PS2 Final Fantasy 7 Spinoff

Bagels writes "Square Enix is finally answering the prayers of thousands of FF7 fans with a side-story PS2 game called "Dirge of Cereberus: Final Fantasy VII." Not much is known yet - the game focuses on the character Vincent, it's set one year after the upcoming movie, Advent Children, and it's early in development as of now - but this is sure to be a hot topic amongst fans and critics of the series alike."

Comments

A true sequel...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, we have a buggy cell phone game with shoddy scrolling, a CG movie, and now Vincent May Cry... when are we gonna get a TRUE sequel to FF7?

On a second thought, after playing FFX2, maybe it would be best NOT to have a sequel...

Re:A true sequel...?

[Daetrin]

"but this is sure to be a hot topic amongst fans and critics of the series alike"

Well i'm a fan and critic of the series, and my response is pretty much "eh."

I'd be interested in a sequel or remake for 4, 5 or 6, and i'd be horrified by a sequel for 8, and annoyed by a sequel for 11 (which never deserved a mainline number in the first place, should have been FF: Online, like Tactics and all the other side games.)

7 though? Doesn't really matter if it's a crappy cell phone game, a bunch of Vincent fan service, or a "TRUE sequel to FF7," i'm not that excited.

Come to think of it though, that must be it. The guys got FF 10.2, the girls get FF 7.2. I'm sure if they could think of a way to justify it the party would consist of Vincent, Cloud, and Sephiroth.

Re:A true sequel...?

[miu]

On a second thought, after playing FFX2, maybe it would be best NOT to have a sequel...

Why all the hate for FFX2? It's not like you didn't know exactly what you were getting with that game - it was an RPG pinup girl game for FFX fanboys and never billed as anything but that.

Re:A true sequel...?

[Pluvius]

On a second thought, after playing FFX2, maybe it would be best NOT to have a sequel...

Yes. It would be hard to make a sequel as good as FFX2, so why bother trying?

Rob

Re:A true sequel...?

[sycomonkey]

Screw sequel, just remake the first one and fix the broken plot i.e. fill in the missing DISK, and I'll be happy.

Re:A true sequel...?

[DavidBrown]

Very good point. I loved FFVII, but Vincent is probably the lamest and most whiny charactor of the bunch. I'm not sure he's even needed to finish the game. We want more Cloud and Tifa and Yuffie, and even Red XIII. Vincent and Cid? Lamers.

What we REALLY want is a means of resurrecting Aeris.

Why not a game about Yuffie collecting materia as she goes through puberty and her chest fills out to Tifa-like proportions? They can call it FFVII-36DD.

Re:A true sequel...?

[Anonymous Coward]

TIFA? Maybe, and THAT is a stretch. Fucking YUFIE? And you think VINCENT is whiny? Jesus F. Christ.

Re:A true sequel...?

[Anonymous Coward]

I want a sequel with Cain as the main character.

In battle you have the following options:
-Fight
-Jump
-Magic
-Leave party at the worst f-ing time

Re:A true sequel...?

[Anonymous Coward]

FFX-2 is great. You're just afraid of embracing your feminine side, man.

Should be good...

[justkarl]

I used to hate final fantasy. But FFX changed my mind about final fantasy...as long as it follows suit in gameplay and style, I'm in.

Re:Should be good...

[The Desert Palooka]

I had the opposite reaction to X. I've been playing the FF series since the first one (with my favorite being VI) and I actually stopped liking FF when it came out... I couldn't stand the game.

So from the opposite side of the spectrum, if it follows the format of X, I'm out.

*shrug*

If it's more like IX, or VI, or perhaps even VII or VIII, count me in, I'll even consider buying a PS2.

Re:Should be good...

[Techguy666]

Final Fantasy X is actually in my PS2 right now. I like the story but the game play is a little annoying.

When I first started playing, I was ticked-off that there were so many cut-scenes breaking the pace of my game play. I'm 3/4 through FFX now and I find myself getting ticked-off that the game play is interrupting my animated movie...

I would have liked FFX's gameplay more tied-in with the story such as NeverWinter Nights or Splinter Cell, to cut down on the extreme use of cut-scenes - or less emphasis on the constant need to power-up so we could spend more time exploring, like Myst or Syberia, and enjoying the pretty scenery and cool music.

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

The best in the series by far is FFV. To the true fan of the series it outranks them all. FFIV is a close second with a better story but less involved as it has no "job" system. Never forget FF1, tho ;D

Re:Should be good...

[BrokenStructure]

One of the defining features of the Final Fantasy conglomeration is that each final fantasy has its own unique gameplay and style.

Re:Should be good...

[BrokenStructure]

I think by far and large most Final Fantasy fans agree FFV was the worst Final Fantasy ever, which is why it was never originally released in the U.S.

Re:Should be good...

[Goronmon]

When I first started playing, I was ticked-off that there were so many cut-scenes breaking the pace of my game play. I'm 3/4 through FFX now and I find myself getting ticked-off that the game play is interrupting my animated movie...

Haha, I had the same exact reaction. I got to a point a ways into the game where I just wished that the rest of the game was just one long cut scene. I felt like the cut scenes were the interesting parts, and the gameplay was just there to connect the cut scenes, rather than the other way around.

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're joking, right?

Re:Should be good...

[SFBwian]

Generally speaking, it's been my experience that FF fans have always been divided into two groups:

Those that like the old school FF's (FF1, 4, 5, 6, and to some extent 9), and those that like the newer ones (FF7, 8, 10). There's some overlap, but the general feeling exists for me. Staff listings have some interesting trends in the series too.

Myself, I'm more old schoolish. I liked 7, but never saw it as the "Oh my $DIETY!" opinion that everyone else in the world seems to have about it. 8 was an interesting story but boring game. I'm still undecided about 10. I've never been able to decide which of FF4,5,6 is my favorite among the whole series.

Re:Should be good...

[Rosyna]

No. Every single FF game has a different game play situation than the previous one. Some will introduce classes (FFV, FFX-2, FFT), some introduce summons (FFIV and up pretty much), some have no summons or classes (FFVI). Some require equipment to learn spells (FFVI, FFVII), others have you learn them by purchasing items (FFI) or gaining levels (FFIV). Some have special attacks when you get a full meter of some kind (FFVI, Saban; FFVII, FFVIII). They just change radically from each one to the next. Some will even change up the method of battling (Wait vs active) or allow you to change it yourself. If a feature is popular enough (Chocobos, Summons) it will appear in nearly all the games after the next one.

So FFVII: DoC might have a class system, no levels, and require you to purchase spells.

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

...What?

I could easily see someone saying that about FF2 (though I don't agree), but FF5...?

Re:Should be good...

[hc00jw]

The best in the series by far is FFV. To the true fan of the series it outranks them all. FFIV is a close second with a better story but less involved as it has no "job" system. Never forget FF1, tho ;D

But surely Final Fantasy Tactics does everything that FFV does, (namely the job system,) but does it better. There's certainly nothing else that V has going for it, and Tactics has so much more...

Re:Should be good...

[hc00jw]

Those that like the old school FF's (FF1, 4, 5, 6, and to some extent 9), and those that like the newer ones (FF7, 8, 10). There's some overlap, but the general feeling exists for me. Staff listings have some interesting trends in the series too.

Your experience or no, the general trend throughout the series has been that odd numbered games have had a technical leaning, and even numbered games have had more story / atmosphere. There are games that buck the trend. VII also has a fantastic story, for example, and IX is all about atmosphere, it's technical backing isn't in the slightest bit complex.

So I, for example, like IV, VI, VII and VIII, which would suggest that I enjoy the story more. But, instead of talking about why I like the above games, I'll talk about why I don't like the others. V was far too unbalanced, in that it had zero story, (which was sad, because it had a fantastic technical base upon which the rest of the game could have been built), so it just feels like half a game. IX was just a rehash of the earlier (pre VI) FF's, and I just didn't see the point in re-treading old ground, and X was a medly of VII and VIII, not having any of what made either special. XI is online, and quite frankly, I don't need to live my life around a game.

I have a lot of friends who see more or less eye to eye with my views (some friends may like IX or X, but not like VIII or IV, for example), so the trends I see are different from yours. I'm not saying that my trends are correct, and yours wrong, but maybe there are four 'groups' of FF players, rather than your two. Or just maybe, there isn't a trend at all?

Re:Should be good...

[default luser]

I didn't particularly like the job system because it was REQUIRED that you micromanage your characters. I'm much more fond of more optional micromanagement available in newer games:

FFX: grid-style stats let you micromanage your character's path to your heart's content, or sit back on your lazy ass and take the default path.

Tales of Symphonia: depending on the title you choose, and how your EX skills are leaning (T vs S), you can end up with many different combinations of stats and skills. Or, you can be lazy and just get a few more levels to make up the stats difference, and live without the extra goodies.

Games that deliver the level of involvement that EACH PLAYER wants are by-far the best implementation of growth options. The job system in FF5 felt just like...a job, because you basically had to use it. If you didn't constantly measure your growth and set long-term goals, your characters floundered.

Other problems I had with FF5:

FF4 PLOT: I tried to stop the evil guy from getting to the crystals, but hey, I get to go to the moon.

FF5 PLOT: I tried to stop the evil guy from getting to the crystals, but hey, I get to go to another planet.

Character development was also pretty thin. And talk about bad storyline...the biggest plot "twist" in the game is a severe letdown:

So, the only living original Dawn Warrior dies at the hand of your great enemy...and is instantly replaced by his daughter, who magically inherits all of his abilities and stats. How cheesy can you get? Note that, shortly after hitting this amazingly pitiful plot twist, I decided to stop playing.

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

All right, can someone explain the "FF5 had no story" meme to me?

The way a lot of fanboys talk about 5's place in the series, if you hadn't played the game you couldn't be blamed for imagining it was something like, I dunno, a Wizardry-style dungeon crawl or a roguelike game incongruously inserted into the middle of a series of typical cinematic Japanese RPGs.

FF5 isn't like that at all. It has all the same elements that get praised ad nauseam in its peers (i.e. FF4 and FF6)--a main character with unusual parentage, supporting characters with the obligatory "tragic pasts", a villain with a prediliction for gloating speeches, a third-act plot twist that turns the game's world upside down.

I guess I could accept the argument that FF5 had a pretty stupid (or at least childish) story and one-dimensional characters compared to many of the other FF games (especially the more recent ones). But it seems that most of the ZOMG FF5 SUX IT HAS NO STOREE comes from devotees of Final Fantasy 4, a game which soundly beats FF5 in the departments of contrived, nonsensical plot and one-dimensional characters.

Re:Should be good...

[BrokenStructure]

FF4 was my favorite, but after restarting FF6 just recently, I'm starting to think it may be my number one... I remember paying 86 bucks for that game the day it first came out! I thought FF7 was ok, and I couldn't make it through disc 2 of FF8. It just didn't keep my interest. FF9 was the same. FFX looks pretty fun, but I have yet to purchase it and play it for myself.

I'll definitely be getting the new FF7 if and when it comes out ;).

