Final Fantasy XIII Compromised to Please 360 Owners

[squid5580]

Why hello fanboy, how you doing? Been playing any Halo lately? Golly, it's great, being narrow-minded and all, isn't it!

Because not a single 360 player on the face of the planet has ever decided to diversify their console collection. Obviously, since I support the 360, I couldn't possibly have blown $680 on a glorified DVD player and been bored to tears by LBP, Resistance 1&2, Killzone 2, then decided to cut my losses and stick with the consistent winner. Nope, it's obvious, since I spoke favourably about the 360, I've never seen a PS3 and must have had help just to figure out the spelling of the thing. Golly, it's great, being narrow-minded and all, isn't it!

I'm confused about something. If you are so eager and zealous in your love of the 360 and hatred of the PS3. How did you come by a PSN account with trophies? And, I'm pretty sure the PS3 was never $680. Not in the U.S. anyway.

Another point I feel obligated to bring up. I know that there are RPGs on the 360. But are there actually JRPGs on the 360? I'm sure there's probably one or two. But my point is, most JRPG players don't usually own 360s. And most 360 owners are usually not into JRPGs. So why penalize PS3 owners who probably are a hundred times more interested in FFXIII then so that you can appeal to 360 owners who probably won't even buy the game because it isn't big, tough and/or manly?

Disclaimer: If you are a 360 owner who does not fit the above stereotype, please disregard that portion of the post. And please understand that such viewpoints are simply the result of many years of research and study of the common fanboy.

During your "study" did you ever do any research on the types of popular games on your beloved PS3. Lets take a quick peek at your popular games for a second. We have Resistance series (shooter), COD 4 and 5 (shooter), Bioshock (shooter), Killzone 2 (shooter) and LBP (not shooter). I really hate to be the one to tell you but you wasted all those years and came up with zilch.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

From the screenshots I've seen, it really is a shame that they need to dumb down the graphics for the 360. As an owner of both, I can't really say which is my favorite. I just know more people that own a 360 so I get more of my games on it. However when it comes to single player games like FF or anything really, something that has no online interaction other than leaderboards...I'll take my chances with the PS3. But when I see things like this, its a real shame because this is where the PS3 should stand out.

 

[Generic_Dave]

So what reason does anyone really have to buy a graphic novel with poor drawing that invariably damage the story itself (The visuals are integral to actually telling the story.) over a graphic novel with an equally good story and better visuals? Hence my point that someone doing a graphic novel with not so great visuals and a great story is better off dropping the weaker visuals and writing a text novel and focusing on the stronger aspect of the work.

They're are two very different media, the difference in processes of writing a text novel and a Graphic Novel are colossal. They are not interchngeable, maybe someone has the ability to write a story as Graphic, but also the story lends itself better to the style of story telling. To say that they should just write a book instead, is like saying someone's made a piss poor game and should have made a movie instead. And then I suppose there are people who just WANT to write a comic...because that's how they pictured their story.

The writing of a Graphic Novel involves a larger amount of people directly, than of a text novel. Sometimes upto six (writer, editor, pencils, inks colour, lettering etc...). So you have to get pretty far before you have the whole thing together.

This coupled with the fact that a lot of really great writers start off with inferior visuals (and a lot of smaller developers start lower end visually too) and these should be supported to encourage a vibrant future for the medium.

I do understand when you give the choice of an "equally good story with better visuals" but it's rarely that clear cut, even with Graphic Novels, and certainly not with games, which have a plethora of other considerations (controls, voice acting, playability etc...). But in the end I just think that a good story can overcome all the above (with the possible exception of controls). I wish every great story cold be amazingly illustrated or rendered, but alas it's not always within the constraints of development.

Also on the other note, I thought the WET demo was shit hot and didn't notice the animation at all, it made me want to love Bullet Time again and I thought the renders and filters on the camera were inspired, as was the nifty take on QTE's in the final section of the car chase. But then again I hated Devil May Cry, especially the last one and Bayonetta has no appeal to me. Hhhmmm...on consideration I think we may just be into different kinds of things here.

 

[Fightgarr]

I'm still unconcerned. I know this is more for people who own a PS3 to see, but as a 360 owner I have no problem with the editing going on. If it runs well, I can stand a few minor inconveniences and some graphical downgrades.

 

[tsolless]

That seems strange.

Nevermind that they could have easily just boosted the 360 graphics up to the level of the PS3 by adding a disc or two. Seems like a more logical solution then downgrading the PS3 graphics...

 

[ProjectileVomit]

It's an perfect example of communism at work.

 

[quack35]

Doesn't seem like a big deal, or anything to get their shit kicked up about really.

