Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Director Naoki Hamaguchi: "We now create with a global audience in mind from the very start"

[Delweynes]

https://www.sony.com/en/brand/createthebeyond/voicesofcreativity/pspa1/

He forgot that what made JRPGs so popular outside Japan was FF7 OG.

Global players like and want the authentic japanese culture, not westernized products infected with the modern era ideology, DEI and censorship.

At least, for people who still had hopes, it's clear. They will not create for old fans of pure japanese culture, but for the "global modern audience".

It confirms the obvious orientation pointed by the company, in this topic:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2909400/discussions/0/596262791801743448/?tscn=1737877008
Dernière modification de Delweynes;

[Rand0]

https://i.redd.it/gsz4xmk5qume1.jpeg

[windsea888]

What is being lost in this debate is that for a generation, Japanese video games were an exotic escape into whimsical worlds, a vacation from the culture of the west. To see these games and companies now start to try to emulate or jump onto the very trends that are eroding the west (i.e. globalist, woke, political correctness) is to see a betrayal of what we understood the beloved Japanese game creators to once be about: whimsical wonder rooted in traditional values. If Mario Bros. were invented today it might be a Mary Sue Princess Peach saving Mario instead of the other way around, no?

[Eastgrove]

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

If Mario Bros. were invented today it might be a Mary Sue Princess Peach saving Mario instead of the other way around, no?

You mean like in the movie?

[windsea888]

I missed the movie, is that what happens? Lol

[Eastgrove]

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

I missed the movie, is that what happens? Lol

More or less. Looking back, the live action Super Mario Bros movie was woke Hollywood crap too.

[windsea888]

But the cast was so good back then. I don't remember it being particularly preachy but I'd have to rewatch. Just remembering goomba lol

[windsea888]

Anyway we better pipe down before the bigotry brigade arrives

[Croft95]

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

Part of why FF8 was so poor story-wise aside from the convoluted stuff toward the end is that Squall is an emotionless anti-hero with little to no character arc, not a relatable and inspiring hero like Cecil or Zidane or 1997 Cloud, men who face their demons, love and respect the men and women in their lives, and triumph over evil.

You made some fair points up until this. Prepare for an essay in response because I think Squall is a great character and, despite its flaws, FF8 is underrated.

Squall starts as an emotionless child soldier trained at a hyper-militarised school to follow orders for geo-political conflicts he barely understands and his arc is re-discovering his humanity and capacity for love. By the end of the game he has reunited with his childhood friends, saved his adoptive mother, Edea, from being possessed by the game's true villain, Ultimecia, defeated his rival Seifer and brought him back to his senses, saved the woman he loves, Rinoa, multiple times (he carries her, comatose, into Esthar and literally jumps into the vacuum of space at one point to rescue her) and reunites with his father, Laguna, and adoptive sister, Ellone. And he also stopped Ultimecia from compressing all space-time into nothingness. That doesn't sound like an "anti-hero" to me. Squall might not be a typical inspiring hero on the surface but that doesn't mean he isn't one, his actions say otherwise. A lot of his character development is internal rather than external.

As for the convoluted stuff towards the end, yeah, I'd agree. FF8's biggest flaw is that it doesn't communicate its story elements clearly enough. There's a lot of potential in that game's story that gets dropped because of the writers' "mystery box" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and their refusal to commit which creates a lot of confusing, abortive elements. Ultimecia being an insane Rinoa from a previous timeline where Squall died and she gave into her latent Sorceress abilities is a great example of this, there are major hints towards it in the game (like Ultimecia's GF having the same name as Squall's ring which he only tells to Rinoa and certain characters having certain sound effects that play when they cast a spell, I'm not making this up) but they never commit to it in a meaningful way. Which is a shame as that would make her one of the series' best villains rather than one of the worst and it would explain the whole point of time compression; she wants to crush space-time from the future to try and reunite with Squall in the past.

Sounds familiar though doesn't it? The mystery boxes, the time-loops. Kind of like the Sephiroth of the FF7 remakes coming from a previous timeline (the PS1 FF7?) to mess with Cloud, or whatever that's going to turn out to be. Wait till you find out who had the lead writing/directing roles on both FF8 and the FF7 remakes. People need to start blaming Nojima and Kitase more and Nomura less. Really, if they wanted to remake a classic FF and add looping timelines and the concept of fate, FF8 had the potential of benefiting the most because the story elements, such as time compression, are already there and even people who like the game such as myself see its shortcomings and potential for improvement. It's almost like they've added what should've been added to a FF8 remake to a FF7 remake. Ultimecia haunting Squall from a preceding time-loop makes more sense than Sephiroth doing it to Cloud if they committed to making her Rinoa. FF7's story is too fatalistic and dark for these kinds of elements. I love Zack and Aerith, and I say this as an unapologetic Crisis Core fanboy, but having them alive in an alternate timeline diminishes their characterisation and the overall quality of FF7's story and seems to be a creative decision aimed at drooling, have-their-cake-and-eat-it fanboys rather than people who want to experience a complex story about loss.

[Eastgrove]

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

But the cast was so good back then. I don't remember it being particularly preachy but I'd have to rewatch. Just remembering goomba lol

Woke is subtle when it can't be blatant.

[Katitoff]

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

What is being lost in this debate is that for a generation, Japanese video games were an exotic escape into whimsical worlds, a vacation from the culture of the west. To see these games and companies now start to try to emulate or jump onto the very trends that are eroding the west (i.e. globalist, woke, political correctness) is to see a betrayal of what we understood the beloved Japanese game creators to once be about: whimsical wonder rooted in traditional values. If Mario Bros. were invented today it might be a Mary Sue Princess Peach saving Mario instead of the other way around, no?

They don't want to emulate this crap.

They are forced to if they want to release on the west, because of far left censorship that forces them to do it.

[windsea888]

Forces them? Who or what is forcing them? They could, you know, be brave and go against the woke trend. It would save them a lot of money. Forspoken, etc....

I think the problem is some of the artists at SE are actually not just appeasing "wokeness" (or whatever you want to call this secular identity politics), but actually agree with it....

[$OULJA $TRIFE]

YamatotakerunomikotoSonsama eredeti hozzászólása:

WHAT a multi-national company wants mass appeal!? No way! That's crazy!

Please, FF has been the least offensively diverse thing ever for 40 years and continues to be. I can't think of a franchise more appealing and more diverse and LESS in your face about it.

Yes I’m sure a game franchise that casually featured mass genocide, woman getting beat, murdered, on screen suicide attempts is very common among popular game franchises El o el

Worst thing abt this sissyfication of new age Remake FF7 is it twists what the franchise was originally established as, real stories with fantastical situations and settings. Almost like a classic shonen/seinen

[sora's 青かった星]

Croft95 eredeti hozzászólása:

having them alive in an alternate timeline diminishes their characterisation and the overall quality of FF7's story and seems to be a creative decision aimed at drooling, have-their-cake-and-eat-it fanboys rather than people who want to experience a complex story about loss.

Yeah, they needed to commit to having plenty of people die, but I guess that went out the window after Square started doing tame crossovers with Disney and Nintendo for kids (Kingdom Hearts and Super Smash Bros.) Maybe Square Enix secretly hopes Disney will buy them out and then Disney World can open a Final Fantasy section with Final Fantasy princesses like Aerith. But you can't have her meet and greet the kids if she is dead.

(If they wanted to have a multi-verse and change the ending to keep fans guessing and keep Aerith, then they should have at least killed Tifa decisively and replaced every scene of him mourning Aerith with one of mourning Tifa.)

[windsea888]

I'm sorry--I am not going to read all of your long post about FF8, but I appreciate the reply. I replayed FF8 recently and I thought it was the kind of story where there are interesting ideas at the start that do not come together in a cohesive whole, and the ending is exposition dumped and does not work. Very similar to Chrono Cross. I get that there is probably more of an arc to Squall than I am giving credit for, but I don't remember it if so because he was so emotionless and because the convoluted plotline overshadows the characters by the end of the game.

It is a rare artistic gift to be able to make a complete story that is cohesive and where all the threads tie together. The threads and ideas need to not overextend into things they cannot accomplish in the narrative. That talent for cohesion and leadership is a gift Sakaguchi had and brought to his projects at Squaresoft. Together with his teams he made incredible games like Chrono Trigger and FFIV. He needs his talented team members with artists like Nomura, but not everyone can be an effective leader of a whole team and whole project like he could. What he brings is a consistent vision to his artwork, and he needs the great ideas of his talented artists to contribute to and stretch the limits of that vision.

To me the absolute best FF games were the ones that were a partnership between Sakaguchi and a team of artists. Whether it was Uematsu, Amano, and Sakaguchi in the early FFs or later with Kitase, Nomura, Nojima, and Uematsu, they worked well as a team. When he left Square Enix that teamwork was disrupted and the series lost its identity without its leader.

[Sibirski Plavac]

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

What is being lost in this debate is that for a generation, Japanese video games were an exotic escape into whimsical worlds, a vacation from the culture of the west. To see these games and companies now start to try to emulate or jump onto the very trends that are eroding the west (i.e. globalist, woke, political correctness) is to see a betrayal of what we understood the beloved Japanese game creators to once be about: whimsical wonder rooted in traditional values. If Mario Bros. were invented today it might be a Mary Sue Princess Peach saving Mario instead of the other way around, no?

Yeah, Japanese games used to be very different and a good escape from EU and USA politics, these days they are full of political and forced DEI BS.

Katitoff eredeti hozzászólása:

windsea888 eredeti hozzászólása:

What is being lost in this debate is that for a generation, Japanese video games were an exotic escape into whimsical worlds, a vacation from the culture of the west. To see these games and companies now start to try to emulate or jump onto the very trends that are eroding the west (i.e. globalist, woke, political correctness) is to see a betrayal of what we understood the beloved Japanese game creators to once be about: whimsical wonder rooted in traditional values. If Mario Bros. were invented today it might be a Mary Sue Princess Peach saving Mario instead of the other way around, no?

They don't want to emulate this crap.

They are forced to if they want to release on the west, because of far left censorship that forces them to do it.

This, and they decided to pander instead of showong that they have balls and tell to wokes to pound sand.