FFXII is going to suck

[Xavier]

Yasumi Matsuno Steps Down as FFXII Producer
08.01.05 - 3:15 PM

Square Enix has announced that Yasumi Matsuno has stepped down as the producer of Final Fantasy XII due to health issues. Today's Square Enix statement revealed that Matsuno has been ill for some time, but he will stay on the project as a supervisor. SaGa series director Akitoshi Kawazu will replace Matsuno on the FFXII staff.

"Final Fantasy XII's development producer Yasumi Matsuno has left his position to recover from his illness, and he is currently working as a supervisor [on the game]. His roles in the project are being passed on to the section leaders, and our development staff is working hard on its production. The game is just one step away from completion, so please look forward to it. We are confident that we will deliver a Final Fantasy beyond everybody's imagination on March 16," read the Square Enix statement.

Matsuno also had a personal statement, saying, "To all the fans that have been waiting for the release of Final Fantasy XII, I'm sorry that its development has been taking an extremely long time. I unfortunately will have to take a step away from the production scene, but the game is progressing in its development under the hands of excellent staffs, including Minagawa, Ito, and Akiyama."

Final Fantasy XII is set to release in Japan on March 16, 2006. A US release is expected later that year.

Game has taken forever to make, the current director has stepped down, the director of the Saga series (imo horrible games) has taken his place, and the battlesystem sounds really gay. Thoughts?

Also;

It is also reported that a small part of the FFXII team has left the company for Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mist Walker.

Final Fantasy dies w/ 10

[Liltwin]

SaGas series was really gay...... hope it doesn't turn out like SaGas

[Nekaka]

Final Fantasy did indeed die when 10 came out... it hurt a part of me inside thats how I knew. Hopefully they will have some amazing comeback!

[Pali]

FF died with 6...

[Daahan]

I thought that the people who were making FF12 were the same ones who designed Vagrant Story, which happened to be a pretty good game.

[Marcatil]

SaGa was just hard, then again I never played the first one, just the second. I didn't mind it, was all right, but I won't say it was stellar. Sometimes the game itself was so fucking picky on when it wanted you to learn certain weapon/magic abilities it was irritating (ie. Time and Tide, and that aoe sword one).

Also, the fact you couldn't fucking move around to different/old areas freely was annoying. I wanted to go back to the first ruins Wil fought at and tear up shit with Heaven's Thunder and that extremely vicious hybrid art on the spear (99dmg rating?); I can't remember the names anymore ~.~

On a final note...that endboss was fucking STUPID. O M F G how much HP did they give that fucking thing? O.O Even if you kill as many of the elemental deities as you can in the last area it still takes forever to take it to the 2nd form >.>

[Pete]

I hope they put the free roaming world map back...

I cried when I never got that in 10...just some stupid co-ordinates...

lol

[Elcura]

Least they still have KH2... I don't give a fuck what happens after that.

Personally, FF died at X.

[DeliriumII]

FF died with 6...

FF7 came out and I was disgusted, FF8 came out and I wanted to smash my head in, FF9 gave me hope, FF10 dashed that hope, FFX-2 made me want to play FF8.

FFXI has no relation to the series except in name

[rahskala]

/sigh. On the bright side, reading the release a little more closely, it looks like most of his duties were passed on to his subordinates. I doubt there's a whole lot one man could do to drastically change the game at this stage of development anyway.

At least Hitoshi Sakimoto is still doing the music. <3 Vagrant Story/FF Tactics/Ogre Battle soundtracks.

[macbain24]

What`s so bad about FFX? All the fights are to easy but the storyline isn`t THAT bad, i`ve seen much worse. X-2 is crap though.

[Veritas]

gay

i liked 7 8 and 9 actually, so i dont think it died after 6. ff10 can die tho

[Almaa]

gay

i liked 7 8 and 9 actually, so i dont think it died after 6. ff10 can die tho

agree

[Xavier]

Me too. The majority of people who bash FF7 do so to be different because its become the cool thing to do, but as Wikipedia will tell you;

Final Fantasy VII is the first Final Fantasy title to utilize 3D computer graphics, with fully rendered characters and prerendered backgrounds. The game was a success, both critically and commercially: it received rave reviews from most video game magazines, and by 1999 the game had sold more than eight million copies worldwide. It became inextricably linked with the console it was released on, leading a journalist to call it "the game that sold the PlayStation." It was one of the first console role-playing games to achieve widespread popularity outside of Asia.

Seems people disagree that FF died with 6.

[Almaa]

I actually bought a Playstation after I saw a commercial on MTV for FF7, true story.

[Elcura]

FFVII was my first FF game, and arguable my first RPG that I remember playing.

Good times man, good times.

[Xavier]

I think it was the "they said it couldn't be done, but they were wrong" commercial that got me excited about FF7, which had some FF7 FMVs playing to one of midgars theme songs. Pretty foggy in my memory, but it was a good one.

[rahskala]

FF7 was responsible for reviving the CRPG in North America because of its mass-market appeal (AKA FMV and other eye candy getting people to buy it, then finding out they actually liked the game). The people for whom FF7 was their gateway game tend to love the game. I thought it was pretty good, but not as good as FF6 was. (Probably because FF6 was my gateway game: I played the hell out of it and loved every second)

I think Square tried to take things to an extreme in FF8. I personally hated that game: It felt like they focused too heavily on the eye candy and not on what made an FF game truly great: the story and characters, which were the weakest parts of the game. The story was full of holes (OMFG THE GUARDIAN FORCES MADE US FORGET! LOL!) and the characters were irritating and showed almost no development (Everybody was pretty much exactly the same at the end as they were at the beginning). Those summons were damn sweet though.

FF9 was total fluff. It righted FF8's wrongs, but there were far too many tacked-on elements and gimmicks from the previous 8 games for me to really feel like I was playing anything new. Why live in the past?

And yeah, I thought FFX was great. It had a great story with a nice father-son theme, good music, slick and enjoyable battle system, and voice acting that wasn't that bad if you compare it to some of the shit other games try to pass off as 'acting'. Even if Tidus did sound like a dork.

Somewhere around this time, Square realized it could cash in by digging up the corpses of its older games and remaking them. FFX-2 resulted from this line of thinking. I haven't played the game and I never will: I enjoyed FFX on its own and I don't want to ruin it for myself, thanks very much.

FF12 will be way different than the other FF games in the series. This isn't a big deal to me. Better they try to create something new and fail, rather than push out another rehash like FF9. (Not that FF9 was bad, but it was still uninspired)

Edit to add: Besides, we're all going to buy it anyway, just like we all keep paying Square $14.95+($1*N)/month despite their screwups.

[Zaris]

I was totally oblivious to the FF series until my friend back in 10th grade was preaching FF9 in front of me. FF9 was my first FF and remains a huge favorite for me. Then I worked my way back to FF8 and personally I liked the graphics tremendously. I was sorta turned off when I moved to FF7 when the characters had shoeboxes for feet.

We live in a gaming society where realism seems to define the overall value of the game. It's interesting to see games get better and better graphics wise, and FF is no different. Yet at the same time, there's a cost to these games look so good. Beit the free-roaming map, the storyline, likable characters, you name it. Just once, I'd like to see a successful PSII Final Fantasy game sell before PSIII comes out.

FFX? Played it, never finished it since I never owned a PSII. Some people will say it was successful, but there's enough criticism about it to make it not so. Just my two cents.

[layoneil]

i agree almostly completely with rahskala, except the bit about not playing X-2 and i go farther back than FF6.

FFX
FF2/4
FF3/6
FF7
FF9
FF8

Matsuno made a lot of my favorite games, this is depressing.