Final Fantasy XV [Formerly Versus XIII] (Xbox One, PS4)

[Autosaver]

I'd rather they plan ahead and not have a bunch of stupid shit shoe-horned into the sequels, i.e. "FANG AND VANILLA ARE ALIVE BUT THEY'RE NOT BUT THEY ARE", "LIGHTNING DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE GODDESS LIGHTNING IS A GODDESS LIGHTNING HATES THE GODDESS", "GENESIS GENESIS GENESIS", and so forth. 

 

If they're gonna do it, plan it from the beginning.

 

I honestly don't think they're going to have it done from the start. Sure they know they're going to make more games, but they're not going to plan out the full storyline. Issues like you pointed out will probably appear again. Remember, FFXII-3 has a ton of weird stuff going on despite Square knowing during FFXIII-2 development that another sequel was coming.

 

It's probably going to be like Kingdom Hearts where they keep adding on. Sure they know it's going to lead to one final battle, but they're not going to have it planned out 100% from the start.

 

Unfortunately, we're no longer seeing these one time experiences. Square is just going to churn sequel after sequel. I'm sure it will still be a good game, but I'm not entirely sure that Square Enix has the story idea down yet.

[Conando]

Wait, what. They're trying to do another Fabula whatever the shit again? Goddamnit, Square-Enix you are the shittiest company now.

[Invictus Ordo]

Wait, what. They're trying to do another Fabula whatever the shit again? Goddamnit, Square-Enix you are the shittiest company now.

FFXV is set within The Fabula Nova Crystallis and Honestly If all of the story is not resolved in XV then there should be a XV-2 to finish the story and improve whatever needs improving. In short I don't have a problem with this, just keep Toriyama and his lightning fetish/waifu away!

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

FFXV is set within The Fabula Nova Crystallis and Honestly If all of the story is not resolved in XV then there should be a XV-2 to finish the story and improve whatever needs improving.

 

I'm sorry, but no. When I pay money for a heavily story-based piece of media, I am entering into a silent agreement with the company of origin that they get my sixty bucks if I get a complete game, and thus story complete with ending. Not 3/4 of a game to be resolved once I fork over another sixty.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Sixth-Rate Soma

[Autosaver]

Sorry Soma, to finish the story you need to pay $200.

[KrazyBean]

I'm sorry, but no. When I pay money for a heavily story-based piece of media, I am entering into a silent agreement with the company of origin that they get my sixty bucks if I get a complete game, and thus story complete with ending. Not 3/4 of a game to be resolved once I fork over another sixty.

 

Mass Effect did the exact same thing...nobody complained.

[pppp]

Sighh, i guess people ignored what i said so i'll repeat it: NOMURA SAID XV WILL BE SELF-CONTAINED IN AN INTERVIEW WITH IGN.

 

No one will be paying for an incomplete story.  If you don't want sequels that's understandable, considering this series track record with that, but if you want you can just play the original XV and get a full story with beginning, middle and end.

 

As for me I will reserve judgement until i finish XV and hear of what is the general plan for a follow-up.

 

Also here's one MAJOR difference between the XV sequels and X-2/The XIII sequels :  They are being planned and thought through before the original comes out. X-2 and the XIII sequels were hastily and lazily made to cash in on the original's financial sucess. Kitase himself admitted this. I think that gaming trilogies that are thought through since the beginning have been good in the past:

 

-The first Layton game was concieved with 2 follow-ups in mind and that didn't stop all 3 games from being fantastic

 

-The Mass Effect trilogy from what i hear from people was all great not counting the ending which was then corrected in the Extended Cut. Feel free to correct me on this if I'm wrong Krazy

 

Not to mention, these are sequels made by a different separate development team then Toriyama's team. If anything i think it's only fair we give them a fair chance at making a FF sequel, since it would be their first.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Noctis Caelum

[Dobkeratops]

Mass Effect did the exact same thing...nobody complained.

 

Mass Effect games have a game specific plot (Saren, Collectors) that gets resolved within the game, on top of contributing to the larger story arc, delivering a sense of accomplishment. This feel was completely absent in 13-2's mess of a story and the To Be Continued bullshit was more offensive than anything else.

 

Nothing wrong with more games set in the same universe if they remain a complete package independently of each other, tho. Like Crisis Core. Crisis Core was feels.

[pppp]

Nothing wrong with more games set in the same universe if they remain a complete package independently of each other, tho.

 

Exactly, which Nomura said would happen, unlike XIII-2.

[Sami]

This thread has taught me that planning ahead for potential sequels is a bad thing.

