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The Near Future of SquareEnix
SquareEnix has announced some of its plans for 2006. Gamasutra reports on an upcoming three year anniversary party for FFXI in March of next year. There will be some major announcements at the event, as well as information on the upcoming MMOG expansion. Gamespot also has information from the Jump Fest 2005 event, where SquareEnix displayed announced plans for a Dragon Quest VIII spinoff starring Yangus. Xbox 360 RPG studio Mistwalker was also there, with details on upcoming titles Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.
Pardon my laziness, but when does FFXII hit the US market?
And is there any word on FFXIII, is it supposed to be released on any of the next-gen platforms? (PS3?), that would certainly influence my buying decision.
Their naming conventions drive me nuts. First it was the discrepancy between the US and Japanese "Version" numbers, and then that whole XII/X:2 thing.
They should've just skipped numbers where the US counterpart didn't exist.
"Can I have your stuff?"
At least 2 possibly 3-4 new jobs are being added as well as a whole new continent with a lot of old FF staples like Imps and Lamias. Also the mapmaker for CoP (which IMHO has some of the most beautiful areas, much better than the original or zilart expantions) is the head programer for this one so expect even more areas to be much more expansive than the original maps where, since this guy knows how to push the PS2 platform.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
How many times are we expected to buy the old Famicom and Super Famicom Final Fantasy games? I wish they'd stop whoring that series long enough to, I dunno, translate DQIV for the PlayStation. Or milk some other big Enix names, say a SoulBlazer collection for GBA.
Even other lesser-known Squaresoft games would be something. Seiken Densetsu 3? At what point do we admit we have too much Final Fantasy?
My wet dream is S-E making all the old games they never translated available for download in English for the Revolution.
Here's what they do: release updated versions of a bunch of FF games for GBA and DS, make another Crystal Chronicles, and then surprise everybody with a random Star Ocean game. Same thing next year, too.
The Amazing GBT looks into his crystal ball... What does he see?
The games you've been patiently waiting on to be released in the US will be delayed by at least 6 months and possibly 18. You'll get Kingdom Hearts II and the next Final Fantasy title about the time the PS3 is released, but probably later. You would think Sony and SE have such a tight relationship, we could see something resembling a FF title at console launch. Or maybe SE would stop telling us we'll get a game and then tacking on extra months before the release date. Could they just automatically add that so that I don't get my hopes up?
Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...
So far, nobody has mentioned the SE title that every FF fan has been witing for since 1997: Advent Children. Other than KH2, it's the one thing I've been anticipating the most.
"Once I saw a forklift lift a crate of forks.... it was so damn literal." -Mitch Hedberg
Wow, Final Fantasy XII isn't even out yet, and they're already planning an expansion!? (I took the liberty of correcting your subject in my reply.)
h tml
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/ahturhgan/index.
"Missing plugin, click here to install" - well, fuck that, then!
Also the mapmaker for CoP is the head programer for this one so expect even more areas to be much more expansive than the original maps were.
Oh, goody, I can't wait to see what impossible mission you have to complete before getting access to the new expansion areas in that case!
COP was the worst expansion pack for any MMORPG when they released, until Sony out did them with SWG.
Squeenix needs to get their head out of their asses and just drop PS2 support and move on to the XBox360. The game looks like ass on modern PCs and consoles, and there's really no excuse for that other than supporting the ancient PS2. Some day they may even allow the PC version to operate in windowed mode without breaking their TOS. While they're at it, they could also take the opertunity to kill PlayOnline since it's just a great big hurdle in the way of even playing the damned thing.
Not that it matters, since as the vast majority of comments to this story prove, no one gives two shits about Final Fantasy any more. Squaresoft succeeded into running into the ground, and Enix needs to realize that they always did create the superior games anyway (even if they weren't as popular).
As a expantion CoP was excellent, but you had to be a good player which was the best part. 2 monkeys and a lvl 75 could beat Zilart but CoP required you to actually know how to play to complete the missions making it very challenging. The sad part was 80% of the players ended up being found to be idiots who want everything on a silver platter which is why its looked down on, but in a month with a good crew I managed to go from diablos to sea only occasionally playing so it wasnt that tough. Heck the hardest mission of them all, the battle against Ultima and Omega we beat first run.
I have a feeling your the same AC troll who always trolls these FFXI posts am I right? Well I proved you wrong the first 80 times you commented so why dont you go troll WoW players or something.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
you know I play both FFXI and WoW and to me the cartoonish stuff of WoW looks worse than FFXI.
FFXI screenshot vs WoW screenshot
I rest my case. I suppose if you're color blind, FFXI might look better, but anyone who actually sees color will notice that FFXI's world is all done in what looks like watercolor - it's all washed out. (Not surprisingly, it's really hard to see that in the screenshots Squeenix posted, but the areas all look the same. Including your precious CoP areas, they looked just like existing areas.)
As a expantion CoP was excellent, but you had to be a good player which was the best part.
Um, no. When COP came out, it was nearly impossible to beat the first mission. They've since heavily nerfed it. When the expansion was released, it took an 18-man raid to get to the 6-man final boss. You also had to farm a rare drop from the harder monsters in the starting area with the raid. They proceeded to nerf the hell out of it in the following patches, so now it's doable by a single group of 6. But I didn't care by that point, because the infinitely superior WoW had come out by then.
I have a feeling your the same AC troll who always trolls these FFXI posts am I right? Well I proved you wrong the first 80 times you commented so why dont you go troll WoW players or something.
WoW just hit 5 million subscribers. FFXI is down to what, 300,000? I don't recall anyone ever managing to suggest FFXI has ever had any up sides, but I think the subscription numbers speak for themselves: FFXI is a dieing MMORPG, and WoW is exceeding all previous MMORPG subscription rates.
The numbers don't lie. No one I know who played FFXI is willing to play it ever again, if for no other reason than the economy has been totally destroyed and, unlike Blizzard, Squeenix refuses to create new servers to allow people to start in a new world without a destroyed economy. There is quite literally nothing good in FFXI, I can't name a single feature of that game I'd ever like to see repeated. The only reason - and I do mean ONLY reason - anyone is willing to play that crime against gaming is because of the name "Final Fantasy" - otherwise, no one would ever play it. Admit it: that's the only reason you play it.