When I see this sort of feeling expressed, it bothers me in the same way complaining that a game isn't a Final Fantasy game because it is online or it lacks the "Final Fantasy Feeling". The biggest reason I got into the Final Fantasy games was because they took their previous games and weren't afraid to make changes. You can look through the series and say "it isn't an action-style game, it is a turn-based game!" which isn't untrue, but I think that people, at times, ignore the actual differences between turn-based and action games simply to argue semantics.
Why can't a main numbered Final Fantasy game be an action-style game? Each iteration of the battle system is different from the last. Since the beginning until now, they have been making the system faster. Either giving you more to do (buttons to press!), requiring that you react to enemies even when it isn't your "turn", or decreasing the wait between actions. When you decrease the wait time between actions enough, people will start saying it isn't turn-based and is instead an action game. When does that switch happen? What if the amount of actions you can perform are still, in a way, time-limited? Is that a turn-based or action game?
To me, it felt fairly obvious that the logical progression of the battle system in the game was heading towards what they've shown with Lightning Returns. Some people immediately complained that it was an action game while others complained that it was turn-based. One because the time between actions wasn't a forced time and the other because the number of possible actions was limited by time.
Before the announcement of that game, my prediction for Final Fantasy XV's battle system would've been a similar evolution. If SquareEnix is paying any attention to what they've done in the past, what people have liked, and what people have disliked, a quick overview of what I think the eventual "Final Fantasy" battle system would be looks something like this:
- The player has full control over the movement of their character.
- Positioning on the battlefield matters. Targeted, AoE, and Targeted AoE attacks.
- The player has control over a single character, but is able to switch between characters freely.
- A "Gambit" system exists for controlling characters in the player's party that are not currently selectable.
- Menu-based actions are replaced with "shortcut" based actions. A play is able to map a command to a specific button/button combination.
- Combat results are stat-based (HP, MP, STR, VIT, etc), but accuracy is not (no more swinging your sword at a giant rock and missing).
- Actions can be performed one after the other.
- The number of actions that can be performed is based on a character stat (AP).
- The time it takes for AP to regenerate is based on a character stat (Speed).
Since the announcement of Lightning Returns and the rumors about Versus and XV, I'm really not sure. Everything about Versus that was interesting was how it was technically different than everything that was done with Final Fantasy XIII: the character-unique abilities, battle system, setting, and world map. Some of the rumors have them scrapping this and turning it into a more "traditional" Final Fantasy game, which (in my eyes) ruins all the anticipation I had for the game. They took a pounding because of FFXIII and I fear that it may cause them to go backwards (too much) and they're going to get torn up over XV too (especially if it ends up being Versus rebranded, without the pieces of Versus that made everyone interested in it).
I have no issues with it becoming faster or having more control in the battlefield... I have an issue with an FF system turning into a button mashing contest like KH2 was (and I loved KH2, and it's a different genre for me in terms of its gameplay style.)
Lightning Returns is basically going to be a revamped version of the 13-2 gameplay, except you only control Lightning and you can move her around on the battlefield, which is fine by me. If you saw the early work of versus, however, you see that it's practically a more seriously-toned version of KH... which again is fine, but I don't necessarily think it's the direction a main entry in the series should take.
Just my opinion though, we don't have to agree on it haha that's why there's a discussion.
I see this position quite often when people are comparing Kingdom Hearts to Final Fantasy games and I'm not sure I understand it. The biggest problem I have is that it asserts that Kingdom Hearts is a "button mashing content" while Final Fantasy games are not. From my experience with Final Fantasy titles over the years, the only difference between the two is the speed at which you're button mashing. Nearly every battle against fodder in Final Fantasy is press confirm to win. They don't require strategy or thinking, just mashing confirm (and, if the enemy lives long enough, maybe tossing a heal). This is (in my eyes) identical to "random encounters" in Kingdom Hearts, except Kingdom Hearts is faster. Boss battles in both games are also similar. In Final Fantasy, mashing confirm and healing is often enough to get through (depending on your level and equipment). If it isn't, you buff up and press confirm and heal, rebuff when needed. Do the same for Kingdom Hearts and you'll win (2 was certainly easier than 1, with 1 requiring more...effort in certain boss battles).
