That is the point like south park just joke those bad people disgraces, you guys make me watch that show and trully was so ahead his time.
Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium
- Thread starter RySenkari
- Start date
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AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Seconded, and maybe that new hypothetical title in the Chrono franchise?
Ubisoft has Beyond Good And Evil to focus on.Wasn't this around the time that the first Assassin's Creed was announced?
All people asking about that game... seems OTL ubisoft did struck a goldmine with that one...stay tuned...Wasn't this around the time that the first Assassin's Creed was announced?
And if "Vista" does still release this year, is still a monumental piece of $#!T?
We'll be covering at least one of those, but not all of them.
We'll see about Chrono...
Wasn't this around the time that the first Assassin's Creed was announced?
That's right! I doubt it'll be part of the company keynotes but it may show up on the floor.
They may be able to work on both...
There'll definitely be plenty of Xbox 2 and iTwin coverage. As for Vista, yes, it's coming out in 2006.
We'll see...
For me, I just want some info on the ff7-2 game for the supernova. I just hope that it will be their own thing or be a good advent children.
Spring 2006 (Part 4) - Squaresoft Looks Forward To The Past
Squaresoft Spring Celebration Declares 2007 "The Year Of Final Fantasy VII"
Squaresoft announces CGI film, mobile game, manga series, and unnamed next-generation spinoff title to accompany Supernova sequel
2007 will mark the tenth year since Squaresoft unleashed Final Fantasy VII upon the gaming populace as a launch title for the Ultra Nintendo. It's proven to be the best selling and most beloved game in the series to date, and at Squaresoft's Spring Celebration in which several new projects were announced, including a Supernova Front Mission game (slated for a 2007 release in Japan and likely a 2008 release in the States), a new installment in the SaGa franchise and a brand new fantasy-based game property, both likely coming to the Wave's successor console, the company chose to focus its attention on Final Fantasy VII, namely the upcoming tenth anniversary. We got plenty of new footage of Final Fantasy VII-2, which will make its way to the Nintendo Supernova next year, and that game looks to be an evolution of the original in both gameplay and storyline. We saw that Cloud, Tifa, and an unnamed playable character were fighting together against a large robot of some kind, and that the game's battle system featured a mix of classic Final Fantasy-style combat and action-RPG features, including the ability to strike an enemy at will while rapidly switching between which character you control in battle (with the other characters acting on their own according to pre-programmed commands). Unlike the original game, which featured the party standing in one spot on one side of the screen while the enemy stood on the other, in this game the three characters can move around and get into position around an enemy, leading to attacks on potential weak points. The game looks excellent on the Supernova, and the music is a mix of new techno-styled songs and classic remixes of Final Fantasy VII tracks, with Nobuo Uematsu returning to compose the soundtrack. Not much was revealed about the plot, except that the game will "pick up almost immediately where the original left off". We also got confirmation (though this was expected), that the game will follow what has been declared by producer Hironobu Sakaguchi to be the "canon" storyline of Final Fantasy VII, in which Aerith is killed by Sephiroth. The original game allowed players to choose from three branching paths, in which Aerith, Tifa, or Barret could be killed and in which the game followed a different path based on which character died, but Sakaguchi has since stated that he believed the game's multiple narrative choices to be a "mistake". In a 2001 interview, he stated that: "While the choice to allow the player to affect the outcome of the game did allow more gameplay possibility and interactivity, and presented a worthy challenge to our development team, it had the adverse effect of dampening the emotional impact of all three possible deaths and ultimately made the game a poorer experience, in my opinion." It has been stated that Squaresoft asked Sakaguchi to add three branching paths to the game in an attempt to mimic the success of Secret Of Mana, which also had three branching storyline paths for the player.
