<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, when Square acquired Quest (the makers of Ogre Battle), they really acquired some very important assets which they have decided to put towards the next installment of their Final Fantasy series which promises to be the best yet.
The music: It is being done as a collaberation between Sakimoto and Uematsu. Square fans were introduced to Sakimoto with the game Final Fantasy Tactics, and it was quite an introduction as Final Fantasy Tactics is very arguably the best sound track of any game so far released by Square. Sakimoto has quite the resume as well, ranging from the old Warrior, Knight, Thief, Wizard, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf PC RPG's from the 80's, to all of the major videogame console (mostly on Sega systems), and some minor ones. Somee games which some here mayy recognize which he did were: Dragon Warrior 3-6, Gauntlet, the entire Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre series (including the GBA versions), Panzer Dragoon, Super Double Dragon, Bloody Roar, Vagrant Story, Radiant Silvergun, Tekken Advance, FFTA. For those of you who forget the music, pop in Final Fantasy Tactics right now and just listen for a while, now picture how well the music will be done for a far greater project.
The Story: For those of us who have played the Ogre Battle series, or Final Fantasy Tactics, you may agree that the story (even though the most known here is FFT, and it was horribly translated, but if you have a bit of intelligence about you, then you will make sense of some very glaring grammar and spelling mistakes, and obvious translation mistakes) is quite a bit more interesting than the traditional Final Fantasy story, despite the difference of context and such, FF3j-FF10 are essentially the same story. There is much more creativity and logic involved in the OB/FFT stories, and events seem much more meaningful, and do not attempt to insult players intelligence with very silly developments. Well, the one who wrote the story for the Final Fantasy is gone, and in is Yatsumi Matsuno, best known for his work on the Ogre battle series and Final Fantasy Tactics (which is actually much more of an Ogre Battle side quest than a Final Fantasy one), I am very excited to see how the plot turns out, I completely expect it to be by far the best ever seen in a Final Fantasy game.
Battle system: Random battles are gone, and it has been replaced with an advanced Chrono Trigger style system. Fights will be much less common than before, but also much more meaningful. The battle system is very similar to Vagrant Story with multiple players, only you control only one character and give auto-battle type commands to the others; though it has been modified from the Vagrant Story system because Matsuno felt it was much too difficult for most players to get into the game due to the battle system. The character development seems to be like an advanced version of Vagrant Story, one of the best systems in any game. There will be more on this released at TGS in September.
graphics: The game is probably the best looking game that the PS2 will ever see, certainly the best looking adventure title. The characters actually look their proper gender for once. Lets just say I am incredibly impressed with the graphics.
Final thoughts: This game has the Final Fantasy title, but this game will be far from a Final Fantasy title, picture a title by Quest (Ogre Battle/Vagrant Story/Final Fantasy Tactics) with all the budgeting, equipment, time, dedication, and additional resources available for building a Final Fantasy game. That is what this game is going to be, will it be the best in series? I think that it's a fairly safe bet, one I am very willing to make. Everyone at Square Enix was surprisingly impressed at the quality of the game in development, they are all very excited about it. Lets just say I've been watching a number of videos spanning many sites, reading a TON, and I will with great confidence say that everyone here who plays it will be thoroughly amazed.
Now go play Final Fantasy Tactics! I know everyone has that game =P</div>
The music: It is being done as a collaberation between Sakimoto and Uematsu. Square fans were introduced to Sakimoto with the game Final Fantasy Tactics, and it was quite an introduction as Final Fantasy Tactics is very arguably the best sound track of any game so far released by Square. Sakimoto has quite the resume as well, ranging from the old Warrior, Knight, Thief, Wizard, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf PC RPG's from the 80's, to all of the major videogame console (mostly on Sega systems), and some minor ones. Somee games which some here mayy recognize which he did were: Dragon Warrior 3-6, Gauntlet, the entire Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre series (including the GBA versions), Panzer Dragoon, Super Double Dragon, Bloody Roar, Vagrant Story, Radiant Silvergun, Tekken Advance, FFTA. For those of you who forget the music, pop in Final Fantasy Tactics right now and just listen for a while, now picture how well the music will be done for a far greater project.
The Story: For those of us who have played the Ogre Battle series, or Final Fantasy Tactics, you may agree that the story (even though the most known here is FFT, and it was horribly translated, but if you have a bit of intelligence about you, then you will make sense of some very glaring grammar and spelling mistakes, and obvious translation mistakes) is quite a bit more interesting than the traditional Final Fantasy story, despite the difference of context and such, FF3j-FF10 are essentially the same story. There is much more creativity and logic involved in the OB/FFT stories, and events seem much more meaningful, and do not attempt to insult players intelligence with very silly developments. Well, the one who wrote the story for the Final Fantasy is gone, and in is Yatsumi Matsuno, best known for his work on the Ogre battle series and Final Fantasy Tactics (which is actually much more of an Ogre Battle side quest than a Final Fantasy one), I am very excited to see how the plot turns out, I completely expect it to be by far the best ever seen in a Final Fantasy game.
Battle system: Random battles are gone, and it has been replaced with an advanced Chrono Trigger style system. Fights will be much less common than before, but also much more meaningful. The battle system is very similar to Vagrant Story with multiple players, only you control only one character and give auto-battle type commands to the others; though it has been modified from the Vagrant Story system because Matsuno felt it was much too difficult for most players to get into the game due to the battle system. The character development seems to be like an advanced version of Vagrant Story, one of the best systems in any game. There will be more on this released at TGS in September.
graphics: The game is probably the best looking game that the PS2 will ever see, certainly the best looking adventure title. The characters actually look their proper gender for once. Lets just say I am incredibly impressed with the graphics.
Final thoughts: This game has the Final Fantasy title, but this game will be far from a Final Fantasy title, picture a title by Quest (Ogre Battle/Vagrant Story/Final Fantasy Tactics) with all the budgeting, equipment, time, dedication, and additional resources available for building a Final Fantasy game. That is what this game is going to be, will it be the best in series? I think that it's a fairly safe bet, one I am very willing to make. Everyone at Square Enix was surprisingly impressed at the quality of the game in development, they are all very excited about it. Lets just say I've been watching a number of videos spanning many sites, reading a TON, and I will with great confidence say that everyone here who plays it will be thoroughly amazed.
Now go play Final Fantasy Tactics! I know everyone has that game =P</div>
-Insert Inspiring Quote-
