Final Fantasy XV [Formerly Versus XIII] (Xbox One, PS4)

[Conando]

The problem is they announced it like 4 to 5 years before it even started real development. For god's sake.

[turbojet]

I would definitely like them to actually fucking show it for once. They need to give me a reason to care about the project, it's been 6 years and pretty much everything has been behind closed doors. :\

They don't have to do a damn thing for the reasons Kotaku just showed us. If they are working on the game dilligently, then there is no need for a trailer until they actually have something to show. That was the problem with Metal Gear Solid Rising as all it had was that one little preview and not much action because they had no idea just what the fuck they wanted. Nomura did not become fully invested in this until after his side projects were done and now that he is, they are getting somewhere.

I swear video gamers are some of the most entitled people ever.

[Silencer226]

I swear video gamers are some of the most entitled people ever.

Thought that was anime fans. If they show an incomplete version it gets panned if they wait to show a competent product they get panned, damned if they do damned if they don't.

[Dobkeratops]

I would definitely like them to actually fucking show it for once. They need to give me a reason to care about the project, it's been 6 years and pretty much everything has been behind closed doors. :\

See, the problem here is that if they show Versus nobody's going to give a single fuck about FFXIII-3.

[turbojet]

See, the problem here is that if they show Versus nobody's going to give a single fuck about FFXIII-3.

Only a few people give a single fuck about XIII-3 considering that they are milking a dead cow here. And people thought the compilation of Final Fantasy VII was bad.

[KHCast]

Honestly, I don't care what happens with this game. It's in the way between me and my next adventure dammit! I just want it done and over with. Plus verses gameplay looked cool so considering they were considering using something pretty similar to it in KH3 makes me want it more!

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

See, the problem here is that if they show Versus nobody's going to give a single fuck about FFXIII-3.

If they show Versus I wouldn't give a fuck. That's not the game I'm interested in at all. I rather have KH3 than this game since Versus' gameplay is basically KH in a dull FF-like world.

Only a few people give a single fuck about XIII-3 considering that they are milking a dead cow here. And people thought the compilation of Final Fantasy VII was bad.

If it's a "dead cow", how come they are still making a third sequel? Oh that's right! Because it's not dead. They haven't made a loss with XIII-2.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[Dobkeratops]

If they show Versus I wouldn't give a fuck. That's not the game I'm interested in at all. I rather have KH3 than this game since Versus' gameplay is basically KH in a dull FF-like world.

It's an action JRPG set on contemporary times, developed by the best team at Square, aiming for spectacular audiovisuals with no concessions in mind, that is poised to have all the awesome gameplay mechanics and improvements of their latest KH titles without bearing the burden of a convoluted plot clusterfuck that franchise has to make sense of, nor filler Disney worlds getting in the way (hello KH2).

On paper it sounds fucking amazing but to each its own. I'd have said the perspective alone of KH-type gameplay should entice you to play it, no? It does for me, as a KH fan.

If it's a "dead cow", how come they are still making a third sequel? Oh that's right! Because it's not dead. They haven't made a loss with XIII-2.

Lots of asset reusing make these sequels quite cheap to make, even when they have a notable performance downgrade in both technical and financial terms compared to the original.

Point stands there's much more interest in Versus and it'd be counter productive to be shown at the same time than any XIII sequel when it comes to public awareness.

[YoshiAngemon]

It's Official: They're the K to the O-T-A-K-U, and ain't no other site that trolls us all like they do, they're Kotakulicious!

Edited July 25, 2012 by YoshiAngemon

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

It's an action JRPG set on contemporary times, developed by the best team at Square, aiming for spectacular audiovisuals with no concessions in mind, that is poised to have all the awesome gameplay mechanics and improvements of their latest KH titles without bearing the burden of a convoluted plot clusterfuck that franchise has to make sense of, nor filler Disney worlds getting in the way (hello KH2).

