 but 8 was my favorite. I'd love to see any of those with PS3-quality, or better, graphics.

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[Cerium]

8 was one of my favorites as well. But really, the graphics weren't all that bad. They don't stand up to today's standards by any means, but the differences in 7 and 8 is like night and day. Even the prerendered sequences in 8 were significantly better than those in 7.

Sure, I'd throw some cash at Square if they made a remake of 8, but I'd much rather see 7 done first.

As expected

[Sciros]

Considering it took FFXII five years to be released, and that it has only been out since Oct 31 in the US, I would have been VERY surprised were I to hear that FFXIII was anywhere near completion.

But, I guess that will continue a pattern: I got my PS2 when FFXII came out, I guess I'll get my PS3 when FFXIII hits shelves.

Anyway this is a good thing; I would expect FFXIII to be a very polished title; rushing it out would be a bad idea. FFXII re-established the series as one that sets standards, with its great reviews from everyone. FFXIII needs to continue that tradition, if anything for Sony's sake.

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[ivan256]

FFXII was the second single-player Final Fantasy game for the PS2. Wouldn't you have to wait for FFIV if you were going to continue your pattern?

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[Sciros]

Oh right, I forgot about FFX... well, the PS2 was too expensive back then and from what I heard FFX just wasn't good enough to buy a whole console for. FFXII in my view was, so I'm hoping the same will be true of FFXIII. Though a big reason I liked FFXII was Gideon Emery's Balthier. Also the musical score kinda hit home with me for some reason.

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[ivan256]

Heh. I should get around to actually playing FFXII.

FFX was good. You're probably right that it wasn't good enough to justify the purchase of a PS2, but I'm not sure that any single game is before the price of the system has dropped to less than half of the initial price. Luckily, by the time FFX came out there were plenty of other good games that together more than justified the cost of the PS2. Perhaps by the end of 2008 when FFXIII comes out the same will be true for the PS3.

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[C0rinthian]

I'd recommend it. I lost a lot of enthusiasm for FF games after X. I finally picked up XII and feel it's a much better title. The gambit system is especially cool, as you basically get to program your party's AI.

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[Sciros]

It depends on who you talk to. I haven't played the game myself but opinions on FFX were generally split whereas opinions on FFXII are almost invariably positive. FFVII is considered the best FF on the Playstation systems (I think 'best FF' is still a title held by FFVI if you ask most folks who have played them all), but I think a large part of why that is, is that it was just about the only high-profile AA title on the Playstation, making everyone who just got into gaming at that point a huge fan. In that

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[Neoprofin]

If it makes you feel any better, of close to 10-15 people I know who own FFXII I'm the only one who has finished it because the rest all got bored and quit due to the endless running and grinding for items. It's sad because I think the story is one of the best FFs have to offer, but the gameplay is honestly the least enjoyable of any game I've ever played to completion.

Re:As expected

[Fallingcow]

Yeah, count me as among the ones who didn't like it.

I felt like they fixed some stuff, then broke some more, like forcing you to grind/dungeon crawl for hours between story events. Why did they put gambits in there to automate 95% of those fights? Because most people don't like the vast majority of the fighting in previous FF games, since it's dull. Then after, going to the trouble of automating it to make it less crappy, they made you do MORE of it! WTF?

I was hooked for about 10-15 hours, but just kept waiting for it to get cool. I continued waiting until I was within ~5-10 hours of the end, at which point I checked a FAQ to see how close I was to beating it... and promptly quit playing when I found out that there wasn't enough time left for them to cram a story in there. I really thought things would pick up when Larsa showed up, but then he disappeared for most of the game and they never really did anything with him. Then I thought that maybe the bunny people village or the fight with Balthier's dad would flesh out their characters a little... but no. I kept crawling through one long, boring dungeon after another, to be rewarded with 5-10 lines of pointless, wit-free, dry, emotionless dialogue. None of the characters, with the possible exception of Balthier and Fran, seemed to give a shit about one another. I don't just mean, "there was no love story"--though they certainly seemed to set up several and then do little or nothing with them--I mean that the characters seemed to have no connection with one another at all.

I could keep going. But yeah, some people didn't like it, and I'm not surprised to find out that a lot of other people quit playing like I did.

On the other hand, I'm now playing through Suikoden V for the second time, because once just wasn't enough. Awesome.

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[The One and Only]

Why did they put gambits in there to automate 95% of those fights? Because most people don't like the vast majority of the fighting in previous FF games, since it's dull. Then after, going to the trouble of automating it to make it less crappy, they made you do MORE of it! WTF?

Maybe they put in more fighting, realized how obnoxious it was, and then put the gambits in there to compensate? Games aren't developed in the same order they're played.

