A Chat With the Final Fantasy XIII Team 56
1up's Shane Bettenhausen had the chance to sit down for a chat with the team behind FFXIII. They discuss the multiple versions of the games planned, the character of the title's heroine, the futuristic setting, and just a little bit about the game's battle system. From the article: "At first sight, it might seem like an action game, but FFXIII inherits the long tradition of the numbered FF games, which is the active-time battle command system. We are trying to use a similar system to what you've seen, but the major difference is that the battle will be speeded up considerably. In the past, you had to wait to input commands, but our goal here is to reduce that waiting time as much as possible, so that the battles are greatly speeded up."
Re:I have a question... (Score:3, Informative)
How can the FIRST response get scored Redundant? (Score:2)
Re:How can the FIRST response get scored Redundant (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How can the FIRST response get scored Redundant (Score:1)
Beside's everyone knows FFVII was THE final fantasy to end all final fantasy....yet they keep making them.
Re:I have a question... (Score:5, Insightful)
Both games are good they are just for different audiences. From my point of view I actually hate open ended game. To me when a developer says they are making an open ended game they mean they are making a game completely devoid of plot.
Why is it everyone should want to play a game where you get to do nothing of any importance, your character doesn't matter and the world stays completely stagnant no matter what. Why do you have the have a choice in everything that happens in a game? Why are your ideas only the good ones? Are the only good books "choose your own adventure" books? Or are those too rail based for you as well?
Wake up! You're not a little kid anymore. The world doesn't revolve around you. Other people ideas and stories to tell, listening to them may be entertaining and beneficial to you. Entertainment has been long dominated by non interactive story telling. Theater, movies, books, and music are all non interactive mediums with interactive counterparts but the non interactive part of it has always been more popular.
Bringing the final fantasy movie into this is completely irrelevant too. The final fantasy move was nothing like any of the game. It was its own work. I think the only reason they game it that name is because the marketing department said it would be a good idea. If they just called it "the spirit within" I don't think it would have had nearly as bad of a reputation.
I will say that RPG is the not the correct term to call a final fantasy game or any other the others like it. They are interactive stories. But for a long time now they have been called RPGs and RPG when talking about video games does not mean the same thing as RPG when referring to pen and paper games so I'll keep referring the them as such.
Speeded up? (Score:2)
Are folks really so impatient that waiting a few seconds to input a command is just intolerable? I fire up FFIV-FFVI from time to time and just tool around in the battle system--I _enjoyed_ the old turn based system. Hell, the FFX system wasn't so bad, either. I guess they're trying to cut out either the "random battle" syndrome or just make them as "painless" as possible.
(Don't pin me
Re:Speeded up? (Score:2)
FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:3, Interesting)
The only was ATB could be made better is to eliminate any need to dig into menus without getting rid of the pretty. I wish FF XIII luck, but I'm not sure I like where the series is going with FF XII in terms of control schema.
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:2, Informative)
FFX didn't use Active Time Battle, it used a turn based system...
Yes, FFX's system was better than ATB is, because you don't have any pointless pauses while waiting for bars to fill, turns just occur in order and the action only stops to allow the player to select a new command. However this new system isn't the turn based system FFX used. The interview doesn't give enough information to say more than that, though.
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:1)
Nit: you did have pointless pauses between turns. In specially constructed situations, you can end up waiting longer than you would in an ATB game at even slow speed. It's just that the pause is very short during normal gameplay, so short that you didn't even notice.
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:1)
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:1)
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:2)
It sort of used both. It used the same basic algorithm as the Active Time Battle, it's just that instead of rolling the clock along once your turn arrives, it stops and lets you select your action, and allows you to see the order of actions assuming all future turns are a basic attack.
With this system, you can actually see whether, for instance, your "delay attack" attack is worth firing, because when you point it at a monster you can see its
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:1)
That's still turn based - turn based doesn't mean "everyone picks an action and they all resolve," it means "based on turns" and in FFX's case, each "turn" only one participant got to take an action.
