Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin devs discuss changes based on player feedback – Tokyo Game Show 2021



[ad_1]

The development team behind Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin has taken player feedback to heart as they strive to improve the game ahead of its release next year – in a way they don’t understand. ‘weren’t even waiting.

After hearing all the fan speculation about Chaos’ identity following the initial demo that released this summer, the developers – a collaboration of the minds of Square Enix and Team Ninja – went ahead and included his name (Jack Garland, that is, the name of the main character) in the new trailer that airs during the Tokyo Game Show 2021.

“The protagonist is Garland, and I’ve had it in mind for a while that one day I’d like to talk about how Garland turns into Chaos,” producer Tetsuya Nomura said during a special presentation of the game on Saturday night. . Nomura participated as a voiceover, while other team members and two guest players appeared in person. “But for some reason the trailer spoiled the twist, I guess.”

Jin Fujiwara, one of the producers, told the team that the proverbial moogle was already out of the bag, which led to the inclusion of the scene at the end of the TGS trailer.

“Fujiwara told me that too,” Nomura said. “He said, ‘People outside of Japan have already figured it out, let’s just reveal it.’

In addition to spoiling Nomura’s turn, the feedback the team received from the first demo led to a number of changes. The graphics have been updated and the lighting has been adjusted after players complained that the initial demo was too dark. The new demo – and possibly the final game – will also support 4K rendering.

“We’ve put a lot of energy into making sure it runs at a high frame rate, even at this kind of high resolution,” said Hiroya Usuda, director of Koei Tecmo.

Although there was positive feedback from the first demo on the gameplay and responsiveness of the game, the team still made some adjustments in this area. The Lightbringer attack, for example, now consumes more MP, but lasts longer. There have also been adjustments to the MP and how quickly the Break Gauge recharges.

A new feature called Resonance has been added to help improve the usefulness of NPC characters in your party. Other characters will be more aggressive in using their abilities while Resonance is active. The feature has been added to improve the AI ​​performance of NPCs in your party. Players can now also edit the tasks of other characters in their party.

NPCs can now be equipped with new gear, which was how the team tackled the issue of the plentiful amount of loot, which led to players saying they couldn’t use everything. The in-game tutorials have also been changed and new ones have been added to help players experience the world of this game.

The game is tough, similar to Team Ninja’s Nioh series, and the difficulty levels have been renamed “story” and “action”. In addition, the difficulty of the game will not change depending on whether it is played in single player or multiplayer mode.

“We wanted to create a difficulty level for people who want to focus on the fun of the story,” Square Enix director Daisuke Inoue said of the story difficulty setting.

The gameplay of the multiplayer portion of the game was also featured during the presentation.

“We got a lot of feedback from people who wanted to play multiplayer or who wanted to play with their friends,” said Inoue. “It was something we really wanted to include as well.”

Three panel members – playing the roles of Jack, Ash and Neon – have teamed up to tackle the new area of ​​the demo, the Refrin Wetlands, the new area of ​​the current demo. One of the guest players mentioned that some of the scene’s soundtrack choruses sounded familiar, then wondered if she shouldn’t say something else, which Inoue quickly agreed to – perhaps alluding to sort of a potential booster.

The multiplayer section showed the team of three taking on enemies and using the abilities of the job classes they had chosen for their characters. They clubbed the enemies in unison and eventually took out the boss, after a few close calls, to end the trial.

Job classes also come into play in multiplayer and can be used strategically in some cases. For example, a white mage who charges a spell long enough may expand the area of ​​effect and benefit the rest of the party.

Since the difficulty does not scale in multiplayer, the developers have said that it is probably easier to play in a group than alone.

The team will also take feedback from the second demo and apply it to the final game. The current demo will remain available on Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X / S stores until October 11. The survey, where players can submit comments, will run until October 18.

The game, which is a spinoff but not a direct sequel to Final Fantasy, is slated for release on March 18, 2022, but pre-orders for a Standard Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition are now live. The title is part of Final Fantasy’s 35th anniversary, which will take place in 2022. For more, you can also check out our first look after getting your hands on the game.

Jason Coskrey is a Tokyo-based writer. Find him on Twitter at @JCoskrey



[ad_2]

Source link