Ok, so I've done an almost full 180 on those character designs. After seeing some recent footage of Ignis wearing a leotard shirt and silver gloves while doing JoJo poses I'm sold. This is so over the top and gaudy it's actually kind of amazing.
I'm still very much worried about the state of the series, but hearing Tabata talk about it with such sincerity is really surprising. It's rare to hear such openness come from Japanese developers.
I'm glad they realize the seriousness of the situation this franchise is in. There is roughly 2 million PS4 units in Japan and I highly doubt that all who own it will buy the game. Unless the game becomes a massive system seller, they will need to rely on sales from abroad.
Which is extremely scary as well. I feel like the last big FF game that was really popular in the west was Final Fantasy X. FFXII, FFXIII or online FF games may have sold pretty well, but I have the impression the series fell out of the mainstream. There's now an entire new generation of gamers for whom FF is not the household name it used to be.
Content creation inertia is what is slowly killing these games. Sure enough, highly detailed and realistic characters (and cars !) make for fantastic pre-release hype material, but this is just not sustainable in the long run. We definitely passed a tipping point not too long ago, and I think it is time for square to pull a Megaman9 stunt with a future Final Fantasy title.
There are 2 hidden weapons in the demo.... For those not convinced of the fighting after playing the demo, you probably played it wrong. Here's a what a good fight looks like after a bit of practice:
Impressive huh? The game's core mechanic is to dodge at the right time (MANUALLY), take offense and throw combos while switching weapon and moving around the environment while teleporting.
Looks pretty neat to me. They just failed to explain it...
But what is also easily visible is the amount of reuseability between projects. Iam certain we will see a lot of fighting animation shared between FF7R and XV (the trailer already showed some of that like crawling between the bricks). FFXV is just such a massive game with high quality assets (and high quality source files and programming) that it would be a shame not to reuse stuff in upcoming games. But i agree the scope and amount of assets going into a game like this seems like insanity...but it kinda is how it is now. I just think, this company especially, can not afford failures like the original FF14 or canceling a massive game 2-3 Years in Development, rebranding it and starting a new in a different console generation.
One comment in the GI Show said it all about FF13 however "i know more aboput 15's world, characters, motivation, premise and basic plot after just watching trailers than i knew about FF13 50 hours in".
Yeah honestly i would have problems realising they are supposed to be the same character. Wonder why they didn't stick to a higher quality realistic anime look rather than the super realistic look....which brings you right into the uncanney valley, especially since the dude with the violet hair looks barely anything like his game counterpart.
Since they're using some famous TV actors my guess is that they're doing facial capture. I'm not too familiar with the details, but supposedly it's easier to do if the target model resembles the actor. Please correct me if I'm wrong about this. Lena Headey is playing Luna and if you closely compare their faces you can see some similarities (especially her chin, brows and nose).
That said, she does look much older than her ingame version, which is kind of funny considering this is the prequel.
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I'm still very much worried about the state of the series, but hearing Tabata talk about it with such sincerity is really surprising. It's rare to hear such openness come from Japanese developers.
I'm glad they realize the seriousness of the situation this franchise is in. There is roughly 2 million PS4 units in Japan and I highly doubt that all who own it will buy the game. Unless the game becomes a massive system seller, they will need to rely on sales from abroad.
Which is extremely scary as well. I feel like the last big FF game that was really popular in the west was Final Fantasy X. FFXII, FFXIII or online FF games may have sold pretty well, but I have the impression the series fell out of the mainstream. There's now an entire new generation of gamers for whom FF is not the household name it used to be.
For those not convinced of the fighting after playing the demo, you probably played it wrong. Here's a what a good fight looks like after a bit of practice:
Impressive huh? The game's core mechanic is to dodge at the right time (MANUALLY), take offense and throw combos while switching weapon and moving around the environment while teleporting.
Looks pretty neat to me. They just failed to explain it...
But i agree the scope and amount of assets going into a game like this seems like insanity...but it kinda is how it is now. I just think, this company especially, can not afford failures like the original FF14 or canceling a massive game 2-3 Years in Development, rebranding it and starting a new in a different console generation.
One comment in the GI Show said it all about FF13 however "i know more aboput 15's world, characters, motivation, premise and basic plot after just watching trailers than i knew about FF13 50 hours in".
The voice actors are different, and the character style seems far more realistic (and less asian) then in the actual game though...
Movie:
Game:
That said, she does look much older than her ingame version, which is kind of funny considering this is the prequel.