It's essentially Final Fantasy Tactic's "charge" system (in fact, I think FFX called their system "Charge Time Battle" or something weird like that) - each participant in the battle takes a turn, and then has to recharge a "charge" count based on their speed. The character with the lowest "charge" count goes
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:2)
Perhaps you don't understand the "sort of" in "sort of used both"? Obviously it's a turn based system, duh. But it has a lot in common with the active time system, too, and tactically it's better understood as a frozen ATB system with no action delays than the older, simpler round-based systems; manipulating your opponents turn has no equivalent in those round
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:2)
This is the mode in which I always play FF games because I hate being pressured by the clock. I play RPGs tactically and not as an exercise in speed and reflexes, so to me FFX was the perfection of how I play the ATB system.
Re:FFX almost perfected the ATB system. (Score:1)
Well, I know it's been said already, but I figure I'll add my 2 cents in. I really, really disliked FFX's battle system. I can't argue with much of what you said. It was well written for what it was, and it did seem to run pretty smooth, but I don't think it's like the ATB at all. At least not if you play a Final Fantasy game with ATB set to... was it called active? Well, the setting that isn't 'Wait'.
I liked having to input my commands q
Re:Speeded up? (Score:2)
It was like this:
First player-character attack animation.
Wait 3 seconds...
DLDO does 3 dmg to IMP
Wait 3 seconds...
Second player-character attack animation.
Wait 3 seconds...
WHOR does 8 dmg to IMP
Wait 2 seconds...
IMP perishes.
Wait 2 seconds.
BTCH
After the first 10 or so battles... (Score:1)
1980's-style turn-based interface = "active"? (Score:2)
I think that's the first time I've heard FF's 1980's-style turn-based interface described as "active".
Re:1980's-style turn-based interface = "active"? (Score:3, Informative)
FF6, for example, wasn't properly turn-based: each character had a timer on when their next action could be done. if you sat and did nothing, the mobs would still attack, while each of your characters was ready.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Time_Battle and note that this was even used in ChronoTrigger, another SNES title.
This has been in most of the numbered FF's since FF4. Even FFXI is basically the same thing, though you don't need
Re:1980's-style turn-based interface = "active"? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Back to the roots (Score:1)
XIII is starting to sound like a game I'll enjoy. Of course, I still don't like the idea of announcing three of them at once. If I have to buy and play all three to get the complete story then I won't be a happy camper.
"the numbered FF games?" (Score:2)
(Honestly curious; I've just played FFVII, which was ATB, and FFX, which was not, as I understand the term. So odd-numbered would fit my two data points.)
--
Carnage Blender [carnageblender.com]: Meet interesting people. Kill them.
Re:"the numbered FF games?" (Score:1)
Re:"the numbered FF games?" (Score:1)
Re:"the numbered FF games?" (Score:1)
Blast from the Past. (Score:2)
I loved those games. (Score:2)
One of the coolest features of this game is that it was multiplayer. Someone could pick up the second controller and take control of one of the toons.
Re:Blast from the Past. (Score:1)
Re:Blast from the Past. (Score:2, Insightful)
I am saddened by all these gamers and developers shouting "REALTIME FTW" all the time as there are some people like me who detest realtime gaming.
Re:Blast from the Past. (Score:2)
(I do love Seiken Densetsu 2 & 3, by the way, but KH2 is just so over the top.)
Re:Blast from the Past. (Score:1)
Just end it already. (Score:2)
The Final Fantasy games were good, but not after having been redone for the hundredth time.
They should just do one spectacular finale and leave it at that. Call it The True Final Fantasy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Just end it already. (Score:2)
Re:Just end it already. (Score:2)
`Sir, market analysis shows that the Final Fantasy series continues to be a major hit, with demand still high. Although releasing one would help make us all richer, I feel we should stop making them cuz... uh... 12+ is enough!`
Vastly Different (Score:2)
FFVersusXIII (Score:1)
I didn't know it was possible to get excited about t
At least there aren't gambits (Score:1)
No, it's retarded. People pick RPGs for the strategic combat and the story -- or at least that's why I do.
Versus was coming to 360? (Score:1)
Do you think they meant the 360 by the "next gen platform"? It's not like them to be coy, why didn't they just say PS3? In fact in the next sentence they say
But we altered that plan and decided to make both titles on PlayStation 3.