yes, all the bravest was terrible, but SE makes GOOD mobile games too. Chaos Rings 2 was amazing, and I know there's others. That company is so easy to love AND hate.
Return to The BaDlands #3 - Final Fantasy, The PS4, and The State of Japan's Console Market
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 On 02/03/2014 at 09:01 AM by gigantor21 See More From This User » |
To say tthe Final Fantasy series had a rough 7th generation would be a understatement.
Their ambitious Fabula Nova compilation was a disaster. Despite FFXIII selling really well--being the highest selling PS3 game in Japan, in fact--the game has been dumped on for it's linear, handholding gameplay and dubious writing. Constant delays led them to abandon the compilation, with Versus XIII becoming trapped in development hell after the disaster of XIV's first launch. Development resources instead went into fixing XIV, along with unplanned sequels to FFXIII needed to recoup costs. Thus Versus XIII went missing for the ENTIRE generation before it was moved to next-gen consoles as Final Fantasy XV.
All of these problems, coupled with several sales misses with their western titles, also led S-E to double down on mobile development. And double down they did, with games like All-The-Bravest becoming a symbol of everything wrong with the mobile space. It's shameless use of paid continues and in-game wait timers, it's expensive and randomly-produced DLC characters, and it's mindless one-note combat evoked the worst of smartphone gaming in almost every facet. But most of all, it represented the series hitting a nadir, with SE desperate to make money off of the FF brand any way possible as it's relevance in the global market crumbled. This came as games like The Witcher, Skyrim, Fallout and Mass Effect lead the charge in a resurgence of the WRPG.
Needless to say, the Final Fantasy series has never fallen so low. And it's decline has become emblematic of the Japanese game industry's shrinkage over the past decade as it turns increasingly inward. Nintendo was the only big Japanese publisher whose output has been consistent, with many of the third party greats (Capcom, SE, Sega, Konami) forced to double down on their biggest franchises and mobile in the wake of rising costs and repeated faliures. This backwards retreat, coupled with an increasingly niche focus and higher costs to both devs and consumers, has left the Japanese console market a shadow of it's former self.
There's a lot riding on the PS4. The fact that it didn't have launch parity with the EU and the States states shows how much Japan's console market has diminished. One good sign, though, is that Japanese developers are apparently heartened by the system's successful Western launch and want to make a big push back into the console space. The PS4's domestic prospects are more mixed; while the PS4 itself has been selling out on sites like Amazon, pre-order numbers from Japanese retailers like COMG! don't exactly show the software primed to fly off shelves. We're not going to have a proper sense of how well it will do there until we near the release date.
How do you think the PS4 will do in Japan? Do you think the PS4 will help to reinvigorate Japanese console development in a big way? Do you even agree that Japan's relevance in console gaming has shrunk? Let me know in the comments.
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