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i have a question to ask,

in your opinion, would final fantay VI be more popular if it were originally released on playstation,

like, instead of ff7 being the first 3D ff game on there, ff6 would be?

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OBEY YOUR THIRST
"Aww...They're SOOO CUUTE!! BUT WHO CARES!!!!?"
-Excel Excel, Excel Saga

thats an interesting...and very hard to answer...question. because when i think of ff6 , i think of it on the snes.

probably, the purists would reject it because it wouldve been too "new". (you know what i mean, right?)

of course, ff6 did stray from the path of "normal" ffs, no crystals, more technology, angelic final boss, so add 3-d into that, and youve got a good new classic purist complaint !

not that im one of the people that nitpicks about that, but i could defintely see it happening.

i couldnt answer, as ...well...it hasnt been released for the playstation first...so maybe if i visited an alternate reality where that did happen i could tell you..but i can't. itd probably be a matter of opinion if it was better that way anyway.

meh, im writing this near midnight...

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OSonic Rave
/ \Last Arcanum
[ ]Strike Raid
XRagnarok

Depends...after all, FFVI was designed with SNES's limitations in mind. It probably would have been quite different had it been originally designed for the more advanced technology that was Play Station.

Honestly, though, I have a bit of a hard time believing that FFVI could be any more popular than it is already.

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Console RPG Cliches

Hrm... quite a difficult question

Well, one of teh reasons Sqare moved to Sony in the first place was because they did a trial graphics test between the 64 and the PS, useing FFVI character models (I get my info from Icons on g4, still have that episode saved on dvr). I could be wrong with this next statement, but I believe another reason they switched was because Nintendo said they would move to CD's, and they didn't. don't remember where i heard that, so take it with a grain of salt.
I don't think VI would have come out on ps origionally because that game pushed and created the limit of the graphical and audio specs of the SNES. That was the game that proved that if we were to make better games, we need next-gen consoles.

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Neneko is Neneko because Neneko couldn't be Neneko if Neneko wasn't Neneko!
--as quoted from Neneko, Mahoraba {Heartful Days}

I can stab a man with a thick paperback book thru the ribcage.

If FFVI were originally created for PS instead of SNES, its success in the market would depend on marketing.

One thing about FFVII that must be noted was that FFVII was advertised much more than FFVI. FFVII came out when most people still had SNESs. They could easily buy a $60 game for SNES instead of $60 game for a new $150 (?) system. It is a selling point to be able to say "first FF in 3-D", I'll admit, though.

But I think there're two cases to your question.

Case 1: If the PlayStation were created before FFVI came out, would it have been released for PS, and if so, would it have had more success, if it had the same amount of advertising?

Case 2: If the creation of FFVI only started after the PS was created, and then it were released on the PS (effectively delaying the would-be-future release of FFVII, FFVIII, ...), and if it were given the same advertising, would it be more successful?

In Case 2, the one thing I can say for sure is that FFVII would have been marketed differently.

In both cases, the release of this game on a new system might have generated more attention, improving (theoretical) FFVI sales. Now, if the PS were invented earlier, Square would probably use some of the same advertising techniques as they did for FFVII. This would also contribute to FFVI's success, relative to FFVII.

However, there's also the matter of how well FFVI would have been developed if it were for a new system (more so a concern if the system were very new and Square were hurrying to develop a game for it). That's a pretty big deal, and I've even heard that FFVII was somewhat of a rushed job.

In conclusion, I don't know.

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I personally don't believe the console would matter much at all. Take into account that Europe, for example, never got any Final Fantasy games until FFVII - besides those who imported, that is. FFVI, on the other hand, was immensely popular in both Japan and North America, and the highest selling game Square had created at the time. As it is, the game certainly doesn't lack in popularity, but I do think its success woulda been bumped up a few notches had it originally been launched in Europe to begin with in addition to here and Asia.

