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Does Final Fantasy Need A Reboot?

Final Fantasy XIII was released last year, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII is forthcoming. Now might be as good a time as any to clean the slate and start over.

In the West, Mass Effect has become a benchmark of sorts, offering the one-two punch of immediacy and innovation. Should Final Fantasy move away from its traditional Japanese role-playing element and ape, say, Mass Effect? Or Fallout 3? Is it necessary to hire a new character designer to give the games a fresh look?

  • Posted by Matt
  • http://videogam.in/s2051
Sblogs / 2010 / July / 17
Forums / Sblog Discussion /

Does Final Fantasy Need A Reboot?

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  1. Hmm no. People expect something in particular when they play a Final Fantasy title. Western RPGs are a slightly different genre. I mean it could work, but I don't see it happening.

    That said, many translators and localisation teams have pointed out the fact that Japanese games are losing ground to Western titles, and many of them are becoming more integrated into the development teams to provide relevant feedback. Who knows what the future holds?

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  2. First of all, I am not even sure what a "reboot of the Final Fantasy series" would even mean. What that sounds like to me is making a whole new game and slapping "Final Fantasy" on it to help it sell.

    As far as I am concerned Final Fantasy's biggest problem is that it's reputation has grown too big for the Square Enix to reasonably meet the expectations of players. I'm serious, I think that's by far their biggest problem.

    Ugh, too tired to explain further. I'll post some additional comments tomorrow.

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  3. @Nels As in people that can't move past a certain game that will "always be the best"? Or even that the fans expect so much that no matter what comes out they'll find something to pick at?

    I think I know what you mean.

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  4. What that sounds like to me is making a whole new game and slapping "Final Fantasy" on it to help it sell.

    Kinda funny, I figured they were pretty much doing this already.

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  5. @Kanji Totally.

    I mean a Final Fantasy reboot? If rebooting such a franchise is supposed to re-embellish the excitement it once had wouldn't it make more sense to create something entirely new? This whole nostaglia grab seems so fricken cheap to me. I know this industry has been pushing this for a while now but if only publishers had a little more trust in the creativity of developers we'd have a fruitful industry bursting with excitement for new things. Maybe part of the reason why Sqex is thinking about this is because most of their talent has left. It's such a japanese tradition to just keep on a thin straight line of success until that line eventually fades. It's shocking how much Sqex has relied on this franchise to pull it's own financial weight. Instead of seeing the damage and loss of creative integrity they'll do exactly what any other fruitless corp will do: reboot. Bandaids on bandaids on bandaids.

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  6. What about something along the lines of Final Fantasy IX; that is, a return to the core basics of the series. If FF strayed too far from the original formula with VII and VIII, XIII is a few light-years removed.

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  7. @Matt It would help I guess, and they still have the team behind that game (well as far as I know anyway). I guess you could look at Final Fantasy XIV returning to from regarding aesthetics...............but it's online so unless you want to pay monthly for something that is like the older Final Fantasies, there's really no other options.

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  8. OK some relatively simple fixes would increase interest again:

    • Male characters should look masculine like Bosch and Balthier. I'm not bothered by this so much, but some players really are.
    • Return to character classes being unique to the individual, a la Final Fantasy IV. Character classes help sort out who characters are for both the player and writer.
    • More open world. Linear play is fine, just restrict areas players shouldn't be with silly hard monsters.
    • Tone down how cerebral the plot is. I have to say this is mainly a writer issue. Until they get better writers it needs to be more straight forward.

    The only thing I don't have any good thoughts on is the combat system.

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