Final Fantasy XVI - General News Thread

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Tornak

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Implying Square Enix will be moronic enough to not bring XVI before 2020.
I think it was Koozek who quoted a post (in GAF?) that APZ made about how XIV's team (BD5?) had been on a hiring spree for a while for people with not only online, but also SP experience.

So we could totally be seeing a part of that team working on XVI. If S-E was smart, development on XVI would have started, at the very least, in 2015. That would make next year the game being 3 years into its production, making even a launch possible around that time.

Tabata's comments on the series' fitness and XV's "make or break" status muddle all of this possible timeline, though. However, in no way do I believe that they would have abandoned the series, so much as it would have probably make them rethink the way they make the mainline titles -especially in regards to the budget/ambition/priorities- and focus on spin-offs and little risks games and systems.
 
Oct 19, 2013
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I think it was Koozek who quoted a post (in GAF?) that APZ made about how XIV's team (BD5?) had been on a hiring spree for a while for people with not only online, but also SP experience.

So we could totally be seeing a part of that team working on XVI. If S-E was smart, development on XVI would have started, at the very least, in 2015. That would make next year the game being 3 years into its production, making even a launch possible around that time.

Tabata's comments on the series' fitness and XV's "make or break" status muddle all of this possible timeline, though. However, in no way do I believe that they would have abandoned the series, so much as it would have probably make them rethink the way they make the mainline titles -especially in regards to the budget/ambition/priorities- and focus on spin-offs and little risks games and systems.
Yeah, see:
 
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Hey Everyone

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Implying Square Enix will be moronic enough to not bring XVI before 2020.
Well they got other games they could bring out that already have an audience like
FFX-3
Final Fantasy Type-Next
7 Remake
VI Remake
Agni's Philosophy
Anything XV/Versus related
Dissidia sequels

Hell they couldn't come up with something original for Final Fantasy XV, and opted to just use Versus XIII(and poorly use Versus XIII I might add)

They wouldn't even need to bring out XVI in this generation. Hell it's possible they might sit on it till the next generation(2025), so they can make it an MMO or something.
 
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Well they got other games they could bring out that already have an audience like
FFX-3
Final Fantasy Type-Next
7 Remake
VI Remake
Agni's Philosophy
Anything XV/Versus related
Dissidia sequels
Outside of maybe VII:R, none of that will have an audience as big as a proper mainline title. Maybe Agni's Philosophy if they go back and flesh out the universe beyond what's in the trailer and actually MAKE that XVI, but AP proper has little if any audience. It's a well-made trailer, but it is insanely bare-bones and tbh I had to go and look what was in that video again b/c I forgot it all. And frankly, a game made out of an engine showcase is something that irks me to the very core.

Hell they couldn't come up with something original for Final Fantasy XV, and opted to just use Versus XIII(and poorly use Versus XIII I might add)
And you know this how...? Unless someone actually spills the beans on what went down with VsXIII and its transition to XV, there's only speculation - though if I had to take a shot in the dark, this repurposing (and by proxy, some of the extensive changes) was mandated from upper echelons at Square Enix and less the result of a lack of creativity.
 

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Outside of maybe VII:R, none of that will have an audience as big as a proper mainline title. Maybe Agni's Philosophy if they go back and flesh out the universe beyond what's in the trailer and actually MAKE that XVI, but AP proper has little if any audience. It's a well-made trailer, but it is insanely bare-bones and tbh I had to go and look what was in that video again b/c I forgot it all. And frankly, a game made out of an engine showcase is something that irks me to the very core.


And you know this how...? Unless someone actually spills the beans on what went down with VsXIII and its transition to XV, there's only speculation - though if I had to take a shot in the dark, this repurposing (and by proxy, some of the extensive changes) was mandated from upper echelons at Square Enix and less the result of a lack of creativity.
>Outside of maybe VII:R, none of that will have an audience as big as a proper mainline title.
Why do you say that? The next mainline title has to make it's audience from the ground up, with a new cast of characters who are unknown, a new world, so they are practically starting from scratch.


>And you know this how...? Unless someone actually spills the beans on what went down with VsXIII and its transition to XV, there's only speculation - though if I had to take a shot in the dark, this repurposing (and by proxy, some of the extensive changes) was mandated from upper echelons at Square Enix and less the result of a lack of creativity.

