Square Enix and Microsoft have a rather strange relationship quite akin to that of a roller coaster. Early on in the current generation's life, Square Enix was happy to offer their games on Microsoft's system, distributing exclusive titles like The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope - now also on the PlayStation 3 - and just recently Final Fantasy XIII was released on both major consoles. Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada explained it as a way of expanding their audience. So then why isn't Final Fantasy XIV heading down the same route as well?
Originally codenamed Rapture, it was a brand new MMO being developed by Hiromichi Tanaka and the team behind FFXI. It was announced way back in August 2005. Since then, statements about what platform it would be on went back and forth with Tanaka first stating it was being made for the PlayStation 3 and PC in 2006. However, it was later said that Rapture was being made for the Xbox 360 and PC, with the possibility of a PS3 version being brought out at a later stage. Square Enix then reaffirmed that the game would be for all consoles at GDC 2008.
Fast forward to June of last year, E3 2009, Sony's Press Conference where Square Enix unveiled the debut trailer of Final Fantasy XIV - only for the PlayStation 3 and PC.
The Final Fantasy games, like most RPGs, have upheld the tradition of immersing that one person, the player, into the game entirely. Trying to sink two people into the sixty hour plots simultaneously might be spreading themselves too thin, surely.
But multiplayer in the series stems ten years now, since 2000 when Final Fantasy IX was released. Sure, it wasn't advertised at all and it wasn't a well-developed feature, but it was a step in the right direction. You can assign characters to controllers port 1 or 2 through the configuration menu so that a second player can share your party. It's a basic system, but it latches onto an idea that is synonymous with the new-age Final Fantasy fans. A lot of them grew up watching the games being played by an older sibling. The same story over and over:
"I never played Final Fantasy VII at first, I just watched my big brother play it."
It's been an interesting ride with Square Enix for the last couple of years in regards to their showings at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka E3. Back in the day, the company always had an abundance of Japanese games on show. Of course there would be Final Fantasy games, but in addition, titles like Dragon Quest and Star Ocean usually made an appearance. However, in the last couple of years, Square Enix doesn't seem to be as concerned with E3 and many of these Japanese games are shown at the Tokyo Game Show and Jump Festa events instead.
Flash back to the wonder years of E3. Taking 2005 and 2006 for example, Square Enix in all her glory showed off plenty of Final Fantasies, including XI, XII, the compilation of VII and even the debut announcement of Fabula Nova Crystallis, of which the recently released Final Fantasy XIII is a part of; however, in addition to these big names, niche titles like Radiata Stories and Romancing Saga were unveiled. Unlike Square Enix's flagship franchise, these titles had much to prove and none succeeded in drawing in a satisfiable amount of revenue in either North America or Europe. Looking even further back, among the ever favourite Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003 as well as Advent Children in 2004, Square still shared with the world games such as Drakenguard, Unlimited Saga and Fullmetal Alchemist.
Come E3 2008, it's the year of original IPs for next generation systems. Square Enix reveals The Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery among the more established franchises. Unfortunately, neither were a screaming success in comparison to Star Ocean IV, also shown in the same year, which became one of the best selling Xbox 360 games in Japan. This trend of less-than-successful original titles begs the question, are they worth showing at a venue like the Electronic Entertainment Expo?
Yoichi Wada announced that Square Enix would be "looking into" the possibility of making Final Fantasy Versus XIII cross-platform, like Final Fantasy XIII, and that is worrying. Yes, Final Fantasy XIII has been treated to the most successful first week of any game in the franchise due to its availability on two consoles (with the PS3 just taking the majority by a few percent), but if you look at how well the game transferred over to work with the Xbox 360, surely the majority of players would have rather played the game on the console it was intended for, so will Square Enix repeat that mistake?
Now the idea of a cross-platform game is not bad inherently – the graphics engine, Crystal Tools, is perfectly capable of running on both platforms, and many cross-platform games work perfectly on both systems, but there are faults. Sometimes the transfers are not satisfactory, leading to one platform suffering, sometimes peripheral-dependent mini-games or gameplay features have to be tweaked or changed (anything that uses the six-axis for example) and sometimes one version of the game suffers from glitches while the other doesn’t. Final Fantasy XIII was subject to two of these.
Continue reading to find out more opinion on this issue.
When Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles first appeared on the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2004 it was very well received. It allowed four people to take part in the action, but they had to play using Game Boy Advances, instead of Gamecube controllers. Despite these heavy requirements, the game still ended up selling well over 1 million units and Square Enix naturally thought they were on to a winner.
This lead to Square Enix making the game into a franchise, which started with a prequel in the form of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates. It appeared on the Nintendo DS, and like its predecessor, it allowed people to join together to play the game, this time using the Wi-Fi capabilities of the DS. However, its sales didn't manage to stack up to the original game, with it selling just over 600,000 units worldwide.
Today is a day of mixed emotions. Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be seeing its Western release on the 9th of March, 2010 (good news), but they also announced that pop sensation Leona Lewis would be lending her song 'My Hands' to the Western version as its theme song (bad news).
Why is this bad news? Well, not only is Final Fantasy XIII the first game that Western gamers won't be able to hear any music composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, but it's also the first time that Square Enix have featured licensed music from an artist in a main Final Fantasy game. Uematsu was originally hired to compose the theme tune for Final Fantasy XIII, but decided to hand off the responsibility to Masashi Hamauzu, who composed the rest of the soundtrack. The result was Kimi Ga Iru Kara, which is unlikely to be present in the Western version.
Dissidia: Final Fantasy has now been out for a few months in the West, but its sales figures are actually quite low in comparison to those from Japan, and even lower when compared to that of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII's.
While this might not seem like a big deal on the surface, it may actually prohibit the release of any kind of sequel, as Square Enix stated that a sequel would be based on its Western sales.
Check out why Dissidia 2 is hanging in the balance inside the full article.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been in Final Fantasy XIII's shadow for quite some time now, as Square Enix have expectedly diverted all their attention towards their biggest asset. People had been hoping to see something new at TGS, but following Square Enix's announcement that Final Fantasy Versus XIII wasn't going to be shown there wasn't any real surprise.
However, there was surprise when reports surfaced that it was actually being shown, and of course Final Fantasy Union had to investigate. It turned out that gameplay footage was being shown in what was essentially their very toned down "Closed Mega Theatre".
Read the full article to find out what exactly was shown, and why Square Enix were wrong to display the footage at this year's Tokyo Game Show.
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