Final Fantasy Versus XIII now called FF XV so we can talk about it now

[Magus]

Remember how that supposed side-project/offshoot of Final Fantasy XIII about the last defender of a kingdom beset by apparent corporate interests (or whatever it is supposed to be about) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGyVZRHZ2ow&feature=relmfu) looked strangely better than the actual Final Fantasy XIII, and promised some kind of new-fangled battle system (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6At_bb1PNU) featuring multiple weapons? Apparently Squarenix thought so too, or at least thought it should be part of the mainline series: Final Fantasy Versus XIII is now supposedly called Final Fantasy XV, so we can talk about it now.

Of course, it may all be a fake. (http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Final-Fantasy-Versus-XIII-Renamed-Final-Fantasy-XV-Coming-Wii-U-PS3-43041.html) If so it is a weird way to do a fake. I prefer poorly photoshopped box art for my fakery.

So, what do you think?

[Locke cole]

I just want it to freaking come out, because it's apparently a stopgap for Kingdom Hearts III.

Of course, I would be ecstatic if it actually came to the Wii U. It would be nice to have a main series game on a console I own, again.

[Magus]

Yeah, what do people say, FFVersusXIII is the Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and Kingdom Hearts III is the Duke Nukem Forever of Squarenix? Despite that illustrating that they are apparently even more impatient than Valve fans because I've been waiting for Half-Life 2: Episode 3 forever, we've only been waiting for FFVersusXIII for a few years now.

[Locke cole]

Well, KHIII feels longer because there were a fair number of prequels and interquels (well, two, anyway) before the story advanced past KHII. And then we find out that the team who is to work on KHIII are locked down with Versus XIII. It doesn't help that people really want to see Versus XIII, too. I think the fact that KHI came out when it was still Squaresoft makes it feel longer.

But, anyway, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if this turned out to be true. I mean, remember what happened to Agito XIII?

[Magus]

Yeah, how did that Type-0 work out? It sounded...interesting. I guess it's not out here yet, though. I really hadn't heard much about it. I think the American media as a whole is sick unto death of reporting on any Final Fantasy projects or spin-offs. There's so many of them and so many turn out to be just...okay, instead of ground-breaking revolutions like they seemed to be in the past. I was just thinking that in the past, the newest FF game would have been the first thing I got when getting a new console. I still haven't played FFXIII and I've has a PS3 for six months.

Anyway, side note: the numerals XV look weird for some reason. Did the Romans think it looked kind of weird, too? Do we have any historical accounts where they complain that XV looks kind of weird?

[Bells]

Type-0 Plays out just as Squeenix has made their games play out.

Every game that is not a main FF title plays out with a slightly changed core mechanic from the last FF Game. If it' successful it becomes a series. It's their "Trial" games where they experience with new Mechanics in Spinoffs and side series, if it works it gets ported back into the main titles.

FF 10
FF 12
Kingdom Hearts
Dissidia
FF 13
Parasite Eve the 3rd Birthday
Type 0
and now FF 15

All these games have Slightly changed mechanics from the same core ideas. More Action oriented RPG.

Type 0 Plays exactly like a hybrid of Dissidia, 3rd Brithday and KH.

[Ryong]

Not sure where you got a Dissidia feel from Type-0, is it from the way you input skills? Otherwise, it's like KH made in the 3rd Birthday engine. And no, I don't think SE has said a thing about localizing it.

[Locke cole]

...I don't know a single thing about 3rd Birthday, but now I'm even more depressed over the lack of any tangible info on Type-0 coming to America.

[Bells]

Not sure where you got a Dissidia feel from Type-0, is it from the way you input skills? Otherwise, it's like KH made in the 3rd Birthday engine. And no, I don't think SE has said a thing about localizing it.

It's much more grounded and less vertical, but the control scheme and some of the menus give me that vibe, combat is also like that... although combat feels a lot more like a Melee Based 3rd Birthday.

As for it coming out in English... it will come out. On the Vita. i'm sure. It's probably something they are saving for TGS with FF15

[Solid Snake]

Of course, it may all be a fake.[/URL] If so it is a weird way to do a fake. I prefer poorly photoshopped box art for my fakery.


I thought Kotaku had debunked that video you linked to.

[Azisien]

Can we just call this one FFXIV and ignore that other thing?

[tacticslion]

Can we just call this one FFXIV and ignore that other thing?

I'm... still not sure what the whole controversy of 14 was about. Was it that it was another online FF? Too similar to 11? I wasn't really paying attention when it came out and only saw the backlash of "it sucks forever" and "yay Square killed it" (and I'm not really sure about that, either).

So: wat?

Also, I'd really, really like to contribute to this, but being that I lack any context for:
1) Dissidia
2) any of the Kingdom Hearts series (I've thoroughly played I and some of II)
3) Type-O
4) 3rd Birthday

I'm kind of lost.

So: wat, again?

