What happens if Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was never made?

oreocruncher

According to TvTropes (from which I've read), the failure of the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was basically a negative turning point for Square Soft, as it delayed the upcoming merger with Enix to form Square Enix, led to the loss of tons of money, and most notably, led to Hironobu Sakaguchi (who spearheaded this production) and other prominent employees to end up leaving the company...
Basically, it's been regarded that ever since this happened, the series became more divisive and suckier...

Having said that, what happened if somehow, Sakaguchi didn't end up producing this movie? What would be different?:confused:
 
shiftygiant

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
This seems more fitting to pop-culture, but it's an interesting PoD non the less.

Right off the bat, we have Square Soft and Enix merging earlier, the money not being lost (Although even before Spirits within, Square was loosing money, hence the merger), and Hironobu Sakaguchi and the prominent employees staying on (Although they could still easily loose their jobs as part of the merger).

Okay, so if Hironobu stays, firstly we'll get some good Final Fantasy (yay!), but also the franchise will end or not have so many installments. Hironobu wanted to develop more franchises and not have Square become singularly associated with the FF name, so less will exist or at some point in the mid-late 2000's the Franchise will end.

The effect of no Spirits Within should also be noted. Spirits Within was, at the time of release, one of the most advanced Computer Animated Films of all time. No, without the innovation it's production paved, either another company (Like Pixar) is going to pick up the slack, or computer animation will not advance as quickly as it has (Although this ignores independent development state side). We could also see more CGI Japanese movies, as the failure of Spirits Within doesn't exist.

Also, no Mass Effect, or at least how we know it. Derek Watts, the Art Director, cited Spirits as a major influence, so no Spirits means a vastly different looking game. The impact of this on modern and future Science Fiction would be interesting to go into, but not enough time has passed for Mass Effect's influence to become clear.

But yeah, right off the top of my head, that's what would happen.
 
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oreocruncher

shiftygiant said:
This seems more fitting to pop-culture, but it's an interesting PoD non the less.

Right off the bat, we have Square Soft and Enix merging earlier, the money not being lost (Although even before Spirits within, Square was loosing money, hence the merger), and Hironobu Sakaguchi and the prominent employees staying on (Although they could still easily loose their jobs as part of the merger).

Okay, so if Hironobu stays, firstly we'll get some good Final Fantasy (yay!), but also the franchise will end or not have so many installments. Hironobu wanted to develop more franchises and not have Square become singularly associated with the FF name, so less will exist or at some point in the mid-late 2000's the Franchise will end.
Click to expand...

One thing I could say for sure is that there would be less spinoffs...
I don't think you would see as many direct sequels to Final Fantasy games...

Also, there would be less remakes/re-releases being done...

Also, no Mass Effect, or at least how we know it. Derek Watts, the Art Director, cited Spirits as a major influence, so no Spirits means a vastly different looking game. The impact of this on modern and future Science Fiction would be interesting to go into, but not enough time has passed for Mass Effect's influence to become clear.

But yeah, right off the top of my head, that's what would happen.
Click to expand...

Interesting...
I would say a number of internet memes would be different, and Bioware wouldn't be as famous/infamous as it is now...
Also, EA's notoriety would be different too...
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

eldandythedoubter said:
I've heard rumors that there was plans to remake 7-9 using 10's engine, but those fell through because of Spirits failure.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't it have been too early to remake the games from 7 to 9? When the tenth chapter came out, 7 was only four years old. A VI remake would make much more sense.
 
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