Another disappointing Final Fantasy online experience can destroy Square Enix, says game director
Square Enix has not been having a lot of luck with the Final Fantasy brand and found itself hitting an all-time low with Final Fantasy XIV, the massively multiplayer online role-play game (MMORPG).
The quality of the game, along with various other issues brought it a lot of criticism from the most loyal of fans, compelling the publisher to apologize for offering such a disappointing experience last year.
The game’s director Naoki Yoshida is well aware of the negative impact that it made in the market, acknowledging the possibility of another disappointing Final Fantasy online game killing the brand and doing severe damage to Square Enix itself.
During a recent interview, he conceded that if Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which is a remake of the disappointing MMORPG that the company launched a couple of years ago, ends up making the same mistakes as its predecessor, there is a strong possibility
that it would end up destroying the company.
“We won't make a mistake like FFXIV again. If we did, it would be like at the level of destroying the company, “he stated
He further went on to add that even at the time of shipping the original Final Fantasy XIV to the market, he was not too sure about the game being good enough and had a strong intuition that it would not be received positively by the fans.
“When I heard that it was going to go on sale as planned, I thought, that will probably be a big mistake,” he said. “I think it would've been good if they tried seeing what happened if they turned World of WarCraft into Final Fantasy. So, because they tried
only to make something that was 'different from FFXI,' they ended up with not much of anything.”
Square Enix has acknowledged the shortcomings in Final Fantasy XIV and is attempting to make amends by releasing a remake of the game, Final Fantasy XIV: A Real Reborn.
The game will retain the lore, intended story and settings from the original game, but will feature a new client, service and data structure, revamped interface, graphics engine, redesigned maps, gameplay variations and an additional story.
The game is slated for a mid 2013 release for PC and PlayStation 3 simultaneously.
Tags: