Final Fantasy VS XIII

No, no, you must be mistaken. I didn't miss Musical Monday.

Happy?

I am, sort of.  I really like this theme.  But I'm not here to talk about the theme.

Final Fantasy VS XIII was announced at E3 in 2006.  The trailer, seen above, knocked everyone's socks off.  It was more desired then Final Fantasy XIII itself, and then it fell off the map.

This is understandable.  The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy of the time (XIII, Agito XIII (later became Type 0) and Versus XIII)  were being developed in one office, and XIII then Agito/Type0 had more of the focus.  XIII would be their basic title, and Agito was in turmoil.  It first started as a mobile phone game before switching to PSP.

Agito came out to rave reviews.  XIII was... mixed.  (For the record, I liked it. I am at the final level. I can see some complaints, but anyone who claims all the character are unlikeable did NOT give them a chance to develop. Especially Hope.) So Square Enix decided to create XIII-2.  That's also been... mixed.

One of the reason it has been mixed is due to SE's discovery of DLC which I've talked about before.

Which brings us back to Versus. Very little has been released about Versus since it's announcement in 2006.    Things have been mentioned, like there will be airships and cutscene and ingame models will be practically identical, and a few very incomplete trailers have been released.

And they have explained that not only has Noctis' clothes changed, they ended up switching the entire engine to another one, and the lighting effects changed so they were very realistic.

^That is the in game effects.


The lack of information been frustrating, but SE just decided to make it more frustrating.  In the leaks for the next Famitsu, Tetsuya Nomura stated that to speed up the release date, two thirds of the game wil be released as DLC.  

(I have since found out that that article was an April Fools Day joke.  My apologies)

Admittedly, he says it's because the fans are frustrated, but this is just stupid and sets a REALLY bad precedent. 

May I direct your attention to Capcom and Valve?

Capcom had announced post release DLC for Street Fighter.  People were annoyed, but accepted it.  Then people started digging into the files and found fully working models, costumes, and sound.  To say people are spitting mad is an understatement.  It might have been better if they were incomplete, but you could hack them in no problem.  At this time, several people have registered reports with the Better Business Bureau and Capcom has stated:

"While Capcom is sorry that some of its fans are not happy about the chosen method of delivery for the DLC, we believe that this method will provide more flexible and efficient gameplay throughout the game's lifecycle. There is effectively no distinction between the DLC being ''locked'' behind the disc and available for unlocking at a later date, or being available through a full download at a later date, other than delivery mechanism."

Valve for Half-Life 2 switched to an episodic model in order to save development time.  Half 2 Episode 2 was released in 2007 with NO updates since then. At least XIII releases trailers. 

Square Enix, if you want to relieve frustration, the answer is very simple.

Release information.  I will NOT buy a game like this in installments. You have no idea how much I was looking forward to it, but putting 2/3 of the game as DLC has pretty much killed my interest.  The game looks fascinating, complex, has a heavy focus on relationships, and... it will mostly be DLC.    If you want people to get excited, start by saying EXACTLY how far you are along.  The most recent trailer did not have complete voice acting!  VAing is all or nothing for trailer cut scenes, otherwise it just comes across as unprofessional.  You can release screenshots, talk about characters, over view the battle system, etc. 

This also sets a VERY bad precedent.  Valve at the very least has been upfront with how they were going to do episodes in the beginning and how the idea that it was supposed to cut down on development time didn't work.   But look at something like Kingdom Hearts, the other FF's or just games in general.  "We know you wanted it out sooner, so here is a third of the game.  The rest is $20 DLC on top of the $60 price tag".  "You can't beat the game unless you pay us more money" I'm sorry, but gaming does not work that way, especially for a longer game.  You will lose your customers.  People buy DLC.  I've bought some.  But changing a game style to mostly DLC is frustrating and insulting.  (This also ties into getting rid of used games).  You'll make money now, but you'll lose your customers in the long run. Capcom may often talk to it's community, but this DLC issue is using up a lot of good will very quickly. Square, you will lose even more. And what about Kingdom Hearts? People are getting VERY frustrated waiting for that, will you release that mostly as DLC?  

This is coming out negative, but one point remains.  If you want to reduce frustration, SE, don't release the game in installments and release more (non trailer) information in the mean time. I love trailers, but I'd rather an interview that gives background to the characters more then a new trailer right now.

DLC for FFXIII-2

MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS FOR FFXIII-2 AHEAD!

Okay, still here?   Great!

I've talked about DLC before.  When I did, I mentioned that SE had basically just found out DLC existed.  The previous DLC content (not including their MMO's) consisted of alternate costumes for Dissidia.  When Final Fantasy XIII-2 was announced, they also announced there would be some DLC for the game.

Alright, so the game is released, people unlock all the endings and.... it ends on a To Be Continued. I'll note that they did register a XIII-3 trademark a few months before the game was released, and they claimed it was to pre empt any filings, but it's easy to assume they were lying after that ending.  But there is one thing that really bugs me.

Like I said, they just found out about DLC.  Their first foray into DLC was in Dissidia 012. The DLC consisted of extra costumes and songs on top of their already expanded in game content. However, the newest costumes and songs were only available if you paid.  A large number was released in Japan, a lesser amount was brought over to the US (I don't know why, some of those would have been great! Look!)

