I've been playing FFVIII for the first time recently (having gotten into the series with IX), and it's been rather eye-opening to see how far Square managed to push cinematic integration back in 1999 before essentially abandoning it for a decade and a half. The setpieces we've been shown from FFXV have, if anything, a more direct line of descent from FFVIII than they do from more contemporary cinematic games like Uncharted... but if I'd only played the FF games after VIII, I'd never have been able to guess that.
And that got me thinking about how FF games have historically almost always lost something in the shift between generations, even if it's obvious what they gained by making those sacrifices. The NES to SNES shift was probably the most painless, but even there, it seems like they generally shrunk the number of enemies in favor of making them more detailed (and adding full backgrounds to the battlefields). The SNES to PSOne shift dropped the standard party count from four to three as well, and the change to pre-rendered field backgrounds -- while an enormous boon with respect to overall presentation -- required a decrease in the overall size and complexity of those fields and made limits on endgame exploration inevitable. And then, when PSOne gave way to PS2, FFX married the less-ambitious/more FMV-focused presentation of FFIX with the removal of the world map and another major decrease in field complexity and set mainline Final Fantasy on the road it's been on ever since. (FFXIII, as much as it's criticized, really just took X's alterations to their logical conclusion.)
In light of all that, FFXV sort of seems like the first time FF's really gone back, recognized what it's given up, and sought to retake all of it. It's increased the enemy count far beyond what the series has ever attempted, reinstated a full four-man party (with guests serving as a fifth member rather than a replacement), created a massive world with extensive towns and dungeons that will remain open in the endgame, offered at least as much freedom as any early FF, and picked up where VIII left off with regards to cinematic presentation (only in real-time this time). The only real sacrifice it made was the decrease in directorial control inherent in allowing events to happen at any time of day due to a day/night cycle... and even that doesn't really hold the game back in comparison with its predecessors.
So, what do you think? Is FFXV doing something new by not dialing back existing systems in the name of progress? Or did I forget something big that FFXV had to give up?
And that got me thinking about how FF games have historically almost always lost something in the shift between generations, even if it's obvious what they gained by making those sacrifices. The NES to SNES shift was probably the most painless, but even there, it seems like they generally shrunk the number of enemies in favor of making them more detailed (and adding full backgrounds to the battlefields). The SNES to PSOne shift dropped the standard party count from four to three as well, and the change to pre-rendered field backgrounds -- while an enormous boon with respect to overall presentation -- required a decrease in the overall size and complexity of those fields and made limits on endgame exploration inevitable. And then, when PSOne gave way to PS2, FFX married the less-ambitious/more FMV-focused presentation of FFIX with the removal of the world map and another major decrease in field complexity and set mainline Final Fantasy on the road it's been on ever since. (FFXIII, as much as it's criticized, really just took X's alterations to their logical conclusion.)
In light of all that, FFXV sort of seems like the first time FF's really gone back, recognized what it's given up, and sought to retake all of it. It's increased the enemy count far beyond what the series has ever attempted, reinstated a full four-man party (with guests serving as a fifth member rather than a replacement), created a massive world with extensive towns and dungeons that will remain open in the endgame, offered at least as much freedom as any early FF, and picked up where VIII left off with regards to cinematic presentation (only in real-time this time). The only real sacrifice it made was the decrease in directorial control inherent in allowing events to happen at any time of day due to a day/night cycle... and even that doesn't really hold the game back in comparison with its predecessors.
So, what do you think? Is FFXV doing something new by not dialing back existing systems in the name of progress? Or did I forget something big that FFXV had to give up?
Likes:
Nova, Storm and Koozek