Final Fantasy XIII-2 Debuts to Lackluster Sales

[Kopikatsu]

...

For some reason, I read this headline, smiled, and sighed with relief.

I think I'm a bad person. All I could think was YEAH FUCK YOU FINAL FANTASY XIII. God I hated FFXIII. I'm so happy to see it failing. I have never been this vindictive with any game series, ever. Even if Call of Duty - a series I despise - announced it sold badly, I'd feel slightly let down, and sorry for the devs.

This news? This news cheered me up...

...Are you serious?

Because they made a mistake, they deserve to fail forever? I think you're right about yourself.

I mean, really, this is type of thing I'd expect to read on Youtube.

I didn't say they deserved it. I quite like Square Enix, they published Just Cause 2 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I'm quite looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII Versus (or whatever it is. The shooter)... it's just that FFXIII scarred me, and seeing that consumers have caught onto it and won't accept Square's iterative bullcrap...?

That makes me happy. It makes me happy for the state of consumerism, it makes me happy that Square will be taught something of a lesson for what they did with FFXIII. I'm laughing because I'm happy that the game is getting shafted, not that jobs will be lost or whatever. And that won't happen anyway. If this were guaranteed to bankrupt Square Enix, then yeah, it'd be more dickish than it is. But they won't. So it's not.

Que? Verses XIII isn't a shooter. The battle system is a cross between XII and XIII. There was one character who used a gun though, and you could go third person with him and shoot people. But that's not really...the main part of the game.

I was under the impression it was a third-person action RPG in the vein of Dirge of Cerberus.

Well, here's a video of the gameplay.


Feel free to draw whatever conclusions you wish to draw.

Edit: It starts at around 3:00.

That looks like an action RPG! Exactly what I thought it was! Why did you say mix of XII and XIII? They're both have TBS battle systems. Did you mean XIII and XIV, maybe?

I'd meant it has XII's freeflow (I'm probably using that word wrong) combat with XIII's cinematicness for attacking.

But now that I had a second look at the battle menu, it looks more like grown-up Kingdom Hearts than anything. Which I suppose would make it an action-RPG, yes.

 

[Odbarc]

FF-Vaan and FFXIII are two final fantasy games I've both played and never finished. Or even really got halfway through (I assume).

But I've repeatedly played and beaten games like FF4, FF6, FF7, FF9, FF10, FFT.
I've also played FF5, FF8, and those FF remakes on the GBA (1 and 2? with graphical updates). I beat #1, stopped playing #2 and just haven't picked it back up yet.

 

[VoidWanderer]

And yet I still fear the yearly releases they are threatening us with...

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

The gambit system, the license system. The whole combat system just came off as a cheap rip off of the Growlancers system, and though I'll give them kudos for going with a politically motivated plot as opposed to the standard save the world one, it just wasn't a very good one, and the main character were really just peripheral to the whole thing. Want a good political plot? Go play Suikoden 5 or Ogre Tactics.

Odd you should mention Tactics Ogre since the creator of that series (Matsuno) was the director of FFXII. Well, up until he had a breakdown due to executives ruining his own narrative just so they could shove Vaan in because they didn't think players could relate to Basch. So, FFXII was actually released in a half-made state due to executive idiocy. Thank Buddha that Matsuno got away from that company (though it was nice that he came back for the TO remake). With him not actually making what he wanted FF lost the only guy who could have succeeded its legacy

 

[viranimus]

How did anyone at SE not know that this would be the exact way this would play out?

The original was not liked. The west felt it was too repetitive, linear and convoluted which is essentially the epitome of JRPG logic, Whereas the east accepted the original but was not fond of it because it was too westernized. Then make a sequel out of that? Why would you make a sequel to a game that large portions of the fanbase for it rejected the original idea?

One thing I sense is that they tried even harder to westernize the sequel, which might have some explainable as to why it did not do as well in the east. The only problem there is that the west is already tired of Anime tropes and most of what SE has offered over the last decade so they are going to be less likely to consider it anyway.

Square Enix should have instead focused on releasing XIII VS instead of giving a sequel the fans did not want, that is a continuation of a story people didnt like. Its really not that hard to have foresight.

 

[Ragnarok185]

Square Enix should have instead focused on releasing XIII VS instead of giving a sequel the fans did not want, that is a continuation of a story people didnt like. Its really not that hard to have foresight.

