Ben-DutkaIt was a busy week for reviews and I fear it won't get any easier for a while . 😉
How about a "Final Fantasy we all know and love?"
I suppose I could allow myself to be excited for Final Fantasy Versus XIII . But Nomura's quote has me skeptical, primarily because it seems Square Enix is doing everything they can to abandon any recognizable elements in the franchise. So yeah, we could be optimistic and say that a fresh take on the series; i.e., a "Final Fantasy you've never seen before," could be just what we need. It could magically appeal to the old-school fans and the modern-day gamers who don't even play RPGs. If you want to believe that, feel free. I'd love to believe it.
But why can't we just have what we want ? Why can't you just make a game that allows you to say, "it's a Final Fantasy the fans are gonna love"? We hear there will be some traditional RPG elements in Versus XIII , but completely altering the face of my favorite franchise? Why ? And how is that exciting? I have my action games. That's really not why I turn to Final Fantasy . That isn't why any fan turns to the series.
So…whaddya need to make a sequel?
It's hardly a shock, but Ninja Theory has confirmed they won't be making a second Enslaved . It sold around 730,000 copies, which actually isn't half-bad, despite the higher predictions. But then again, Heavenly Sword sold double that amount and we never saw a sequel for that, either. So what's it take, developers? And what's the criteria? How in God's name could Naughty Bear get a second effort? I don't know the sales numbers but I sincerely doubt it sold three-quarters of a million copies. How does this happen? And what would it take for Ninja Theory to ever make a sequel for anything ? A multi-million seller and 9+ across the board?
I know they're working on the Devil May Cry reboot and I have high hopes for that, but if it weren't for Capcom, what would Ninja Theory be cranking on right now? And is there any evidence for the idea that Heavenly Sword 2 is in the works at a different studio?
Personal gaming update
So in the past week or so, I completed Deus Ex: Human Revolution , Resistance 3 , and Limbo . The latter was bugging me for a while; I never found time to finish it. Now I'm whittling away at Catherine ; I'd love to complete it before October gets here. It may not happen, but I'd be all the way caught up if I could. Of course, I still have to check out Child of Eden and Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland this week, so that'll take some time. I'm interested to see how Atelier Totori came out.
I like White Knight Chronicles II , but I doubt I'll have the time to see it through to the end. I really don't understand the very low scores for that game. It has its problems but it's worth much more than a 5 or 6. I also really want Gears of War 3 , but that may have to wait until Christmas or something. There's just too much stuff on the horizon.
Also, we're done with Episode #6 of the PSXE Show, which we'll send over early this week. We'll let you know the time of the party, which we haven't done in a while. 🙂
Glad to hear your enjoying wkc2 ben. I'm still replaying the remastered version of the first. But I'm at the end boss, so ill be on the sequel here soon.
Just wanted to let everyone know, I saw ico and the sotc game(s) at wally world tonight for 30 bucks. Sounds like a good deal, so ill be checking that out soon as I never got to play either on the ps2.
Some copies have sold for less than thirty on Ebay the last few days.
Just got to the second part tonight myself, I love the new environments, and I need that Scardigne armor for my avatar.
I've yet to see any difficulty bump (that people have talked about online) happen, perhaps it comes along later?
Im almost on the second one as well. I think im right near the end. I tried the online just for a few to see how it ran…pretty solid i might say. Was told to finish 1 and then go online with 2. Maybe ill see you on sometime
Just look for a blue haired, red eyed amazonian warrior called KOSMOS and you should find me.
@highlander
yeah, i wanted the scardine armor too but apparently, you cant even replace or even take it off scardigne. the only thing thats pissing me off is that some of the errands are just way too much work. i'm supposed to be collecting 30 mysterious saplings for a quest. out of all the time i spent on white knight chronicles international edition, beating white knight chronicles remastered, about 60 hours into wkc2 according to gameclock, i only have 1 mysterious sapling. i have been killing everything i see, harvesting every spot i see and still nothing.
Mysterious saplings can only be obtained (I think) by harvesting in the game or in your georama after a quest.
