I recently found out about this incredibly oddly named Square Enix title recently while browsing Famitsu for some information on another game. Upon further inspection, I discovered a 3DS exclusive that all of a sudden brought back a warm, fuzzy feeling that I hadn't had in years from a Square title.
After getting alienated by Final Fantasy XIII, which pushed a visual style that was just too unrelatable and nonsensically quirky (a problem Nomura has increasingly had with his art direction over the years in my opinon), I kind of found myself longing for the more old school titles which had fantastical worlds still grounded in a reality that was somewhat familiar. I mean, good for you if you could relate with a cast of brightly colored metrosexuals with names like Hope, Lightning and Snow.
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| The old school revolution. |
The game is being developed by Takashi Tokita, who is most known for his work as the director of the timeless Chrono Trigger and various other titles unrelated to the recent Final Fantasy installments. Visually though, the game is being art directed by Akihiko Yoshida, one of my favorite artists at the studio behind the visual look of memorable classics like Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. His incredible art direction for this title delivers beautifully epic, vast vistas with a watercolor flair within the confines of a small 3DS screen.
With an all star team up like that, the only question I found myself asking is: Why the hell don't these guys get to head up development on a next gen title with this type of art style? Despite them going for this as they called it, 'old school' direction, the game has a ton of charm, personality and life to it, and actually feels like a breath of fresh air compared to Square's recent offerings. The game will be coming out sometime in 2012 possibly, but details are still scant. Lets just hope that they change the absolutely bizarre name to something a little more memorable.
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