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New Square RPG Unveiled - The Last Remnant
1up is reporting on content from Game Informer magazine from this month, talking about Square's next big non-Final Fantasy RPG. Entitled The Last Remnant, it sounds like an interesting blend of the old and the new. While the action will stick with traditional turn-based mechanics, several elements reflect the changing landscape of the games industry. Square/Enix intends to release the game worldwide, localizing the game to an English audience as the game is created. Additionally, the game will have two selectable protagonists: one is to be a traditional heroic Square character, and the other more of an anti-hero for the American market. "The Last Remnant's been designed on Unreal Engine 3, and we should see the first official media come from [Square/Enix's announcement party] on May 12 and 13. Going with Epic's technology isn't too surprising considering the company's emphasizing the focus on Western gamers ... We don't know much about combat, but it's turn-based, more action-oriented and has a cinematic flair."
traditional heroic Square character, and the other more of an anti-hero for the American market
Read as...
disaffected youth with spiky hair, and the other a disaffected youth with long hair
I enjoy these games as much as anyone else, but as their name implies their character development is about as flat as my display.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.
New Square RPG -- The Last Laundromat.
Hmmm, intriguing, but I'm not so sure it'll work out.
The enemies of Democracy are
Wasn't Square working on Blue Dragon recently? I mean, with Toriyama and the rest of the Chrono-crew...they already have so much merchandise I assumed they'd be focused on that...but I guess when you have an all star developing cast like that, you don't need to spend time on design since the little Ota like myself won't even consider it COULD be a bad game.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
An RPG with a turn-based system that has a traditional heroic character and an antihero? Been there, played that. Just one similar game that comes to mind is Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits. But these are preliminary details at best. How the characters are presented could be different than this wide brush-stroke of an explination.
The sentiment the anti-hero is "for" the western gamers is an interesting one. From what I've seen fan response-wise on this side of the sea antiheroes are preferred.
Starkle, starkle, little twink.
I always liked that one... Square games (and films) tend to be a little too cliche to be interesting for the amount of time intended. I think all J-RPGs do though. More like watching an interactive film than truly roleplaying a character who has to make choices.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
It makes sense that when making an Unreal engine game (which implies an "anything-but-Nintendo systems" release), they'd start the design with a highly western-friendly set of themes, based on the fact that non-Nintendo consoles just don't seem competitive right now in Japan. I doubt we'll be seeing Planescape: Torment or anything, but it'll be interesting to see if they can make an interesting title when learning such new sets of technology (likely training a lot of developers for the future with this project), and attempting to cater to a somewhat alien audience.
I don't know what it is, but a lot of their non-Final Fantasy games have seemed sort of, well, disingenuous or empty in similar circumstances, even if still good in some ways. Here's hoping it's not a Brave Fencer Musashi.
Looking back, I think you can probably guess what the game is going to be like by looking at the title - Final Fantasy is not going to end. Musashi is going to be an unfocused, unhistorical romp. Last Remnant, therefore, is going to involve drowning in remnants.
Ryan Fenton
The Last Remnant's been designed on Unreal Engine 3
I wonder why they're using Unreal 3, and not the White Engine.
Judging from the success of the Final Fantasy series...
The title "The Last Remnant" implies the game will not have a sequel, therefore it will do great and there will be a continuing string of sequels made for next 20 years.
I kind of wish they'd pay more love to the Chrono series and the Final Fantasy Tactics line instead of coming up with new franchises that they'll only half-heartedly support.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Also is rumored to be for 360 and PS3, so Sony may be losing exclusivity on future Final Fantasy titles if this goes well for Square.
"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson
I hope this series to be continues in the spirit of Live A Live, SaGa Frontier or Treasure of the Rudras...
Hope is foolish though, none of those were mega block busters like the Final Fantasy series.
I just see this as Square-Enix pandering to their two largest markets in a crass attempt to maximize sales. Creating main characters to appeal to a specific market is nothing more than folding to the focus-group mentality that the most widely acceptable option is the best one. This is not an artistic choice, it is a financial one. Ultimately I think that it will leave the game feeling like an empty attempt to seem "cool" or "badass" but without the underlying je-ne-sais-quoi that can make games truly great.
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Honestly, I'm a little sick of Square, they want to keep FF13 around for 10 years make it a variety of games, a whole universe. They want to make real time games, but keep turn based around. They want a lot of stuff.
Personally I'm fine with them branding everything final fantasy, it lets me know which products to avoid. I've no interest in them anymore. When Sakaguchi left to make mistwalker a lot of Square's power left. They may still get the sales, but sales have been proven to be a false indicator of market sucess, (halo and madden do well every iteration and neither are particularly excellent).
