Would Square Enix profit ...

[Thandran]

... if they would try to make a spin off Final Fantasy game in which they would try to appeal it's western fans?

I'm a huge Final Fantasy fan, but sometimes I think about wanting to play a Final Fantasy type game that would have it's usual gameplay, aestethic, music... but making characters such as Kane, Cid, Fang, Auron, Balthier, Basch etc. as the main protagonist and the story would not revolve around teenagers trying to save the world from ultimate evil/empire/the world itself etc. You know ... the usual JRPG antagonists.

Something like a mix between Dragon Age/The Witcher/Planescape Torment etc. and Final Fantasy.

Would you try out such a game, my dear Escapists?

 

[Zhukov]

So... make a Final Fantasy game that is in no way a Final Fantasy game?

Yeah. I'm not seeing that going down too well.

That's coming from someone who views the FF series with indifference at best and thinly veiled derision at worst. Personally I would be more likely to buy, play and enjoy a FF game that bore bugger-all resemblance to the rest of the series. However, I rather doubt that that applies to the fans that this theoretical game of yours would be trying to appeal to.

 

[dimensional]

Well they do try and make it appeal if you want a series that sticks strictly to its roots play Dragon Quest, a lot of people would probably say that the problem is they are trying to westernise it (if thats a word) and replace teenager with middle aged or 20/30 year old for western rpgs most are about saving something or other usually the world or galaxy universe etc.

Japanese people tend to like more coming of age stories while western people like more gritty fantasy/sci fi war stories so how do you appease both?

Its up to them what they want to do I think they should just make a game they want to make rather than look at it from a marketing and potential profile perspective rather than being in this limbo they seem to be in at the moment once they do that I think their fortunes will get better although as far as I know they are still making a profit anyway.

Also I think your mix of games is a bit muddled it dosent really say anything each game should be considered on its own basis what it should be like and how all the components fit together I would not like to see a square enix character in my WRPG and I would not like to see a bioware cd projeckt obsidian whatever character in my JRPG they would just not mesh well imo.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well most importantly do not ever call it Final Fantasy, because FF fans would be out for their blood and Witcher/Dragon Age fans would dismiss it same as before.

I however have been craving such a game for decades because I really love the FF wacky worlds they create, they even make their very own terminologies and logics.
But they stay dead true to alternate universe spread sheet combat and characters are all about teenage angst, I didn't want to deal with those even when I was angsty myself.

Dragon Age 2 did attempt to go the other way, infusing an old D&D setting with emo drama and random battles, to me that is just the worst you can do but people into drama loved it.
So the first very important question is what kind of direction do you want, and to get it right it would take one hell of a JRPG/WRPG team meld that could agree on the good/bad without falling out, because if you have been making products a certain way then you do not ever appreciate someone coming in to tell you how it's done.

The ultimate anwser is no this would not make good money.

 

[Zantos]

You'd struggle to have a bad game if it starred Auron. Just make sure he keeps being a total badass.

I think it could be an interesting concept over all, but there's a lot of things they'd have to consider first.

 

[Thandran]

Maybe I've worded my idea wrong. Yeah ... I agree with you guys that we'd have to change the name of the game, else we anger the fans.

My idea was if you'd play a game with Final Fantasy - esque type of world, gameplay and music with a more Witcher/Dragon Age/Baldur's Gate/Planescape Torment etc. type story.

 

[Ghonesis]

So basically a western-style RPG storyline...
With graphics and aesthetics in an anime style.

Don't really see why not, actually. It's just a western-RPG with a different look.
The 'anime' look instead of the 'realistic' look. (like Skyrim)

JRPG fans won't like it because of the storyline, though.. but western-RPG players might appreciate it.

 

[krazykidd]

Maybe I've worded my idea wrong. Yeah ... I agree with you guys that we'd have to change the name of the game, else we anger the fans.

My idea was if you'd play a game with Final Fantasy - esque type of world, gameplay and music with a more Witcher/Dragon Age/Baldur's Gate/Planescape Torment etc. type story.

So you want a Wrpg that moves away from the Tolkien influence . That is a GREAT idea . And i think everyone wants that . But no one makes them for reasons still unknown to me .

Edit: as for square-enix , and this is coming from a life long fan of squaresoft/enix , i think they are too far gone to profit from anything at this point, and it makes me sad .

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

No but only for the simple fact that is a FF spin a new IP name might make money.

 

[malestrithe]

No, It would not work. The people that are going to buy Final Fantasy do so because they want the particular experience you can only get from a Final Fantasy game. This experience is different than other JRPGs before anyone says otherwise.

