The Very Big Final Fantasy XIII Thread

[Kim]

So here's the sales data for December 21-27, which I think is like the second week of FFXIII's release.

1. New Super Mario Brothers – 506,000 / 2,440,000

2. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks – 297,000 / 297,000

3. Tomodachi Collection – 227,000 / 2,317,000

4. Final Fantasy XIII – 189,000 / 1,690,000

5. Pokemon Heart – 125,000 / 3,465,000

The first number appears to be sales for that week, and how the ranking is organized. The second seems to be total sales since release.

It's funny to me.

[Regulus Tera]

Basically it's selling worse than the PS2 FFs.

Not that surprising, but still.

[Regulus Tera]

Case in point.


I mean, I'm not a fan of the Japanese selection, but...They should have got Lady Gaga instead.

[Meister]

Threads merged, yo.

I'm sure there are at least two other active FFXIII threads floating around but let's call this one The One for now.

[Yumil]

Source:

The key developers of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII have revealed they "try not to listen to the critics too much" - and responded to criticism of the game's linear nature.

Producer Yoshinori Kitase told CVG sister mag Xbox World 360: "We try not to listen to the critics too much. Most of the criticisms have come because the first half of the game is very linear.

"But we've got a story to tell, and it's important the player can engage with the characters and the world they inhabit before letting them loose..."

The game's director Motomu Toriyama added: "We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view. When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like... [It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom."

Apparently, they havent learned that giving some freedom is necessary(where I hear FF13 doesn't even open up till Chapter 11, quite a ways in, In fact, I hear you can't even back track). I thought they had learned that the standard jRPG formula was getting stale when they did FF12, but apparently change and originality is bad.

Heck, the team doesnt get why Mass Effect is so popular.
Source(@14:35)

Anywho, there have been very few nonhandheld jRPGs I have loved recently(guess the last one was Lost Odyssey, but that was mainly due to the localization of it with Michael McGaharn's performance...man I am glad they gave him that much freedom to make Jansen into a real character). Perhaps, the linear story is getting stale, and a more freeform(not sandbox) method of story telling needs to be visited. Our consoles are no longer limited so extreme linearity isn't forced on us by technical hurdles. Maybe Square will sit down and play ME/2 and learn a thing or two

[Regulus Tera]

[It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you're given that much freedom

Final Fantasy XI.

Why do Square figureheads say stupid shit? I've always suspected they thought it, but only recently have they been saying it out on the public.

[Geminex]

Yeah, those guys really need to play KOTOR. Or Mass Effect. Seriously, how is there a linear relationship between epicness of story and linearity of gameplay? Sure, it's easier to tell a compelling story if you know exactly where the player's going next, but it's still possible.

[Regulus Tera]

Originally Posted by Geminex

Yeah, those guys really need to play KOTOR. Or Mass Effect.

They need to play their own fucking games before start playing somebody else's games.

Then again, this is Motomu Toriyama. Not even he would be able to stand the shit he creates.

[Yumil]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

Then again, this is Motomu Toriyama. Not even he would be able to stand the shit he creates.

X2, Revenant Wings, and the Ff7 cocktease tech demo, I presume?

[Mirai Gen]

"We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view."

Reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy as a wRPG.

Final Fantasy.

The franchise that started jRPGs.

...Christ Toriyama. Clutch at less straws, why don't you.