Gamers blame Xbox 360 for Final Fantasy XIII visual downgrade
There is a bit of controversy over some comparison shots of Final Fantasy XIII from the previous build and the new build, which was distributed by Square Enix two months ago. There is an apparent downgrade in graphics on the new build and many gamers are blaming the Xbox 360 version of the game.
Things exploded globally over the Web earlier this week over comparison shots of the 2008 demo build with the recently released demo build from June 2009. Things started heating up over in Japan as multiple sites picked up the news with many gamers blaming the development of the Xbox 360 version as to the cause of the downgrade. The U.S. media then picked up the story and started reporting it.
As many of you already know when it comes to Final Fantasy XIII, I can be pretty bullish about how its being developed and how it will be delivered into my grubby hands. Early on in January, I blamed Microsoft and Square Enix for pushing back the release of Final Fantasy XIII after a hasty decision to add the Xbox 360 development to the production schedule.
Then confirmation really came in May that the Xbox 360 development truly is hampering the western release of the game. Yoshinori Kitase FFXIII producer revealed that the PS3 version is going through final polishing and main development has completed. He also revealed that Xbox 360 development hasn’t even started besides the basic engine modifications. Blaming localization was completely thrown out the window when Kitase also revealed that English voices are being recorded in conjunction with Japanese vocals.
Now multiple things are coming to light which could imply that the development on the Xbox 360 is having some adverse affects on the PS3 version. Kitase indicated that the team will make sure that the PS3 and Xbox 360 is as identical as possible. There seems to be some texture downgrades from the build on the Japanese Advent Children Blu-ray disc, which was released at the DKΣ3713 event in Japan August 2008 and from the new demo sent out in the international version of Advent Children DVD disc in June of 2009.
View all of the Comparison Shots here
Looking at the comparison shots, I have to agree with Kotaku there is a bit of change in textures from both versions. The visuals around the costumes and environments are not as sharp and detailed in the new build. There are also fewer polygons in the new build which is evident from the jaggy shoulders.
As I have stated previously, I could care less about what platform FFXIII lands on whether it be Xbox 360 or PC/Mac. However, I do care about games taking half a decade to complete and visual downgrades. Square Enix should let each version run at whatever capacity on each console and release the game as it finishes.
Since I have in my hands a copy of the original Japanese Advent Children Blu-ray disc with the FFXIII demo released at the DKΣ3713 event back in 2008, I should easily be able to do some comparison when either the Japanese retail version or international demo gets released. I have been playing the FFXIII demo lately and the graphics are stunning and it would be a shame if it were to be downgraded.
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September 5th, 2009
PS3 owners choose to blame another console when game on their console fails to live up to the preproduction hype?
Ridiculous. Surely not?
Unless you can see those nice looking preproduction versions of this game running on a bog-standard PS3 then all those ’screen shots’ etc etc mean nothing.
Dev kits and dev equipment is not the same as the unit we buy, have and use.
Sounds like BS to me Mike.
September 5th, 2009
@Happy,
“PS3 owners choose to blame another console when game on their console fails to live up to the preproduction hype?”
Its not failing to live up to preproduction hype, its failing to live up to the build from last year – I have a production demo from DKΣ3713 last year.
I should be able to do my own comparison once the international demo releases.
It looks to be the real deal.
September 5th, 2009
Perhaps they’ve just not turned out to be so good at optimising a PS3 game for the Xbox 360?
September 5th, 2009
“Square Enix should let each version run at whatever capacity on each console and release the game as it finishes.”
Square Enix can’t do that otherwise MS will send thier team of 20 high priced lawyers, of whom they keep in sterilised test tubes, around to Square Enix as to why they violated an agreement.
I don’t think this will bother too many PS3 owners. By the sounds of it most of them are going to get Verses XIII instead, which may be allowed to have all the things cut/limited from its multiplat counterpart.
September 5th, 2009
For all those people that say “I don’t care about sales figures” all I’d say is this wouldn’t have happened in the PS1/PS2 era.
September 5th, 2009
Mike, dont bother.
Happy knows more than the S.E. people themselves.
……what I have noticed is before FFXIII was announced to 360 the graphics looked amazing and the game had potential. but after a few previews after the FF13 360 announcement the graphics dont look as mind-blowing as they did before. I also started noticing that many PS3 owner and FF fans are looking forward to FFv13 instead as we can all see the graphics of FFv13 are way better and smoother than FF13.
the game used to have a lot of potential but now is being limited by multiple disc on one system, and they compressed the graphics the make game run smooth with no setbacks, and I also was hoping to import the Japanese version because to my knowledge the game was going to support english subs, and voice acting. but they are going to scratch that, so they PS3 and 360 can look indentical….wow…. M$’s checks can did no good to the franchise
September 5th, 2009
There has been more info about VS that I have not seen? The only think I have seen of VS was some japanese music video type of thing with two people talking for 5 minutes.
