SE VP Talks DS, FFXI for Wii, potential PS3 CT remake, other stuff

[Hadriel]

http://www.cubed3.com/news/6783/1/Hiromichi_on_Nintendo_DS,_Wii,_Online,_Final_Fantasy_and_More_(Full_Transcript)

I'd found this a bit earlier, but can't remember where.  At any rate, Square-Enix's Vice President, Hiromichi Tanaka, is apparently not a complete dumbfuck.  Here is the key passage from the interview:

There's still a possibility, but since the main director is not working for Square Enix now -- he's working on other titles in a different company, Namco Bandai, it's a bit difficult to ask him to come back and be the head of a team again. And also, Kato-san is working on the fourth game in the Mana series. So there's still a possibility that he might think he might want to make it again...

According to the interview, they previously stated that there wouldn't be a sequel to CC because it would be too difficult to get the original team back together again, but Masato Kato was known for wanting to do something different with CC as opposed to a remake.  Then again, enough time has passed since CT came out that he might consider revisiting it.

Discuss.

[Burning Zeppelin]

Well, at least they know they need the original team back. If SE just went for it now, we'd probably get a game with a lot of jpop, bimbo women with stupid smiles and a really, really bad storyline. Sorry, bad dream I had the other night.

[Chrono'99]

This was discussed in a topic at http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,3864.0.html . Anyway...

Well, at least they know they need the original team back. If SE just went for it now, we'd probably get a game with a lot of jpop, bimbo women with stupid smiles and a really, really bad storyline. Sorry, bad dream I had the other night.

"SE" isn't a person. There are many people and teams in the company, each with distinct personalities, styles, etc. You're referring to FFX-2, but FFX-2 was developed by the same team as FFX; it was the team's own choice to do this sort of fanservice; it wasn't a different team taking over their project and making something heretic.

Another often overlooked fact is that the only reason the Compilation of FFVII was greenlighted, according to Yoshinori Kitase, was because they managed to reunite all the original FFVII developers (with the exception of Sakaguchi).

World of Mana is also spearheaded by the original Seiken Densetsu creator Koichi Ishii, while Hiromichi Tanaka (SoM and SD3 director) chose to not be involved in the project on his own will.

Overall, everytime something is "milked" in SE, it's milked by its original developers. It's Ishii's own fault that the Mana series sucks; it's not like someone else took over and corrupted the original spirit or anything. I don't think there was ever any risk of seeing the Chrono series--nor any other SE franchise--being handed over to a different team than the original team.

The only exception to this seems to be Ivalice Alliance, but it's a special case, and they don't make sequels to FFT and VS; they're focused on the FFTA/FFXII side (FFXII's team was like 50% different than the FFT team), so even here they're faithful to themselves in a way.

[ZealKnight]

as long as kato was doing the story and that it was good i could care less of the people making it. but for a remake definitely need the directors.

[Thought]

Actually, it would probably be perfectly fine if they didn't gather all (or even most) of the original team for a Chrono remake or sequel. Consider Star Wars Episodes I, II, and IV. Consider Matrix Reload and Revolutions. The original motivating influence doesn't guarentee sucess.

Of course, there is a risk in a changing of the guard. Look at Batman Forever... but then there is Batman Begins. The Metroid series took a big risk in switching to a 3rd shooter, but it worked. There is splendid talent out there and there is no reason that a new team wouldn't be able to make a game that is as good (or better) than the originals, as long as they do their homework (as it were) and actually understand what made the games so great.