There have been many polarizing views on Nomura, some people will worship his style while others will hate it to the very core.   Some people have said Nomura can't write, direct, and produce for shit...despite having one of the top selling games from Square Enix and the most loyal fanbase.   
 
Nomura has been working on Versus XIII since 2005, and he has been on record with saying this is his dream project.  The game he always wanted to make.  With Agito XIII coming out in 2011, it's more than likely that Versus XIII will be out in 2012, as Square said only one XIII game would be out in a year.   
 
That's 7 years in development.  7 years Nomura has put his skills as a director, producer, writer, and artist into one game.   Versus XIII is showing signs that he's dropping the kid act and going full gear into what might be the most mature story to come out from a Squaresoft employee.    
 
If Versus XIII fails, what does that show of Nomura's character?  This is pretty much his game, and his project.  His name is plastered all over the credits in the trailer, and he's been very blunt with saying he's in-charge of every aspect of the game over his Twitter. 
 
What say you lot?

I guess it depends what you mean by "fails". Lots of people considered 13 to be a failure, but that was nothing on the scale of 14's failure.
 
I think the larger implication is for the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole, I think the value of the brand name is really in trouble if the next console game doesn't connect.

I don't think you can class him as a failure based on this project. Yes he has poured his heart and soul into this game but it might have a very niche market which would make it a 'failure' in terms of sales and accessibility. Just have to wait and see what story, characters and game mechanics it will have. Although I might be biased since I love most of his work...

" I don't think you can class him as a failure based on this project. Yes he has poured his heart and soul into this game but it might have a very niche market which would make it a 'failure' in terms of sales and accessibility. Just have to wait and see what story, characters and game mechanics it will have. Although I might be biased since I love most of his work... "

I say that the sooner you stop using the word "fail" the sooner you'll start asking questions that make sense.  
 
I mean "failed as a director" sounds like a line from a bad manga. If the game doesn't sell maybe he'll get kicked out (although in the current Japanese industry, not selling a lot is hardly a symptom of a lack of talent) and if he doesn't get high scores in the west maybe he'll still sell ten million and be considered a saviour in his company (alhtough getting low scores in the west is pretty much a given for any JRPG these days).  
 
He may have something to prove, and I wouldn't be surprised if Square was reconsidering the future of the Final Fantasy franchise after XIII sold around the middle of the pack of the franchise and XIV bombed. Where they would want to take it will have a lot to do with what happens on the hardware market, probably, considering that the Japanese industry has been focused on two handheld platforms that are about to be phased out.

 What say you lot?    

" @02sfraser said:

" I don't think you can class him as a failure based on this project. Yes he has poured his heart and soul into this game but it might have a very niche market which would make it a 'failure' in terms of sales and accessibility. Just have to wait and see what story, characters and game mechanics it will have. Although I might be biased since I love most of his work... "

"

It'll succeed in Japan no matter what, so at least he has that. He has the beffling nationalistic loyal support that's also responsible for Gundam games selling.

Seeing as how Nomura is the creative director of the Kingdom Hearts series, which is highly successful, I don't see how a failure of Versus XIII would instantly peg Nomura as a bad director.  Also, where in the world does it say he's been working on Versus since 2005?  Or to be more specific, that active development of Versus started in 2005?
 
@ryanwho said:

" It'll succeed in Japan no matter what, so at least he has that. He has the beffling nationalistic loyal support that's also responsible for Gundam games selling. "

Edit: I'm on mobile ATM, no where near my laptop.

If he fails his only choice is seppuku.
 
That being said, I'm really looking forward to it.

Provided there's no teenage angst, or amnesia of any kind. I'm sure it will do alright.

" @Hailinel http://ps3.ign.com/articles/710/710761p3.html He had that mapped out for years. His last real game was Kingdom Hearts II final Mix+, and that was early/mid 2000s. He's also said it on his quaterly Fami interviews. It's over 2channel, don't you read that stuff? "

" Provided there's no teenage angst, or amnesia of any kind. I'm sure it will do alright. "

" @Grelik There's no teens in the game, so it should be good. "

" @Grelik said:

" Provided there's no teenage angst, or amnesia of any kind. I'm sure it will do alright. "

You do know this is a FF game right? Those are some of SE's best themes.  "

Nomura was a failure as a director long before Versus... Versus will just be par in course for his idea of what a jrpg should be.

