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16
General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 16, 2012, 01:38:22 am »Correction, since FFI. The Four Heroes of Light started the game with the four legendary elemental crystals. That was sort of a plot point, though it was hard to get the plot in that game being that there were no real 'major plot exposition scenes' all over... At least I didn't get the plot until I read about it after finishing the game. It seemed a bit like they were the world's errand-boys to me.
In any case though, every Final Fantasy in the main series has had a crystal that was somehow important to it.
Correction, I was talking about renaming crystals.
I don't think you remember that interview correctly. Your commentary incorrectly assigns tasks to team members. It's clear that you aren't familiar with the process of game development. That's fine; most people aren't. This paragraph is basically equivalent to saying that nine men could have a baby in a month.
Again, I realize your frustrations, but adding more people does not in principle make for a faster or better production. While tushantin doesn't get the details quite right, he is correct in identifying that management matters a lot in these situations, and the bigger the team, the more complex that becomes. Add to that the fact that not all tasks can be done in parallel, and it becomes clear that adding more people cannot even in principle always yield faster results. This is known as blocking. For example, if I need a piece of art to finish a level I'm working on, but tushantin hasn't produced it yet, then I am blocked on that task by tushantin. Having more level designers or artists isn't going to fix that.
I wish there were an easy answer to this problem. Believe me, the difficulties of game development are far worse for those on the inside. But adding people only works up to a point, and only when management is equipped to handle the team size and distribution.
I wish I could find that interview for you, but it was by kotaku before XIII was released. Perhaps the time she spent on the rock is not remembered exactly, but I do remember her talking about the detail she put into a single rock. But what I'm even more curious about you, is the simple phrase "This paragraph is basically equivalent to saying that nine men could have a baby in a month." I don't understand. Maybe it's the fact that the I haven't eaten all day and it's late enough for bed. But I'm just telling you what SE says. They are literally outsourcing this grunt work. They just announced that. And that's what I'm referring to. I'm going to just guess that maybe if SE is outsourcing that work, then it can be done by anyone and that perhaps more workers and make it work faster.
17
General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 15, 2012, 09:12:37 pm »I've always thought "crystals" were just a lame plot device. At least call them something else. CT had dreamstone, sunstone, etc. CC had frozen flame, dragon tear, etc. Crystal doesn't do anything for me, but for some reason giving it a different name gives it substance somehow.
They've been doing that since VI.
FFVI - Magicite
FFVII - Materia
FFIX - The Crystal and I guess Jewels
FFX - Spheres
FFXII - Nethecite, the Sun-Cryst, and the giant one in giruvegan (although I don't think they said it's name)
FFXIII - Fal'Cie? Although they really overused the "crystal" root with Crystogen
Although I think they usually do a good job with it. XIII was the first time where there were too many crystals. At least XIII made them annoying.
18
General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 14, 2012, 07:12:31 pm »Mr Bekkler, I was responding specifically to the initial post.
Well, I was referring to the basic grunt programming. Not systems or whatever. More like scenery like rocks and trees. I remember an interview where a group of programmers were tell us about what they were working on was scenery. Their job was making sure the game was pretty. Spending a week designing a rock. I remember a designer said she spent a whole week programming a rock. I'm not talking about a writer. I'm not talking about a system. I'm not talking about ideas. I'm talking about all the grunt work. Which they are currently passing off to other developers. Like Tri-Ace. They did it in XIII-2 and they already said they are doing it again.
As for you, Mr. Bekkler, it sounds as if you don't want to play an FF game. No cute monsters? No Cactuar? And no pure evil villian? Did you play XIII-2 Caius isn't pure evil. He's evil from a loving place. Vayne isn't even really evil. And it's not very good. No Crystals? FFVIII was a good example of why I always want crystals in an FF game.
19
General Discussion / Re: The Chrono Compendium - <you fill the slogan>
« on: July 13, 2012, 09:44:32 pm »
We should have a countdown until the day the Trademark expires.
