Kingdom Hearts III - Pre-Order Now To Unlock The Magic - January 29, 2019!

[Vaspinne]

It's a web-browser game. And it honestly doesn't look that good. I don't think you're missing much. In fact, here's a video if you don't believe me

[Elizara]

So okay. I got in a convo with one of my fellow member moderators on RPGamer (they just put up a editorial on how KH should improve, btw, go look if you wanna. If people are curious I'll get the link off the update thread for folks, tho it's someone's opinion, not news) and he slipped me this.

Seems KH is kinda fueled by Nomera's emotions, and he's a little bit pissed right now (Guess why!)...among other things. I hope this makes for a good game, since he admitted he had the same kinda passion/anger on the first game.

[Correction]

Rocks fall, everyone dies.

[Elcura]

Anyone familiar with KH's story isn't going to know what to expect. KH1 was only a thing because it was the start of this madness, so I guess expecting Evangelion levels of wtf at the 11th hour should be OK.

[Ayn]

Seems KH is kinda fueled by Nomera's emotions, and he's a little bit pissed right now (Guess why!)...among other things. I hope this makes for a good game, since he admitted he had the same kinda passion/anger on the first game.

Sora and friends realize that the roasted meat they're eating is actually roasted Donald Duck.

[Elizara]

Ha! Tho I don't think it's going to go that way; After all this is going to wrap up the Dark Seeker Saga. But if passion will help get this mess in gear, I'll be glad to see it (and hope I can save up for a PS4 or they put this on PC)

[Qalbert]

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201410/07062806.html#page03
summary via neogaf

In the full interview about KH 2.5 HD Remix, Famitsu asked Nomura for a status update on the development of KH3. Nomura says that development is proceeding as planned based on the schedule, but that they have switched to Unreal Engine 4 for "various reasons". He goes on to say that because of the engine switch they're having some rendering issues at the moment, but that Epic Games is working closely with them to resolve any issues.

[Correction]

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201410/07062806.html#page03
summary via neogaf

Of note, they've had the license for two years. Two years ago is when Tabata replaced Nomura as director of FFXV. Square Enix is going to be remembered as the most incompetently managed AAA developer of the last decade or longer.

[Gokulo]

Wonder why they'd switch from Luminous... Is the engine already being problematic? >.>

[Burningthought]

Wonder why they'd switch from Luminous... Is the engine already being problematic? >.>

There was some rumors on gaf that luminous was dead. According to some of the sources there the luminous engine is being solely repurposed for FFXV.

[Vaspinne]

That just sounds like a big blow to SE. They've been working on Luminous and putting how many resources into it for how long? But on the other hand, if the rumours are true then maybe they consciously decided to stop using it because it was going no where and it was a better decision for the company to go with UE4 or whatever other engines they end up going with from now on.

Could be a big blow to the company or could be a result of all the changes that have been happening over the last couple years. I feel like both are viable outcomes.

[Burningthought]

That just sounds like a big blow to SE. They've been working on Luminous and putting how many resources into it for how long? But on the other hand, if the rumours are true then maybe they consciously decided to stop using it because it was going no where and it was a better decision for the company to go with UE4 or whatever other engines they end up going with from now on.

Could be a big blow to the company or could be a result of all the changes that have been happening over the last couple years. I feel like both are viable outcomes.

The lead software dude also left the company not to long ago. Either way I think that this is a positive thing. It's time for Square-Enix to shake shit up and get back into developing AAA games in a timely manner. FFXIV was a good first step. Hopefully UE4 will mean that they can pump out KHIII a lot faster.

Shit i'd be happy to get two mainstream Final Fantasy games this generation.

[Alkar]

The Luminous team is now part of the FFXV team, they don't have time to help Nomura with KHIII so they made the switch to release the game in time.

[Elizara]

Pretty much. I think it's a blow for SE in a way b/c they pumped so much money into their own engines, and now they've just wasted a ton of money..

On the other paw, it gives me hope that maybe, maybe, MAYBE I'll be able to buy KH3 on Steam if things stay the way they are around here instead of shelling out for a PS4. (I still want one for FF 0 but it'd be nice.) Also I think it means we may see KH3 sooner rather than later..I read up on this, it basically streamlines making games, and often you can't tell a game's using it b/c it's basically THAT versatile. Also from what I read, they're getting very good tech support from Epic(Epic has a JP office now, which they didn't when Square made a certain game with Unreal 3, which I understand made that game a buggy mess. Good thing Epic's got that office, otherwise we'd proly facepalm at KH3 later...); I expect a good game out of this. And sooner rather than later, I hope we can see it by next year by the earliest.