Squaresoft also announced a surprising project: a beautiful CGI trailer for an upcoming Final Fantasy VII film expected to be released in 2007 or 2008. The movie, which features computer animation, will serve as a "companion piece" to Final Fantasy VII-2, possibly answering some questions that the game itself could raise. The movie announcement was completely out of the blue but was cheered by the fans in attendance. It's announced that the movie will eventually come to both North America and Europe after Japan, and that Squaresoft will be partnering with Sony Pictures to secure a theatrical release. A mobile game intended for Japanese cellphones has also been announced, the game is called Final Fantasy VII: Joe's Story and will focus on the Detective Joe character, who played a major part in the beginning Midgar portion of Final Fantasy VII before being killed. The game will give players a chance to explore upper Midgar in a major way, and will feature classic turn-based RPG gameplay. No word as of yet whether or not the game will get a port to the Supernova or whether it will be available in North America. An upcoming manga has also been announced, focusing on Yuffie's life before and after the events of Final Fantasy VII. We also got a teaser about a spinoff title that will be coming to a future Nintendo console, but literally the announcement was all we got, no other details as of yet. It's clear that Squaresoft is looking to take advantage of major nostalgia for their most popular game, and that Final Fantasy VII will play a big role in both the company's Supernova strategy and its next-generation strategy going forward. Fans of Final Fantasy VII definitely have a lot to look forward to over the next few years.
-from an article on Games Over Matter, posted on April 27, 2006
-
Squaresoft continues to churn along, with new installments in some of their biggest game franchises on the way. The company is continuing to develop new franchises as well, but with the current console generation winding down and with Nintendo's next generation development kits already in the hands of the company's software partners, Square is looking to focus on established series for the moment, saving the innovation for the next console.
Final Fantasy XI will almost certainly be the last Final Fantasy game on the Wave. With much of Squaresoft's focus going to the franchise's first online adventure, the development time on the eleventh Final Fantasy game was longer than their other recent games, but now that the final product is coming together, we can see that it's looking to break new ground in the series while retreading familiar paths. Two major elements of previous Final Fantasy games will return for XI: the ATB battle system, and the job system, but both will have new twists to streamline the game's combat and make it more exciting. The ATB system will see an evolution that allows players to save up character turns and then unleash them all at once. Done right, this will enable a combo that allows an attack taking place later in the chain to be more damaging. Combine this with the multi-hit attacks certain jobs specialize in, and players can really rack up the damage on enemies, making an attack several times stronger than it might've been otherwise. However, enemies are able to move faster in this game as well, and can chain their attacks too, meaning that players will have to stay on their toes and look for opportunities to break an enemy's chain. As for the Job system, it returns in the form of “Job Grids” that allow characters to build up several jobs and then switch between them in the middle of combat by moving from one part of the grid to another. This can enable the use of bonuses and special attacks gained by moving between nodes on the grid, with some of the most powerful buffs and specials in the game only unlockable via the use of certain Job Grids. Also, switching jobs in mid-battle is accompanied by a (thankfully optional) transformation sequence resembling something out of a Power Rangers scene, with the female character transformations closer to a Sailor Moon-esque sequence. It does somewhat clash with the game's often serious narrative involving war and death, but it's also pretty cool, so we'll allow it. The game's storyline focuses on a rebellion against a powerful empire, in which the rebels must enlist the help of powerful entities known as Espers to have any hope of winning. We were in awe at Final Fantasy XI's enormous explorable world, and the game is said to have the most side-quests of any game in the series thus far, with fourteen of the game's 39 (!!!) Jobs only available via side-questing.
We know a lot less about Kingdom Hearts II, which is targeted for a 2007 release on the Wave. What we do know is that the game will feature two parallel quests in which Sora searches for Riku in one quest and Kairi searches for the secrets of her past and of the Princesses of Heart in another. Players will alternate between the two narratives. We've also learned so far of three of the new worlds that will be appearing in the game: Meridian, from the television series and comic book W.I.T.C.H., Beast's Castle, from Beauty And The Beast, and Space Paranoids, from Tron. A gigantic mansion also plays a big role in the game, and at least one of the characters will be spending a lot of time there. We do know it's not the “Haunted” mansion of Disney theme park fame. It's likely that Kingdom Hearts II won't be making much of an appearance at this month's E3 show, though I'd expect to hear a lot more about the game at the Tokyo Game Show later this year.
