New Director for FINAL FANTASY XI (09/01/2010)

**Murdock** · 2010-09-01 10:53

Originally Posted by SephYuyX

CC was better than CT.

blasphemy!

**Hyan** · 2010-09-01 11:03

I hated CT's DBZ art style.

Loved the game otherwise tho.

**Greyman** · 2010-09-01 11:11

Originally Posted by Xanthe

Hiromichi Tanaka aka the producer of FFXIV and many other games.

Actually Tanaka was the producer not the director, Kouichi Ogawa was his predecessor only real source I could find for this was: http://petfoodalpha.com/2010/06/spec...-koichi-ogawa/

**Hyan** · 2010-09-01 11:28

No article of him on wikipedia, the guy's a nobody D:

**Malacite** · 2010-09-01 11:37

o.O I didn't know Tanakan san was involved in Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3 O.O

I wuv those games

**Therin** · 2010-09-01 11:38

This guy has a massively impressive history. FFIV and V for me were two extremely impressive games in regards to their battle system (which is what Matsui worked on) and CT, in my opinion, is the best RPG ever made (and most agree that it is at least top 10). Saga Frontier and Legend of Mana, while more niche, were also amazing in my opinion, and I still say Saga Frontier had one of the best battle systems in RPG history (the character and skill growth system was fantastic).

Obviously he won't be able to put much of his own spin on XI, but I'm hoping that at least we can see some interesting new battles and tidbits in the near future (let's start with weaponskills that don't suck, kthnx).

**Cantih** · 2010-09-01 11:47

Designer for Legend of Mana?
Fuck yeah.

**Gwynplaine** · 2010-09-01 12:00

Well the last 3 years have been shit so it can't really hurt.

Originally Posted by Hyan

No article of him on wikipedia, the guy's a nobody D:

Look harder cretin.

**Aerides** · 2010-09-01 13:11

"Dear Users"

How about "Community", or Adventurers, or something less generic.... not the most inspiring opening.

**Kononeko** · 2010-09-01 13:51

Originally Posted by Aerides

"Dear Users"

How about "Community", or Adventurers, or something less generic.... not the most inspiring opening.

First off hey Aerides, long time no see. Second, well at least he calls a spade, a spade.

**Tobatobu** · 2010-09-01 14:13

I found this site, that lists another director, maybe there are multiple directors depending on expansion?
Koichi-Ishii

http://squarehaven.com/people/Koichi-Ishii/
Children of Mana (credits) nds 30 Oct 2006 Producer
Dawn of Mana (credits) ps2 22 May 2007 Producer
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (credits) nds 03 Apr 2007 Senior Chocobo Wrangler
Final Fantasy XI (credits) ps2 23 Mar 2004 Director
Friends of Mana (credits) mobile 12 Oct 2006 Producer
Heroes of Mana (credits) nds 14 Aug 2007 Producer
Legend of Mana (credits) ps 07 June 2000 Director
Secret of Mana (credits) snes Oct 1993 Director
Seiken Densetsu 3 (credits) snes 30 Sep 1995 Director
w/ Hiromichi Tanaka
Sword of Mana (credits) gb 02 Dec 2003 Producer

I'm not certain of the accuracy.
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/s...loperId,41634/ Doesn't list XI as one of his products, but just may not be entirely accurate.

Perhaps Kouichi Ogawa was only a director for the expansions?
Kouichi is a common name in Japan so perhaps someone can watch through the credits in game...

**Baleoce** · 2010-09-01 14:26

This I feel *could* be quite good news. We were all somewhat worried that XI might just take a backseat once XIV came out, but now they have made the decision to basically hand the game over to someone who has worked with it since it started, a personal project for them, and one that hopefully they will be passionate about. This hopefully is much better than just letting it casually rot away after XIV's release. It will be interesting to see what is in store now. Having worked on Chrono Trigger SaGa Frontier, Legend of Mana and previous FF games, he knows his shit xD And is particularly adept at battle designing. Kouichi Ogawa hasn't impressed me much in the direction he has taken FF11. ToAU to be fair to him was good, and sufficiently new content and endgame concepts to warrant it a "success", but everything since then, WotG and all these mini add-ons have been gradually more and more disappointing.