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

At first I too thought that FFVIII couldn't hold my interest but after hauling through and "draw"'ing 'till I was full of all I could, the game became a masterpiece. I LOVED the story and I thought the attacks were just sick. Just pure limit breaks or whatever they were called. Purely laying down the beats - kinda made it easy but WAY too much fun!! ;D

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

I don't think it was ever released because Square had too much else on their plate. FFV was a MONSTER hit at the time and AFAIK, all the tech-oriented building players loved it. It didn't quite have the elegant, submersive story of FFIV but man, you could lay down some beats!! :D

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

yes, FFII and III were pretty much ass... ;D (But FFII had jobs, too!)

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, FF3 was the one with Jobs. FF2 had a skill-based system... which was radical for the time, but buggy as anything. Of course, FF1 and FF3 weren't that much better bug-check-wise.

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

It didn't quite have the elegant, submersive story of FFIV

I dunno, FF4's story struck me as clumsily plotted and painfully contrived (as in downright painful to watch/play), and I thought FF5 did a much better job of telling a (somewhat) similar story. For example, FF5 actually foreshadows its big mid-game plot twist (the nature of the two worlds), whereas FF4's big surprise twist (Cecil and Golbez's origin) is just thrown at you out of absolutely nowhere right before the final dungeon.

The scene in FF4 where every single named character in the game shows up in airships to cheer you on was pure cheese, and almost sums up everything I disliked about the story. Palom and Porom should not have been revived the way they were. People can debate whether or not putting in a resurrection sidequest for FF6's Leo or FF7's Aerith would have improved or detracted from those games, but I think it's safe to say that having them just show up in the ending with "Guess what? I'm alive again!" would have cheapened the story enormously (and that's pretty much exactly what happens with Palom and Porom)

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't particularly like the job system because it was REQUIRED that you micromanage your characters.

Err, picking one Job and one Ability per character hardly counts as "micromanaging". Not when compared to juggling Materia in FF7 or junctioning in FF8.

And you don't have to powergame to get through FF5, any more than you "have" to perfectly min-max everyone's stats in FF6 by juggling Espers with various bonuses in order to beat the game. You can even get through FF5 (except for the optional bosses) without learned Abilities at all, just using the built-in specialty each Job has, if you pick a reasonable party and tweak it now and then for special circumstances (like the split magic-only/fighting-only tower)

Re:Should be good...

[dalassa]

FFVI has summons. You just need the Esper equipped.

Re:Should be good...

[hc00jw]

[A] main character with unusual parentage, supporting characters with the obligatory "tragic pasts", a villain with a prediliction for gloating speeches, a third-act plot twist that turns the game's world upside down.

There you go, that's your story! It doesn't get any deeper than that... There's no inner turmoil or human issues that are dealt with in other FF's. This is intentional, because the characters are faceless so they can change to different jobs (this was done much better in Tactics, where you had main-character-specific jobs, which meant that they achieved an individualism). There's no explanation of why the villain came to be so bad. And, that's my next point, the villain is the faceless Ex-death, who's evil, m'kay? But why is he evil? He's just evil, m'kay?

At the end of the game, I felt no apathy towards the characters I was playing as, and I didn't really care for defeating Ex-death. Sure, tactically I was on fire, but the fun was in levelling up and gaining new skills. So, by the final battle, where I had all the skills I wanted, it was boring, because it was the same as every other faceless boss fight. And the start of the game was also boring, because the skills weren't very interesting (until later level ups).

Sure, for it's time, it was revolutionary. But like Quake, it was a technical game which has now been superseded by technically better games (V by Tactics, and Quake by Quake III, both of the recent games do what the original done, just better). Games like FFIV don't get superseded, because it was about the story and atmosphere, and you can't 'upgrade' that experience without remaking the original game.

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

Yeah, well I was a little younger when I remember being captivated by the story. Surely it would be a little too simplistic for my taste nowadays... ;)

About Palom and Porom, I had forgotten about their magical, mystical return! :D I agree, it was kinda cheese where they all come back and root for you but that was the FF way before FFVII when they took everyone by surprise and rocked Aeris! :D

In FFIV's defense, the japanese version actually had much more story in the spot you're talking about where the origins are suddenly sprung on you! I agree and remember playing through - it's so linear until you get the huge whale ship and then suddenly you're on the moon and then it's the end. *WtF?!!* There is supposed to be story in there but it wasn't translated in time. If you care, try playing through the FFIV japanese rom w/ the fan translation. I haven't but I've read about what happens in those plot moments (which is much quicker to fill in the bits without having to play through the friggin' game again! ;D )

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

oops, yes you're right, FFIII had the jobs, FFII was basically FFI.5 - my bad. :D

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have played the Japanese version of FF4. I don't remember much, if any, additional detail in the "FuSoYa explains everything" scene that wasn't in the English version. There is a chance that I could be mistaken, because it was quite a long time ago and I couldn't read Japanese nearly as fluently then as I can now, but I doubt it.

I haven't played the fan "translation" of FF4, but I've heard that the group responsible actually made up half the text on their own, throwing in a lot of "fan-canon" stuff that wasn't in the original script at all (like something about Barbariccia being in love with Cain...?) I seem to remember their original translator publically denouncing them for basically throwing his hard work on a faithful translation out the window and going Carl Macek on the game.

I agree, it was kinda cheese where they all come back and root for you but that was the FF way before FFVII when they took everyone by surprise and rocked Aeris! :D

No, it wasn't "the FF way before FF7". How many of the early FF games have you actually played? You have to at least have played FF6, a game in which supporting characters get killed left, right and center. FF5 also had plenty of deaths (and no resurrections). And FF2... god, that was the darkest, most bloodthirsty game in the series prior to FF6. Entire towns get wiped off the map by the villain's actions, and almost every single named character who isn't a member of the final party dies at some point.

As for Aeris' death, that was only surprising to people who've never played a Phantasy Star game :) Two out of the four games in that series featured the heroine's (and main character's love interest's) death as the climactic event of the midgame.

Re:Should be good...

[Anonymous Coward]

FFII was basically FFI.5

Yeah, you can stop talking about games you obviously haven't played now.

FF2 was about as different from FF1 as any two games in the same series can be. FF1 was an oldschool dungeon crawler in the Wizardry/Ultima I-III/AD&D "gold box" vein, where you "roll up" your own characters, name them, equip them and then head for the dungeon. FF2, on the other hand, was a linear, heavily scripted "story" RPG of the kind that's now standard on consoles--in fact, FF2 was one of the first RPGs of this style, and was both revolutionary and controversial for being such at the time it came out.

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

well, you're close. Both FF1 and FF2 were not really like ultima, etc. as they've always been driven by a story. you do the dungeon because of the story - in ultima/D&D-style the dungeon was the story.

Re:Should be good...

[Llama_STi]

actually, you're right about the character deaths. now that i think back, i guess a lot of characters did die. hehe, never thought i'd be thinking back trying to remember details of a games i played so long ago. doing a quick memory-skim, i just remember FFIV as a nice feel-good game, FFVII just shocked me with aeris' death - guess it was the manner? dunno, maybe it just stuck with me as it was the first one with cg cutscenes and it wasn't just a bunch of pixels bumping into another set of pixels and then one of the sets falls over. ;D

i've played the PS series as well - finished up to III but can't remember the major details besides II. PSIII was just a wedding show! :D Now if I remember correctly, i think there was a way to keep Nei alive!

What's going on with Square?

[kmak]

First FFX-2, now this.. are they running of ideas? Or are they just more adversive to taking risks?

Re:What's going on with Square?

[transient]

are they running [out] of ideas?

FFX-2 was chock full of new ideas! The trouble is that they all sucked.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[DLWormwood]

First FFX-2, now this.. are they running of ideas? Or are they just more adversive to taking risks?

I personally think it's a bit of corporate schizophrenia after the failure of Square Pictures and the merger with Enix. XI was released as a MMORPG, so that introduces a natural "gap" in the game style of the series. (XII is rumored to combine elements of Vagrant Story with FF Tatics, further divorcing the series from its heritage.)

I think Square might be doing the revisits with VII and X to provide both a venue to continue with classic turn-based RPGS, as well as using pre-built scenarios to experiement with unusual game designs. Parasite Eve, The Bouncer, Vagrant Story... they were all experiments that had limited market success. Future experiements will likely hitchup to the FF star to keep Squinix solvent. (This is a little similar to what Blizzard was trying to do with Starcraft: Ghost, IMHO.)

Re:What's going on with Square?

[DrEldarion]

I call this "the Enix influence".

Re:What's going on with Square?

[gamgee5273]

No, I don't think that's it. I think FFX-2 was put out there to help calm the folks who didn't want to wait till FFXII but really didn't want to play FFXI Online. I really enjoyed the battle system in FFX-2, but was disappointed that so many of the backgrounds were recycled.

As for the sequels to VII: People have wanted one for a while. Then, added to that, was the response to the appearance of Cloud and Aeris in Kingdom Hearts. At that point, I think SE realized that they had to explore FFVII a bit more or risk alienating a ton of fans.

As for risk-taking: FFXI was a huge risk that has really paid off for them (the European service was just rolled out) and FFXII is supposedly going to feature quite a few changes that will continue to evolve the series.

I think SE are doing what any self-respecting company should do: find the popular product, continue to give the fans what they want, and continue evolving the product. If, at any point, SE releases an FF that just royally sucks (and I'm not talking mediocre, like some think of FFVIII and FFIX as being) then I'll be worried that they aren't pushing the envelope any longer...

Re:What's going on with Square?

[atrizzah]

Exactly. I think the best thing Square could do is to build off of games such as FF7, FF3 (4), and Chrono Trigger, widely considered some of the best games of all time. No need to go crazy on new battle systems and what not; I think many fans of the series would just die for extensions of these classic games with only slight modifications. I know I would

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Cecil]

A lot of people, including myself, lump FFX - to some extent - and FFX-2 definitely, into the category of "royally sucks".

I think FF has been going downhill since FF7. I'm used to the wacky changes in battle systems and completely disconnected stories and settings and I think that's great, I love seeing a company that isn't afraid to experiment. But one thing that has always tied the FF stories together is a rich and engrossing, and especially an epic story.

Anyway, I've found solace in Tales of Symphonia for GameCube. It's what the last bunch of FF games should've been, perhaps even better. It's an absolutely fantastic game, and I highly recommend it to any FF fan.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Osty]

Exactly. I think the best thing Square could do is to build off of games such as FF7, FF3 (4), and Chrono Trigger, widely considered some of the best games of all time. No need to go crazy on new battle systems and what not; I think many fans of the series would just die for extensions of these classic games with only slight modifications. I know I would

(first, I assume by "FF3 (4)" you really meant "FF3 (6)", as FF4j was FF2u, and FF6j was FF3u)

No you wouldn't. Okay, you'd probably enjoy it initially, as everybody would, but it would quickly get to a point where you hate Square-Enix for milking the different game worlds and not coming up with new ideas or story lines. People blast EA for pumping out essentially the same Madden game year after year, so why would it be different with Square-Enix?

That said, Final Fantasy games have always been formulaic, and generally don't lend themselves to sequels. The stories are meant to be that world's "final fantasy", and so the story line progresses up through some cataclysmic, world-altering event, after which evil is banished from the world (or some permutation thereof). How do you make a sequel out of that without totally compromising the story told in the original game?