Then again, there's the fact that Square came out with the aforementioned SGI demo to test the capabilities of the N64 engine, using 3D FFVI character models (Shadow, Terra - with her correct hair color - and Locke) in a scripted battle. Comparing that to FFVII's graphics, it's clear Nintendo had the more powerful console (by way of sacrificing the FMV ability, if I'm not mistaken). Given the amount of graphical purists that began popping up everywhere shortly after the PSX's release, there's a good chance FFVI woulda surpassed some of the later games in fame had Square just waited a li'l longer before developing it, and stayed with 'Tendo. Course, 3D was just 3D then, despite the quality, so it may not of mattered which of the two systems it came out on. However, if the past could be changed and I was able to return to it, I'd honestly hate to wait the few extra years for VI to come out.

And a thought on advertising: I honestly never saw a commercial for FFVII either shortly before or after its release. Never. Perhaps I didn't watch the right channels, and as I've mentioned in the past, was never much in to gaming magazines. I did see the commercial for FFVI numerous times and saw a handful of ads for it in some 'zines back then though. Unless I'm a special case, maybe advertisements weren't the most important part of it all.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

In the perfect world, had FFVI taken the place of VII to be first on the playstation, it probably would've been more popular. I listen to people talking, mainly people my age (high school age), and the majority have begun playing the Final Fantasy series on the playstation, with FFVII. I was a special case. I had an older brother who went through FF1, FFIV, and FFVI on NES and SNES, so I inherited those games before going on to VII. The majority of young people these days have begun the series with VII, with the playstation, which was the first in a rather successful line of game consoles.

In the imperfect world (the one which we pathetic humans inhabit), there are simply too many variables to wade through to get a good answers. You've just got your "yes" people and your "no" people. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

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"It is a part of human nature to be evil, and it is a part of human nature to destroy evil, therefore, when evil is destroyed, so will be the human race..."
- Atma

On the PSX, this game would have been a lot different. It's noticable that the game suffered from a deadline. On the PSX, the game never would have had the depth of the current battle system.

Gau would have been different, because how do you visualize all the Specials he uses in 3D?
I very much doubt Umaro would have been in it, for example; making a set of sprites and making an entirely new 3D character are two very different things.

It would be more popular, of that much I'm sure. But on the level of pure quality, I very much doubt it would have obtained the level it has now.


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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

Why not just stay SNES? I mean, SURE, the graphics and sound suck, but imagine it having the same kind of graphics used in Killer Instinct, Donkey Kong Country, or any 3d-pixelated games?

Quote (Djibriel @ 17th October 2005 17:35)

Gau would have been different, because how do you visualize all the Specials he uses in 3D?
I very much doubt Umaro would have been in it, for example; making a set of sprites and making an entirely new 3D character are two very different things.

I'm not sure I get those two points...

All of Gau's skills reuse skills already in the game. I don't see how it'd be any different from what's in the SNES version.

As for sprites vs. models, well, it's not all that different. I've experimented with models for Endless Saga at some point and the process is the same: you just create a basic "template" (often one for male and one for female characters) and scale some stuff, add extras (clothing and hair), a few different textures; takes about a half hour to get a basic model up after you have a template, and animating is FAR easier than redrawing each possible frames. Believe me, having gone the sprite way with ES, I know how much work that does involve.

And hey, it's not like they have a team working for them; all FFs are made by a geeky 14 year old in his parents' garage using a 286.

Fake ninja edit: For that matter, they could've gone sprite-based with 3D environments. It works out great, really (again, ES. ^-^) and it allows for a rich visual environment while retaining the "simplicity" (HA! I wish...) of sprites.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

I think it's more to do with the fact that SNES/PSX was a division of gamer generations. A lot of "old schoolers" stopped playing games after the SNES, while a lot of kids got the PSX as their first big console. It was a pretty big chapter in the world of consoles, especially with the introduction of major 3D and FMVs - for better or for worse, FFVII has been the model for most future RPGs.

That said, I do remember the huge marketing blitz for FFVI, at least here in the States. Commercials, billboards, posters, it was a big deal. Anyone remember the TV spot with Mog interviewing monsters?

Quote

I'm not sure I get those two points...

All of Gau's skills reuse skills already in the game. I don't see how it'd be any different from what's in the SNES version.

