It seems the promise of Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 is a big “work in progress” as it’s not actually under development yet. Square Enix is fully ready to commit on a simultaneous release for Europe and North America but not every territory around the globe.
The reason is simple: there are just too many countries to perform language translations in the time of a release window. Final Fantasy, as many know, is very text heavy in terms of dialog and storyline. We’ve spoke at length about that in the gaming podcast which helps explain why certain countries get some releases of Final Fantasy at different times and why some sequels never make it out of Japan.
“We’re ready to start developing FFXIII for 360,” said Square Enix’s Shinji Hashimoto. “First, we will complete the game for PS3 in Japan, then begin localization for America and Europe while developing the 360 version simultaneously. The PS3 and 360 versions will be released at the same time outside of Japan — although, due to language and other conditions, the game may not be released simultaneously across territories.” (1up)
Their plan of attack seems solid and gives the PlayStation 3 a bit of an advantage in the Japanese market, but considering the lack of 360 presence in the land of the rising sun, this isn’t too surprising. What is surprising, still, is the concept of Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 at all!
When it comes to E3 announcements, letting the crowd know Final Fantasy XIII was arriving on Microsoft’s console was a positive shock to the system. It may not be simply because yet another Final Fantasy game is in the works but to prepare gamers for the idea that they don’t have to run out and invest in a PlayStation 3 just to play the next big RPG.
The value to the Xbox 360 is growing and the need to collect all the consoles is fading. End of an era?
Welcome back guys, another good show.
I’m sorry I can never manage to send hate mail for Paul cause I’m just too busy sending it to Jonah. Just kidding, this is more “nerd rage mail”, because of the topic of Final Fantasy from previous episode.
Saying your not into FF because you’ve only played 10 and up is like saying you don’t like Star Wars because you’ve only seen the pre-quels. I’m sorry but as far as I am concerned you’ve only played the BAD Final Fantasy games. The Golden era of FF was parts 4, 5, & 6; 6 being my personal favorite. It had the best story, art, music of the entire series.
The thing about Final Fantasy was the first one was supposed to be the last and only but it had done so well they decided to continue, so the only thing final about them was that you only saw one world per game, you never went back so there wasn’t truly a sequel in the sense of a continuing world.
That changed after FF10,now even FF4 and 7 have sequels. FF6 was the last to have that 2d style art that I still love, ff7 had a real mix bag of art from beautiful backgrounds to horrendous 3d models. FF8 just had a terribly convoluted story and it felt too modern, FF9 I think was the last one that I really enjoyed but still missed and preferred the 2D art style over the still awkward 3D models. FF10 had unrelatable characters, it looked pretty but felt so shallow.
FF11 was the first MMO which I never played, FF12 was too easy to cheese with grinding out the chessboard skills. Just about everything is wrong with FF13, I know the bird in the dudes hair was wierd, but they did it in Suikoden V as well, maybe it’s a cultural thing. I couldn’t stand the dude with the beanie who constantly had a lock of hair in his face.
What was really obnoxious was the star rating they would give after each battle, after the first few I realized they were going to be doing this the whole damn game, I couldn’t go on after that. The game just insulted my intelligence way too much. It was a great run but I think I’ve had my Final Fantasy with that series.
@Kickstarter: It is true you have to be careful with investing but I wouldn’t say 9/10 video game kick starters have failed. You guys keep seeming to forget to mention the ones that have succeded: FTL, Divinty Original Sin, Shadowgate, Shadowrun, Pillar’s of Eternity, Wasteland 2, etc
Here is a link with a long list of them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_crowdfunding_projects
I will concede one has to be careful in choosing products or at least keep in mind that the project may fail and you will get nothing. Kickstarter DOES have on it’s site that there are no guarantees of any products being completed. I like what Hilary said about trying to help these developers out and giving them a chance and I do think Paul is also right that there are those shady individuals that make crowd funding look bad.
@Greg Zeschuk: It’s a shame the title made me think he might work on Baldur’s Gate or something. The idea sounds well meaning but I agree with Jonah I remember just using my imagination to fight strange aliens or playing spys or whatever.