Finally, the naming would quickly get ridiculous. Final Fantasy X, like Mac OS X, is supposed to be pronounced "Final Fantasy Ten" and not "Final Fantasy Ecks". That just makes Final Fantasy X-2 sound silly. "Final Fantasy Ten Two" "Oh, you mean Final Fantasy Twelve?" "No, Final Fantasy Ten Two". At least with Final Fantasy X, they could've taken the chance and disassociated "X" with the Roman numeral for ten. In that case, like with Mega Man X, it makes sense -- "Final Fantasy Ecks Two" is obviously the sequal to "Final Fantasy Ecks". However, they can't pull that one off with Final Fantasy VII. "Final Fantasy Vee Eye Eye Two"?

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Pluvius]

A lot of people, including myself, lump FFX - to some extent - and FFX-2 definitely, into the category of "royally sucks".

A lot of people are also stupid. Maybe you should try playing a game that actually sucks, like SaGa Frontier.

Rob

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, SaGa Frontier is my favorite post-16-bit Square game.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Yosho]

Except that many people consider SaGa Frontier to be one of the most innovative games Square has created since the SNES days. I, for example, enjoyed it quite a bit -- but then, I also liked FFX and couldn't stand FFVII. Just because somebody's opinion differs from yours does not make them stupid.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Cecil]

I may be stupid, but at least I'm not close-minded like you. *shrug*

Re:What's going on with Square?

[mR SlIcK]

I think FF has been going downhill since FF7

You can't expect Square to continue creating games as great as FFVII. FFVII is considered as a great classic in the video gaming world. Can you imagine what the programmers at Square were thinking when they sat down to work on FFVIII? They had the task of trying to top a game as good as FFVII. I personally never played FFVIII mostly because I read the horrible reviews and friends have advised me against playing it. But I thoroughly enjoyed FFIX and FFX, even if they weren't as great as FFVII.

I'm glad Square is taking their time making a spinoff/sequel to FFVII. That tells me they know they had an amazing game and they are being as careful as they can to make sure any other games based on it don't suck. Sort of like the whole Matrix deal, except with video games instead of movies.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[drinkypoo]

Can you imagine what the programmers at Square were thinking when they sat down to work on FFVIII?

"Let's make this game as boring as possible, and make the combat so annoying that it serves as little more than an interruption to your wandering around environments that look completely disconnected from one another."

That's what I imagined, anyway.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[incom]

I've never heard anybody complain about Saga Frontier before.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[taernim]

Great recommendation... I picked up Tales of Symphonia based on your suggestion and all the reviews/screenshots on ebgames.com Hope it's as good as ya say.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean they actually HAD ideas at one point? Maybe when FF1 was first released, but since then, it's been the same old shit every time.

They should just change they company name from square to "Final Fantasy, Inc."

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Pluvius]

You've gotta be kidding. I can understand liking SaGa Frontier personally, but that game is still one of the least liked in the Square line-up.

Rob

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Cecil]

I'm on my second run through (You can carry over many of the things you accomplished in your first run through, if you choose to do so), the first having taken some 75 hours of my time, with not too many sidequests and not much level treadmilling. The puzzles sometimes make me wonder if I'm playing Zelda though, some people may consider that a good thing, some may consider it bad. ;)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have so far.

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Pluvius]

He said that a lot of people think that FFX royally sucks, I said that a lot of people are stupid. These are both factual statements, and aren't necessarily linked together. Though I do believe that there is some correlation, at least among the group of people who also believe that other FFs are good (i.e. the fact that his opinion differs from mine isn't what makes him stupid).

SaGa Frontier isn't all that innovative, BTW; try FF2 or one of the Gameboy SaGa (Final Fantasy Legend) games, all of which do a better job with the SaGa-style gameplay than SaGa Frontier does. For the disconnected characters aspect, try the superior Live a Live for the Super Famicom. And these are just out of the games that Square itself has produced.

Rob

Re:What's going on with Square?

[Cecil]

You can't expect Square to continue creating games as great as FFVII.

No, I can't. But I can hope for them to stop what is in my opinion a consistent downward slope. For me, FF7 was 'fantastic!', FF8 was 'very good', FF9 was 'fairly good', FFX was 'alright', FFXI was 'tedious', FFX-2 made me wonder if MTV had been given some creative control of the franchise without me hearing about it.

Sort of like the whole Matrix deal, except with video games instead of movies.

That is precisely what I consider a worst case scenario. The Matrix 2 was a special-effects cash-in, but I enjoyed it because I presumed it was leaving all those open plot holes to set us up for all the answers in 3. In hindsight, it merely looks like a slice of swiss cheese, and they dropped even the pseudo-philosophy that could've been an explanation in favour of simply using more mysterious handwaving about Neo being "the one".

The second and third movies made it clear they had no respect for the intellectual capacity of their fans, preferring to focus their efforts on car chases, explosions, and bullet-time. They apparently completely lost sight of why people enjoyed the first movie so much. The Final Fantasy series seems to have been taking much the same tack lately. Challenge my brain with story, not my eyes with eye-candy. It's the former that got me hooked, the latter didn't even exist when I started playing.

If it's going to have the girls from the FF series

[Trigun]

it will obviously be a game I cannot play wearing pants.

Vincent was a cool character

[CrazyJim1]

My ex-girlfriend wanted me to start dressing like a vampire after that, which I declined :P

Proof of why God isn't proven

Re:Vincent was a cool character

[NonSequor]

Roleplaying in the bedroom can bring couples closer together.

Re:Vincent was a cool character

[Lesrahpem]

You don't know how right you are. I think he was the best character from the whole game. I don't mean best as in to have in your party, I mean it as in he was just really cool. It always made me mad that they never explained much about his story. Maybe the movie will shed some light.

I never fully understood whether he was supposed to be a demon or a vampire. I was pretty sure he was a vampire exept for the transformation he did into a thing looking very much like a demon. I guess in Japanese mythology vampires are a kind of demon though.

Re:Vincent was a cool character

[TXP]

I should have click the Post Anonymously check for this reply but:

Magic missle! Magic missle! ... Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!

Re:Vincent was a cool character

[J. T. MacLeod]

It wasn't quite either, really. He was a normal human who'd been worked on by a mad scientist. ...unless I'm totally misinterpreting the game.

Are they conceding FF8-11 as failures?

[samberdoo]

They seem to be commercially. Bring back the fun. Chocobos rule!

Re:Are they conceding FF8-11 as failures?

[KDR_11k]

According to the sales figures I saw, FF8 was the best selling FF game, outselling 7, but after 8 the sales slowly declined with every title.

Re:Are they conceding FF8-11 as failures?

[falcon5768]

ahh but you really cant add 11 to this list since being a mmorpg its sales where bound to be lower than the others.. which is sad since once you get to the story later into the game it really is a GREAT story that doesnt end

Finally!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally!!!! They knew they wanted to to this, and we've been waiting for it for so long. The question is if they can deliver without having Hironobu Sakaguchi on board.

final fantasy ports

[Speare]

My last two gaming system purchases were driven by "whatever platform the next Final Fantasy" would be delivered. And the game platform companies know this, which is why they hotly compete for Square's business.

I wish more of the older FFs were ported to newer platforms. (Heck, a generic SNES-on-PS2 emulator would be very cool.) I've never played FF7 but hear a lot about it. This could open a lot of past-their-prime games to a wider audience, much like the Atari classics movement.

Re:final fantasy ports

[Brandon One]

They did port it to the PlayStation along with Chrono Cross on Final Fantasy Chronicles.

Re:final fantasy ports

[the unbeliever]

erm.

most of them *have been*

Final Fantasy Origins = FF1 on the PSX
Final Fantasy Chronicles (FF4 (2 in the US) and Chrono Trigger)
Final Fantasy Anthology (FF5 and FF6 (3 in the US)

I own all three, gladly.

Re:final fantasy ports

[Neon Spiral Injector]

Exactly, every FF except the Japanese III is playable on the PS2. Most are PSone discs, but run fine. They are still being pressed today, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding them (online, most store don't get new PSone discs in anymore). Part I and II are actually the Wonder Swan Color remakes, which means the dialog is a better translation, the graphics are improved, and the music is quite a bit more resolute.

Re:final fantasy ports

[drinkypoo]

Minor nit: Origins is 1 and 2. I just picked it up used from gamestop, which was lucky because typically an employee will end up buying that one before it ever even hits the floor.

Re:final fantasy ports

[Bull999999]

You should be able to pick up FF7 for about $20 at the local stores. Personally, I thought that FF7 had the best story line of all FF series with FF X being the second.

Re:final fantasy ports

[Anonymous Coward]

What for? I easily payed for them years ago when they were released, so I just play the ROMs on my PC (legally I might add). If anyone wants to see the originals, they are more than welcome to see I own them.

I might add that emus can enhance the expierence adding extra features never seen on the any consoles. Add that and save-state hacking for the occasion fun, and its far better than any console can offer.

Re:final fantasy ports

[neafevoc]

I own the Anthology. My only gripe about it are the loading times. :(

Re:final fantasy ports

[lightspawn]

Final Fantasy Origins = FF1 on the PSX
Final Fantasy Chronicles (FF4 (2 in the US) and Chrono Trigger)
Final Fantasy Anthology (FF5 and FF6 (3 in the US)

I own all three, gladly.

Are you really fine with the loading times on the PSX? Do you remember what they were like on real carts?

Granted, the worst offender is the non-FF title (Chrono Trigger), and the loading times may be shorter on the PS2 (does anybody know?)

Re:final fantasy ports

[lavar78]

Tell me about it! The loading times are painful if you're used to the original games. I'd still recommend playing FF4, Chrono Trigger, and especially FF6 though -- they're all great games.

Re:final fantasy ports

[PhoenixFlare]

Granted, the worst offender is the non-FF title (Chrono Trigger), and the loading times may be shorter on the PS2 (does anybody know?)

It's still not quite as snappy as the SNES version, but the fast loading does help a bit. I'd already played through completely and gotten all the endings and extras by the time I bought a PS2, though, so I haven't tested it much.

FF4, on the other hand, has no loading speed problems whatsoever, even on a PS1. The music and sound effects are a bit off from the original, but on the whole it's not too bad.

Re:final fantasy ports

[DigiDarkCloud]

Granted, the worst offender is the non-FF title (Chrono Trigger), and the loading times may be shorter on the PS2 (does anybody know?)

I have all three collections as well, though I've only been playing FF1, FF2 and CT so far. In FF1 and 2 the load times aren't noticeable to me, but CT's is enough that it's annoying.

I'm playing them on my PS2, if it matters. It probably already has faster seek/load times than a true PlayStation, and it has an option in the PS emulator to further boost the load time, but I haven't noticed that option to have any effect.

Re:final fantasy ports

[Fred Or Alive]

If you're in a PAL area, the releases are a little different:

Final Fantasy Origins (FF, FFII)
Final Fantasy Anthology, European Edition (FFIV, FFV)
Final Fantasy VI (+ FFX PS2 demo)

Origins and Anthology have illustrations on the covers, Final Fantasy VI has the normal 'just the logo' design used for other Final Fantasy releases. Despite the acclaim its got, Chrono Trigger has never been released in a PAL format (neither has Chrono Cross). Non of these games have been PAL optimised either, but what do expect on PlayStation games. ;-)

Re:final fantasy ports

[Hopelessness]

The only problem with the remakes is loading times (especially things like battles). It's not awful, but you're comparing the constant loading times of a PSone game versus a Super Nintendo cartridge. Just something for consideration. I'm still waiting for some remakes on the GBA, myself.

