Final Fantasy XIII-2 Teaser

[Gabriel]

Last night I discovered a trailer for Final Fantasy XIII-2. This discovery was quite by accident, and I found myself downloading it.

 

However, this download wasn't made with the same enthusiasm I may check out a trailer for any of a number of other RPGs. Instead of interest in the game it was more a form of rubbernecking curiousity. Considering how bad FF13 squandered it's story elements, I didn't see any reason to do a sequel. It was uniquely pointless, and I wanted to see exactly how they were going to try and get anyone interested in a new game.

 

Think about this. I posted several times DEFENDING FF13. I played that vapid mess to completion. Surely, if the sequel is targeted at anyone, it's targeted at someone like me who played the original game despite it's severe flaws. This trailer has to have something in it which I'd find interesting, right?

 

75% of the trailer consists of footage from the ending of FF13. Yawn. Really? They're trying to wow me by reminding me that the game ended with a kind of sputter? Then it moves to a tiny bit of new footage. It shows Lightning in some partial armor with feathers on her ass. It's not sexy. It's not badass. It's just stupid looking. It's as if she couldn't decide whether to wear the armor that was too big for her or the Vegas showgirl outfit, so combined them both with disastrous effect. She pops her switchblade/gunblade open and gets in a duel pose with some guy who wasn't in the original game and which I've never seen before. This new character appears for a brief moment of the trailer, and then it's all done.

 

This is how they decide to showcase their upcoming game and build hype. Really? THIS?

 

Of all the characters in all the Final Fantasy games, I really can't think of any character WORSE to make a sequel story about than Lightning. Lightning had very little personality. What little story material she had was exhausted in the original game. She's done. There's not anything more of significance to tell about her. Umaru (the Sasquatch) from FF6 has more story potential and unresolved threads than Lightning.

 

Then there's the enemy. Is his appearrance supposed to impress? Who the heck is this guy? The trailer makers obviously thought it would be dramatic to show him, but it's only dramatic if he's a recognizable character. Had the trailer featured Lightning in a battle with Golbez, Kefka, Sephiroth, or even Genesis then that would have been something interesting. It would have implied a crossover and a returning character with some kind of meaning.

 

As it is, they might as well call this game Final Fantasy XIII-2: Lightning and some random dude. I seriously can't think of anything more pointless and dull. I'm more excited by trailers for Idea Factory games full of crossover characters I don't recognize. I may not know who they are, but I know they at least came from SOMEWHERE and have some kind of story behind them.

 

And it may be ironic that I spent all these words ranting about something I'm saying I didn't have any interest in. What I'm trying to get across is how spectacularly I felt the trailer failed. I'm just bewildered how badly Square-Enix seems intent on flubbing things. This is a new level of pure fail.

[cimerians]

After reading your post you have to agree with this guys post:

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-officially-burnt-out-192700.phtml

 

I agree. Its burnt out completely. I'll be busy playing the new Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age.

[MagitekAngel]

Turns out all the major Japanese developers are banding their remaining ideas together and the game is undergoing a name change to:

 

XenoTales of Final Phantasy Star Ocean Online Quest XTreme Beach Volleyball: Episode XXVIII-2: The Game: The Movie: The Game

 

It's going to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and the Sega-CD, and will be a 48 disc game on the former. Your party will include such characters as Roxas, Goku, and Ken Kutagari. The final boss is God, assuming the form of Franz Kafka. Also a tie-in energy drink, board game, 6-hour CGI film, and line of urinal cakes is forthcoming.

 

RESERVE YOURS NOW GOD DAMN YOU

Edited February 10, 2011 by MagitekAngel

[cimerians]

Turns out all the major Japanese developers are banding their remaining ideas together and the game is undergoing a name change to:

 

XenoTales of Final Phantasy Star Ocean Online Quest XTreme Beach Volleyball: Episode XXVIII-2: The Game: The Movie: The Game

 

It's going to be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and the Sega-CD, and will be a 48 disc game on the former. Your party will include such characters as Roxas, Goku, and Ken Kutagari. The final boss is God, assuming the form of Franz Kafka. Also a tie-in energy drink, board game, 6-hour CGI film, and line of urinal cakes is forthcoming.

 

RESERVE YOURS NOW GOD DAMN YOU

 

 

[Gabriel]

After reading your post you have to agree with this guys post:

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-officially-burnt-out-192700.phtml

 

I agree. Its burnt out completely. I'll be busy playing the new Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age.

 

I don't entirely agree with that article.

 

A key point I don't agree with is the mention of FF13 Agito or whatever it is. The teaser trailer for that (back two years ago) was neat. True, it was some character no one outside the developers knew, but that character was doing things. There was storytelling in the trailer and some conflict. That prompts questions. Who is this guy? Why is he so powerful? Why are these other people after him? These are things which build curiousity and interest. These things hint of a story. The trailer for 13-2 does no such thing. It just displays a character whose story arc was concluded before the last act of her game and some random dude. There are characters you could do that with and emit squees of glee, but Armored Vegas Showgirl Lightning and a Generic Bishonen Dude are not among them.