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[Chemical]

So, I guess I'm not the only one who thought the amount of time level grinding the game required was excessive. For a while I thought I was just doing something wrong. The enemies got much stronger than the party very quickly, and leveling took forever until you got the exp. doubler thingie. I'd spend entire two hour sessions just sitting around leveling, just so I could proceed with the game. Stupid.

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[Fallingcow]

Did you also find all offensive magic to be a total waste of a turn (most of the time, at least; there were one or two exceptions) and the summons to be so wholly underwhelming that, in any boss fight, one was much better off using that go to put another coin in the slot machine that is quickenings?

I couldn't figure out whether I was doing something very, very wrong or {1 physical attacker + 2 healers + rotating to get maximum quickenings} really was the ONLY way to win boss battles. Did I just not level e

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[QMalcolm]

FFVII isn't really even considered one of the better Final Fantasies by the hardcore fans, they seem to like VI above all others.

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[7Prime]

This is true, FF7 is usually accepted by hardcore fans (although most feel it's overhyped), but pound for pound, tend to prefer FFVI as the first "modern console RPG". FFIX is highly regarded too as a very fine attempt at "returning to the roots" of the series. With all the references, FFIX was practically designed with hardcore fans in mind. Surprisingly, where I went to college, all the really hardcore FF fans favored FF8 as their favorite in the series (myself included), although, among more casual playe

Re:As expected

[_xeno_]

FFXII sucked. I've played a total of like nine hours into it and got bored with it to the point I really don't plan on playing it again. The gambit system will literally play the game for you, leaving you free to run between cutscenes. The boss battles devolve into manually potion-spamming but otherwise letting the AI run free.

The story is practically incoherent, even this far into it. The characters are rebelling against the Empire because of the Last Rule of Politics [project-apollo.net]. (Kingdoms are good. Empires are evil.) I have really no idea what anyone's motivation is - it seems to generically be "the Empire is evil." Which is evil because they said so, with no real evidence. (In fact, all evidence so far shows that said kingdom is better off under Imperial rule than it ever was under the old kingdom.)

The license grid is insanely lame and seems to be designed to force you to buy a strategy guide. The main problem with it is that it doesn't say what a given slot does until you've got something unlocked next to it. This makes guiding advancement essentially impossible. A license that has nothing next to it may say something like "Shields" but won't offer any idea of which shields it allows. So you wind up having to guess which "Shields" you need to move towards to use your new shiny shield. Likewise, any advancing towards specific abilities is impossible.

Unless, of course, you already know what's on the grid, by buying the strategy guide. (Or looking it up online...)

Likewise, the most powerful weapon in the game can only be obtained if you don't open certain chests. Problem: most chests are randomly generated, are actually called "treasures" and there's no indication that these magic chests are any different from any other randomly generated chest. They're also strategically placed so that it's impossible to miss them while progressing through the game. They're literally placed at key points that you have to travel through.

This "random chest generation" scheme also means that some of the best equipment has a very small (less than 1% in some cases) chance of being generated, and only after building a very long "chain" (killing the same monster family over and over and over and over again).

Personally, I enjoyed FFX far more than FFXII. FFXII really has no Final Fantasy "feel" to it, and despite being set in Ivalice, has no FF Tactics feel to it.

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[brkello]

Well, you are pretty much wrong about everything. Let's break it down.

The plot is more "adult" themed than others in that it is very political. At 9 hours in you haven't even scratched the surface of what is going on. But, I am not going to get in to plot spoilers...this is up to personal taste and I can understand how people might not like it. There is more gray than black and white good and evil. Motivation of characters is pretty obvious though (losing family members, being forced under someone els

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[_xeno_]

The plot is more "adult" themed than others in that it is very political. At 9 hours in you haven't even scratched the surface of what is going on.

The problem here is that the story is so boring that I really don't feel like continuing it. Good stories grab their audience early and keep their interest throughout the story. FFXII is about as bad as you can get in that respect: it starts with one story and jumps to another one very early in the game. They do reconnect several hours into the game, but it makes the story that much more difficult to get involved in.

So in this game you set up your gambits to deal with the easy fights....you prefer mashing a single button to select fight in the old ones?

That's a false dichotomy. There's more to life than button mashing and auto-play. My pe

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[sqlrob]

Third, not second. There's FF X-2. Also Dirge Of Cerebus if you want to count action games.

FFX, FFX-2, FFXII

[tepples]

FFXII was the second single-player Final Fantasy game for the PS2.

It was the third. FFX (2001) and FFX-2 (2003) preceded FFXII (2006).

Wouldn't you have to wait for FFIV if you were going to continue your pattern?

FFIV was a Super NES game.

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[Chainsaw Karate]

VII - 1997
VIII - 1999
IX - 2000
X - 2001

XII was an anomaly. XII changed producers mid-development and had many features removed or altered. The lukewarm reception the playable demo received at E3 2004 also probably had something to do with the delay. (Remember they had no playable demo the following year at E3 2005, only a video.) So, I actually am surprised that FF XIII is still so early in development over a year after it was first revealed. There must be something else going on here besides just

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[Sciros]

You make a good point.