Finally, there's the third Chrono game, which was announced some time ago but remains somewhat of an enigma. The only thing we've heard about it is that while it will tie into the previous games “in some fashion”, it will feature an entirely new narrative and completely new characters. While some still expect this third Chrono game to be released on the Wave, we now believe that Squaresoft and director Masato Kato are aiming to launch the game on the Wave successor instead, as the team's goals for the game have grown too ambitious for the Wave and that the game would be completed too late into the Wave's lifecycle to sell the amount of copies Square would need to justify putting so many resources into it. We don't know the game's title yet, but Squaresoft has trademarked a number of potential titles, including Chrono Crisis, Chrono Sphere, Chrono Break, Chrono Savior, Chrono Cross, Chrono Blade, Chrono Dimensions, and Chrono Revolution. We'll be lucky to get any new info at the Tokyo Game Show this year. Instead, we may next hear about the third Chrono game when Nintendo announces its next generation console.
-from an article on RPGamer.net, posted on May 3, 2006
-
After eight years with only two games to show for it, Fairytale fans will soon be up to their wings in new games, all leading up to the series' 10th anniversary in 2008. Fairytale has long been one of Squaresoft's most beloved but obscure properties, releasing two critically acclaimed and commercially successful (both titles sold over two million copies worldwide) games for the Ultra Nintendo. Now, three more titles are in the works:
Fairytale Untold: This SRPG for the Supernova is scheduled for release in Japan next month and in North America in August. It's a sequel to the original Fairytale, featuring Claris, Ashlyn, and Virtuosa leading a powerful army against a new threat to their world. The game's battle system has a lot in common with Final Fantasy Tactics, but features a "champion" system in which each battle squadron has a leader and that leader has a special skill that can bestow special attacks or stat boosts on other members of their unit. It's somewhat reminiscent of the combat system from the original Ogre Battle game, though in Fairytale Untold, players do control all members of their squad at all times. The game features music by Yasunori Mitsuda, and the original voice cast of Fairytale returns to reprise their roles. It's not yet known whether any of the original game's other playable characters will also be playable in Untold.
Fairytale 3: This is the big one, the long-awaited third installment in the series, which will be released for the Nintendo Wave in 2007. Like Fairytale 2, it's being helmed by Tetsuya Takahashi, and it's implied to be a prequel to the original game, taking place thousands of years in the past and exploring the origins of fairies and their connections to the human race. Takahashi has promised plenty of magic and mystery, and that the game will feature the biggest world yet seen in the series. It's looking to be one of the most highly anticipated RPGs of next year, and a game that Fairytale fans have been salivating for.
Fairytale: 10th Anniversary Edition: A remake of the original Fairytale for the Supernova, this one was just announced at a special spring event by Squaresoft, and will be a full remake of the original game with enhanced graphics, brand new cutscenes, and alterations to the battle and affinity system. In addition, Squaresoft has promised all new quests and superbosses that will test even the most skilled Fairytale fanatic. This is one of the things we were anticipating might happen, as Squaresoft has been in the habit of remaking their old properties for portable systems (though there hasn't been anything announced about Final Fantasy VII yet... fingers crossed). This one looks to be a complete revamp of the original game, with an all new artstyle and re-orchestrated music. It'll be awesome just to have Fairytale on the go, but to have the definitive version of the game available to play anytime, anywhere sounds like a dream come true. As the name implies, we'll likely have to wait for 2008 to play this one, but we're looking forward to it nonetheless.
-from an entry on the blog The World Is Square, posted on May 9, 2006
"I poured my heart and soul into Fairytale 3, but of course, what I was truly yearning for was a chance to be at the helm of another Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy VIII had sold well, but not as well as VII, and so I was of course thinking that perhaps that's why Squaresoft hadn't asked me to direct another game in the series. All I could do was do the best I could on Fairytale and hope that I would be asked to return. In the meantime, I continued to work very diligently at what I loved to do. Whether or not I would ever get to direct another Final Fantasy game, I would continue to make video games and hone my craft.
But of course, as you already know, I would not have to wait very long after the release of Fairytale 3 in Japan to get that call again."
-from an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi in the December 2011 issue of GameInformer magazine, previewing Final Fantasy XIII, the third Final Fantasy game Takahashi would direct
-
"2006 was, in many ways, a year of transition for Squaresoft, a company that, while still one of the most prosperous third-parties in all of gaming, was also looking for ways to remain relevant heading into a brand new console generation. Hironobu Sakaguchi, long-time producer of the Final Fantasy series and a towering figure in the company, was on his way out, looking to strike out on his own and produce his own games, leaving the company with a hole to fill. While some expected the young Tetsuya Takahashi to fill that gap, many of Squaresoft's 'old guard' saw him as too much of a radical, someone who would pull Squaresoft too far away from the gaming mainstream: the company was looking to change, but perhaps not THAT much. There was no question that the company was starting to lean too heavily on established franchises, franchises that might not always be successful, and was more reluctant to try new things than it had been in the past, even with the opportunity of Nintendo's brand new HD console looming.