@highlander
yeah, i read up on it. apparently you can get it from a tree at the starting point in the all in the cards 2 quest but i'm guild rank 14 and i still cant buy it.
AITC2 used to be a GR9 quest, so it'll probably be a GR 16-18 quest now.
Even though I'm not a fan of WKC I could tell from the reviews that critics were looking for ways to bring the game down.
PGU:
I finished the first God Of War so now I'm on the second. Hopefully I get that finished quick enough to spend a decent enough time with Fallout:NV. Also, I still need to finish Limbo. I have Midnight Club:LA but I don't think I'm gonna keep it. If I get those done before Battlefield I wanna try to get Catherine or Gears 3 in. Otherwise they will have to wait.
It just doesnt make sense to me that a few years ago, RPGS were the top genre & now reviewers forgot how to play them & Square forgot how to make them..smh. Im excited for Versus but I'll remain skeptical, especially after these kind of comments.
This generation has been a gift and a curse. I dont think Ive ever spent this much on games in any generation but the level of BS is really concerning. Between Squareenix screwing up Final Fantasy, certain websites being favorable & unfavorable to certain franchises and genres and Microsoft performing voodoo on the American media & consumer, how in the hell do we expect other forms of entertainment to take us seriously.
PGU: I finally finished LA Noire, jesus that game is long but i really loved the story. I had to be in the mood at times to play it, cause most games these days arent made at LA Noires pace but it was still quality.
I took advantage of the Amazon move sale and started on Dead Space extraction. I love the Dead space universe and its a great game with the move. God of War Origins is awesome too and I cant wait to get my hands on the ICO collection.
Well, sales-wise, RPGs have never been the "top genre."
True. Sales wise, RPGs were never the top genre. But the amount of different series during the PS1 & ps2 era would make you think it was.
When you consider the sales of an 'average' JRPG in previous generations, you can see that the FF games were very much an exception.
Final Fantasy is dead. The RPGs I knew and loved are dead, well, at least the style. I agree Ben they should stop making games for people who don't even buy them cause that alienates the people who actually used to buy and in turn they don't buy them so then no one is buying them so then the Devs say we need more changes and then the cycle repeats itself till said Dev crashed and burns.
PGU
Finished Dead Island and I'll be putting up a review soon. I have to say though that the end was a HUGE LETDOWN and left a GIANT PLOT HOLE (which are always fun) but overall I was still very satisfied.
Last edited by main_event05 on 9/24/2011 10:50:28 PM
I guess the Final Fantasy we all know and love is just archaic and bad and JRPG gamers are behind the times and don't understand that because you can button mash and have gritty realism now there is no need for classic gameplay and storytelling. I don't know who DECIDED all of that between last gen and this but that's how it is.
Catherine is getting really hard, but I've got to find out what happens! After I finish Hunted I'm going to delve further into WKC2. BTW I really love the battle music, it's more exciting.
Yea I really wanna know who decided this crap. It just doesnt make any sense. Maybe all of the shooter nuts now in this gen will be saying the same thing we are in a few years
If people would buy the decent JRPGs that there are, it might encourage more development…
BTW WKC2 has sucked up my entire gaming life this week. I made it to the 'part2' story tonight, and the new environments are gorgeous. Ben, I have to take you to task my man, the artwork and graphics on display here are worthy of an 8+ out of 10.
PGU: 90% God of War Origins Collection, 10% Deus Ex.
deus ex blows…. well not really. its decent but it kinda bored the hell out of me sometimes. i kinda knew what was going to happen in the game, plot wise, when those guys broke in at the beginning of the game. what irritates me is that some trophies are missable and i dont really want to go through a second play through to hunt them down. its either do this or that to get the trophy. i havent beaten it yet, had to return it to gamestop, i went for a pacifist and no alarm playthrough. right now i dont know if i could get pacifist anymore because apparently the tranq rifle and taser is bugged and can actually kill people.
I've only played the first few minutes of the game. So far it seems like a fun game though I hate the controls and I hate even more that they don't allow other options.
cole mcgrath is coming to a street fighter vs tekken game near you lol. looking forward to seeing capcom charge extra to unlock evil cole in dlc
LOL!
