The Future of Final Fantasy

[Mirby]

I'm just wondering... even though he doesn't work for them anymore, is Nobuo Uematsu not in your equation for any certain reason, Gexus, or did you just forget about him?

 

[Mar007]

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.

All we know is that Ito is working on a big unannounced project away from Tokyo. That's about it really. I wouldn't be surprised if it was FF XV, since that game is most likely in development and he's the only one from SE who isn't working on a game that we know off. Also he worked on 6, 9 and 12...anyone seeing the pattern here?

also@Tempus, that would be really nice but Sakaguichi left SE on very bad terms and in fact has been trying to make an FF-killer game since he left so I doubt he'd come back. Plus his games aren't exactly hits anymore even when MS or Nintendo put lots of money into their promotion so maybe he did loose his touch.

I was wondering what Sham thinks about this, because he seems to have a very good grasp at how the 1st Production Department is split into teams at SE. I have to admit I'm still a bit puzzled about all the teams that work there.

 

[Mar007]

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.

As I've said all we know is that Ito is working on a big unannounced project away from Tokyo. I'd say that he will be the one who will be in charge of FF XV since that game is most likely under development already and Ito is the only one we haven't heard from in ages. Also Ito worked on 6, 9 and 12...see the pattern

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)

I think SE will let one of their western studios do an FF spin-off in a WRPG style, they were already willing to try this with Fortress and apparently that material is still with SE so who knows. Ivalice Alliance will definatelly get more titles, so one of them might be WRPG.

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.

That would be great but I doubt that Sakaguichi would work with SE, they separated on fairly bad terms (with Sakaguichi almost bankrupting Squaresoft and SE kicking him out). Also he seems to be losing his touch when one looks at the recent games he made which were all designed as FF killers and yet couldn't produce decent numbers even with great ad campaign sponsored by MS or Nintendo.

Also I would like to know what Sham thinks about this. He seems to know a lot about the structure of SE's 1st Production Department, something which still has me puzzled as I am still not sure how many teams are actually there or how do they really work.

 

[Gexus]

I'm just wondering... even though he doesn't work for them anymore, is Nobuo Uematsu not in your equation for any certain reason, Gexus, or did you just forget about him?

Although the reason is mostly because of him not working for SE anymore, I still have to say it's time for the new blood to really take over and shine. He has done a fantastic job and written countless melodies which are among the best of all videogames, but when we have Shimomura and Ishimoto ready and available, I think it's best to let them fully take over.

I don't know. I think that Uematsu simply has made all the music he needed to compose. What he's made lately is still kinda good, but in comparison to what he used to make, I still I think it's time for someone new to shine.

 

[rokudamia2]

So I was at the last story Q&A in london and someone asked Sakaguichi "Who could save Final Fantasy." he said "Hiroyuki Itou " while pointing to a copy of FFXII someone had for him to sign.