I was just going on the credits, where he is literally not one of the credited writers at all (though again, was on the original). it’s cool that you know exactly how work gets divided at SE though, especially as they don’t seem to know that themselves too much (this has been, more than anything else, the problem of the FF series for a while now). For instance, Nomura didn’t even know he was director till he saw it listed in a PPT after production had started. He was neck deep in KH3 at the time, so he just had to direct both at the same time.
i, non-surprisingly, love the end of FF7R. it kinda justifies the existence of the whole game for me, a person who cares little about the original.
Amano was a big influence on me as a kid. I used to trace what few pieces of his art I could find in print. Later in life I aped his style while designing some very embarrassing costumes for bands that never really happened.
I loved most of the characters in FF8 (and Lulu) but aside from that my feelings on Nomura’s designs have always ranged from overwhelming dislike to indifferent. If this opinion is internet received I’m taking credit cuz I have always felt this way so go me, I did a great job tricking all these boobs into hating something I’ve always hated.
Well yeah he went from largely working within the constraints of lower fidelity hardware and someone else’s style and vision to the being the guy whose design quirks were present on screen for every second of playtime. Some people like those monsters while disliking the blond kid who’s wearing one leg up on the white man pants. Makes sense.
Dude dropping a lead character that looks like he was swiped from an unfilmed 1992 production of “Beach Blanket Bingo meets a white version of House Party starring Jonathan Brandis” and I’m supposed to believe people had to be duped into hating him
Motherfucker looks like he’d be in some PSA for Earth Day telling me how important recycling is, fuckin sub-Ferngully ass bullshit
Dude walking home from the Kriss Kross video audition with that Charlie Brown posture, covered in garbage, because even they thought he looked like a clown, and dumped him in the garbage
Big western studios tend to develop the story, themes, and world as a collaboration between the creative director, art director, lead designers, and lead writer, with the creative director taking point; a staff of writers responds to direction and fills out the script to serve those goals. I believe it’s not too dissimilar at Square. Primary driver is something like film where the director ideally owns the story, but because a game script is usually massive you need a lot of people just to flesh out the world and dialogue…
I will say this – I think it’s smart of them to jettison the original canon and grant themselves license to write the rest of the remake however they want. it pleases me that this upsets fans who can’t handle the slightest thing being changed. I don’t think it’s particularly bad for them to add in story elements that explain this away either. though I’d probably still love the game without all that I do appreciate the decision to make the game more inviting for someone like you who doesn’t really care about the original. we’re aligned here at least.
I mostly take issue with the retcon plot device suddenly being the central antagonist at the end of the game, without any real obvious compelling reason aside from all the protagonists vaguely disagreeing with the concept of fate on the spot, and I really strongly dislike the silly, melodramatic way in which that conflict unfolds. the entire game builds up themes of reunion, the moral ambiguity of direct action as political activism, loyalty to a cause vs. loyalty to friends, and then suddenly all of those things are swept under the rug when they should be critical to the climax in place of some faceless “arbiter of fate” that isn’t even inherently evil. that’s why it feels so jarring to me… maybe if at least the rest of the game was building up to themes of fate vs free will it would have felt more coherent, but as it is it just feels like this lazy deus ex machina so they can have an excuse for a big dramatic finish and duel between cloud and sephiroth instead of the comparatively tame end of midgar in the original.
I also could do without the bizarre, constant arbitrary insertion of sephiroth in places that make no logical sense in the story. the lazy late-game explanation for it is unsatisfying, and his character is profoundly less interesting than he was in the original as result. regardless of who is responsible for these elements, it is just bad scenario writing and direction, and runs counter all the places where the scenario writing and direction are really quite good. it’s just frustrating, and feels like fan-fiction of itself. is that ever a good thing? honest question.
yeah, it’s my understanding that game writers usually are just responsible for implementing an already written story, they handle the dialog and pacing and make suggestions on how to establish characterization, etc. no clue if that’s how it works at squeenix, but it does seem like most of the creative staff is following the director’s lead, given how taro-like taro games are, nomura-like nomura games are, sakaguchi-like sakaguchi like games are, etc. I still think the overall quality of any game, regardless of director, is still the responsibility and work of various members of the creative team, and can’t be singlehandedly pinned on the director.
but I honestly think final fantasy remake owns as whole, it’s just my view that the things I dislike about it are a result of no one being willing to say “no” to nomura because of his stature in the company, but obviously that is nothing more than conjecture, and I don’t mean to negate anything nomura was responsible for that I liked about the game either.
yeah seriously. they could have just cut away to them being at the inn in kalm, or just had the flashback happen on the outskirts of midgar, if they didn’t want to have to deal with revealing the overworld yet.
interestingly, Final Fantasy XV was a notable exception in development when Tabata’s team took over; apparently they switched over to a mostly non-heirarchical development structure so that they could actually get the game done instead of waiting on the whims of a certain auteur for determining what to do.
X is fine for what it is but why make X3 when an FF8R is so much more ripe to be expanded on, you could do literally anything with the mercenary theme, expand the school stuff for that Persona money. FF8R could be an entire lifestyle
Aside from the horrendous art direction and voice acting in FFX, the other reason it sucks is just in terms of plotting; its a terrible mess of word salad worldbuilding that falls apart if you bother to think about it at any point during the 60 hour playtime; death is literally meaningless in the setting and there are no stakes at all
