The Future of Final Fantasy

[Nyangoro]

I think you underestimate just how popular Versus XIII is.

Remember that Versus XIII gameplay trailer we got at the beginning of the year? It's got over one million views on it. At that time, we also got new trailers for Kingdom Hearts, Type 0, and XIII-2. None of those videos have reached over one million. In fact, the other two FF games' trailers garnered over 600,000 views each. Their combined view count still doesn't beat the view count on the Versus trailer.

"Mainline" title or not, it's still an incredibly popular game for Square Enix, and that's probably one of the reasons they try not to show it off too much (they love letting that hype meter build). Well, that and the fact that it wasn't their focus until recently, but you get my point.

 

[Zen]

Many people expressing interest in Versus XIII aren't the majority. They are a minority and people have to realise that the majority (the casual fans) probably won't know what Versus is or that they might ignore it base on the fact that it's not a mainline game. It's fine for handheld games, but for a PS3 title that's have astronomical costs? Uh no.

That's more of an assumption than fact. The only reason people may not be aware of it is because vXIII has yet to really have the spotlight. Not to mention that casual fans are more of an unknown factor seeing how they're the cause of the market being saturated with first person shooters.

Besides, I think just the mere idea of what vXIII is will be enough to have people interested. Like Nevermore said, "mainline" title or not, it's still a lot more popular than you realize.

 

[MATGSY]

I think you underestimate just how popular Versus XIII is.

I think you overestimate how many people have even heard of it.

Remember that Versus XIII gameplay trailer we got at the beginning of the year? It's got over one million views on it.

A. It was linked to by numerous gaming news sites like Destructoid. Many people checked it out simply because it was on the site, not because of an active interest in the game. The mindset for many of them was likely "huh, what's this thing? Oh that's what it is, never mind."
B. Those who are interested probably watched the video more than once, meaning multiple views per user. Ergo a million views=/= a million people.

Views & page hits mean nothing.

 

[rac7d]

is there a theme to this game yet a time period? old times or future city

 

[Nyangoro]

I think you overestimate how many people have even heard of it.


A. It was linked to by numerous gaming news sites like Destructoid. Many people checked it out simply because it was on the site, not because of an active interest in the game. The mindset for many of them was likely "huh, what's this thing? Oh that's what it is, never mind."
B. Those who are interested probably watched the video more than once, meaning multiple views per user. Ergo a million views=/= a million people.

Views & page hits mean nothing.

They don't mean nothing. All of what you just said can be attributed to any of the games. And yet Versus XIII still got more views/hits than them. You think those sites only host stuff about Versus? You think that's the only game people think worth the effort to embed a video? I highly doubt that. The funny thing is, even if both of those were the case, it would still indicate just how popular Versus is, since to get hits is precisely why they would link were that their reasoning.

Look, I'm not implying that it's the most popular thing to ever hit the gaming scene. But it does have a great deal of popularity behind it. Moreso than what was implied, if you ask me.

 

[Gray Aria]

I know people irl who are only casually into Final Fantasy and don't spend time on forums like these but are very excited for Versus XIII.

 

[Chaser]

I know I'm late, and I know this is trivial but:

A. It was linked to by numerous gaming news sites like Destructoid. Many people checked it out simply because it was on the site, not because of an active interest in the game. The mindset for many of them was likely "huh, what's this thing? Oh that's what it is, never mind."

A view only counts once a person reaches the end of the video. Surely they would have pulled out of watching if that's what they were thinking and their "view" wouldn't have counted.

 

[Love Machine]

I feel like renaming it to FF XV would make it more popular.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I feel like renaming it to FF XV would make it more popular.

I don't think so. The Versus name is rather popular already. FFXV seems like a turn off to most gamers who are like "FF is still going on?"

 

[Love Machine]

I don't think so. The Versus name is rather popular already. FFXV seems like a turn off to most gamers who are like "FF is still going on?"

But giving the XIII title to too many games would seem rather boring.

 

[Gray Aria]

We have Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2 and Versus XIII. When Type-0 is localized, a lot of people will likely have forgotten that it was originally called Agito XIII.

 

[Zen]

That Type-0 at one point was named Agito XIII is irrelevant now. So, we only have 3 games with XIII in them -- it doesn't really matter though.

 

[sasuke 189]

I think Square needs a way to show people the FF brand is relavent after the mixed reception of XII, XIII, and XIII 2. And terrible reviews XIV got. (Bribing magazines like famitsu doesn't count.) Renaming Versus XIII, a game with great potental, FFXV as well as making it a multi console game will surely make it sell.

 

[Mar007]

Who should make FF XV?

