The Ambitious Nature of FFX-3 (2011 Review)

First off, hope to all of a satisfying 2011 Christmas and New Years Day.

Secondly, my sincere apologies for the delay in providing this post.

While normally I would have a post with the heading: "FFX-3 (The Final Chapters) January 2012 update", I have been doing some reflecting and come to the conclusive nature of the Final Fantasy X-3 concept. Here is a defining statement which sums up the nature of the FXX-3 concept: "Final Fantasy X-3...Is it too ambitious?"

If you are familiar if the ideas and processes of this FFX-3 concept then you ought to know there are a lot of implentations (spelling!) that are supposed to make a gaming experience like no other Final Fantasy title to date. To name a few; visual damage appearing on characters (i.e. blood, cuts etc.), stamina, intimidation, pounce, multiple endings and greater exploration. Needless to say the list goes on and then you must factor the story, plot and all the practical developments needed to make this concept into a reality such as voice acting, soundtrack, motion directing and so much more! There is so much going on and so far Final Fantasy X-3 is all but a pipe dream and blogs, videos on YouTube and other fan made material. While "The Final Chapters" and "Lenne's and Shuyin's Story" and the related documentation continues to grow (in page numbers), it is at the moment only a library of Word documents with these ideas and plot recorded word by word in English (and Al Bhed).

This is not to say I am going to give up on the Final Fantasy X-3 concept, oh no. I want Final Fantasy X-3 to exist and I will help to through ideas into the circle (even if they go unnoticed).

To sum up on development on "The Final Chapters" throughout December 2011, there now lies a nonphysical wall between Yuna and Tidus, made up from their emotions of despair, frustrations and many traumatic emotions and experiences. This wall divides Yuna and Tidus mentally though it does not stop either from proceeding to their goal together or working together. That's really all that can be said (I'm keeping my cards close to chest this time around).

What I will say however is that during Christmas 2011 and subsequent days following (today included), I have been playing Corpse Party Blood Covered Repeated Fear on my PSP and while I have quickly groan to appreciate and like the game and its plot, I have also shivered and cried at some of the events and game-play in general. Its an unnerving game to say the least (especially in the dark), I can't look at bathroom stalls or scissors the same way ever again. While I like the game and shiver, there is something else which I have found to appreciate and that is the voice acting. Its Japanese and if it weren't for the English subtitles, I would've find Corpse Party very hard to understand, apart from when the characters scream and sob as a result of a horrific death. And yet it works very well, in fact I'm convinced that Japanese voice acting is better then English voice acting plain and simple. I've looked at several games such as Final Fantasy titles (X, X-2, XIII, XIII-2 for examples) and others like Star Ocean The Last Hope and find that the Japanese voice acting is better sounding and better inline with the animations and characters. Is isn't exactly surprising since these games start of in their native country and are then reconfigured to work with English voices for international release (Europe and North America to be precise).

The point is the FFX-3 concept is written in English which will make it harder to work with and relate if and when Square Enix in Japan get hold of my contributions. Sure it will make it easier for European and North American versions using the voices of Hedy Burress, James Arnold Taylor, Tara Strong and so on (who voice Yuna, Tidus and Rikku respectively). But on the other hand it will make development of FFX-3 that much harder for the Japanese version of which traditionally each major Final Fantasy has started of in life as and I am not fluent in Japanese so I can't help in that dilemma. Yet one more reason why the FFX-3 concept is being regarded as overly ambitious. But then nothing in life is easy or straight forward, otherwise we as species would've died of boredom long ago.

Well, since its January 2012 (yes 2012), development has shifted to "Lenne's and Shuyin's Story". Hopefully I will have something interesting and fresh to share in the next post. Until then however, see ya.