Note to Square.

[bluestarultor]

Square, I'm really liking Final Fantasy XIII. You're doing great here. But you could be doing even better, and not just on XIII. Here are some friendly suggestions of what you could have done or what you still might do.

On XIII:
- You guys totally missed an opportunity by not including an animal character in there. Something similar to Red XIII. FF XIII, Red XIII, I'm not alone in being disappointed in the lack of a shout-out, especially given the other similarities to FF VII. You COULD still fix this, though. The game is out, but, man, you guys did an awesome job with not even needing an install for the load times. Just adding one in as DLC would net you millions. Many people would buy the character and the space needed on the hard drive would likely be minimal. You don't need to give him or her much story. Look at the DLC characters in Mass Effect. Just the character's presence would make male and female gamers alike squeal in delight. It also would open up another element to summon for. You have fire, ice, lightning, earth, holy, and Bahamut, but you could easily do a water or wind Eidolon. Leviathan could totally go tank or boat, or if you chose wind, nobody really expects to NOT have a new one. If you do want to insert some plot for the character, you could totally do a small "a boy and his dog" thing with Hope. The kid sorely needs more joy in his life. Just introduce the character later in the game, after Fang, so it doesn't conflict with his relationship with Lightning. Heck, if you end up doing that, you could contrast Alexander with Diabolos or Hades or even Ark, which already transforms. Come on, with all the animal experiments in Cocoon, having an animal party member would fit beautifully.
- Byrnhildr is pretty cool, but you could totally have made a car out of Phoenix. Just saying, another possibility to have considered.
- Quake is pretty neat, but it could have hit multiple times.
- Odin not having a lightning resistance while standing in as the lightning summon is not cool. Unless he learns one, but Byrnhildr and Shiva both have resistances to their own elements off the bat. I get he's kind of just half, given Zantetsuken, but geez.

On Versus XIII:
- If you can't put an animal character in XIII as DLC, include one here. You totally could, with the utter lack of info you've given. I get you might want realism, but the animal character wouldn't necessarily have to talk in this case, so much as be an intelligent guard animal of some sort.
- That said, release a bit more info, would you? I get it's nowhere near done, but a small update would be nice on occasion, just to keep people interested.

In general:
- Stop calling it "Libra." It makes no sense. "Scan" worked just fine up until, what, FF X? Later? I know it's always been Libra in Japan, but Scan works better here.
- Make Chrono Brake. If you need an idea to work with, I have a plot, cast, and full intro written out for you. Yes, I want it that badly, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
- You kind of messed up by making some of your stand-by summons into fal'Cie. I can understand Kjata, since it otherwise gets no love, but Carbuncle? Unless you're tossing out all protective and healing summons for the entirety of Fabula Nova Crystalis, that's a loss. I can dig it if you are, but it just seems odd.
- Kjata needs more love. It is by far one of your most unique summons, yet it's only been usable twice.
- Red XIII actually has a huge fan base. I'd put him as probably the best character out of FF VII, yet he only gets one line in Advent Children? His story is far more interesting than the rest of the cast's, is handled better, and has a lot of potential for expansion. I see you recognize this from his cameo in Before Crisis, but the next time you're up for a risk, give him a game. I imagine a platformer might be an interesting take on his search for a mate, allowing him to fully explore the world and find new and interesting stuff/races/beasties that you didn't include in the original game. Think DoC, only with a Materia system closer to VII's or even Crisis Core's, jumping puzzles, and a four-legged hero. Also, get the VA from AC back for it, because he seriously sounded like Red always did in my head, and I've heard the same from others, and it was awesome, regardless. Also, no need to include Cait Sith in this. I know he's a good character, but having him on Red's head wasn't the most popular and it would probably work best to have Red go it alone for his personal mission. Cameo the rest of the cast, to be sure, but show us their lives after the end, the same as this would be Red's life after the end.



I realize this seems like a lot, but it's only eleven points, and most of them are minor suggestions.

Keep up the good work,

Blue