Tue, Feb 16, 2010 | 11:54 GMT

FFXIII reviews seen “from a western point of view”, says Toriyama

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Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama has said to CVG he reckons the review scores so far for the RPG have been seen “from a western point of view”.

We think many reviewers are looking at Final Fantasy XIII from a western point of view,” he said.

When you look at most Western RPGs, they just dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like.

[It] becomes very difficult to tell a compelling story when you’re given that much freedom.”

Recently, reviews for the Japanese version of the game have been mixed. OPM UK gave the game a 9, but PSM3 was revealed last week to have given 70 percent.

For the record, what we’ve played of the Japanese version so far is awesome.

FFXIII is out in the west on March 9 for PS3 and 360.

64 comments

#51

Hunam
16/02/10, 3:44 pm

Erm… about that…

#52

DaMan
16/02/10, 3:47 pm

Blerk – ah, that yeah I misunderstood.

#53

The Hindle
16/02/10, 3:47 pm

Its funny that people on gaming forums say Western rpgs are better then the Jrpg but no western rpg has yet to have the impact that FF 7s aeries dying scene had on me or FF 10s ending which was absoluetly amazing.

#54

Blerk
16/02/10, 3:51 pm

Mass Effect is the WRPG that immediately springs to mind when I try to think ‘Western RPG with awesome story’. I think SquareEnix could do a lot worse than buying a couple of dozen copies of that, giving them to the FF core team and telling them to come back in a couple of weeks with some ideas.

#55

Mike
16/02/10, 3:59 pm

:D

#56

Gheritt White
16/02/10, 4:00 pm

I’ll see your Final Fantasy VII and raise you one Planescape: Torment.

#57

Mike
16/02/10, 4:00 pm

Johnny, you’ve only got the Japanese version, right? So the view “story” is pretty much moot until we get hold of a proper translation, innit.

#58

Psychotext
16/02/10, 4:01 pm

no western rpg has yet to have the impact that FF 7s aeries dying scene had on me

OMG SPOILERS!

…I don’t ever recall a WRPG that had a scene like that in it though. There’s been a number of them which got me heavily invested in the story though.

#59

DaMan
16/02/10, 4:04 pm

forget FF7, Planescape Torment was the Chrono Trigger of the west..

#60

DrDamn
16/02/10, 4:08 pm

I always thought, and still feel, that Zelda games are effectively RPGs. Action RPGs yes, maybe lite-RPGs but still RPGs. Things aren’t always so clearly defined these days, genres blur.

#61

Hunam
16/02/10, 4:12 pm

I think Zelda was seen as a RPG before the action adventure banner turned up, then we all had a meeting and decided it was one of them and not an RPG.

There was scones and minutes and everything.

#62

zoopdeloop
16/02/10, 5:55 pm

Eventualy it all comes down to preferences.
Others prefer a linear gameplay with deep sentimental story with character development(more like a movie)where you follow and interact (in this case) on how the story being told.

Others prefer less sentiment but a good story with a lot freedom in gameplay,making choices while progressing “making” the story themselves.

But if you think about it just like many found boring Heavy Rain’s intro because you do things like in your everyday life so do many people find boring having too many choices/paths in a game where in real life almost every second is about choices and even some people don’t take them easily and eventually they feel confused

In the end i don’t think it will be wise if every or each genre follows one certain formula…that will be boring.
I don’t want Rpg’s to become generic like what most games have become this gen because they are influenced by a certain genre “shooters” just to be in the “trend” that is right now

#63

OlderGamer
18/02/10, 3:02 pm

Lots of good sense to what you said there Zoop.

#64

theevilaires
18/02/10, 3:10 pm

I’ve been wanting to say a lot about this, but the proof is in the pudding and the internet has spoken. If you own both systems and still pick up the 360 version you don’t deserve the title “GAMER”….I’m looking at you O’Connor (360 version of tekken 6…are you nuts?!)

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