So Final Fantasy XIII Versus. Vaporware?

When Do We Start Calling Final Fantasy Versus XIII Vaporware? – PS3 News (http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/11122.html)

For those who are not familiar with the term Vaporware here it is:

"Vaporware is a term in the computer industry that describes a product, typically computer hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is never actually released nor officially cancelled."

The Best Example on the Video Game Industry is Duke Nukem Forever. That it went a full decade on Development Hell for being Released.

So does anyone around here have some information regarding this FF game?

Let’s discuss a little about it.

The article says the title was unveiled in 2007, but this source (http://www.square-enix.com/na/company/press/2006/0508_1/) says it was actually earlier, in 2006. It’s been six years and they have only confirmed that the title exists and released trailers for it. Maybe they’re trying to build up the hype? Maybe they still have a lot more work to do? I think that S-E has been hit hard by flak for the recent installments in Final Fantasy, so it wouldn’t surprise me that they would want to take their time with this one (and try to reclaim some lost territory by again asserting itself as a top contender with good games to back up their claims) and do Final Fantasy right (if they can, that is).

None of this really means much, by the way. It’s all speculation. The director said that they’re working on something "completely new" and obviously they’re going to give us information when they can. We already have two trailers. Having no knowledge of the development project, I would guess they’ve either shifted development teams and/or completely revamped the storyline. Another question is, "Are the changes in gameplay and graphics significant enough to warrant this long of a development time?" Considering I haven’t seen the gameplay, I’m not qualified to comment. I will say, however, that if it uses the PS3’s capabilities to full capacity (something that I think a lot of games don’t do), it might very well take a lot of time to make it into a great game.

Also, remember that FFXIII came out in North America in 2010. It took S-E five years to come out with a new single player Final Fantasy after FFX. It’s only two years after the release of XIII, so I wouldn’t count this game out of the picture yet.

After the ‘meh-fest’ that is FF13/13-2 plus complete shitfest that is FF14…

I really don’t give a damn about this game anymore.

SE can suck it, Atlus is where its at for JRPGs these days.

Well, before you pass judgement on Versus XIII look how long Duke Nukem Forever took to finally be released, given how long that was stuck in development hell. Presumably the reason for it’s no-show is how poorly FFXIII and XIV went over with the player community (it’s probably the same reason we haven’t heard anything about FFXV yet either, other than that ambiguous trailer at E3 recently – yes, I know that trailer wasn’t identified as anything in particular other than a vague ‘it’s a Final Fantasy game’, but it’s highly likely to be either FF Versus XIII or FFXV).

Another subtle reason for SE dragging their feet might be just because they’ve ironically taken so long, they’ve realized that because it’s so late in the PS3’s life-cycle, it might just be better to wait for the next-generation hardware (ala PS4) for the next titles in the series. But that’s a long-shot from me.

Also Tanis I’ve found Atlus games to be rather dull – especially the Persona/Shin-Megami Tenshi series (the whole ‘teen protagonists from modern Japan get demonic powers to kill other demons trying to take over the world’ scenario got old very quickly), but the Ogre series is very good I admit. But it comes down to personal preference I guess.

Duke Nukem Forever is an exceptional case because it was passed around by several different companies, it was developed for different game engines, there were significant conflicts between the game’s director and his (small) team and publisher, and for a number of other reasons. FF Versus XIII doesn’t strike me as sharing nearly the same problems. Looking at the trailers, I don’t see much immediately related to FFXIII, so the teams might have been working separately and come up with completely different plots, which may have to be rectified to keep it in continuity with the earlier releases.

I think Enkidoh’s probably right about S-E waiting for the new consoles ("Durango" and "Orbis"). They are, after all, expected to be released around the holidays next year. If the next-generation consoles are released, I think it would hinder their sales to release a PS3 game. But if they are working on a next-gen game, then why don’t they just confirm it? Hrm…

While the story bits may get a bit reused, at least the game play is solid – and overarching stories.

SE hasn’t had a GOOD story + game play since FF8 or FFT, hell…maybe even FF6.

Persona 3:FES > Every SE game on the PS2.

I do agree with Tanis. Hell, for me Final Fantasy has been dead since a long time. X-2 was the first nail in the coffin for me. The only semi-interesting thing with the FF moniker attached to me was Dissidia, if just for the privilege of beating the crap of some of my "favorite" characters (read: Squall) for fun.