September 5th, 2009
“For all those people that say “I don’t care about sales figures” all I’d say is this wouldn’t have happened in the PS1/PS2 era.”
If you didnt know, M$ paid for this game to come to their console. if sales was the issue then why FFv13 is coming for the 360
September 5th, 2009
“There has been more info about VS that I have not seen? The only think I have seen of VS was some japanese music video type of thing with two people talking for 5 minutes.”
I think the only think we know about FF13 that we dont know about FFv13 is the combat system and the release date.
September 5th, 2009
How many other mutiplat-games have M$ paid to have downgraded that we don’t know about? I have a feeling it is alot, but it’s not all M$ fault, hell Sony would have to agree to some of it I’m sure.
September 5th, 2009
Ultimately, my independent opinion is that Square Enix has not been handling the FFXIII push properly.
I see a lot of mistakes being made as to how they are handling this whole thing on their part which shouldn’t happen for a company with the caliber of SQEX.
September 5th, 2009
MS probably got to SE before SE decided to take XIII multiplat on their own, but by allowing MS to dictate the terms, SE probably can’t handle XIII as they want.
But I don’t think it matters. On reflection, everyone thought it was MS’s big coup in 2008 by unveiling FFXIII on 360, but actually it was SE’s coup.
The reality is that FF sales have been drifting since FFVII on PS1…the amount of debate going multiplat stirred up for SE is off the scale…it rose the profile of the game ten-fold…and it’ll only get more exposure come release when they’ll be endless comparisons/debates/face offs about it.
A true masterstroke from SE.
Now if only Epic will do the same with Gears 3…
September 5th, 2009
@lock_down
Wow…… that’s insane.
September 6th, 2009
Never think of Square Enix as Squaresoft. Although it was a merger of Squaresoft and Enix (hence the name), I believe that S-E is the more greedy, only-for-the-money version of Squaresoft.
If anyone’s thinking that FF13 and FFV13 are going to be offering an intensifying experience like the FFs of old, then of course that will happen, regardless of how many downgrades, compressions and the like will happen.
But remember this: Square Enix is different from Squaresoft. The last Squaresoft made game was Final Fantasy 10, and we all know how amazing and memorable FFs 10 and before were. If you loved an FF and prefer the 1st KH over the 2nd (and I loved both; fantastic games!), then thank Squaresoft. They cared about quality.
P.S. I don’t hate Square Enix, nor is my intent to tell others that Squaresoft>Square Enix. My apologies if I do. It’s thanks to Square Enix that the FF series is arguably one of the best and long-running franchises in history.
Although yes, they made FF13 multi-platform because they wanted to maximize their profit potential, nonetheless the (I guess you can say
) “Squaresoft” part of Square Enix will make sure that there will be polish and quality in FF13 and FFV13 (headed by Tetsuya Nomura, he has made any FF and KH game fun, wonderful and memorable).
I just wish that S-E had a different president….although you can’t judge a book by its cover, the first time I saw him, I already he looked to be a money hungry guy.
He even went on to say that the Japanese developers are much much behind the Western developers in terms of innovation (that is true, to some extent). But here is where I got perturbed:
He said that Japanese developers should make more western-oriented games. We have enough of those, and this person apparently forgot that although Innovation is key, variation is also important. We need different kinds of games, whether they be FPSs, RPGs, Action-Adventure games, RTSs, etc. Too much of one genre is bad, plain and simple.
Boy, I went on and on :S, but thanks very much if someone took the time and read it all.
September 6th, 2009
Ahh I meant “every FF and KH game fun…” lol
September 6th, 2009
I also meant “I already knew he looked to be…” :S
September 6th, 2009
I don’t understand why they couldn’t just treat each console development as an independent game and release each once it is ready and with maximum potential. So what if 360 owners get the game a year later, as long as they spend enough time recoding it to use the 360 hardware, instead of making a sloppy port, something that PS3 owners have suffered more than enough from. With the right development there is no reason why the best 360 version can’t look as good as the best PS3 version.
September 6th, 2009
Potential
PS3: 12
360: 0
God the PS3 has such amazing potential!
2025. The year of the PS3!
September 6th, 2009
Doesn’t Sony own a large part of Square Enix stock? Not sure if that’s really true or just rumor, but if it is in fact true Sony is and has been getting screwed constantly by SE.
September 6th, 2009
Not a large part, but 9%.