Also, Final Fantasy 13 sold 6.51 million units worldwide. Most of those sales are in Europe and United States. This is far more sales than any Western RPG except Skyrim. I think they are doing fine by keeping to their formula.

 

[Cheesepower5]

They could do whatever they want. But look at Nier or Lost Oddysey - it totally works, even if it's not exactly a cash grab.

But fuck, SE could rake in a profit collectively dooking in a bucket and marketing it as Final Fantasy, so why shouldn't they?

 

[Judgement101]

Sounds like Square Enix developed Bethesda published kinda thing. I think it'd work if it was a seperate game, not a spin off or a remake.

 

[Myndnix]

Square-Enix would profit by making games that don't suck bollocks.
Yes, I'm talking to you, Final Fantasy XIII. And XIV, I guess.

 

[Cheesepower5]

They could do whatever they want. But look at Nier or Lost Oddysey - it totally works, even if it's not exactly a cash grab.

But fuck, SE could rake in a profit collectively dooking in a bucket and marketing it as Final Fantasy, so why shouldn't they?

it was Mist Walker studios who developed Lost Odyssey and MS published it. Square Enix had nothing to do with that game excepted that some of the former members of Square made that studio.

NIer was developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix

I was citing them as examples of JRPGs with adult aged protagonists, not Square games. Mistwalker is helmed by Sakaguchi though, and with the music by Nobuo Uematsu it's definitely closer to a traditional FF game than XII or XIII which are basically FFT: The Single Playerr MMO and Advent Children: The Game respectively.

And to be fair, Nier's about a pretty boy and his sister in the JP version. Now that's marketing genius.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

It would work, financially speaking. I mean, if square cared about what the fans of Final Fantasy thought, then they never would have released Final Fantasy XII, XIII, and XIII-2. With Square's marketing, they would easily be able to make a "western-style" Final Fantasy a hit. But would it be a good game? would it be an artistic success? No, of course not. SquareEnix lost their last hope of being a good company when Mr Sakaguchi left, and is surviving on sheer inertia and fan-goodwill right now. Though, that may be running thin after XIII-2 and XIV.

Also, you talk about the mere premise of the game, i.e. "a teenage boy saving the world," but the premise of the story does not make the game. For an RPG, the story usually makes or breaks the game, and the secret is in the execution of the story, not in its premise. We could just as easily say that all western RPGs are about grizzled borderline sociopaths of undetermined gender slaughtering their way to the top of a mountain/society to fight a dragon. However, that would not really be true, as it is far more about the execution of the story than its premise. Also, if you think that all JRPGs are about teenage boys saving the world, then play Suikoden II. That game will banish that preconception.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Same aesthetics, same characters, same franchise, but 'oriented towards Western audiences'? Not sure what exactly you mean by that- FF's aesthetics are generally brighter than say, Diablo or Mass Effect. The characters you listed are some of the more popular ones, but that alone isn't enough to change the minds of the apparently large number of Westerners who decided long ago to unconditionally despise all things FF, particularly with a spinoff. That's like mixing teen romance and tons of character dialogue into a 'hardcore' FPS to make it appeal to Eastern audiences more. It wouldn't work even if pulled off well.

In the light of the recent failures, I'd rather see them do what Capcom did with Mega Man 9 to try and redeem themselves for the mess the X series had turned into- make a retro game with modern design wisdom and story depth (or the depth of whichever game you consider to have the best story), say FF5 or 6 level graphics and expanded class system.

 

[IDS3Remix]

Square would have to make an extremely powerful story, in order to use Adult characters. With adult characters, real life issues tend to reflect more. This is a reason why I loved Lost Odyssey. While it wasn't realistic, some of the themes that were discussed in that game were fairly powerful. They were not something I could ever imagine a Final Fantasy game touching on, or at least not any of the newer ones. Final Fantasy XII had a chance to do that I felt, but they had gone along and made Vaan the main character, and spent most of the time talking strictly about politics.

Square has the potential to make a good adult themed Final Fantasy game, it's been done before, but Square seems to know their fanbase all too well, and know the demographic that they need to appeal to in order to get those sales. I'd go back to having a standard turn style RPG experience, as long as the story was enough to keep me interested in the game.

Something I DO NOT WANT, is a Final Fantasy with gameplay like Skyrim, or a WRPG that features mopey angsty teenage protagonists...

 

[Loop Stricken]

I thought that they already HAD, and it was called Dirge of Cerberus...