20
General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 11, 2012, 11:23:43 am »
Oh shit... I did say VI was the best... I'm very bad at diction. Hard to argue, but I didn't really mean it was the best. But can't deny it's damn good. Also you said the music was failing. I COMPLETELY disagree. Not to say XII, XIII, and XIII-2 had amazing soundtracks, but...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOJ91H4mraU That's a great OST in a game. As for the World Map I think everyone who play JRPGs and agree that they were more than just a nice thing to have. They were, in a way, an interesting way of making a menu interactive. As for random enounters, I agree. It's not that random battles are bad, however, I think it's much harder to find a balance of whats too much. Pokemon is too much. Revelations: Persona too little. Agreed about the interesting enemies. Example: FFV I think V was the first game where zombie were killed by healing. Not to mention enemies were creatively hard. Atmos would spam meteor then when a character died try to eat them. To this day I can't beat ExDeath. (I did give up about 6 years ago and never tried again, I should go back and do that) Instead of Yizmat who just took forever. Oh lord how that was boring. And I don't think SE was trying to have a Token Black character. I don't think they are trying to be racist or even trying to appeal to every race. I think they thought Sazh was a fun character and decided to use him. I agreed. I mean Reddas was black. He wasnt a token black character. He was a character that happened to be black. And I thought the fact that Snow and Serah were not the main characters and them falling in love before the plot was probably the best part of XIII. It did a great job of getting rid of that cliche. Until XIII-2 decided Noel and Serah needed to fall in love. I don't think Kitase does much anymore. To be honest I think Toriyama does it all. He sucks. Play the new Parasite Eve. And by play I mean don't, it's story wasnt good at all. And also I think what made VII, IX, and X so great was that you EXPERIENCED the story instead of just being told it happened. Youre introduced to Sephiroth with a trial of blood. Instantly you fear him. You fall in love with Aerith and then he kills her. You being to hate him. You experience Sephiroth not told "He's powerful and evil dude." And you're absolutely right. Squenix thinks what made their games great were gimmicks, but what they thought were gimmicks were actually ways of evolving what they already had. Materia was a way of giving you control of a character's class. Instead of you can be any of these classes, it became create your class. This idea came back in VIII, X, and XII. This idea seems to be slipping with every game lately. XIII is a great example of that. Not only could you not choose your classes for 70% of the game but each character had a limit on what they could do in each class. This came back in XIII-2 except you had access to every class at the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOJ91H4mraU That's a great OST in a game. As for the World Map I think everyone who play JRPGs and agree that they were more than just a nice thing to have. They were, in a way, an interesting way of making a menu interactive. As for random enounters, I agree. It's not that random battles are bad, however, I think it's much harder to find a balance of whats too much. Pokemon is too much. Revelations: Persona too little. Agreed about the interesting enemies. Example: FFV I think V was the first game where zombie were killed by healing. Not to mention enemies were creatively hard. Atmos would spam meteor then when a character died try to eat them. To this day I can't beat ExDeath. (I did give up about 6 years ago and never tried again, I should go back and do that) Instead of Yizmat who just took forever. Oh lord how that was boring. And I don't think SE was trying to have a Token Black character. I don't think they are trying to be racist or even trying to appeal to every race. I think they thought Sazh was a fun character and decided to use him. I agreed. I mean Reddas was black. He wasnt a token black character. He was a character that happened to be black. And I thought the fact that Snow and Serah were not the main characters and them falling in love before the plot was probably the best part of XIII. It did a great job of getting rid of that cliche. Until XIII-2 decided Noel and Serah needed to fall in love. I don't think Kitase does much anymore. To be honest I think Toriyama does it all. He sucks. Play the new Parasite Eve. And by play I mean don't, it's story wasnt good at all. And also I think what made VII, IX, and X so great was that you EXPERIENCED the story instead of just being told it happened. Youre introduced to Sephiroth with a trial of blood. Instantly you fear him. You fall in love with Aerith and then he kills her. You being to hate him. You experience Sephiroth not told "He's powerful and evil dude." And you're absolutely right. Squenix thinks what made their games great were gimmicks, but what they thought were gimmicks were actually ways of evolving what they already had. Materia was a way of giving you control of a character's class. Instead of you can be any of these classes, it became create your class. This idea came back in VIII, X, and XII. This idea seems to be slipping with every game lately. XIII is a great example of that. Not only could you not choose your classes for 70% of the game but each character had a limit on what they could do in each class. This came back in XIII-2 except you had access to every class at the start.