I don't see where the divide is. From my perspective, the only thing that keeps a Final Fantasy game from being a button mashing contest is enemies taking turns and waiting for you to make your move (that is, you're not trying to push buttons faster than the enemy "pushes buttons", but rather trying to push buttons as fast as possible to get out of the ninth random battle in fifteen steps). Perhaps you can clarify what you see the difference as and why one is better than the other for Final Fantasy?
Re: Lighting Returns: From the gameplay that we've seen so far, it is an evolution of the gameplay that we saw in Final Fantasy XII-2. The footage we've been given shows that actions are mapped to buttons (Square for this, Cross for that), Lightning is moved around the map using the left analog stick, the player has the ability to dodge, and actions are limited by an AP gauge that fills up over time. If you take the Kingdom Hearts 2 system and add an AP cost for each action, you've got...a system very similar to the one that we're looking at for Lightning Returns.
When you take the above and look at the little gameplay footage from Versus that we saw, the combat system is very similar to Kingdom Hearts, which itself is not dissimilar from what we've seen in Lightning Returns. From what you've said, it sounds like you don't have a problem with the systems themselves, but think they're the wrong direction for a main entry in the Final Fantasy series to take (I also don't understand why the numbered entries should be restricted in ways the continuations and non-numbered entries are not)? To me, it seems like an evolution of the Final Fantasy XIII system would look something like Lightning Returns (which is not a radical departure from what Versus appeared to be) and I don't understand why that sort of evolution should be disallowed in the main entries.
Nomura shat out a nugget of info today:
Sauce: http://www.novacrystallis.com/2013/0...very-delicate/Originally Posted by Nova Crystallis
That's got to be at least the 9th time Nomura personally has asked fans to "wait a while longer.' lol
Yeah but this is 99% a PS4 title, so there is not much else he could say until the PS4 was officially announced and SE gave him the go ahead
There must be so many zippers since this thing is going to be a PS4 title.
Now imagining a rubber band ball, but instead of rubber bands, it's zippers.
Zippers galore on PS4!
Fuck you Nomura... that asshole could've made 3 other major KH titles by now if he hadn't been so stuck on this stupid project.
And at least 7 spin offs.
quit fuckin bumping this thread unless you got Nomura hostage and gonna torture answers out of him and show us via live stream
Rumor: V-13 Coming to PS3 & PS4http://gematsu.com/2013/04/rumor-fin...ing-to-ps3-ps4Final Fantasy Versus XIII, oft-rumored to have made the jump from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4 (and with a Final Fantasy XV name change, at that), will be available on both platforms, according to a Gameblog.fr source “close to Square Enix.”
According to the site, the shift occurred in 2011, and Sony assisted with the money aspect of the PlayStation 4 port, which echoes a previous rumor.
“Our source confirmed that Sony reportedly helped the transition, financially, with the PS4 port,” said the site. “The price for such exclusivity? Difficult to judge.”
Versus XIII director Tetsuya Nomura recently said the date to reveal new information on the game has been set. It was last shown in January 2011.
Square Enix will discuss the game at this year’s E3, according to the rumor, where the publisher has already said it will unveil a new Final Fantasy for PlayStation 4.
http://www.gameblog.fr/news/35171-fi...sur-ps4-et-ps3
http://gematsu.com/2013/03/rumor-fin...v-moved-to-ps4
http://gematsu.com/2013/04/nomura-in...xiii-lift-soon
http://gematsu.com/2011/01/final-fan...lers-out-in-hd
http://gematsu.com/2013/02/new-final...-playstation-4
Inb4 "I won't play this game on an inferior system!"
This is quickly becoming the GT5 of FF.
didn't FF13 got into the development hell that forced the development team to make it into a ps3 game?