Seeing that we're closing onto the release of FF 13-2 and Type-0 is already released the only big FF game left is Versus. That means Square should definitely start preparing the development of FF XV (if they haven't started already). I was thinking about the people at Square that could make the game and here's what I've got:

Nomura- he's working on Versus and unless they rename it to FF 15 (which they very well could) he won't be making a numbered FF entry. He himself stated that he will only be a character designer for FF after Versus and will concentrate instead on KH.

Toriyama- he did the last two FF titles, both of which had some very interesting ideas and very fundamental flaws. His director skills seem to work well with non-linear FF titles set in a universe created by someone else (e.g. FFX-2, FF XIII-2) but the guy can't write a decent story (I enjoyed FF XIII's story but that was still done with help of Nojima and you could see bits that Toriyama wrote, i.e. the ending). He said he's moving onto his next project which seems to imply that he's leaving the team he worked with on FF XIII and FF XIII-2 since they are still doing DLC's for FF XIII-2.

Kitase- Producer of the last two FF titles and director of the fan favourite FF VII. He's most likely overseeing the DLC work for FF XIII-2 and he himself said he's also overseeing the remake of FF X HD. He seems to have his hand busy but judging by his previous career maybe this is the guy who could direct the next FF. As a producer, I think, he failed as he let Toriyama go really wild.

Tabata- Director of Crisis Core, The 3rd Birthday, FF Type-0 (this one he wrote too, I think). His career is dominated by PSP but he said he wants to move to home consoles now. His track record is pretty good apart from T3B which many bash for an awful story (yes, written by Toriyama). Tabata himself said he wants to work on another Aya Brea game and that SE will want him to make another Type game, so he's out of the race.

Ito- co-director of FF XII and director of FF IX. Not much is known about what he's doing right now. He is working on an announced, presumably away from Tokyo as they had to sent him a build of Vaan from Dissidia 012 by email for approval. Maybe that simply means he's in Osaka, maybe he's working on a title in the West. SE said they want to make a game with their japanese side overseeing the project and the programmers in the west actually developing the title. This could also be finishing up of Fortress the WRPG sequel to FF XII.

That's all the people I know off that would have what it takes to make an FF game and are still in SE. Nojima is freelance but I hope SE employs him to write the script for the next game. Or maybe have multiple directors and writers like with FF X where Toriyama was scenario director.

So what do you guys think?

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Re: Who should make FF XV?

I thought people knew Fortress has long been dead. o___o

 

[Chaser]

Re: Who should make FF XV?

Ubisoft .

 

[Tempus]

Re: Who should make FF XV?

My completely unrealistic but amazing request, XV should be a celebration of 25 years of FF. To make that possible, the original team should be brought back together one last time.

The seven who gave us this wonderful series should be given an opportunity (and a large dev staff) to give the world their Final Fantasy. Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yoshitaka Amano, Kenji Terada, Nasir Gebelli, Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu and Koichi Ishii. I know it's probably impossible and would require lots of cash and concessions from some. I can dream though...

Realistically, I would like to see something story wise in the vein of VIII-X, the art style of III-VI or XIV and the battle system of XIII/XIII-2, but with much less auto battle. Whatever combination of people gets me that is what I want lol.

 

[Chrono Mizaki]

Re: Who should make FF XV?

I thought people knew Fortress has long been dead. o___o

Wish it wasn't. I would much prefer Fortress than XIII-3 or Versus.

I would love a Final Fantasy Spin-off done by Eidos Montreal (Or Square Montreal)

 

[Shamdeo]

(Condensing these into one thread. ;3)

 

[Gexus]

Does anyone know what Hiroyuki Ito has been up to lately? I've only recently been looking into what he's actually been doing for Square from the beginning and damn, he's looking awesome.

He was basically responsible for making VI and IX the splendid games they are and he aims to make games 50% story driven and 50% player driven, unlike 99% story driven like a certain Toriyama-san, who prefers corny and weird tales and dialogue that make little sense and wants as little player interaction as possible.

Perhaps Ito has been working on XV for a while now? I really think that Ito, Nomura, Kitase and Tabata would make an amazing game together, excluding Toriyama of course. Jeez, I hope they leave Toriyama out of Final Fantasies and god forbid, Kingdom Hearts as well. Hopefully Square-Enix can make him run his own franchise or something where he can be alone with his wacko ideas so he wouldn't disturb all the other franchises.

XV would also need the use of SE's finest composers, which are without a doubt the underestimated talents of Yoko Shimomura and Takeharu Ishimoto.

I suppose Tabata would not be around the main-line FF titles, since he'll be busy making the Type games along with Parasite Eve and that on consoles probably.

Nevertheless, I hope this is true. Maybe, just maybe XV might turn out to be a great game, especially if it's not made by the XIII team.