Project W that game was apparently supposed to be XV until Versus XIII took it's spot
Oh and the fact that they took an already established audience of a spin-off title Versus XIII which already had an ingrained audience, tons of trailers and actual demand behind it when that happened to FFIX it was in it's very early conceptual stages, and it was just a spin-off in general, not a spin-off of a mainline title, so changing the name was much easier. Usually with mainline Final Fantasy titles they start from the ground up, they don't take one title and turn it into a mainline one once the public knows about it's name. Hell even FFIX went unnamed XV did not.
 
Why do you say that? The next mainline title has to make it's audience from the ground up, with a new cast of characters who are unknown, a new world, so they are practically starting from scratch.
Sales data. Take a look at the data presented on the site for Final Fantasy on vgsales.wikia.com (http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy) - seems more reliable than VGChartz, albeit being incomplete - and you'll recognize that spin-offs - which, yes, includes the continuations of established games, like X-2 and XIII-2 - generally sold less than their predecessors. Take Final Fantasy XIII (which is the most useful example since its data are near-complete): The main game sold roughly 7.6 million copies, XIII-2 sold about 3.5, effectively slashing its audience in half. Lightning Returns only got to 1.1 million, a third of what XIII-2 and a seventh of what XIII had in sales respectively. Even for XII, the least well-sold mainline title - 5.2 million - its best-selling spin-off, Revenant Wings, only sold a fifth of what the original did. (Granting that jumping platforms from PS2 to DS didn't help - also if you ask why I'm not counting Tactics (WOTL), it's because most of its sales hail from the original PS version and not the retconned PSP version)

So yes, while your points are something that cannot be denied from a certain perspective, from a sales standpoint, an all-new mainline FF game will likely be more successful than any spin-off or continuation (or continuation of a spin-off).
 

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Sales data. Take a look at the data presented on the site for Final Fantasy on vgsales.wikia.com (http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy) - seems more reliable than VGChartz, albeit being incomplete - and you'll recognize that spin-offs - which, yes, includes the continuations of established games, like X-2 and XIII-2 - generally sold less than their predecessors. Take Final Fantasy XIII (which is the most useful example since its data are near-complete): The main game sold roughly 7.6 million copies, XIII-2 sold about 3.5, effectively slashing its audience in half. Lightning Returns only got to 1.1 million, a third of what XIII-2 and a seventh of what XIII had in sales respectively. Even for XII, the least well-sold mainline title - 5.2 million - its best-selling spin-off, Revenant Wings, only sold a fifth of what the original did. (Granting that jumping platforms from PS2 to DS didn't help - also if you ask why I'm not counting Tactics (WOTL), it's because most of its sales hail from the original PS version and not the retconned PSP version)

So yes, while your points are something that cannot be denied from a certain perspective, from a sales standpoint, an all-new mainline FF game will likely be more successful than any spin-off or continuation (or continuation of a spin-off).
The problem with most of the continuations are simply them being disappointments or simply outright bad, it's not really about them being sequels that caused sales to dip, it's just the quality of the sequels were a bit questionable apart from X-2 it was good at least the XIII ones no, and for some sequels it has to do with them being on vastly different platforms. The XIII series for instance most fans consider them a dissapointment or just simply crap. X-2 that game does some hate, hell I hear a lot of people that simply didn't like it, but it is a close race between 12, and X-2 though 5.2 million vs 5.95, if X-2 was just a better quality game it might have sold better. Especially since most people I've heard from say that X-2 didn't need to happen, or they were fine with Final Fantasy X's ending and didn't like what they saw with X-2(Also doesn't help when you take most of the characters out and only allow us to play as Yuna, Rikku, and Paine(who almost no one knew at that time).


Now onto the XIII stuff, people didn't like XIII period, and XIII-2 came out around the time where a Versus XIII trailer(you know the game that people actually wanted came out), hell people were more interested in Versus XIII than XIII because XIII was just one big nope to some fans, it was practically toxic at that point in time XIII-2 was doomed from that point onwards especially when more people were interested in Versus XIII hell people are still interested in Versus XIII now that XV is out that should tell you something about that concept, when the game came out? Yeah it was on some people's worst games lists, so that doesn't helped, especially since it was DOA from the start, it also came out during a time where the FF brand was damaged thanks to XIV 1.0 being the wonder that it was.

Lightning Returns came out when the PS4 was out, and people didn't like XIII-2 and it was on people's worst games lists hell, some people call the game a slap dash get it over with game, nothing of any substantial quality, hell some people put it on their worst games of 2013 list and it scored worse than the other two. I also have to add that it came out during a time where the Versus XIII hype was at an all time high, no one care about XIII past XIII, hell some people didn't even want XIII-2 and wanted them to just move on the Versus XIII already.