[Magus]

I heard it was because FFXIV was actually quite terrible in and of itself, not simply that it was an MMORPG. My friends who are really into MMORPGs and Final Fantasy, like Final Fantasy XI, were pretty pissed about it. In fact Squarenix is apparently pretty much redoing the way the entire game works or something over the next six months, like a total overhaul. The game is probably going to end up costing them millions of dollars to fix. The one friend says that everything that they've changed so far is making it a lot better, though, but the others remain unconvinced (banking on Guild Wars 2 for the most part, most of them).

EDIT:

1. Dissidia was the fighting game one.
2. Well if you played the first one you probably get how the fighting mechanics work, generally.
3. Type-O was bringing back ATB but like, instead of a menu you press triangle to do magic, you press O to attack, etc. something like that. It was supposed to speed up ATB to near-realtime or something. Also each special attack/spell is categorized as a type of firearm/explosive based on its spread/range (rifle, shotgun, bomb, etc.), but it's still like, fireball, just a fireball with the spread and range of a shotgun. Or something wacky like that.
4. I'm assuming 3rd Birthday (Parasite Eve: 3rd Birthday?) works like the older titles where you have the big globe thingy pop up that shows how far you can attack/fire, and then either real-time or turn-based (the first one was turn-based, the second was a little more survival-horrorish and I think it was real-time or partly real-time). Think Vagrant Story but with guns.

[Bells]

FF14 is essentially Broken from launch. So much so that Squeenix essentially pulled it out and said they are only re-introducing the project once it's "Fixed". That covers a LOT of player feedback on the gameplay and design choices, and go right down to core mechanics and graphics... rumors plays it that it should be re-introduced soon, my guess is yet again, TGS.

As for Type-0 and "wat"... it's actiony. Devil May Cry with Menus for combat, really. It has that distinct portable feel to it, where it's made broken down to pieces so you can enjoy it on small sized bites if you want to.

[Ryong]

FF14's overhaul is, as far as I know, already over. They've spent a year working on remaking a fuckton of it.

It's apparently good now.

Wait nope, it's only getting done in November but it's apparently already good...?

[tacticslion]

I heard it was because it was actually quite terrible in and of itself, not simply that it was an MMORPG. My friends who are really into MMORPGs and Final Fantasy were pretty pissed about it. In fact Squarenix is apparently pretty much redoing the way the entire game works or something over the next six months, like a total overhaul. The game is probably going to end up costing them millions of dollars to fix. The one friend says that everything that they've changed so far is making it a lot better, though, but the others remain unconvinced (banking on Guild Wars 2 for the most part, most of them).

See, that's interesting. I just checked out the official site and from what little I looked at, I didn't see anything awful. And it also still seemed to be in development, which was confusing as I'd thought it had already been released. So what you're saying makes sense.

Still, I haven't given it a full look: I'm not an MMORPG gamer, and with my tendency to really get into things I like, I probably shouldn't become one. Still, I would hope they put out a decent game. I mean, was it actually worse than XI, in which - as I understand it - it's effectively "Grind everyday all day and enjoy for a bit before totally becoming numb to all things in life and this game."? 'Cause 11 got some good press for a while (and I know Brian liked it for a bit), but then I read a lot of things dissing it when compared to, say, anything (or any MMORPG) that wasn't FF11.

I'm just curious what really happened there.

I wonder if one day, a decade or so down the road, whatever company ultimately holds the FF title will redo the MMORPGs to make them single-player-possible games that could also be MMORPG experiences. You know, when they release "Final Fantasy: Frikkin' All of It" as a One-Drive compiled and updated attempt to get you to purchase them all for the Microsoft XBOX-eight million, Nintindo DOOFICUSII MARIO SPHERE, and Sony PS-Aleph One.

[Magus]

I wonder if one day, a decade or so down the road, whatever company ultimately holds the FF title will redo the MMORPGs to make them single-player-possible games that could also be MMORPG experiences. You know, when they release "Final Fantasy: Frikkin' All of It" as a One-Drive compiled and updated attempt to get you to purchase them all for the Microsoft XBOX-eight million, Nintindo DOOFICUSII MARIO SPHERE, and Sony PS-Aleph One.

I know the new Elder Scrolls Online is going to do it that way, where the main campaign is basically "single-player" except you can invite your friends on the particular quest, I believe. But all other players are separated from you while doing the main campaign quests.

If you mean like, take the MMORPG and alter it into a single-player campaign, I don't think that would really work out well. For one thing, most of the quests are designed mostly around the enjoyment of doing them with other people and not actually enjoyable in and of themselves (i.e. monotony), plus they go out of their way to design bosses that require 200 people playing for 20 hours straight to beat...MMORPGs are not my cup of tea, though, so maybe someone else can give them a positive spin.

[Azisien]

See, that's interesting. I just checked out the official site and from what little I looked at, I didn't see anything awful. And it also still seemed to be in development, which was confusing as I'd thought it had already been released. So what you're saying makes sense.