On paper it sounds fucking amazing but to each its own. I'd have said the perspective alone of KH-type gameplay should entice you to play it, no? It does for me, as a KH fan.

But from what I've seen, the environments looks dull and Noctis doesn't interest me at the slightest. Sometimes KH type gameplay isn't enough. I'll probably get this game cheap/used (because after all, it's a FF game) unless in future trailers I see some spark that interests me.

Lots of asset reusing make these sequels quite cheap to make, even when they have a notable performance downgrade in both technical and financial terms compared to the original.

Ummm, that doesn't mean XIII-2's a dead cow. It still sold more than 2.5 million copies and I'm sorry NO game is a failure with that kind of sales numbers. Unless they spent something like 50 million developing this game, which they didn't.

Point stands there's much more interest in Versus and it'd be counter productive to be shown at the same time than any XIII sequel when it comes to public awareness.

I agree, however at the moment I'm not interested in Versus and personally as long they don't hold XIII-3 for this game I'm fine. Shouldn't be a problem anyway because I don't see Versus coming out for another 2-3 years.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[Sami]

The fact stands that XIII-2 performed worse than Square had hoped it to, meaning public interest isn't as high as it once was.

... I'm also unsure why you're so quick to defend a game that charged $5 for it's ending, but to each their own.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

The fact stands that XIII-2 performed worse than Square had hoped it to, meaning public interest isn't as high as it once was.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[turbojet]

But from what I've seen, the environments looks dull and Noctis doesn't interest me at the slightest. Sometimes KH type gameplay isn't enough. I'll probably get this game cheap/used (because after all, it's a FF game) unless in future trailers I see some spark that interests me.

Edited July 25, 2012 by turbojet

[Sami]

Yeah? And what if Versus XIII does the same? Versus XIII is also owned and developed by Square-Enix (just different teams).

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Well it is quite nice to actually play the game instead of paradigm shift to medic, autobattle, autobattle, autobattle, paradigm shift to the stat booster, autobattle, autobattle, autobattle, paradigm shift to ravager to get the stagger up, autobattle, autobattle, autobattle, cast libra where you don't even have to fucking find the weaknesses yourself thus taking out any thinking out of the combat, and then never really having to play the game yourself because after every battle, there is a cutscene that tells you a story.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[Badnik Mechanic]

Ummm, that doesn't mean XIII-2's a dead cow. It still sold more than 2.5 million copies and I'm sorry NO game is a failure with that kind of sales numbers. Unless they spent something like 50 million developing this game, which they didn't.

It is a failure.

They basically believed their own hype, that the final fantasy name alone could sell and low and behold it hasn't. The drop in sales from the first is pretty enormous, theres no denying it, for the scale that they had on this project theres no way they can call this a success.

Especially when you factor in that less than two weeks after the game came out, it was being discounted to around £10 on some online stores. Heck thats the only reason I picked up a copy of it, a new game for £10 which can be described as being between ok and good. Not a bad deal at all. I suspect thats the reason for the majority of the sales too. In fact take a look at this.

The 'Classics' version of FF13 costs more than FF13-2.

After the shambles which was FF14 and how the FFX/FFX-2 HD upgrades have all but vanished, FF Versus is really all thats left if FF13-3 actually wants to salvage some kind of a respectable sales.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

It is a failure.

They basically believed their own hype, that the final fantasy name alone could sell and low and behold it hasn't. The drop in sales from the first is pretty enormous, theres no denying it, for the scale that they had on this project theres no way they can call this a success.

I still believe there is a difference between "disappointing" and "failure" when it comes to sales. The sales figures are disappointing, but failure? No actual profit from XIII-2? Nah.

Especially when you factor in that less than two weeks after the game came out, it was being discounted to around £10 on some online stores. Heck thats the only reason I picked up a copy of it, a new game for £10 which can be described as being between ok and good. Not a bad deal at all. I suspect thats the reason for the majority of the sales too. In fact take a look at this.

