I get what you're saying. I really do. I've played most FF series in the game as well and I haven't touched the latest one since it sucked. Balthier was probably the best male character they've had and he wasn't even the MC.

It's just, they can easily deliver something like this without having to restrict the story-line to 4 bros on the prowl. They've had likable female characters before that would be fine within the context they're trying to establish. I mean, Riku would fit right in.

In fact, a lot of what you suggested can be done easier by having female cast in party. Guest members? Sure, its just I wouldn't care as much as to what happens to them. I don't know them. They have no screen time. Basically, I won't give a rat's ass whether they live or die.

Also, one of the main concerns with an all male cast is that it will get boring in course of the 70hour++ gameplay. It's not like Gears of War where you can finish it easily in 10 hours (they had some good guy stuff esp. with Baird).

Doesn't mean it couldn't work or it won't be good with 4 guys, but they can do it without resorting to that. They can expand the cast to 6-8 party members easy. Anyway, this is something new for them as well as for us. Who knows, it might be better. But this ain't gonna be a lighthearted bros on the road story.

 

Agreed, but I also think NPCs can have an emotional effect on the person playing. Since I was using FF9 as a comparison, think of Beatrix (and Steiner's) part of the story. I think its a really clever way to show a peripheral character and how they interact within the realm of the game. Beatrix was a counterpart to Steiner's over-the-top chilvarous nature, where she was seen as the stronger of the two until late in the game.

“I commend your courage, but I will show you no mercy.”

It made the character all the more real because her allegiance shifts from Brahne to the country itself, and her relationship with Steiner grows over the duration of the game.

Also, making her a teammate AND a boss was a dope idea; of course, that was done superbly well with Sephiroth in FF7 also. If Square Enix can channel that, then they may well have something interesting brewing with their NPCs.

 

I also feel like the reason they're keeping Stella/Luna/both(if they're actually separate chars) under wraps is not because female chars don't have a presence in the game, but because this/these chars are utterly essential to the story (as evidenced by the video at the end of the demo). Keep in mind that this was written by Tetsuya Nomura's team, who gave us Xion, Kairi, and Namine, all of whom are awesome and pretty damn essential to KH's overarching plot.

I fully expect the side chars to be great.

 

Yeah I understand that. But I feel like having guest NPCs can backfire terribly especially the important ones. Look at the new Tales game, Zestiria. You have that female character for the first 15hours of your party, and then suddenly, she's gone and you don't get to see her till near the end game. All that character development, gone for nothing. It's just that. You get to have fun with the guest NPCs, actually like them, and then a flop. You don't see them again till whenever they show up.

Anyway, do you guys know if the other members are controllable? Or can you only play as Noctis?

 

You can only play as Noctis. That said, I like the idea of an all male party. Hopefully it goes better than X-2's all female party.

 

Your arguments don't, at all, support your point. We've seen here only good and bad examples of the same concept.

That then implies it's all on the writers, which is my standpoint.

The guys at NaughtyDog could make a game about 4 hipster/ emo teens that hate the world and argue the merits of vaping and I'd probably still adore it. Because they employ amazing writers who've a knack for creating incredible characters.

Same goes here. If the writers on this game are top notch, no one would (read: should) give a shit about the party's composition.

That being said, I'm calling that they're probably not top notch (or even that good), so this argument will pop up again after release, when it should be focused on the writers.

Which was my original point.

 

Yeah my point was if they can make this work with 4 bros, then they should be able to make it work with non-bros which would probably be better from a player standpoint coz really.. if I were to decide whether to play a 4 bros of quality vs a team of mix genders of equal quality, 100% I'd pick the latter.

Anything I've said were just examples on how it could work coz they did make it work on their previous games. And then, I provided another game which made it work with the multi-gendered party that included character development, humor, drama, bros jokes and cockblocking that didn't limit itself to a bro party only.

In case you didn't notice, I was not arguing against your standpoint, in which I totally agree with it.

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Never played X-2. I heard it was really bad in comparison to FFX which I really liked.

 

At no point did I look at this game and think "Hmm, needs more women."

(Mostly because the protagonists look enough like women as it is.)