Re:final fantasy ports

[suyashs]

There is a generic SNES on PS2 emulator: its called SNES Station. The problem is that you need to use either the swap trick or a modchip to play it...

YES BUT

[Anonymous Coward]

is this one really the FINAL one?

Times Have Changed

[Kobold Curry Chef]

Since the original FF designer (I believe his last name is Sakaguchi) left Square a couple years ago, things have definitely changed in the FF world. Now we're getting sequels (FF-X, this new one), MMORPG versions, cell phone games...all things that never happened with the original designer running things. Was he holding back the franchise, or was he being smart by not letting things go hog wild?

Re:Times Have Changed

[StevenHenderson]

Yes. I feel that untimately all of these releases will dilute the FF name (if they havent already), and will in essence, further serve to cheapen the franchise. How long until we have FF 2k5, then 2k6 and so on like sports games? (much like the way UT has gone)

Re:Times Have Changed

[Anonymous Coward]

Sakaguchi (The "Guch" as I like to refer to him) has started another game company called Mistwalker and has announced 3 games. I'm not sure of the names/genre of the games, just that they were announced.

Re:Times Have Changed

[Maul]

He was smart by not letting things go hog wild.

Re:Times Have Changed

[DroopyStonx]

I thought he was back for FF12?

I know FF8 and FFX were botched by whoever they had design it (which explains why the games weren't "Final Fantasy" type games), but the last I read, the original designer was back.

There's more medieval/tech in FF12, just like 4, 6, 7, and 9!

Re:Times Have Changed

[Kobold Curry Chef]

Nope, Sakaguchi is off in a new startup now:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3133577&di d=1

The designer for FF XII is the same one as for FF Tactics Advance. In fact, the two games are both set in Ivalice, the world of FFTA.

Re:Times Have Changed

[Nazmun]

He hasn't left Square if i remember correctly... rather he stopped designing. In reality he stopped doing a lot of design work even before he left by using the ideas and decisions of younger directors.

He is still a producer involved with most of recent Square games (not from the Enix side) which includes FF-X2.

BTW, his full name is Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Re:Times Have Changed

[Kobold Curry Chef]

Nope, he's definitely gone:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3133577 &di d=1

Basically, his last real work was FF IX, which was the recent high water mark.

I wondered why FF X was so radically different and, to my mind, frustratingly linear...it's because Sakaguchi had little to do with it.

Re:Times Have Changed

[Pluvius]

Sakaguchi was definitely a good moderating influence on Square. FFX-2 is a really good game, but I think that's a matter of luck more than anything else. Most of Square's recent cash-in ideas seem destined to backfire eventually.

Rob

Release date

[StevenHenderson]

From TFA:

While Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII is slated for release on the PlayStation 2 in 2005, Square Enix lists the game's genre as "undetermined," which suggests that the game is still in the early stages of development.

If it is early in development, NO WAY it will see a release in 2005. FFXII is has been delayed until 2005 in Japan and even later here, so I doubt they will overlap the releases, and I have a tough time believing they will have the resources to devote to the game to get it out by then. They royally screwed up the sequel to FFX, so let's hope they get this one right...

Re:Release date

[Anonymous Coward]

How do you mean they "royally screwed up the sequal to FFX."

I could of sworn that the sales numbers for that title were fantastic.

Re:Release date

[StevenHenderson]

I mean the game sucked. Sales were great, yup, but it shook my faith in the "invincible" Square.

Re:Release date

[chris411]

If they got great sales, that sounds like a good argument for the "invicibility" of Square.

Re:Release date

[StevenHenderson]

Great sales does not mean everyone was happy with it. As for me, I used to buy Square games right away. Now, I might pay more attention to reviews or *gasp* rent the game!

Hrm interesting

[qazew82]

I'm not complaining about another FF game, but I'm starting to wonder something -- tell me what you think.

They talked about Advent Children coming out as a movie instead of a game, but now they have a game starting development. You think they decided to start the game development up because of the positive response from Advent Children? Or do you think that they are really just being that cool and pleasing us.

eor

Re:Hrm interesting

[System.out.println()]

I suspect they realized that a FF storyline cannot be effectively told in a two-hour timeframe, and decided to make Advent Children a lead-in to the PS2 game.

Re:Hrm interesting

[Kogase]

Pleasing consumers = more money for them. So yes to the latter. On a side note, Final Fantasy VII was the reason I play games.

Re:Hrm interesting

[scotta451]

It would seem that Square is very savvy to cater to its fans, and when potential buyers go nuts over one of their properties, they produce the goods. FFX sold like crazy, so they produced a sequel, and guess what - it sold like crazy too. Why wouldn't the same be true for FFVII, which seems to have been better appreciated.

As for which is the driver - they get positive response to the film, so they queue up another game for development, or whether they planned it that way all along? Doesn't matter much to me. I would buy the movie with or without the game and vice versa, and that's the behaviour Square has cultivated from anyone who plays and enjoys their crack... I mean games.

Re:Hrm interesting

[nycheetah]

Jurasic Park II The Lost World had the same ordeal.
Michael Chriton was writing the book, and Spielberg was writing the movie...at the same time.

Worse case senerio, they change the name of the game, or the movie. Maybe even both!

NYCheetah@gmail.com

so what your saying is...

[AssProphet]

square is actually working on two movies right now...

Dirge of Cereberus?

[Dante Shamest]

FF7 crossover with Hercules? Oh sorry, they already did that in Kingdom Hearts. =P

This is good news

[Tom Courtenay]

I'm glad Square is finally listening to its fans! Last year they gave us an innovative sequel to one of the series best games (in X-2), and they're giving us more story for VII in the Advent Children project. Kudos!
I'm sure that most of use would prefer an RPG follow-up to it, but at least they're learning to capitalize on established characters (not just franchises). A game based around this very unique character could work out well. Sort of an updated Altered Beast type of thing? (for those that don't know, Vincent was a character who had the ability to change into various monsters during a battle). Of course, it could suck....kind of like Altered Beast :)

Squeenix games get a lot of flack from people, but it's mostly due to the raging fanboys that the games attract. If you can get past the fact that you're feeding the Squeenix monster, you'll often find a rewarding experience that can entertain those beyond the 14 year olds.

Re:This is good news

[ricotest]

I might be mistaken but wasn't Vincent an entirely optional character in FF7? Meaning you could play through the entire game without having him in your party? Might be confusing for players returning for the sequel.

Re:This is good news

[Masami Eiri]

And very easy to miss. IIRC, he was in a coffin in a room that was locked when you first see it, and you had to return at a later time.
At least with Yuffie you had a good chance of finding her if you just ran around levelling in forests for a while...

Re:This is good news

[kdgibson]

If you read the article, you would have noticed that it is not the Vincent you think of, but the ex-gunman from the Turks. Very odd choice, if I say so myself...

Re:This is good news

[darkmayo]

Thats the same Vincent.
Ex Turk Vincent is vampire shapechanger vincent.

But...

[Anonymous Coward]

...will Aeris be alive?

Re:But...

[JonBob]

Well, she is in Kingdom Hearts, so why not?

Re:But...

[Anonymous Coward]

The correct spelling of her name is "Aerith". I don't know why they changed it for the English version. Same thing with the evil baddy whose name is actually "Sephiros".

Re:But...

[drinkypoo]

Guess what? Over here, she's Aeris. And, they even put out an orchestral sephiroth theme which says "Sepiroth!" repeatedly in a high choral voice. So at this point it's pretty much too late to re-revise history.

Let the Beating Begin!

[kenp2002]

Hail! The merger is now complete my masters and Square Intellectual Property is Now Ours!
LET THE BEATING OF THE DEAD HORSE BEGIN!!!

Playability (real word?) and Stroy line

[funkdid]

Playability (real word?) and Stroy line are what made FF7 absolutley ROCK. Well, charcter development was up there as well. Plus the way materia worked and your weapons. OK the game ROCKED overall. I hated RPGs and had no intention of picking up a PS until I saw that game. I was instantly converted.

I just hope this isn't like when a has-been rock star starts remaking classic songs that they have no business singing. I feel that if you are going to remake a song it should be better then the original (yes almost impossible to do, so don't try unless you can pull it off). The SAME rule should apply here. I hope square doesn't tarnish the name of what I consider to be the greatest RPG of all time.

Re:Playability (real word?) and Stroy line

[Trigun]

The main problem that I have with the FF series is the fact that there isn't enough character development. I don't want wild tangents on the origins of the characters. I don't want characters to dissappear halfway through the quest, only to be replaced by a crappier one, having to spend forever levelling up that one. I try to keep my characters levels somewhat even. I do not want to have a level three white witch cast upon my party of level 20 fighters. If I wanted a white witch in the party, I'd start the game with a white witch. If not, I'll just buy a shitload of potions. The original FF had it right. I could play that game with whatever characters I wanted. Sure the scope was limited then, but broaden the scope, don't change the rules!

Re:Playability (real word?) and Stroy line

[Anonymous Coward]

Please, take a basic English comp. class. God damnit, I want my 30 seconds back.

Re:Playability (real word?) and Stroy line

[tukkayoot]

What made FF7 absolutely ROCK (in its day) were quality of graphics, cinematics and music, which up until that point, the likes of which had never before seen or heard in a game.

The story and character development were not that great. Cloud's backstory was too weird and convoluted, we hardly learn anything about Aeris before she dies, ect. The best moment in the story was when Red XIII learns the truth about his father.

The gameplay was good, but nothing terribly inventive. The coolest thing about it were the mini-games to offer a break from the mindless RPG cycle of slash-slash-heal.

This isn't a remake, in any event. It's a movie sequel (nice because the ending of FF7 was too ambigious) and a game sequel... I'm a bit tired of the whole Japanese console RPG thing, so I'm hoping it isn't an RPG. I prefer Final Fantasy Tactics/Tactics Ogre type games, and adventure/action RPG type games more.

Re:Playability (real word?) and Stroy line

[Nazmun]

Dead character development of Aeris was awesome... More of clouds origins are explained in some sidequests and near the end of the game.

It's still a game and they spent two hours in just one point in time of the game with history/char origins.

Re:Playability (real word?) and Stroy line

[Anonymous Coward]

What made FF7 absolutely ROCK (in its day) were quality of graphics, cinematics and music, which up until that point, the likes of which had never before seen or heard in a game.

Am I the only one in the whole world who doesn't believe that? The graphics were crap even for the day. The prerendered backgrounds are probably why people remember the game having "good" graphics, and I admit those were indeed good for the time, but the low-poly character models were atrocious considering that the characters were the only things being rendered in realtime. The models also deformed under certain camera angles. The game could have easily used much more detailed character models.

The music was good, but other than "One Winged Angel," the sound quality was only a bit higher than previous Final Fantasy games on the SNES.

The cinematics were something new to consoles, at least, although I thought they looked wrong somehow. Something just wasn't right in the colors or something. I never figured out exactly what bothered me about that. Of course, the constant switching between movies with deformed characters like the overworld scenes and movies with more realistic characters like the battle scenes was jarring as well.

Yes, the game was a lot of fun. I enjoyed most of the time I spent playing it. I just don't understand why it is worshipped so much for its wonderful graphics "at the time" when I thought it was dog ugly "at the time."

Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[grunt107]

That there never is a "Final" Fantasy?

Good games, though.

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[benzapp]

I am fairly certain the name of the series was chosen when the original developer, Square, was on the verge of bankrupcy. They named the original Final Fantasy such because they thought it would be their final game. It ended up being far more popular than they thought it would be, and the company was saved.

I haven't really played a final fantasy game since FFIII on my SNES like 10 years ago. That said, maybe someone out there knows the story better than I do.

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[Anonymous Coward]

The series' name comes from Square's brush with bankruptcy, and is an excellent example of gallows humor. Head designer Hironobu Sakaguchi decided to make the company's last project a fantasy role-playing game, as the name of Final Fantasy implies. The game's success brought the company to profitability, and the Final Fantasy video game franchise was born. Since then the Final Fantasy franchise has been considered Square Enix's most important asset. Figuratively, the name of Final Fantasy can also refer to any successful last chance to escape bankruptcy or any successful last chance to escape death or halt personal loss, based on this business situation.

Final Fantasy

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, you got it.

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[Anonymous Coward]

Some good, brief, info on Square Enix's history (and list of games). http://www.fact-index.com/s/sq/squaresoft.html

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[booc0mtaco]

Well,

The first Final Fantasy game was the company's last-ditch effort into making games, back in the early years. Thus, it WAS their final fantasy, or last hope, if you will.

The fact that it has been followed up indefinitely is just a consequence of its initial success. Guaranteed, the name's irony won't continue forever, but at least we're enjoying the fruits of their labor for now.

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[kenp2002]

I thought the Japan name was Romancing Saga? Or am I consufing that with a different Square game?

Re:Isn't it Ironic (Don'tcha think)

[PhoenixFlare]

You're thinking of a different game, yes. I believe it's part of the same series/in the same vein as the SaGa Frontier games.

goddamnit

[DeusExMalex]

since when are there actual sequels to the final fantasy games? call me a purist but it feels like a bastardization of my favorite stories when there's a continuation made after the story has ended. it's as if there was a braveheart 2 being made.

Re:goddamnit

[Neon Spiral Injector]

The biggest constant in the FF series is change. Every game being in a new world with new characters. But then that became what everyone expected. So obviously to keep everyone on their toes, they must do the unexpected, and start making sequals.

Re:goddamnit

[leperkuhn]

heh, braveheart 2 would center around mel gibson's disembodied head going into insanity and fighting for the english.

Re:goddamnit

[eboot]

Actually a Braveheart 2 wouldn't be a bad idea, I mean literally picking up the story where the film left off (in case you didn't know the film actually has an element of history in it) After William Wallace died Robert the Bruce fought against the English, lost, hid in a cave and watched a spider building his web, inspiring him to take up arms again. Good Story.

Re:goddamnit

[HarveyBirdman]

call me a purist

OK. You're a purist. And God hates fanboy purists, so I'd keep one eye on passing storm clouds.

I've enjoyed FF from #1 all the way through FFX-2. They're just enjoyable diversions, folks. There's nothing to be "purist" about. FFX-2 was fluffy and fun. Cracking a smile during an RPG will not bring about the Apocalypse.

bastardization of my favorite stories when there's a continuation made after the story has ended. it's as if there was a braveheart 2 being made.

No, it's not even on the same continent as the city that contains the ballpark. This comment is particularly ironic considering how Braveheart 1 was a bastardization of actual history.

Square can do what they want with their properties. I can play them or not. If they produce a sequel I don't like, well, that's life. There's no point in whining like a sissy over it.

Re:goddamnit

[StevenHenderson]

I agree with you on everything but the FFX2 comment. I love Square games, but hated FFX2. Sure, I smiled a few times, but there were far more times that I shook my head in disbelief at the sheer cheesiness of the story.

In the end, I think I was just upset at the case of squandered potential. Were it called anything but an FF title, I think my disappointment might have been milder.

Re:goddamnit

[Pluvius]

They already did the unexpected (by doing something entirely unoriginal) with FF9, though.

Rob

Re:goddamnit

[DeusExMalex]

God hates fanboy purists, so I'd keep one eye on passing storm clouds.

i'd be interested to see how a god i don't believe in would strike me down. in fact, i think it would be worth the death that would come from it. there's nothing to be purist about? at all? it makes me sad that you think that - enjoy your corrupted corporate existence then.

Braveheart 1 was a bastardization of actual history.

are you trying to say that final fantasy $NUMBER is closer to actual history? my point is that the story is being bastardized. not history. your point that braveheart is a far cry from the actual history of william wallace is completely unrelated to my point about breaveheart 2.

If they produce a sequel I don't like, well, that's life. There's no point in whining like a sissy over it.

you say that there's no point in whining about something you disagree with? if so, then why are you whining about my post? you obviously don't like it so why did you whine about it?

</return_fire>

Re:goddamnit

[HarveyBirdman]

Yes, it was cheesy, but so what? It was supposed to be silly. It was FF letting its hair down. You people seriously need to lighten up.

Re:goddamnit

[HarveyBirdman]

i'd be interested to see how a god i don't believe in would strike me down. in fact, i think it would be worth the death that would come from it.

Steeerike one! That was called "joking around." It's something "human beings" do when they possess a "sense of humor." Maybe you should get out more.

there's nothing to be purist about? at all? it makes me sad that you think that - enjoy your corrupted corporate existence then.

Absolutely 110% LOL! We got a live one here, folks. Wriggle on the hook, fanboy, wriggle! Squirm for me! Squeal like a piggy. You know you love it.

So because I think it's silly to be purist about a line of game products from a major gaming corporation, *I'm* the one who leads a "corrupted corporate existence"? Wow! That might be the most nonsensical thing I've read on the Internet in, geez, *hours*!

are you trying to say that final fantasy $NUMBER is closer to actual history?

Woosh! A swing and a miss! The count is 0 and 2.

my point is that the story is being bastardized. not history. your point that braveheart is a far cry from the actual history of william wallace is completely unrelated to my point about breaveheart 2.

Actually it was a dead spot on parallel analogy. Reread it a few hundred times and you may get it. Maybe.

you say that there's no point in whining about something you disagree with?

Steeeeeeerike Three! The batter is outtahere!

if so, then why are you whining about my post? you obviously don't like it so why did you whine about it?

I didn't whine, I delivered a righteous smackdown upon the unworthy pate of a a whiny sissy fanboy. :-) Now, bark like dog for me, bitch, or I'll take away your rare Tifa/Aerith lesbian scene lithograph.

Re:goddamnit

[DeusExMalex]

you say you were joking, eh? who says i wasn't? and as someone who's played all (11? 12?) final fantasy games, i suggest that you get out more. you may not have discovered this yet - you're not the only one w/ a sense of humor. although you apparently have an underdeveloped one, or merely a bloated sense of pride which causes you to think that you're the only one around with a sense of humor.

a dead spot on "parallel analogy", eh? if you know anything about argumentation (as you obviously don't, as evidenced by your degeneration into flaming) you would know that a "dead spot" in an analogy lends discredit to it's status as an analogy. as you don't really have anything linking your concept to mine - here's the important part - it's not an analogy!

remind me how a null analogy, a wise-ass comment and licking square's proverbial asshole equates to a righteous smackdown?

Re:goddamnit

[TiggsPanther]

That's what I liked about FFX-2. It was fun. I enjoyed it, it gave me a laugh. Plus it didn't ignore the previous game and contradict the ending.
Too many sequels fall into the trap that would have been the equivalent of having Tidus, Auron and a full complement on Summons back before the first chapters finished and have the party fighting some impossible remnant of Sin.

OK, FFX-2 was cheesy. I admit that. I also admit that I do enjoy cheesy things on occasion. And as cheesy games go, it was one of the enjoyable and thought-out ones.

Disappointment

[dark_requiem]

I hope very much that this isn't another crappy spinoff game like FFX-2. Worst RPG ever. FFVII is my personal favorite, trumping even FFVI. I got my hopes up when they originally did a press release stating that they would redo FFVII for the PS2 with updated graphics and new CG scenes, and then they quashed that in favor of the movie. Hopefully this title lives up to its predecessor, but I really don't think Vincent was the pivotol character I would have chosen for a spinoff. He was a good character, don't get me wrong, but they had better options to chose from...

Give me 3/6!

[Coffee Warlord]

Tell you what, I'd buy a PS2 just for the game if they came out with a redesigned/expanded version of Final Fantasy 3/6. 2/4 wouldn't suck either. Both of them with full cinematics and real sound would just rock.

But 7? Why on earth choose 7?

Re:Give me 3/6!

[Anonymous Coward]

Real sound? Are you kidding me? FF3 has arguably the most beautiful music of any SNES game.It even beast out a lot of PS2 music.

Re:Give me 3/6!

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it's their most popular game ever. Pretty good reason, I think. =P

Re:Give me 3/6!

[Anonymous Coward]

I probably should give up lurking and actually create an account here, but I figured I'd take a stab as AC. I have to agree that FF7 isn't the best of the series, but it's pretty close. FF6 is probably one of the better final fantasies for the simple fact that it actually chose to destroy the world halfway through the game instead of trying to avert the destruction and succeeding ultimately like in any of the other games, 7 included. It also dealt with some stuff you haven't seen since such as Celes' attempted suicide, Terra dealing with teen pregancy and becoming a surrogate mother, and the bad guy's destroying the world without much of a reason--he's just crazy. This is just some of what the game has to offer with just a little bit of hope that life does go on despite adversity. I liked FF7 too, and I think its battle system was better, but despite the weak translation we got, I think the premise of FF6 was bolder in comparison.

Re:Give me 3/6!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah FF3 was THE BEST Final Fantasy yet (I have to admit I never played 10 or 11). Each characters theme music rocked. There were tons of characters and Kefka rocked. FF7 was pretty good once you got past the shitty polygon graphics. FF8 was lame. FF9 was Boring. I would also love to see SNES Chrono Trigger ported to 3d. Wow Im so excited, cant wait to get home and fire up the old SNES emulator and play some classics.

Re:Give me 3/6!

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though I liked 6 better than 7, I'd rather see a remake of 7. I am strongly against those who think that graphics make the game, but 7 is one of the few games I can think of where the graphics really detract from the game. The 2D sprites in 6 work for what they are, but the lego people in 7 are almost laughable. Not to mention the integrated mpegs instead of animation (*shudder*).

Please don't make a sequel

[Rik Sweeney]

The problem with making a sequel is that if it's bad you'll never hear the end of it. FF7 should just be left as a single game for its own good I'm sorry to say.

The other problem I have is a lot of people have apparently played FF7, but of those, how many have actually finished it?

Re:Please don't make a sequel

[goldspider]

As someone who indeed finished FF7, I'll vouch for it as a game with one of the most compelling storylines ever, not to mention the great open-ended conclusion.

It's a shame that so much emphasis is being put on having the most cutting-edge graphics and features, apparently at the expense of developing a good story.

Re:Please don't make a sequel

[clem9796]

First time was something like 40+ hours. Finished it once training a Gold Chocobo (sp?) that took forever, but i did get the two mimics. It made for a quick finish, two mimics and a Knights of the Round is all you need at the end. Did it once in 22 hours... straight, skipping a lot of side stories.