If you look at FF VIII, you'll notice that Quistis has a different animation for every kind of Blue Magic she can use. With sprites, you can get away with a blue triangle surrounding the caster; with 3D models, that looks a lot messier. But I wasn't even primarily talking about Gau's large set of monster attacks; I was thinking about his Specials. On the SNES version, Gau raises his hands, the word 'Tail' appears, and you've got yourself an attack. You can't do that with 3D models; you need to make an entire animation for Gau in which he uses a Tail attack.

In other words, Gau would have been very graphic-intense, up to the point hwere they never would have bothered with the current system.

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The Collapse of Heaven and Earth

The cool sprites were part of the fun. I mean, imagine a FFVII-style person trying to do the mad face! Ain't gonna happen.

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eh?

It probably would have been the doom of the FF series. FFVII has a certain modern feel to it that more people can enjoy than the obscure, techno-medieval setting of FFVI. Even if it didn’t completely kill the series, it would have hindered it severely.

Of course that is all speculation. As people have said, no one will every know…


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THE HOFF

I don't understand how it could bring about the "doom" of the series. It was already a big hit originally, so how could developing it in 3D instead result in the exact opposite? FFVI is a major deviation from the first five games anyhow, so it's not as though people would be bored with it due to the same ol' concept or anything. They would've before if that was the case.

Not to mention that a slew of other RPG series would've died out long ago if the setting had anything to do with it, which is far from obscure. In fact, it's somewhat cliché nowadays.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

It was a round about way of me saying that FFVI is good, but FFVII owns it.

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THE HOFF

Quote (ThroneofDravaris @ 22nd October 2005 20:44)

It was a round about way of me saying that FFVI is good, but FFVII owns it.

That is in your opinion, right?
at any rate, IMO they could have done a bit better with the story for VII (something was missing, can't quite put my finger on it), because nowadays the newer the RPG (or bigger the FF number [j/k]) they do worse with the story because their letting the graphics due all the talking, which in a way is kind of sad... but thats just my 2 cents worth

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Neneko is Neneko because Neneko couldn't be Neneko if Neneko wasn't Neneko!
--as quoted from Neneko, Mahoraba {Heartful Days}

I can stab a man with a thick paperback book thru the ribcage.

Haha, IMO FFVII's graphics are terrible. FFVI actually looks better to some degree…

Anyway, this whole idea of the new FF games focusing too much on graphics, I have yet to see any real examples of it (‘cept X-2, but that was more “a crappy game that happened to have decent graphics”). Plot lines have become more complex as the series has progressed (I still can’t work out WTF happened in FFT…), and by the time the series reached FFX, all of the characters were getting a decent amount of development.

Sure, along the way the series has gained some spectacular graphics, but I don’t believe that this has become more important to the games than characters or story lines. So far, the only game in FFI-VI that you might consider to have a better story line in any of the games in the series FFVII-X is FFVI, or FFIV if that sort of thing appeals to you.


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THE HOFF

Quote (ThroneofDravaris @ 23rd October 2005 02:06)

Haha, IMO  FFVII's graphics are terrible. FFVI actually looks better to some degree…

Anyway, this whole idea of the new FF games focusing too much on graphics, I have yet to see any real examples of it (‘cept X-2, but that was more “a crappy game that happened to have decent graphics”). Plot lines have become more complex as the series has progressed (I still can’t work out WTF happened in FFT…), and by the time the series reached FFX, all of the characters were getting a decent amount of development.

Sure, along the way the series has gained some spectacular graphics, but I don’t believe that this has become more important to the games than characters or story lines. So far, the only game in FFI-VI that you might consider to have a better story line in any of the games in the series FFVII-X is FFVI, or FFIV if that sort of thing appeals to you.

Indeed.
Personally, if I saw FF6 with the same graphics as FF7 had, I think it would kill a large portion of my soul.
And, to reiterate what a lot of others said, the popularity issue, is mostly in the marketing. You just can't really be sure. xD

This post has been edited by Jasmine on 23rd October 2005 19:25

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Ahem.
I have sand in my boots.