21
General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 10, 2012, 11:39:53 pm »ZealKnight, have you played Xenoblade? MANY of the aspects your describe are actually evident in Xenoblade... The FFXII semi-real-time combat, the weather system, the character affinity, etc. Double tech's and summons weren't included in Xenoblade, but I didn't miss them, to be honest.
Honestly, Xenoblade felt like a more refined FFXII. It took the combat strengths of that game and made them so much more user-friendly... and more fun. And we all know that at the end of the day the 'fun' factor takes center stage. I'm still slowly playing through it (having a baby makes video game time a rare occurance) and have been LOVING it so much. It's one of my favorite video games ever, and that's saying a lot. Each time I play it it is an absolute treasure.
I did play Xenoblade. That's actually why I thought of this. The first thing I thought was this reminds of of XII. I personally think Xenoblade is the best RPG I've played. If it had Chrono Cross or Trigger's story I'd stop playing video games because no game could beat its perfection. My only issue with Xenoblade (besides how freakishly long it is) was the abilities started to get confusing. When monsters started to see me reading the future my mind was crying. That's why an FF coating would be friendly and loving.
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General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 10, 2012, 08:36:48 pm »
Wow, I just re read that post and it sounded very dick. I'm sorry. I just meant if you go back to FF12 I think you'll find that it is still fun and respectable. I can't do that with 13 or 13-2. They're very hard to go through again. And FFX's battle got so boring at times and SO easily exploitable. I think it's a great game, but I think it was directed very well that you don't see the flaws easily.
23
General Discussion / Re: I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 10, 2012, 08:33:01 pm »I was not particularly impressed with any aspect of FFXII, and the battle system did not strike me as something worth emulating (a friend of mine failed to finish the game because of it—it was just too twitchy for her. I did get to the end, but I don't think I'm going to repeat the experience any time soon). Furthermore, even if some of Squeenix's executive may claim that story is paramount in their games, FFXII's plot was murky and difficult to keep track of, and most of the characters were unengaging. Flashy video cutscenes do not a story make.
You didn't like Basch, Balthier, Ashe, or Fran? I personally love FFXII. I'm not sure you really played much XII if you're still trying to use that old argument of "game plays itself, lol!"
Gambits are there as an option, but you absolutely do NOT have to use them. There's an option (on by default, I believe, but it's been a while since I've played, so I could be wrong about that) to have the game pause when you open the battle menu. From there, you can flip between characters and put in your own commands for each character. You can play it entirely manually if you wish.
As for the gambit system itself, it will only do what you tell it to do, so while it does automate some basic things, it's still entirely your call as to what it's automating. If you know that every time you have your main character attack a monster you're going to go give the rest of your party an order to attack the same monster, why not just set a gambit for that? It streamlines the combat which is something that I think everyone can agree is not a bad thing. You're never going to be running into a situation where you're thinking "why are you doing that, gambit system? That doesn't make any sense and you're stupid!" (unless you misunderstood the "program" you entered
And even then, if the gambit has gone off the rails, your manual inputs will override the gambit so you can fix the issue immediately, then you can go back into the menu and tweak the gambit to fix whatever issue has arisen. They did purposefully make it in the image of an MMO, but for every person like you who takes exception to that, there's at least one person like me who loves the idea. The bits that they took from MMOs work really well and because it's single-player, you don't have to worry about other idiots fuckin' around with your ability to enjoy it. Because it's offline and non-subscription, they don't have to build the game to be a total boring-ass grindfest.Being able to see the mobs (and thus being able to choose to avoid them if you wish) is the single best thing to come about in JRPG design in years, I'd say. It's really no different than being able to Run from battle which you've been able to do in every FF ever, it's just less tedious. If they need to force you into a battle, they have ways to ensure you can't get away, but for what would be random battles in prior installments, you get the choice ahead of a loading screen/battle-start-animation of whether or not you really want to bother.
As for gambits, again, you're right, nobody at all seemed to mind them in Dragon Age: Origins... I didn't hear word one about that game playing itself, but it had literally the exact same system. The difference was the Final Fantasy fans don't want the franchise to stay fresh and ahead of the genre. They want Dragon Quest with Tetsuya Nomura's art.