Dont forget Cole 1.5 aka Douche Cole snd Vampire Cole. $$$
remove all this juggling crap and everything that messed up marvel vs capcom 3 then maybe i'll look at it. unless it plays like marvel vs capcom 2, yes i mean 2, then i wont look at any fighting game at all. of course there are exceptions, DOA, tekken, and soul caliber because they stayed true to their core.
PGU: I got 12 games left in the regular season in NHL 11. Still working on "Dead Island", going to send InFamous 2 back for "Spider-Man Edge of time" and I hope to play it again sometime in December.
Not much gaming for me accept for some multi-player fun on Battlefield 2 at the moment. I have pre-ordered the Limited Edition for Battlefield 3 for my PS3, and cannot wait to get it now…
Having set up my new PS3 Slim, I am back to where I was, but funnily enough I have not gone back re-downloaded everything I had on my previous model. Even some of the older PSN games that I thought were no particularly good I have not re-downloaded.
It is a shame there is no way you can "clean" out your account and delete the things you don't want anymore so as to better manage your historical download lists that I have for my US, EU and ASIA accounts.
In addition, I did hear I should have my new Dell laptop from work in a matter of 2 to 3 months with a nice Nvidia mobile GPU, this means a lot of good gaming fun on the laptop too… hehe, the best of both worlds now 🙂
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Last edited by Qubex on 9/25/2011 1:39:17 AM
Wow, I'm really disappointed that WKCII got low scores. Maybe gamers these days are intentionally giving those reminiscent of the older RPG elements bad scores just to get them out of this "action-packed and fast-paced" world of gaming. Conspiracy? Maybe so…
PGU:
I haven't really been playing anything new. Just playing around with my collection of games, waiting for November to roll around. The only games I'll be nabbing right off the shelf are Uncharted 3 (already pre-ordered collector's edition) and Skyrim. All else will have to wait until Christmas.
I might really try to make it to the PSXE show on Home this time. I haven't made it to all the others because I keep forgetting. I will definitely try to mark my calendar this time around.
Last edited by Gamer Girl Gemo on 9/25/2011 1:19:04 AM
NT are a funny bunch. I hope that they can manage to get their next game after DmC to sell well enough for them to follow it up. I say this because I think that, no matter how well they do with DmC, Capcom will not approach them to do a follow-up effort, but instead farm the series out to a different developer. On the other hand, I kind of want them to go the same route as Platinum and ONLY make new IPs. Of course, they need to get a game to hit big in order to take such risks, given their seemingly enormous development budget, but who knows.
PU:
Finished The Road on Thursday and I've gone back to try to finish Dante's Paradise, as I never did last time.
Also playing through BFBC2 and getting some measure of enjoyment out of it.
Finally, I've started writing again after about three months of getting nothing done, and although progress on the project is slow going, I'm hopeful about it.
Peace all.
you never know,they may decide to do a sequel once DMC is out.
just because they say no now does not mean no forever!
oh and yes theres plenty of evidence showing heavenly sword 2 has gone elsewhere!
i just finished playing GOW3 today, what a game!
screw the rest of the year ive already made up my mind what GOTY will be!
im now onto warhammer 40K space marine.
yea yea i know thats kinda ironic, but eh thats how the cookie crumbles.
I'll be honest Ben, and i know i don't comment much but I've been following psx extreme since 2007 when i stumbled upon it, and registered a bit later when i realized i stopped going to the likes of IGN ang Gamespot for my PS news.
Now about Final Fantasy Versus XIII I have to say I am indeed excited. But it wasn't because it was final fantasy, but rather because i viewed it as a darker take on Kingdom Heart because of the the director/producer of the project. I've played several final fantasies, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 (not my favorite but beautiful), and 12 (man i loved 12, not as much as 4 5 and 7 though). So I would consider myself a genuine final fantasy fan.