I think the VI's graphics have aged alot better than VII's. Also, with the snes sprites you know that they don't really look like that, but with 3-d, it's detailed enough that it is what they actually look like.

But I also feel that if VI had been on the PS, it would have had more popularity, and it would have influenced future FF games. To me, after VI, they kept on getting more anime-ish (at least in spirit). So I think the style of the older FF would have lasted longer if VI was on the PS. VI was and is popular, but VII probably overshadowed that after it came out (look, 3-D!!), so they went off in that direction.

But I wasn't paying much attention to those things at that time, so I'm basing this off what I've learned since then.

Speaking of popularity, if ff6 was the first ff 3-D game, would they have little action figure toys?
i've seen ff7 toys

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OBEY YOUR THIRST
"Aww...They're SOOO CUUTE!! BUT WHO CARES!!!!?"
-Excel Excel, Excel Saga

There already are FFVI toys, figures, keychains, trading cards, etc. They usually pop up on eBay every once in a while...

This post has been edited by SilverFork on 28th October 2005 04:45

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

Quote (SilverFork @ 27th October 2005 23:44)

There already are FFVI toys, figures, keychains, trading cards, etc.  They usually pop up on eBay every once in a while...

oh! i saw the ff7 toys in a magazine and thought, 'why don't they advertise he others too?'

i didn't think that the others exsited.

and, what? there's a trading card game? cool! what is it?

This post has been edited by Smackthedog on 29th October 2005 03:32

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OBEY YOUR THIRST
"Aww...They're SOOO CUUTE!! BUT WHO CARES!!!!?"
-Excel Excel, Excel Saga

I don't think its a trading card "game" per se, but rather a series of cards featuring FFVI characters (and possibly monsters) that you can collect and trade with others, sorta in the same sense as baseball cards. They were distributed by Bandai, if I remember correctly.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

Yea, there was a set of collectable cards with concept art and some more illustrations that Amano did specificly for the cards. You can search google to hunt down some scans of them. Some of the pictures we've all seen before, but all of them are pretty cool. It would be cool if they re-released them becuase I'd love to buy some!

Does anyone know if any FFVI (non-chibi) statues where made? There are a million FFVII ones, but none from 6.

This post has been edited by Jasoncw on 4th November 2005 23:15

I agree that the advertising was what sold, moreso than the graphics, anyway.

So I believe that it wouldn't make a difference if VI was the first 3-D FF, which it was, in a way. (The Tech Demo)

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Could you repeat that?

In my opinion no, because it would be constantly compared to FFVII.

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What if he shot you first instead of your secretary?

I suppose I'd have to catch the bullet, wouldn't I

on www.fantasyanime.com/finalfantasy/ff6 i found some plans that indecate that ff6 was made for the PSX but it was afful : locke looked like a girl, shadow like a masked zombie and the rest was really awful and it was 3D .
so they made on SNES and in 2D ( man my english aint to good)

This post has been edited by ziegfried on 22nd November 2005 20:17

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They may be monsters, but they're sea monsters. What're they gonna do? Flop around on deck and suffocate at us threateningly?

Quote (ziegfried @ 22nd November 2005 15:14)

on www.fantasyanime.com/finalfantasy/ff6 i found some plans that indecate that ff6 was made for the PSX but it was afful : locke looked like a girl, shadow like a masked zombie and the rest was really awful and it was 3D .
so they made on SNES and in 2D ( man my english aint to good)

If you read that link carefully, they mention that the 3D models and scenes were made AFTER FFVI was made for the SNES in 2D. There was never a decision at the time that FFVI was released about whether or not to make it in 2D v. 3D. Looking at the tests, it actually looks like if it had been made, it would have been an improvement graphics-wse over FFVII. Its also clear that even at this time Square had a pretty good concept of FFVII - listen to the music, look at the gray soldier.

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Oh sure, I don't have to get kicked in the junk to activate it, but I like it anyway. -- Thief commenting on the difference between Throw and Blue Magic.

It probably would be, because some people like 3d graphics better than sprites.

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