Look, this is how the entertainment industry works nowadays. This is how it's worked for ages. If a game/movie/book is successful, it gets a sequel. If a TV show is successful, it gets another season. This is not anything new.

So what would you rather have? The director to make his game with the ideas of a broader story in mind? Or a game that needs no sequel getting one anyway, and having it exist for no reason? Planning ahead is nice, if you ask me. Shows me that the director knows what he's doing.

[KrazyBean]

I guess if XV has planned sequels since the beginning, then I'm all for it.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

This thread has taught me that planning ahead for potential sequels is a bad thing.

Did XIII just suddenly not happen? Do we not yet understand the pitfalls of planning out sequels to games that aren't even finished yet?

 

Look, this is how the entertainment industry works nowadays. This is how it's worked for ages. If a game/movie/book is successful, it gets a sequel. If a TV show is successful, it gets another season. This is not anything new.So what would you rather have? The director to make his game with the ideas of a broader story in mind? Or a game that needs no sequel getting one anyway, and having it exist for no reason? Planning ahead is nice, if you ask me. Shows me that the director knows what he's doing.

 

A. The reason shows get renewed or movies get sequels is because of good feedback. Just greenlighting things based on almost no concrete feedback whatsoever (and let's well admit, we've only seen what Square wants us to see at this point) can lead to some absolutely mind-numbing decisions. See: Ultimate Spider-Man TAS. Final Fantasy XIII. And so on.

 

B. This data could just as well show me that Square likes money. It could show me any number of things. Planning ahead, as an isolated action in and of itself, isn't inherently good or the sign of a good artisan.

 

C. This is Nomura. This is the man who oversaw the Kingdom Hearts' series story. Nomura is no master planner.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Sixth-Rate Soma

[Wraith]

I don't know about you guys, but everything about XIII-2 just SCREAMS "WE DIDN'T PLAN THIS AT ALL." to me.

[T-Min]

I don't know about you guys, but everything about XIII-2 just SCREAMS "WE DIDN'T PLAN THIS AT ALL." to me.

Pretty much.

 

XIII-2 and Lightning Returns only happened because XIII didn't meet sales expectations (even though it sold incredibly well, so this is ridiculous anyway). XIII was meant as a self-contained story from the beginning.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

I don't know about you guys, but everything about XIII-2 just SCREAMS "WE DIDN'T PLAN THIS AT ALL." to me.

 

Granted, but my other points still stand.

[Autosaver]

But XIII-2 said "To be Continued" and XIII-3 already has a mess of a plot.

 

It's how Square Enix executes it. Sure they can say this and that, but if they fail to deliver it just falls apart. This is why it's going to be gamble. Can they pull this off?

[Sami]

Did XIII just suddenly not happen? Do we not yet understand the pitfalls of planning out sequels to games that aren't even finished yet?

You're making my point for me here, haha. Shitting out sequels to games that don't need them is a bad idea. Building a game with the intent of making a broader story possible is not a bad thing.

Besides, there's no way it'll end on a cliffhanger or not be self-contained. For one, Nomura's going back to heading KH3 after this, so a sequel won't happen for a while, and on another note, all of the Kingdom Hearts games are perfectly serviceable on their own, story-wise.

A. The reason shows get renewed or movies get sequels is because of good feedback. Just greenlighting things based on almost no concrete feedback whatsoever (and let's well admit, we've only seen what Square wants us to see at this point) can lead to some absolutely mind-numbing decisions. See: Ultimate Spider-Man TAS. Final Fantasy XIII. And so on.

B. This data could just as well show me that Square likes money. It could show me any number of things. Planning ahead, as an isolated action in and of itself, isn't inherently good or the sign of a good artisan.

C. This is Nomura. This is the man who oversaw the Kingdom Hearts' series story. Nomura is no master planner.

A. You can't seriously be telling me you've never heard of studios planning trilogies based on sales and popularity projections. That's just how this stuff works, man. Waiting for feedback before greenlighting a sequel prevents overarching plotlines like

rescuing Clank

in the Ratchet & Clank Future games.

B. So why are we acting like it's an inherently bad thing, then? If they're going to do a sequel, I'd rather they have a broad idea now, rather than waiting until the game is out.

C. Kingdom Hearts didn't get ridiculous until after KH2, and that was three games into the series.

But XIII-2 said "To be Continued" and XIII-3 already has a mess of a plot.

It's how Square Enix executes it. Sure they can say this and that, but if they fail to deliver it just falls apart. This is why it's going to be gamble. Can they pull this off?

