Of course, it will have Hiroyuki Ito involved, which is a huge plus, and has likely been in development since 2008.
At this point, Ito is the only FF director at Square Enix that will give us a deep and fulfilling battle system. Everybody else is obsessed with simplifying controls and making you control only one character in battle. Ito is the opposite. This is the man that worked on the battle systems of FFI, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFXII, FFT. Every single one of these games had 100% manual control via menus and you could control every party member in battle. There's no way a PS4/Xbox One battle system by Hiroyuki Ito will ever rely on Auto-Battle and the player only being able to control one character. The only battle system he made with a mechanic remotely similar to Auto-Battle was the Gambits in FFXII, yet even then you could turn them off at will and control every party member manually. He even gave us leader switching during battle and the ability to access the status menu and change equipment and Gambits, even while the battle was still going on! FFXIII by Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama offered none of this.
The writing is on the wall at this point. From a gameplay point of view, FFXV by Hajime Tabata has failure written all over it. The only objectively good thing about it is the graphics. The battle system sounds like the worst in the entire FF series, spin-offs included. Also, you only get the Backstreet Boys cast with no playable females? Is this supposed to be the antithesis of FFX-2? LOL! Here are my gripes with FFXV under Tabata's direction:
People would always say only Ito can save mainline FF. I never agreed with them before, as I trusted Nomura would pull through with VersusXIII, but after what has become of this man's vision under the new director and being renamed FFXV? Yes, Ito really is the only person that can save mainline FF. The only way FF will ever become great again is if Ito is involved. In this era of WRPG dominance, it's about time Square Enix unleashed their trump card. From what I'm reading about the gameplay of FFXV, I fully expect it to score in the 70's range on Metacritic. Even LR FFXIII has a better battle system.
Only Hiroyuki Ito can salvage this once great series. Sakaguchi was not joking when he made that claim back in February 2012. He may have fucked up with The Spirits Within, but he still has a sharp eye regarding which staff at Square are competent at leading a AAA mainline FF in this era of WRPG dominance. It's about time video game journalists began to seriously ask Square Enix when Ito will return to the FF series. His presence on this once legendary series is sorely missed.
At this point, Ito is the only FF director at Square Enix that will give us a deep and fulfilling battle system. Everybody else is obsessed with simplifying controls and making you control only one character in battle. Ito is the opposite. This is the man that worked on the battle systems of FFI, FFIV, FFV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, FFIX, FFXII, FFT. Every single one of these games had 100% manual control via menus and you could control every party member in battle. There's no way a PS4/Xbox One battle system by Hiroyuki Ito will ever rely on Auto-Battle and the player only being able to control one character. The only battle system he made with a mechanic remotely similar to Auto-Battle was the Gambits in FFXII, yet even then you could turn them off at will and control every party member manually. He even gave us leader switching during battle and the ability to access the status menu and change equipment and Gambits, even while the battle was still going on! FFXIII by Yoshinori Kitase and Motomu Toriyama offered none of this.
The writing is on the wall at this point. From a gameplay point of view, FFXV by Hajime Tabata has failure written all over it. The only objectively good thing about it is the graphics. The battle system sounds like the worst in the entire FF series, spin-offs included. Also, you only get the Backstreet Boys cast with no playable females? Is this supposed to be the antithesis of FFX-2? LOL! Here are my gripes with FFXV under Tabata's direction:
- Over importance of driving a car due to FFXV being a road movie.
- No longer has a controllable airship due to Tabata seeing the car as the airships equivalent.
- Only the Backstreet Boys playable with no females.
- You can only play as Noctis and can't switch party members during or even outside battle.
- All the TPS gameplay with Prompto has been dropped.
- Fully automated and scripted battle system with dedicated Auto-Attack and Auto-Dodge buttons.
- No more free jumping like the KH series.
People would always say only Ito can save mainline FF. I never agreed with them before, as I trusted Nomura would pull through with VersusXIII, but after what has become of this man's vision under the new director and being renamed FFXV? Yes, Ito really is the only person that can save mainline FF. The only way FF will ever become great again is if Ito is involved. In this era of WRPG dominance, it's about time Square Enix unleashed their trump card. From what I'm reading about the gameplay of FFXV, I fully expect it to score in the 70's range on Metacritic. Even LR FFXIII has a better battle system.
Only Hiroyuki Ito can salvage this once great series. Sakaguchi was not joking when he made that claim back in February 2012. He may have fucked up with The Spirits Within, but he still has a sharp eye regarding which staff at Square are competent at leading a AAA mainline FF in this era of WRPG dominance. It's about time video game journalists began to seriously ask Square Enix when Ito will return to the FF series. His presence on this once legendary series is sorely missed.
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