Father of Final Fantasy: “Stop Rehashing Final Fantasy!”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Apr 7, 2010 02:54 JST
- Tags: Continuations, Final Fantasy, Production Controversy, RPG, Square Enix, Twitter
Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series, recently took part in a candid exchange with a Square Enix employee in which he told the company to stop endlessly rehashing the same game.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, generally credited with creating the Final Fantasy series, left his executive vice president position at Square in 2004 to start his own studio, Mistwalker, responsible for Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.
In a (light-hearted and friendly) Twitter based exchange with game designer Takashi Tokita, current head of one of Square Enix’s development divisions, he was surprisingly frank:
Sakaguchi : “What about if you stopped all the rehashing of Final Fantasy?”
Tokita : “We’re planning to!”
Sakaguchi fields scepticism about his own current project, “The Last Story”:
Ahiru0026: “Last Story sounds just like a Final Fantasy rehash from its title alone, what’s up with that then?”
Sakaguchi : “If you tried it, I think you’d see it’s not in any way a rehash.”
Few could help but sympathise with Sakaguchi’s comments – Japan’s gaming industry, and in particular its RPG segment, have become stultifyingly unoriginal in recent years, failing to innovate in any significant fashion save moderate improvements in graphics.
Even Square Enix boss Wada, known to be a fan of western games, has given hints that the franchise may finally move on – might change finally be in the air?
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"Japan’s gaming industry, and in particular its RPG segment, have become stultifyingly unoriginal in recent years, failing to innovate in any significant fashion save moderate improvements in graphics."
Valkyria Chronicles says fuck you buddy
Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy
Final Fantsy: Yes It's For Real
I personally really like FFIX becuase it sort of went back to the old FF criteria, although I'm currenlty trapped in a castle in FFII, grr stupid magic system
The Japanese were never known for originality. To expect it now out of the blue is silly.
You mean like how America has rehashed the same games for years?
the last good jrpg was shadow hearts 2, not another rehashed square-enix rpg that's for sure.
I have to hand it to Ahiru though, the title alone, lol
finally, a change
pfft final fantasy is dead, and square-enix is as unoriginal and uninspired as the mound of compost their games rot in.
The Last Story looks very much like Final Fantasy from the bits that have been released so far.
Please expound upon what was new and different about it. I'm interested to hear what you have to say.
Please don't stop Final Fantasy !!!!! ... Maybe they can restart the counting by adding something after the FF... like FF:XXX , FF:XXXX , XXX as the name of the game :D
I think FF:XXX would be amazing... Just so long as they give equal time to the yaoi portions as they do the yuri which would inevitably ensue. :3
Given that Square-Enix know they rely way too much on rabid fangirls I'd doubt they wouldn't add yaoi portions (I mean look at all the pretty boys in every damn game)
i'm sorry, but fang x vanille was awesome. XD
and it's not like there aren't 839570394 slashable pairings. :P
What's Sakaguchi talking about? FFXIII was fantastic! It had an original story I've never seen in any other game or movie or anime ever. The gameplay was refreshing (especially after a railroading game like FFX where you couldn't do ANYTHING outside the main path of the quest) and dynamic. I mean, come on, FFXIII is a totally original game. Sakaguchi is just butthurt he didn't come up with it.
whoa, wait, wait, wait. XIII didn't railroad you? you /are/ kidding, right?
X had MUCH more little things to do than XIII. XIII has a few chocobo treasures, and 84937503984 hunts. that's it. at least in X you could access a few more secret areas (ON A MAP, thank the gods), quest for other summons, ultimate weapons (on top of synthesizing them), and actually explore some inhabited areas (getting rid of towns in a RPG, wtf?).
just sayin'.
for the record, i like XIII a lot, but it railroads you more than any other FF, imo.
You're not very smart are you. While I'm not a big X fan, you seem to realize you couldn't do anything in XIII. You couldn't even do something as simple as visit a shop. The game was a straight line. Just because a story is refreshing doesn't mean it's good. Here's a sample of the majority of dialogue in FF XIII. Oh no I can't do this, I give up. Then Lightning would come in and say they could. XIII is the worst FF thus far.
Do any of you guys know why final fantasy is called final fantasy? Some people criticize the name but it makes sense if you know the background info.
*raises hand*
i do, and i think it's a neat bit of information. kind of a charming success story, really. way to go, sakaguchi. \o/
i love the guy who commented about Last Story, laughed my ass off
The Final and the last, I wonder if any of em live up to their name, being final and last I mean.
Oh wait, we had have a lot of "final" here, so I guess the "final" is out.
nuuuuuuuuuu~ D:
I want a FFXXX !
>:]
So i should expect a Final Fantasy 1 HDDVDBLURAYOMGWTFBBQ 69th anniversary edition tomorrow then?
Well so the person who had the same fate as Tomino has increased by another number.
Remakes coming???
The problem is not that they're rehashing it, the problem is that they SUCK at doing it....
i mean, if they want to lose out in all that money, let them go ahead. I'd take the profits over feelings. Which is why should they remake FFVII, they'll be beyond all the riches they could imagine.
