Fungah! posted:

It's honestly kind of depressing that we can render Amano's art pretty well now, long after he's really into doing art direction for video games.

Endorph posted:

And to be fair, IX does an okay job. Freya, Amarant, and Quina are hanger-ons, but Zidane, Dagger, Eiko, Steiner, and Vivi all have satisfactory character arcs tied into the story itself.

And Quina and Freya at least get their moments in the sun, even if they don't have real arcs. The only real outlier is Amarant.

Pesky Splinter posted:

I would kill for a game done with Amano's art. The closest we've come is Dissidia, with the Nomura-fied designs.

There's a project he's working on which at one point was going to be multimedia, but seems to have just ended up as an illustrated novel. They did a pretty swank trailer for it though.

It's also one of the few that he's both illustrated, and authored. I can tell you this though; a writer, he ain't.

Also, have a better picture of Robo-god:

Krad posted:

Can he even turn his head looking like that?

That loving Sned posted:

Final Fantasy X|X-2 coming out 18th March 2014 in the US, 21st March in Europe

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-11-18-final-fantasy-10-10-2-hd-arrive-for-europe-next-march

It's coming out in Japan on the 26th December 2013, so we get it an entire season later. I know that's not exactly the best date to release something in the West, but are we still having to put up with delayed international releases from Square Enix? They also just got Lightning Returns, which doesn't come out until 11th February here, but I'm not really upset by that.

That loving Sned posted:

It's coming out in Japan on the 26th December 2013, so we get it an entire season later. I know that's not exactly the best date to release something in the West, but are we still having to put up with delayed international releases from Square Enix? They also just got Lightning Returns, which doesn't come out until 11th February here, but I'm not really upset by that.

PTizzle posted:

I just booted up XIII-2 for the first time in ages and forgot I grabbed the Gilgamesh boss DLC (PS3 $10 minimum, just threw it in there because it was cheap and, you know, Gilgamesh).

How the hell do you beat him? I've finished the game and everyone is 99 everything, but I've been smashing him for half an hour and have barely whittled away anything.

I can't seem to get poison to stick which is my usual go to move when I face an enemy like this.

Barudak posted:

Any word on what the epilogue/bonus content they've build contains/is getting translated/voicework? I know it contains more story but I'm curious as to whats going on with that. Not sure I can handle more Tidus voice.

That loving Sned posted:

Kingdom Hearts 1.5 just left the new scenes unvoiced, although that's probably just because the actors are so much older now that it would sound out of place. It's not like they weren't around, since they did a lot of new voicework for Days.

Krad posted:

Now, why the scenes in KH2 Final Mix were also left unvoiced, I have no idea. Probably money that they didn't have back then.

That loving Sned posted:

They had enough money to completely remake Chains of Memories in 3D, with voice acting, and include it as a freebie in KHII Final Mix+, so

Artix posted:

Do we know what the deal with Real Serah is yet? Because Not-Serah and Real Serah are totally going to be confused for each other and make Light get dragged into a boss fight at some point. Probably against Snow.

"Dengeki talks physics and movement in XIII-3:LR posted:

In the most recent Dengeki interview, the development team discussed, among other things, the challenges of creating a system with so much varied and customizable equipment that actually appeared out of battle. TensaiShojo illuminated the bulk of the interview for us, with some interesting development reveals mixed in. Lumina {the Not-Serah}, for example, is supposed to look like a 12-years-old girl. Her extravagant movements were made to look especially realistic.

In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah and Noel had alternate outfits but they were few enough for the developers to check thoroughly. However, in Lightning Returns, Lightning will have over 80 outfits and this makes it practically impossible for the developers to check every little detail. For example, if Lightning is carrying a long weapon on her back, it might occasionally go through her outfit. The developers made sure to fix major problems, like keeping her dresses and skirts from flying up while she fights. There were many times when her underwear became entirely exposed in the more revealing costumers. The Miqo’te outfit was especially difficult to fix because the skirt wouldn’t stop turning over. Despite careful adjustments, players can freely move the camera during cutscenes or when taking screenshots, so panty-shots couldn’t be eliminated entirely in those costumes.*

Weapons and shields were also very difficult to alter. There is a scene where Lightning points her sword at an enemy, but depending on the size of the chosen weapon, the sword would sometimes pierce the enemy when it wasn’t supposed to. The developers did their best to scale the weapons to look natural during scenes, but some weapons like the sword you seem to obtain from a Behemoth, are hilariously huge.

Next, the creators talked about the tone of the story. Final Fantasy XIII-2 was originally planned to be a light-hearted game where fans could enjoy playing with their favorite characters again, so a few staff members were very surprised when the story took a darker tone and grew into a trilogy. The story of Lightning Returns is obviously darker in keeping with that twist, but players need not worry about the end.

The two developers were then asked about their favorite scenes. Tanaka-san likes a scene where, while sneaking into Yusnaan, Lightning gets embarrassed before she gets up on the stage. He also enjoys the entire scenario of healing the wounded chocobo. Miyake-san likes a certain scene with Sazh that was not discussed at length. The two also warn players of going through the game too fast, as some cutscenes can be easily missed. Of course, players can go back and find such scenes with multiple playthroughs.

Scenes were apparently a little harder for the development team to complete this time around. The cutscene developers had a tough time creating events because not all of the character models and background environments were complete. They had to use many placeholders and unfinished settings before they went back and polished the scenes. In Lightning Returns, all of the locations are absolutely new, so, compared to FFXIII-2, it took a longer time for the world to be created. Also, the story was not entirely complete before development began, so there were quite a few times when scenes had to be redone in order to meet Toriyama-san’s alterations**. As for the character voices, in the past the voice-actors recorded their lines before any cutscenes were fully completed. The creators then used the voices as a base for the characters’ emotions and lip-movement. This time, the voice-actors recorded after the scenes were finished.

Pesky Splinter posted:

* Thank you, Dengeki for poining out that panty-shots exist in this game. This is vital information that isn't creepy at all!
**Oh boy

Pesky Splinter posted:

Also, have a better picture of Robo-god:

Krad posted:

God damnit, I want this game to get released already so we never, ever have to hear about it again.

Pesky Splinter posted:

S'more pics, I guess:








If nothing else, it's going to be pretty to look at.

Theglavwen posted:

Christ, I'm getting to the point where I just can't look at Final Fantasy screenshots anymore, it's all so damned generic and soulless. The franchise has become a parody of itself

Terper posted:

HitmanAndQuitIt posted:

Concerning they've seemingly forgotten about the Vita for X/X-2

Dross posted:

That sure as gently caress didn't work for the first two games in the series.

Terper posted:

Krad posted:

It's mostly the creepy as hell interviews that keep coming up. I was excited for this game at one point, now I hate the idea of having to use Lightning and no one else for the whole game.

Renoistic posted:

It's gotten to a point where I just laugh at every new piece of information about LR, S-E or just gaming news outlets in general. FF14 looks nice but I just don't have the time for games like that anymore. I'm still buying LR because I need to experience the train wreck for myself.

The_Franz posted:

Can you at least buy it used so that Square doesn't get any money from the sale and isn't encouraged to make more of this stuff?

Renoistic posted:

But what about the Cloud costume!?