The 'Classics' version of FF13 costs more than FF13-2.

Now, that's kind of hard to believe. You said you bought it 10GBP right? Why can't you show me that site that is selling the game "new" for 10GBP? Or it was 10GBP for about a week you got it, then raised up the price a week later.

It obviously costs 12.95GBP in most sites now, the game is like 6 months old.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[Badnik Mechanic]

I still believe there is a difference between "disappointing" and "failure" when it comes to sales. The sales figures are disappointing, but failure? No actual profit from XIII-2? Nah.

How much money do they put into branding and marketing FF games? Within two weeks of the games release it was at half price on the high street, and remember this was the period when game & Gamestation were going bust so for them to slash the price by that much certainly smells like the game was failing.

But online retailers were going even further with the discounts.

This is not what you do when a game is selling well, you don't discount it to barely one quarter of it's original cost. Certainly not when that game has the words Final Fantasy in the title.

Yeah it made a profit and sold figures that some companies can only dream of, but considering the targets they had and the vision of this, hardly a success story at all. On it's first week, the sales from FF13 to FF13-2 dropped by nearly 1 million.

Now, that's kind of hard to believe. You said you bought it 10GBP right? Why can't you show me that site that is selling the game "new" for 10GBP? Or it was 10GBP for about a week you got it, then raised up the price a week later.

It obviously costs 12.95GBP in most sites now, the game is like 6 months old.

To be honest, I don't particually care if you find it hard to believe or not. I'm sure if I could be bothered to actually win this point I could still dig out the email receipt for it as I'm certain it's in my email inbox somewhere.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

How much money do they put into branding and marketing FF games? Within two weeks of the games release it was at half price on the high street, and remember this was the period when game & Gamestation were going bust so for them to slash the price by that much certainly smells like the game was failing.

But online retailers were going even further with the discounts.

This is not what you do when a game is selling well, you don't discount it to barely one quarter of it's original cost. Certainly not when that game has the words Final Fantasy in the title.

Yeah it made a profit and sold figures that some companies can only dream of, but considering the targets they had and the vision of this, hardly a success story at all. On it's first week, the sales from FF13 to FF13-2 dropped by nearly 1 million.

It's not a success (agreed) but it's not a failure either. How can a company that is still receiving profit from the game call it a total failure?

As I said to someone else, if the fanbase of XIII is still providing Square the money for all their efforts in to XIII-2, they should continue to cater those fans. At least, they are loyal unlike most FF fans who just criticize/boycott them in a nasty way.

To be honest, I don't particually care if you find it hard to believe or not. I'm sure if I could be bothered to actually win this point I could still dig out the email receipt for it as I'm certain it's in my email inbox somewhere.

You got to understand that if you are going to make points like that, you have to back it up. Because this is what bitter "haters gotta hate" type of people do (not saying you are) squeezing every nasty bit of negative about the game and some of them turn out to be quite a bit false.

But whatever anyway.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[Dobkeratops]

Hmmm, I believe the root of the argument here lies within the fact that most people have been wanting to see more of Versus - as they consider it more interesting. However, actual development was put on hold until recently (2009 or so) due to the incompetence of 13's dev team and several portable side projects.

Nowadays, we could be getting actual info / media but in the meanwhile some idiot decided to shoehorn a sequel nobody asked for, that sequel intentionally mandates a third entry and with the notable interest drop the last they want to do is divert attention before they've milked the assets completely.

So it's not a matter of whether 13-2/3 are good games or not (I can't even say because I'm still waiting for a pricedrop/dlc bundle), they're simply getting in the way of what the majority deems the better game. This, evidently, pisses off people. Wouldn't even be discussing them on this thread otherwise.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Nobody asked for the sequel, I didn't myself because I thought it's never going to happen after the backlash from most FF fans. However I did feel that I wanted more.

