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Final Fantasy XIII Still PS3 Only
Square Enix recently announced some of the games to be showcased at their "private party" in August. Looking at the games listed we see that Final Fantasy XIII seems to still be PS3 only and the rumors that Final Fantasy Agito XIII was canned seem to be highly overrated.
When wasn't it expected to be PS3 only?
For me to care less, they'd have to announce that Electronic Arts was producing the next FF installment, with a guest appearance by Hello, Kitty.... actually, even that might improve the game somehow...
Final Fantasy has always been focused on one platform. They push the hell out of every polygon budget, every memory limit, that they can get out of the hardware. Even if the core libraries are easily portable, I can imagine they don't relish the thought of porting or dual-targeting the title, because the game will not look as good on one of the platforms. For a title that is all about visuals, that's hard to take.
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The Final Fantasy series is a console mover.
FFI came out for the NES in 1990. I loved it so much I had to beg my parents to buy me a SNES for FFII/IV.
Then FFVII came out for the Playstation. Fortunately, it did so well that they ported it to the PC. Then FFVIII tanked on the PC and FFIX released only on the playstation, so I went out and bought one, allowing me to scoop up Anthology, Chronicles, and Origins in the crossfire.
Then FFX came out for the PS2. I loved FFVII and FFIX so much I had to buy myself a PS2 to play FFX.
Then the original FFII and FFIII came out on the WonderSwan Color. In Japan only.
Then the original FFIII came out for the Nintendo DS. Guess who went out and bought one.
Unfortunately for Square-Enix, I did not love FFXII so much that I will be buying a PS3 to play FFXIII. The spell is finally broken. Or I'm getting older.
Life would be easier if I had the source code.
As if millions of voices suddenly cried out "DUH!" and then were silenced.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Take that Xbox 360 fanboys!!!
Given Square's obsession lately with cutscenes. They seem to love having lots of prerendered cutscenes in the game, rather than using the game engine. Well, that is the one area that a Blu-Ray drive will be advantageous in gaming. While you don't really need the space for game assets, you certainly could if you want to have an hours of HD cutscenes.
Personally, I'm not a real fan of the whole cutscene thing. I'd rather you use the engine all the time, more immersive to me, and game graphics these days are good enough that it isn't as though you need a cutscene just to express detail the engine can't.
Wasn't there a huge meeting at Square recently where they decided they would no longer develop anything that wasn't for the mainstream? Keeping FF13 PS3 only seems to fly in the face of that, considering it's the least popular of the current three consoles. I bet it will be ported eventually.
... I bought a Playstation for FF7. Got it, played it, hated it. The story was palatable (despite a loathsome protagonist), but I hated - HATED - the incessant load time and the overly streamlined gameplay. Yeah, the game was a breakthrough for streaming off of the disk, but it basically swapped "loading..." for gameplay that felt like it was slow motion underwater sludge. I traded my playstation for a laptop. Years later I tried 8 and didn't care for it; 9 and didn't care for it, the anthologies and didn't care for them thanks to load time... then I bought a DS, played all of the old Final Fantasies that I loved in GBA mode (without load time), and have been enjoying Square's portable titles ever since - particularly The World Ends With You, which seems to have finally struck a balance between gameplay and story. The DS version of FF3 is playable, but managed to bring the incessant "loading..." sludginess the playstation titles have along for the ride, which hurts the replay value for me.
Did I buy the DS for Squenix titles? No. I bought it for Castlevania titles. But the Square games are so much more satisfying when I can grind on the bus or in the bathroom instead of spending dozens of hours welded to my couch. Gaming in general is more satisfying when I can pick it up and put it down - turn it on and turn it off - without waiting and waiting for it to load.
Cutscenes were used to treat the player for undertaking the long arduous quest of whatever is important in the game. Giving them a break and some eye candy as a way of saying 'job well done, look at the pretty thing we made for you! Go ahead, sit back, watch'... This is one of the reasons why I still like the 'cutscenes' from FF6 (FF3 for the states). Especially at the halfway mark in the game when the world gets royally screwed.
Now it seems like cutscenes are being used to drive the story instead of embellishing it. While just my opinion I don't really like having a cutscene every 20 or so odd minutes when just a simple NPC dialog would do. I gave up after FF9, and haven't played anything past that for more than a few hours, usually at a friend's house. I'll shut up now, as my old school nostalgia will probably draw fire from people saying I am remembering things that never were.
Secret of Mana was another good one...
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
That's not what my PS3 emulator says!
It's Wii strokin' time!
Is anyone else wondering why FFXIII is borrowing its title from a Kamen Rider series?
I doubt anything they (or anyone for that matter) can make can even approach Kamen Rider Agito's level of awesomeness.
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