But I digress. I’m sure that, like in many other franchises that should be put to rest before losing the last remnants of their dignity, there are still a lot of people who would buy whatever comes from the "geniuses" at S-E.

Not passing any type of judgment, it’s just that’s it’s been really so fucking long since they teased us with this title. That FFXIII-2 got released before this game and it was announced after Versus was announced in the first place. Yeah it sounds very redundant. xD

They haven’t showed anything of this game on E3 2012. Maybe it will appear on the Tokyo Game Show?.

I disagree that Persona 3 is better than FFXII, but that’s just simply a matter of taste. I also disagree that FF8 had good gameplay specially comparing it to FFXII. FF8 has easily the most broken battle system of all the FF since FF2.

I don’t like the Persona series, Shin Megami Tensei and Avatar Tuner on the other hand are really interesting games. Flawed gameplay that fails to catch up with the times (downright punishing random encounters rate). But still manage to get interesting.

Back to Topic. The issue with the gap of time between FFX & FFXII is Kingdom Hearts and the fact that they were informative about the development. Like the announcement of Matsuno stepping away from the Direction Chair because of alleged Health Issues.

On the matter of XIII Versus is really fucking Cryptic and Obscure.

Both FF13 and FF13-2 have sold massively in both West and East, but they were only well received by Eastern fans. So that makes it seem likely that a spin-off of the FF13 brand will now only be released in Japan (as over there, association with FF13 is good, over here it isn’t). Either that or they drop the FF13 connection and release Versus as a completely seperate game. As I understand it, the connection to FF13 was only superficial anyway (none of the same characters, different time period etc). However, that would likely not work, seeing as how everyone knows it was originally to be set in FF13’s world, and will still stigmatise it.

So, my money’s on it being Japan only. If it were to be cancelled, it would be because the game’s cost meant that only a worldwide release would be enough to recoup, but as I’ve outlined, the chances of it being a success anywhere but Japan are remote. The association with FF13 was obviously intended to attract buyers, but outside of Japan, the opposite would likely occur. FF13 and FF13-2 are part of the core series, and they always sell well – offshoots meanwhile, usually fare little better than most JRPGs do in the west these days (i.e terribly). That it is actively associated with a brand the western fans hate… It would be an odd decision to release it over here with the FF13 brand name indeed, I think.

As for the health or otherwise of the series in general, its as I always say – a pointless argument. Final Fantasy rejigs everything in every new installment. System, characters, worlds, tone, writers, directors etc all change. There is no way to chart the progress of the series other than to say it goes through peaks and troughs. The fact is, it is still one of the only franchises to be successful everywhere, so Square always have enough money to make another one – which has an equal chance of being great or awful, depending on who writes it, and how good the core ideas are.

As for Atlus, I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Catherine was by far their biggest sales hit yet, and it wasn’t an RPG. Persona does pretty well, but only after it changed its format to be more of a ‘Life Sim’ than a true RPG (its still good, but those hoping for a return to old school Nocturne/Digital Devil Saga etc are going to be waiting until the cows come home, I suspect). Atlus are more interested in milking every last drop of franchise cash from Persona 4, with its endless amounts of spin off material, mangas, fighting games etc etc. Between that and them discovering that much cheaper games like Catherine generate much more money than expensive RPGs…

To put it into perspective, the last big RPG they made was Persona 4 – which is about 5 years old, (and even then, it was published by Square!) Square have money coming in from all over (Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Hitman, Final Fantasy etc etc), whereas Atlus is having to tap its success products heavily to keep themselves financed. It’ll do for limited scale projects, but bigger ones like full blown RPGs is asking a bit much with development costs being what they are nowadays, and with JRPGs offering such miserable returns unless they are as high profile as Persona or Final Fantasy. Its the same for survival horror unforunately – simply too expensive to make these days, unless you have massive financial backing from the likes of Square/EA etc.

And we all know how well *that* sort of thing goes down with fans…

FFXIII Versus becomes FFXV !

Final Fantasy 15 (Final Fantasy Versus 13) E3 Trailer – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1sP6LMgo88)

AND :

E3 2013: PS4’s Final Fantasy Versus XIII Is Renamed Final Fantasy XV (http://www.cinemablend.com/games/E3-2013-PS4-Final-Fantasy-Versus-XIII-Renamed-Final-Fantasy-XV-56591.html)

TROLOLOL

EDIT: Biggest Cop-out of the company so far…

C’mon, we all knew it was inevitable – there was so little connection to FFXIII as it was, so this was a logical step (not to mention the most cost effective one).