Yeah, I agree.

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

Oh well, get over it people, it was bound to happen sometime soon with a game, it just happened to be the one PS3 fanboys wanked off over every night.
It's quite sad to kick up a fuss over this. I don't mind since I have a PS3, 360 and a PC though so I'm good

 

[JimmyWolf]

As a 360 owner, I'm very pleased to see the franchise go multi-platform. Having said that I completely agree that making the game suffer for it is wrong. HAVING SAID THAT PS3 owners get the exclusive Final Fantasy Versus 13, which is a completely different game with a far more awesome looking protagonist and storyline, though this is only based on the small amounts of evidence that SquareEnix has lovingly released.

Bare in mind that nobody complained when FFXI came onto the 360. Why? Because it was a terrible MMO. If Final Fantasy XIII turns out to be as utterly drab as Final Fantasy XII then it being on the 360 will make no difference at all.

I owned both a PS2 and an XBOX, I played shooters and western RPG's on one and JRPG's on the other. Guess which way round it was? Multi-platforming DOES affect the quality of many games but to say any games genuinely suffer for it can only be said once the game is released.

In my opinion Square Enix killed the franchise from the roots up, concentrating on money making and trying please critics rather than releasing a genuinely enticing game with a lovingly crafted story-line. It made the first EVER sequel to a Playstation based FF game in the form of X-2, it gave it its first MMO and it removed the Random Battles which had worked perfectly well until a few critics had said that it annoyed them. The last excellent JRPG released by Square was Final Fantasy X, which is its best one to date in my opinion. Final Fantasy VII simply didn't do as much as Final Fantasy X, though I think this is due partly to the lack of voice-acting, which really helped draw you in in FFX.

At the end of the day, if the game is shoddy, I doubt it will be multi-formatting that hammers in the final nail of the coffin. It costs so much to make games for the PS3 that Square more or less HAD to go with multi-formatting, otherwise they would have lost vast amounts of money on the game. Its not fair on Square to attack them for this, PS3 owners can attack Microsoft for the flaws in the 360 but when your console suffers game drought its a deadly flaw, and it's one Microsoft have cleverly avoided.

Wow thats a rant and a half..... I should add though that I am jealous of PS3 owners because of Little Big Planet. Its the one creative spark that I think gives the console what it needs, a really good exclusive game that takes things to a different and more exiting level. The PS3 has a vast amount of potential, but its expensive potential, and when its a recession people are not going to be looking at the most expensive option......

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

oh no, the enormous multimillion dollar corporation has decided to make more money, rather than appease the dedicated fanbase. i am so surprised and hate filled i cannot even express it in regular speech.

Seriously? Square have always existed to make money, just like every single person on the planet. Even FFVII was designed to make them more money, the fact that it was good is purely coincidental. And don't try and tell me that had this not happened then the fans would have revered the game. You would have just found something else to rag on. Like the fact that it's mainstream, or included English voice acting at all, or had a girl as the main character. FF died with the last console generation, and we're just plundering the bones.

There have been thirteen of these games now, not counting the ones vaguely related, and massive amounts of tie ins, and the fanbase only gets more broken with every installment. If you didn't leave after FFVII became mainstream you left after FFX got too cut scene heavy. At some point, everyone bails. The only people left are exactly the same as people who defend Halo to the death, or Gears of War, or any series which has lived past is date. Arguing over system requirements is a sham for rabidly defending your own obsession.

 

[shadow skill]

So what reason does anyone really have to buy a graphic novel with poor drawing that invariably damage the story itself (The visuals are integral to actually telling the story.) over a graphic novel with an equally good story and better visuals? Hence my point that someone doing a graphic novel with not so great visuals and a great story is better off dropping the weaker visuals and writing a text novel and focusing on the stronger aspect of the work.

They're are two very different media, the difference in processes of writing a text novel and a Graphic Novel are colossal. They are not interchngeable, maybe someone has the ability to write a story as Graphic, but also the story lends itself better to the style of story telling. To say that they should just write a book instead, is like saying someone's made a piss poor game and should have made a movie instead. And then I suppose there are people who just WANT to write a comic...because that's how they pictured their story.

The writing of a Graphic Novel involves a larger amount of people directly, than of a text novel. Sometimes upto six (writer, editor, pencils, inks colour, lettering etc...). So you have to get pretty far before you have the whole thing together.

This coupled with the fact that a lot of really great writers start off with inferior visuals (and a lot of smaller developers start lower end visually too) and these should be supported to encourage a vibrant future for the medium.