Not only was it the worst MMORPG I've ever played, it was one of the worst GAMES I've ever played. If you consider the resources behind such an operation, they could not have failed much harder. I'm surprised they bothered to do the 1+ year overhaul on it, they should have just Black Ops ghosted that thing.

[Locke cole]

I think if it were any other game, they would have. But since they made it into a full, Roman Numeral'd game, they couldn't leave it at that. It would be kind of a black mark on the series.

[Magus]

I personally think they should quit putting the MMOs into the mainstream series, it makes little sense when they could have one called Final Fantasy Online and leave it at that. It is just confusing to the average consumer that FFXIII is a single-player traditional RPG and then FFXIV is an MMORPG, and isn't even available on consoles yet (obviously there is a PS3 version coming but when is anyone's guess, sometime next year?). And then Final Fantasy XV (whatever that is going to be, since apparently Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still called that) will presumably be another single player game. They used to delineate these things much more stringently back in the day, otherwise Final Fantasy Tactics should have been called Final Fantasy VIII.

From Wikipedia
"The game was released to generally negative reception. Due to criticisms of the game's quality, Square Enix has reshuffled the development team and completely overhauled the gameplay since launch.[2] On October 14th, 2011, Square Enix announced their intention to relaunch the game as Final Fantasy XIV 2.0. The relaunch, currently slated for late 2012-early 2013, will incorporate a new graphics engine, new server and data structures, revamped interface, redesigned maps, more gameplay variations and content, and new playable sexes of certain races (male Miqo'te, and female Highlanders and Roegadyn). Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 will coincide with the PlayStation 3 release of the game.[3]"

I basically can't see this as anything but a new game (especially when I see things like "new graphics engine"), essentially, only retaining the plot/world and name of the original.

[tacticslion]

I personally think they should quit putting the MMOs into the mainstream series, it makes little sense when they could have one called Final Fantasy Online and leave it at that. It is just confusing to the average consumer that FFXIII is a single-player traditional RPG and then FFXIV is an MMORPG, and isn't even available on consoles yet (obviously there is a PS3 version coming but when is anyone's guess, sometime next year?). And then Final Fantasy XV (whatever that is going to be, since apparently Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still called that) will presumably be another single player game. They used to delineate these things much more stringently back in the day, otherwise Final Fantasy Tactics should have been called Final Fantasy VIII.

See, this is my problem with 11 and 14 (both of which I've never played). I can't comment on the game at all, other than it looks and sounds kind of neat in an MMORPG sort of way, but the fact that it's an actual numeral'd title and was an MMO seemed to cause enough problems for Square, I'd think they wouldn't have tried it, after 11.

I mean, it's just strange that they'd abandoned the structure they clearly had in place to handle these things (FF-TACTICS, FF-MYSTIC QUEST*, FF-LEGENDS, etc) just to do... what? Not much, really.

Anyhoo, here's hoping 15/Vs. 13's good!

* Or FF-AMERICA, if you were in Japan. Seriously. That was just a nasty, nasty thing to do.

[DarkDrgon]

I'd be glad to see a return of some of the mechanics Mystic Quest had. It was a decent game that I don't think gets nearly enough credit

[tacticslion]

I'd be glad to see a return of some of the mechanics Mystic Quest had. It was a decent game that I don't think gets nearly enough credit

I can't possibly fathom what part of the last sentence makes any sort of semblance of sense.

I mean, the mechanics were... okay, certainly nothing horrid in every way (though the "random" battle system and monster-slaying spots were executed in an awful, awful, boring manner), and the story was as linear as it is possible to make a story, and only lightly engaging, if that, while the twist at the end suffered from the FF-series' unfortunate tendency to pull and ending/boss right out of thin air (that wasn't even hinted at previously) and to follow through, you're attached to a character you've seen for the least amount of time compared to everyone else to do it. And that's not saying much because you never really have time to get to care about the characters that are in your party more the Phoebe. And the dialogue - most all of it - is awful. Especially the end boss'.

And... I think there was supposed to be some sort of love story? But I sure can't find it.

I don't know, man, I can't possibly come up with anything to really credit to the game, especially since it was ridiculously easy (all the difficulty was "faked"*), and marketed specifically as "Here's an RPG game that's so stupid, even American's can appreciate it!"

I mean, I could say, "well, at least it took up my time." but there's a lot things I'd rather be doing than finishing a game just because I started it and found it incredibly boring. I will grant that if you played it before any of the other FFs it might be okay, but it's just not a fun game or story.

I'm really hoping nothing in Mystic Quest has a comeback. From what I can tell, mechanics-wise, this is pretty much exactly what FF13 was (or as close to it as any two FF games ever get).

[Locke cole]

What? I've seen Mystic Quest, and I've seen FFXIII. Their mechanics aren't the same.

Among other things, you control both party members in Mystic Quest.