So, a lot of people don’t like the linearity in Final Fantasy XIII. The complete lack of bustling towns, world maps, and other such expected RPG traits is leaving some gamers sour, and Square Enix has taken notice. Director Motomu Toriyama has explained why making a nonlinear Final Fantasy was so difficult, and why it might not be so hard the next time around.
“Personally, the Final Fantasies that I have worked on have been very story-driven, so in terms of the development I wanted to, of course, use my personal strengths which where those,” he says. “I call it a bento box system, where you have all of the different little things in there. So we had minigames or towns were you were able to talk to all of the townspeople. But with the HD console you’re not really able to do that because it takes so long to develop.
“Now that we have that base technology… The next time you see a Final Fantasy, we might be able to pack in more of those elements that existed in the past. And I also think that a game doesn’t need to have all of those items in the future. We can create additional downloadable content for people to add, too. It doesn’t have to come with that game itself.”
The thing is, maybe Final Fantasy XIII wouldn’t have taken so long if Square Enix wasn’t obsessed with graphics and building a new engine from scratch. Sure, XIII looks amazing, but looks are no substitute for gameplay, and the idea that gameplay took a hit just because Square Enix wanted everything to look pretty is rather dismaying. In any case, once XIII‘s stopped playing itself for us, we’ll have our review up.
FF XIII Director – Production Drove Content Decisions, Elements Will Return [Gamasutra]
