You are directing Final Fantasy XV. Where do you take the series?

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

The bandwagon is strong with this one... If you hate the series then don't bother posting.

I've had many things in mind, but foremost among them would be a purge of the MMORPG elements that have dragged down three FF games and counting. From the looks of things, FFXIII is leaning more towards emulating the flashy style of Dissidia, though I'm not sure how you're going to control the other party members that way.

It's the eternal dilemma of such systems that only turn-based allows your party to fight without relying on dimwitted AIs, yet it's hated by a sizeable number of folks. If turn-based really must go, then I would advocate a 'Planning' system that allows you to create hotkeyed battle plans for your allies, telling them exactly where to move in relation to their target and what actions to perform, which you could then test out in a simulator or something before using.

As for a story outline, a departure from the lean towards a high-tech world that FFVI began and a kind of world we haven't seen illustrated with current-gen graphics yet; a magocracy. No guns, but people have developed the spells to make buildings and vehicles float among other miracles. Most magocracies in fiction automatically develop rigid class systems based on one's magical talent or intelligence, and so the protagonist's initial goal (of course in Final Fantasy your final goal is never the one you started with) would be to destroy this unfair system, though everyone else but him/her would assume his/her goal to be climbing to the top of it and becoming the ruler.

 

[iamthehorde]

i´d rather shut the whole series down. seriously, i think it´s enough. the only reason they keep naming the games final fantasy is that there are enough dumb people that will buy them because the box says final fantasy. throw some chocobos in there, a few moogles and a cid and that´s basically all you need to name your game anything with final fantasy.

everything i read about part XIII puts me off. to me the series is dead at least since X-2. if jrpgs don´t start to evolve, they will be dead in a few years or only be made for the ds. it´s the genre that has aged the worst as new graphics technology defaced them basically as interactive films/animes with ridiculous busywork of grinding and fighting until you are "powerful" enough to witness the next cutscene.

nearly no other genre benefitted so much from the absence of great graphics(except maybe rogue-likes) because on the snes you made your own image of those little sprites, the story took place in text-dialogue with simple graphics and you had to use your fantasy which ultimately detracted from a lot of flaws the genre likes to treat as "tradition"(random enemy encounters for example). these flaws become now even more apparent that the west is now used to these games since almost two decades and what once was fresh, now feels deliberately dated and also the typical jrpg setting is getting more ridiculous and boring with every rehash of the old formula.

 

[auronvi]

So much FF hate. I guess if you didn't play it when you were younger, than it would be a hard series to just jump into.

I would keep the trend going in the way of Final Fantasy XII with new play mechanics and keep trying to evolve the game. Offer a branching story of the likes that no one has seen before, fully voice acted. Bioware is good with voice acting but the games aren't 60 hour epics like Final Fantasy and if they were, I would love them even more!

Also return to the FFVI and FFVII style of art. Darker, more urban, and dirty environments. FFXII's world was pretty good. Just nothing like 10 or 13. I am sure I will love 13, I just prefer the less sci-fi like graphics. I think that's why I didn't like Xenosaga.

I don't know. I'm not saying I could do better, just that they need to take the series in a different direction if they want people to keep buying them. They need to stop killing their old series though. Front Mission: Evolved looks TERRIBLE! Turned it into a gimpy Armored Core. The took the one feature that made the game stand out, and ripped it out.

/sigh, I'll just have to turn to Bioware for all my future RPG needs.

 

[Twad]

Where do i take it? Behind the shed, with a shotgun and a shovel.

-- but more-or-less seriously, i would start by making a game that isnt a clone of WoW, and where the setting makes sense so there isnt a pink lvl 90 dinosaur outside the gates of a city, and said city that doesnt seem to mind (and dont do a thing agaisnst) the fact they are sorrounded by countless bloodthirsty monsters.

 

[Skoldpadda]

- Bring back text only, if you can't hire good voice actors.
- I dig the mechanical Chocobo idea.
- Evil Moogles!
- No, don't let it evolve towards Bioware-style WRPG's, for God's sake. Have it evolve, yes, but within its own niche.
- But yeah, make the storyline branch out a bit. Nothing too modular, but give the player the choice to follow different routes here and there or choose the order in which to do things. Don't go all out with this, don't make it too sandboxy, just, you know. Throw a bit of it in there, for starters. Like when you spice your food. Start with a little bit. Can't hurt.
- Nobuo Uematsu. Nobuo Uematsu. Nobuo Uematsu. Nobuo Uematsu? Yes, Nobuo Uematsu.
- I agree with the poster who proposes a ratio of 50/50 main-/subquest for a total of 120ish hours.
- Airship exploring!
- Jobs. One character, one job. I also like Lost Odyssey, but like in FF7/8, in this game anyone can do anything. It makes the characters completely interchangeable and thus expendable in combat. I really hate that. It's the most important reason why FF9 is my favourite.
- No, seriously, mechanical Chocobos. That's just brilliant.
- Wait, Mystic Quest on the gameboy had a Chocobo with mechanical legs. That was a weird game; it was set in a Secret Of Mana-style universe (Mana Tree, a city called "Wendel") but it had a Chocobo. A cyborg Chocobo. I'm sorry, that's just awesome.
- It must have a Cid, of course.