Maybe it's just that I don't have 60+ hours to throw at every game any more. I recently started working in the industry and the big change I find is I am now over analytical of the games I play, because I'm learning from them and about what the game play will notice. But I think the bigger problem is that when I pick up an RPG if I put in the 60+ hours I need to actually be interested in playing it. I played Tales of Abyss and Zelda for more than 40 a piece, and not many others recently. I thought the reason is I don't want to hook up my PS2 again, and that's possible, but the real reason is I don't want to put in 60 + hours on a game that's not worth 60+ hours, and sadly a lot of Square's properties hit that area, even Final Fantasy XII didn't grab me in 10 hours and placed it down.
I think the real problem is Square has constantly been commited to graphics over gameplay and story. Even Dragon Quest 8 (which is part of the Enix branch of the company) was graphically interesting, but utterly lacking in any sort of gameplay improvement that could have made the game less tedious.
I think the big three ideas that should be attempted for "next gen" RPGs is
1. Less tedious gameplay.
This is simple, don't make me have to level everything, give me risk vs reward style of exp over a normal base amount, make me always fighting new things. FFX did this well, FFXII not so much. If you fight a enemy more than 20 times, the game is sunk. If your boss on a closed off area (where you can't explore the world) requires them to level up to it, you're sunk. Players doesn't know where to go next? You're lost.
2. Real time gameplay, not real time menu choices.
Star ocean and tales gets this. The action is real time. If you want to promote real time gameplay let the player control the character, not just issue orders and have to wait to get control back. All FFXII was is a version of Grandia II and Wild Arms where you issued orders they did the little motion and you issued a second order. You could roam but it didn't improve anything.
3. Story Story Story.
Square seemed to forget this after 7 (hell even before 7) You're an RPG, You want your players to connect to the character, build the story. Graphics are flash and they get people in the doors but story is what gets them to stay. AND GIVE PEOPLE DAMM SYNOPSIS! When I put down FFXII and then pick it up a month later I forgot what I was doing and was completely lost. When I put tales of the abyss down for 2 weeks I was even more lost, and yet I found my way because they gave a synopsis that was easy to find and follow. We don't need 100 percent of the feeling and effect back, but at least give us a way to remember what we've done, not just "we need to go here next".
Listen, Square all your fans are no longer 18 year olds with short attention spans, some of us are now 20+ year olds out of college with real jobs where they can't spend 60 hours in a row beating your games. We're still willing to play them but let's meet half way, at least get us some tools where we're not playing games on the same system as we were in college or high school.
I'm no MBA, but this:
"They may still get the sales, but sales have been proven to be a false indicator of market sucess, (halo and madden do well every iteration and neither are particularly excellent)."
makes NO sense what-so-ever. What other indicator of market success is there? Are people making money without selling things?
"Fifty million Americans can't be wrong," said Rep. Billy Tauzin. Gore - 50,999,897 Bush - 50,456,002
I decided a while ago I was going to stop giving Square my money. Unless Final Fantasy III gets ported to something besides the DS.
I guess the anti-hero guy will have black hair, black clothing with an anarchy symbol somewhere on it, wear lots of white makeup, have lots of cuts and scars around their wrists, and be pierced all over?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
You should apply for a Senior Game Designer position for Square-Enix. You'd be a shoe-in!
I think of far more RPGs or at least RPGish games that have weak or nonexistent stories that turn out to be good games than RPGs with weak or nonexistent gameplay but a strong story and it turned out to be good. The entire Diablo and Grandia franchise basically exists only for the gameplay. The story, if one exists, is merely an excuse for the gameplay to exist. Gameplay always trumps story. There's a reason why you've never heard of anyone getting an award for writing the plot of a video game, while game designers are recognized for their contribution. Let's assume Miyamoto and Miyamoto alone is responsible for Nintendo's brilliant gameplay. If they throw him out and used that money to hire the best writer in the world, would the next Zelda game be better? No, it'd almost certainly be worse. Gameplay always trumps story, even in a RPG.
At any rate, it's stupid to say 'focus graphics over story'. There is almost certainly only one guy writing a story, as writing is not a task that you gain anything for throwing more people at it. Certainly the most recognized examples of writing are written by just 1 person. It's not like your head story writer for FF or anything else is going to be told by his superiors: "We need you to stop writing and help cranking out polygons even though you may not have any idea what that even involves." Graphics and story do not interact in any negative way. It is absurd that the quality of the story should change just because there's 1 or 1000 guys working on the graphics. Do you propose Square to pull their 1000 guys on graphics and have these guys help writing the plot for the next FF? That will almost certainly produce a worse plot, not a better one.
Aw shucks, and I thought this was going to be about Report Program Generator :(
I have just one question: Can the hip and waist sliders achieve a hip-to-waist ratio of 1.6 or better on female characters?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.