Final Fantasy 12, looking good, but delayed to 2006

[Julius Seeker]

Well, at least that's what it looks like is going to happen. The game made a no-show at E3. All that was shown were some video clips of the game. Square has essentially said that they are having their own show later on in the summer to officially unveil the new game.

Anyways, from the videoclips they have shown at E3, the game looks to be excellent. It really looks like they are putting a lot into this. I do think it will be the best game in the series. It appears the game will have larger scale locations similar to FF7 and FF8 (Final Fantasy 10 was a very small scale game). The cities look very large and well populated. The cities look alive; something that has only been done in FF8 before.

[Nev]

I saw the trailer and the CG looks amazing. The inside word from my former college roommate, now living in Japan, is that the lead designer on FFXII actually went crazy from overwork within the last year and had to be hospitalized briefly in a psychiatric institution. I understand now how Japanese can have a single word for "death from working too hard".

[Kupek]

I saw the trailer and the CG looks amazing. The inside word from my former college roommate, now living in Japan, is that the lead designer on FFXII actually went crazy from overwork within the last year and had to be hospitalized briefly in a psychiatric institution. I understand now how Japanese can have a single word for "death from working too hard".

Wait a second... Stanford, now living in Japan, videogame knowledge... Andrew Vestal?

[Julius Seeker]

Andrew Vestal, used to be a poster here until about 5-6 years ago, I remember that guy. Don't know what ever became of him though.

The lead designeris Matsuno, I am a huge fan of his games; Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle. I love them all =)

[Torgo]

The lead designeris Matsuno, I am a huge fan of his games; Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle. I love them all =)

Second that. I am largely looking forward to this game.

[EsquE]

Andrew Vestal, used to be a poster here until about 5-6 years ago, I remember that guy. Don't know what ever became of him though.

The lead designeris Matsuno, I am a huge fan of his games; Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle. I love them all =)

Vestal is currently in Japan working as an Engrish teacher if I'm not mistaken...he has a monthly column in the Official US Playstation Magazine that should be given more space than it gets...also the founder of SquareNET...

As for him being Mental's roomate...I kinda think he was...

As for FFXII, I'm really looking forward to it...just like you, Vagrant Story, FFTactics, and the Ogre games are some of my all time favorites and this is basically the same team handling FFXII.

Plus, it's a brand new team doing a FF game...as much as I loved VII through X, it's time for a change...and with Sakaguchi gone and Nomura engulfed with Kingdom Hearts 2, they had no choice...if anything, the designs, music and story should be awesome...the gameplay will be interesting, if just to see how a team who's background is in tactical games approaches the traditional RPG...

[Manshoon]

Vestal's got a page up here. I remember it got a ton of hits a year or two back when he posted the PA Remix Project. Man, that shit was insanely hilarious, almost moreso than the actual PA strip.

[SineSwiper]

The lead designeris Matsuno, I am a huge fan of his games; Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle. I love them all =)

Two top-notch games right there. I'm really looking forward to FF12 more than most FFs.

[Julius Seeker]

There will be a lot of pressure on Sakimoto now that he is handling the music. Music has always been an important part of the Final Fantasy series. Sakimoto does have quite a resume though, and I do quite enjoy the tracks from Vagrant Story, and the Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics games. Some other names missing from the table are Nojima and Uematsu (though obviously some of Uematsu's material will be put into the game, like the main final fantasy theme which has appeared in every Final Fantasy game in the main series).

[Flip]

The music will be great, it always is and always will be even with new guys. Square has standards and wouldnt release crap.

[Don]

Uematsu's recent music hasn't been all that great anyway. I think he peaked at around 7 or 8 and went downhill there.

[Nev]

Andrew Vestal, used to be a poster here until about 5-6 years ago, I remember that guy. Don't know what ever became of him though.

The lead designeris Matsuno, I am a huge fan of his games; Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle. I love them all =)

Vestal is currently in Japan working as an Engrish teacher if I'm not mistaken...he has a monthly column in the Official US Playstation Magazine that should be given more space than it gets...also the founder of SquareNET...

As for him being Mental's roomate...I kinda think he was...

Yes. For the brief period that I was at Stanford in 1998 (I "stopped out" as a precursor to pretty much dropping out after the first trimester), we were roommates.

He was an Engrish teacher through JET (the Japanese Exchange T-something-or-other program that gives Americans a chance to study Japanese and live in Japan while teaching English to advanced students) for the past three years but is now working for a translation company. More info than that I cannot give because NDA stuff in the videogame industry is nuttier than I would have guessed before I started working in it myself.