The second major question surrounding Squaresoft involved Nintendo itself. The company had been in partnership with Nintendo for two decades now, and had enjoyed one of the most beneficial symbiotic relationships between a hardware maker and a software maker in the history of the industry: Squaresoft's games had ALWAYS been on Nintendo consoles, and exclusive to Nintendo consoles, save for a few titles that made the leap to PC. Microsoft had come courting, and Squaresoft had been tempted until the Xbox proved to be a flop in Japan. However, there was an another intriguing new console launching: the Apple iTwin, and with it, the possibility of new playstyles and a new fanbase. Squaresoft's developers and executives had paid close attention to the buildup to Apple's new console. In the runup to E3 2006, a secret meeting was proposed between Squaresoft executives and Steve Jobs, in the hopes of making a deal to release Final Fantasy Online to the iTwin as a 'test project' of sorts. However, numerous members of Square's board of directors did not agree to the meeting, not wanting to anger Nintendo or Sony, the latter of whom the company was partnering with to create an ambitious CGI Final Fantasy VII movie.
A decision had to be made. If Squaresoft snubbed Jobs now, they would anger him, and their chances of becoming a favored developer for the iTwin would evaporate. However, if they agreed to the meeting and it got back to Nintendo, it could jeopardize the company's projects for the Wave's HD successor console, and possibly even their upcoming movie.
It would ultimately come down to a tiebreaking vote. Though Hironobu Sakaguchi was set to leave the company, he was asked to give his opinion on what Squaresoft should do. His answer would have an enormous impact on the next generation of gaming."
-from the G4 episode "Icons: Final Fantasy", which aired on November 8, 2010
Squaresoft announces CGI film, mobile game, manga series, and unnamed next-generation spinoff title to accompany Supernova sequel
2007 will mark the tenth year since Squaresoft unleashed Final Fantasy VII upon the gaming populace as a launch title for the Ultra Nintendo. It's proven to be the best selling and most beloved game in the series to date, and at Squaresoft's Spring Celebration in which several new projects were announced, including a Supernova Front Mission game (slated for a 2007 release in Japan and likely a 2008 release in the States), a new installment in the SaGa franchise and a brand new fantasy-based game property, both likely coming to the Wave's successor console, the company chose to focus its attention on Final Fantasy VII, namely the upcoming tenth anniversary. We got plenty of new footage of Final Fantasy VII-2, which will make its way to the Nintendo Supernova next year, and that game looks to be an evolution of the original in both gameplay and storyline. We saw that Cloud, Tifa, and an unnamed playable character were fighting together against a large robot of some kind, and that the game's battle system featured a mix of classic Final Fantasy-style combat and action-RPG features, including the ability to strike an enemy at will while rapidly switching between which character you control in battle (with the other characters acting on their own according to pre-programmed commands). Unlike the original game, which featured the party standing in one spot on one side of the screen while the enemy stood on the other, in this game the three characters can move around and get into position around an enemy, leading to attacks on potential weak points. The game looks excellent on the Supernova, and the music is a mix of new techno-styled songs and classic remixes of Final Fantasy VII tracks, with Nobuo Uematsu returning to compose the soundtrack. Not much was revealed about the plot, except that the game will "pick up almost immediately where the original left off". We also got confirmation (though this was expected), that the game will follow what has been declared by producer Hironobu Sakaguchi to be the "canon" storyline of Final Fantasy VII, in which Aerith is killed by Sephiroth. The original game allowed players to choose from three branching paths, in which Aerith, Tifa, or Barret could be killed and in which the game followed a different path based on which character died, but Sakaguchi has since stated that he believed the game's multiple narrative choices to be a "mistake". In a 2001 interview, he stated that: "While the choice to allow the player to affect the outcome of the game did allow more gameplay possibility and interactivity, and presented a worthy challenge to our development team, it had the adverse effect of dampening the emotional impact of all three possible deaths and ultimately made the game a poorer experience, in my opinion." It has been stated that Squaresoft asked Sakaguchi to add three branching paths to the game in an attempt to mimic the success of Secret Of Mana, which also had three branching storyline paths for the player.