So at least Sony will get a cut of the dividends from a multiplat XIII.
September 6th, 2009
“Not a large part, but 9%.”
is that the whole SCE, or just SCEJ or SCEA?
September 6th, 2009
I don’t understand lock_down’s comment about PS3 owners wanting to get VS instead.
Roca (who I believe is neck deep in his knowledge about this game) said that nobody knows much about this game at all. If that’s the case, then why is lock_down saying that most PS3 owners will get VS instead?
September 6th, 2009
Because it’s on principle that VS is still exclusive
I’m only going by what I read on forums…which seems to be that most PS3 owners will get VS on account of it being exclusive….even though they don’t know what’s going on with VS.
I’d argue that nobody knows what’s going on with XIII. I mean for a game supposed to be coming out this year in Japan, there isn’t a lot of news about it. SE were pretty reluctant about a TGS demo, and if some form of release date news doesn’t get announced on Tuesday, then I’m calling delays for XIII.
@Roca, it’s just SCE. Although the way SE have been treating them, Sony may as well sell to MS…
September 7th, 2009
I can see the loyalty/exclusive factor. As a RPG fan I too am intrigued by what VS is all about. But I don’t think ‘instead of’ would be the operative choice of words, I would use ‘as well as’. Surely because a game is multiplat people would refuse to buy it.
I say that PS3 owners are very lucky in regards to the RPG love they’re going to get from Square in the next few years. Not only do they have the Multiplat FFXIII, they also have VS as well as XIV also (even though there are rumblings that the latter may indeed hit the 360 also).
September 7th, 2009
@ harry
FFv13 looks way better than ff13. Also the team working on ffv13 are the creator of ff7, 8 , 9 and kingdom heart 1 & 2
September 7th, 2009
@ harry
But as a baseline, PS3 owners are always going to get FF games, because Japan would implode if it didn’t.
It’s what PS3 owners haven’t had from SE over the last couple of years that’s been the problem….because so far they’ve had nothing from SE at all.
September 7th, 2009
Roca,
Do you have any links to info for it? I would like to learn more about this game.
@ lock_down,
I heard that Star Ocean and Last Remnant were meant to be coming to PS3. Is that still happening?
September 7th, 2009
People might be right, Mike. It may be due to the differences between the 2 consoles, but I don’t think FF fans will care.
It’s there game of choice and people being the strange beasts they are these days will still shell out their hard earned money for it even if visually or even gameplay wise takes a bit of a hit.
September 7th, 2009
@ Harry
“Do you have any links to info for it? I would like to learn more about this game.”
it is on a video on the PSN, go you your brother in law and download it. as for the graphics you go to youtube and compare 13 vs Versus 13.
harry: “I heard that Star Ocean and Last Remnant were meant to be coming to PS3. Is that still happening?”
probably not after their reviews came out.
September 7th, 2009
Roca’s right. The battle system is supposedly supposed to be like Kingdom Hearts, but no one has actually seen it in action yet.
I’m not 100% on the FF games the team has worked on, but it is the Kingdom Hearts team.
I thought the guy who did 9, also did 2 (and others)… and is working on XIV. I don’t know too much about the guys behind the games.
September 7th, 2009
“Unveiled at E³ 2006, the game is “not merely a sequel, but a wholly independent story unfolding in a different world with different characters.” The game will be developed by the team responsible for the hit Kingdom Hearts series. Tetsuya Nomura will be the director. [2] Square Enix signed a contract with Japanese fashion brand “ROEN” to promote their clothing designs in the game through different characters.”
****The development of Versus proceeds according to schedule, but whenever they have free time, the development team would help with the development of Final Fantasy XIII.****
Final Fantasy Versus XII Staff:
Director : Tetsuya Nomura***
Character Designer : Tetsuya Nomura***
Producer : Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase
Composer : Yoko Shimomura
Scenario Writer : Kazushige Nojima
Movie Director : Takeshi Nozue
Image illustrator, title logo designer: Yoshitaka Amano
****Director : Tetsuya Nomura previous work****
Final Fantasy IV – Debugger
Final Fantasy V – Monster Designer, Battle Graphics Designer
Final Fantasy VI – Graphic Director
Final Fantasy VII – Character Designer, Original Scenario Concept, Battle Visual Director
Final Fantasy VIII – Character Designer, Battle Visual Director
Final Fantasy X – Character Designer
Final Fantasy X-2 – Main Character Designer
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children – Director, Character Designer
Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII – Character Designer
Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII – Character Designer
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII – Character Designer
Final Fantasy XIII – Character Designer (currently in progress)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII – Character Designer (currently in progress)
***Final Fantasy Versus XIII – *Game Director*, Character Designer (currently in progress)
Dissidia Final Fantasy – Creative Producer, Character Designer
***Producer : Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase previous work***
Director of : FF6, FF7, FF8
Producer of: FF10, FF10-2, Crisis Core, Advent Children, Dissidia and the Kingdom Heart series
Co-writer of: Final Fantasy 7
September 7th, 2009
I’m not sure what you mean Roca, Star Ocean received generally favorable reviews. Your fanboy is showing.
