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I find the biggest problem with X-2 reusing areas isn't that you've already seen them in X, it's that later on, you've already seen them in X-2 as well. Which is a shame, because some of the new areas in X-2 are really great, even if a lot are "generic corridor with alcoves". The Farplane bits are particularly good I thought.
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May 11, 2014 20:20
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Tempo 119 posted:It's not exactly "night and day" when they both do some things better and worse than the other. I totally agree that 10-2 comes out stronger overall but that's mainly because the battle system can carry just about everything else. I suppose, but 13-2 has literally four locations, repeated two or three times each, differentiated only by weather effects. It feels almost lazier than how they did it in X-2. X-2 does at least do some clever things to mess with the player, like having you go to the Zanarkand Ruins in Chapter 1 and...well, what they DO with the Zanarkand ruins.
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May 11, 2014 20:37
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For all the knocks on FFX-2's story, I honestly don't think it was as bad as I remembered, coming back to it ten years later. I'm older now, I'm nowhere near being a teenager, I've now worked with teenagers as an adult now, and the girls' wackiness doesn't really seem too odd, anymore. There's definitely a levity to how a lot of other people act, too, but it's only been two years since a giant death whale was destroyed, people are going to react weirdly to actually having a chance to have a future where none was before. I don't know, FFVII got me into the series back in the day, and it has some wacky, stupid poo poo in its storyline, so FFX-2 doesn't really tarnish Final Fantasy, or whatever people like to whine about. The worst part is really the magical girl transformation scenes, which can be turned off, anyway. I actually like Yuna's character development quite a bit, she's still got a "saving people thing," but she's not afraid to speak her mind. And, I don't know, it's kinda sad how she's still going everywhere in Spira whistling for Tidus in futility. It's just less in-your-face depressing, because the main characters aren't marching towards certain death. I minded the reusing the setting less than I thought I would have, even back when the game came out, because, for the most part, it's not about the places changing at all, it's about the people. What's disappointing is they couldn't take the time to change the character models of anyone but Yuna and Rikku. Even something as simple as having a few new Al Bhed NPC models with more of them feeling free to walk around without goggles could have gone a long way. That was the real laziness, in my opinion. They didn't even bother to change Lulu, Wakka, or Kimahri's models, and I think the plot gave plenty of good reasons to have changed all of them.
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May 11, 2014 23:30
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Yeah, X-2's writing isn't really as bad as people make it out to be. The song sequences are a bit odd but for the most part it's just people who have never experienced being carefree in their whole lives acting goofy and weird in response to that. There's a real levity to the game, even when the plot kicks in, that serves as a nice contrast to X. And 'I don't like this plan. It sucks.' is a great line.
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May 11, 2014 23:35
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Quinctia posted:I minded the reusing the setting less than I thought I would have, even back when the game came out, because, for the most part, it's not about the places changing at all, it's about the people. What's disappointing is they couldn't take the time to change the character models of anyone but Yuna and Rikku. Even something as simple as having a few new Al Bhed NPC models with more of them feeling free to walk around without goggles could have gone a long way. That was the real laziness, in my opinion. They didn't even bother to change Lulu, Wakka, or Kimahri's models, and I think the plot gave plenty of good reasons to have changed all of them.
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May 11, 2014 23:38
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Endorph posted:And 'I don't like this plan. It sucks.' is a great line. "Kick. Its. rear end." It's a fun game, but some of it just makes me a little uncomfortable. Pleasure Leblanc
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May 11, 2014 23:39
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Quinctia posted:For all the knocks on FFX-2's story, I honestly don't think it was as bad as I remembered, coming back to it ten years later. I'm older now, I'm nowhere near being a teenager, I've now worked with teenagers as an adult now, and the girls' wackiness doesn't really seem too odd, anymore. There's definitely a levity to how a lot of other people act, too, but it's only been two years since a giant death whale was destroyed, people are going to react weirdly to actually having a chance to have a future where none was before. I honestly object more to Rikku's characterization over Yuna's. Rikku was always kind of perky and silly, but it seems like in the two year period she lost half her brain cells and just sort of...I dunno, she doesn't just act like a teenage girl, she acts like a teenage girl on a mighty coke binge. Yuna is also very likable here, although she seems to fluctuate between being perky and bubbley like Rikku and being composed and thoughtful and also being fidgety and nervous. She doesn't feel consistent, at least not at first, but I appreciate the actual effort to demonstrate her growing as a character in the intervening years...I just kind of wish she'd grown up to be more mature, instead of suddenly being a Super Teenage Girl archetype. Paine just says what we're all thinking, pretty much all the time. X-2 isn't nearly as offensive as I remember it, although I still haven't gotten to the scenes that particularly annoyed me when I was 17 playing this (the hot spring scene, the pop concert scene, etc.) Also, while I hate the editing and really wham-slam fast pacing of the editing, I actually think the cutscene direction in this game is vastly superior to the majority of FFX. Despite this game being the one with the most abundant fan-service, the "cameraman" no longer demonstrates an absurd fetish for having characters' asses fill up the center of the screen, or prominently focus on the foreground. Now we largely just focus on faces, which is a vast improvement.