Squaresoft also announced a surprising project: a beautiful CGI trailer for an upcoming Final Fantasy VII film expected to be released in 2007 or 2008. The movie, which features computer animation, will serve as a "companion piece" to Final Fantasy VII-2, possibly answering some questions that the game itself could raise. The movie announcement was completely out of the blue but was cheered by the fans in attendance. It's announced that the movie will eventually come to both North America and Europe after Japan, and that Squaresoft will be partnering with Sony Pictures to secure a theatrical release. A mobile game intended for Japanese cellphones has also been announced, the game is called Final Fantasy VII: Joe's Story and will focus on the Detective Joe character, who played a major part in the beginning Midgar portion of Final Fantasy VII before being killed. The game will give players a chance to explore upper Midgar in a major way, and will feature classic turn-based RPG gameplay. No word as of yet whether or not the game will get a port to the Supernova or whether it will be available in North America. An upcoming manga has also been announced, focusing on Yuffie's life before and after the events of Final Fantasy VII. We also got a teaser about a spinoff title that will be coming to a future Nintendo console, but literally the announcement was all we got, no other details as of yet. It's clear that Squaresoft is looking to take advantage of major nostalgia for their most popular game, and that Final Fantasy VII will play a big role in both the company's Supernova strategy and its next-generation strategy going forward. Fans of Final Fantasy VII definitely have a lot to look forward to over the next few years.
-from an article on Games Over Matter, posted on April 27, 2006
-
Squaresoft continues to churn along, with new installments in some of their biggest game franchises on the way. The company is continuing to develop new franchises as well, but with the current console generation winding down and with Nintendo's next generation development kits already in the hands of the company's software partners, Square is looking to focus on established series for the moment, saving the innovation for the next console.
Final Fantasy XI will almost certainly be the last Final Fantasy game on the Wave. With much of Squaresoft's focus going to the franchise's first online adventure, the development time on the eleventh Final Fantasy game was longer than their other recent games, but now that the final product is coming together, we can see that it's looking to break new ground in the series while retreading familiar paths. Two major elements of previous Final Fantasy games will return for XI: the ATB battle system, and the job system, but both will have new twists to streamline the game's combat and make it more exciting. The ATB system will see an evolution that allows players to save up character turns and then unleash them all at once. Done right, this will enable a combo that allows an attack taking place later in the chain to be more damaging. Combine this with the multi-hit attacks certain jobs specialize in, and players can really rack up the damage on enemies, making an attack several times stronger than it might've been otherwise. However, enemies are able to move faster in this game as well, and can chain their attacks too, meaning that players will have to stay on their toes and look for opportunities to break an enemy's chain. As for the Job system, it returns in the form of “Job Grids” that allow characters to build up several jobs and then switch between them in the middle of combat by moving from one part of the grid to another. This can enable the use of bonuses and special attacks gained by moving between nodes on the grid, with some of the most powerful buffs and specials in the game only unlockable via the use of certain Job Grids. Also, switching jobs in mid-battle is accompanied by a (thankfully optional) transformation sequence resembling something out of a Power Rangers scene, with the female character transformations closer to a Sailor Moon-esque sequence. It does somewhat clash with the game's often serious narrative involving war and death, but it's also pretty cool, so we'll allow it. The game's storyline focuses on a rebellion against a powerful empire, in which the rebels must enlist the help of powerful entities known as Espers to have any hope of winning. We were in awe at Final Fantasy XI's enormous explorable world, and the game is said to have the most side-quests of any game in the series thus far, with fourteen of the game's 39 (!!!) Jobs only available via side-questing.
We know a lot less about Kingdom Hearts II, which is targeted for a 2007 release on the Wave. What we do know is that the game will feature two parallel quests in which Sora searches for Riku in one quest and Kairi searches for the secrets of her past and of the Princesses of Heart in another. Players will alternate between the two narratives. We've also learned so far of three of the new worlds that will be appearing in the game: Meridian, from the television series and comic book W.I.T.C.H., Beast's Castle, from Beauty And The Beast, and Space Paranoids, from Tron. A gigantic mansion also plays a big role in the game, and at least one of the characters will be spending a lot of time there. We do know it's not the “Haunted” mansion of Disney theme park fame. It's likely that Kingdom Hearts II won't be making much of an appearance at this month's E3 show, though I'd expect to hear a lot more about the game at the Tokyo Game Show later this year.
