New Final Fantasy XIII and Versus art sounds exciting in theory, doesn't it? It was only after seeing it that I forgot that all Final Fantasy characters have looked alike for the last three games in the series, so if I had wanted to see FF XIII art I could have made paper dolls out of the past characters and shuffled their accessories around until I came up with something very similar to the sketches you see here.
I love Final Fantasy, but I think I've personally hit a point where I need something to change about their formula before I feel really engaged in one of the games in this series again. For all the splendor of Final Fantasy XII, I found myself fifty hours in and not caring if the characters lived or died. I hope they have the balls to do something new with them sooner or later, because I know they have the potential for greatness.
Weigh in, peoples -- is the style tired, or could you take another twenty games worth of feminine male characters with gun/sword hybrid weapons?
[Via NeoGaf -- Thanks Justin]
LAUNCH GALLERY (5 IMAGES)
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Contest:
12:07 PM on 12.24.2007
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Otherwise, BORING. This homogenized FF art style needs to get scrapped, since it still proves that they're STILL riding off the wave of FF7
Not caring if characters live or die in FF12 is really cold hearted of you though. I'll have to name my twin-babies Chocobo and Chocoba to make up for this!
Square Enix's target audience (failures) love guys that don't look like guys because they're all closet lesbians who should be shot.
I won't be buying a Final Fantasty game until they put out a character I can identify with in any degree.
...ugh, I suck at typing
Square Enix's target audience (failures) love guys that don't look like guys because they're all closet lesbians who should be shot.
Does that mean Square Enix's target audience is women? Can men be closet lesbians?
So true, so true. Same scenario here, 30 hours into it. Things have been downhill since that Charlie's Angels excuse of a game called FFX-2.
That disgrace of a Final Fantasy was bad enough (and had the worst ending of a FF ever), but then they released X2. I still don't know what they were thinking when they created the all female, comedy FF, but it was by far the downfall of the series...
Final Fantasy has gotten more stale than the Madden series at this point, which is an amazing feat.
But absolutely men can be closet lesbians.
Christ, are they even trying anymore?
But SE wont change anything as long as consumers keep their cash flow rolling. It is sad but the FF series hit the curve down when Squaresoft merged with Enix and then Sakagushi left. To make a better comparison, Its like Steve Jobs left apple. Your left with a rotten apple.
They have no reason to try anymore. FFXII sold nearly 6 million copies, X-2 sold over 4 million, and X sold around the same. FF XIII would have to sell around the level of Jessica Simpson's latest movie (a total of $368 in the first week) before they are going to change anything.
Also, AKK:
Isn't a lesbian a woman who likes women (simplistic, I know)? So a man who is a closet lesbian would secretly be a woman? This making my head hurt.
(Just messing with you, I'm bored at work. Although I do think you're a touch angry over the whole thing)
It was a dumb piece of design, but it also broke me out of the forward momentum to stop an ask myself, "40 hours into this game, do I care about seeing the end enough to put up with stupid crap like this?" And the answer was no.
what killed things for me was FFXII and its new combat system...i hate it.and if the next one is the same i probably wont buy it.
im not sure why everyone bitched about the turn based fighting i thought it was fun. =(
FFXII should've been a strategy game like FFT. The plot was made for that kinda of setup, not a full-blown RPG. After the FFXII experience, my excitement for FFXIII is pretty low. It /is/ possible to weave character development and political/religious underworkings; it just takes a few good writers.
Heck, I'm more excited for the FFIV remake for the DS...
I for once, want more girl mains. Or dare I say...Manly girls mains.
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Cloud_Strife_art.jpg[img]
Does not look like this
[img]http://www.ffcompendium.com/art/9-zidane-c.jpg[img]
Nor this
[img]http://www.gamerevolution.com/oldsite/games/ps2/action/devil_may_cry_3_tidus.jpg[img]
Or this
[img]http://itachiboss.i.t.pic.centerblog.net/8wn0t1y3.jpg[img]
Does not look like this
Nor this
Or this
Fucking BBcode...
Suffice to say, girlie men are not cool. No more! Bring back guys like Barrett and Cid. Manly men. And I don't recall either of them worrying about their emotions. Cid was a wifebeater in fact if memory serves me correctly.
Also, X-2, fail. But X's ending, was awesome. :)
Gay.
1. Is the character feminine? If no, reduce muscles, add more belts to outfit.
2. Is the character a girl? If yes, reduce clothing size, add more belts to outfit.
3. Is the character wearing a belt? If no, add more belts to outfit. If yes, add even more belts to outfit.
4. Add belts.
Done.
Give me a dude in real serious armor that has to make a difficult decision about his affiliation.
Give me a girl that freaking glows and can fly.
Give me an old dude that rocks your face off with magic.
And, give me a respectable freak. (cait sith, Gau, XIII, Amarant etc)
This series needs to totally wander around outside and level up.
As for pretty boy designs, i wouldn't say Nomura is really to blame their either... i mean, when it comes down to it, Amano's work also has pretty boys (hell his pretty boys look even more feminine). correct me if i'm wrong, but while the character designer does come up with the looks of the character, th final say of what gets into the game goes a step higher to a director. If the director whats pretty boys, the director gets pretty boys. grant it, that's not to say Nomura is blameless it is still partially his problem and his art does lack in certain areas (what's with all the fricken belts)
Frankly, i'm also very sick of pretty boys myself, but i think the exitance of the pretty boys goes higher than the character designer; really, replacing Nomura will NOT get rid of the pretty boys... even Amano would be asked to design pretty boys... Seriously, Anime and japanese games are filled with pretty boys, it's more of a cultural issue... i honestly have no idea what the japaneses obsesseion is with pretty boys; i mean sure, even in the west pretty boys are popular, but more manly men also manage to often share the spot light.
@timtheterrible: I see what you're trying to do, but you're not using the characters that are similar looking. Put Cloud, Squall Tidus and Vaan together and tell me they don't look similar.
Also, Kingdom Hearts is a disgrace.
Dude...the main in FFXIII -is- a chick. Make sure you know the game you're bashing before you, y'know, bash it.
Good demonstration, I'm glad someone stood up to Colette on this one. Yes, I am a big Squeenix fan, but let's look at things objectively.
@Monte
Yes! You're absolutely right. The issue of any foreigners thinking that the characters all look the same is probably more of a cultural "lost in translation" issue than anything else. I spent 4 months in Tokyo half a year ago. ALL of Japan in more feminine than the West. The stereotype about the East is somewhat true, at least according to our perspective. The characters all look the same to some people because they're all "Japanese", and for some it's difficult to distinguish patterns in something relatively unfamiliar like Japan.