September 7th, 2009
Happy:
you are definitely wrong again !
based on metacritic the game got a score of 72.
and 74 and under is categorized as “Mixed or average reviews”
every single Star Ocean game has a higher score than Star Ocean: Last Hope (360) meaning that Star Ocean 360 is the worst one of the seriesssss!!
is 72 favorable enough for you or your fanboy is showing?
September 7th, 2009
^^^that what directed to Harry
September 7th, 2009
Back to boring everyone to death with lists again, I see.
Like as if anyone actually reads them.
September 8th, 2009
72 is favourable, I wasn’t quoting Metacritc at the time, but while on the topic, Fat Princess only scored a 79, a whopping 7 points more than Star Ocean, and you boys seem to rave about that game. So if the difference between what you class as a fantastic game and a ‘crap’ game is 7 points, then gee whiz, your fanboy is showing. It’s right beside your vagina.
September 8th, 2009
Favourable to me anyway, anything above 60 is above average as far as I am concerned. I’ve always gone by thinking that 50 is ‘par’.
September 8th, 2009
7 of 72 is damn near 10%. Meaningless, but true!
September 8th, 2009
Fat pricess is a $15 game. And it is a big budget. Title. Like star ocean. Why would they waste money and time porting the “wost” star ocean game when the game didn’t even produce that much sales on the 360. They might port for japan though, those games sells like hotcake in jp np matter what
September 8th, 2009
^^ sorry. I typed the above comment from my cell phone and its out-spell-check and auto-punctuation fukced it all up.
the first line shoud read like this:
“Fat pricess is a $15 game with a 79 score (according to metacritic 79 = favorable). and it is not a big budget title like star ocean.
you called a fanboy for no reason when I never said the game got “horrible” review. I just answered your question and you came back at me with a fanboy attitude (Aka Kev’s attitude)
also we werent raving about FP anyways, all I said was that FP was alot fun for MP, I never said the game was perfect nor did I said that I cared for its single player campaign
September 8th, 2009
harry sachz:
How much does a PS3 cost in your world i mean your country Australia if I’m correct?
For me (Ivan_PSP) a good game has to have a score above 80. And Metacritic is pure crap the only review i wholly trust is my own.
Star Ocean is crap. I want to buy Fat Princess so bad the game looks amazing. The sequel should be name Skinny Princess.
September 8th, 2009
roca,
You are the second biggest fanboy here behind Ivan.
It’s funny how you take offense to being called a fanboy, but you didn’t take offense by me saying that you have a vagina.
And yes, people here were raving about Fat Princess in earlier threads, lies make baby Jesus cry.
And what do you mean by ‘Kev’ attitude? Was I attacking you? Seriously, grow up and stop playing the victim.
@ Ivan,
“How much does a PS3 cost in your world i mean your country Australia if I’m correct?”
I am trying to decipher the butchery of the English language, but I think you asked how much a PS3 was here in Australia. They are $499 at the moment. Still too much to justify buying a second console.
September 8th, 2009
harry sachz:
The same goes for you. You behind Happyhockum the TROLL obsess with Blu-ray Disc audio crap.
Don’t worry eventually you will be able to buy that diamond.
Channel TEN
September 9th, 2009
Ivan,
I don’t believe I have ever written anything about the PS3’s blu-ray audio capabilities. I am not that much of an av enthusiast to know about that type of stuff.
The issue isn’t if I could afford to buy a PS3, that part isn’t a problem, the issue is justifying the purchase to play a handful of games that I couldn’t play on the 360. I can’t justify that. And before you start calling me a troll again, let me point out that if the shoe was on the other foot, i.e if I owned a PS3, I wouldn’t be able to justify buying a 360 just to play a handful of exclusives.
September 9th, 2009
I never said you said anything about Blu-ray Disc i said happyhockum loves talking about that. And Microsoft doesn’t even make game so is not work $200. PS3 is the best purchased anyone can make even if you like games or movies PS3 still worthy. I never call you a troll. Xbox 2 exclsuives LoL one is a expansion pack.
September 9th, 2009
I bet this ‘expansion pack’ will probably get more usage than most other exclusives on either side of the fence.
