Square Enix needs to tighten its belts: Know thy limitations

Square Enix is at its best with limitations.

The limitation king, and possibly the greatest Final Fantasy.

Square Enix still has its moments. Most of their problems arise from a lack of limitations, compared to before, and the way the AAA industry works. They still have a lot of talent, and I'd like to direct your attention to products Square Enix has put out on limited platforms such as handhelds, and the oft forgotten Final Fantasy 11.

Final Fantasy Type-0 was a well received PSP game that recently got its HD port and Western release. It's part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, and is directed by the aforementioned Hajime Tabata, but because it was placed on the PSP it had limitations on the details that could be added. As such, characters wear similar uniforms that benefit from the relative simplicity in design.

Starting with these uniforms is perfect for illustrating my point. Because of the nature of uniforms, and the lower specs of these games in general, the designers can't distinguish their characters by adding stupid shit to them in the form of excess details. There are no visual shortcuts here, these characters rely on character development and story interactions to really set them apart.

Uniforms look good and make sense on a resource budget.

This leads to a less cluttered and more memorable character design overall: I could conjure up a mental image of Ace after seeing him twice, whereas I couldn't accurately describe Lightning in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 to you without a picture.

On the 3DS, Square Enix created a Final Fantasy spiritual successor series, Bravely Default. While most of the art is done in SD style, which many find unpalatable, it's hard to argue against the good taste and sensible choices that went into the designs of the four main characters though.While Bravely Default had issues with padding that made it drag on for a few more chapters than it should have, it is a fun overall experience with a creative take on the turn based battle system.

More isn't always better, simple designs often withstand the test of time.

Finally, there's Final Fantasy 11. It's a PS2 based MMORPG. It has very limited options as far as graphics are concerned, and will be winding down story support this November. That said, the characters are some of the best Final Fantasy has to offer, and the stories have to be well planned and varied to make up a coherent world over 14 years in the making. The money is tight, the team is small, and the PS2 limitations have long been crashed into, meaning the dev team had to get creative with the designs of new characters and enemies.

Square enix was so infatuated with their FF11 designs, that FF14: ARR has straight ripped a lot of the enemy and character designs and simply made them HD. The starting races were just more generic clones of the FF11 races, adding a female Galka and a male Mithra, plus a some more customization, to the character select. Relatively few people had even seen a lot of the FF11 designs, so why not show off some of your best work in your new game, eh?

Seriously, they just made them HD, didn't even change their names.

For a company full of talent that never wants to stop trying to polish their work, these forced limitations result in some of their best. Not knowing when to stop isn't an issue when the platform's limitations are clearly outlined and will force you to stop. From those limitations arise simplicity and creativity, the true hallmarks of greatness in any aspect of game development.

There you have it, we're done here. How do you feel about this take on Square Enix? Did we missed something? Do you think Final Fantasy 15 is in great shape and we're just crazy? Feel free to let us know, or set us straight, in the comments section below.

We've painted a picture of Square Enix as a company that's forgotten the most important aspect of game development: When to say no. It wasn't particularly hard because it's the truth, and there are examples everywhere. Be it adding details, spending money, or designing engines, it all comes back to Square Enix not being aware of the old saying "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
Let's start today with a touchy subject.

This is part three of our three part look at Square Enix, Final Fantasy, and what exactly went wrong. You can check out Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Final Fantasy 15 is a microcosm of Square Enix's failures

Even the prince is waiting for Final Shenmue 15

The game's not out yet, but there are a few things that we can say about it. FF15 will have been in some form of development for over a decade by the time it releases, its development cycle has been a train wreck, and the odds are stacked heavily against it being a profitable venture.

Final Fantasy Versus 13, the original version of FF15, was announced at E3 2006 for the upcoming PS3. This game started development before the release of its intended console, and will still not be out over three years after the release of said console's successor. Almost a year ago, we got word that the current version of FF15  is roughly 50-60% done. This put their estimation at roughly two more years of development, so we can realistically expect it to release around 2017 at the earliest. It's starting to approach Duke Nukem levels of development hell.

FF15 was originally going to run on the Crystal Tool engine that Square Enix developed, but we all know how that turned out. Crystal Tools paired with FF14 to become the biggest mistake in the history of Square Enix, even worse than The Spirits Within. It has since moved to the Luminous engine, which in turn had troubles that make it look like a  bigger potential failure than Crystal Tools. Kingdom Hearts 3 jumped ship to Unreal Engine 4, and while there was a tech demo for Luminous Studio a few months ago, FF15 is the only known game to still use the engine.

Stella is the first of many FF15 casualties from the change of direction.

Another problem is that Tetsuya Nomura was the head director and Kazushige Nojima wrote the story, and neither is on the project anymore. I may have given Tetsuya "What does 'no' mean?" Nomura a lot of guff for his "strapping" character designs, but it's undeniable that he's an A-lister in the gaming world. New director Hajime Tabata's claim to fame is directing the FF7 spin-offs and 3rd Birthday, while writer Saori Itamuro was responsible for scenario writing in Dissidia 012. Without any offense to either, that's not what you'd call a step up.

Many fans feel this change sprung from a lack of faith and a desire to finally get a product out there. Nomura was in control of Final FF15 and KH3, both of which were major releases that were facing severe difficulties and delays. Was Tabata really brought on to salvage what was possible and try and make a little money out of a busted project? Time will tell how it plays out, but we'll never get the truth regardless.

Remember those mind blowing early trailers? All of it has been cut from the game.

It's not uncommon for a game to see many changes over te course of development, but once you get into massive scale changes, the odds of a game being good are dramatically impaired. Unfortunately, FF15 has seen every single major change you can imagine. Over the past nine years, FF15 has changed platforms, changed engines, and had a change of direction and story. If FF15 comes through as a solid product it would be a near miracle, and it's almost impossible to imagine a scenario where it turns an overall profit.

Episode Duscae was a great look at how the game was coming along, and it was an awesome experience, but it did have a lot of technical issues. With releases like The Witcher 3, you have to wonder if FF15 is already outclassed in the open world RPG arena before it even releases.

So what does Square Enix excel at, and moreover, what works?