Wow, this is pretty heavy stuff. According to Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, Final Fantasy XIII might be the swan song of the traditional RPG at Square Enix. Although Wada expects XIII to do great things for his company, he believes that Square's internal studios should be put to work on creating "next generation" gameplay.
"I believe Final Fantasy XIII is going be something special, and that it’s going to be well received by the audience," states Wada. "But whether we are going to continue to internally create this type of game remains to be seen, because I actually feel that the team that was involved with Final Fantasy XIII should next move on to create and generate some 'next generation' forms of play.
"I really think that the Final Fantasy team could create something completely different, but at the moment they’re strictly catering to the particular audience they have now."
This is actually pretty astounding. Final Fantasy might have tried all manner of different combat and character progression systems over the years, but its core JRPG gameplay as always remained intact, and of course won Square Enix a huge fan following. Abandoning that winning formula is pretty bloody huge, and if Squenix dared to do it, I wonder what its hardcore fanbase would think.
What do you think, first and foremost? Should Square Enix abandon all the old ways and focus on doing entirely new things, or are there some aspects of Final Fantasy that should never change?
An Audience With: Yoichi Wada [Edge]
Contest:
9:00 AM on 01.06.2010
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While I didn't get the impression that FF would die alothogether (jumping to conclusions again Jimmy boy) I did get the impression that they would hand FF to an external company and develop some new IPs internally which is brilliant.
The FF series needs a good kick in the pants and there are plenty of good devs who could do it and Square needs a revitilization as well as their developed stuff has been reeking of "Developer middle age crisis."
Final Fantasy shouldn't just disappear, but how long has it been around? 13 games in what, 20 or so years? And that's just the core games. What about spinoffs? Take every title with "Final Fantasy" in it somewhere and note they put ALL of these out in 22 years.
There's something to say for being prolific, but I was one of those people who liked Square's endeavors outside of FF on the PS1. Einhander, Brave Fencer Musashi and so on. Sure, keep making RPGs, as good stuff is capable when it's removed from any and all FF formulas and references (The World Ends With You for example).
Kinda would be a bit jarring to see no more future Final Fantasy titles...
FF XV will be the same JRPG style as before, theyre just saying this so more people will want to play the 'last' FF.... notice the word MIGHT as in small chance or possibility.
What?
That would be AWESOME and you know it. If I could play FF6 with FF13 graphics, I'll go out on a limb and say "best game ever" right now.
Agreed, that would be the best move business wise. Maybe a remake of 7 as well, people want it badly so why not.
Also, I bet they burned their brains making this game and probably peaked and ran out of creative juice.
I would buy 100 copies of that game, just because.
Really I think it ha more to do with Square announcing that they might not start right in on FFXV with the guys who have been making the traditional console RPG. (FFXIV is being handled by the team that did XI) Considering how long FFXIII was in development, the guys making it could use a different project to unwind.
That said, I welcome it... But the Final Final Fantasy needs to be a PS3 remake of VII~
If there's one thing I've learned about a huge number of Square-Enix fans (and really gamers in general), the only thing they complain about more than their games staying the same is when they change.
I'd buy an FF6 remake. Wouldn't buy the others though.
WOOO!
Ahem, seriously though, I'm glad they're looking forward to establish a new franchise or something. Considering the FF team will be working on it, you can bet their special touch will still be apparent in their future work, but I think there will be far more excitement about that than with Final Fantasy 15.
Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts, The World Ends With You, GO SQUEENIX! We know you can do it!!!
That was a silly statement. Poor guy.
Their business model for their FF isn't profitable anymore. The Escapist had a great article a few months ago comparing FFXIII to the battleship Yamato. It's a must read.
No. Considering the phenomenal sales of DQIX, I highly doubt SE will stop making traditional RPGs. They may simply stop making traditional RPGs called Final Fantasy, which frankly, has already been the case for almost a decade now (not counting the inevitable remakes).
But if not I tend to like my RPGs old school and turn based so.....
- FF5 remake for the DS (2010)
- FF6 to FF9 remakes for the PS3 (2011-2015)
- Kingdom Hearts 3 for the PS3
- Create a new IP for XBOX360
I think these should cover the current generation, thus allowing FF15 to "move on to create and generate some 'next generation' forms of play" on the next-gen consoles.
I didn't expect this kind of thought until a Final Fantasy main series game completely bombed in the market.
Hey, if it means we can see more experimental style games like how the somewhat recent "The World Ends With You" was. Of course, then that would mean that some of the people running Square would need to eat their own words. Still, I welcome that change.
Chances are that this just means that all Final Fantasy games after XIII will be MMO's. I mean, FFXIV: MMO, CONFIRMED!!!
(sorry for my bad english, it's not my first language! xD)
"But whether we are going to continue to internally create this type of game remains to be seen,
internally create this type of game
internally create this type of game
internally
Am I missing something? Where is everyone getting this "Final Fantasy is final," stuff from other than Jim's headline?
I'd love all of those. I would also like them to have a hand at making a TWEWY Sequel/Prequel on PS3/360.