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Final Fantasy XIII: The Final Countdown
By Edge Staff
May 4, 2009
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THE FAME GAME
Upon checking in to our hotel, a short walk from the company’s large but surprisingly anonymous offices in Shinjuku, the desk clerk notices we are here with Square Enix. “Ah,” he exclaims. “Dragon Quest!” When we mention that we’re here not to see Dragon Quest but rather its former rival, Final Fantasy, he shrugs and signals that he’s not heard of that one. We ask Kitase why Dragon Quest continues to be the betterknown series in Japan, despite the fact that, elsewhere in the world, the two series’ popularity and notoriety are reversed. “Dragon Quest was really the series that first established the role playing game in Japan,” he explains. “It’s been around for many more years than Final Fantasy. Long before I got into game development I remember lining up to buy the next instalment of Dragon Quest and that sense of national excitement surrounding each new game in the series has always been electrifying. “As such, that series is often in the news. For example, the mainstream press in Japan recently reported widely on Dragon Quest IX’s slipped release date because it’s of interest to such a huge number of Japanese. It’s this kind of coverage has helped to keep the game at the forefront of the national consciousness. By contrast, in the west it was Final Fantasy that first established the use of 3D in large, story-led games. For that reason, I think the series established itself in the western social consciousness much more readily than Dragon Quest.”
Title: Final Fantasy XIII
Format: 360, PS3 (PS3 exclusive in Japan)
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: In-house
Origin: Japan
Release: TBA
Now 42 years old, Yoshinori Kitase has been making Final Fantasy games for close to 20 years. From his smart suit and middle-aged paunch you’d be forgiven for thinking him a sober businessman, a manager, perhaps, of the other young, more flamboyantly dressed members of the Final Fantasy XIII staff with whom he sits for interview. But while Kitase’s work is certainly crucial to the successful running of his company’s business, his role has always been a creative one.
He joined Square in 1990, taking up a position as a scriptwriter long before the company merged with its long-time rival Enix. Since then he has written, directed or produced almost every game in the mainline Final Fantasy series, even finding the time to direct and develop titles such as Chrono Trigger and Kingdom Hearts between projects. When we point out the length of his service to this, the world’s most popular RPG franchise, he sighs and laughs. “Has it really been that long?” he asks rhetorically. But it is a reaction without a trace of regret. Here is a body of work of which the man is understandably proud.
Many of Square Enix’s other best-known creatives have left the company in recent years, most following in the wake of company founder Hironobu Sakaguchi’s high-profile departure. Kitase, however, has remained faithful, a steadying hand on the tiller of the good ship Final Fantasy. He’s helped pilot the series through its transition from 2D to 3D as director of the seminal seventh game in the series, and on through the turbulent waters surrounding its ill-fated foray into Hollywood in the guise of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a movie venture which threatened to sink the whole company at the box office. Now, as the Japanese release of the 13th game looms at the end of 2009, Kitase finds himself once again at the helm of one of the longest running and most dependable videogame series ever made.
“I’d describe my role over the years as one of stewardship,” he explains. “I don’t have a dictatorial relationship with the series. Contrary to what you might expect, Final Fantasy is pretty much the only title that everybody in Square Enix, whatever his or her level, can have some input on. It’s really a melting pot of ideas, as we invite all of the staff to throw in their suggestions. The result is a product that’s quite democratic. I think that’s something that shows through. Final Fantasy titles are always showcase games, ones that offer a clear snapshot of the Square Enix staff at that particular time.” 
Isamu Kamikokuryo, Final Fantasy XIII’s art director, agrees: “The democratic design process gives us a rare sort of freedom. Most series that carry on as long as 13 titles usually just take a few ideas and then tweak and refine them iteration on iteration, changing the core systems very little. With Final Fantasy, while there are broad boundaries and a loose framework, we’re happy to reinvent the wheel with each new game to a certain degree, overhauling the battle system, changing from a single protagonist story to an ensemble cast, switching from a future to a past setting and so on. With this series we leave the rough edges in, and the thrill of not knowing exactly what’s going to come out in the end is what defines the process for me.”