You set up gambits for your party members, so that they will do exactly what you want them to do. If you want them to deviate from that, just give a direct order and it will override it. You don't need to turn the entire system off to get the manual control. If 90% of the time you're going to have all three party members attack one target, tell me why it's better to have to input that Attack command three separate times EVERY time? Wouldn't it be smoother to tell the game "hey, unless I tell you otherwise, I want these two fools to attack whatever I'm attacking"?
Everyone makes out like FF12 was this radical departure for the series, and while on the surface it was, when you think through the mechanics, it's really not that far off of what came before. Besides I said try to get rid of the gambits with forced direct control using the tablet of the WiiU. That should be the goal of the battle system for FFXV honestly, a way of having a Nomura style FF game with the enemy/battle on the field with direct control of each character. I just said if the interface is still too hard or if the PS or XB is the chosen system then the gambit system is perfectly fine.
As far as characters are concerned Basch and Gabranth are two of the greatest characters in FF history. Between the dialogue and motivation or the design they are all around lovable. Ashe was strong but not sociopathic, in contrast to lightning. Balthier was witty and badass. Vann is the only worthless character in the game. At least Penelo befriends Larsa and uses him as a MAJOR bargaining tool with Arcadia. Fran was sexy, interesting, and informative. Shes basically Lulu with an interesting past, and a sexier design. I won't say the game was perfect. Parts of it were down right stupid. I liked Vayne. I just don't think the epic things he did were presented as epic as the should of. Like when he killed his father. I believe he killed all his brothers too. Too bad they didn't say anything about that.
Honestly if you really want the classic JRPG experience Dragon Quest might be your thing. FF is always trying to evolve to stay ahead of the rpg genre. DQ is just classic fun. You should try that out. It might be your thing instead of current FF. That and the 4 warriors of light and bravery default.
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General Discussion / I posted this in Reddit but I thought why not see what my favorite people think?
« on: July 10, 2012, 12:58:14 pm »
Ok everyone likes to complain about Final Fantasy. It's become fashionable in the video game world to hate on Final Fantasy. So in complete seriousness how would you fix the franchise?
If it were me, I'd start with canceling all these spinoffs. Not because the suck, but because they waste personel that could be used on speeding up the process of creating the franchise. FF12 took four years to be released and 13 took three. I'm not saying a game should only take one year to make, but two years should be a max.
Next, I'd fire Toriyama. Maybe Kitase too. Toriyama has pretty much proven himself unable to direct a game at this point. Yes Toriyama was credited as director of X but so were three others. He was not given full directorship of that game he did receive full directorship of X-2, XIII, XIII-2, XII:Revenant Wings, and Blood of Bahamut. Each of those games were decent, but they don't have the mass appeal of the old FF games. The reason I might fire Kitase is because he has TOO much power. At this point he is a symbol of FFVII and less of a creator. He probably is still a great writer, but he is such a supporter of Toriyama it makes me question is thought process. But the main reason I would fire him, is because of his inability to get along with Hiroyuki Ito. If you don't know who Ito is let me first direct you to his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyuki_Ito Basically he created the ATB system, Gilgamesh, the Job system in V and Tactics, Directed VI, The trial scene in Chrono Trigger, the materia system, Directed FFIX, the ATE system in IX, Mognet, Chocobo Hot&Cold, and Directed XII
Now here's the issue. Ito believes a game should be about how the player interacts with the story and Kitase believes a powerful story should take full precedent. I don't think they get along. If possible that they could work together the best Final Fantasy ever could be made. I.E. another FFVI
As far as battle system is concerned I'd start by taking XII's system and evolve it. I'd use the WiiU. I think the tablet is a great idea for JRPGs. You can use the analogue stick to walk around and use the the touch tablet to control your characters. This would ease the interface and if done well enough could get rid of the need for gambits. Use some standards in Western RPGs, such as auto attack after the initial choice to attack and auto attack things that attack you. If this still is too difficult gambits on all party members excluding the main character could be utilized. As far as Limits are concerned I'd like to include double tech and triple techs. They should be cut scenes similar to quickenings in XII. To get new single techs you would level up. And double techs would be gotten similar to Persona 4 where increasing your relationship with other characters can get you double techs. This would be similar with triple techs, but instead the three characters should have a group affection level as well. Add the idea where you can date any character you want. Hell why not make a character gay if you want. Have each of the characters hate the villain for reasons similar to Tifa's and Aerith's reasons for Sephiroth. (the only way of learning it though is by building the relationship with the character as to not have one character's story overshadow the other) As far as character design is concerned Nomura usually has that done pretty well, but if I had to suggest something (although really unimportant because he's great with this as it is) I guess I would take inspiration from some Kpop groups. I mean 2ne1 and Bigbang dress like a bunch of FF characters. In the first 6 seconds of Fantastic Baby we see G-Dragon looking like a FF villain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAbokV76tkU As for 2ne1 if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC9yVkniWQ4