But when I saw what was coming in XIII i lost interest (yeah i played and clocked serious hours on it regardless thanks to your review) and though hey versus XIII looks familiar, not in a final fantasy per say, but in a kingdom hearts way. Then i thought, hey, it'll be just as polished as any of the final fantasies! cuz lets face it, though i love kingdom heart, outside of the game play, and music, it wasn't anywhere near as pretty as the final fantasies of its days.
So i'm all for a Final Fantasy I haven't seen, so long as it resemble another beloved square franchise of mine.
That's my two cents 😀
Well, thanks for hanging around and signing up. 🙂
We may not be as big as IGN or GameSpot, but we'll put our community up against any other.
NT is unrealistic and stubborn. What were they expecting 5M sales on new IPs? Add illogical to that regarding Heavenly Sword. Not only was it a new IP but on a new system in a new generation. It seems they will never be satisfied. At this rate developers will try to make a sale without actually making the game. Just to be safe.
Just finished re-downloading to my REPLACEMENT PS3 slim. I brang in a 250gb and since BB doesn't have that model I was upgraded to a Move bundle. I only downloaded the bigger games. All the free PS classics and minisfron Plus have been segregated to the bedroom PS3. I usually play the blockbusters on the 55".
I already have 2 sets of Move controllers so I gave one to my niece with Sports Champions. She is 5 and wanted a Wii but my bro didnt want to get one. Since he already had an Eye they get to play with motion now. Gave her Eyepet too and game shared all the Move games on PSN. They are set.
PGU: Completed From Dust yesterday and I am trying finish most of my PSN games such as Outland, Limbo, Blade Kitten etc… Gearing up for the Heavy Hitters and I just purchased tickets to the Sony/AMC Uncharted 3 Event in NYC on Oct. 18th. Its a good way to start the season.
Last edited by FatherSun on 9/25/2011 7:59:36 AM
I just want FF Versus to re-surface already then I will enact judgement.
I too wish all the good in the world for dmc, I'm not going to criticize them for jumping around a bit if they haven't found or done anything stellar (I know some people really do love Heavenly Sword).
PGU: Still nothing but school work really. Maybe by next weekend I'll finally have something new.
PGU: 2nd Playthrough on ME2, stopped Playing Dragon Age;Origins but resumed this weekend (just the final fight). Still a lot of MVC3 and SSF4. Deus Ex HR is on its way, jsut finished Golden Sun Dark Dawn (i think i'll play the 1st two again).
Gaming Wish List: Ico and Shadow HD collection, God of War origins HD collection, White Knight Chronicles II (the first is still included right?) Demon souls (before the servers shutdown). yup yup that should be it for now.
oh and I start and finish Crysis 1 and 2 this week. (yup quitting my Job and Starting my new on 1st of October)
Last edited by sobleck on 9/25/2011 9:33:41 AM
Yes, the fist part of WKC is included with WKC2. If you play from the very start, there are something like 100 hours of game play in the story mode alone. Plus if you play from the start, when you hit the part two of the story, your character is already ready to go, you're familiar with the game system, and you probably have some money and materials from your playing through the first part of the story to carry forward into part two, which is an advantage. You'll generally be high enough level to go online and quest without too much difficulty by that time as well.
Henry Ford: "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse."
I'll admit…it's a pretty damn cheap quote to use but I love seeing innovation. Now…I don't call it innovation when developers in Japan start thinking "westernizing" their games will make it better…for that's not innovation but rather opting to a business strategy that may help…and of course it DOES NOT.
I hope to see their own idea and their own vision implemented in the game. I have faith that Nomura will do so with Versus XIII. Of course…I have a feeling that he's more so trying to implement his Kingdom Hearts idea in Final Fantasy…just cutting Disney out of it. However…in the end, I'd definitely like to see what Nomura has in mind.
If we don't like it, both reviewers and fans will respond…and SE will end up reverting to their old days realizing that that is the practical business solution. If you truly want Final Fantasy to just remain Final Fantasy for another 50 years or so…well jeese I can't do anything but disagree. I would like to see change in the series…but not the kind of change we saw with XIII. With so little info about Versus XIII (the biggest we got was the gameplay trailer I guess)…no ONE HERE can claim that this is an FF that's going to fail.