"

Nomura was a failure as a director long before Versus... Versus will just be par in course for his idea of what a jrpg should be.

"

Nomura was a failure as a director long before Versus... Versus will just be par in course for his idea of what a jrpg should be.

Nomura puts out the worst of japanese game development in my mind. Characters that have hundreds of hours of render time put into their hair and no develop time in their character. Story that is put out through cutscenes instead of interactivity. 
 
If this game progresses like ff13, where linearity is the point of concern so i can get from point a to point b and watch a melodramatic cutscene, then i really don't care for it. they need to set up some kind of antagonist and point to the game in the first few hours, at least like a mcguffin or something. They had no idea where ff13 was going well into the 11th chapter

" Nomura puts out the worst of japanese game development in my mind. Characters that have hundreds of hours of render time put into their hair and no develop time in their character."

" @imayellowfellow said:

" Nomura puts out the worst of japanese game development in my mind. Characters that have hundreds of hours of render time put into their hair and no develop time in their character."

Now this is just silly. "

Yeah, however he will be probally demoted back to being a character designer from director. He's responsible for square enix iconic final fantasy characters so they can't fire him. They will lose alot of money without his designs.

" @Hailinel said:

" @imayellowfellow said:

" Nomura puts out the worst of japanese game development in my mind. Characters that have hundreds of hours of render time put into their hair and no develop time in their character."

Now this is just silly. "

funny, that's what i thought when i got to the ending of ff13 "

No.  He has already made some great games.

Explicitly: The render times for the cutscenes (collectively) probably did take longer or comparable to the time spent writing the script. I mean they had 900 intel pentium 3's render the hair in spirits within, and that looks pretty weak compared to the cutscenes in ff13.
 
Figuratively: What i mean is they put an emphasis on the way these characters look compared to actually making them like interesting and have some meaningful development.  I mean yeah they "develop" i saw the cutscenes of people screaming and yelling before their eidoleans came too. 

whatever, if you like nomura's games go ahead but honestly i think some people have grown out of this kind of storytelling.

I can't stand his character designs, and I hated what he did with the Kingdom Hearts franchise after the first game. So I can't say I'm especially optimistic for Versus, but I'll try it out. Also, I don't think he'll fail, because it's already destined to be a major success in Japan.

No.
Even if this is the worst game of all time, his past work would do more than make up it.

" @WilliamRLBaker

Nomura was a failure as a director long before Versus... Versus will just be par in course for his idea of what a jrpg should be.

What? KH2FM+ and TWEWY is amazing. "

" @KaosAngel:   Quit riding that Nomura cock! "

" No. Even if this is the worst game of all time, his past work would do more than make up it. "

I don't know what to think about Nomura. Considering his integral role in the KH franchise, I'm not very confident in his ability to tell a story on the terms that Versus is being described. But who knows. Maybe he'll wow me.
 
At the very least, I'm digging it from a design standpoint. The character designs remind me of Nomura's FFVIII glory days, when he knew the meaning of the word "restraint". Good boy, Nomura.

I think at this point there is no way he can make a game that will be widely loved, too many people want too many different things. Does that mean he has failed? no, it will be a great game to some.
 
When you look back at all his past games every one of them has a hater crowd and every game also has people claiming it's their favourite, can't see Versus being any different,

My only problem with Nomura is that he can't draw for shit, yet I see people claiming he's the best Square has ever had.  It's a shame Amano quit making stuff full time for Square Enix...and it's a shame he no longer does the character stuff.  Once they shifted to Nomura from FF7...I think that's when people started to feel the change of Square in general. 
  
When you compare how Amano drew the FF cast, and then look at Nomura...you have to wonder just what the fuck Nomura was smoking or what anime he was watching at the time.

" @Hailinel: You're trying really hard to credit Nomura for the success of games he had minimal involvement with. "

" @KaosAngel:   I'd dare say that picture of Cloud contains more artistic skill than most people are capable of.  It's a different style than Amano's traditional style, certainly, but it doesn't make it inherently bad. "

"  If he can stay focused, I think Versus will be the best game from Square since FF6. "

" Building expectations like this really worked out for you with FF13. "