The spin-offs are a little different, because they are on different system than the mainline titles, so the audience won't be the same, I'm talking about same system, same audiences. Tactics is a little different because it doesn't really tie to anything like Type-Next does, or Dissidia, or X-2 it really is it's own thing set in the World of Ivalice.

Honestly I get your point, but I think the slump in the sales of Final Fantasy sequels has less to do with them being sequels and more to do with the context surrounding them.

X-2 took a lot of the characters people liked out like Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, Kimari, and made it so that you could only use Rikku, Yuna, and Paine in the main story mode, and the fact that they were the main focus as opposed to everyone that was in X.
XIII-2 took out characters that people liked, and it was a game people didn't want, they wanted Versus XIII at that point, and XIII-2 didn't score well in comparison to XIII.
Lightning Returns was DOA when the Final Fantasy Versus XIII 2013 Trailer hit, and the next gen consoles were sold, not to mention when it came out it didn't even score as less as XIII-2.
 
Honestly I get your point, but I think the slump in the sales of Final Fantasy sequels has less to do with them being sequels and more to do with the context surrounding them.
I won't deny that this is a possibility. However, someone at Square Enix whose job it is to have a final say on future projects will likely only look at the raw numbers, say "direct sequels and spin-offs are no good, make more new games" and that will be the course taken. Accountants and managers are rarely artists, critics and/or fans.
 

Tornak

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Nice. If that were the case, I wonder if Yoshida could be involved in that (considering how busy he should be, a producing role might be a good fit).

I don't like MMORPGs at all, but I can appreciate what ARR has done to the original XIV and the series in general. So, I'd be pleased if there's a crossover of people that worked on that game and the ones potentially working on XVI.

I just hope that, should they return to a less modern/contemporary/future aesthetic, the chosen setting is not generic medieval fantasy. You can do much more than that without it feeling modern-ish, like an Ancient Greece inspired story and setting. Although, well, if it's fantasy, medieval FF have always had some uniqueness to them, especially the more modern ones.

>Outside of maybe VII:R, none of that will have an audience as big as a proper mainline title.
Why do you say that? The next mainline title has to make it's audience from the ground up, with a new cast of characters who are unknown, a new world, so they are practically starting from scratch.


>And you know this how...? Unless someone actually spills the beans on what went down with VsXIII and its transition to XV, there's only speculation - though if I had to take a shot in the dark, this repurposing (and by proxy, some of the extensive changes) was mandated from upper echelons at Square Enix and less the result of a lack of creativity.

Project W that game was apparently supposed to be XV until Versus XIII took it's spot
Oh and the fact that they took an already established audience of a spin-off title Versus XIII which already had an ingrained audience, tons of trailers and actual demand behind it when that happened to FFIX it was in it's very early conceptual stages, and it was just a spin-off in general, not a spin-off of a mainline title, so changing the name was much easier. Usually with mainline Final Fantasy titles they start from the ground up, they don't take one title and turn it into a mainline one once the public knows about it's name. Hell even FFIX went unnamed XV did not.
That's literally the first and only mention of Project W I've ever seen.
 
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>Outside of maybe VII:R, none of that will have an audience as big as a proper mainline title.
Why do you say that? The next mainline title has to make it's audience from the ground up, with a new cast of characters who are unknown, a new world, so they are practically starting from scratch.


>And you know this how...? Unless someone actually spills the beans on what went down with VsXIII and its transition to XV, there's only speculation - though if I had to take a shot in the dark, this repurposing (and by proxy, some of the extensive changes) was mandated from upper echelons at Square Enix and less the result of a lack of creativity.

Project W that game was apparently supposed to be XV until Versus XIII took it's spot
Oh and the fact that they took an already established audience of a spin-off title Versus XIII which already had an ingrained audience, tons of trailers and actual demand behind it when that happened to FFIX it was in it's very early conceptual stages, and it was just a spin-off in general, not a spin-off of a mainline title, so changing the name was much easier. Usually with mainline Final Fantasy titles they start from the ground up, they don't take one title and turn it into a mainline one once the public knows about it's name. Hell even FFIX went unnamed XV did not.
Nice. If that were the case, I wonder if Yoshida could be involved in that (considering how busy he should be, a producing role might be a good fit).

