How come this game hasn't been canned yet?Follow

SE should make a sub publisher, call it Square Experience- "games first". Their premier title could be a new Mana game. Use cell shading graphics, something that would run on an early 2000s computer, and then put all the money in to expansive gameplay and creative art over pixel count. So many fans say they want that but companies are always MOAR POLYGONS. But games like Bastion did well, Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning was a beautiful game without needing graphic cards powered by Element Zero. Seems like marketing that aspect would be a crafty move. The Mana series had a fairly decent following and would be perfect for this sort of purposely animated looking style. If they spent the money that so many companies spend on polygons on a great story and good gameplay, something like that could revive the company without having to compete directly on money = pixels grounds like other companies are. Its basicaly the meaningless horsepower wars car companies go through, then something like Mazda comes out with the Miata and sells a zillion of them.

Sakaguchi was also the mastermind behind the Final Fantasy series to begin with, with his crowning achievement being the producer of Final Fantasy VII, which went on to be the highest selling FF title of all time. Spirits Within might not have been another Toy Story, but I believe they made a mistake in getting rid of him (technically, he left of his own free will, but the pressure must have been there). The stories just aren't as daring or creative as they used to be and people can tell.

His work on The Last Story (which is notably FF-ish in name and deed and which was received with rave reviews) brings to light everything the Final Fantasy series has been missing since his departure. It comes out for the Wii in NA on July 10.

It was still a beautiful looking game.

The top 3 New York Times bestsellers right now are Twilight erotic fanfiction, so, yeah, that could very well be New York Times best-selling writing.

I do have to agree, however, on the principle - of gameplay and story over graphics. It doesn't mean the game has to look terrible - but I'd rather see some really nice sprites or shade cell looking stuff - with an awesome, expansive story, great job system and a lot of replayability than something really shiny that sucks. I think that is one reason why I've been tending to play only portable games if I am not on PC. I just don't need all that sparkle. Games like tactics ogre get it right - where it looks nice (those graphics will probably age really well) but the focus is on the game being great.