The ATE system would be a great way of allowing the player to interact with the characters and build relationships. The ability system could use the crysterium system of XIII but instead of it being already done for you, you create the grid yourself. You start with 10 empty nodes and infuse materia (not really materia but I'm assuming it would be called something crystal like, basically items that hold a certain amount of nodes stats and abilities) into them to extend the grid. Of course by infusing some you sacrifice something, either they might be hard to come by or they take a bit of your stats. (like how equipping certain materia lower certain stats) Also Summons wouldn't replace the party, instead they would be a big attack that attacks all aggro enemies, there would be a short cutscene though so don't be too disappointed. I would make nine playable characters, each with their own unique weapon and starting stats, however the stats are completely customizable but for example a character that starts out as a mage is harder to turn into a tank but is possible to max out their stats in this way if you really want. As for leveling up, it does need to be there, the way stats would increase would be on a percentage scale, depending on which stats you increase on the ability grid. In other words if you spend most of your stat increases on HP in the ability grid then when you level up you get more HP than any other stat. Save points refill Hp and Mp. I'd include the battle chain from XII. Treasure Chests would not be random (WTF were they thinking putting that in FFXII!?) Weather like XII, but it could be done a bit better and traps could exist still.
Next I wanna stress Mini games should be involved in the main story at least once, like VII and X. And the FFIX or FFVIII card game. Also all sidequests should be available at all times, but most importantly they should yield the BEST equipment and abilities and should have just as compelling a story as the main story and be about major characters (not necessarily the playable characters, but major characters none the less.) not some random NPC whose entire creation was solely for the sidequest to exist. This is what made Chrono Trigger's sidequests so great and why I do the everytime I replay it... every year.
A world map would be awesome, but I could deal with a FFXII style of map. Another thing I would like is just conversation for the sake of conversation like in WRPGs where I can ask anything I like. That's only my take on the franchise though. I'm sure I missed something in this rant though. lol
If it were me, I'd start with canceling all these spinoffs. Not because the suck, but because they waste personel that could be used on speeding up the process of creating the franchise. FF12 took four years to be released and 13 took three. I'm not saying a game should only take one year to make, but two years should be a max.
Next, I'd fire Toriyama. Maybe Kitase too. Toriyama has pretty much proven himself unable to direct a game at this point. Yes Toriyama was credited as director of X but so were three others. He was not given full directorship of that game he did receive full directorship of X-2, XIII, XIII-2, XII:Revenant Wings, and Blood of Bahamut. Each of those games were decent, but they don't have the mass appeal of the old FF games. The reason I might fire Kitase is because he has TOO much power. At this point he is a symbol of FFVII and less of a creator. He probably is still a great writer, but he is such a supporter of Toriyama it makes me question is thought process. But the main reason I would fire him, is because of his inability to get along with Hiroyuki Ito. If you don't know who Ito is let me first direct you to his Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyuki_Ito Basically he created the ATB system, Gilgamesh, the Job system in V and Tactics, Directed VI, The trial scene in Chrono Trigger, the materia system, Directed FFIX, the ATE system in IX, Mognet, Chocobo Hot&Cold, and Directed XII
Now here's the issue. Ito believes a game should be about how the player interacts with the story and Kitase believes a powerful story should take full precedent. I don't think they get along. If possible that they could work together the best Final Fantasy ever could be made. I.E. another FFVI
As far as battle system is concerned I'd start by taking XII's system and evolve it. I'd use the WiiU. I think the tablet is a great idea for JRPGs. You can use the analogue stick to walk around and use the the touch tablet to control your characters. This would ease the interface and if done well enough could get rid of the need for gambits. Use some standards in Western RPGs, such as auto attack after the initial choice to attack and auto attack things that attack you. If this still is too difficult gambits on all party members excluding the main character could be utilized. As far as Limits are concerned I'd like to include double tech and triple techs. They should be cut scenes similar to quickenings in XII. To get new single techs you would level up. And double techs would be gotten similar to Persona 4 where increasing your relationship with other characters can get