You Are The New Director Of CBU5

FF autobattler stealing IP and maps from FFT.

easy hit, would make billions

Its a shame how many iterations of Kefka exist in SE's mind, and lately I feel like they prefer the madman court jester version- for me, Kefka will always have that madness, but let's not pretend blind madness made him reach the medal stand of video game baddies...he was brilliant, too.

But sorry, Golbez will always be my #1 likely because of the age I first played IV. <3

So this discussion gave me a separate idea: FFRK, but from the villain perspective. You have to keep going into worlds and stopping the heroes from foiling plots, picking up extra villains along the way.

Since it'd be a gacha, it'd probably make a zillion dollars just because of everyone trying to pull Sephiroth and Kefka

Make the game mobile, but code it so if they name their character Seffyroth etc, it auto dials their parents to tell them they raised a moron.

Alternatively:

Hmm that Forest of the Ancients place might be a decent spot? Disk 1 vs Disk 2 is a good break, but Disk 3 is just the end of the game, can't make a full $70 USD game from it.

Remakes (I to VI) with Octopath-like graphics. Especially FFVI.

Remakes (VII onward) with FF7R gameplay.

I'd make the team watch this, then immediately hire the people that made it and work with them to make it happen.

Pixel remaster versions of VII, VIII, IX etc.

That's gold for the taking right there.

Sage Frontier 3, keep the duel battle system from 2.

FFT2, keep the same art style, heck make it playable on PS1 even. Maybe also remake FF12 with FFT battle system as FFT prequel to make it a trilogy.

Need to see more of Gustave the steel and Ramza the heretic. Also Delita.

Imagine pulling for Seymour. Anima please~

HOLY F'ING ***!At first I was likethen I started thinking about wtf are SE doing
let me explain; these dudes won't have the resources that SE do. that's point 1.
Point 2, just look at how loyal the fanbase is for FF. They made something like this. I'm in absolute awe.
I'd gladly dump 10-20k USD to help fund this.

I would take the Final Fantasy IP and take all the tech and design they have for FF12 and improve on it, refine it and create a new RPG more close to what the 12 or XenoBlade is.

Really believe they had the evolution of RPG and just forget about it

I bet that Cinematic where Vivi hands that Black Waltz his butt would still slap. Probably my favorite cinematic.

I prefer OG FF9 art direction personally. This fan remake changed too much art direction(color scheme, everything looks too straight and clean) that it feels like a different world with vivi in it lol.

I would try to get Minaba Hideo to be the art director again if I am a SE director making FF9 remake. That game just isn't going to feel right without OG art direction, since the OG FF9 art style is all the main selling point to me.

Edit: While we are at it...if I am making FF6 remake I would also try to get Sakaguchi if possible. Classic FF remake needs classic FF directors to feel right. :>

I think my favorite part of this thread is that despite some of these being better ideas than others from a sales perspective, almost all of them are different. That's just kind of neat, and speaks to how much potential there is for SE to stop *** around and do something great.

I agree! Even though Dodik's idea was the best

They have unlimited options and unlimited resources to make literally any and every.

What the don't have is the freedom to make any choices of consequence. Hurray for money.

My CBU5 would be a video game incubator that funds development and handles hr/distribution/promotion/legal/localization/maybe some light consulting/training/staffing. It would probably release under slightly different branding.

Basically, take the money they might give me to develop a game and instead fund like 30 community passion projects with a 3 year timeline and a profit-sharing model. At 3 years (or earlier if the gods approve), they deliver the game, I get to play it (hah-hah!), and we release it in their native language on Steam or whatever. If it does well or I particularly love it, we localize it for other regions/consoles. Also, I would condition the money on a right of first refusal for any sequels.

SE isn't particularly good at making interesting original content in-house anymore, but they are still technically excellent at making video games. This idea would let me leverage SE's actual strengths while producing games on a shoestring budget and potentially reaping massive returns. Similar to their current Publisher agreements but lower end and with more support.

Also, my only job in this plan would be to *** and play vidya. If I could hold onto it for 10 years, that would be great.

This is the exact sentiment when I consider the position of EA, Activision-Blizzard, Capcom, Konami.