Ok it looks like I have to clear this up for EVERYONE.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus is being made made a by a DIFFERENT TEAM!. FFXIII-2 did not delay FFXIIIversus is any way.

"the sequel that fans did not want"????? seriously??? everyone I know who got this game wanted a sequel. TONS of people wanted the sequel to FFXIII. I hate it when people say this and try to pass it off as fact.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So, the market is FINALLY waking up to the utter mediocrity of Final Fantasy.
Good.

Squeenix has had it far too easy for the last decade. It's time they started actually trying to compete again.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So, the market is FINALLY waking up to the utter mediocrity of Final Fantasy.
Good.

Squeenix has had it far too easy for the last decade. It's time they started actually trying to compete again.

But...XIII-2 actually looks good.

I reserve judgement until I get to play the game myself.

 

[Ragnarok185]

So, the market is FINALLY waking up to the utter mediocrity of Final Fantasy.
Good.

Squeenix has had it far too easy for the last decade. It's time they started actually trying to compete again.

Final Fantasy Type-0

 

[Epona]

I lost all faith in the Final Fantasy franchise after the garbage that was FFXII and FFXIII. The only two Final Fantasy games I never finished.

XII is probably my favourite of the series actually - I never understood why people give it so much grief.

As for XIII, I haven't played much of it, but besides being a bit dull to start off, it didn't seem too bad. I'll be going back to it after I'm done with some other games I've picked up. I do want Square Enix to continue the XIII series, if only to play Versus.

The gambit system, the license system. The whole combat system just came off as a cheap rip off of the Growlancers system, and though I'll give them kudos for going with a politically motivated plot as opposed to the standard save the world one, it just wasn't a very good one, and the main character were really just peripheral to the whole thing. Want a good political plot? Go play Suikoden 5 or Ogre Tactics.

That was kind of the point. Vaan isn't the main character of XII, Ashe is. Vaan is basically the physical representation of the player, since he's just an observer who really has no baring on the plot.

I don't really get the hate for XII either. X did the same thing with Tidus (The main character is Yuna, Tidus is just there) and most people love X.

There's more to a game than the main character. People like X because it's not a single player MMO and because it doesn't have the License Board. Who thought that was a good idea?

When I first played XII I hated the License board right away. A few hours in, I Gamesharked it.

 

[viranimus]

Square Enix should have instead focused on releasing XIII VS instead of giving a sequel the fans did not want, that is a continuation of a story people didnt like. Its really not that hard to have foresight.

Ok it looks like I have to clear this up for EVERYONE.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus is being made made a by a DIFFERENT TEAM!. FFXIII-2 did not delay FFXIIIversus is any way.

"the sequel that fans did not want"????? seriously??? everyone I know who got this game wanted a sequel. TONS of people wanted the sequel to FFXIII. I hate it when people say this and try to pass it off as fact.

Except the sales figures thus far have indicated the original games sales were pretty bad for a numbered installment and this entries installment is equally as bad.. I hate it when people ignore quantifiable numbers just because THEY want it. Seriously the overwhelming consensus is that FFXIII was a bad installment and the only ones who would want more of the same of what was delivered with XIII is the voice of the most ardent and diehard, but also of a VERY niche group. Using specious reasoning of "all the people I know wanted a sequel" does not mean you or your friends are representative of the demographic of people who played XIII or those who wanted to like it and found it to be downright horrible. Have you not seen the atypical response of "The franchise needs to die" every single time a thread about "why all the hate on FF" or the like comes up? But most importantly you cannot fully discount the voices who are saying "WE WANT A XIII SEQUEL" only because they want Square to actually finish writing the original game and give the story some semblance of cohesion, which I would dare say greatly outnumber the people who generally wanted more of what XIII offered.

I never implied that they were the same team, however it is documented that part of the XIII VS team got pulled for a period to assist with the launch of XIII. I dont think that making a new sequel automatically means slowed progress on an existing title. What I am saying is that since theve announced VS in 2006 they have announced, and released multiple projects and this shows they have as a company pushed through yet another project before finishing work in XIII Vs.

Its poor optimization and usage of resources. VS was announced along side of XIII, Vs should have been released the same year as XIII and not what is boiling down to two years after with no release date in sight. XIII-2 has been announced as well as released without the slightest bit of headway for Vs in that time except for at least one confirmed delay.


