Hey everyone, how're you all doing? Over the last while I've had a few thoughts going around in my head about one of Squares most recent decisions, a change in direction for the company that has left many fans feeling uncertain, I speak of course of the episodic release of large game titles. You cant blaim people for being sceptical, I mean there are a lot of negative ideas associated with this method of release, and without any real explanation for why Square are doing this, all we can do is speculate and make ourselves worry even more about it, we have every right to do this.
When I first heard that Final Fantasy 7 and 15 were going to get an episodic release I was really freaked out, the idea of the possibility of having to pay for each segment individually, the wait between the episodes and innability to play the games consitently from beginning to end without waiting for the release of the next episode. But once the idea of it and initial shock had completely set in and I was able to think objectively again, a completely new set of thoughts started to surface in my mind, maybe episodic release is actually the way forward for Square, the knight in shining armour that could save the gaming monster from the pits of failure that it seems to have fallen into. This wasnt a decision I came to over night however, my decision to fortify my belief in episodic titles was mostly because of a number of aspects of episodic games that became apparent to me.
Production Time: Episodic Games have the potential to be developed over a longer period of time while still making it into the public domain gradually in finished segments, why is this a good thing? well we only have to look as far as incomplete games like Final Fantasy X111 Lightning Returns to know why, LR was an entire game produced over a 1 year period, sure the game was huge and it was released fast, but the result of this hasty development led to a heavily flawed, buggy and over all quite dissapointing and weak entry to the final fantasy series. If LR had been released gradually and say episode 1 and 2 were released that year instead of an entire game, Square could have continued to fine tune and work on the rest of the game and the eventual final release of the game would have been a lot more finished.
The struggle with next Generation consoles: I am aware that Direct x11 has made game production greatly more efficient since its implementation into console game development, but the greater graphical expectations of next gen games does take up a certain amount of time to reach that standard, and if you know Square, you know they will sacrifice everything from story to gameplay to make sure their game looks as pretty as it could possibly be, with an episodic release square would have time to reach this excellence in graphics while maintaining a better standard of game in terms of everything else, an episodic game would liberate square and allow them to create a much more balanced and thouroughly enjoyable game.
Letting the Fans in the door before opening hours: By releasing their games episodically Square will be able to get feedback about where there game is at production wise and how fans are reacting to it while it is still in production, using this information Square will be able to better create the game their fans are looking for which can only be a good thing. A game that is in development for 5-6 years without ever getting any public exposure is a very isolated game in terms of development, the developers of a one release game that takes that long to come out would have no idea what the fans think of the game where it is before its final release so as a result the final release's popularity and public appeal is just pot luck, I mean when you consider games like Final Fantasy XIII that were produced over a long period of time without public exposure and wound up being badly recieved, if it had been released gradually Square could have taken the fans feedback and made the later segments of the game more intricate and less linear.
Greater Tension in the story: I realise this doesnt suit everyone and a lot of people would rather get it over with, but nothing beats the anticipation of waiting to find out what happens next in a story and letting the ideas that it presents to you rest in your mind before progressing. Episodic titles will offer square the ability to pace their fans playing of the story and introduce cliffhangers which should increase the impact that the story has on the audience, it will feel more like a journey.
People who are worried about having to buy individual episodes? I know Square can be a bit stingy, but from what I can tell Nomura is in it for the fans and loves what hes doing more than the money. I figure that there will be a form of season pass type system for the release of the episodes so additional costs probably wont be a problem outside the inevitable additional dlc that will be released, but thats the case with most games, be they episodic or one off release. I mean just look a life is strange, that was also released by square and we just bought all those episodes in 1 purchase, I dont think we have anything to worry about there
Hey everyone, how're you all doing? Over the last while I've had a few thoughts going around in my head about one of Squares most recent decisions, a change in direction for the company that has left many fans feeling uncertain, I speak of course of the episodic release of large game titles. You cant blaim people for being sceptical, I mean there are a lot of negative ideas associated with this method of release, and without any real explanation for why Square are doing this, all we can do is speculate and make ourselves worry even more about it, we have every right to do this.
When I first heard that Final Fantasy 7 and 15 were going to get an episodic release I was really freaked out, the idea of the possibility of having to pay for each segment individually, the wait between the episodes and innability to play the games consitently from beginning to end without waiting for the release of the next episode. But once the idea of it and initial shock had completely set in and I was able to think objectively again, a completely new set of thoughts started to surface in my mind, maybe episodic release is actually the way forward for Square, the knight in shining armour that could save the gaming monster from the pits of failure that it seems to have fallen into. This wasnt a decision I came to over night however, my decision to fortify my belief in episodic titles was mostly because of a number of aspects of episodic games that became apparent to me.
Edited by EternalReckoning