Losing money is a scary premise, so it's easy for the dragon to horde the gold feeding off the villagers until he can't exit the cave anymore.

Oh well, with AAA tools becoming widely available, licensing becoming much more favorable to developers, and platforms embracing self-publishing with lower cuts, things only get better for the little guy.

They already butchered 7, don't touch the best one.

They already did something similar to this back in 2013 when indie game industry was growing fast, it's called Square Enix Collective. Basically they accept indie dev pitches and have the community vote approve or disapprove for the idea. If the approval rate is high and the game has potential then they may choose to publish it.

Many pretty looking indie games like Children of Zodiarcs and Forgotton Anne were funded through SEC.

That being said, I haven't seen SEC release that many indie games recently. They released 11 games before 2019 but only 2 games in the past 3 years. So I suspect this business wasn't that successful at all since many indie games that they published had low steam sales. which probably leads to SE leaving indie publishing business so they can focus on their own IP and their loyal fanbase instead.

The fact that most people are proposing remakes, prequels and sequels really shows how much the entertainment industry brainwashed its consumers lately

For real, leave the classics alone. They're classics for a reason, don't need to remake them.

I don't think that is because us as consumers are "brainwashed" into liking old IP. there are way too many new IP appear in the market every single day already. We all have limited amount of time to spend on a game so we would pick a product that is emotionally most valuable to us in the sea of endless entertainment products.

Just as I type this I counted 23 new steam games released on Aug 19 today. And today hasn't even end lol. All of these are basically new IP trying to get your attention with new ideas, but people would rather spend their time on a forum argue about the future of an old IP like FF instead of paying attention to new IP.

With this many new IP on the market making noise it become easy to ignore them and cling on to old IP like FF that we have more emotional attachment with.

The fact that many people didn't know that SE used to publish plenty of indie games shows how little people actually care about new IP that they are not familiar with.

I think what many consumers really want isn't something that is entirely new, but something that feels familiar so we can relate, with modern graphics and design. So it's not surprising to see old SE IP remake or prequel/sequel being suggested over and over.

A reasonable criticism. But allow me to offer a rebuttal:

Much like changing jobs from WAR to DRG gives you Jump but takes away Provoke, taking over CBU5 makes you a Square Enix employee. Which means even if you knew how before, you now have zero idea how to handle a new IP. Stay in your lane, kids.

Did I say I was remaking IV? I did not.

I'm fine with remakes and remasters for this reason: it's not always easy or even possible for people to play the older games. (Dragon Quest is particularly noxious about this). Remakes and remasters allows a new generation to play some of the best stories in video games (and also Final Fantasy II), and are a way for older gamers and new ones to find common joys. My kid recently played through A Link To The Past and it was great.

So, yes: new IP is good. But until SE gives us new IP that's good (LOOKIN AT YOU, FORSPOKEN), I'm fine with them slapping coats of paint on the originals.

Interesting that they tried my incubator idea. I am unlikely to sucker them into trying it again, so now I don't know what my CBU5 pitch would be.

I think that remakes/remaster/sequels are the best thing for SE to make in-house because they haven't produced interesting novel content in a decade. Setting up a CBU5 doesn't let you escape the company culture / shortcomings, so you might as well propose something that might work.

TBF, I would have questioned whether it was possible to make an RPG that I found novel if Nier Automata hadn't been released 6 years ago. Most of the games I have played since then are some version of overproduced graphics with a B-movie or soap opera plot poorly executed due to bad writing and/or translation. I went in completely blind and Nier was basically never what I thought it was.

FFXV was something like 10 hours of story plus 30 hours of fetch quests. Also, a heavily male cast goes on an adventure to try and save a princess isn't really the innovative storyline that the reviewers pretended it was.



Maybe I would try to make Chrono Break.

Ha, but no. :P

The only brainwashing the gaming or entertainment industry has done that makes me doubt original IP work is the quality of said IPs released in the past 15 years. There's been a ridiculously marginal share that actually has been worth developing- I strongly believe the desire for sequels, remasterings, and re-imaginationing of classic works comes from the belief that at least those were quality works at their core, studios and individuals can only *** 'em up so much^^ And even *** up versions of classics these days are often better products than weak IP rushed out trying to catch a popularity wave.