Aren't You Tired of Ruining Everything? Part II

I recently posted this regarding changes made to the most recent Final Fantasy game in order to accommodate the Xbox360. Now that the game has been released and I've experienced it myself, I can safely say that it is clear that choices were made to streamline the experience in order to make it work without having to swap a DVD every five minutes. The game is practically on rails in that you are carried from scenario A. involving combat to scenario B. involving combat with very little in between but some very polished cut scenes. Because it is so different from the typical Final Fantasy experience of having an open-world feel with a large world map and many towns to visit, one must assume that these things were left out of the game for a reason other than design preference. This argument is made stronger by considering the fact that including that type of content would be storage-intensive and would place a magnifying glass squarely over the already obvious difference in capacity between the Xbox360 and PS3. The conclusion that one is likely to draw is that choices were made to cut this type of content in order to be able to provide a similar experience on both consoles. A sound financial decision if not a resoundingly emphatic artistic one, that.

This is not to say that the game is not good. On the contrary, the combat is extremely well balanced and polished. The new elements introduced in the game breath new life into turn-based RPG combat. The visuals are, as always with a Final Fantasy game, astonishing: the animation is excellent and the imaginative vistas, style motifs, and character designs are everything one would expect. The music, if you like this type of pseudo-Japanese-American pop with orchestral flair, is spot on. I haven't finished the game yet so I won't comment on the story, but at first blush both the plot and characters are at the very least serviceable. In short: the game is excellently produced, extraordinarily polished and enjoyable on its own. It is only when comparing it to previous Final Fantasy games that it falls short due to the lack of the full-fledged Final Fantasy experience. Would the game have been better had it been released exclusively for the PS3? One could argue that is the case, but if placed in Square Enix's shoes, I'm not sure I wouldn't have made the same choice: there are around 34 million PS3's in households around the world, and there are around 39 million Xbox360's. Inviting the 360 to the party more than doubled the potential market. That's a tough carrot to ignore.