I don't like MMORPGs at all, but I can appreciate what ARR has done to the original XIV and the series in general. So, I'd be pleased if there's a crossover of people that worked on that game and the ones potentially working on XVI.

I just hope that, should they return to a less modern/contemporary/future aesthetic, the chosen setting is not generic medieval fantasy. You can do much more than that without it feeling modern-ish, like an Ancient Greece inspired story and setting. Although, well, if it's fantasy, medieval FF have always had some uniqueness to them, especially the more modern ones.


That's literally the first and only mention of Project W I've ever seen.
I've never heard it being referred to as "Project W" either. All I know about the cancelled Western-developed FF is this:




Here are the links from my post:

In 2012 there was a leak of a new Eidos Montreal game that probably is the same one that was cancelled a year later:
New Eidos Montreal Game Focuses On An Explorer Searching For A Way To Save His Love

In 2013 a FF director said in an interview that SE could imagine an Eidos-developed FF game:
Eidos-developed Final Fantasy possible, says Lighting Returns director

3 days later an unknown Eidos Montreal game was reported to have been cancelled:
Unannounced Eidos Montreal game cancelled - Cancelled game said to be connected to Square Enix Japan
 

Hey Everyone

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I won't deny that this is a possibility. However, someone at Square Enix whose job it is to have a final say on future projects will likely only look at the raw numbers, say "direct sequels and spin-offs are no good, make more new games" and that will be the course taken. Accountants and managers are rarely artists, critics and/or fans.
I won't deny that, but looking at the fact that the FF7 Remake is multi-part, I would say they are perfectly mine with sequels as long as the game in question is worth making a sequel to, because they probably know hat happened, if Square was looking at raw data only then the FF7 Remake would be a singular title, and a graphics and animation update only, there wouldn't be story updates. Neither would Type-Next even be mentioned in the slightest.
The accountants if they were to even be doing a half decent job would probably look at the games themselves, and probably think ok in order for sequels to be successful maybe we shouldn't strip our cast down.
Like in the case with XIII-2 You only play as Noel, and Serah people like Noel but he's too new for the majority of the audience who loved XIII to care about him, Serah was a plot device most of the time, not a character you can use to sell games too.
I should also add that an accountant will be looking at profitability, not simply raw sales data as raw sales =/= profitability.
I want to look at FFX-2 vs FFXII for an instance

"The production team was one third the size of the previous installment. This was because the team was already familiar with the material and it allowed them to give a hand-crafted feel to the game. In designing the game, a significant number of character models, enemies, and location designs from Final Fantasy X were reused. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura has explained that this allowed the game to be developed in one year and at half the normal scope Final Fantasy titles are normally produced" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X-2#Development

This is X-2's development it was developed and shipped in 1 year
XII for instance was developed over the course of 2-3 years, and barely sold much more 5.2(X-2) vs 5.95(XII) Which would probably make an accountant go ok X-2 was more profitable because they can reuse assets, they can develop it in a shorter period of time thus reducing man hours.
 
I won't deny that, but looking at the fact that the FF7 Remake is multi-part, I would say they are perfectly mine with sequels as long as the game in question is worth making a sequel to, because they probably know hat happened, if Square was looking at raw data only then the FF7 Remake would be a singular title, and a graphics and animation update only, there wouldn't be story updates.
A single game being multi-part isn't the same as making a sequel. The comparison would be more akin to having a season of a TV show vs. a single movie with a second single movie for the follow-up. Also, such plans can be subjected to changes (though SE Japan is less known for such things, SE's western studios and their properties have been reimagined multiple times in recent history, particular known cases were Just Cause 3, Hitman 2016 and Deus Ex Mankind Divided).
The accountants if they were to even be doing a half decent job would probably look at the games themselves, and probably think ok in order for sequels to be successful maybe we shouldn't strip our cast down.
Except that this is very much not an accountant's job. A manager's job, yes, but even these people will more likely take the shortcut to raking in the dough rather than closely examine the work and make decisions based on that.
 

Tornak

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Just a thing (that really hasn't got much to do what with you're discussing): if I hate FF sequels (apart from them getting the focus away from actual new things) is because how incoherent and half-assed they are (and also how little extra content you can extract from existing FF worlds).