[Kupek]

I'm looking forward to FF12 because it might actually feel like a new experience.

[Don]

I'm curious if they can learn from their recent games (FFX/X2/KH), which has been fairly innovative or at least interesting, and come up with something really cool.

[SineSwiper]

There will be a lot of pressure on Sakimoto now that he is handling the music. Music has always been an important part of the Final Fantasy series. Sakimoto does have quite a resume though, and I do quite enjoy the tracks from Vagrant Story, and the Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics games.

Fuck the pressure! Sakimoto's music kicks the hell outta any of Uematsu's recent works, especially FFT. The only themes I remember from Uematsu's post-SNES days that were any good was One-Winged Angel, ummmm..., yeah, that's it. On the other hand, about HALF of Sakimoto's songs from the epic 4-disc set of FFT were really awesome, and none of them were bad.

He should be fine. Bring the VS/FFT team to the Final Fantasy series is the best decision Square has ever made...ever.

[Julius Seeker]

I don't know, though I do like Sakimoto's, I have not felt that any of his work to date has been on level with FF8; there are many more memorable tunes in that game than any other game I have ever played. I think Uematsu was quite a bit off in FF9, he picked up a bit in 10, but FF8's tunes were perfect for every single setting; that in my opinion was the peak of his career as far as Final Fantasy goes.

But the final ending sequence of Final Fantasy 8 is my favourite work of Uematsu. Note it's about 15 minutes long, my favourite part of it is the end:

http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/ff ... 0Theme.mp3

There are four tiers to it, the first takes place inside the surreal world of time compression after Squall and company have been thrown back into it after defeating Ultimecia in the future. Squall has forgotton his anchor, which is Rinoa, and so he is lost in the compression with no way to get the spell to send him back to his own world (that happened in the previous scenes).

The second tier is eyes on me, which goes over Squall and Rinoa coming back out of the time compression in the field outside of the orphanage where Squall said the lines "I'll be waiting for you. If you come here, you'll find me. I promise." Then it goes on to show what happened to the secondary characters (Seifer, Laguna, etc...); Laguna's moment was quite possibly my favourite scene in a Final Fantasy game.

The third tier is the remade Final Fantasy theme, the last time it was made, and the best version of it. At this point it goes on to show a celebration at the Garden which shows the main characters.

Then the final tier is a remake of Liberi Fatali, no singing in this version. This is the scene that shows what happened to Squall and Rinoa which is the only other scene that could possibly be my favourite from the Final Fantasy series. I usually say this is my second favourite scene. Again, the music fits in so perfectly and really makes the scene special.

Sakimoto's best work is Vagrant Story in my opinion. But then again, even in Uematsu's last FF game, he came out with some brilliant tunes that exceed the greatest works by almost any other composer: http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/ff ... arkand.mp3

Uematsu is great on the piano.

In fact the only guy who can match Uematsu on the lighter tunes is Mitsuda, but then again, Mitsuda from 5-10 years ago:
http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/xg ... 20Fire.mp3

Here is another good song from Xeogears:

No one beats Mitsuda with character themes, Maria's two themes are my favourite songs for character themes:

http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/xg ... %20Sky.mp3

http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/xg ... Flight.mp3


Not to say Sakimoto is no good, it's just that Uematsu is/was the master. Sakimoto in my opinion probably overall has a better resume than Mitsuda for example. I do think Sakimoto is #2 as far as RPG composers are concerned. For Final Fantasy Tactics, my favourite song is the one at the introduction:

http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/ff ... 20Logo.mp3

Few of the songs in Final Fantasy Tactics are longer than two minutes, keep in mind.

Anyways, here is another of my favourite songs in the game:

http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/ff ... 0Theme.mp3

Here's another character theme by Sakimoto:

http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/ff ... 0Theme.mp3

But yeah, even though the music is good and on par and above Mitsuda for the most part, it still has not reached the level of the main Final Fantasy series, in my opinion. I do believe that Sakimoto will be able to do it, with the amount of pressure that is on him, I do believe that Final Fantasy 12 will be his strongest work. However, theme music really has to capture the soul of a place, a person, or an event. Final Fantasy 8 is where the bar is set, in my opinion.

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http://bluelaguna.net/downloads/mp3s/ff ... Fatali.mp3

The singing is in latin, Liberi Fatali translates to "Children of Fate". The song is about the Children of fate coming to the garden to burn the great evil from space and time. Or something like that, I'll have to find a translation sometime.