Of course, I'm also not sure what that "13% complete" means and whether anyone should care. What if they said it was 75% done? Would that mean anything? I suppose, given what that last 25% has turned into for many games, that it would not.

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[mikeabbott420]

13%? With software the last 10% takes 90% of the time.

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[nuzak]

They knew all about that, so they did the last 10% first, which will make the rest a breeze.

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[7Prime]

13% because it's Final Fantasy 13, that's the only reason. Why else would they say FFv13 was 1.3% done... too much of a coincidence. These numbers are arbitrary.

And I hate to say it, but Square (as with most game developers) is NOT the greatest at estimating amount completed.

What did people expect?

[ivan256]

FF12 practically just came out. There's always about one and a half to two years between them. I don't know where Zonk got 2009 from (clearly not from the story), but March 2008 seems more likely given the numbers and what's happened in the past. Then probably November '08 for the US and EU.

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[MaWeiTao]

Actually... There was almost exactly two year separation between the release Final Fantasy 7 and 8. However, there was a 3 year separation between Final Fantasy 10 and 12. FF11 was also released in 2003, but since it's a MMO I consider it a separate entity. Given the production values of Final Fantasy games, and the tendency for delays we'll be lucky if we see the game by 2010.

Needless to say, it's in Sony's best interest to have the game released sooner than later.

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[Andy Dodd]

Do you mean a three year sep between X-2 and XII?

The separation between X and XII was way more than three years, I remember playing it in 2001 after it had been out a while.

hmmm

[TB]

Those numbers are bogus, they're just having fun with the whole 13 thing.

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[jZnat]

How the fuck did this get modded informative? It's all fake spoilers for a completely unrelated topic anyhow.

13% 1.3 % DNF

[El_Smack]

Duke Nukem Forever is at .0000013%.

That's the percentage you get for puting up a webpage that says "When it's done."

They would probably have had

[Farakin]

the game finished if it wasn't for the 678,934 hours of cinematics that they had to make. When a game is 10hours play time and 45 hours of movies it isn't a game anymore.

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[F-3582]

That's what they said about the first Xenosaga episode, too. I still liked it the best ^^ Although episode 2 had a much better battle system.

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[trdrstv]

When a game is 10hours play time and 45 hours of movies it isn't a game anymore.

Apparently this interactive movie is what many people are looking forward to. Considering the 2 biggest "exclusives" (and I use the term loosely, given all back and forth statements in the press) of the PS3 (FFXIII, and MGS4) both fall under that category.

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[Gravatron]

MGS i'll give you, but the ratio seems to be about 5/1 with about 5 hours of gameplay per hour of movie in mgs, with FF's being about 30/1, with 30 hours of game per 1 of fmv. Of course in an rpg, you also have to consider if text scrolling or non-interactive story elements count as a movie or a game. Take FF8 for example. Boasted over an hour of FMV. People said it was an interactive movie, yet my gameplay clocked in at about 65 hours first playthough, and thats leavign out stuff like the card card sid

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[bogjobber]

What if it's 30 minutes video and 60-70 hours playtime? Because that's much closer to the actual numbers.

Boggles My Mind

[immcintosh]

How they could accurately place its completion at precisely 13%. Not 12% or 14% mind you, we are THIRTEEN percent done with this.

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[Hotawa Hawk-eye]

Perhaps they have a "list of tasks we need to accomplish to complete development of FFXIII", and 13% of the items on that list are done?

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[rbarreira]

Perhaps they actually have an accurate plan for doing the game?

Yes, that's a funny joke

[solar_blitz]

I guess some people forgot how to translate Roman Numerals into Arabic :D. The message they're trying to convey? Quit asking! We're working on it!

Too Late To Switch To Wii?

[I'll Provide The War]

With the Wii weekly outselling the PS3 6:1 in Japan and 4:1 in the US is it too late for them to consider switching platforms?

Local comparison

[Nazmun]

Unfortunately for sony i'll bet that number is shipped. The sam's club i work at has a prominent display for the ps3 (for the last week or so) and i don't think we've ever had a display for the wii of any kind (home office sent us a full pod of displays but we've had it racked forever). We've received at least 50 wii's in the past month and 27 ps3's at some point within the last few months.

IN any case all the wii's sold out and we still have those 27 ps3's we got probably two months ago. One week after t

Probably not to their style...

[Junta]

Square is all about 2 things nowadays:

-Re-releasing their old, popular titles over and over and over again for big bucks with very little effort. (the reason they avoid Wii's virtual console like the plague is because people are *still* willing to pay ~50 bucks for the same game they already bought for ~50 bucks at least twice already, crazy fandom... The games were good, but not good enough to sign up for being repeatedly reamed).

-When they do release a 'new' game, it's been increasingly more style over