Square finally realizes it needs more frequent releases.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/21/kitase-square-learnt-a-lesson-with-ff-xiii-franchise-needs-m/

Apart from numerous re-releases and spin-offs, the Final Fantasy series isn't exactly known for its frequency. The most recent title,Final Fantasy XIII, was released in Japan in 2009 – four years into the lifespan of the current generation of consoles. Speaking to GameReactor, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase expressed his belief that Square-Enix needs to speed up development times to keep the series successful.

Kitase pointed to annual western franchises like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty and Battlefield, saying that the one to two year development cycle would be "the best way to keep [Final Fantasy] fans interested and attracted to the franchise." He elaborated that Square "learnt a lesson" from the long development ofFinal Fantasy XIII, and that subsequently,Final Fantasy XIII-2has taken around one and a half years to complete.

It's worth pointing out thatXIII-2reuses many ofXIII's assets and, indeed, some of its characters, which probably helped speed things up considerably. Of course, there are other ways to shorten development time ... opening anew studio, perhaps?joystiq

Maybe we'll finally start to see more RPGS from SE finally.

Rather than waiting 4-5 years between every iteration.

*Smash-cut to five years later*

"Ugh, why is Square Enix ruining Final Fantasy with all these yearly releases???"

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/21/kitase-square-learnt-a-lesson-with-ff-xiii-franchise-needs-m/

[quote="joystiq"]Apart from numerous re-releases and spin-offs, the Final Fantasy series isn't exactly known for its frequency. The most recent title,Final Fantasy XIII, was released in Japan in 2009 – four years into the lifespan of the current generation of consoles. Speaking to GameReactor, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase expressed his belief that Square-Enix needs to speed up development times to keep the series successful.

Kitase pointed to annual western franchises like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty and Battlefield, saying that the one to two year development cycle would be "the best way to keep [Final Fantasy] fans interested and attracted to the franchise." He elaborated that Square "learnt a lesson" from the long development ofFinal Fantasy XIII, and that subsequently,Final Fantasy XIII-2has taken around one and a half years to complete.

It's worth pointing out thatXIII-2reuses many ofXIII's assets and, indeed, some of its characters, which probably helped speed things up considerably. Of course, there are other ways to shorten development time ... opening anew studio, perhaps?Animal-Mother

Maybe we'll finally start to see more RPGS from SE finally.

Rather than waiting 4-5 years between every iteration.

*Smash-cut to five years later*

"Ugh, why is Square Enix ruining Final Fantasy with all these yearly releases???"

PBSnipes

They can't even make a great JRPG every 4-5 years. What makes them think they can make even decent JRPG's on a yearly basis? :|

They can't even make a great JRPG every 4-5 years. What makes them think they can make even decent JRPG's on a yearly basis? :|

xYamatox

Move away from Final Fantasy (main releases will still be fine), and focus more on bringing the quality of the handheld JRPG's to the consoles. This... This... Is what I want you to do SE!

Move away from Final Fantasy (main releases will still be fine), and focus more on bringing the quality of the handheld JRPG's to the consoles. This... This... Is what I want you to do SE!

lundy86_4

[QUOTE="lundy86_4"]

Move away from Final Fantasy (main releases will still be fine), and focus more on bringing the quality of the handheld JRPG's to the consoles. This... This... Is what I want you to do SE!

Animal-Mother

Yeah. They've branched pretty well.

I think they mostly need to keep on top of the quality as a publisher/developer.

I swear SquareEnix are completely clueless.

Like, are they living in a bubble or something? Alternate reality maybe?

I don't think it matters how often you release bad games.

I don't think it matters how often you release bad games.

fadersdream

/thread

[QUOTE="fadersdream"]

I don't think it matters how often you release bad games.

bad_fur_day

/thread

this.

Their games are not very good now. More releases means less polish. How the mighty have fallen.

[QUOTE="bad_fur_day"]

[QUOTE="fadersdream"]

I don't think it matters how often you release bad games.

mojito1988

/thread

this.

I agree. It doesn't matter if they reduce their time to squeeze out steaming piles of crap.

It's been quite a few years since the last real iteration of Kingdom Hearts. I really want one.

FF died after 10 sadly.

But if they worked on titles such as the chrono series, or drakengard i think they could do wonders.

. Plenty of time to design the world so long as they stop wasting time building these completely new engines. firebolt53

[QUOTE="mojito1988"]

[QUOTE="bad_fur_day"]

/thread

sleepingzzz

this.

I agree. It doesn't matter if they reduce their time to squeeze out steaming piles of crap.

Because FF13 was Crap all their games are crap? :| FFVersus13 looks good, and maybe 1 day KH3 will be made if we're still alive by then. Besides they're really a company that focuses on graphics o_o that's probably why FF takes so long to release. It's always high on graphics. For consoles

[QUOTE="sleepingzzz"]

[QUOTE="mojito1988"]

this.

Joedgabe

I agree. It doesn't matter if they reduce their time to squeeze out steaming piles of crap.

Because FF13 was Crap all their games are crap? :| FFVersus13 looks good, and maybe 1 day KH3 will be made if we're still alive by then. Besides they're really a company that focuses on graphics o_o that's probably why FF takes so long to release. It's always high on graphics. For consoles

So does this mean they've given up completely on trying to make quality releases? They've just going to go for quantity now to improve their sales?

THe reality is that a lot of their "big" games haven't sold as well as past games in the series but still costs are going up. So they need to either convince people their big series games are still great and worthy of support....or just not bother and pump out more cash-in garbage. This means we'll see a bunch of terrible FF spin offs and lackluster JRPGs, etc.

