You own Square-Enix: What's the next step for Final Fantasy?

[Manji187]

So to cut to the chase, you own Square-Enix now. What do you do next with FF?

Basically I would take the world of Vagrant Story and FF XII (Ivalice) and make a mature FF that would appeal more to the western market:

-a fully grown protagonist (psychologically) of about 26 years
-no cooky/ wacky support characters
-a human antagonist/ boss (he can still be conspiring with dark forces)
-no saving the world/ universe for a change (political intrigue/ plotting will do just fine)

That's a start at least...

IMHO the biggest problem with FF is its primary concern to appeal to the domestic market (with all its quirks). That's a sure-fire way to NOT appeal to a large portion of the western market.

"But...the huge western fanbase!?" .... The one that has been steadily declining over the years? The one that shrinks to consisting of only the hard-core fans? Hell, it's easy to sell to japanophiles/ anime & manga enthusiasts... how about growing a pair and trying to win over the rest?

 

[SilverUchiha]

Cut out all the gameplay (or what's left of it) and just start making movies from here on out. Seems simple to me.

 

[Discrodia]

Kill it with fire, sell the movie rights for a bajillion dollars and retire to my volcanic island base of evil.

This.

 

[Archemetis]

Endeavour to create a cartoony re-imagining of Final Fantasy VII for either the PSP or the DS.

Which I'm sure will be followed by the photo-realism nerds raging all over me.
But it's ok, because I know those same nerds will buy the game anyway...
Thus nothing will be harmed... At least sales wise.

 

[Nick Angelici]

OKay (cracks knuckles) lets get started.

I would make a new FF with:

less characters that stand for one mood or idea and only change to one other mood to make it seem that they are human, this isnt likable (Lightning, Snow, Squall, Vincent, etc...) and in the end it just looks and if VOed, then also sounds terrible, again, Lighting is the biggest example of this. The only reason I dont state Cloud is because in the actually original game, he was a pretty interesting character who went insane, that, and the writers mom died before he wrote the plot so you can feel the emotion from both cloud and Sephiroth, its not a perfect plot, but it worked.

The setting is utopian Steampunk, a version of it long past the victorian age and has become super advanced, Zepplin airships everywhere, Tall towering cities, and everything looks spectacular.

Theres a alot I could list here, but it would be too long and boring, Combat would be classic FF with a timing abillity for combos and blocking like that of Mother 3. but I want to state one thing.



A character being 17 doesnt make them boring or cliche, its always the personality, Look at Zidane, he cant be anymore than 19 at the oldest and thats being generous, and yet, He's more likable than Squall, whose 17 as stated in the player manual.

Lets also take Tidus for example, hes also 17, everyone knows Tidus for him have two qualities, his terrible Voice acting, and that he hates his dad, okay that makes sense. Lets take away the VO, and make all the dialogue in chat windows like previous ones, hmm, now he doesnt seem so annoying right?

I use to hate X, but when I gave it a second chance, I really enjoyed it, havent beaten it, but we all know how it ends. Tidus changed in a way that was human, he would fuck up and be like "Holy shit, I'm sorry, I...I didnt know." My favorite part of Tidus was actually when he was moody, because it showed more than his optimistic zealous side and let us see his thoughts and feeling as he really felt.

ON THE OTHER HAND, Yuna is a character I hate, sees boring, monotone, and completely unlikable, what tidus sees in her? Hell if I know. Though story wise everyone is like, yeah, she changes, Im looking at her and think, No, she didnt. same for Lightning, Whats up her ass all the time? Ugh I gave up on XIII because the only thing keeping me playing was Sazh, The most Human character, and I barely got to play as him.

Im done ranting, good bye

 

[Cavan]

End it, or rename it,if you're gonna make a bloated RPG series it's not really final anything because there's always more stats to max and super final final extra optional final dark version bosses to beat.

Otherwise..ehmm work out a way to make the combat actually link in with the storyline somehow and not just have UNNATURAL TRANSITION 'and now we're all neatly in a line against the monsters on a bland flat landscape which goes from grass to snow depends on where we are.

 

[itsnotyouitsme]

I would try to get the edgy crowd drawn in more. Make the main character a young boy who could care less about friends and the entire game he's trying to get away from those who gather around him. And at the very end those people give up and go home after the main character ascends to a giant floating death castle in the sky.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I would go back in time and look at what made the old FF games better than the current generation games, and vice versa.

