Ben-Dutka"Measuring stick" games like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves can have a profound impact on designers everywhere, even if the projects in question aren't exactly action/adventure titles.
Take Final Fantasy , for instance. Most would assume that FF and Uncharted have very little to do with one another, but considering the raging success of last year's masterpiece from Naughty Dog, even Square-Enix is standing up and taking notice. As noted by PS3Center , FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama referenced Uncharted during a speech at the Game Developers Conference. He spoke about the differences between Western and Japanese gaming preferences and ideals, and he admitted that player interaction in FFXIII was almost exclusively found in combat sequences. In the future, he'd like to bring the player more into the cut-scenes; his inspiration for this is last year's award-winning sequel. Said Toriyama:
"I think there will be more interactivity (in future Final Fantasy cut scenes) — if you have 1000 flying dragons, hopping from one dragon to the other would be great fun. If you can achieve that compared with Uncharted 2, I think that Final Fantasy is going to replicate the masterpieces of film, and that is certainly one of our goals."
We've known for a long time that Square-Enix has wanted to include aspects of film in each and every Final Fantasy installment, so this comment should come as no surprise to avid followers. It's just interesting to see so many different developers looking to the best games of the generation for new ideas and concepts; it's not about "stealing," it's about advancing forward by paying homage to breakthroughs made by others. Nothing wrong with that.
Related Game(s): Final Fantasy XIII
I miss the Ragnarok.
Ragnarok > Highwind. Truth.
Anyone who yells "bring back turn based" gets an automatic thumb up.
The Shera > All
uncharted 2 should not be the measuring stick for shooters.
BLACK should be because it is by far the best, funnest, most amazing shooter ever released.
nothing has even come close to what black did.
this is why bodycount is number 1 on my list, if they did black with the ps2 imagine what they can do with current gen consoles.
…….
*Play FFX with tears in my eyes*
So I'm not the only one that cries playing any FF?!
No, I'm crying because this franchise might take a U-Turn.
Aren't these guys supposed to come up with their own ideas? I mean, isn't that what they get paid the big bucks for? Anybody can copy stuff from everybody else. You may as well put an accountant in charge of the project and he can run spreadsheets showing which aspects of which games are the most popular, and then they can compile it all into one massive swirling pile. Stick the Final Fantasy name on it and we'll make millions!
Oh no, please… We need fewer linear games, not more… *sigh* This is no advance, no breakthrough, this is a step backwards.
This is like God of War III serving as inspiration for Gran Turismo 5.
Ok, so let me see if I follow this.
Square-Enix execs were sitting in the board room running numbers and saw how well COD and other first person shooters were doing and decided to draw inspiration from them when making FFXIII. After which upon release they heard the rumblings of the fanbase and their general disillusionment with the new direction.
Now they are sitting in the board room running numbers and checking reactions to games and have found that Uncharted 2 is selling AND fans like it immensely so they are going to draw inspiration from that.
I have a better idea, and this may never be realised but hey, here it goes:
Hold an interview with someone, anyone and let fans of the Final Fantasy series call in and give you direct feedback. Have a twitter page for other regions and listen to fan feedback from that. Make a facebook page for feedback and actually listen to it.
I think that it is a great thing when a development team looks at a game that is doing well and they draw inspiration from it and try to do better, WHEN THAT GAME IS IN A GENRE THAT IS COMPARABLE! Stop looking to the best selling game in general and try to base a damn RPG on it. Look at the best selling RPG and base an RPG on it. Come up with something new and innovative in its own right.
Now, all this ranting aside I do like the thought of them getting the player more interactive with the cut scenes but last time they started talking about drawing inspiration from other games it was FPS and well, everyone who has played FFXIII has seen the results.
I will say that it is a terrific game, it's just not a terrific RPG, and it really isn't that great of a Final Fantasy. It could just be the nostalgia kicking in but my favourite moments in FF games were just exploring, building up my characters, searching for all the little hidden nooks and crannies, and doing all the little side things that didn't really matter. This game feels more like I am in the passenger seat of an Indy car (yes I know that don't have passenger seats) and I am just watching the scenery fly by, and what beautiful scenery it is.
Enough of my grumblings though, and here is to hoping that the next instalment takes into consideration some of the main gripes a lot of fans seem to have with this one.
One of the specific joys I find in an RPG comes from building up the party and whichever character(s) I mainly use. The character becomes my 'avatar' in the game, but the party is an extension of me.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 3/15/2010 12:39:19 PM
Indy cars don't have passenger seats!
I can't believe you sai- oh, never mind.
Highlander,
Couldn't agree more with you. I was trying to convey that but I don't really know how it came across but therein lies another problem with FFXIII, who is the main character? There doesn't seem to be a main focus on any particular entity to me and therefore I just don't make a real connection to any of the characters. I mean in previous games there was a single "this is the main character" character and you could connect with them as an extension of yourself and therein connect with the entire cast through those interactions as that main character. This is all just my opinion of course.
Translation: There will be QTE's in the next FF.
…and it will rain continuously…
…and the characters will talk to themselves in film noir style inner dialog…
haha and might there be a Titan or two? Or enemies will have helmets and glowing orange-red eyes. I'm starting to think they named Lightning after InFamous! I think their copycat approach is going to destroy their franchise in time, they need to stay true to their roots.
You guys haven't heard yet? The next FF is going to have a main character who is going after Norse gods, He will have swords chained to his arms and his name will be Cratos.
Watch out for Final Fantasy XV: Lord of War!
Don't forget their new downloadable title Little Big Fantasy which is a pseudo 3D platforming take on Crystal Defenders…
i think squeenix should just finnaly accept that they have wanted to do full cgi movies their entire carreers and sell the ff franchise to hollywood , after all , those holywood producers can write betters scripts with less, shall we say, cheese on it..
next FF will jsut be one huge movie where you just time a button press otherwise it reverts back to the previous chapter if you miss the QTE, it will be called FF:the play button chronicles
or better yet, "Final fantasy tedium sixteen, that has a nicer ring to it, yeah lets go with that"…*piotures the above conversation and shudders*
Last edited by Irievibes on 3/15/2010 5:41:04 PM
Sounds like wada really wants to handle SE, as if he's driving a run-away Toyota.
And so much so, that SE will probably be taking it's future cues from Heavy Rain for their next big FFXVI project, but with another huge "WESTERLY-WADA'S POTENTLY-PATENTED FLAIR-FAIL" systems added into it.
FFXVI will be played just like a interactive game, except there will be a whole new wada inspired theme of non-interactiveness to it.
SE's will be calling their brand new ground breaking style of game play,…….a "MOVIE"!
(since that's exactly the direction that wada's already stated he wanted to take SE into).