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May 11, 2014 23:42
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As someone who knocks on X-2's story, I like it more than X. The overall theme of "People have to move on" is done extremely well through several characters, the main trio is likeable and all a lot of fun, and there are some genuinely touching scenes in it. I think the worst thing it does with its story though is bringing back Tidus because that ends up sort of destroying the core theme of the story and it's unfortunately canon.
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May 12, 2014 00:05
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Does canon really matter in something that isn't going to be followed up on? I mean poo poo, it's canon that Shinra's ancestors eventually goes into space and founds the world of FF7, but gently caress anyone who thinks I'm going to accept that as canon.
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May 12, 2014 00:09
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Also he just ends up dying again anyway when he kicks a blitzball. Death finds a way.
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May 12, 2014 00:10
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BottledBodhisvata posted:Yuna is also very likable here, although she seems to fluctuate between being perky and bubbley like Rikku and being composed and thoughtful and also being fidgety and nervous. She doesn't feel consistent, at least not at first
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May 12, 2014 00:18
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Cake Attack posted:Also he just ends up dying again anyway when he kicks a blitzball. This unironically owned and I want X-3 just so I can see it in motion.
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May 12, 2014 00:19
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Quinctia posted:They didn't even bother to change Lulu, Wakka, or Kimahri's models, and I think the plot gave plenty of good reasons to have changed all of them. I just started Lightning Returns, and it seems pretty lazy to have characters still wearing the same outfit from the first or second game. OK, they put a lot of effort into Lightning's new outfits, as well as Snow's new look, but why is Vanille wearing exactly the same outfit, but with a veil? Like Sora does in KH: Coded and 3D, Hope's been turned back into a child for no reason at all, with his old outfit and everything. They even hint at the guy who made the Lightning dummy with the noose around its neck, and not only is it Noel, but he's wearing the same clothes as before. Since the only interesting characters were forgotten about in XIII-2, can anyone hint at what Sazh and Fang are up to? If Sazh is just looking for Dajh because he got lost for the third time, I'm going to be disappointed.
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May 12, 2014 00:25
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That loving Sned posted:I just started Lightning Returns, and it seems pretty lazy to have characters still wearing the same outfit from the first or second game. OK, they put a lot of effort into Lightning's new outfits, as well as Snow's new look, but why is Vanille wearing exactly the same outfit, but with a veil? Like Sora does in KH: Coded and 3D, Hope's been turned back into a child for no reason at all, with his old outfit and everything. Fang is running a gang of bandits, and Sazh is watching over his dying son.
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May 12, 2014 00:27
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That loving Sned posted:I just started Lightning Returns, and it seems pretty lazy to have characters still wearing the same outfit from the first or second game. OK, they put a lot of effort into Lightning's new outfits, as well as Snow's new look, but why is Vanille wearing exactly the same outfit, but with a veil? Like Sora does in KH: Coded and 3D, Hope's been turned back into a child for no reason at all, with his old outfit and everything. Sazh is completely wasted and it sucks but Fang's doing pretty well for herself. They're both wearing their old clothes though, sorry. If you meet Noel after day 7 he wears one of his DLC outfits instead.
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May 12, 2014 01:01
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I have a question about FXII vs the Zodiac Version. Is the zodaic version more restrictive about how I can build my characters? From reading it seems like like once I choose a job for a character, I will be looked into a specific set of abilities and items. If I want to build my characters how ever I want, should I just play the regular version?
