In both film and gaming, there is often criticism that no risks are taken. There are many remakes, remastered versions, or sequels. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, sees the blame not only on the companies but also on the players.
Who is Hironobu Sakaguchi? Before Square merged with Enix, Sakaguchi was instrumental in the creation of the Final Fantasy series. He worked on the series from the beginning until part 12, with varying degrees of involvement. In 2004, he founded his own studio, Mistwalker.
With Mistwalker, he developed less-known but quite popular titles among genre fans such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. However, he has a problem with the current industry because it is not daring to try anything new. He does not believe that the blame lies entirely with the companies, but also with the players.
Hironobu Sakaguchi is also an enthusiastic gamer: Final Fantasy 14: The creator of Final Fantasy admits to spending 80% of his time in the MMORPG
By now, the main series has reached part 16:
Sakaguchi sees the problem with us
As Jeuxvideo reports, Sakaguchi discussed this issue with Yuji Horii in an interview on a Japanese radio show. He explains that developers often face many expectations from players who do not want anything to change. This forces studios to repeat what is already known to work.
He does not fundamentally see it as a bad thing to please the nostalgia of players; however, it ensures that there are no resources left for the development of new IPs. Despite the supposed urge for the familiar, Sakaguchi believes that players will eventually get bored.
What does Sakaguchi say about criticism of his own games? In the interview, Sakaguchi addresses the criticism that his games have too many cutscenes. He is irritated by this and states that to properly play his games, one should experiment and explore everything.
Are there really too few new IPs? Of course, there are endless new ideas and brands in the indie sector. In the AAA sector, that’s a bit trickier. New games like Immortals of Aveum are flopping hard, and when looking at the top 20 from the USA in 2023, there is not a single game on the list without a well-known brand behind it. (via Gamespot)
One can place blame on both sides. Large companies are afraid of a huge flop, and marketing a new game to players is significantly more difficult than letting Spider-Man and the Harry Potter universe speak for themselves.
However, 2024 looks a bit different. With games like Stellar Blade or Palworld, it can be seen that small studios have the power to make even unknown brands big. However, it must be said that these two games can practically market themselves through their concept and design. At least Final Fantasy continues to experiment with its gameplay. For MeinMMO author Cortyn, this has worked really well in part 16: Final Fantasy 16 is the game you all should buy a PlayStation for