Re:Please don't make a sequel

[Anonymous Coward]

This kind of "don't produce anything cause it might suck" attitude is surely one I don't want to get in the way of something that turns out good. There's really nothing horrible that could happen, is there?

Two scenarios:
- It sucks. OK, well, you still got FF7, a horribly cool game that stands fine on its own.
- It doesn't suck. It adds something fresh and new to the FF7 world, and you thank Jesus that you got to relive some good times.

The only real downside to it is that Square-Enix could be devoting this time to making other games. Personally, this isn't a big deal because this is essentially the #1 thing I'll be waiting for.

Hey now!

[Mongoose Disciple]

No bad talk about Altered Beast! That's a classic there you're stompin' on, buddy!

Granted, we demand a lot more from our games these days, and I'm glad we do. Still! Classic!

Wise fwom your gwave!

big company = big bills

[Anonymous Coward]

Not much logic to it.

Scaned Pictures

[darkstar949]

If you want to actually see the game AdventChildren.net has a scan of the Shounen Jump article about the game. You can see the scan (direct link) here

Re:Scaned Pictures

[StevenHenderson]

I wonder if maybe the lumped ad means a demo will be released with the DVD...

Re:Scaned Pictures

[darkstar949]

Actually there are both articles written by the magazine. Shounen Jump usually lumps similar articles together but that doesn't mean that they will be bundled in anyway. However, considering that there will be a UMD (PSP format) version of the movie well be released I wouldn't be suppressed if a demo is included with it.

Maybe it's just me ...

[evslin]

... but I didn't think Vincent was all that compelling of a character in the first place.

Re:Maybe it's just me ...

[Zoshnell]

I personally didn't remember a damn thing about his backstory. Failure si me I suppose.

Definately the best one.

[Sirwar]

The thing about FF games, is that everyone remembers their first as the best. Proof enough is that I've met people who played FF8 first, and they think its the best one...when I think only X-2 could surpass it in lameness. Is FF7 really the best? Who knows. Maybe I'm biased, but best magic system, and best minigames, bar none.

Re:Definately the best one.

[CashCarSTAR]

Not me.

I've played them all since #1. I can honestly say that my favorite is X by far. Best fighting engine+somewhat fun level up system+great story.

Re:Definately the best one.

[Tyndmyr]

Not true...I didnt play them until X-2. I hated that one, yet I love seven and the original aint bad either.

Re:Definately the best one.

[Pluvius]

The thing about FF games, is that everyone remembers their first as the best.

Haven't people given up on this lame-brained theory yet?

Rob

Speaking of Games ...

[Aggrazel]

Off topic I know ... ... but when the heck are they going to replace Simonniker? Its been like 3 weeks now.

Re:Speaking of Games ...

[drinkypoo]

First they have to find someone who can successfully post dupes and fail to spell check anything, or they don't have a hope in hell of fitting in.

Question

[StevenHenderson]

So, the fact that they are going to be focusing on Vincent in the game...does anyone think that maybe this means Cloud dies in the movie???

Re:Question

[greymond]

I doubt that. Lets look at Vincents character - he was a Turk who loved a chick (lucrent - something like that) who loved an evil scientist (Hojo) who eventually experimented with their child (Sepheroth - probably spelled wrong). Vincent then confronting Hojo gets his arm shot off and replaced with a mechanical claw while being experimented on by Hojo and locked in a basement for 30 years.

His character joins you looking for revenge mostly. So it seems that when the initial fighting and saving the world part is all said and done that he would have some issues of his own that he needs to deal with.

Damn I need to take a shower and wash off this nerd smell now.

Re:Question

[StevenHenderson]

Good point. I just wondered because FFX-2 dealt with Yuna for "obvious reasons."

And, I think the chick's name was Lucretia? Been so long since I played that game...

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

After playing Kingdom Hearts it's obvious that Cloud and Vincent have been fused somehow...

SquareEnix, the Radical Company?

[MMaestro]

In the case of at least FFXI, the idea to make the game a MMORPG was decided before Squaresoft merged with Enix.

As for the experimenting with new designs, Square/Enix doesn't really have a record of 'experimenting' and more like 'maverick designer ideas'. Parasite Eve was some-what turn-based but the whole guns, move while fighting, 1 character, sorta thing was totally different from the FF games. Same with Vagrant Story. Targeting different parts of the body? Weapons/Armor that change weaknesses/strengths to certain enemies? No more level system? Thats a pretty radical jump from the FF standard 'you attack, I attack' system.

Not that Enix is innocent either. Their Dragon Quest/Warrior series is still using the old menu system founded with DQ/DW game.

The 'Final' in 'Final Fantasy"

[maiku]

I always wondered about the 'Final' thing. Thanks Wikipedia!

"The series' name comes from Square's brush with bankruptcy, and is an excellent example of gallows humor. Head designer Hironobu Sakaguchi decided to make the company's last project a fantasy role-playing game, as the name of Final Fantasy implies. The game's success brought the company to profitability, and the Final Fantasy video game franchise was born."

great!

[wowzerwowzer]

oh my gosh my prayers answered!!, FF7 was the RPG that got me hooked into the genre so i'm really thrilled about this, i hope it has familiar names in the world map, choosing vincent as a main character tho.. I dunno.
anyway there are so many fans that are happy by this news now, well done square!.

Finally...

[DroopyStonx]

It was utterly disappointing when I heard that they were making sequel to X-2. At first I thought it was a joke.. I kept asking, "Why a sequel to THAT game?! They must be kidding," but... yeah, it was true.

All that time and money that could've been spent on a direct sequel to a better (and more popular) game like FF4 or FF7.

I'm willing to forget all about FFX-2 if they make this sequel to 7 (and make it good! [Please no pop-star crap])

Re:Finally...

[Anonymous Coward]

FFX-2 was a fun game. Too bad you're too much of a fucking stuffed-shirt FF fan to have enjoyed it. Heh heh... Dumbass fanboy...

Re:Finally...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're the pansy who enjoyed FFX-2, so any "insult" coming from you is laughable at best :)

Better luck next time, though!

Cerebus lives!

[BlueThunderArmy]

Crud, I was hoping this was Dirge of Cerebus, featuring Dave Sim's cranky aardvark fighting Sephiroth and Shin-ra.

that is one of the main reasons i bought ps2

[beefcake101]

i bought the ps2 because of the game devil may cry then i seen ffx which is one of the greatest games i have played. I thought there was another ff movie coming out? does anyone know?

Re:that is one of the main reasons i bought ps2

[Tukz]

You're refering to "Final Fantasy - The spirit within" as the first FF movie I assume?

They are currently in the makings of "Final Fantasy - Advert Children" which is a sequal to Final Fantasy VII, which is, imo, the single most best game ever made. period.

PSP or PS2?

[Anonymous Coward]

Judging from the righthand sidebar on the gamespot site, this game is going to be for the PSP and not the PS2.

Re:PSP or PS2?

[silentbobdp]

No, that's referring to the Advent Children movie, which is coming out on both DVD and PSP's UMD format. Since (obviously) Gamespot doesn't have a category for DVDs, they list it as a PSP title.

The intro of the new game...

[WWWWolf]

(Note: somewhat obscure joke, based on the sequel to the seventh part of one popular western CRPG series...)

Scene: North Corel, eighteen months after the end of FF7...

Barrett: "Yo, homes."

Cloud: "So there are some news about these Cerberus things?"

Tifa: "All I found among Sephiroth's belongings was a map showing the way to a place called the Isle of Cerberus, and this letter."

Barrett: "Okay. Slap it down there!"

As Tifa opens the letter, it magically animates, casting a gigantic holographic projection of Jenova in air...

Barrett: "Jump back!"

Jenova projection: "Sephiroth! Know that my face is most goth-like! While it's unlikely that this ludicruous gang that you spoke of manages to ruin our plans, you must send a clone of you to the Isle of Cerberus, to learn the secret of Acne Medication! Soon I and my horde of puppets will destroy the planet!"

Cloud: "We must send Vincent to the Isle of Cerberus..."

Vincent: "Hm? Why me?"

The rest of the characters unceremoniously tie Vincent to the back of a gold chocobo, which panics and runs off across the ocean. Then, at one point, it disappears mysteriously with a "Zot!" effect.

Re:The intro of the new game...

[drinkypoo]

If at any point Barrett says "what's with all this jibba-jabba!?" I'm going to break the game disc in two and mail it to Squeenix with a lump of my excrement.

Stop Knocking on Square

[ChronoSphere]

I think its a good thing that they are finally extending the story from one of their more popular games. The ending to FFVII was so ambiguous, that its practically crying for another story to tie up the loose ends. Now, if Square tried to make a sequel outta something like FFVIII, then I might disagree, but this is probably the best thing they could have done for the story of FFVII.

I'll play it if they bring back Aeris

[Anonymous Coward]

I know she's really just sleeping peacefully.

Re:I'll play it if they bring back Aeris

[Tom Courtenay]

She is featured in Kingdom Hearts actually. There's a great scene where the protagonist asks Cloud what's wrong and he says something along the lines of:

I'm looking for someone, but got lost along the way

Indeed. As a huge fan of VII, this was a very touching moment.

Re:I'll play it if they bring back Aeris

[thryllkill]

and destroy possibly one of the greatest emotionally impacting plot advances in video game history?

Bah. Go read some fan fiction or something, I am sure there are tons of "Aeris lives" stories to satisfy you. But please leave the cannon, and its impact, alone

Re:I'll play it if they bring back Aeris

[Tukz]

Touching can't quite describe it.

When Sephiroth flew down and stabbed her in the back, I am not the one to say, I didn't shed a tear or two. I still do when thinking back.

I can remember my thoughts.. "No... no, she cannot... she cannot be dead...she must return."

After that, I kind of went on a rampage with Cloud, killing anything in my path, as a symbolic revenge.

As much as I loved Aeris, she should not return as a living character. Make references to her as they did with Yuna and Tidus in FFX-2 or similar, just not as a real person.

Instead of calling it Dirge of Cereberus...

[Anonymous Coward]

They should have just called it: "Final Fantasy VII: The Search for More Money"

Isn't it Stupid (Don'tcha think)

[Daetrin]

That ever time there's a story about the Final Fantasy series some idiot needs to make this lame ass joke again?

It was maybe funny once. Most of us are probably around several dozen now if not more.

Action RPG Vs Traditional RPG

[fistoflegend]

Apparently this is going to be an action rpg in the same category as the Zelda games.

Personally I was hoping for a traditional rpg sequal to the original. I am not going to play the cell phone based game.

I am anticipating the release of Advent Children. I hope that they use some of the original themes when scoring the movie. Uematsu should be consulted.

FFXII looks very promising, I only hope that it is more challenging than FFX.

Re:Action RPG Vs Traditional RPG

[Tukz]

FFXII is said to be "action RPG" as you call it aswell.

I can't remember the directors name, but he is said to introduce "western methods" into the game at FFXII, so it's gonna be a experiement of sort.

If only I could remember where the article is to back this up, I'd give you the link.

None the less, looking forward for FFXII.

P.S. FFX-2 was a major dissapointment, so let's hope they make better sequals to VII. Oh please dear Shiva, let them not screw up the greatest historie that ever came out of Squaresoft.

