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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."
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
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
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.