It's so fucking obvious (especially in the XIII games) how they had not idea of what to do to keep milking the base game to get a bit more of profit. A game originally conceived as a part of a multiple series wouldn't really have the same problem (well, it could, but it's easier to prevent them); same goes for a game (as in, with a cohesive story, characters and gameplay mechanics) that just so happens to be divided into different chunks.

Anyways, although it's obviously less "salvageable", you can still take advantage of assets, animation loops, AI, textures, effects and such in a totally different game. Still, I feel that with FF, the financial argument is the only thing that sequels have really going for (well, that and the battle systems, but those aren't exclusively restricted to mainline sequels). Every other aspect is not supportive of an excessive sequel approach, as that's known from a hypotetical but also from a practical point of view, as we've seen the result of those games.
 

Hey Everyone

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Just a thing (that really hasn't got much to do what with you're discussing): if I hate FF sequels (apart from them getting the focus away from actual new things) is because how incoherent and half-assed they are (and also how little extra content you can extract from existing FF worlds).

It's so fucking obvious (especially in the XIII games) how they had not idea of what to do to keep milking the base game to get a bit more of profit. A game originally conceived as a part of a multiple series wouldn't really have the same problem (well, it could, but it's easier to prevent them); same goes for a game (as in, with a cohesive story, characters and gameplay mechanics) that just so happens to be divided into different chunks.

Anyways, although it's obviously less "salvageable", you can still take advantage of assets, animation loops, AI, textures, effects and such in a totally different game. Still, I feel that with FF, the financial argument is the only thing that sequels have really going for (well, that and the battle systems, but those aren't exclusively restricted to mainline sequels). Every other aspect is not supportive of an excessive sequel approach, as that's known from a hypotetical but also from a practical point of view, as we've seen the result of those games.
Do FF sequels really take away from the focus of new things? If I remember Square has several business divisions
BD1 making the 7 Remake and BD2 was making FFXV, and BD5 working on XIV expansions, and possibly working on XVI. The only thing an FF sequels can do is well, just be FF sequels those making let's say XV sequels aren't the same development team as those would be making XVI. The XIII sequels me personally I hated them because they were just not very good, and halted the development of a game I actually wanted and still want to this day though that was more of shitty engine issues then them simply existing.
I'd rather they wait on XVI, personally myself I don't really care about the next mainline installment as they have absolutely soured me after XV, but for the sake of us not having a repeat of Versus XIII, XVI should be worked on when they know what they are doing and not trying to cram in so many ideas to appease as many people as possible, and when they can commit to a system this time.
 

Tornak

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Do FF sequels really take away from the focus of new things? If I remember Square has several business divisions
BD1 making the 7 Remake and BD2 was making FFXV, and BD5 working on XIV expansions, and possibly working on XVI. The only thing an FF sequels can do is well, just be FF sequels those making let's say XV sequels aren't the same development team as those would be making XVI. The XIII sequels me personally I hated them because they were just not very good, and halted the development of a game I actually wanted and still want to this day though that was more of shitty engine issues then them simply existing.
I'd rather they wait on XVI, personally myself I don't really care about the next mainline installment as they have absolutely soured me after XV, but for the sake of us not having a repeat of Versus XIII, XVI should be worked on when they know what they are doing and not trying to cram in so many ideas to appease as many people as possible, and when they can commit to a system this time.
With focus I mostly mean money and manpower, yeah. I know about the divisions, but if you have to release a sequel of a mainline, no matter how much you can reduce the development time or salvage resources, you still take a chunk of a budget and people that could be better spent in a global effort (like, helping produce a mainline) or, better yet, games the scale of a numbered FF sequel that are new IPs or abandoned ones. Also, marketing focus, although that honestly shouldn't affect other games' schedules.

Also, one of my main complaints would be a more subjective and creative one: you burn out the consumer shitting out sequels, especially if (like in every single case in the series so far) is not something that a signficant amount of people are demanding or is needed. Also, and again judging based on S-E's output in this regard, they... "uglify" the initial product, in some certain way, especially as they're always somewhat inferior than the originals (X-2's combat system is still great, though. And LR's seems to be pretty fun, or so I've read).

But yeah, I'd rather wait on XVI if that means that the game's going to have a healthy development, too. But, tbh, whatever grips we might have with XV aren't going to be very impactful in regards to XVI, as XV is a special case and also a game developed by a different group of people (XV's team will probably work on Tabata's new IP). I honestly believe that there has been actual work done in XVI for, at least, a year or so. Hopefully even beyond the pre-production phase.
 