 

Most of the other complaints in the article seemed to me like searching for anything to complain about. You can't seriously complain about modern FF games looking samey and then praise the bland cookie cutter looks of WRPGs in the same paragraph. Likewise, the complaint about the made up words and misused latin and greek are equally pointless. It's like complaining about the title "Ultima." It makes the whole article seem to me like yet another example in a long string of attempting to bash JRPGs because that's k3wl now, and seriously damages the legitimate points it attempts to make.

 

However, I do agree that Square has become a soulless machine and that they've "lost the plot." Their marketing department is almost certainly squashing any attempts at interesting storytelling because it might get in the way of action figure sales. The only reason I played FF13 all the way through was because there were peeks at and hints of a grand story about the nature of god and man combined with questions about destiny and free will. Those are great thematic hooks for a story. Every once in a few hours, there would be a great scene like Sazh's threatened suicide which were microcosms of those themes. It was clear the authors of the story WANTED to tell that kind of story. It was equally clear that someone had forced a rewrite of the story to sanitize it, thereby ripping out all tension and anything which made the story worth telling.

 

It was like Akira or Barefoot Gen had been cut, spliced, and redubbed into a Fox Kids show. It would be like Michael Bay remaking Blade Runner.

[cimerians]

After reading your post you have to agree with this guys post:

http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-officially-burnt-out-192700.phtml

 

I agree. Its burnt out completely. I'll be busy playing the new Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age.

 

You can't seriously complain about modern FF games looking samey and then praise the bland cookie cutter looks of WRPGs in the same paragraph.

 

 

Let me understand what your saying. WRPG's are bland? They are also cookie cutter?

What does that mean? Which ones are bland and full of cookies? Are we talking current games like Mass Effect, Oblivion and Dragon Age?

 

I of course dont agree with that, not in the least. JRPG's as much as I love them dont even come close to the storytelling of say...Dragon Age...or the open world and almost endless gaming of Oblivion. That again is how I feel at the moment.

 

Both genre's are pretty different so I know how people can dislike one or the other.

 

What do you want then? What do you look for in Final Fantasy? Apparently western RPG's are a joke and now Final Fantasy is a joke, so whats good?

[Gabriel]

Let me understand what your saying. WRPG's are bland? They are also cookie cutter?

What does that mean? Which ones are bland and full of cookies? Are we talking current games like Mass Effect, Oblivion and Dragon Age?

 

I perceive the typical fantasy WRPG as taking a very stereotyped and cookie cutter generic "realistic" ideal of a medieval setting and incongruently dropping magic and critters into it. My view of most WRPG setting design versus something like Final Fantasy is something akin to comparing the look of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys to the Lord of the Rings films. The Hercules look is just something slapped together because it is what is expected. The Lord of the Rings look is something consciously designed to fit a specific aesthetic.

 

Using Oblivion and Dragon Age as well as Final Fantasy XIII as specific examples, I find the design work of the visuals more creative in Final Fantasy. I also doubt that I could tell Oblivion or Dragon Age settings apart beyond noting the perspective of the gameplay (I think Dragon Age is third person while Oblivion is a FPS). These are problems with most games on the market today, only the devoted can tell them apart. Is the Final Fantasy aesthetic overused? Possibly, but so is the generic medieval look.

 

Or maybe I'm just full of shit. Still, I definitely perfer the look of something like Final Fantasy XIII to something like Oblivion.

 

 

I of course dont agree with that, not in the least. JRPG's as much as I love them dont even come close to the storytelling of say...Dragon Age...or the open world and almost endless gaming of Oblivion. That again is how I feel at the moment.

 

Both genre's are pretty different so I know how people can dislike one or the other.

 

I found the storytelling of what I played of Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Oblivion to be extremely dull and uninteresting. I dislike the fetishistic fascination of popping up a meaningless decision tree every few minutes, in order to lead a player down a suboptimal story path.

 

Honestly, I have issues with JRPG storylines myself. Most of them are batshit and poorly told. They seem to have lost the arts of brevity and keeping the plot moving. However, I do find the characters much more likeable in JRPGS, even if they're easily excitable and neurotic (just like me, I guess). Come to think of it, I don't ever hear stories about WRPG characters, but JRPG characters always seem to make an impression. Maybe that's just because I'm not in the WRPG orbit, but it does seem to me that characters (particularly eccentric and memorable ones) are a strength of JRPGs that WRPGs just don't match.

 

As for my thoughts on linear versus sandbox styles, there's a difference between an open world and meaningless meandering. Ultima IV had an open world. My opinion is that Oblivion just has a big, pointless empty space. I'm not big on other sandbox style games either, so my attitude here isn't surprising.

 

Nope. I don't like the style of WRPGs. I don't like the way they look. I don't like the way they play. I don't find their mechanics interesting. I don't like their "stories." I don't like the philosophy behind their design. That's why I abandoned them in the early 90s when they started morphing into their current mold, and nothing has changed since.

 

That said, there's enough room for all of us. You like them. I hope you get as many of them as you desire. I hope you enjoy each and every one of them. I hope they keep making them. By the same token, I want publishers to continue making good JRPGs.

