by Tanooki Sun Nov 25, 2018 11:06 pm
Xeogred: I don't keep up on gaming drama anymore, kind of pissed me off so I try and avoid it. If the game is hated, it doesn't appear people in here think the same. The way I got away from detesting Square over how they've handled FF is to just not think of then as FF games anymore. They're just games using the name branding to sell them, but aren't really them despite using similar terms for spells and some items. FF7 was different, FF8 was just all around off the rails, and FF9 came off as a final hurrah and apology. FF10 and since went into this weird valley of being non-FF, and that's not even going into the MMOs. I actually liked FF13 because with the time I could invest I appreciated it being linear. FF15 is a 100GB nightmare so I had no interest in buying it on PC, but the Pocket version taking out a lot of the fluff and streamlining it leaving the story intact I am digging that, as I am with the live combat. I will agree it's sad how they screw up so hard core and drag out, scrap and restart projects under the FF name now that it is like a story in debt management at its worst.
And I thought FF13 got the trilogy and other spinoffs because of debt losses around multiple scrapped projects and restarts that dragged the game out for years longer than intended in development also around that crystal engine it used too. Maybe I'd hate on FF15 if I put $60 into it and not $16, and if it was the huge bloated excuse for the primary game but I'm playing the pocket one. Pocket I read other than the odd art direction is the better one as you get the story condensed and refined, the bloat and weird situations of the full removed or minimized, so perhaps it's a less painful thing. I don't hate it, and I'm into the 4th chapter.
I think it is true Square is looking to re-evaluate their business model, and because of FF13/15 and their deep expenses which probably is why FF15 Pocket exists, it was why you see what their efforts have been in the last year or so. They're now strongly focusing for better or worse on the mobile market, even to the tune of doing HD efforts on their back library to stuff onto things like the upcoming FF12 HD on download/physical for Switch and other things like I Am Setuna, Lost Sphear, and Octopath Traveler. But they're also making other old games, or remaking them for mobile/tablet stuff, plus their newer IP like Chaos Rings trilogy on that format too. They don't even cut much for breaks on price, one of the most expensive peddlers of gaming media on mobile and the most stingy on sales too. They said a great deal of their profit now comes from this, so I see them expanding more in that direction as they're kind of incompetent for grand scale efforts as they lose years and millions in losses doing them it seems since the PS3 era.