“It’s my job to try to merge all of these disparate ideas together into something coherent, so I think perhaps my viewpoint differs to that of my colleagues,” laughs the game’s director, Motomu Toriyama. “But they are right. Final Fantasy may enjoy common themes or motifs but, generally speaking, every game is different to the previous one in terms of the details. This kind of reinvention is impossible to achieve without a broad number of voices and perspectives.”
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I actually think that it’s a very natural thing for players to grow out of the Final Fantasy series.
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I'm one of those players. If its not the cheesy narrative or redundant text, then it's the hideous random encounters that put me off Final Fantasy/and JRPG'S in general.
There was a time i would've played a JRPG over any other genere of game. Now though, i much prefer a western RPG i.e. The Witcher, Oblivion, Mass Effect, etc than the "more of the same" JRPG.
>>There was a time i would've played a JRPG over any other genere of game. Now though, i much prefer a western RPG i.e. The Witcher, Oblivion, Mass Effect, etc than the "more of the same" JRPG.
What JRPGs did you enjoy? Why did you enjoy them?
This transition seems to be recent, as you list some rather new RPGs for the western category.
While the squarely teen-focused story in games like FF10 is grating, the use of random encounters is another design feature that is not particularly 'Japanese'. If anything, the battles in earlier FF games weren't random enough: each area looped through a small selection of scripted encounters that quickly became repetitive, unlike the procedurally-generated (i.e. actually random!) encounters of games like Dragon Quest.
The real problem was the needless awkward transition to a separate battle screen, which FF12 decisively did away with. And according to the article, FF13 works similarly.
I once dug up an old old review from some long dead gaming magazine on Dragon Quest. They expressed their confusion at the random encounters "why would a slime and a rabbit team up to fight against me?" And remarked it was a forgettable series that wouldn't last. (also an article remarking the 'realistic graphics' of Total Recall' on some 8bit system). I guess there's just some things I take for granted, slimes and local fauna teaming up to fight the lvl 1 heroes.
Seems to be something they got from Wizardry though, so not Japanese in origin, but did get adopted. Same with the random encounter battle screens.
I liked those though. I enjoyed Shattered Lands and those other old pre-Windows D&D RPGs where I could hide behind corners or throw fireballs down hallways, but the big and beautiful Amano sprites in Final Fantasy really got me immersed in the experience. I guess technology today though lets you just fight in the regular map.
Is FFX's story line really any more 'teen-focused' than any of the other listed RPG's though? What's the criteria for that sort of thing?
Well, in FF10 the characters that are most important to the story (Tidus and Yuna) are teenagers. The game's themes are very teen-orientated (breaking with tradition, first love) and may seem either irrelevant in concept or naive in treatment to people outside of that age bracket.
FF12's major characters (Ashe, Balthier and Basch) are in their twenties or thirties, and grapple with weightier, more adult themes, such as the conflict between their personal goals and political reality. SE management forced PDP4 to include two teen characters in the hope of shoring up the support of the core audience, but the story couldn't find a lot for them to do. In the best tradition of compromise, that move didn't seem to really satisfy anybody.
Dragon Quest doesn't have a very detailed story until episode 5, in which you guide the main character from his childhood through to the point at which he is raising children of his own. Its family/legacy theme is pretty universal.
Do you think the age of the characters is a reason to set it in the Teen bracket though? There's been many stories in films, books, and whatnot with teenage protagonists and global audiences.
Just purely for example, look at Romeo & Juliette. Full of teen drama, teen angst, teen first love and teens defying their elders. It's a story people enjoy even if they are not teenagers.
The age of the characters alone is not enough to pigeonhole a story, but FF10's entire perspective is teen fantasy. Romeo and Juliet are, quite realistically, unable to effectively single-handedly overthrow a thousand year old belief system and government that controls their entire known world.
