Games The Final Fantasy Thread!

[riki]

Type-0 website has been updated with a lot of information.

Apparently, in order to summon the war gods, a character must sacrifice his or her life.
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A gameplay footage of FF Type-0 has been posted and there is an analysis of it which detailed what's going on.

---------- Post added June 02, 2011 at 04:07 PM ---------- Previous post was May 21, 2011 at 10:47 PM ----------

Serah and Noel are playable characters in FFXIII-2.

Here is the storyline

---------- Post added June 03, 2011 at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous post was June 02, 2011 at 04:07 PM ----------

A new FFXIII-2 Trailer

Teaser

---------- Post added June 06, 2011 at 11:05 PM ---------- Previous post was June 03, 2011 at 12:47 PM ----------

The full E3 trailer for FFXIII-2 is up. I guess the game has been delayed to early next year.

---------- Post added June 08, 2011 at 12:20 AM ---------- Previous post was June 06, 2011 at 11:05 PM ----------

Kotaku has a preview on FFXIII-2.

 

[zelllogan]

FFXIII-2 ... Square/Enix chara design is becoming worse and worser, especially male characters. I had trouble since FFX (with Tidus, Wakka, ...) , FF12 had Vaan, FF13 had no good male characters. FF13-2 seems to have the same flow. That Noel dude is just a missed Squall.

Between the chara design, a pitch/teasing that isn't very interesting & the fact that FF are going downhill for years ... FFXIII-2 might be the first FF that I will not buy.

 

[riki]

 

[Jammin]

FFXIII-2 ... Square/Enix chara design is becoming worse and worser, especially male characters. I had trouble since FFX (with Tidus, Wakka, ...) , FF12 had Vaan, FF13 had no good male characters. FF13-2 seems to have the same flow. That Noel dude is just a missed Squall.

Between the chara design, a pitch/teasing that isn't very interesting & the fact that FF are going downhill for years ... FFXIII-2 might be the first FF that I will not buy.

Sadly, i pretty much agree.

I considered Final Fantasy FFXIII the most style over substance game in the Final Fantasy series. So i'm not too interested in continuing with the story. Looks like they might have fixed some of the gameplay elements that i loathed in the original Final Fantasy FFXIII-2 but it's too little too late for me.

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The Final Fantasy games are going to have to make a TON of changes before i can really get excited about them.

I'd like to see the Final Fantasy games do a complete change in art style. Considering the CG art style they use costs astronomical amounts of money to do and honestly i don't thing it really adds that much. My preference would be a more anime-ish style. Like the style featured in Final Fantasy 6, 7, and Tactics. Which would be much cheaper for them to do, which would mean they could spend that money on other parts of the game development that need it more.

They need to do better with the stories IMHO, the past three fantasy games had completely linear plots(that really wouldn't have been out of place in an action-adventure game). And the people who write out the plots need to figure out the difference between drama and melodrama, there IS a difference; one is good writing the other is bad writing.

 

[Gintara]

I personally would like to see an FF with Amano's art style again, kind of what is featured in his CG film Deva Zan. That would be awesome.

 

[Jammin]

That could be interesting. Especially if they used the sort of animation that Atlus used for their upcoming game Catherine. It gives everything a very 3 dimensional drawn look, so they could really apply any art style they want to it.

They really cut down on the artistic variety after FFIX, which admitted looked like an artistic disaster. Square sort of permanently adopting FFX's art style, which was really just an update of FFVIII's art style, and applied it to everything(even Final Fantasy: Advent Children) Just making everything look as realistic as they possibly can while trying to retain all the flashy anime clothing and such.

Which i think was a huge mistake. What i consider the best of the Final Fantasy games(FF6,FF7, FF Tactics) all did not feature much in the way of realism art-wise. I'm not convinced realism is great idea in the magical fantasy genre at all actually(unless it's a dark game like Dragon Age). I tend to think an "drawn" look serves the genre better.

 

[Gintara]

True. I hope they would consider doing different styles in future titles. Getting too realistic in the details doesn't really do it for some people. VersusXIII is going down that route, unfortunately, and although I appreciate how much the team is putting in making the visuals top notch, it doesn't matter if everything else completely sucks. Nice way of describing FFX's art style; that's what I initially thought when I first saw images of the game back in 2002.

I see fantasy-based games having an art style like a storybook or dreamy in a way; it gives that feeling of something you can't produce in real life, it lives only in your imagination. The current, realistic style they go for is to make gamers feel as if they are part of the world visually. I personally think that kind of style fits sci-fi.

 

[riki]

Finally! We're supposed to get new info on FF Versus XIII next week.