you double techs. This would be similar with triple techs, but instead the three characters should have a group affection level as well. Add the idea where you can date any character you want. Hell why not make a character gay if you want. Have each of the characters hate the villain for reasons similar to Tifa's and Aerith's reasons for Sephiroth. (the only way of learning it though is by building the relationship with the character as to not have one character's story overshadow the other) As far as character design is concerned Nomura usually has that done pretty well, but if I had to suggest something (although really unimportant because he's great with this as it is) I guess I would take inspiration from some Kpop groups. I mean 2ne1 and Bigbang dress like a bunch of FF characters. In the first 6 seconds of Fantastic Baby we see G-Dragon looking like a FF villain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAbokV76tkU As for 2ne1 if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC9yVkniWQ4
The ATE system would be a great way of allowing the player to interact with the characters and build relationships. The ability system could use the crysterium system of XIII but instead of it being already done for you, you create the grid yourself. You start with 10 empty nodes and infuse materia (not really materia but I'm assuming it would be called something crystal like, basically items that hold a certain amount of nodes stats and abilities) into them to extend the grid. Of course by infusing some you sacrifice something, either they might be hard to come by or they take a bit of your stats. (like how equipping certain materia lower certain stats) Also Summons wouldn't replace the party, instead they would be a big attack that attacks all aggro enemies, there would be a short cutscene though so don't be too disappointed. I would make nine playable characters, each with their own unique weapon and starting stats, however the stats are completely customizable but for example a character that starts out as a mage is harder to turn into a tank but is possible to max out their stats in this way if you really want. As for leveling up, it does need to be there, the way stats would increase would be on a percentage scale, depending on which stats you increase on the ability grid. In other words if you spend most of your stat increases on HP in the ability grid then when you level up you get more HP than any other stat. Save points refill Hp and Mp. I'd include the battle chain from XII. Treasure Chests would not be random (WTF were they thinking putting that in FFXII!?) Weather like XII, but it could be done a bit better and traps could exist still.
Next I wanna stress Mini games should be involved in the main story at least once, like VII and X. And the FFIX or FFVIII card game. Also all sidequests should be available at all times, but most importantly they should yield the BEST equipment and abilities and should have just as compelling a story as the main story and be about major characters (not necessarily the playable characters, but major characters none the less.) not some random NPC whose entire creation was solely for the sidequest to exist. This is what made Chrono Trigger's sidequests so great and why I do the everytime I replay it... every year.
A world map would be awesome, but I could deal with a FFXII style of map. Another thing I would like is just conversation for the sake of conversation like in WRPGs where I can ask anything I like. That's only my take on the franchise though. I'm sure I missed something in this rant though. lol
25
Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Wiz Khalifa isn't the only musician that likes CT
« on: July 09, 2012, 11:37:19 am »
26
General Discussion / Re: Video Game Discussion Thread
« on: June 29, 2012, 11:38:14 am »how does it happen?? when your fuckin ceo wada listens to a fortune teller, alienating one of the greatest vgm composers and countless other staff members, thats how it happens.
No, I actually have a new respect for Wada. He knows he's hated for what FF has become and he wants the staff to fix it. But somehow I don't think his idea for outsourcing grunt work is bad. It might make games faster. Think about 12, it took 4 years to make on PS2. I'm fine with that move. What actually confuses me, is his decision to fire the director of FF14. The game was released prematurely, I don't think by the director's decision. He did in fact make 11, which I personally love, and produced Cross and Xenogears. I think he was smart enough to not do that stupidity. Now I know 14 did terribly and he was in charge of it, leaving him ultimately responsible, but isn't toriyama responsible for both 13 and 13-2? Both are critically infamous, yet he gets to keep his job. Even having 13-3 in the works. I don't think Wada is the problem anymore, i think Kitase is TOO powerful at Square. He doesn't like CT, I believe he said so in an interview. He doesn't get along with Ito. (the only man that deserves to be in charge of FF in place of Sakaguchi) His entire view on video games, is that the story is the only thing that should matter. (yet he still to this day doesnt understand that excellent directing is what made 7 and 10 good, not the story or gameplay, thats why 8 is bad) The only problem is Wada can't do anything about Kitase. He has too much power. If they let him go, think of the backlash Square would get from fans. I think Kitase is protecting Toriyama, holding FF7 over everyone elses head at the corporation. However, we will never know considering how japanese PR works. After all both Takana and Matsuno both "stepped down for health reasons" it must suck to be a director at Square with all the health risks.