Game company's are too pussy to try anything new, follow the trends will earn them more money... look at all the RPG games that came out before, how they were different.
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure
Azure Dreams
Star Ocean
Valkyrie Profile
Persona
Breath of Fire
Earthbound
Shadowrun
Chrono Trigger
Act Raiser
And many more.
Can you really blame them? Making a game today is a lot more costly than it was say back when Earthbound came out. Taking a chance in today's industry could mean risking everything. The most recent example I know of is Psychonauts. Psychonauts was a really good game, in my opinion, but a huge financial loss for Majesco, its publisher. Even if a development team is will and able to work outside the box, a publisher might not be so willing to sign on.
Someone needs to travel back in time and kill FF VII and this would never have happened!
lol, "Father of Final Fantasy: 'Stop Rehashing Final Fantasy!'"
Kitase, on Lost Odyssey: “What about if you stopped all the rehashing of Final Fantasy and simmonising Shadow Hearts' judgement ring bullshit, eventually outputting a game that's even worse than its already rock-bottom-hitting inspirations?”
Sakaguchi: “It's the only kind of shit game I know how to design, don't be so mean. :( ”
Haha. And I can't believe that Last Story bit, the guy deserves the Epic Hack award, rofl.
epic hack award. lulz. is he hacking himself? XD
I liked XIII but didn't like XII. Liked X but didn't like IX.
And the legions that like VI say VII is a ripoff.
We fans are always complaining, it appears some of us are never happy with Final Fantasy while others are loving the some title we dislike.
I think SE should do whatever it's been doing that alternating games they'll please us.
Too bad for me, 'cause this way I'll probably not like FFXV, but I have good hopes for FFXVI.
Change? Ha! I'll believe it when I SEE it!!
"Japan’s gaming industry, and in particular its RPG segment, have become stultifyingly unoriginal in recent years, failing to innovate in any significant fashion save moderate improvements in graphics."
As opposed to western games that are all fun and innovation?
What is Square-Enix?
Since Uematsu and Sakaguchi left, a bunch of scavengers who use their past glory to keep in releasing their fanservice crap...
It would be good if they remade their older games with the newer tecnology, but JRPG needs to innovate or else American RPGs will take over the entire market.
by the way, Lost Odisey was a masterpiece
I'd rather square work on making a new FF every 2 years rather than take 4 years and give us a bunch of shitty spin offs inbetween that nobody cares about, who the fuck asked for dirge of cerebus and shit like that?
Just give us a ff7 remake, thats all we want. FF10 was the last decent FF game, the franchise has gone down the shitter.
Actually, FFX was complete shit.
Agreed.
Not agreed.
FFX was the last good one.
It was most definitely shit. Better than XIII though.
It was shit.
FFVII remake would fail. seriously. they would make it like AC. FFVII milking has one far beyond the limit.
Remake this. Remake that. Have they still not realized RPG gaming isn't about the graphics?
Nope. And I fear trying to convince them otherwise is futile. There will always be people who hate a game if the graphics are not up to, what they consider, par. Doesn't matter if the writing and gameplay are top notch.
as much as i agree that squeenix is milking the FF franchise to death... a remade FFVII would be like a playable AC...
which i think would be amazing.
it makes me feel all fangirly inside, thinking of playing VII in beautiful HD graphics, with everyone actually speaking.
i think graphics are important. it's hard to play a game when it looks like crap.
ryu ga gotoku is the best franchise left in japan. Its cinematically better than FF and more manly, it not filled with girlie boys and teen drama, it's fucking adult!
Make FF adult, I want to see cloud cut of sepiroth's head than celebrate by raping tifa, fuck the teenie shit!
The Last Story sounds like an FF title, huh? Hmm, so does every other game title in the genre~
Seriously, I think they should've ended the series after 10. I thought XIII was pretty good story-wise, but it just isn't the same anymore.
Surely you mean after 9? ~~
That was the most times I have ever seen the word Rehash in any one article.
Is it me, or the only changes that have been added to RPGs are the attempts to make them NOT RPGs?
like Mass Effect 2 and FFXIII
rather than building upon what RPGs do right, it seems like companies want to get rid of the genre entirely
why?
is it too hard fro them?
pussies
err... mass effect has always been a mish mash of genres. you can't just plop it into the RPG category because it doesn't fit that mold, really.
just sayin'.
Blue Dragon's dub was atrocious, and a few elements in the game, coupled with a few bugs, made it unenjoyable to say the least. On the other hand, Lost Odyssey is one of the best RPGs coming out in the latest years, and it's surely true that final fantasy is becoming less and less attractive, not to mention the lazyness of square enix' employees..
I totally support the good old father :3
a-freaking-men. lost odyssey is completely underappreciated. definitely one of my favorite RPGs this generation, and the best game on the 360, period. \o/
i have to admit that i enjoyed XIII a great deal, though...
Didn't they try and change things with FF13?
It failed in their faces.
How? By filling the game with porcelain dolls and bishounen, and no story to speak of?
They keep trying to rely more on the (frankly uninspired and way too "pretty") looks than on putting some effort in coming up with a decent story which isn't the same tripe over and over again.
they are just using the name to milk all the free advertising and consumers goodwill now.