Here is more details about delay, multiplayer, etc. about Type-0

Nomura and Tabata also responded to a quick Q&A with the Famitsu editors. Among the revelations here:

* For skilled action players, the game will have fighting game-like features like movement canceling.

* The game's loading screen shows user data. This will also show the player data of Square Enix Members.

* At save points, you can change your current party characters and also set your equipment.

* The game's main characters are from your school's "Class Zero." Students from other classes will also team up with you for missions. They have different colored cloaks.

* Nomura said that Square Enix is currently looking into a download version and overseas version of the game.

* There will be weather-related changes. Weapons will change in strength and firing range depending on weather. Amongst summons, Shiva will be stronger in the snow.

The game will also have peristyliums, which is a homage to FFVIII.

 

[Crude]

To be honest I think the FF game with the best visual style was XII, and also XIV which featured more vibrant colours than the former. Yoshida Akihiko's designs look a lot better when rendered digitally in a realistic style, compared to Nomura's which tend to look too "anime" (granted this may be due to the outfits the characters are wearing, and their hairstyles). Amano is a god, his illustrations look gorgeous and I'm dying to get an artbook of his, as well as prints. However, I'm not so sure how his designs would look when rendered digitally. The characters featured in V and VI's CGI cutscenes looked odd, which I guess was also due to them not having as big a budget as the other games' cutscenes. I'd like fore SE to go with the approach they went with IX, have Amano design the characters and then have someone else (preferably Yoshida) recreate them in their style, which is then used for the actual game. Personally I love all of the character designers' styles.

 

[riki]

So... there will be a new FF game called Theatrythm Final Fantasy. According to siliconera, it's Beatmania meets Final Fantasy.

It could be good, right?

---------- Post added July 13, 2011 at 11:23 AM ---------- Previous post was July 06, 2011 at 09:27 AM ----------

A small FF Vs XIII detail - the cutscenes are interactive

 

[Gintara]

Guess I'll start saving some money for Versus then. I always like goofing around during cutscenes (FFVII comes to mind).

 

[riki]

Type-0 director tried out the demo and here is the clip

 

[Jammin]

Interesting video.

I think i'm finally sold on this game. Can't say i'm trilled about the battle system they've chosen(it's looks very action/adventure-esc to me). But the underlying parts to this game(plot, characters, and general game structure) look amazing.

Some of the things i see that i really like are....

• A actual world map
  This is something that has been missing from too many recent Final Fantasy games for no real reason. It adds immersion, a sense of familiarity with the game world, and gives a sense of exploration to the game; and i'm glad to see those things return.
  
• A 14 person cast of characters.
  As far as i'm concerned the more characters in a game the better. Because that way there is a better chance there will be some party members i genuinely enjoy using.

 

[riki]

Another trailer


SE also announced that Bump of Chicken will be singing the theme song, Zero.

 

[blai]

Bought FF XIII for 360 a couple of days ago and even though I only have about ten hours (five chapters) of gameplay I can already tell that it's an amazing game! I love it! Checked out XIII-2 but it looks... well, let's say I doubt it'll fit my taste.

 

[riki]

Here is more info about Type-0 cast and it looks like Versus XIII will not be shown at TGS. Hopefully, we'll still get some info about it though.

 

[ibra87]

Bought FF XIII for 360 a couple of days ago and even though I only have about ten hours (five chapters) of gameplay I can already tell that it's an amazing game! I love it! Checked out XIII-2 but it looks... well, let's say I doubt it'll fit my taste.

It's going to be a lot like FFXII. Fact is, after getting over the first annoyance of knowing the game etc, you'll LOVE the battle system and the world. It's really more free than most of other Final fantasies including 10 or 13. But if the story of XIII-3 is half as bad as XII then it'll be a real disappointment. The least they can do with all this delay is make up a good story.

---------- Post added August 24, 2011 at 03:13 PM ---------- Previous post was August 10, 2011 at 02:06 AM ----------

New trailer for FF XIII-2. Looks even better than FFXIII combat system wise imo:

 

[Host Samurai]

But how come Square Enix is releasing a spin-off of FFXIII instead of revealing some progress of FF XIII versus? I'm eager waiting for this game like any other fan.

 

[riki]

It's probably because XIII-2 is coming out before VS. IIRC, it's coming out at the end of the year for Japan and early next year for the rest.

 

[Host Samurai]

It's probably because XIII-2 is coming out before VS. IIRC, it's coming out at the end of the year for Japan and early next year for the rest.

Well, the thing is when they first announced FF XIII they simultaenously annouced Versus too. After the release of FF XIII, I was waiting for a release date or some new information about Versus but all of a sudden they decided to release FF XIII-2 before Versus.