From there I would make a "classic" FF game based on the "magic of FF" Because Square-Enix seems to have forgotten what made their old games good in an attempt to become "modern". With Final Fantasy XII it seems Square-Enix just took away "boring stuff" without adding "Fun Stuff" not realizing what they removed was actually what made their games fun/interesting to play.


World Map and Random encounters: Back IN!
Random Encounters Chrono trigger style: IN!
A Level up system that opens for some thinking: IN! (like Shpere grid in FFX or Materia in FFVII, not the Junction system or Crystals from FFXIII blargh)
Move away from having emo kids as the main characters: IN!


I believe Final Fantasy would sell well regardless of how the game is, so focusing on making it sell well in the West would be my plan. But it still had to feel Final Fantasyish, so I bring back what I liked about the old games.

The setting would be Medieval Steam Punk I think, sort of what FFV and FFVI was, a little less technology as FFVII but miles less than FFXIII.
More Steampunk than Sci-fi I think.

oh oh oh:

Bringing back Nobuo Uematsu for the music. Square-Enix dropped the ball letting him go. FFXIII had crap generic music...

ON THE OTHER HAND, Yuna is a character I hate, sees boring, monotone, and completely unlikable, what tidus sees in her? Hell if I know.
Im done ranting, good bye

Shes hot? What else does a 17 year old boy need to like a girl?

 

[MercurySteam]

Stop making FF games. Period.

This kind of topic always reminds me how stupid people can be around here. Did it ever cross your mind that someone else might like something you don?t?
Have you ever tried simply ignoring Final Fantasy and playing something else if you don?t like it anymore?

And it hasn't yet occurred to you that someone else doesn't like what you like? I liked the FF games a long time ago and the few people I know who still play the old games, do so while at the same time they would stop making more. Take your own advice and ignore people who have a different opinion to yours. Seems the only smart way to proceed.

 

[Seneschal]

Well, Squaresoft *did* try to make a movie before. It was called FF: Spirits Within, and it bombed so hard that Squaresoft had to merge with Enix to become Square-Enix. I personally enjoyed it but...

IMO, FF stories are deeper than can simply be made into a 3 hour movie. I suppose it can be done with 3, 3-hour installments ala LotR, but even that has its critics that so much was left out of the movies which was present in the books, despite the fact that the movies were the epitome of EPIC.

Not to mention that movies probably cost far more than games to create.

However, if I was head of Square-Enix, IMO I'd just reform the gameplay to the fact that there is less "you encountered a monster. Kill it. Pick up lewtz. Repeat.", and even *MOAR* focus on the story. Yes, combat systems are a part of gameplay, but the whole "let's make a freaking RITUAL out of bashing a monster" has honestly irritated me. I see random encounters as a necessary evil to provide some modicum of "gameplay", despite the fact that, oh, visual novels are pretty damn popular in Japan, and the only gameplay they have is decision making in order to move the story (EG "Do I kiss the heroine? Yes/No). IMO, if VNs can get away with *that little* interaction and have just ONE route provide a fantastic anime (Fate route = Fate/Stay Night, Ein route=Requiem for the Phantom...aside from the REALLY STUPID last one minute), then why the heck do RPGs have to have all of the monster bashing to begin with? Because U.S. gamers are attention-deficient numbskulls that always want to stab/shoot/kill something?

That kind of crap is the reason that games aren't seen in the same light as books and movies.

IMO, if I was head of Square-Enix, I'd cut out all of the combat except for the *absolutely necessary*, and by absolutely necessary, I mean that if it doesn't advance the freaking plot, or provide exposition, then cut it out. Yeah, okay, you might run into the occasional monster, but not being able to take 3 steps out of towns without something trying to kill you = "Can I please get past these randomly colored weird-looking oversized dogs and continue on with the story already?"

IMO FFs are fantastic at telling a story, and all of the combat just takes so much away from them. I'd do away with as much of the filler combat crap as possible, and tell the "MUST KILL SMASH STAB EVERYTHING IN SIGHT" gamers to go and find an FPS.

I'm not sure I quite agree, but it might work. Now, I'd never call such a product a "game", but it is a medium of its own. Just like interactive novels, JRPGs are very comfortable in their own format, they know what kinds of stories they can tell. And there is an audience for those, regardless of the people decrying the lack of interactivity. Other games largely don't have a clue how to tell a story anyway.