>>We wonder whether this shift in theme from world saving to personal salvation signals a deviation for the game from the usual Japanese RPG narrative tropes. “There’s a trend these days to strictly categorise games as western RPGs or Japanese RPGs,” says Kitase, irritated as we imply that the series somehow defines or is defined by its genre.
hear hear, RPGs are RPGs. I enjoyed Shattered Lands and Fallout alongside Final Fantasy III n' Secret of Mana.
Strong agree.
Daaaaamnnnn son, that shit looks good! Is all I have to say about the demo, that cybernetic behemoth is so fucken badass, the rendering is crazy good. I'm really hoping that silly looking breaks thing becomes less important after a while (No doubt in my mind as with most special moves you're given in the beginning by halfway they'll be useless), throwing someone up in the air and having your way with them will be fun for the first 100 enemies (maybe) but I can see it becoming too much of a good thing. Apart from that it looks all good, loving the work Kitase :-) I can see FFXIII and Versus being my two favourite titles this year.
I've never played any Final Fantasy or any other JRPG in my life because I just don't get the turn-based system... Could somebody please explain to me its benefits? Wouldn't it be better if they went the 'Mass Effect' way?
>>'ve never played any Final Fantasy or any other JRPG in my life because I just don't get the turn-based system...
Did you never play Baldur's Gate, Fallout, or Wizardry?
There's a lot of western RPG's that are also turn based, they did them first before Japan.
If anything, action based RPG's are more a Japanese trend that's recently been seen in western RPG's.
Turn-based gameplay places a greater emphasis on strategy and tactics, since the player's success doesn't depend on her manual dexterity. The style that one prefers depends on personal taste, but there's nothing inherently 'Japanese' about turn-based systems: Dragon Quest borrowed the idea from games like Wizardry and ultimately Dungeons and Dragons.
Although previous Final Fantasy games have been extremely shallow - to the point where you are left simply mashing the attack button regardless of where the game is running in real-time or not - there are reasons to be hopeful about FF13. The team has stated that they are increasing the difficulty of individual battles so that there is a realistic chance of the player being defeated. If executed well, there is every chance of the game having turn-based combat that betters Mass Effect, which seems to have spread its manpower too thinly between an unsuccessful attempt to imitate the action of a Halo or Gears of War and more traditional RPG elements.
Thanks for a very informative reply! I can see what you mean by having time to think of a strategy, but don't you think it sort of interrupts the action-flow? Is it true that the turn-based mechanic was originally created because of hardware limitations in PC games?
RPG games basically descend from role playing games where you sit around a table, talk, and roll dice.
Some orcs appear, the game master tells the players 'what do you do', the players then think 'ok, the wizard will throw a fireball, ranger will shoot an arrow, etc.' So it's got its roots in this turn based atmosphere.
The flow isn't interrupted, as everyone is involved in 'what happens next?'
It's more like reading a book than watching TV I guess.
Or perhaps like football, where the action is broken into segments where players have time to huddle and plan their plays.
Yes it interrupts.
The pros it would be that strategy become more rilevant, the cons is that with only 3-4 characters and without the possibility of moving them on the field that strategy is very thin.
So they are a sort of very VERY semplified strategy games, boring as action title as there is not action and boring as strategy games as battles are too simple and very very ripetitive.
Consider that generally you just go with some normal attacks and maybe a potion.. this is all the "game" for at least 80% of the time you pass with it.
There jrpg good strategy games, as the first final fantasy tactics (PS1 and PSP), but they are considered another genre, less mainstream, and there the gameplay is much more satisfacory as you control an army and can move players on the field, they just do not stay still in a row :)
Final fantasy lately is very much based just on cinematics, western people I suppose just yawn but continue in the borting gameplay just to see the next fmv.
And yes it was due to limits, these three characters in a row waiting their turn to attack is an evident compromise, you see bioware has gone from turns to action nowadays, the problem with japanese audience probably is that they got this limits as "genre" so, now it is still risky for japanese developers to pass this way of putting combat in rpgs.
>>so, now it is still risky for japanese developers to pass this way of putting combat in rpgs.
Square Enix also made Kingdom Hearts, a game entirely action based in gameplay. It sells quite well.