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Hey Everyone

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With focus I mostly mean money and manpower, yeah. I know about the divisions, but if you have to release a sequel of a mainline, no matter how much you can reduce the development time or salvage resources, you still take a chunk of a budget and people that could be better spent in a global effort (like, helping produce a mainline) or, better yet, games the scale of a numbered FF sequel that are new IPs or abandoned ones. Also, marketing focus, although that honestly shouldn't affect other games' schedules.

Also, one of my main complaints would be a more subjective and creative one: you burn out the consumer shitting out sequels, especially if (like in every single case in the series so far) is not something that a signficant amount of people are demanding or is needed. Also, and again judging based on S-E's output in this regard, they... "uglify" the initial product, in some certain way, especially as they're always somewhat inferior than the originals (X-2's combat system is still great, though. And LR's seems to be pretty fun, or so I've read).

But yeah, I'd rather wait on XVI if that means that the game's going to have a healthy development, too. But, tbh, whatever grips we might have with XV aren't going to be very impactful in regards to XVI, as XV is a special case and also a game developed by a different group of people (XV's team will probably work on Tabata's new IP). I honestly believe that there has been actual work done in XVI for, at least, a year or so. Hopefully even beyond the pre-production phase.

>With focus I mostly mean money and manpower, yeah. I know about the divisions, but if you have to release a sequel of a mainline, no matter how much you can reduce the development time or salvage resources, you still take a chunk of a budget and people that could be better spent in a global effort (like, helping produce a mainline) or, better yet, games the scale of a numbered FF sequel that are new IPs or abandoned ones. Also, marketing focus, although that honestly shouldn't affect other games' schedules.

That's assuming the budget or manpower would have gone to the mainline or new IPs in the first place if Square has a set budget for a mainline title they are going to stick to it, in game development more is not always merrier, and for new IPs, companies come up with those all the time, but investors go no, due to a lack of faith in them, it's not really because they are working on a sequel or spin-off.




But yeah, I'd rather wait on XVI if that means that the game's going to have a healthy development, too. But, tbh, whatever grips we might have with XV aren't going to be very impactful in regards to XVI, as XV is a special case and also a game developed by a different group of people (XV's team will probably work on Tabata's new IP). I honestly believe that there has been actual work done in XVI for, at least, a year or so. Hopefully even beyond the pre-production phase.

Me I just don't have faith in Square not making another FFXIII where I hate the characters, or don't care for them as much as the XV cast, and they are probably going to be less wasted than the XV cast, but I won't like them as much. Oh and the combat system yeah I have a feeling they might go with 12's combat system.
 
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Tornak

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>With focus I mostly mean money and manpower, yeah. I know about the divisions, but if you have to release a sequel of a mainline, no matter how much you can reduce the development time or salvage resources, you still take a chunk of a budget and people that could be better spent in a global effort (like, helping produce a mainline) or, better yet, games the scale of a numbered FF sequel that are new IPs or abandoned ones. Also, marketing focus, although that honestly shouldn't affect other games' schedules.

That's assuming the budget or manpower would have gone to the mainline or new IPs in the first place if Square has a set budget for a mainline title they are going to stick to it, in game development more is not always merrier, and for new IPs, companies come up with those all the time, but investors go no, due to a lack of faith in them, it's not really because they are working on a sequel or spin-off.

But yeah, I'd rather wait on XVI if that means that the game's going to have a healthy development, too. But, tbh, whatever grips we might have with XV aren't going to be very impactful in regards to XVI, as XV is a special case and also a game developed by a different group of people (XV's team will probably work on Tabata's new IP). I honestly believe that there has been actual work done in XVI for, at least, a year or so. Hopefully even beyond the pre-production phase.

Me I just don't have faith in Square not making another FFXIII where I hate the characters, or don't care for them as much as the XV cast, and they are probably going to be less wasted than the XV cast, but I won't like them as much. Oh and the combat system yeah I have a feeling they might go with 12's combat system.
But any sequel or spin-off of a mainline numbered title is going to need extra efforts by people who have just shipped a big game already. That could be directed towards something new and different, whether an existing IP or a new one. Doing the same shit over and over only gets people (both developers and fans) tired of the same thing.

And make no mistake, if XIII sequels exist is because of how much of an embarrasing mess S-E was during last generation. They might have still made them, sure, but the main motivation was making money back (as a business, a correct decision).