So I reiterate. XIII was a bad game, that sold poorly, that did not constitute a sequel, but yet it was greenlit and pushed out the door before finishing a product still generating some mild interest from their fans that has yet to earn the atypical Seal of Suck that most SE titles bear nowadays.

 

[Ragnarok185]

Square Enix should have instead focused on releasing XIII VS instead of giving a sequel the fans did not want, that is a continuation of a story people didnt like. Its really not that hard to have foresight.

Ok it looks like I have to clear this up for EVERYONE.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus is being made made a by a DIFFERENT TEAM!. FFXIII-2 did not delay FFXIIIversus is any way.

"the sequel that fans did not want"????? seriously??? everyone I know who got this game wanted a sequel. TONS of people wanted the sequel to FFXIII. I hate it when people say this and try to pass it off as fact.

Except the sales figures thus far have indicated the original games sales were pretty bad for a numbered installment and this entries installment is equally as bad.. I hate it when people ignore quantifiable numbers just because THEY want it. Seriously the overwhelming consensus is that FFXIII was a bad installment and the only ones who would want more of the same of what was delivered with XIII is the voice of the most ardent and diehard, but also of a VERY niche group. Using specious reasoning of "all the people I know wanted a sequel" does not mean you or your friends are representative of the demographic of people who played XIII or those who wanted to like it and found it to be downright horrible. Have you not seen the atypical response of "The franchise needs to die" every single time a thread about "why all the hate on FF" or the like comes up? But most importantly you cannot fully discount the voices who are saying "WE WANT A XIII SEQUEL" only because they want Square to actually finish writing the original game and give the story some semblance of cohesion, which I would dare say greatly outnumber the people who generally wanted more of what XIII offered.

I never implied that they were the same team, however it is documented that part of the XIII VS team got pulled for a period to assist with the launch of XIII. I dont think that making a new sequel automatically means slowed progress on an existing title. What I am saying is that since theve announced VS in 2006 they have announced, and released multiple projects and this shows they have as a company pushed through yet another project before finishing work in XIII Vs.

Its poor optimization and usage of resources. VS was announced along side of XIII, Vs should have been released the same year as XIII and not what is boiling down to two years after with no release date in sight. XIII-2 has been announced as well as released without the slightest bit of headway for Vs in that time except for at least one confirmed delay.


So I reiterate. XIII was a bad game, that sold poorly, that did not constitute a sequel, but yet it was greenlit and pushed out the door before finishing a product still generating some mild interest from their fans that has yet to earn the atypical Seal of Suck that most SE titles bear nowadays.

Ok I can agree with you to some extent. Yes it was wrong for SE to announce FFXIIIVERSUS so early in production. I want it that game as well. I just don't see why everyone is saying "this will be the best FF ever" very little info has released about that game and people are already fanboying all over it.

I still disagree with FFXIII being a bad game. Its alright we all our opinions and lets keep them as such. as for the 'FF hate threads" its those same rabid fanboys who live in the past and can't embrace change. if FF stayed the same after all these years I probably would be hating on SE going "FF has become stagnate!!!".

FFXIII is a game your going love or hate. The sequel is coming out and no amount of hate can change that. I simply ask that everyone can give this game a fair chance and don't judge this game because of their hate for FFXIII. yes it had flaws, all games do. no game is perfect.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Final Fantasy Type-0

Your point?
Pardon my confusion, but the title of a game isn't an argument, one way or the other.

 

[otakon17]

You know what's funny? I'm not surprised by this. Also, FF 13 is now less used then Lost Odyssey. I know that doesn't prove that when Hironobu and Nobuo left Square Enix that it was the death knell to the Final Fantasy series as a GOOD line of games, but it is oddly coincidental.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

This reminds me of the time when people didn't buy Final Fantasy IX because Final Fantasy VIII fucked so many things up. It's funny how it's not the broken game itself that gets the bad sales figures, but the rather the game that follows.

The sins of the father, I guess...

But hey, I'm quite pleased with this. From the look of the trailers, it was a direct sequel that not only continued the atrocious story and re-used its graphical assets but also kept the gameplay mechanic.

At least FF X-2 had the decency to use a new gameplay mechanic.