 

 

What do you want then? What do you look for in Final Fantasy? Apparently western RPG's are a joke and now Final Fantasy is a joke, so whats good?

 

I think I've said quite a few things I enjoy over time. In terms of high budget JRPGs, I want Valkyria Chronicles, Resonance of Fate, and Eternal Sonata. I want things with creative and truly fantastic worlds. I want gameplay that's interesting. I'd like a story which at least makes me interested in the characters even if I don't care about the overall plot.

 

I liked Sacred 2. It's wholeheartedly western in style. What I liked about it was the world seemed fantastic. It had that feel of the old computer games where your character might just as easily use a phazor for his weapon as a sword. It didn't take itself too seriously, and it realized it's only true merit was getting together with friends and being Gauntlet-like. (It got old though, because the gameplay was non-existent) I like The Dark Spire on the DS. That is old school western RPGing right there.

 

In fact, I'd be fine with Final Fantasy if they would just tell the stories they were trying to tell, and go back to having decent game mechanics instead of this brain dead button mashing crap. The problem isn't that the look and style is lacking or even overused. The problem is that there is no substance behind any of it. The problem is not with Lightning standing there with the random guy. The problem is not the high-tech/mystical hybrid. I doubt it's even the linearity. The problem is that there is nothing behind any of it. The combat system consists of hitting the button for the computer to select your action for you. The storyline consists of nothing happening. The characters don't do anything meaningful. This is what Square needs to fix.

[cimerians]

heheh

 

I completely disagree with you on modern western RPG's. I wont argue cause we have different tastes but I'll say this: JRPG's on modern systems are a completely different beast, in some cases they are way behind on the times. I love traditional turn based RPG's and wierd inventive JRPG's (just look at my posts) so I cant really sit here and bash JRPG's cause I do love them. I also love western RPGS cause thats what I grew up with. I played old D&D....I played all the old Ultima's. All the SSI games. (Planescape, Baldurs Gate, Fallout) and was mainly a computer RPG gamer from 1984-1997. In fact I hated JRPG's until I got Final Fantasy VII in 1997.

 

I never saw the cute appeal until a friend in college back then who loved Japanese anime and JRPG's forced me onto them (FF7) and then I finally appreciated them so I have him to thank. Needless to say I missed out on some classics like Secret of Mana...the early Final Fantasies etc.

 

Anyway. I love Dragon Age (and yes the characters have meaning). It's currently my favorite RPG. (From east and west) and I am very much looking forward to the sequel and to the next Elder Scrolls game. Nothing else in my opinion comes close.

 

I'm also very hopeful Final Fantasy can make a comeback someday but I doubt it. On Final Fantasy I completely agree with you except that I AM tired of the same old cyber look and pretty people in a lifeless world...with cookie cutter monsters and bosses thrown in. The stories are vague and dont really have any substance either. In fact after playing FF13 I had no idea what was happening and I just kind of enjoyed the graphics until I moved on to Fallout.

 

Oh well.

 

Modern console JRPG's I have enjoyed this gen?

 

Blue Dragon (never finished)

Lost Odyssey

Eternal Sonata (finished twice on 360 and now playing a 3rd time on the PS3 version)

*Demon Souls (japanese western style RPG so this doesnt count)

Tales of Symphonia (annoying whiny kid but fun game on the Wii)

 

Games I didnt like as much:

Cross Edge (cool but too complicated for me to get into)

FF13 (it just sucks)

 

I still have Star Ocean on the PS3 to play and Tales of Vesperia on the 360.

 

I love them but none of them had the impact that Oblivion, Mass Effect or Dragon Age had on me.

[davepesc]

I liked FF XIII enough to have spent 80+ hours of my life grinding out achievements. Maybe I'll 1,000 that thing someday. It wasn't the best JRPG I ever played, but I found the characters interesting and their interaction (at times) compelling.

 

Sure, they dropped the ball on major parts of the story (I guess everyone on Pulse just died??). But I'll be buying 13-2.

[Mord]

Considering how bad FF13 squandered it's story elements, I didn't see any reason to do a sequel.

 

At this point I find myself thinking they're doing these sequels whenever they launch/relaunch their online game. Final Fantasy XI was online, so they did a Final Fantasy X-2 then skipped over to XII. Final Fantasy XIV is online, so they're doing Final Fantasy XIII-2. After this they'll likely skip over to XV. Silly explanation for it but one that now fits a pattern!

[TheGameCollector]

Konami should really get back into their RPG series more seriously, especially Suikoden and Vandal-Hearts. All the Suikoden games had stories well told and Vandal-Hearts: Flames of Judgement could have been much much better if it was longer and released on a full sized game disc. They are one of the few companies who could make stories that kept you wondering what would happen next, bring out moments of excitement and make you care about what happens to particular characters by offering choices.

Edited February 23, 2011 by TheGameCollector

[Cobra Commander]

I always thought it was funny that they made more that one FINAL(synonymous with last, last I checked)Fantasy. Maybe if they had used adjectives like "FF apocalypse" or "FF continuation" instead numbers.