There is two ways it can play out now. Either carry on as it is currently, leeching us for every single penny we have in small and somewhat lackluster "mini expansions" and updates. Or have a genuinely new injection of life. The optimistic side of me wishes for this to be the case, that they have finally accepted that they cannot concentrate on both projects fully anymore and it is better to have a clean separation of the development teams. The pessimistic side of me thinks that SE is trying to glorify and basically attempt to make downsizing sound positive. I guess only time will tell.

(PS - That Titanic analogy was pretty win xD)

**Snick** · 2010-09-01 14:38

Quite a slow news day.

The only thing more boring than this, is people discussing it like it means anything.

**Greyman** · 2010-09-01 15:27

Originally Posted by Tobatobu

I found this site, that lists another director, maybe there are multiple directors depending on expansion?
Koichi-Ishii

http://squarehaven.com/people/Koichi-Ishii/
Children of Mana (credits) nds 30 Oct 2006 Producer
Dawn of Mana (credits) ps2 22 May 2007 Producer
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (credits) nds 03 Apr 2007 Senior Chocobo Wrangler
Final Fantasy XI (credits) ps2 23 Mar 2004 Director
Friends of Mana (credits) mobile 12 Oct 2006 Producer
Heroes of Mana (credits) nds 14 Aug 2007 Producer
Legend of Mana (credits) ps 07 June 2000 Director
Secret of Mana (credits) snes Oct 1993 Director
Seiken Densetsu 3 (credits) snes 30 Sep 1995 Director
w/ Hiromichi Tanaka
Sword of Mana (credits) gb 02 Dec 2003 Producer

I'm not certain of the accuracy.
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/s...loperId,41634/ Doesn't list XI as one of his products, but just may not be entirely accurate.

Perhaps Kouichi Ogawa was only a director for the expansions?
Kouichi is a common name in Japan so perhaps someone can watch through the credits in game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koichi_Ishii
http://petfoodalpha.com/2008/10/inte...-cop-and-toau/

Based on the above I figure Koichi Ishii was director up until the point he left Square (Main Game + RoZ), Nobuaki Komoto was then director for CoP and lastly Koichi Ogawa from ToA until the present day.

Besides Koichi Ishii, I've honestly no clue as to the change between CoP and Koichi Ogawa but Nobuaki Komoto is the director for XIV so that may be a small clue.

**Charismatic** · 2010-09-01 15:49

Originally Posted by SephYuyX

CC was better than CT.

Truth.

**Dooom** · 2010-09-01 16:41

Originally Posted by Aerides

"Dear Users"

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/no...-573408488.jpg

All that came to mind!

**Hyan** · 2010-09-01 16:46

Originally Posted by Baleoce

This I feel *could* be quite good news. We were all somewhat worried that XI might just take a backseat once XIV came out, but now they have made the decision to basically hand the game over to someone who has worked with it since it started, a personal project for them, and one that hopefully they will be passionate about. This hopefully is much better than just letting it casually rot away after XIV's release. It will be interesting to see what is in store now. Having worked on Chrono Trigger SaGa Frontier, Legend of Mana and previous FF games, he knows his shit xD And is particularly adept at battle designing. Kouichi Ogawa hasn't impressed me much in the direction he has taken FF11. ToAU to be fair to him was good, and sufficiently new content and endgame concepts to warrant it a "success", but everything since then, WotG and all these mini add-ons have been gradually more and more disappointing. )

Of course he will do a good job, but it all depends on how much resources he has in his disposal.

**Snprphnx** · 2010-09-01 17:13

Maybe this is the guy that gave us the great system that is abyssea. If so, maybe bright things ahead.

**evilpaul** · 2010-09-01 19:53

Originally Posted by Murdock

blatant troll bait!

ftfy

Originally Posted by Cantih

Designer for Legend of Mana?
Fuck yeah.

Wasn't this the game you could place tiles to build the world map and end up being unable to progress because it was all glitchy? That and there was some hidden system involving the 8 mana deities that nobody has figured out to this day or something?

For some reason this dude taking over doesn't inspire much confidence.

**fredjanx** · 2010-09-01 20:41

Originally Posted by evilpaul

Wasn't this the game you could place tiles to build the world map and end up being unable to progress because it was all glitchy? That and there was some hidden system involving the 8 mana deities that nobody has figured out to this day or something?

I've never played any of these "legendary" (xenogears/vagrant story made a ?.? pop on top of my head) games, but that just sounds fucked up, lol

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