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May 12, 2014 02:47
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Legacyspy posted:I have a question about FXII vs the Zodiac Version. Can't say anything about the Zodiac version, but in the original there was essentially no difference between what characters could do. I AR'd myself to max level once and everyone had the same skills. The only real difference between anyone is, hilariously, the fact that Fran is technically the worst bow user despite it appearing to be her Thing. Her unique animation takes like a third of a second longer than the other characters.
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May 12, 2014 02:50
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Legacyspy posted:I have a question about FXII vs the Zodiac Version. However, if you have access to IZJS I recommend you give it a try, as it seems much more fun to play (this is coming from a guy who likes FFXII mind).
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May 12, 2014 03:00
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Legacyspy posted:I have a question about FXII vs the Zodiac Version. So in IZJS there are 12 jobs and 6 characters and once you select a job for a character they can never ever switch. This sounds very restrictive when you compare to vanilla FF12 where all characters have an identical grid barring quickenings/summons so given enough time everyone is eventually interchangeable. In practice, however, each grid is built to completely soup up that one job to a level that the vanilla grid absolutely can not compare with and summons now help grids access other job's abilities like high level healing or time magic. Additionally, since there are no squares designed not for your job you don't encounter vanilla 12s issue where half the grid is functionally useless once you've plotted a course. This also ignores the plethora of QoL improvements IZJS makes which if you've played both you can not go back from. The only real downside to IZJS is some magics being hard to find and making Nihapaloa-spam way way harder to pull off. Well that and tons of good poo poo is in the final dungeon but you're so powerful its very easy to complete 95% of the hunts before you ever get the stuff that would have made those hunts even easier. Edit: Something else important; in Vanilla the damage cap is 9,999. There is no damage cap in IZJS. If you have any desire to kill Yiazmat in less than forever you'll want to play IZJS. Barudak fucked around with this message at 03:12 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 03:08
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I'm playing FFVIII again. The story makes perfect sense and a lot of it is pretty interesting... ...Right up until you meet the jelly monster financier living in the basement. On its own that's weird but manageable but he also drops a bunch of plot bombshells that make a lot of the poo poo from before make less sense. Edea is the Sorceress. Edea was Cid's wife. They planned to train Seeds to fight the Sorceress. But Edea has Squall tortured to fight out the secret purpose of Seeds. I'm not clear on how Irvine evaded capture at the assassination attempt either but I guess the whole Martine betraying NORG by using Balamb operatives instead of his own has something to do with it. Is Galbadia Garden already under the control of Edea, and the assassination attempt just Edea using herself as bait to get Balamb to publicly declare war so they can bomb them (but first Trabia because gently caress knows why really)? It's fun to puzzle this stuff out because the combat system is really easy without any effort to manipulate. As long as you know that the refine magic abilities of gfs are the most important ones, and that you don't need to waste time fighting any trash ever, it's a breeze. I think Selphie's the least moronic of the main cast so far, but they're all 17 so it's pretty good characterisation. Quistis deserved to get fired from her instructor job, and not just for the campaign of sexual harassment she enacted against Squall. Rinoa's really good and the graduation dance is a great cut scene.
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May 12, 2014 09:57
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Legacyspy posted:I have a question about FXII vs the Zodiac Version. The regular version does not have a fast-forward button. 
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May 12, 2014 10:08
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Legacyspy posted:I have a question about FXII vs the Zodiac Version. The only problem that I found with the original was that even if I tried to build my characters any way I wanted they just all ended up blending together really quickly. It's the thing that if I try to focus a character as a physical attacker it doesn't take long to get all the augments and then he just starts to get magic next. It happens vice versa too where my mages just end up getting blocked because I don't get a spell book so there's no need to pick up the next license board slot for that magic.
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May 12, 2014 10:28
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Is my memory playing tricks on me, or did they actually give Sin in FF X a new move? Every once in a while, when fighting the arms or the core, Sin counters with Negation, which removes all my buffs and cures him of everything. It's annoying as hell to re-apply all the Break stuff, because he seriously does that move every third turn of my guys. Still kicked his rear end, sure, since it's FF X, but that kinda took me by surprise...
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May 12, 2014 11:32
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FFX's story was weird because playing it as a teen and playing it now makes a lot of things come across a lot differently? Like when I was a kid, I think I was just hammering X a lot more and not really picking up on all the moments where Tidus is this really shallow, self-conscious person who spends most of the game micro-managing the emotions of his friends. Like the game is full of moments where he's teaching people to lie about how they really feel because he thinks that's how others actually act, and how his weird 'put on a happpy face' bullshit looks good to him, but when his own dad tried to pretend to be cool all the time he just came across looking like a giant shithead. Tidus refused to tell him that for the same reasons Jecht refuses to emotionally connect with his own kid, because he didn't want to show anyone how he actually felt about anything.
