Square Enix Admits It 'Ignored Western Feedback' For FF XIII

20 Oct 2010 at 12:15:57 by Dave Gibbon

Square Enix has admitted that it failed to act on feedback received from Western gamers during the development of Final Fantasy XIII.

Speaking to Game Developer magazine, Motomu Toriyama and Akihiki Maeda said: “Even before the current generation of consoles was introduced, it was obvious that the game market in the West was gaining momentum, and we couldn't ignore it.

“The sentiment that stood out the most to us at the time was the increasingly harsh criticism towards Janpense RPGs. Linearity and command-based battles were two of the features being perceived negatively. This was something that the team was very conscious about, and there were concerns about whether JRPGs would still be accepted in the West.

“Because Final Fantasy XIII's mission was to succeed worldwide, we could not ignore this issue, as we felt it could deeply affect the future of the franchise.

“However, despite the feedback it was decided that the game’s development had progressed to such a stage that it would have been impossible to act on the findings.

“Unfortunately, we were already quite far along in development, and knew it would be too late to implement most of the feedback from the player test sessions.

“There were some minor hiccups, as we did not have much time to prepare for the focus group sessions, but we were able to successfully conduct player tests and interviews globally. Even though it was too late to apply the majority of the feedback, most team members felt the tests were worthwhile, as it gave them insight into what players wanted globally.”

Final Fantasy XIII was released in the UK March 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

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