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Characters, Plot, and Themes / Re: What happened to Magus in the original Timeline?
« on: June 29, 2012, 11:18:16 am »Chrono45, I did some searching in the game scripts. Here's what I found. It is spoken in Medina, 1000 AD (after leaving 65 million BC).Quote from: NA Translation[Mystics]
400 years have passed since Magus
commanded the Mystics, and waged
war against the humans.Quote from: Re-translation[Demons]
400 years have passed since Magus-sama led us
Demons and challenged the humans to war.
To me, they both just sound as if he just took control of a situation. At the very least there was a cold war type air between the two groups. He may have started the war. I don't think he really did, but I mean it's sorta ambiguous and I won't be upset if he did. My only theory really is that he dies against Lavos. I really hope he got sent to the future though.... I'm sorry I keep saying that but can you really blame me? TWO MAGUSES (maguss? magi? I'll stick with maguses) IN CHRONO BRAKE!!!!
It's amazing how much confusion can result from a single plot point that isn't thought out all that well.
The whole problem rests with the assertion that Magus summons, or attempts to summon, Lavos in 600 A.D. As strong as Magus is, he is no fool. What could he hope to achieve against Lavos by himself in an age far less advanced from where he originally came? I would argue that his intention isn't to summon Lavos at all, but to magically reopen the time-portal that sent him to the middle ages in the first place. Think about it. He cares about Schala more than anything. What could he want more than the possibility of going back in time and preventing the destruction of Zeal and saving Schala? And if he's successful, it would effectively negate the entire 600 A.D. timeline, meaning that all of the evil acts Magus performed to achieve his objective would amount to nothing. He would know this, so from his point of view the ends would justify the means.
As for Crono and company, my view is that there isn't two versions of history (like in Chrono Cross) but only one. Everything is interconnected. Crono was meant to travel through time, discover the ruined future, and journey to Zeal to attempt to stop Lavos. Janus was meant to be hurled into the future and later return to the past to challenge Lavos. The first half of the game is essentially one giant pre-destination paradox, one that isn't truly resolved until Crono - who was meant to die - is brought back to life by his friends, thereby creating a reality where it was possible to prevent the Day of Lavos in 1999.
I'm not challenging any of the points people have made in this thread, nor am I challenging what canonically happened in the game. I'm saying canon itself is flawed and should be reexamined.
I don't really understand what you mean by one timeline. But you did say that Magus wasn't going to fight Lavos, which he seriously did. He fought Lavos on his own. It was literally the first thing he did when he met Lavos as an adult. I guess you're arguing that it's only because he was in 12000BC and he wouldnt do that in 600AD. But I don't think that's entirely likely. Magus is a dick. I love that about him. He thinks he can do it alone. And I root for him because of that. He's arrogant enough to think that he could kill Lavos alone. I think that's what all of us think and like about him. He's like Russel Crowe: if the afterlife and God do exist, they are both the type of person to have the balls to insult God to his face. He was trying to summon Lavos to fight him alone. He was in it for the revenge. I just can't believe Magus would think logically about his past. Personally, I know how revenge, particularly from ruining someones childhood, can cause that someone to throw all logic out the window.
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Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Re: If I am correct ( Chrono Brake/ Break expiration date)
« on: June 14, 2012, 06:07:55 pm »
Yeah like Portal 3, Half-Life 3, Team Fortress 3, and Final Fantasy XIII-3
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Chrono Compendium Discussion / Anyone use tumblr?
« on: May 17, 2012, 08:32:14 pm »
I'm falling in love with it.
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General Discussion / Re: New SE title will "surprise"
« on: May 12, 2012, 11:34:59 pm »They spelled Chrono Break wrong.
Actually isn't the current trademark spelled Chrono Brake? The american one was Chrono Break, but that doesn't exist anymore right?