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Hamaguchi Possibly Working on FF17?

The only person who should be making mainline FF games is Hiroyuki Ito. Having made FF6, FF9 and FF12, his record is impeccable.

SE seems to have locked him up in some deep dungeon as he still works for the company but nobody knows what he's doing.
 
What are the options within SE?

The other FF7-2 directors:
Tetsuya Nomura is making KH4. He's both a genius and chaos.
And, in regards to leading any new Final Fantasy project, Nomura shouldn't be asked to do anything other than realizing his original vision for Final Fantasy Versus XIII, 100% in his terms.

That could still be the series' Elden Ring moment.
 
I can't stand Matsuno. His games don't feel like FF at all. Yoshi-P neither. If this guy did XIII and VII he is probably the right choice.
 
No Way Do Not Want GIF
 
the 7-R trilogy is probably the best melding between old school and modern FF you can get (Talking purely combat), also the rate at which they have pumped out the 7-R trilogy he clearly has a productive team under him.

so it would make total sense putting him in charge, im not saying that's what i like or you would like, but what would make sense for Square Enix who want to make money.
 
Colossal Blunder Unit 3 should only do remasters from now on since they did well with Final Fantasy Tactics.
To be fair, that was probably because Matsuno was on board for the FF Tactics remaster. Rumor has it that there might be a Vagrant Story remaster happening.
 
Whats wrong with the FF7 remakes now? It is like sebbywebz drones have invaded this forum.

Compare the FF7 remake games to the latest mainline titles and it is like night and day.

Hamaguchi is miles above Tabata and Takai
Comparing FF7R to FF16(latest mainline) is a rather low bar. Literally anything will be better.

Sebby only has validity when discussing the art and cinematic direction between FF7 OG and FF7R. Largely a grifter IMO.

A lot of his takes regarding other FF games leaves much to be desired.
 
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Final Fantasy is anime.

So is Attack on Titan, and the writing shits on everything Square or any other dev has ever made.

It's about hiring good writers, regardless of genre.

They should have just given Final Fantasy 17 to Yoko Taro. Final Fantasy 16 was the biggest piece of shit I ever played, and it made me feel embarrassed that I shat on Final Fantasy 13 when it released (I still bought it and got the platinum :messenger_grinning_sweat:)

For all Final Fantasy 15s faults, it still felt like Final Fantasy. Square Enix has become such a shitty cunt company, I have very little faith in anything they do.

The mismanagement of Yoko Taro and the Nierverse is by far Square's biggest sin.
 
Yoko Taro and the NieR franchise probably doesn't provide enough "shareholder value" for Square Enix

I really dont get how they could jump to that conclusion when that saga, with a much smaller budget, has more loyal followers than the last FF iterations and their characters have already reached normie appeal.

Besides, they can expand the saga in any direction. The missed opportunity by Square is wild. If I were Yoko Taro I'd offer myself to Shift-Up and show Square the finger.
 
Yoko Taro too busy screenwriting Evangelion to care about Drakengard/NieR anymore probably. Especially if most stuff he works on gets undermined or scrapped anyway.

Shareholders tend to not support niche games that are about existentialism and deep thinkers.

They just want a product to make them lots of money.
 
Japanese culture of keeping leadership at the company until they die is bad for business sometimes

Square keeps regurgitating the same game directors/producers over and over again 'cause they made a good game 30 years ago

Let some young blood have their shot
 
Yoko Taro too busy screenwriting Evangelion to care about Drakengard/NieR anymore probably. Especially if most stuff he works on gets undermined or scrapped anyway.

Shareholders tend to not support niche games that are about existentialism and deep thinkers.

They just want a product to make them lots of money.


Nier Automata has sold 10M copies. It's a mainstream title, with an anime and 2B is the most popular new character of the last gen by a country mile.

Not expanding that universe is beyond blindness. Unlike FF, that saga has true potential if given the right resources. Square ,must be the dumbest company in Japan.
 
Nier Automata has sold 10M copies. It's a mainstream title, with an anime and 2B is the most popular new character of the last gen by a country mile.

Not expanding that universe is beyond blindness. Unlike FF, that saga has true potential if given the right resources. Square ,must be the dumbest company in Japan.
Square Enix chases trends 5 years too late. Of their output NieR is one of the few products that reminds me of the games Squaresoft used to put out. They are a really dumb company.

The only others I generally consider is Team Asano with Bravely and Octopath but NieR strikes gold.

Yorha 2B was the second coming of KOS-MOS. Lots of collabs and crossovers with the character.
 
My theory is that the Final Fantasy fandom is actually multiple factions of people who like a certain selection of games and hate the others, and the other groups.

This thread is hitting 9999 in the hyperbole levels.
 
I really dont get how they could jump to that conclusion
Mate, it's Square Enix we're talking about here. They are extremely out of touch with what people actually want. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 should have been evidence enough about how out of touch Square Enix is.

I'll take Square Enix serious again, the day they fire Nomura.
 
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Good luck to him I guess. We haven't had a great mainline sequel since Clinton was President, and I don't get my hopes up anymore. Just a tired observer at this point.
 
