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Square Enix Lists 5 Elements That Make a Final Fantasy Game
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The Japanese game developer Square Enix held a conference in Tokyo last weekend to discuss its recent real-time tech demo Agni's Philosophy: Final Fantasy. During the conference, the creators of the tech demo presented a list of five elements that make a Final Fantasy game:
- Magic
- Summoning
- Gorgeous beauty
- Refinement
- Change and challenge
The creators did not go into detail on each of the components.
In a related story, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn director Naoki Yoshida recently discussed what he thought went wrong with the original Final Fantasy XIV massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG). Yoshida was not a staff member on the original game.
In an interview with Kotaku, Yoshida said that for the Final Fantasy XI MMORPG, Square Enix researched the EverQuest game for a year to discover why it was so popular and then created a game that was inspired by EverQuest but added elements that made the game distinctly a Final Fantasy game, such as story-driven content and cutscenes. For Final Fantasy XIV, however, Yoshida said that Square Enix tried to make a game that was different from Final Fantasy XI. Yoshida added that he thought the original creators of the game did not recognize the way that MMORPGs had evolved since Final Fantasy XI.
Yoshida added that "I think it would've been good if they tried seeing what happened if they turned World of Warcraft into Final Fantasy." He said that Square Enix should have similarly had its employees play World of Warcraft for a year for inspiration. Yoshida also said that he thought it was a mistake to release Final Fantasy XIV when it was, and he and his team will be sure not to release the revamp game before it is ready.
The Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn revamp game will host an alpha test this winter, and a beta test from late January to early February.