I do understand when you give the choice of an "equally good story with better visuals" but it's rarely that clear cut, even with Graphic Novels, and certainly not with games, which have a plethora of other considerations (controls, voice acting, playability etc...). But in the end I just think that a good story can overcome all the above (with the possible exception of controls). I wish every great story cold be amazingly illustrated or rendered, but alas it's not always within the constraints of development.

Also on the other note, I thought the WET demo was shit hot and didn't notice the animation at all, it made me want to love Bullet Time again and I thought the renders and filters on the camera were inspired, as was the nifty take on QTE's in the final section of the car chase. But then again I hated Devil May Cry, especially the last one and Bayonetta has no appeal to me. Hhhmmm...on consideration I think we may just be into different kinds of things here.

But what actually makes the story good in a graphic novel of any kind is the writing, not the visuals. If the writing was crap, it would still be crap no matter how good or bad the visuals are. The opposite is of course also true. Don't believe, me go read anything by Oh Great and marvel as he destroys his own stories with his shitty ass writing. Which is sad because he is capable of decidedly awesome drawings. (He is a Hentai artist after all.) He is a perfect example of someone who would do well to get someone who can actually write to handle the scenario while he handles the drawings which he is actually good at.

 

[Aardvark]

You failed to mention you also bashed the 360 in the original post. Congrats on being so narrowminded that you can see the faults of both systems.

You're confusing narrow-minded with pessimistic. Even then, you've got the wrong term.

People wonder why I weep for the future of humanity. I just direct them here.

 

[mad benji89]

What the hell is wrong with them!!! FFXIII belongs on the PS3, how dare they hurt its quality for the benefit of Xbox 360 owners *epicly sarcastic and derogatory voice* Those people better watch themselves cause the moment my ninjas get back from doing my grocery shopping they are so dead!!! ... actually if they are dead they can't fix the problem ... they are so threatened!!!

and my undead horde will eat clowds brains!!

 

[Generic_Dave]

But what actually makes the story good in a graphic novel of any kind is the writing, not the visuals. If the writing was crap, it would still be crap no matter how good or bad the visuals are. The opposite is of course also true. Don't believe, me go read anything by Oh Great and marvel as he destroys his own stories with his shitty ass writing. Which is sad because he is capable of decidedly awesome drawings. (He is a Hentai artist after all.) He is a perfect example of someone who would do well to get someone who can actually write to handle the scenario while he handles the drawings which he is actually good at.

I agree with you completely there, but that's more a case of ego than anything else. I was more trying to defend better visuals not being an option, there's no excuse for not getting someone better if you can, but you can't always, and have to work with the tools at there disposal. Sometimes, due to budget, time, hardware or software, and team skill-set, you just can't always do the perfection that were dreamed. This being particularly true for smaller and newer devs.

 

[shadow skill]

But what actually makes the story good in a graphic novel of any kind is the writing, not the visuals. If the writing was crap, it would still be crap no matter how good or bad the visuals are. The opposite is of course also true. Don't believe, me go read anything by Oh Great and marvel as he destroys his own stories with his shitty ass writing. Which is sad because he is capable of decidedly awesome drawings. (He is a Hentai artist after all.) He is a perfect example of someone who would do well to get someone who can actually write to handle the scenario while he handles the drawings which he is actually good at.

I agree with you completely there, but that's more a case of ego than anything else. I was more trying to defend better visuals not being an option, there's no excuse for not getting someone better if you can, but you can't always, and have to work with the tools at there disposal. Sometimes, due to budget, time, hardware or software, and team skill-set, you just can't always do the perfection that were dreamed. This being particularly true for smaller and newer devs.

Well Bethesda needed to hire some animators for Wet cause its like watching a damned robot move. What really gets me are the sword animations and her jumping animations. It's like watching someone swing a goddamn bat or a clay model being posed for a jump. Makes me want to cry for the game really.

 

[MrGFunk]

I don't see how this is fair. Can't I get a little some something for owning the black beast. Don't 360 owners already get a load of stuff on multiplatform releases we don't.

Why even a playing field when the whole point of them having Bluray is so it's not an even playing field?

 

[squid5580]

You failed to mention you also bashed the 360 in the original post. Congrats on being so narrowminded that you can see the faults of both systems.

You're confusing narrow-minded with pessimistic. Even then, you've got the wrong term.

People wonder why I weep for the future of humanity. I just direct them here.

I see your sarcasm detector is off. Or your editing of posts is affecting your memory of everything that was said.

 

[teutonicman]

That's pretty god damn dumb. You should optimize for each platform and if the 360 can't do it on 1 disk.... tough shit.
P.S. I have a 360 not a PS3