Thread 713694480

What went so wrong during FFXII’s production? Development took four times longer than planned (the longest active dev period ever at that point) , the director had a nervous breakdown and never directed another project, and the game was significantly overhauled last minute (including the creation of Vaan).

>>713694480 (OP)
>including the creation of Vaan
Please read the ultimania or consult Matsuno instead of parroting an almost 20 year old misconception.o

>>713695198
so the writing it's was shit from the get go? glad we clarified that up.

>>713694480 (OP)
square enix is what went wrong

>>713695789
FF12 was just blatantly unfinished and everyone knows this because they said so. That's why the midgame feels so barren.

>>713694480 (OP)
>Director abandoning their hard working team
I hate that guy

>>713694480 (OP)
Matsuno is (was?) extremely good at creating very detailed, fascinating settings with incredible art direction in support of the most neurotic number goes up gameplay ever.

>>713694480 (OP)
And yet it's still better than any other FF since VII

>>713694480 (OP)
They started making MMOs (FF11)

>5 years development time
>40 million budget

This is mind-blowing at that time. Now square is throwing hundreds of millions for turds like forspoken.

>>713694480 (OP)
It was obviously at the end of the PS2 lifecycle and the A-Team were probably already in the progress of making 13 which was a huge jump graphically.

>political intrigue

Dumb chinks

>>713694480 (OP)
I want to have dusty sandy desert sex with penelo

>>713697801
Penelo's ass
Ashe's miniskirt
Fran's legs and voice

>>713694480 (OP)
It's pretty obvious Matsuno couldn't handle the executive demand of working on a big studio title like this with constant revisions and mandated changes to what he actually wanted to do.

>>713697636
>It was obviously at the end of the PS2 lifecycle
That’s the thing, production started in 2000.

I don't think Matsuno had a nervous breakdown, I think he literally had a health issue.
FF12 also sold 6 million copies and was the last good FF game. Nothing particularly went wrong.

>>713694480 (OP)
They at least managed to release the game. Modern Square needs a whole console generation just to make 1 game. Getting to the point where they need almost 2 generations to make 1 game now. Square just needs to realize the canvas isn't big enough for whatever the fuck they have in mind with these games.

>>713697604
Why are modern games so expensive?

>>713694480 (OP)
If only more "failures" were like this. Incredibly ambitious and still one of my favourite FF games.

>>713701005
time and number of employees

>>713701005
Corporate bloat. That's literally it.
With modern tools and prefab engines they could make a AAA title with a team of less than 100 people in a year if they were actually interested in making games. Instead the corporate structure has ballooned to being around 70-80% useless grifters and do-nothing HR clowns who all want a piece of the pie but have nothing to contribute.

>>713695789
>so the writing it's was shit from the get go?
No, penelos backstory and motivations were written out of the story and vaans were massively condensed in order to move the introduction along as much as possible. The first part of xii is already a massive drag, imagine if it were also infodumping penelos history and family, and how penelo left to join the orphanage despite being raised and educated as a minor noble, and penelo and vaans relationship, and vaans relationship with his brother recks, and how vaan blindly inherited hared of the empire without knowing why recks said the things he said or what he did, and all that stuff that is kinda referenced in flashbacks here and there or in missable npc dialogue or shows up in revenant wings and extra material. The game speeds through all that so that it can fast-forward to the part where you get ashe and balthier and fran, and you have a full party and can get out into the westersand and pick up basch.

>>713698743
>Nothing particularly went wrong.
It's the first time it took them 6 years to release an FF game so probably a lot went wrong

>>713705518
11 and X-2 came out during the interim, it wasn't all bad

>>713704987
We already know Vaan and Penelo's backstories.
Vaan was an orphan because his parents died. He then got adopted by Penelo's family and Reks left to be a soldier. Penelo's family died during the war and Reks became an invalid because the empire beat and/or drugged him due to knowing the truth. Vaan/Penelo were then adopted by Migelo (the shopkeeper) and have been doing stuff for him since.
A lot of that stuff you put there is just headcanon.

>>713694480 (OP)
Most unfun game I ever played.

>>713704298
Corpo always aim to increase profits. There is no reason, but only their greed.

>>713708685
while ff12 is factually shit you might wanna try playing more than 3 games in your life if it's the worst game you have played.

>>713694480 (OP)
XI took over my life so I didn't actually get around to playing XII until more than a decade after it originally released.

>>713708921
I didn’t say it was the worst game I ever played, I said it was the most unfun game I’ve ever played. The worst game that I’ve ever played (that was a “professional” product released in stores) was Poker Masters on PS2.

I enjoyed it

>>713694480 (OP)
Apparently we’re getting FFX-3 so you think there’s a chance they’ll resurrect Fortress?

>>713697405
>Hating FF8
Disgust for Plebs.jpg

FF12, 8, and Tactics are the top 3 for the series. All others are shite.

>>713701005
Bloat (number of employees and no strict time-tables).

>>713707131
>Reks became an invalid
That must be cutting-room floor from the Alphas, because the final is: Reks is dead.

I just finished this game about a month ago. One of the weirdest things is that the finale feels like it comes out of nowhere. I was expecting the fight on the Bahamut to be the start of the third act. But no, that's the end of the game where you face the final boss. On one hand, I'll give credit for sticking to Vayne as the big bad guy and not inventing some other asspull villain at the last minute. But on the other hand, there are still so many unanswered plot threads even after you beat him.

All in all? The story is 99% setup with 1% payoff. The three girls are cute. Vann sucks. Bathier is best party member. The gambit system is really cool but the actual combat is tedious.

>>713701005
Micro$oft

Can we at least agree that Ashe is really hot?

>>713712519
She's my favourite waiFFu

>Y-you did play The Zodiac Age, didn't you Anon?
>It's the only project Kitase-sama will let me work on these days
>If these floors are spotless, he might let me get a special thanks credit on the FFIX remake

>>713694480 (OP)
>during production
I can give you some significant changes that impede production speed, sure.
• Merge of Square and ENIX
• Simultaneous production of FF11, FF13, VERSUS and other FF titles
• Merge of Square and ENIX
• Change in console platform
• Increased graphics requirement
• Square and ENIX merged
• Greater detail, greater rendition length
• Addition of voice acting (similar cost/speed to FFX)
• Did I mention how Square and ENIX were merging?
• Removal of turn-based fighting structure
• Lots of different management from since Square and ENIX merged

To start...

The game was hard carried by the acting.

>>713712519
The microskirt drives me nuts

>>713712519
Yes

>>713713316
The localizers went out of their way to cast theatre and TV actors instead of the usual California anime faggots, and it really shows. I'm so glad they got a boy to voice Larsa and not a 40 year old woman pretending to be a boy

>>713694480 (OP)
>The music is copying Star Wars
Amongst all the sins of FFXII, this is beyond any doubt the worst offender of all.
Can it really be called a FF game with such a bad OST? I don't think so.

>>713713232
I think you forgot to mention how Square and Enix were merging. I know it was a minor thing but I think it might have played a small part in things