This Christmas is shaping up to be debt inducing, again. MW2, Forza 3, L4D2, Guitar Hero 5, ODST, Beatles, and probably a few more that I have forgotten. Holy crap!
September 9th, 2009
harry sachz:
Yo do know Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Guitar Hero 5, Beatles, are all multi-platform. And i mention before Halo 3: OSDT is huge letdown i rather stay with Halo 3 it was a waste of my DVD DL. I’m waiting For Gran Turismo 5, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Demon’s Souls, MAG, The Last Guardian, God of War III and God of War Collection, White Knight Chronicles, Final Fantasy Vesus XIII, Final Fantasy 14, Modnation Racers, UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves and a few more i have forgotten too.
September 9th, 2009
Ivan,
I don’t recall saying that they weren’t multiplatform….
September 9th, 2009
I know i that i just wanna to let you know that without them Xbox 360 will be dead. Halo 3 OSDT has cheaters already wow.
September 9th, 2009
Please lets hear an honest ODST review Ivan. I want to know if it’s as big of a waste of time that I originally perceived.
And harry right. Sadly it will probably outsell all other games that are its better.
September 9th, 2009
“You are the second biggest fanboy here behind Ivan.
It’s funny how you take offense to being called a fanboy, but you didn’t take offense by me saying that you have a vagina.
And yes, people here were raving about Fat Princess in earlier threads, lies make baby Jesus cry.
And what do you mean by ‘Kev’ attitude? Was I attacking you? Seriously, grow up and stop playing the victim.
”
oh pleaseee……Kev, Andrew_ds, Ivan, Happy, CON and Rimmer are all fanboys. you just got mad because I said Star Ocean’s reviews weren’t all that great (that’s being fanboy, getting mad for a dumb review)
I wasnt playing the victim, I answered you question and you came at me like a desperate fanboy getting mad and calling ppl fanboy for no reason. and about the vagina……i wont even waste time on childish topic like those
September 9th, 2009
^^^ @ Harry
September 9th, 2009
phranctoast:
I downloaded the leaked version is so damn short on content also in you fan you might like it. Not worth $60 maybe $30 there’s no way. And yes it might outsell every single game with the exception of two other titles coming out this year. I have a Halo french version waiting for a better copy i was online.
September 9th, 2009
Roca.:
So I’m a fanboy. I know i offer mostly good comments for PS3 and bad for Xbox 360. But you can’t really blame me for doing that. I give credit when credit needs to be given. And i know i actually own both consoles and play both I’m not like the rest of those fools they talk without knowing anything about PS3.
If anyone here writes any bad comments for Xbox 360 they start to get defensive for no reason. I hate favoritism but i love the PlayStation because it offers the most exclusives that are really fun to play. And a awesome free online service that works flawlessly. Also the console is very reliable and has one of the best looking menus (XMB). Also i like how you get WiFi and Blu-ray included at no extra cost. I like how you can insanely upgrade your hard disk drive to a massive 500GB for a very low price. I like how you can store photos, music and videos without having to burned them or use any other software. I like the ability to use a web browser anytime i want if my PC is off. I love remote play that has to be one of the best features. For Xbox 360 most of or if not everything i said needs to be pay extra.
September 9th, 2009
@Ivan
The game is supposed to come out on two discs. One disc is the ODST stuff. The other disc is the Halo 3 maps.
With all the extra content, I could see that being worth it to people just getting into Halo (rolls eyes), but is that one ODST disc worth the price of a new game? Truth be told most of the Halo heads that are into it more than likely have all the other Halo content available.
@Roca
ignore the harrys Fat princess reference. How that has anything to do with the 360 Star Ocean being the lowest rated out of all of them is beyond me. It was a scarecrow argument that you fell for.
September 9th, 2009
@ Phranctoast
at least you get my point (about Star Ocean)
there was no fanboyism about it.
September 11th, 2009
phranc – ODST is not the same as previous halo games.
1. no master chief
2. no power shields
3. more stealth, less run and gun
4. new weapons
5. new vehicles
6. new missions
7. new locales
my suggestion; stop pretending to know about 360 games when you don’t even own a 360…
you might want to read the latest HALO:ODST special edition mag from GameInformer. it disproves everything you think you know about ODST.
September 11th, 2009
lol no one cares
September 11th, 2009
you don’t a ps3 idiot so stfu
September 15th, 2009
@ Kev
Whats the difference Between CoD4 and CoD:WoW
1. not the same main character
2. no power shields
3. more stealth, less run and gun
4. new weapons
5. new vehicles
6. new missions
7. new locales
still the same game though!