Re:Action RPG Vs Traditional RPG

[fistoflegend]

I have read a couple of articles about the game as well.

he has said things along the lines of "the game will be different" and "we are trying new things."

But the FF directors ALWAYS say this. It is actually quite silly because they said that FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFX, and FFX-2 were going to be SOOOOO different. They also said the same thing about Chrono Cross and Namco said the same about Xenosaga.

Personally I just think they try to create a little hype for the game by saying its going to be different.

In actuality I think that the game is going to be quite similar to FFX, with the exception of the battle system, which is supposed to create a feel reminiscent of strategy-rpg's, specifically FF Tactics.

It does look awesome though, and I cannot wait.

While your waiting...

[Mateito]

.. there's Final Fantasy A+!"

Re:While your waiting...

[Anonymous Coward]

Linking to Flashplayer.com is considered poor form, since flashplayer is a really bad website.

Re:If it's going to have the girls from the FF ser

[Dehumanizer]

Who plays ANY game wearing pants? :)

wow..advent children promotion

[genner]

A game to promote a movie that in turn promotes a game that the new game is a sequal to.
Makes my head hurt but it's all very zen

No, please don't do it...

[Anonymous Coward]

...I spent sooooo much time playing FF7 that I actually broke the clock (it stops increasing after 99:59:59), and went to the trouble of defeating everything I could, getting all my characters level 99, health 9999, magic 999, with each hit doing 9999 damage, and in some cases more.

If you release another one and I get near it I might start doing that again, then i'll never get round to getting a job.

Re:Sequeling a Sequel?

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell happened to the concept of the FINAL fantasy? God damned, Square, why not just start hawking the 'Cloud and Tifa' dating game while you're at it?

And the universe implodes

[Wind_Walker]

Assumption: All video games based on movies are bad (ET, Spiderman, Lord of the Rings)
Assumption: All movies based on video games are bad (Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy Movie)
Assumption: All games by Square are (at the very least) good games, with many being fantastic.

Premise: Movie is made, based on an excellent video game (FF7)

Consequence: The movie will be bad.
Consequence: The game based on the movie will be worse.
Consequence: Square will see that the game will be bad, and will thus improve its video game to compensate.

Result: My brain hurts.

In the Mean Time

[Greyfox]

Grab Star Ocean 3 while you wait. That should keep you busy for a while, especially if you do all the side quests and bonus bosses. And if you like RPGs and haven't picked up Suikodan yet, you really ought to check it out.

FInally!

[jpellino]

Equal video game time for everyone's favorite aardvark! Yaaaah- Huh? It's who? He's a what? Tarim - there is no justice!

Re:FInally!

[Kobold Curry Chef]

Cerebus is dead anyway. Though a video game based off Five Bar Gate (or whatever it was) might be amusing for ten minutes.

You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[sweede]

unlike Final Fantasy X, where the story continued after Sin was destroyed (As it always has for 10 years, but this time possibly longer?, but i'm sure there is more too it than FFX2), the ending of FF7 was the END OF the 'Human' existance!

For those that completed the game, when Cloud released Holy to destroy Meteor (after killin sepiroth with that kickass limitbreaker that did more damage than anything else in the game) , it was said elsewhere in the story that when Holy is unleashed, it will erradicate ANY AND ALL threats to the life force of the planet.

After the totally kickass CGI of holy doing its dirty, it goes black for a few seconds and then shows a world overgrown by nature 500 years into the future. If you look at it good enough, you'll see that the area that is overgrown is the old Shinra headquarters and that floating city that crashed to the ground. Mankind did not survive the fate of Holy, thus making a real sequel to this story not possible (or horribly fake).

If anything, i'd like to imagine that this isnt the story after the holy was unleashed and the meteor stopped and earth saved, but instead a whole other story that is going on at the same time with various characters, or even a backstory for Vincent.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't say that just because Shinra HQ is overgrown all humankind is wiped out. We know intelligent life survived (Red XIII has kids), so it's possible that humans survived as well. Maybe a community of peace-loving nature worshipers or something. Or perhaps the Ancients can come back? Anyway, there are probably hundreds of ways to create a sequal.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Fred Or Alive]

Final Fantasy VII has an ending that's rather open to interpretation. Armageddon is one way to interpret it though.

I think that humanity survived whatever happened at the end, and it's only Midgar[1] that got messed up. I'm an optimist and don't even think everyone in Midgar died, mostly because Midgar is still there after the credits, it's not a hole in the ground. It's just been abandoned by it's inhabitants who've gone back to not using Mako power etc.

Seeing as there is a sequel, I'd guess something along that line is what's going to be said to have happened. That's the problem with making sequels to things with ambiguous endings.

[1] Which doesn't float, it's just raised off the ground by structures AFAIK.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[greymond]

Not really. The threat was coming from Shinra and those who used the mako or whatever it was called. When the ultima weapns starting attacking it was only cities and places where mako was manufactured/refined/used a lot. They weren't just randomly killing everything in their path.

I always assumed that Holy eseentially destroyed all civilization (not humans in general). THis could be done by simply having all mako run machines stop functioning, therefore cities losing power and technology becoming useless, as well as things like airships falling form the sky.

Sure lots of people would die, but Holy in and of itself wouldn't just outright kill all human life forces.

At least that was my take on it. But it has been many years since I played.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Junta]

Though I haven't seen advent children or anything, I never assumed mankind was destroyed, but rather Midgar abandoned as mankind learned to respect their world, and the likes of Kalm, Cosmo Canyon, etc continued on.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Pluvius]

unlike Final Fantasy X, where the story continued after Sin was destroyed (As it always has for 10 years, but this time possibly longer?, but i'm sure there is more too it than FFX2), the ending of FF7 was the END OF the 'Human' existance!

Only for some interpretations. This is the reason why making a sequel to FF7 is a bad idea, though; it completely ruins the ambiguity of the ending.

Rob

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Nazmun]

Thats just not true... I remember them saying it ws too late for midgar (the floating city)... not all of mankind. Also you see Aris through lifestream easing that process too if i remember correctly (it's been a while!) to reduce casualties.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been a while since i played it, but i thought that the main quest for the surviving team was to realease holy which would save the planet and may or may not destroy mankind (and anything else it saw fit), meanwhile aeries' sacrifice was something to do with pleading the case for mankind to not be destroyed. Of course, everyone had their own interpretation, it isn't much helped by the translation quirks.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[sweede]

ya, its raised by several structures with the train that spirals around the center support, but i didnt remember the actual name of the city, so floating city worked just as good :)

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[TiggsPanther]

Only for some interpretations. This is the reason why making a sequel to FF7 is a bad idea, though; it completely ruins the ambiguity of the ending.

I think this is the problem with FF7. Being the first PS/3D/UK Final Fantasy it gained a place in a lot of people's hearts, and of course people wanted a sequel. No-one likes a story they enjoy to end so soon.

However much as it broke from the earlier FF mould it still had one major factor in common with it's predecessors. It was a self-contained story, and it was designed to be so. The story of the characters ended with the game.
As a result this new game and Advent Children will have to be extremely good (and damned lucky) to work as a sequel without seeming like either an afterthought or a contradiction.

FF10, on the other hand, looks like it had the various plot-hooks for sequels worked in from the beginning. So even if they didn't always know there'd defintiely be a sequel it looks like they'd prepared for the possibility.
Yes I guess FFX-2 could be considered a cash-in. But it does look like it was planned in advanced rather than tacked on after they realised the extra cash they could make.

Re:You cant have a true sequel with FF7

[Anonymous Coward]

If you look at it good enough, you'll see that the area that is overgrown is the old Shinra headquarters and that floating city that crashed to the ground. Mankind did not survive the fate of Holy, thus making a real sequel to this story not possible (or horribly fake).

This is debatable. There is a column of smoke can be seen rising from somewhere in Midgar in that epilogue FMV-- it's been theorized that it comes from some kind of settlement (perhaps a human one).

Forgive me if I'm off base here...

[vex24]

But shouldn't the game "Final Fantasy" be, by definition, the last game in the series?

Re:Forgive me if I'm off base here...

[Tukz]

The games name isn't "Fantasy", so no.

Each and every story is a new story, so no.

Sakaguchi knew what Final Fantasy needed to be

[MunchMunch]

"Was he holding back the franchise, or was he being smart by not letting things go hog wild?"

The fact is, Sakaguchi actually was the corporate fall guy for the economic failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He resigned and like another poster said, started his own company Mistwalker with some other ex-Square employees.

So...After making the groundbreaking FF7 and the universally underrated and innovative FF8, he was only marginally involved in the crowd-pleasing trainwreck that was FF9, and he was completely left out of mediocre-but-playable FFX and X2 (the most mainstream and least innovative of the FF games, in my opinion--I mean, you can't even control the airship?!). People will think I'm being harsh, as many of us got into FF at FFX or somewhere thereabouts, but every FF game he was involved in was innovative and not afraid to reinvent countless RPG conventions. Every FF game since has been at best well-done-derivative.

Of course, now, with nails-on-chalkboard voice overs and super linear gameplay, FFX made more money than ever. There are a lot of factors that helped that--most of all the popularity of the PS2--so it's hard to say people buy it because it's linear and derivative, but when something like 32% of the games sold in August were rehashes of the yearly sports games, people are apparently at least ready and willing to buy derivative. My own opinion is that FFX probably would have done just as well economically, and been a much better game, had Sakaguchi still been at the helm.

It's a shame, but at least Mistwalker will probably come up with something special in the years to come.

Re:Sakaguchi knew what Final Fantasy needed to be

[Pluvius]

FFX and X2 (the most mainstream and least innovative of the FF games, in my opinion--I mean, you can't even control the airship?!)

Who cares about controlling the airship? All you're getting there is an illusion of freedom. With the exception of FFX-2 (and FFXI, I guess), the other FFs are no more or less linear than FFX. Unless you count the second half of FF6, which was pure crap.

Rob

Re:Sakaguchi knew what Final Fantasy needed to be

[scot4875]

the universally underrated and innovative FF8

You misspelled "mind-numbingly boring."

--Jeremy

Re:Sakaguchi knew what Final Fantasy needed to be

[MunchMunch]

"Who cares about controlling the airship? All you're getting there is an illusion of freedom."

I care!

I *did* do some exploring after getting done with the basic quest in FFX, but not nearly as much as I did in FF7 or 8. In FF7, I spent 30 extra hours easily at the Golden Saucer and running around finding all the secrets. In FF8, collecting all the GFs, doing the side card quest, and basically just flying around looking for rare monsters to draw from were all part of the what I think of as the Final Fantasy experience. In FFX, you are herded to your next goal thanks in part to the airship system.

But more so-- in the earlier games, once you got the airship, you had a wonderful sense of freedom to go to that area surrounded by mountains that you couldn't reach by land, or to cruise around the sea looking for islands that just might have caves that just might have super powerful monsters that just might drop amazing items, or wherever it was that you wanted to see "could there be something hidden there?" In both FF7 and FF8, you were often rewarded for your curiousity. In FFX, the map/locale/airship system seemed like a lazy attempt to try to replicate that feeling. There was the 'location discovery' system, but it was as if the designers essentially said, "Exploring the map for secrets is a great idea, but since people want instant gratification, how about we make it better by removing the actual exploring and just let them discover dots on a picture."