Why did you call that person an "idiot". Do you know the full reasons why he said Square should do a sequel? It could be about anything! What if the profits from the XIII series is going to be used for Versus XIII? The team developers and the key people agreed with the sequel idea too you know! It's a group decision! One man can't just make a decision, and it's all final (well, unless it's a dramatic decision and this isn't dramatic).

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[Sami]

They wanted a sequel because they intended to milk XIII for all it was worth. We're going in circles here.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

They wanted a sequel because they intended to milk XIII for all it was worth. We're going in circles here.

Intended? You hate XIII and you're just going to keep saying negative things about it without putting much thought.

XIII's story ended perfectly. It was a happy ending and everything. It looked like a sequel wasn't going to happen. So you can say originally, there wasn't going to be a sequel. So I believe they didn't intendedly want to milk this series. Well at first anyway.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[T-Min]

Making XIII-3 is no better than KH3 in terms of "milking" the franchise.

And...what's your point here?

After reading this section, I stopped reading your whole post because it's pretty dayam clear you haven't played XIII-2.

(I HAD TO)

Really, though, XIII-2's gameplay does not substantially improve over XIII's. It completely misunderstands the concept of "exploration", giving you nothing more than a bland set collection of straight lines you trek over numerous times and wide open empty spaces, with nothing to do besides mindless fetch quests that make Twilight Princess's worst look engaging and puzzles that a kindergartner could solve. I usually don't like pulling the "O" card, but how is what Versus will have to offer not objectively better in basically every sense?

XIII's story ended perfectly. It was a happy ending and everything. It looked like a sequel wasn't going to happen. So you can say originally, there wasn't going to be a sequel. So I believe they didn't intendedly want to milk this series. Well at first anyway.

Again, your point here? You seem to be proving your own argument false. Plain and simple, they slapped together a crappy game within a year because they wanted to make more money off of XIII - not because they truly wanted to add "improvements" to it - which, despite what backlash it got from fans, did get great reviews and very high sales. This should have been obvious by the fact that the entire game's story revolves around this contrived, idiotic retcon to XIII's ending. Just another reason why I despise XIII-2 despite having loved XIII.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

And...what's your point here?

Looking back, my point I'm trying to make there is FFXIII-2 is not like milking a dead cow.

*video*

(I HAD TO)

Yeah you "had to".

Really, though, XIII-2's gameplay does not substantially improve over XIII's. It completely misunderstands the concept of "exploration", giving you nothing more than a bland set collection of straight lines you trek over numerous times and wide open empty spaces, with nothing to do besides mindless fetch quests that make Twilight Princess's worst look engaging and puzzles that a kindergartner could solve. I usually don't like pulling the "O" card, but how is what Versus will have to offer not objectively better in basically every sense?

If that's how you feel fine. I'm just not going to bother responding to a bitter-like comment. I don't want to get myself worked up at all over this.

Again, your point here? You seem to be proving your own argument false. Plain and simple, they slapped together a crappy game within a year [...] - which, despite what backlash it got from fans, did get great reviews and very high sales.

You call XIII-2 a "crappy" game, yet as you said it got good positive reviews, great sales and according to Metacritic, not a negative review in sight. Strange huh? It's like me saying Batman Arkham City's a crappy game. O.o

But hey, each to their own.

because they wanted to make more money off of XIII - not because they truly wanted to add "improvements" to it [...] This should have been obvious by the fact that the entire game's story revolves around this contrived, idiotic retcon to XIII's ending. Just another reason why I despise XIII-2 despite having loved XIII.

Yeah, basically you are only assuming negatively about what you think Square's doing with that money. You probably think that the profits they will have, Wada's going to keep most of it to himself and not pass the money to develop other games, like say...Versus XIII.

You don't work for Square Enix. So how do you know? Is Square well known now as money grabbing company like Activision and EA?

They kinda killed XIII's ending, but I just got to believe that XIII-3's ending will be even better. There's nothing we can do about it now. No point of being Mr. Angryman.

Edited July 25, 2012 by Ming Ming Love