Still, JRPGs themselves aren't really classic literature. They had some really atrocious writing, and most still just use a pile of fan-pandering clichés and call it plot structure. While I've seen a few fantastic subversions, most of them are the same old hero's journey power fantasy crap. It's not new, insightful or moving.

Actually, aside from a few titles, games really suck at storytelling. JRPGs are marginally better suited for it, but they suck too. No, seriously, our "great stories" are all pulpy adventure fiction from $5 paperback novels - look at Bioshock (historical pulp sci-fi), Deus Ex (conspiracy pulp sci-fi), Metal Gear series (Tom Clancy meets Studio Gainax), all the Final Fantasies (anime/fairytale hybrid for ages 6-13), all the BioWare games (great evil from beyond + political enemy + 4 quest hubs + party building = formula for 7 identical games)... NONE of them have objectively better stories than film or book classics. Now, if games ever recognized their own medium and made an effort to produce narrative art out of there, we wouldn't need this comparison, but as it stands, games are trying to tell stories stolen from other mediums. They unanimously suck at that.

I think interactivity and linear drama-building, especially with pacing and structure taken from a movie, cannot coexist. At least with your idea, Final Fantasy will get the medium and format it so desperately tries to emulate. But isn't it a bit backwards? I know of one game that left me awe-struck without ever limiting interactivity, copying a movie/book plot/cliché, or dumping badly-written dialogue at me. The story is largely untold, but it's there. And isn't storytelling itself just a tool to get emotions across to the audience? What if it turned out games don't need it in the way literature does? There's a big and unexplored area there, and your idea for the FF series would largely ensure it never even comes close to it. Wouldn't that be a shame?

OT: I'd make the FF series drop the PG-rated straightjacket. Less princesses and evil emperors, more maturity and subtlety... and then I'd lose the company. You cannot mess with FF, it's a lot more than a brand. It's a flavour. Take one spice out and the entire thing tastes like shit to its fans.

 

[NinjaTigerXIII]

Stop all work and focus of Final Fantasy Versus XIII!

 

[Shirokurou]

Make Nomura head game director. He knows what he's doing.
Rehire Nobuo Uematsu.
Concentrate on story, to make it more personal to the heroes and the player.
Scrap any MMO projects that are still there.
Screw the fans whining with "it's downhill since FF(insert number)" and persevere.

 

[carpathic]

Um...tactical nuclear weapon in the main office so no more sub-par JRPG's are ever made again?
j/k
I might actually look at the tactics game again that was on Gameboy. For a japanese game (which are generally nowhere near my taste) it was quite fun.

 

[EmzOLV]

Make Nomura head game director. He knows what he's doing.
Rehire Nobuo Uematsu.
Concentrate on story, to make it more personal to the heroes and the player.
Scrap any MMO projects that are still there.
Screw the fans whining with "it's downhill since FF(insert number)" and persevere.

Out of all the comments on this thread, this one more realistically depicts what I'd wish/hope to do if I was actually in the insane position of owning Square Enix. So, for lack of a better term... this *points upwards*

Although I was also beginning to see the argument some comments were making along the lines of concentrating more on movies.

I just don't see FF dying out completely, I have such a difficulty to think it would, and I don't know if it could drastically change to movies - it seems like quite a jump.

Definitely drop the MMOs though. If there is a point... why are they making them? It's not doing them many favours (I'm only coming from a consumer point of view where all I read about it is negative!)

 

[En Row]

If I own it
then I would try to avoid to make stereotypical/annoying characters
also
I'll make sequels with recurring/main characters with a fixed storyline

 

[crimson sickle2]

Make a fight system that allows the players to actually control the character(s).

Make likable characters that aren't emo or annoying.

Don't have the big bad changed out for an even bigger bad at the very end, especially if the bigger bad had only been only minorly hinted at.

Don't make the main story about fate and destiny.

EDIT: No MMO's.

Done.

 

[King Toasty]

Ignore Final Fantasy, work on Kingdom Hearts 3, you bastards!

Hell Yeah

I agree with the Toast King

Most people do.
And my KH3, I don't mean another goddamn portable game. Look at you, "Dream Drop Distance".