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May 12, 2014 11:50
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There are a few Final Fantasy games with stories that help justify games as a media to deliver stories. FFV is not one of them. It's a very fun game, my favorite to play of the SNES games, but its story is not a feature. Most posters here appreciate this, I think.
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May 12, 2014 12:05
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Anyone love Square-Enix's financial slides?  Me neither. http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/14q4slides.pdf Things to note: - Report is largely about F2P and MMO titles. You'd think it was from a Korean publisher. - No longer sharing game shipment numbers. - Want to accelerate development cycles. I think they've said that since 2009. - They spend a lot of time talking about expansion into Asia, especially China. However, they forecast no growth in profit despite their plan on entering high growth markets. They're still considering the launch of DQX into overseas markets. - While Dragon Quest Super Light was a success and FFXIV had a good relaunch, the company remains highly reliant on high margin packaged goods for the foreseeable future. Similar to Capcom, they need mega-hits in traditional gaming to help buoy their transition into F2P/mobile publishing. - Anyone ask for a Million Arthur sequel? Well, you got your wish. - Digital Entertainment (Games) made only 11% of their operating margins. On the other hand, Merchandising is operating at 20% despite having 1/30 of Digital Entertainment's net sales. The company handles the merchandising for a number of different companies. - Final Fantasy Agito is labelled as a 'full-scale "Final Fantasy" title for smartphones.' - Development of major Western developed and online focused games will begin this year. We've already seen Eidos shift to online with Tomb Raider 2's multiplayer being developed in-house and Legacy of Kain retooled into a F2P game. - As for traditional gaming, supplementary documents said FFX/X-2 HD, Thief, and Tomb Raider Definitive Edition had 'favorable sales.' However, there was no mention of Bravely Default's successful launch in North America. It's possible that Nintendo's publishing agreement ate up most of the profits. No mention of Lightning Returns or Dragon Quest Monsters on 3DS either. - With units sales projected to fall from last year, FFXV is unlikely to release in the year ending in March 2015. Or it's projected to bomb in the single region it's released. - Cloud computing will be a major part of their business strategy going forward, such as Dragon Quest X on mobile platform. It will allow them to enter markets with their back catalog when these regions that don't have a strong history of dedicated consoles and retail. If we go back to Square-Enix's 2005-2006 financial reports, they originally planned on layering key titles so that they would have a big title every year. It was based off the strategies used by major Western publishers, such as Electronic Arts. SE had three potentially 5 million+ selling franchises (FF, DQ, KH) and could use three years of development to rotate each title and give each title the time it needed. However, resource consolidation and lengthy, troubled development cycles have put this strategy into disarray. Now, the Final Fantasy brand has seen significant damage, Dragon Quest's success is restricted to one region, and Kingdom Hearts has undergone wear and tear from a lack of a major release. In 2009-2010, the company saw strong sales off FFXIII and DQIX. However, they never recaptured that success due to their dysfunctional production pipeline. We could see a repeat where FFXV and DQXI release in tandem but with no significant follow up. The company seems directionless in that they're targeting a variety of different markets but with no solid business strategy for most of them. You can look at Konami as a Japanese publisher that had to make a lot of production cuts in order to focus on MGS/PES, mobile/browser games, and a major expansion into health products. Let's count the different high growth or cash cow markets SE is aiming for: 1.) Mobile Platforms 2.) Growing markets in Taiwan and mainland Asia 3.) MMOs and F2P multiplayer games in the MOBA style 4.) Japanese style browser games 5.) AAA blockbusters aimed at Western markets They may not have the resources to adequately address the needs of each market. Even EA has cut down the number of games it makes in a year. From 2005-2010, EA would have over forty games in development each year for just the home consoles. Now they have a less than ten AAA games for the year with the rest of their resources going towards games aimed for high growth markets, such as FIFA Ultimate Team.