Finally, there's the third Chrono game, which was announced some time ago but remains somewhat of an enigma. The only thing we've heard about it is that while it will tie into the previous games “in some fashion”, it will feature an entirely new narrative and completely new characters. While some still expect this third Chrono game to be released on the Wave, we now believe that Squaresoft and director Masato Kato are aiming to launch the game on the Wave successor instead, as the team's goals for the game have grown too ambitious for the Wave and that the game would be completed too late into the Wave's lifecycle to sell the amount of copies Square would need to justify putting so many resources into it. We don't know the game's title yet, but Squaresoft has trademarked a number of potential titles, including Chrono Crisis, Chrono Sphere, Chrono Break, Chrono Savior, Chrono Cross, Chrono Blade, Chrono Dimensions, and Chrono Revolution. We'll be lucky to get any new info at the Tokyo Game Show this year. Instead, we may next hear about the third Chrono game when Nintendo announces its next generation console.
-from an article on RPGamer.net, posted on May 3, 2006
-
After eight years with only two games to show for it, Fairytale fans will soon be up to their wings in new games, all leading up to the series' 10th anniversary in 2008. Fairytale has long been one of Squaresoft's most beloved but obscure properties, releasing two critically acclaimed and commercially successful (both titles sold over two million copies worldwide) games for the Ultra Nintendo. Now, three more titles are in the works:
Fairytale Untold: This SRPG for the Supernova is scheduled for release in Japan next month and in North America in August. It's a sequel to the original Fairytale, featuring Claris, Ashlyn, and Virtuosa leading a powerful army against a new threat to their world. The game's battle system has a lot in common with Final Fantasy Tactics, but features a "champion" system in which each battle squadron has a leader and that leader has a special skill that can bestow special attacks or stat boosts on other members of their unit. It's somewhat reminiscent of the combat system from the original Ogre Battle game, though in Fairytale Untold, players do control all members of their squad at all times. The game features music by Yasunori Mitsuda, and the original voice cast of Fairytale returns to reprise their roles. It's not yet known whether any of the original game's other playable characters will also be playable in Untold.
Fairytale 3: This is the big one, the long-awaited third installment in the series, which will be released for the Nintendo Wave in 2007. Like Fairytale 2, it's being helmed by Tetsuya Takahashi, and it's implied to be a prequel to the original game, taking place thousands of years in the past and exploring the origins of fairies and their connections to the human race. Takahashi has promised plenty of magic and mystery, and that the game will feature the biggest world yet seen in the series. It's looking to be one of the most highly anticipated RPGs of next year, and a game that Fairytale fans have been salivating for.
Fairytale: 10th Anniversary Edition: A remake of the original Fairytale for the Supernova, this one was just announced at a special spring event by Squaresoft, and will be a full remake of the original game with enhanced graphics, brand new cutscenes, and alterations to the battle and affinity system. In addition, Squaresoft has promised all new quests and superbosses that will test even the most skilled Fairytale fanatic. This is one of the things we were anticipating might happen, as Squaresoft has been in the habit of remaking their old properties for portable systems (though there hasn't been anything announced about Final Fantasy VII yet... fingers crossed). This one looks to be a complete revamp of the original game, with an all new artstyle and re-orchestrated music. It'll be awesome just to have Fairytale on the go, but to have the definitive version of the game available to play anytime, anywhere sounds like a dream come true. As the name implies, we'll likely have to wait for 2008 to play this one, but we're looking forward to it nonetheless.
-from an entry on the blog The World Is Square, posted on May 9, 2006
"I poured my heart and soul into Fairytale 3, but of course, what I was truly yearning for was a chance to be at the helm of another Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy VIII had sold well, but not as well as VII, and so I was of course thinking that perhaps that's why Squaresoft hadn't asked me to direct another game in the series. All I could do was do the best I could on Fairytale and hope that I would be asked to return. In the meantime, I continued to work very diligently at what I loved to do. Whether or not I would ever get to direct another Final Fantasy game, I would continue to make video games and hone my craft.