A man can dream, can't he.

 

[Plurralbles]

You know where I'd take it? TO a bog somewhere and tell it to go hunting for Snipes and not to come back until it has one.

Nah, I'd just sit back and just slap the developers when they come up with a stupid idea.

 

[Robert632]

Space? Oh yes, there will be space monkies...

Space monkies? Pfft, that's silly.
they'd be space wolves.

O.T:i would make FF15 a remake of some other game completely unrelated, just to fuck with everyones head.

 

[Emperor Inferno]

My order is to make a shitty(er than usual) game so that no one will buy it and maybe they'll finally STOP FUCKING MAKING IT.

 

[fanklok]

Yet you include Mystic Quest, which was the FF game aimed at children and quite possibly the worst FF game ever made!?

That's where you are wrong good sir, it was the first Final Fantasy to be released in america and the japanese where afraid us americans would be too stupid to understand the complexities of a full fledged RPG so they dumbed it down immensely

 

[Taerdin]

Where would I take it?

To its grave so it can get some damn rest. Holy shit talk about series' that went on way too long. I wish I could put Zelda out to pasture as well, I mean at a certain point you just need to let go.

 

[Space Spoons]

I think I'd probably flip the standard formula of "motley gang of teenagers learns to work past their differences and work together to stop Baron Von Darkness from destroying the world" on its ear and let the player take the role of the bad guy.

And it wouldn't be any of that "oh, maybe it's all in the point of view" cop-out stuff, either. You're playing a bad guy who, for one reason or another, wants to destroy all of creation, and is willing to kill anyone or anything that gets in his way. Unless you're a psychopath, the character you're controlling would have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I just think it'd be a nice change of pace.

 

[Axolotl]

Give it back the Job system from 3.
Have the setting be a cross between turn of the centuary Sci-Fi and Planescape.
Give it a more complex and deep story.
Oh and have the combat system from FF 6.

 

[Mr. Win]

Right to the ground... everybody would know my name. I shall be forever known as the guy who ruined final fantasy.

 

[ckam]

Have the party fight against many forms of statism, introducing rather controversial schools of thought to society. Question lots of philosophy, even more religion, and moral ambiguity in ways that would make Alan Moore proud. I'll have them try to tackle some mixture of Western and Eastern style RPG elements, too.

Oh yes, and make the main protagonist a lesbian.

 

[Firebane]

1) Introduce a decent combat system, may be shooteresque/hack and slashy but still accesible.

2) Hire Nathan Fillion, why? Because he's god damn Nathan Fillion, we're making a rip roaring quest to the edge of the universe bitches complete with star ship battles and intergalactic space train jobs where you have to rob the shit out of it, with Nathan Fillion.

3) Replace all effeminate lady boy characters with Outlaws, Mad Scientists, Runaways and Renegades, Soldiers, Rebels and whatever other badassery I can find, there shall be no Unresolved Sexual Tension in this game, the men and women of this universe get things done, and DONE RIGHT!

4) Add fire, it works.

5) Add Fire-power, lots of it.

6) Make the villain a puppy murdering socio-pathic megalomaniac. It sounds evil already, but compare it with other Final Fantasy 'villains' and this man is rocketed far beyond the rank of monster.

7) Space Western it up.

 

[McMarbles]

To all those saying "Kill it", you're not adding anything interesting, insightful, or intelligent to this thread. Door's over there. Use it.

Anyway, what I'd do...

1. Classic turn-based system, cross between 3 and 5.

2. Jobs, jobs, jobs! More than ever before, with customizable skillsets and enough twinkage possibilities to make Red Mage Statskowski cream himself.

3. Lose the arbitrary damage/level/HP caps. Take a page from NIS's book. Let people go nuts.

4. Multiple planets/dimensions. Maybe even time travel.

5. Sidequests up the wazoo.

6. I actually like the branching storylines idea.

7. I'd say "female lead", but XIII's already doing that. So, let's go in a different direction. Make the lead character nonhuman.

 

[robinkom]

I would cleverly disguise it as Chrono Trigger II.

 

[PureChaos]

i'd make it so you end up destroying the entire FF universe so there can not be another FF game...unless someone has a trans-dimensional teleporter and can continue the story in another dimension!

Since only Ivalice reappears in a couple of FF games, there's no way to destroy the FF Universe... Aside from that, they are in completely different universes.

Frankly though, they could make FFXXVIII and I'd still be as giddy as a fanboy.

i don't know who that is. i thought only Sid appears in more than game though even then it was a different Sid each time. i've only played FFII though i didn't finish it.