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May 12, 2014 17:12
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SE needs to get their poo poo together. They create titles that resonate with fans and do well (a lot of mobile hits, FF Tactics is doing better than ever on mobile, Bravely Default saw major success everywhere, ARR was a definite hit, Eidos has done a few great things recently like the Tomb Raider prequel) but they seem unwilling or unable to expand on those successes and some of them are tarnished. Where they could have made quite a bit of money on Bravely Default, they did not because they made "gut" decisions without research about what the West "likes." FF Tactics continues to be successful but they seem unable to do anything with that success other than just keep re-releasing it instead of trying to make a sequel. They are extremely late to the mobile F2P thing and should have had a lovely FF or DQ-themed Farmville-style treadmill on mobile within the last year. They keep talking about fixing their processes for AAA, FFXV is proof they haven't learned yet. Bleh.
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May 12, 2014 17:29
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FFXV began development long before they even started attempting to get their poo poo together. That old battleship can't turn quickly, I guess. Dragon Quest by definition can't succeed outside of Japan if they never even bother trying. Not that I'm bitter.
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May 12, 2014 17:40
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What confuses me most about that report is how SE seems to think it's a good idea to get into overcrowded markets years too late. The AAA market in the West is under a lot of scrutiny right now for being a moneysink that ends up bankrupting an awful lot of developers, F2P games are getting big backlash of late and very few of them actually make significant money, and making *more* MMOs seems a comically bad idea given how few of them are successful, how expensive they are to develop, AND their recent loving disaster with FFXIV 1.0. They should seriously just thank their lucky stars that lots of people actually did buy and enjoy FFXIV and then try to come up with an actual new idea for once. At the very least try to release some games on time.
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May 12, 2014 17:45
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I just want the remakes of Dragon Quest Monsters, and VII. But I've long given up on that happening.
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May 12, 2014 17:45
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Square tries to act like its Activision, when in reality it's more of a Double Fine and desperately needs to scale back its scope both on the individual development level and broader corporate cultural level.
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May 12, 2014 19:59
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bloodychill posted:They are extremely late to the mobile F2P thing and should have had a lovely FF or DQ-themed Farmville-style treadmill on mobile within the last year. They keep talking about fixing their processes for AAA, FFXV is proof they haven't learned yet. Bleh. They kind of tried with All the Bravest, which was bad, and Airborne Brigade (what? exactly.) which was also bad. I'd play the hell out of "Tiny Tower Ivalice" or "Mognetville" but their focus has been... weird. And it's sad because they CAN do good click-and-waits, they did it in Bravely Default. Hell, they did it in My Life as a King, which I'd kill for a mobile version of. So yeah I'm confused as to why they haven't pumped something out, as well. That said, the awful Tanaka version of FF3 is coming to Steam: http://na.square-enix.com/us/blog/final-fantasy-iii-coming-steam
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May 12, 2014 20:30
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The greatest financial decision SE made in years was to hire Revo as the composer for Bravely Default and Second, fact.
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May 12, 2014 20:45
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Terper posted:The greatest financial decision SE made in years was to hire Revo as the composer for Bravely Default and Second, fact. Oh sweet, the same dudes are coming back for Second?
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May 12, 2014 20:46
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alcharagia posted:Oh sweet, the same dudes are coming back for Second? Ayup. 
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May 12, 2014 20:49
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Terper posted:Ayup. W-W-W-W-WICKED SICK. Now, will they be able to top Love's Vagrant, is the question...
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May 12, 2014 20:51
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On a Square-related note, Smooth McGroove just posted his acapella version of Chrono Trigger's main theme and you should give it a listen because it's pretty great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzFD9yFi7PY
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May 12, 2014 21:16
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Terper posted:Revo as the composer for Bravely Default To be fair, this is the greatest decision period. Not just financially but in general. Revo is fantastic, and Bravely Default just lets more people experience that.
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May 12, 2014 21:22
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Boten Anna posted:I'd play the hell out of "Tiny Tower Ivalice" or "Mognetville" but their focus has been... weird. And it's sad because they CAN do good click-and-waits, they did it in Bravely Default. Hell, they did it in My Life as a King, which I'd kill for a mobile version of. You reminded me that My Life as a King exists and now I'm just confused why they haven't made a mobile version of that. It would fit there perfectly.
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May 12, 2014 21:42
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Rei_ posted:Square tries to act like its Activision, when in reality it's more of a Double Fine and desperately needs to scale back its scope both on the individual development level and broader corporate cultural level. They want to be Activision so badly that they'll publish their games for Japan and fund games dropped by them.
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May 12, 2014 21:53
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