We'll just have to wait, see, and then play it ourselves.
Hey ben are any of you going to do a review on Fifa 12? Just curious
I'll ask Arnold.
I just really think you take the "FF you've never seen before" quote too strong and serious.
Think about it. What was the progress description before the quote? Yes. It was "the game is using a specific engine Lumine for the lighting and the same and an FF engine we'd use in THE NEXT GEN" so in context of that sentence. Yes. It is by all means an FF that NO ONE HAS EVER seen before and evidently so, with all the tech and an incredible dev cycle behind this project which, remember is THE first FF to show blood n game and to be dark as fuck!
C'mon ain't you at least excited about them making the title, well, mature. And yo. Noctis looks just so much like a sophisticated gangsta! OW! Can you dig it?!
If that's the case then it could be potentially said about any new sequel/Chapter/iteration of any game. I think Ben was correct with his interpretation of the quote. We barely recognized FF13 and I believe this next one will be even more unfamiliar.
It can be interpreted in a number of ways. And I'm excited for anything called Final Fantasy; I can't help it.
I just remain concerned at the same time.
I know how you feel Ben. I'm the same way about anything Resident Evil, well the games at least.
I guess they are giving us a final fantasy we all know and love, final fantasy X hd. althought i'm still pissed we only get half of the story. final fantasy versus 13, i have no expectations at all. they already said it wasnt a typical final fantasy game and i respect them for that, nomura and not square enix. if you're going to release a game bearing the name of a numbered final fantasy, then you stay close that core game series. i dont care if you make spinoffs like versus as long as you let people know its a spin off.
I dont really know what to think about ninja theory. they do good work but not good enough to be an elite developer. they're on the edge of being amazing but its still not enough. i dont know, maybe they're just scared of expectations if they manage to create a AAA quality game. they have potential but they're doing it with a half@$$ed approach. look at heavy sword, it was a great game but theres just bugs and glitches that shouldnt be there especially when youre working on a platform specific game. then theres enslaved, which is also a great game but brought down with their sub par programming theres so much problems in the game. most of the time i played after restarting a chechpoint, the audio in cutscenes are out of sync. also from what i remember, they didnt seem to have much faith in the game when they were promoting it. it looked like they were expecting the game to fail from the beginning. This gives me the expression that ninja theory has great promise and vision, DMC aside, but they really dont put as much effort as they should into their games. unless ninja theory decides to shape up, i wont be picking up any of their games anytime soon.
personal gaming update:
white knight chronicles 2, thats it. i havent played any game other than that. i'm on the second part of the series after beating white knight chronicles remastered a while back. i killed everything i saw, did all errands i can, did every bounty i can thats available, harvested every tree/spot. I'm at the point where my high ranking armor from the first game are starting to lose its use. since reaching level 38, my avatar has been wearing a doom armor set with the dragon knight helm, so hes all purple with a jet black katana now at level 55. now i'm trying to track down 30 mysterious saplings which i only got 1 and hunting down megalo tigris to get wind beast tail which they never seem to drop.
I had to shelve mass effect 2 because it was boring the hell out of me. i'm suppose to find this thing to use the red mass effect relay. i also shelved dynasty warriors gundam 3 for now. i'll get back to that after wkc2. i also bought a second move controller for half off, 1 out of 10 gamestops around me had 1 in stock, and the fight lights out for 10 bucks too. Oh, if you guys can find a kmart around you, they also have move accessories half off like the move controller, nav, and sharpshooter. they also have the sports champions bundle for 50 bucks. if you missed out on the gamestop sale then heres your chance. although all these move stock clearing sales got me curious on whats going on in the near future.
While I wait for some releases, I've been considering getting Enslaved.
Well, thanks to Mr. Dutka, I was able to play Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One this past week. Very glad I was apart of the community playing the demo. Thanks 🙂
PGU: It's all about Deus Ex for me these days.
And it's one of those games that I only get more and more engaged in the more I play it. I'm at the end of the Chinese city now and omg that city is large, and so full of atmosphere!