My theory is that the Final Fantasy fandom is actually multiple factions of people who like a certain selection of games and hate the others, and the other groups.
I wouldn't say hate the other games and other groups lol. But yeah everyone definitely has their own opinion, and there's a lot of extremely different opinions :pie_open_mouth:

For instance for me I think it goes (including platform where I play it)
1) ps1 emulator w/ War of the Lions translation patch Final Fantasy Tactics
2) steam Final Fantasy VII
3) steam Final Fantasy XIII-2
4) snes emulator Final Fantasy III (VI)
5) steam Final Fantasy IX & steam Final Fantasy 10-2
6) steam Final Fantasy XV & steam Final Fantasy VIII
7) epic Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
8) steam Final Fantasy XIII
9) nes emulator Final Fantasy
10) steam Final Fantasy XIII Lightning Returns & steam Final Fantasy X

Sort-of-rank for games I need to revisit, and never got far enough to give a real, fair, rank to
1) steam Final Fantasy XII
2) psp emulator Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
3) super famicom emulator w/ translation patch Final Fantasy V
4) steam Final Fantasy Type 0
5) youtube Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis
6) ps1 emulator Vagrant Story
7) steam Final Fantasy XVI

I think I remembered everything I've ever even experienced part of :pie_thinking: . Not including the Theatrhythm games even though they're awesome.

Oh, and I'll probably check out FF2 (4) on snes emulator and if Ever Crisis gets any Before Crisis content before it shuts down and if it gets a re-release, I'll play that on steam. Eventually. Oh, and obviously I still need to play FF7 Rebirth (on epic) and the upcoming one.
 
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Hamaguchi got his first solo directorial debut with Rebirth, was Remake's co-director, and will release the third game a year from now. That was three massive, AAA Final Fantasy games in under 10 years. He more than earned the right to make a mainline game by now.
 
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My theory is that the Final Fantasy fandom is actually multiple factions of people who like a certain selection of games and hate the others, and the other groups.

This thread is hitting 9999 in the hyperbole levels.
Final Fantasy fans/audience outgrew Final Fantasy and Square is eternally stuck trying to appeal people that have no interest in the franchise anymore other than talking about how good a game released 30 years ago was.

It started with FF13: the game was criticized for being linear (nevermind 10 did the same thing), thus FF15 was open-world. But then FF15 was criticized for its teenager j-pop cast of characters, thus FF16 chased a mature tone. But then FF16 was criticized for its action gameplay, which means FF17 will be turn-based. But of course, FF17 will be criticized for something else...

May this franchise receive remakes and remasters, forever and ever.
 
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Square Enix chases trends 5 years too late. Of their output NieR is one of the few products that reminds me of the games Squaresoft used to put out. They are a really dumb company.

The only others I generally consider is Team Asano with Bravely and Octopath but NieR strikes gold.

Yorha 2B was the second coming of KOS-MOS. Lots of collabs and crossovers with the character.
"Square Enix chases trends 5 years too late"

This is the development time of games nowadays. When FF16 started development, the most popular RPGs were Witcher 3 and Fallout 4.
 
On a related note, it would be nice if Sakaguchi and Yuji Horii could come together again for a Chrono Trigger remake or "Chrono Break".
 
I think the more beneficial change for Final Fantasy going forward is getting Nojima away from the writing, but I don't foresee that happening until he retires.
Nojima gets away with a lot because he wrote FF7 and X. Two huge hits for Square, but he also wrote Strangers of Paradise, FF8, and the concept of FF13. He is such a gamble; you never know what you're going to get 😅

On a related note, it would be nice if Sakaguchi and Yuji Horii could come together again for a Chrono Trigger remake or "Chrono Break".
Chrono Trigger and Cross were written by Masato Kato, so a sequel without his involvement isn't likely to happen.
 
Anything other than the XVI team. Colossal Blunder Unit 3 should only do remasters from now on since they did well with Final Fantasy Tactics.
What I want is for CB1 to make the gameplay and CB3 to write the story.

Say what you will about FF16; FF14 still brings in the dough to keep the lights on and they will be given another chance, because who else do they have?

So if it is inevitable, let the teams do what they do best. And fuck it, get Nomura to do the character designs. Most of the iconic Square characters come from him and I'm tired of pretending that they don't.
 
My biggest wish would be a new The World Ends With You or similar game. The big problem is NEO didn't do well due to 0 marketing.

Not having the original people doesn't seem like it'd necessarily be a huge problem considering they already got a lot of new people for NEO. Like Tatsuya Kando wasn't the main director and Sachie Hirano wasn't doing the scenario writing. Even for character art, they had another designer working alongside Gen Kobayashi. The entire project probably doesn't get to exist without Nomura, though, considering he seems to be the only influential person there who cares about the series.
 
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Imagine making an RPG and stripping 95% of what makes an RPG an RPG. You have FF16. Which at that point even something like FO4 is more engaging.
My favorite part of FF16 is how they created an arc for Jill, only to have Clive complete the arc for her and then she was returned to being in the background until a token sex scene needed her presence.

I legit have no idea what they were going for after act 1. The entire scenario collapsed under its own weight, going from the illusion of political intrigue to "kill god lmao" via scuffed Locutus of Borg.
 
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