[Kaisha]

To be frank, with KHs style, it needs nothing more than a clean, solid presentation anyways, which old shit like UE3 could have provided adequately already. So throwing UE4 at it should speed up production vs. an inhouse engine they're still poking at for their forever-in-production flagship title.

[Destinye]

Wonder why they'd switch from Luminous... Is the engine already being problematic? >.>

Wouldn't be surprised. Luminous Engine is cool and all but..as seen with XIV's branched version, it's definitely nothing special and more for cinematics than anything, much like the old White Engine/Crystal Tools Engine.

[Sho]

Them switching off from the Luminous Engine isn't surprising at all. The new CEO has been pushing that all projects move away from a heavy emphasis on graphics and more into what made Square-Enix famous in the first place, making decently looking good games, drowned in good story lines.

Luminous Engine is way too far ahead of it's time, unfortunately.

[Elcura]

Honestly, SE has been on the forefront of visual technology (alongside Konami) but so far haven't managed to pull off anything amazing. If they focus on what matters things should sort themselves out. While a nice looking game is awesome, I doubt anyone particularly cares what it looks like as long as it's fun.

Of course, there's always a limit to how shit a game can look (yes, looking at you DS).

[Correction]

Luminous Engine is way too far ahead of it's time, unfortunately.

This is kind of the wrong read on the development of Luminous. Luminous was supposed to be everything Crystal Tools wasn't. It was supposed to drive at least two next-gen games, render output targets for PC, PS4/One, mobile phones, etc and revolutionize their development efficiency. Bolting Luminous sideways onto Versus XIII/XV and then having nothing but cutscenes to show for it in 2012 is glaring evidence that SE cannot build a development kit at the same level of competency as off-the-shelf solutions like Unity (which SE now uses) and Unreal (which SE now finally uses). That's untold years of mud on the face of Square Enix R&D. Luminous was not ahead of its time. Luminous was unusable.

[Sho]

This is kind of the wrong read on the development of Luminous. Luminous was supposed to be everything Crystal Tools wasn't. It was supposed to drive at least two next-gen games, render output targets for PC, PS4/One, mobile phones, etc and revolutionize their development efficiency. Bolting Luminous sideways onto Versus XIII/XV and then having nothing but cutscenes to show for it in 2012 is glaring evidence that SE cannot build a development kit at the same level of competency as off-the-shelf solutions like Unity (which SE now uses) and Unreal (which SE now finally uses). That's untold years of mud on the face of Square Enix R&D. Luminous was not ahead of its time. Luminous was unusable.

This has always been the problem since Crystal Tools. Problem becomes more readily apparent when you realize that they spend more time building these development suites than actual games themselves. Essentially Capcom has been having the exact same problem.

This is more a problem with the upper ranks in corporate SE than the Dev Team -- when Wada had the helm, he pressed for Luminous Studio more and more, especially after Agni's Philosophy was shown. I'm guessing what happened is very huge mismanagement from Wada on down, messing up the actual development on Luminous Studio. Graphics Engines aren't a walk in the park, they have to be planned for production well before the game itself. To this effect, they had been using the Ebony Engine early on for Versus XIII/XV and the YEBIS 2 middleware for post processing effects. Now that Tabata shifted over to the Luminous Engine fully while Nomura split off KH3 to Unreal Engine 4 will speed up production on both games. It also helps the fact that the teams work in Tokyo and Osaka respectively, something that would have greatly hindered KH3 development if both were still on Luminous.

It's not about building a development kit with competency, it's about having enough time to complete it for full robustness (and as few bugs and rendering issues as possible). Matsuda having Nomura and his team swap off KH3 to UE4 was a very good plan, it allows them to finish KH3 in a much faster time while giving Tabata & the Luminous Studio team enough time to work out rendering problems within the engine itself while they continue to develop XV. Luminous Studio in effect can be rolled into a newer engine (as it's mostly just a graphics suite) and rolled out for future games post 2016.

Luminous being unusable doesn't mean it's not ahead of it's time.