It might be a stupid point to argue, but I like fighting monsters and going into the legitimately unknown areas--maybe stumbling upon a Tonberry King, maybe Cactuar, maybe nothing--more than clicking on dots and arriving at some predetermined destination because it was magically marked on my map. In both game systems you're limited by the makers' linear plans, but there's something patronizing in FFX's "no, you're not interested in that island out in the sea--go here instead" system.

We're in agreement about FF6 though.

Re:Sakaguchi knew what Final Fantasy needed to be

[Pluvius]

In FF7, I spent 30 extra hours easily at the Golden Saucer and running around finding all the secrets. In FF8, collecting all the GFs, doing the side card quest, and basically just flying around looking for rare monsters to draw from were all part of the what I think of as the Final Fantasy experience.

And in FFX, you had the Monster Arena, Blitzball, Chocobo racing, etc., etc., etc.

My point is that if you don't like FFX specifically, it can't be because it's too linear. Maybe it's just that you prefer the illusion of non-linearity (for whatever reason) over actual non-linearity or undisguised linearity.

BTW, FFX was also just as innovative as most of the other FFs. The initiative-based battle system was a great idea, and being able to change your party members mid-battle is something that was a long time coming in the FF series. Even the Sphere Grid was thoughtful, despite its basic lack of differentiation from more traditional leveling systems.

Rob

Re:Sakaguchi knew what Final Fantasy needed to be

[May Kasahara]

Maybe the story was, but I belive the parent may have been referring to the incredibly well thought-out battle/leveling up system (not to mention the card game, the first such minigame in a Final Fantasy, AFAIK). I'm currently replaying FF8 for that reason alone.

Not all

[phorm]

Perhaps all the numbered ones, but isn't Crystal Chronicles for gamecube only, not to mention many of the old gameboy releases, and FFA (Final Fantasy Adventure)

Prayers

[shish]

Square Enix is finally answering the prayers of thousands of FF7 fans

I always thought our prayers were that they'd remake FFVII with updated graphics, maybe a couple more sidequests, optional FFX style battle time system in addition to active and wait, etc; but leave the core story untouched...

Re:Prayers

[BlueThunderArmy]

... and restore the cut storyline featuring Aeris's resurrection...

Re:Prayers

[Pluvius]

And make the plot nonsensical in the process?

Face it, there was never a storyline involving Aeris' resurrection.

Rob

Re:Prayers

[TiggsPanther]

Oh yeah!

I'd heard about the early plans they apparently had to do graphically updated remakes of VII and VIII. Shame these never panned out.

Personally I'd love to see FF8 redone FF10-style.
Realtime generated areas rather than the pre-rendered fixed-perspective rooms which occasionally made it hard to figure out where the screen-exit was. Voices (optional). New battle engine. (I did like the ability to swap-in warriors)
But keeping the world-map - probably my only major letdown about FF10.

Same with FF7 really. update the game engine to the never version, but keep the plot and map the same.

Correction

[phorm]

FFA I believe was the title on the gameboy releases. The other I was thinking of was FFMQ (Mystic Quest)

Re:Correction

[Neon Spiral Injector]

The old B&W Game Boy "Adventure" release was actually a re-titled "Mana" game. The Final Fantasy Legend series were originally SaGa games in Japan.

Mystic Quest is all but forgotten.

Re:Correction

[lavar78]

Mystic Quest is all but forgotten.

... and that's a good thing.

Re:Correction

[falcon5768]

owning it I can agree... it really is bad.

The only FF game not ported to the PS is FFIII and its doubtful it ever will be since it wasnt ported in Japan either though there is a wonderswan version

Re:Correction

[Anonymous Coward]

The WonderSwan version of FF3 was cancelled. It was never developed any further than a couple of mocked-up screenshots.

Re:Correction

[falcon5768]

then there was never a port period I guess... sad too while it was really a copy of I and II it was the first one to get all the elements together into one game what we would consider a FF game having

Was planned for awhile

[phorm]

Back when I first heard whispers of Advent Children, one of my friends (a rampant FF addict) whispered that he was "in the know" and that not only would there be a movie sequelling FF7, but another game taking place a few years after the movie.

I wasn't entirely surprised then to see this article, but I'm definately happy he was right... wonder where he got his info though.

It is possible though that if interest in the movie had tanked, they may have ditched the idea of a sequel game.

What about FFVI?

[say__10]

The story in that game was one of the best by far. The characters and villans were of the best quality. Im sure there is sequal potential there, What happend after the defeat of Kefka? Id like to know!

They could give it a sequal for sure. Or perhaps give it an update, a ps2 treatment, either would be great, just passing up one of their best titles of all time just seems like a waste.

Enix Influence

[faust2097]

Enix is well known for whoring out many, many spin-offs, side stories and the like. Right now there are multiple games available where you play as a slime or merchant from Dragon Warrior. Even within established series Square never did a true sequel until the merger with Enix. I guess this is the end result of the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Re:Enix Influence

[Tukz]

I suppose you can call "Ergheiz" a sort of "sequel", as Tifa, Sephiroth, Cloud and also Barret I belive, was present.

(No, don't take the word "sequel" TOO hard in this context)

Re:Enix Influence

[Anonymous Coward]

Even within established series Square never did a true sequel until the merger with Enix.

OK, gonna have to stop you right there. FFX-2 was in development long before the merger. Your argument that 'Enix caused this to happen' is a common fanboy misconception.

Vincent is HOT!

[mzweng]

As a girl gamer who loves FFVII, I'm happy they're developing Vincent's character more. He had a great backstory.

And plus, he's hot.

Re:Vincent is HOT!

[Tukz]

Speaking of hot... Tifa was "THA BOMB"

Answering prayers

[bilsaysthis]

People pray to game companies now? I know we live in a very strange post-modern world but I thought only musicians were gods.

'Dirge'?

[payndz]

Any game with the word 'dirge' in the title, I'm going to be a bit dubious about!

And I never finished FF7 either. Get to part where Barrett has to fight his gun-handed mate alone. Get killed. Slog through five minutes of walking and exposition to get to same point. Fight. Get killed. Repeat 8 or 9 times. Decide life's too short. Never touch game again...

The Potion Nazi said

[nastro]

No Resurrection for You!

sigh..

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Nice to see Square care about the original fanbase.

I been playing FF games for about 15 years now and TBH I can't stand the latest ones. They just don't feel the same and now they are being whored. When do we see the following.

FF7 : Cloud golf
FF7 : Getting in Tifa's panties
FF7 : Sephiroth's molestung yaoi fangirls
FF7 : Tifa's big adventure
FF7 : Red XIII's spelling games

hint hint. FF7 is hugely over rated and is only loved so much because it was the first FF game alot of people played. The fanbase is so rabid no one even wants to deal with them any more. It's like Dragon ball in the anime community or counter strike for gamers.

I thought with FF:CC and the mana series remakes we'd start to see Enix fixing the problems with square. I guess this went right out the window and we've back to whoring the series.

Guess I'll be sticking to FF6 and below from now on. Thanks for ruining my childhood Square, remind me to thank you for supporting a rabid fanbase plagueing everything gaming wise (AKA go look at ANY FF7 involved Gfaqs poll).

what they really need is...

[ddsoul]

A sequel to FF:tactics, now that game was a true clasic, it even had cloud in it! square use to be all about contraversy in their storylines, I'm not sure if it was just coincidence that those were the games that rocked (ie xenogears), but what has happened since?

I haven't really heard much, less played any FF's past the first 5mins of FF8 and got bored... oh wait, I played FF:crystal cronicals on GC, but that can no way match classics like FF:6 (3 here). Another appeal were the kickass badass characters in each series and of course, lets not forget about the killer soundtracks.

I think they have the formula for a great RPG still, but have taken some risks that may not have worked to the fullest extent for them, thus backtracking back to their last big success (FF7) and seeing what they can do, they can't possible do any worse. Back in the day, when you thought SQUARE, you instantly related the brand to QUALITY HIT! now all I hear are speculations...

Lets hope they can change that one day soon.

Re:what they really need is...

[BlueThunderArmy]

There was FF: Tactics Advance for Game Boy Advance. Not really a sequel, but it's not a port of the original either. It's a fun game, suck up a whole lot of your time if you let it.

Don't think Cloud's in it tho.

Cereberus?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it Cerberus or Cerebus? Is it a dog or an aardvark?

Re:Cereberus?

[Bagels]

Dog. I spelled it wrong, realized my mistake, and sent an email to the editor on duty (at the time, Timothy). Never got a response, and the problem never got fixed. D'oh.

Foder for the Vincent Freaks

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats pretty much what this game will be. I don't get why people think Vincent is so cool. His fans are probably all emo. "Poor vincent, his heart must be broken..."

We want Cloud kicking ass, not that pansy Vincent. Sure he can turn into large beast, but what good is that compared to the Omnislash?

Re:You said it, story submitter

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm about to go eat lunch. This is sure to be a nourishing time for all involved.

FF United

[superpulpsicle]

There needs to be a FF united where we use today's hardware to bring back all the old FF series in 1 timeline. Think of a giant storyline starting with FF1 then 2,3... up to 10. But have your characters gain level continuously from FF1 to end, Chrono Trigger style...

Re:FF United

[th3space]

Longest...game...ever.

Re:FF United

[KronusOverlord]

*smacks both of the other people upside the head* two words: compressed storyline!

Or rather... *grins maniacly* Have Crono go through all the FinalFantasy universes... I 3 CT, RD, and CC more than any other game series. Evar!

Also, as a side note to anybody who would like a storyline connecting the FF games, google fanfics based around that. you will get far that way. ;)

Re:If it's going to have the girls from the FF ser

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot: A website that ex-histed around the year 2000. A place generally known for geeks to post endless amounts of posts in responce to other geeks.

A typical example of one such post; was to post something like "Who plays ANY game wearing pants? :)" and get moderated "Score:3, Insightful" out of a possible 5.

This, rather shamefull, example was typical before the new geek order.

Square-Enix, do you hate Chrono Trigger?

[ChronoZ]

There have been 3 or more fan-made Chrono Trigger remakes. Dozens of Chrono Trigger fan-sequels. A fan-made CHRONO TRIGGER NOVEL. Thousands of websites dedicated to the game. And what do we see? Chrono Cross (bleh). Cease and desist letters to arguably the best of the fan-made remakes. Really though..does Square-Enix hate the Chrono Trigger universe that much?

And now on the other side we have..a FF7 side-game. Advent Children. Before Crisis. What's going on here? Square-Enix, are you too afraid to explore any other universe other than the FF one?

Hot topic?

[AndyChrist]

I dunno about other people who have criticized the series (and FF7 in particular), but for me, not really. It's like Star Trek and Star Wars. Release something that SUCKs (Voyager, Phantom Menace...they both only get worse with time) ;or in the case of FF7, didn't really suck, but was a big disappointement; and the old fans may gripe about it for a while, try and stick with it, but we'll just give up and move on.

I've given up. I've moved on.

I'll be off playing Team Fortress 2 or something by then and won't give it another thought.

MOD PARENT UP FUNNY

[aussie_a]

Jesus! What's WRONG with you people? (As of this post it is Score:4, Insightful)

Worthy sequel....

[cbx_cbx]

Square (why they allways change names), could make a sequel to the REAL good FF, that was... FF: Mystic Quest