Square Enix Wants FF XIII-2 To Address All the Problems With the Original

[Logan Westbrook]

Square Enix Wants FF XIII-2 To Address All the Problems With the Original

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will be more like the what has come before in the series, says its producer and director.

Final Fantasy developer Square Enix says that its goal with the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII-2 is to address all the criticisms that people had about its predecessor. Game director Motomu Toriyama says that XIII-2 will be much less linear, with much more of the exploration-based gameplay the series it known for.

Toriyama said that Square Enix had taken all the criticism very seriously, and had handled it completely and thoroughly. Producer Yoshinori Kitase said that all the returning elements from Final Fantasy XII had been revised or had new features added to them. There were also new gameplaye elements as well. As an example, Kitase said that XIII-2 had a lot more mini-games, as their absence was something that people have complained about in XIII. He explained that one of the concepts behind Final Fantasy was that it was a melting pot of different game styles, and said that the team had made idea one of its priorities in XIII-2's development.

It's always good to see developers taking criticism on board, especially if it results in better games. Hopefully Square Enix will be able to fix the pacing problems and other issues in Final Fantasy XIII and give fans of the series a game that they will really enjoy.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 comes out for PS3 and Xbox 360 in January.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/35385/Qamp_A_The_Real_Story_Behind_Final_Fantasy_XIII2.php]



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[Dragoon]

I really hope they cut down on cutscenes this time so it's more of a game and less of an interactive movie.

 

[dyre]

yay, more minigames?

 

[Not-here-anymore]

What happened to FFXIII versus? Is that still a thing that's happening?
Not that I have any intention of getting it, I'm just curious

 

[wooty]

Nice to hear theyre taking the citicisms on board. Overall, I never had a problem with XIII, I just saw it as a bit of an experiment really, both in terms of a new combat system and a graphical benchmark.

I can see why people were annoyed though, as it deviated far from the quality that people are used to from Final Fantasy.as a series.
Still looking forward to the sequel for now, even more so now if theres an attempt to address the fans gripes.

 

[Eisenfaust]

final fantast 13:2? seriously?

so much for counting sequentially

 

[ciancon]

Sooo....no dress-spheres then?

 

[hewhosaysfish]

Actually, Eisenfaust, I think they stopped counting sequentially with 10:2...

 

[Saltyk]

I don't know. X-2 left a bad taste in my mouth. Not really sure if I wanna try another direct sequel.

 

[YunikoYokai5]

I hope to god we can control all of our characters now >.> and if the 'captain' faints, the fight doesn't automatically end. That annoyed me to hell.

 

[ddq5]

Uh... all of them? At least they're ambitious. But by fixing all the problems, they'd be left with a "perfect" game and call me a cynic for being just a wee bit skeptical.

 

[Woodsey]

Can someone explain all this "versus" business? Or is it just because the monumentally retarded name of Final Fantasy 13 is nowhere near as retarded as Final Fantasy 26 or whatever it is by now?

 

[Merlark]

is it Irony that the reason for 13's failure is because they thought they listened to their fans criticism the first time?

It appears that Square is great at listening but not the best at implementing the idea's to solve the problem.

Square seems to think Sequels are for do-overs. Does it do a sequel for its popular well put together games? nope, does it stink? yes? SEQUEL!

 

[BrotherRool]

The truth is, despite what people say, Final Fantasy has always been a series that changes more game to game than any other series you can care too mention. Which is why it has the most broken base of all time, you cannot point to one game which is similar to another past V.

I mean what they're probably most famous for being consistent on is the ATB system and that wasn't present in X, XI, XII, XIII, only VII, VIII, X-2 etc

Even people who complain about the plots being similar don't really have much of a case. Compare the plots of X, X-2, XII and XIII (heck you can chuck VI-VIII in there as well)

So the truth is, I don't know what to expect. I don't mind lots of cutscenes, the cutscenes were part of the sell in X, they were a reward for progressing along your journey. In fact lack of cutscenes were a problem with XII and XIII, they were too many points where it didn't feel like anything was happening.

So I don't feel I can make any predictions about this game (except that Lightnings close look stupid in this one). The thing is, the combat resetting (one of the few things that almost everyone praised) is the thing I felt held it back. There wasn't any sense of progress or accomplishment, because every fight was isolated. X, despite being as linear, felt less linear because the journey was the struggle, it was all about trying to reach the next place of safety and often you'd have to run back to base to refill, defeated by the passage. Whereas in XIII there was no interacting with the environment, no running back to base, because you could never really be defeated, you just either pressed ahead or gave up.

And sadly that's the feature they're definitely keeping

is it Irony that the reason for 13's failure is because they thought they listened to their fans criticism the first time?

It appears that Square is great at listening but not the best at implementing the idea's to solve the problem.

Square seems to think Sequels are for do-overs. Does it do a sequel for its popular well put together games? nope, does it stink? yes? SEQUEL!

I thought X was a fantastic game. Considering it set the record for fasting selling console game ever, has a metacritic score of 92, and won numerous best game of the year awards (including ranking 60 in best games of all time, according to IGN, 43 according to GameInformer and 12 according to GameFAQs. I feel some people agree with me

And since in 2009 (five years after release) it was ranked the 9th best selling RPG ever according to Guiness world records, you're (probably) wrong about the popular too

 

[Something Amyss]

Dear Squeenix,

please cut down on the number of releases. Post-game games to patch bad games are just making the problems worse.

(Five Capchas later...Let's see if I finally get this one....)

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Hmm I think I will be waiting for reception and reviews before I believe any of that.

Also I'm guessing the people they are talking about didn't sit through FFXIII soooo why make a sequel? Sigh.

 

[Sexy Devil]

*deleted*

 

[Madmanonfire]

Don't say stuff like this SE... you'll only disappoint people when you come up short. It'd be better if you had an attainable goal in mind.
It's impossible for "all" of the problems to be fixed.

 

[Adzma]

Eh, while I don't hate FF XIII, heck I would say that despite its faults I do infact like it, but I'd much rather hear news about Versus than XIII-2. That said I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and not write this game off completely.