With the 16bit era, they had the Secret of Mana series of action-RPGs too.
Legend of Zelda series could also be considered an action-RPG
I guess it depends on where you draw the line between when an action-RPG becomes just all Action game.
Maybe they could do a 'Fallout 3' sort of thing... I think they nailed it with the VATS system!!!
Am I the only person who would be ten times more excited about a PS3 remake of FF7 than the upcoming release of FF13?
Hmmmm so someone still has a bit of a crush on Aeris huh? Come on playboy get over it. I would be gutted if Square put it's dev efforts into a game I've played far too much, a new world and storyline without predetermined limitations excites me a lot more. FF7 would just cause a big clusterfuck of pissed fans hating on Square for not doing something the right way. Mmhmm, murky, treacherous waters them be.
Probably not.
But FF7 has been done already. There's little point in remaking it, because its forte never was graphics or such - so it wouldn't contribute anything new. And top that off with the massive hype it would receive, and how everyone already knows the story.
I mean really, seeing Aeris die with particles and lightning effects still wouldn't make it the sensation it was 1997.
>>because its forte never was graphics or such
But it was. Popping in the demo disc, seeing Midgard loom above, summoning leviathan and witnessing his 3D tital wave, it was an overwhelming display of the 3D power of the Playstation.
Then FF8 came out as a game that just pushed the Playstation to its limits.
>>still wouldn't make it the sensation it was 1997.
not everyone was playing FF7 twelve years ago though, many FF fans now weren't even born then. Square Enix could use it to introduce new fans to their classics, and bring back old fans who want to relive those moments.
I don't have the least interest in Final Fantasy, but I like how PS-exclusives are capable of spawning on the Xbox.
Since Tekken 6 was announced to the 360, all I need is MGS and I have no reason to buy a PS3 anymore :)
I think I'm the only person not really excited for Final Fantasy XIII. I've never finished a FF game b/c they couldn't hold my interest long enough. FFXII was very close to keeping my attention but then I bought Lost Odyssey. Game Over!
I do think that the mutli-console development will force other developers, Tri-Ace & Namco-Bandai, to improve their RPG offerings. Look at End of Eternity! It's a Tri-Ace game that looks ahead of Star Ocean: The Last Hope that released in March. This is what the genre needs to stimulate excitement again. That, or another Lost Odyssey. :)
I'd like to own a PlayStation3 but I can't afford to, Final Fantasy XIII coming to the XBox 360 is great for me. I've been a fan of the series throughout it's Nintendo and Sony incarnations. I tend to follow Square-Enix wherever they go.
It's clear that FFXIII came to the 360 to have a wider audience so they can recoup the large investment SE have put into it.
You only have to listen to him talk about pressure and the success FFXIII needs to work that out.
Whether Microsoft paid SE to bring it to the 360 or it was Square's sole decision, it's common business sense to bring it to both platforms.
Wouldn't quite say dominance more like relevance. The PS2 was such a runaway success that the Xbox just wasn't worth SE's time. Now that the 360 has got a nice install-base in the west SE have to take it seriously as a platform. If I'm not mistaken the Japanese release of FFXIII will be non-english so for those of us that don't know the lingo we'll be waiting like the other western PS3 owners.
I just find it incredible. I don't have a console bias, but If you had told me the very "pro-Japanese" company Square was bringing Final Fantasy to the Xbox platform - I would have said "Yeah...keep dreaming, fanboys."
This is really something.
Yeah, old news bud.
Unbelievable! Coming to the 360 in North America & Europe absolutely solidifies the Xbox's dominance. I would have never believed it! Square loves exclusivity, but this proves that they don't feel the PS3 has the clout to move the install base outside of Japan.
True, yes. But they haven't started the port over to the Xbox360. For the people that have the PS3 they will be getting the game a lot sooner then those with an Xbox360.
Not true. Square has confirmed that it will release day & date on both PS3 and 360 outside of Japan.
If I want to can get it when it's released in Japan and it'll play on my PS3, no region locking you see.