Square Enix is a big company. The people responsible for XIII and all of its sequels aren't even touching XV. The main people behind this are Nomura (Kingdom Hearts), Tabata (Type-0, which, if the general consensus on GAF means anything, is really fucking good and one of the best FF's in recent memory), and the development staff behind Kingdom Hearts I and II.

[Dobkeratops]

Square Enix is a big company. The people responsible for XIII and all of its sequels aren't even touching XV.

 

I bet Toriyama is pushing hard for a Lightning costume for Noctis, tho.

 

XIII-2 and Lightning Returns only happened because XIII didn't meet sales expectations (even though it sold incredibly well, so this is ridiculous anyway). XIII was meant as a self-contained story from the beginning.

 

Well, it sort of did with regards to the 360 version. They expected multiplatform development to grow the games' audience but that backfired pretty hard, as there is not a significant RPG fanbase to build on Microsoft's platforms. They didn't lose money on the venture, however, as the port budget was hilariously low and they enjoyed some moneyhat equivalents

 

But it's more of a "reusing assets is super cheap!" situation overall.

[pppp]

Well, it sort of did with regards to the 360 version. They expected multiplatform development to grow the games' audience but that backfired pretty hard, as there is not a significant RPG fanbase to build on Microsoft's platforms. They didn't lose money on the venture, however, as the port budget was hilariously low and they enjoyed some moneyhat equivalents

 

But it's more of a "reusing assets is super cheap!" situation overall.

 

Yeah but according to Kitase they wanted 10 million units sold and it only sold like 6 million:

 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/feb/18/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii-preview

 

 

At a recent reveal event in Paris last month, Motomu Toriyama, the

series director, and Yoshinori Kitase, the franchise producer, revealed

to a packed room of journalists that the original plan for the XIII

trilogy was for it to crack global sales of 10m. Together, Final Fantasy

XIII and XIII 2 have shifted roughly 9.7 million copies, so in order to

hit their projected sales goal the forthcoming instalment, Lightning

Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, only has to shift just more than 300,000

units.

Edited July 31, 2013 by Noctis Caelum

[Dobkeratops]

Yeah but according to Kitase they wanted 10 million units sold and it only sold like 6 million:

 

As I said, they thought putting the series on xbawks would mean doubling the sales. Twice the consoles, twice the units! Turns out there's not much of a market on xbox for RPGs. They'd have made practically the same numbers if it remained a PS3 exclusive, hence the backfiring and cost effective sequelitis.

 

Maybe next time they will not use dumb assumptions to project expectatives*.

 

*they totally will

[KrazyBean]

As I said, they thought putting the series on xbawks would mean doubling the sales. Twice the consoles, twice the units! Turns out there's not much of a market on xbox for RPGs. They'd have made practically the same numbers if it remained a PS3 exclusive, hence the backfiring and cost effective sequelitis.

 

Maybe next time they will not use dumb assumptions to project expectatives*.

 

*they totally will

 

So should they take Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV off the Xbox One?

[Dobkeratops]

So should they take Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy XV off the Xbox One?

 

Microsoft's money will cover the meager porting costs, so it'll net them some profit. That being said I don't think the actual units sold number would really change if they were PS4 only.

 

At least now they should know better that to expect the games to sell as much as they do on PlayStation.

[Sami]

Not only that, but it's being developed on PC for DirectX anyway. An Xbox port would be extremely easy. It'll make a meager profit, enough to justify it, but that's about it.

[KrazyBean]

Not only that, but it's being developed on PC for DirectX anyway. An Xbox port would be extremely easy. It'll make a meager profit, enough to justify it, but that's about it.

 

Since most games are developed on PC for DirectX, does that mean that it'll be harder to port games to the PS4 since it's using OpenGL? Apparently it also has the option to use DirectX but I'm not entirely sure on this.

Edited July 31, 2013 by KrazyBean

[Dobkeratops]

Since most games are developed on PC for DirectX, does that mean that it'll be harder to port games to the PS4 since it's using OpenGL? Apparently it also has the option to use DirectX but I'm not entirely sure on this.

 

No. Both OpenGL and DirectX offer the same feature set and there is no major hurdles in programming for one versus the other.

 

PS4 has a proprietary version of OpenGL though, not the standard vanilla set to allow for more specific hardware utilization. Tools and support are damn good this time around so if you get bad ports you can blame it on the developer.

 

In this particular case anyways, Square's going to be focusing all their efforts on the platform where the game will be bought so expect the PS4 versions of FFXV, KH3 and whatever may come to be ace.