Square has ruined the characters. Growing up I thought Cloud was a cool character. Remaking him in high def shows that he was just a feminite gangly teenager with weird hair. :(

Frequency isn't the problem. Their games sucking is the issue.

Woops didnt know someone else posted this, just deleted my thread lol and yes about time SE please more FF every year!

lol, square realizes they need more frequent releases just as the entire western world realizes they could not care less if they ever release another game.

The mainstream isn't as into JRPG's like they were 10 years agotomarlyn

[QUOTE="tomarlyn"]The mainstream isn't as into JRPG's like they were 10 years agoheretrix

i would have been excited if it was squaresoft making them ... square enix not so much

i want a true chrono trigger remake or xenogears remake.

and square whether they have expanded or not there company bases a majority of time creationg jrpgs no matter how you look at it.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/11/21/kitase-square-learnt-a-lesson-with-ff-xiii-franchise-needs-m/

[quote="joystiq"]Apart from numerous re-releases and spin-offs, the Final Fantasy series isn't exactly known for its frequency. The most recent title,Final Fantasy XIII, was released in Japan in 2009 – four years into the lifespan of the current generation of consoles. Speaking to GameReactor, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase expressed his belief that Square-Enix needs to speed up development times to keep the series successful.

Kitase pointed to annual western franchises like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty and Battlefield, saying that the one to two year development cycle would be "the best way to keep [Final Fantasy] fans interested and attracted to the franchise." He elaborated that Square "learnt a lesson" from the long development ofFinal Fantasy XIII, and that subsequently,Final Fantasy XIII-2has taken around one and a half years to complete.

It's worth pointing out thatXIII-2reuses many ofXIII's assets and, indeed, some of its characters, which probably helped speed things up considerably. Of course, there are other ways to shorten development time ... opening anew studio, perhaps?Animal-Mother

Maybe we'll finally start to see more RPGS from SE finally.

Rather than waiting 4-5 years between every iteration.

Bring Sigma Harmonics. All I care.siLVURcross

This.

And it's not about shorter development times, it's about not taking on a million projects at once. Seems they can't be bothered to focus on one game at a time, they have to expend resources of one team on different projects while development of the original project is put on hold.

YES!

Great news. I love RPG's from Square Enix. I eat that **** up.

Now if only Capcom would announce a Megaman X reboot and I'd be in gaming heaven.

YES!

Great news. I love RPG's from Square Enix. I eat that **** up.

Now if only Capcom would announce a Megaman X reboot and I'd be in gaming heaven.

MLBknights58

Get the Vanquish team to reboot that game=GOTY.

On the SE news, they need to have 3 Final Fantasy teams.

Team 1=Versus team, Team 2=FF13 team, Team 3= *Drum roll please* EIDOS MONTREAL (Dues Ex team)

Team 1 works on main titles

Team 2 works on remakes and sequels

Team 3 makes spinoff

Each team spends 2 years on their game, Sony will be so impressed by this new strategy that they buy Square Enix.

There, i just fixed everything, you're welcome.

2-3 years sound respectable if they cut back the use of graphics and go for a minimalist approach which old JRPGs were known for. I haven't played FF13 but the most common complaint I've heard is the focus on graphics with no real substance to the story. That is a pretty big far cry from Final Fantasy 7 (I guess a case could be made here for the jump from 6 to 7), 8, 9 and Tactics which were all released from 1997-2000 and are all good in their own right.

They're getting their priorities wrong. Success of a game doesn't necessarily depend on the frequency of release. The quality of the game ensures success. Without quality, having annual releases just kills it off faster. **Cough** Dynasty Warriors. There are plenty of devs who don't have annual releases and their games are still good. Case in point, Blizzard, Valve and Bethesda.

The way i see it, Japanese devs in general typically have the weakness of sticking to an old formula, or in many cases, attempting to change but fail miserably. Many jrpgs are exactly the way it was 10 years ago. Frequent releases of games with such a formula will only hurt them. The reason why jrpgs seem to be always welcome is due to the lack of it. But i tell you, the moment jrpgs flood the market is the moment it drops dead.

[QUOTE="Joedgabe"]

[QUOTE="sleepingzzz"]

I agree. It doesn't matter if they reduce their time to squeeze out steaming piles of crap.

fadersdream

Because FF13 was Crap all their games are crap? :| FFVersus13 looks good, and maybe 1 day KH3 will be made if we're still alive by then. Besides they're really a company that focuses on graphics o_o that's probably why FF takes so long to release. It's always high on graphics. For consoles

I understand that FF13 is crap and bad but the other's arent as bad as to say the company only makes crap. And you may if it helps your argument, so far I know of (Recent games ) Tactics Ogre, FF13 and 14, The world ends with you, and Star Ocean. Besides 13 & 14 I found all of these to be good ( except tactics ogre haven't played it for lack of Psp)

[QUOTE="xYamatox"]

They can't even make a great JRPG every 4-5 years. What makes them think they can make even decent JRPG's on a yearly basis? :|

Animal-Mother

Who? The few people that actually liked FFXIII? Out of all my friends that play RPG's i'm the only one that actually finished it, they all hated it... and we're talking serious FF fans.

Who? The few people that actually liked FFXIII? Out of all my friends that play RPG's i'm the only one that actually finished it, they all hated it... and we're talking serious FF fans.

demonic_85

Wouldn't call them very serious, then. FFXIII was one of the better FF games out of the series.