 

I've been on road trips with just my male friends, and also some with girls in the group. Sorry, but in my experience those two scenarios make for really different experiences. Neither is necessarily better, but certainly distinct. Men and women are different, and different ratios of men to women in a group create varying social dynamics. Anyone who can't recognise that obviously doesn't have much real life experience.

The experience of an 'all bros' road trip is what the game makers obviously wanted to create, so good on them. There are plenty of games with mixed genders in the party. This just isn't one of them. It is telling a different kind of story, and I've no doubt it will be a great one.

People who think there should be some sort of gender quota for every game annoy the shit out of me.

 

We don't know that this is the only party yet.

My guess is we'll probably have a two party scenario, experiencing the story from two viewpoints, in two different locations.

I'm basing that on absolutely nothing.

 

http://kotaku.com/square-addresses-..._source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Square are actually listening to fan complaints about the demo and fixing them. Nice to see after their last few efforts, which could have been so much better if they had done something like this. I think this is the most psyched I've been for a new Final Fantasy game in years! Really hoping it lives up to expectations now.

 

I did my fanboy duty and complained with the feedback survey. Glad they actually took it seriously.

 

That didn't load, read the ign article.

I think I'm the only one not impressed by this development. If they needed fan feedback to tell them the controls needed to be tighter (I doubt it), the game is already doomed.

I see Noctis' voice getting a mention. Honestly. Noctis. Not Prompto?

Minimaps also damage exploration games. You're looking at it and not the world when you're exploring. That's not a good thing.

Also, for lols, I'd love it if instead of changing Cindy's outfit, they justified it with her character. Instead of making her pointless eyecandy, make her a promiscuous country girl who wants to move to the big city.

 

I'd disagree with this. FFXIV was a terrible game but after taking the feedback on this and working with fan's input they relaunched it as FFXIV: A Realm Reborn and made a really fun MMORPG which has been pretty successful.

To me this just seems like a natural follow on, having seen the success of this approach with their last game they're seemingly doing it again this time to make the best game they can. I much rather this approach than the ones they take that led to XIII.

Obviously only time will tell if the game will be good, but I'm encouraged by this approach.

 

While I'm suspect on how much input fans actually had with 14, I'll say that MMORPGs are a whole different beast to regular RPGs.

If an MMO is going to be successful, fans have to engage weekly if not daily over a long period of time. That gives their opinion much more weight imo.

I still stand by 13 being a technically excellent game with bad story telling. The corridor argument doesn't hold up to me. Uncharted is a corridor simulator as well, and they're excellent.

I can understand fans wanted a big, sprawling world to explore, but the fact that it wasn't didn't make it a bad game, just not what you wanted.

Anyway. We'll see a little more at E3.

 

They didn't actually mention the voice acting controversy in the video, merely that they were surprised Noctis' char was less well received than Gladio' in most countries (by a matter of .1 - .3 rating points on a 10 point scale).

You should watch the vid. Some of the summaries floating around aren't quite accurate.

 

I will when I get home sir. Promise.

Read the Eurogamer article in the meantime which seems to go more in depth. Glad to hear them admitting Prompto was the least popular and I was particularly pleased with their reasoning behind the all-dude party, and the explanation of why adding a permanent female party member isn't what they want in this game.

Japanese devs have a foot-in-mouth habbit when it comes to gender issues (I remember a particularly hilarious response, can't remember which game it was, that referenced not using a female character because they'd need to model a skirt? Or something?). They addressed this issue pretty perfectly, I thought.

 

I think the biggest news to come out of the ATR wasn't really the fact that they've heard fan concerns and are now in the process of addressing them, but rather that they are going to send out patches to the demo once they've implemented their fixes and will repeat the feedback survey process all over again.

Updating demos based on fan response is such an off-kilter idea. It's like we've all been invited to be betas, and I fucking love it.

 

testing testing 123.

Not trying to spam, just want to make sure my posting rights are finally working.

 

New Active Time Report.

Biggish news:

• Duscae 2.0 due for release on June 9th.
• They've had to make major story changes from the Versus script. No longer simply a rebrand.
• Stella is axed. Luna takes her place and serves a different role. (I find this news mildly disappointing. I really liked the idea of the main female being a potential antagonist with powers opposite to Noctis.)
• FF15 is again fully skipping E3. They really must have a long way to go if they're not even willing to drop a trailer.