But of course, as you already know, I would not have to wait very long after the release of Fairytale 3 in Japan to get that call again."
-from an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi in the December 2011 issue of GameInformer magazine, previewing Final Fantasy XIII, the third Final Fantasy game Takahashi would direct
-
"2006 was, in many ways, a year of transition for Squaresoft, a company that, while still one of the most prosperous third-parties in all of gaming, was also looking for ways to remain relevant heading into a brand new console generation. Hironobu Sakaguchi, long-time producer of the Final Fantasy series and a towering figure in the company, was on his way out, looking to strike out on his own and produce his own games, leaving the company with a hole to fill. While some expected the young Tetsuya Takahashi to fill that gap, many of Squaresoft's 'old guard' saw him as too much of a radical, someone who would pull Squaresoft too far away from the gaming mainstream: the company was looking to change, but perhaps not THAT much. There was no question that the company was starting to lean too heavily on established franchises, franchises that might not always be successful, and was more reluctant to try new things than it had been in the past, even with the opportunity of Nintendo's brand new HD console looming.
The second major question surrounding Squaresoft involved Nintendo itself. The company had been in partnership with Nintendo for two decades now, and had enjoyed one of the most beneficial symbiotic relationships between a hardware maker and a software maker in the history of the industry: Squaresoft's games had ALWAYS been on Nintendo consoles, and exclusive to Nintendo consoles, save for a few titles that made the leap to PC. Microsoft had come courting, and Squaresoft had been tempted until the Xbox proved to be a flop in Japan. However, there was an another intriguing new console launching: the Apple iTwin, and with it, the possibility of new playstyles and a new fanbase. Squaresoft's developers and executives had paid close attention to the buildup to Apple's new console. In the runup to E3 2006, a secret meeting was proposed between Squaresoft executives and Steve Jobs, in the hopes of making a deal to release Final Fantasy Online to the iTwin as a 'test project' of sorts. However, numerous members of Square's board of directors did not agree to the meeting, not wanting to anger Nintendo or Sony, the latter of whom the company was partnering with to create an ambitious CGI Final Fantasy VII movie.
A decision had to be made. If Squaresoft snubbed Jobs now, they would anger him, and their chances of becoming a favored developer for the iTwin would evaporate. However, if they agreed to the meeting and it got back to Nintendo, it could jeopardize the company's projects for the Wave's HD successor console, and possibly even their upcoming movie.
It would ultimately come down to a tiebreaking vote. Though Hironobu Sakaguchi was set to leave the company, he was asked to give his opinion on what Squaresoft should do. His answer would have an enormous impact on the next generation of gaming."
-from the G4 episode "Icons: Final Fantasy", which aired on November 8, 2010
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
I bet you Crono's soul that the third game in the series isn't named Chrono Cross. That would just be too funny in a way. But whatever it's named, as long as the story is good, I'm good.
Huh, Final Fantasy no longer becoming a Nintendo exclusive. A shame that has been in the works, but such is life. And I hope Sakaguchi makes the right choice, whatever that would entail in the long run.
Looking forward to E3 2006!
Huh, Final Fantasy no longer becoming a Nintendo exclusive. A shame that has been in the works, but such is life. And I hope Sakaguchi makes the right choice, whatever that would entail in the long run.
Looking forward to E3 2006!
That FF7 blowout. Wow. That all sounds p rad. I wonder which (if any) of the OTL spinoffs will be cloeset to this upcoming one. Also yay to the manga, more Yuffie focus is always good.
The job switching in 11 sounds really fun and unique, I dig that.
Also W.I.T.C.H. In KH is pretty hype.
This is a fantastic update!!
The job switching in 11 sounds really fun and unique, I dig that.
Also W.I.T.C.H. In KH is pretty hype.
This is a fantastic update!!
It's still up in the air whether or not Final Fantasy will stay exclusive to Nintendo in the seventh gen. It all hinges on Sakaguchi.
It's not actually unique, there's an OTL Final Fantasy game that uses the same job switching system. Can you remember which one?
Once they see the burden of HD development they will go multiplat and many other companies as well.
The only way Square would remain exclusive is if Sony or Nintendo bought them.
The only way Square would remain exclusive is if Sony or Nintendo bought them.
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