I have hope that they can do something not only better than the last two mainline SP ones, but actually amazing (XIII was serviceable to nice even though I hate it and its trilogy; XV was good but with a myriad of flaws, some of them very crucial): you only need to get Ito to helm it (and create the battle system), your most competent writers (like Jun Akiyama and someone else, but having an gripping story concept beforehand, which XII sadly kinda lacked) and a new artist (like the guy who did the Game Informer FF XV cover, as well as that FFVI-looking Happy New Year card; great art and I'm sure he could create nice designs).

Every FF having a different development team (at least in recent times) and different development times is what gives me hope, honestly. Also, the mistakes learnt from the PS3 era and XV's own faults.
 

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Keyblade Master
Dec 30, 2016
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But any sequel or spin-off of a mainline numbered title is going to need extra efforts by people who have just shipped a big game already. That could be directed towards something new and different, whether an existing IP or a new one. Doing the same shit over and over only gets people (both developers and fans) tired of the same thing.

And make no mistake, if XIII sequels exist is because of how much of an embarrasing mess S-E was during last generation. They might have still made them, sure, but the main motivation was making money back (as a business, a correct decision).

I have hope that they can do something not only better than the last two mainline SP ones, but actually amazing (XIII was serviceable to nice even though I hate it and its trilogy; XV was good but with a myriad of flaws, some of them very crucial): you only need to get Ito to helm it (and create the battle system), your most competent writers (like Jun Akiyama and someone else, but having an gripping story concept beforehand, which XII sadly kinda lacked) and a new artist (like the guy who did the Game Informer FF XV cover, as well as that FFVI-looking Happy New Year card; great art and I'm sure he could create nice designs).

Every FF having a different development team (at least in recent times) and different development times is what gives me hope, honestly. Also, the mistakes learnt from the PS3 era and XV's own faults.
Assuming Square would direct it towards something new and different their shareholders care about sales, why do you think XV is in the state that's it's in, so even if they could doesn't mean they would, not in the slightest.



That's great if you do, but me personally I have no hope regardless of the director, Square was the one that fucked XII, XIII, XIV, and XV unless their management gets 100 percent better, the only thing I can think of them doing with XVI, is trying to make an entirely new engine for it, or something drastically improves from Luminous, but it's unfinished, and they try to ship out the game in 2.5 years of time, when it needs much more than that, and they sell enhanced versions of the cut content, and worse they pull the same shit from FFXV(You can only play as the main character), because they know that will sell, all they have to do is hype it.


I have absolutely no hope for XVI, there is no evidence to suggest that Ito is directing it, no evidence that it will have a good battle system, or even better than XV, no evidence to suggest the story will even be as good, or better than XV. Hell a lot of this hope practically mirrors those that want Versus XV, a director they have faith in, a writer they have faith in, though at the very least they have an idea on how enjoyable it would be considering how some parts of FFXV turned out, at the very least they have assets to work with, so if they decided to pull the whole 2.5 year development cycle they would have some basis that could make it work if it's multi-part, XVI we have nothing no assets they can use, no basis everything is being made from scratch, and considering Square's decisions in the past, it's not the directors that are the problem, hell I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the writer that was really the problem, and Nojima's story really couldn't be crammed into 1 game, and the changes were simply made out of writer necessity for example Luna being Noct's bride to be, which is why he's outside of the crown city when it was attacked. Square needs better management that respects their creative talent, and their visions, that don't have unrealistic expectations ie. Trying to get Nomura's version of FFXV out by 2014, on a brand new fucking engine no less, if it was Unreal Engine 4 then I could somewhat understand. Get more creative talent there was absolutely no reason Nojima, and Nomura should have been pulled off FFXV to direct a Remake of a game, when most people just wanted a remaster with better graphics, and better animations, and voice acting, as opposed to the multi-part nature, but if they needed to get this remake done the way it was, it should have been with new creative talent that wouldn't cause XV to lose it's original director, and writer. Until then, they have burned my goodwill, even when I wasn't expect XV to be Versus XIII I was at the very least expecting, great character development, and characters that are used to their full capacity, difficulty that is on par with Kingdom Hearts 2 on Normal, well designed boss fights, they couldn't even manage that. Hell I was expect Luna to be a great character, someone I can definitively say yeah I don't care about Stella anymore, and they dropped the ball hard.

TBH at this point, considering how XV turned out, I don't really care about XVI, I'm at the point where I'm more interested in sequels and spin-offs than anything new coming out of Square especially a mainline title, their management is detrimental to their creativity.