Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and wait for more than just Nomura's word that Versus is going to be something other than the hack-n-slash style-before-substance type of experience we got in KH and Advent Children.
" Meh, Nomura said Versus XIII will be like the ones pre-2000s and it's confirmed to have the Airship with a full globe flying like in FF1-FF9. I'm started to hate FF13 and the steps back it took, 2011 (2012 NA/EU) can't get here quick enough for Nomura's and the older team's real FF game. I want it now. x.x "
The "older team"? Versus XIII is being done by the KH team, not by team 1 (which is actually the "older team").
If it's more like FFs of yore and not like KH, I'll be surprised to say the least. I hope it is, but with Nomura at the helm and given his past work, I'm not enthused about it yet.
@Cramsy said:
" Won't be picking this one up then. That's super dissapointing "
Eh, I still give it a positive review. It's not the best FF game. Not even close. But it is still a good game, especially if you've been a long-time fan (it still has a lot of those old features... it is still a FF, even lacking some of what defined the series).
Yeah, there was apparently a forum post a little while back about the general issue of laziness on the part of developers. (And yeah, I accidentally posted this as a forum post at first. Whoops!)
I disagree with that stance, though. I do not think it's laziness. I completely think it's driven by the purse. They extrapolate how long it would take them to put together a city and some towns based on the few town-like zones in FFXIII (there are a couple zones with a large number of NPCs that are about as close as the game gets to towns) and decide they would rather get the game out sooner rather than putting in towns.
Hand-in-hand with the lack of towns and cities is a lack of side-games of any sort, really. What side-games there are are honestly pretty pathetic compared to those in past FF games. And that does sadden me, because who doesn't remember some of the fun side-games in other FF games of the past? They had honestly become a staple in the series as well, but they're noticeably absent in this one.
As for the FFVII remake, I have trouble believing they won't remake it in the future. It's a huge pile of money just waiting to be made for them.
" For once i'm at SE side on this one. If they were after including cities in FFXIII, they'd probably be bigger than the ones on FFXII, and with high definition, and space constrictions it would be a real challenge to do it. I love Lost Odyssey and also Infinite Undiscovery, but their cities are rather small, Fallout 3 presents big out settings of decrepit cities, but there are a lot of reused landscape, and Mass Effect, though it presents rich and detailed cities, each scenario is small. To really create a whole big and lively city without almost to none loading screens, like in FFXII, in high definition - probably SE's idea - is a very bold and difficult one to do, even nowadays. "
Yeah, I buy the excuse they're using as their reason not to do it. As I posted in my last blog post on this game, they're clearly driving decisions based on money, and delaying a year or however long it would have taken to put in a city or towns would have cost them money.
Still, towns are kind of a staple in FF games. To not have a single real town is kind of like not having magic or chocobos or airships... maybe even worse than that.
So while I understand their decision, I'm not a big fan of it and I hope to see them man up and put some towns in FFXV when it finally comes along. :)
Apparently the reason SE is reporting that FFXIII feels more linear and lacks town is due to technical reasons. At least that's the excuse they're throwing around.
In an interview with Ultimania, Kitase and Toriyama claim that rendering towns in high definition is difficult.
I think this may also explain some other questionable factors in FFXIII, such as the choice to shift into a battle scene as opposed to fighting mobs in the open world ala FFXII.
Personally, it sounds a bit like a cop-out to me. In my mind, I know they didn't want to take an extra year to get towns in the game and make everything look as good as it does now in FFXIII (keep in mind, this is arguably the best looking game to date), but I also feel like if they had taken an extra year, they could have gone that extra distance.
I do think they underestimated how big of a part of the FF experience towns and exploration really is, though, and sacrificed it in order to get a product out faster. Which is not a good thing.
Apparently the reason SE is reporting that FFXIII feels more linear and lacks town is due to technical reasons. At least that's the excuse they're throwing around.
In an interview with Ultimania, Kitase and Toriyama claim that rendering towns in high definition is difficult.
I think this may also explain some other questionable factors in FFXIII, such as the choice to shift into a battle scene as opposed to fighting mobs in the open world ala FFXII.
Personally, it sounds a bit like a cop-out to me. In my mind, I know they didn't want to take an extra year to get towns in the game and make everything look as good as it does now in FFXIII (keep in mind, this is arguably the best looking game to date), but I also feel like if they had taken an extra year, they could have gone that extra distance.
I do think they underestimated how big of a part of the FF experience towns and exploration really is, though, and sacrificed it in order to get a product out faster. Which is not a good thing.
" Why all the IX hate? It's the best in the series. "
There was no FFIX hate until after you posted this. I don't hate that game at all despite it being one of the weakest FFs in my opinion.
That said, it was, like I said, one of the worst received of the FF games as well as one of if not the worst selling of the post-16bit era.
Some people remember it fondly. I remember how dismayed most fans were with what Sakaguchi had come up with after so many of them had been hoping for something amazing. Vivi aside, the characters were weak, the story was weak, the themes were childish, the gameplay was slow... It had its strong points too, but the game had a lot of problems and both the reviews and the sales reflected it.
It's good to see some die-hard fans of that game out there. Hey, I admit to loving FFVIII when it's on many FF fans' blacklist as well. To each their own.
But the sales drive the design. Square has not gone back to SD characters or cutesy, childish themes in FF since then. I don't expect them to again in a Final Fantasy game, either.
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