And that is fair enough.  The original game only had 2 sets of costumes, default and alternate.  While it was annoying some of it was tied into preorders and so on over here (I only got KH Cloud, which is fine.  I love that outfit)  it was hard to get all of it before, and then SE just stopped bringing the costumes over even though they had already been made.

Then we get to XIII-2.  It ends on a complete cliffhanger, In fact, we see Lightning turn to Crystal on Valhalla, Serah dies, and it's all confusion (even more so for me since I haven't played the game, but I have heard about this)  Now, before the game was released they did talk a bit about DLC.  There would be costumes (Pre order based. I HATE those.) and then they talked about a Sazh episode.  Now, that makes sort of sense for me.  It would probably be a minor or pointless side story. Don't get me wrong, I love Sazh  I'm annoyed it wasn't in the full release, but it could have been cut but instead it's DLC.  Unless Sazh ended up actively involved with the plot and changed it due to him being there then DLC works.  It fills us in with some minor details, some fanservice, but won't cause alot of headaches if we miss it.  There is another DLC, the coliseum battles between Serah, Noel and various monsters so that you can catch the monsters and use them later.  Okay, I can see how that could be used. I would like to have it in there already, but it works.

It's the last piece of DLC that I've heard about that makes me mad.  LIGHTNING'S STORY is going to be DLC.  I don't know if it will cover her side of what happened in XIII-2 or it will be a continuation of the game, but that is a MAJOR part of the plot and it SHOULD have been put in the game.  Other games switch players around all the time. In fact, Final Fantasy has done it before!

So, why did this have to be DLC?  If it's a side story, it's probably going to explain a HECK of a lot.  If it's a continuation of the story, then that SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FINAL RELEASE.   And then they're going to do it again with Theathrythm, it's getting some Day 1 DLC of songs that could probably have actually been on the cart. Unless they are giving it away for free, it's a complete rip off.

Game companies, clean up your act.  It's not just Square Enix who does this.

DLC can be a VERY wonderful thing, as long as you are NOT cutting things out of the actual release and/or restricting it only to people who buy it new.  I'm sure it brings in a lot of money now, but people are getting sick of it.  Sooner or later, that revenue stream will dry up, and people will stop buying the games.

Please, just give us the whole game. You may have to delay it, but I'd rather pay sixty for it later then pay 100 dollars in installments for something I'm not even sure I own.

On Disk DLC

(My apologies if this is random/not very well thought out today. I'm in a tad of a rush because I'm helping around the house)

This is kinda a problem now a days (I'll talk about DRM later)

On Disk DLC.

DLC (or Downloadable Content) is either a bane or boon of the modern digital based gaming culture. It can be generally anything. New Skins for characters to change how they look, a new map for the latest shooter, or a game add on for post game content. Sometimes glitch fixes and character balances come along for the ride too.

Three companies, for me, that do DLC right are

1) Media Molecule with "Little Big Planet". Alot of the material is available for free so DLC covers new costumes (such as Solid Snake, Ezio, Cloud, etc) or new levels that have a new mechanic added in (Such as Metal Gear Solid's levels with the Paintinator and Pirates of the Caribbean's levels with water focus) They sincerely listen to the community and try to get costumes and levels that the fans want.

2) Harmonix/EA with "Rockband" (series). The DLC just keeps on coming so it's become absolutely apparent by now there just wasn't enough room on the disk to have all of this music. Add in licensing issues and some music not being released when the game came out... it leads to respect on my end that they keep this coming.

3)Criterion/EA WITH "Burnout: Paradise City" There was a lot of DLC provided for free and when you paid it was for the higher end items like the "Famous Cars" pack or the ENTIRE ISLAND that they added to the game.

(Special Notice goes to Square Enix who up until now generally refused to put DLC into their game so that was nice since what was on the disk is the entire game. No shelling out of extra money required)

So, what about the other games? Well, let's look at something like Fighting Games.
Before, Alternate costumes would be something to be unlocked on the disk and they would look different from their main costumes aside from recoloring. (As this was sprite based it would, admittedly, be a bit easier) Now most costumes are added in as DLC. Most people want to know why they can't just unlock these costumes. It gets worse.

Sometimes the material is already on the disk and you're just buying (or preordering) a key to do this. (this can be noticed if the downloaded item is incredibly small) These Keys used to be in game flags, like "Beat the boss in 3 minutes" for example. However turning them into something to buy for a few dollars turns the costumes from a badge of honor for gamers into a grab for money by producers.

Then there is problems like with "Marvel Vs Capcom 3" where if you preordered at Gamestop you would get the Jill and Shuma Gorath DLC. "Great!" you may say, except these two are almost completely on disk.

No, really, apparently it's only slightly buggy.


This was done only to influence preorders, which makes it a money grab.

If the DLC is sincerely off disk, I don't mind. Things get cut during production and sometimes they have time later to remedy this. Other times they just couldn't get it to work license wise. Sometimes the disk is just packed full of data and the only way it can be in game is when it's downloaded. I understand these. Not to mention that gaming is expensive to produce and it's always a gamble. So, now that people will buy DLC, it makes sense to put some into the games.




But why pay $2 for these costumes, when they are already on the disk?