Says the guy who made another Final Fantasy with a different name.
Oh, and a Dragon Quest clone too.
It has more in common with Dragon Ball actually...wait, this is supposed to be an improvement?
I don't know if I should be happy or sad but after the FFXIII fiasco, I'll be more than happy if they just killed the damn series off with FFXIII Agito & FFXIV rather than seeing another linear piece of crap.
I don't know if I should be happy or sad but after the FFXIII fiasco, I wouldn't mind if they just killed the damn series off with FFXIII Agito & FFXIV.
Look at the sell number all around the world !
As someone who grew up with the series and as a critic of how XIII came out, I'd honestly be sad to see the series die in the miserable state XIII left it. I honestly would like a game that develops into something new and exciting, even if they kept the turn based battle system and rehashes of the name Cid and summons. It's not like Japanese aren't creative. The problem is that the market has grown and the machines now can do more, and producing also costs more. Still, seeing the time they took to develop XIII, half a fucking decade, I think that they could have done way better, even with an overused formula.
Square Enix has to look OUTSIDE of Japan, see what good things the west has and incorporate them, while adding new things of their own.
That, and remove completely people like Motomu Toriyama and the guy who directed (forgot his name) from the franchise. They seem to me like two of the reasons XIII came out the way it did.
Somehow, I don't think the development was smooth at all...
I'd be happy if they stopped allowing Tetsuya Nomura to direct stuff. His direction of the camerawork is so hyperactive you can barely follow anything of what's going on at one time. It's like he has an extreme form of directorial ADHD, although maybe he's just a by-product of the way overused and annoying as hell jump-cut action sequences many movies seem to be employing these days (Quantum of Solace, anyone?)
Nomura is only the character designer for FFXIII.
Versus XIII, on the other hand, is directed by him; it's already sounding much much better than the way FFXIII turned out.
airships ftw
Do not bring up "look the west" bullshit. Seriously. That's what's fucking up the Japanese market. They aren't looking at what they can do sell things, they're just make really bad clones of already tired Western games. New things from Japan really need to come from actual good things from Japan. Not some "let's make a Japanese Gears!" or some bullshit like that.
CHANGE I can believe in!
The last person to say that was a HUGE liar!
YES WE CAN!
Japan; no they can't.
Seriously, original thoughts are not something Japanese possess. And the few original thoughts they do have are quickly cast aside, due to costs and an unwillingness to gamble on something that could be a flop.
This is why a hit game series like Final Fantasy continues to rehash the same basic story and a manga like Bleach continues beyond it's original intended ending point.
I agree, even Japan's best games like the Shin Megami Tensei series uses a pre-established mythos called "religion". Hmmm, never heard of that, sounds original.
FF-VI > FF-VII
Well, it's sorta interesting he's trying to criticize any remnants of the company. Sakaguchi really brought "change" to SquareSoft by killing it with Spirits Within. Now all that's left is a decaying zombie that's being controlled. You have to note that all FF related rehashes and "sequels" are tagged with Enix. X-2(+Last Mission), KH Final Mix(es and others), The After Years, Revenant Wings, etc(ports fairly don't count). You never saw this with SquareSoft, and you could say it goes to show they pretty much are gone. X-2 was all the proof I needed.
Spirits Within was a daring project that could either be a critical success or a failure. Their main problem was putting game developers in charge of a MOVIE...
Finally they noticed it can't go on like that...
Needs HD FF6 remake before they finally kill it! And without changing bits in the story and adding/subtracting unnecessary things...
No, it needs FF7 remake!!
FF14/2=7x2!!
"Final..."
"Last..."
YET NEVERENDING...
No no... 14/2=7, while 7x2=14.
endless fantasy. it just repeats, each time it is just subtly different than previously one, the character will soon have a nagging feeling inside them, and really grasps what they felt.
Darkrockslizer you fail at math
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDhZ5diK4g4
Dead Fantasy = best use of final fantasy characters since Kingdom Hearts, yo!
No Remakes!
No Sequels!
NEW GAME THAT WILL START THE NEW AGE OF RPG GAMING!
A final without end, i love final fantasy.
After the debacle that was XIII... They better keep that in mind...
Obama final fantasy XIIIIII
Obama ads in FFXVI? Deportation time, please.
Like many of the other "RPGs" today, especially action-ones like GoW-series.
Linearity doesn't bother me as long as the gameplay is fun.
Personally speaking, FFXIII is is just FFVII Crisis core Rehashed with less interaction. Basically just a playable movie really.
FUCK Obama already!
Every FF is different so I don't know what he means by "rehash." In fact, FFXIII is so different from previous FF games that it was heavily criticized.
His games are no different than the FF "rehashes."
Anon 6:41 >> YES HE CAN
At least learn to use roman numerals correctly...
I think it's some strange form of tally marks, or maybe some arcane ASCII art...
Heretic >.<
Obama =/= final fantasy!!!
Changes are not always good so let's say "improvement" instead.
I have more faith on Square then Obama
They're both working with crap. We can only hope something good happens.
That's right dude, time to toke up some funky crunchy change man, know what I'm sayin'..??