Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

[Callisto]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

That would involve using my 360 for something other than keeping my mule account on for bazaar/Dynamis glasses, not I.

[Kailea]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

"It turns out there once were many more labyrinthine paths and dungeons in Final Fantasy XIII, but they got cut. An interview (in Japanese) over at FF-Reunion with art director Isamu Kamikokuryou ("No you!" to his friends) has him saying that the team removed enough extra locations from the title to make up a whole other game entirely."


Yeah...... I call bullshit on this statment, and even if true, they took it out, so they could sell it later, not because of the 360.

[Neverslip]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

Console limitations didn't do this, imHo... I think it was cut down to appeal to a greater (dumbed down) audience and to be sold later thru DLC to hardcore fans who can't say "no" to anything with FF or SE on it's label.

[Ziero]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

They said from the very start FFXIII will be a "ten year franchise", so of course we'll see this "cut" information later down the road.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

All games, movies, TV shows and books have stuff that ends up on the cutting room floor or is just shelved for another concept another day. Why is this surprising to you? Have you ever even been part of a production process? This even happens in newspapers and on websites, for crying out loud..

The problem begins when you withhold integral content with the intention of selling it later as "premium" content and THEN don't quality test it before selling it. Dragon Age's "Return to Ostagar" says hello. How many of you downloaded that last night before they took it down, realizing it locked out your character's specializations? Awesome job, Bioware.

A Final Fantasy game includes optional endgame content, they don't cut it off and sell it piece by piece. If they took it out, that means it wasn't needed to be a complete experience. They might save that stuff for a whole other game, possibly not even a Final Fantasy game.

[Feba]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

As BBQ alluded to, the real question isn't how much was cut, but how far along in development it was. For all we know, when they say "a full game's worth of content", they're saying "one of us had a really cool idea for <place>, and the boss said "fuck no, you can't add all of that". Having fully complete and worked out stuff is far less likely-- although I do get the feeling we're probably going to see bugs showing rough edges in FF13 soon enough; kinda like the unfinished parts of FF7.

[Armando]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

All games, movies, TV shows and books have stuff that ends up on the cutting room floor or is just shelved for another concept another day. Why is this surprising to you? Have you ever even been part of a production process? This even happens in newspapers and on websites, for crying out loud..

According to TVTropes Wind Waker had 3 dungeons cut out at the end to meet the deadline. That's the reason the end of the game consisted of an obnoxious 8-part fetch quest instead.

Made me sad and annoyed at the same time to read that.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

I can imagine this was part design choice and part 360 limitation. I mean, I want to blame it all on the 360 as much as the next person, but I am capable of being realistic about it.

All games, movies, TV shows and books have stuff that ends up on the cutting room floor or is just shelved for another concept another day. Why is this surprising to you? Have you ever even been part of a production process? This even happens in newspapers and on websites, for crying out loud..

This is true, of course, but I doubt it happens to this extent very often. Maybe with news articles, but to suggest for every theatrical movie release there happens to be an entire 2-3 hours of footage they filmed that they decided to just cut out at the end seems a little ridiculous.

A Final Fantasy game includes optional endgame content, they don't cut it off and sell it piece by piece. If they took it out, that means it wasn't needed to be a complete experience.

So.. you've already played and beaten FFXIII enough to determine it's a complete experience the way it is?

[Durahansolo]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

So.. you've already played and beaten FFXIII enough to determine it's a complete experience the way it is?

J9 has according to her view.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

So.. you've already played and beaten FFXIII enough to determine it's a complete experience the way it is?

Have you played a Final Fantasy game that hasn't felt like a complete experience? Each one I've played has felt like a complete experience, I think i can safely assume this will be as well. The Japanese release hasn't given any indication that they're going the way of Namco-Bandai and BioWare about bringing it to PS3 and 360.

[Ziero]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

I dunno, IX's ending seemed a bit rushed to me, kinda came outta left field. But that's just me.

[Malacite]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

I'm betting they did it as a way to sell that cut content in a separate fashion later(DLC maybe?), sort of like how Family Guy goes out of their way to make an episode risque enough to get pulled from Fox every 1-2 seasons so that they can stick it on the DVD release as an 'exclusive' to boost sales.

That's a hell of a lot of DLC

I don't the raito of DVD:BLUERAY, but it said 3 dvds, not 3 blue rays. Besides, wasn't FFXI on several discs back in the day and now they got most of it on one DVD and the rest is just Downloaded? So if they had kept it all, i'm sure it'd been just 1 blue ray.

They said they cut an entire game's worth of content. Keep in mind that this game is spread across 3 DVDs because it's a 25 GB game (or half of a dual-layered BD disc) on the 360. It's likely to be around 30+ on the PS3 since the audio and video will be uncompressed.


Also as someone noted in the comments, PS3 version of Star Ocean 4 doesn't require disc swapping when traveling like the 360 did.

---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 PM ----------

Yeah...... I call bullshit on this statment, and even if true, they took it out, so they could sell it later, not because of the 360.

And apparently M$ likes to charge assloads for multiple disc games. Never mind that a DVD still only holds 4 GB of data (8 if dual-layered) vs 25/50. Methinks SE didn't want to have to pay more royalties. Besides, do you really think people will download another 25+ GB worth of DLC?

[Armando]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

They said they cut an entire game's worth of content.

There are such things as exaggerations, often called hypberbole. There is also a neat thing called relativity.

There is obviously something wrong with taking the statement at face value, otherwise you would believe that they cut the game's content in half.

[Mhurron]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

If you can cut a 'games worth of content' and still be left with a whole game, you had more random shit then most people want.

[Feba]

Re: Square Enix cut a game's worth of content from Final Fantasy XIII

Maybe with news articles, but to suggest for every theatrical movie release there happens to be an entire 2-3 hours of footage they filmed that they decided to just cut out at the end seems a little ridiculous.

Again, you're assuming that they got it up to any level of production. It may not be so much a case of cutting footage as cutting things from the script before they ever enter production. And in that case, yes, lots of movies have huge script revisions before they ever make it to the screen--if they ever make it to the screen--including plenty of cases where they just throw out the original script and do things over from the beginning.

And apparently M$ likes to charge assloads for multiple disc games. Never mind that a DVD still only holds 4 GB of data (8 if dual-layered) vs 25/50. Methinks SE didn't want to have to pay more royalties.

"Microsoft is going to charge SE money to put one of the most highly anticipated games of the decade on their console, right after they paid them money to port it."

Think about that one for a minute, Mal.