Source: UK gaming-news site GamesIndustry.biz. What we heard: GRIN went on a tear in the lead-up to its closure in August, releasing Bionic Commando Rearmed, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator Salvation, and a Bionic Commando revamp over a period of 12 months. However, the one project that the...
Source: UK gaming-news site GamesIndustry.biz.
;)
What we heard: GRIN went on a tear in the lead-up to its closure in August, releasing Bionic Commando Rearmed, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator Salvation, and a Bionic Commando revamp over a period of 12 months. However, the one project that the Swedish studio seemed particularly keen on releasing ultimately never came to fruition. Though details on the project weren't revealed, GRIN characterized it as "our unreleased masterpiece that we weren't allowed to finish."
After the studio's implosion, a handful of unconfirmed reports indicated that the aforementioned "masterpiece" involved Square Enix's acclaimed Final Fantasy franchise. And according to a report today by UK news site GamesIndustry.biz, Square Enix has found a new studio to continue work on the spin-off title.
According to the UK site's sources, GRIN picked up the Final Fantasy game, operating under the code name Fortress, during the back half of 2008. However, Square Enix reportedly took the studio off of the title after six months of development time due to concerns over the game's quality.
GRIN's removal from the project was reportedly the primary reason why the studio collapsed in August. As noted by GI.biz, Swedish companies incur substantial fines if operating under a debt load, and since GRIN reportedly had no other projects in its development pipeline, the studio had no choice but to shut down. Indeed, at the time of its closure, GRIN said that the studio suffered from "an unbearable cash flow situation...as too many publishers have been delaying their payments."
Square Enix has made a significant push to attract Western gaming audiences, namely by purchasing British publisher Eidos, so it seems entirely plausible that the company would hire on GRIN. Square Enix also has precedence in handing over some of its internal franchises to outside developers. As part of the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the publisher announced that California-based Double Helix had been tapped to create a new installment in the Front Mission series.
The official story: Square Enix had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.
Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus. Square Enix is unlikely to simply shelve a new installment in its best-selling Final Fantasy franchise, even if GRIN's attempt didn't bear fruit. However, it will likely never be known how closely the game will resemble GRIN's reported effort, assuming it does eventually make it to market.
Tom Magrino has covered the games industry since 2006. He's been compared to Steve Martin by Ozzy Osbourne and Daniel Craig by Tim Schafer. His voice, heard largely on GameSpot's podcast, recalls that of Kermit the Frog. It ain't easy bein' Magreen.
@iilsSuez Saying that all 4 Grin titles are poor is pretty harsh. Bionic Commando: Rearmed was well received by critics, and both Bionic Commando and Wanted:Weapons of Fate were good albeit flawed titles. Terminator Salvation is an abomination, but as you said, it's an easy game for achievement points/trophies. Square Enix has released plenty of lemons themselves and Final Fantasy XII was far from perfect (imho off course :D).
Ah to think that Square Enix was once Squaresoft. Gosh those were the days, and to think that it was actually a small company on the verge of busting before they released Final Fantasy to be thier last game. What irony that it turned out to the game that saved them from liquidation. And now Final Fantasy is still successful for many reasons. I do however hate the way that most Japanese game companies are still imperialistic, xenophobes that won't release other good games that needs to be translated for westerners.
@Frankasti "@ iiIsSueZ Square Enix is one of the most successful company making RPGs... They do have troubles these times but they still are the best at what they do. Did you ever played Final Fantasy? At least one?" Your message serves absolutely no relevence to what I stated at all. Please learn to read and understand what quotation marks are. And in answer to your question, yes. 1,2,7,10,12.
@ lindallison Of course there are FF fans in Japan wise guy. What I was saying was, since I can't speak for the Japanese b/c I don't live there and I don't really even know if the Japanese even care about a re-make, but that plenty of Westerners would love to see one b/c of the dozens of comments I read on a monthly basis of people praying to various gods for this to happen.
I'm a fan (obviously from my user name) but I still refuse to buy FFXI and games that require a few extra players (like Crystal Chronicles for the gamecube). I prefer my FF games to have the requirement of a) one player and b) can be completed. Admittedly I'm a bit of a loner when it comes to RPGs. I would appreciate a lot more if Square Enix will not drop the Eidos label. Otherwise our Great British companies will dwindle to extinction. With the exception of Rover cars, they were rubbish anyway.
FF is never going to die, we have to many hardcore fans that will buy a new FF every 2-3 years, even the handheld FF games are top 15 sells. FF spin off is a FPS with Yuna doing something stupid with no relation to the main story lol.
Square were right to remove GRIN from the project, they seem to have a knack for revealing visually stunning screenshots and gameplay videos throughout the production phase of their titles which attain much interest and anticipation but in the end do not deliver the goods. Bionic commando is an amazing and dynamic concept but horrible in execution and Wanted was a game based on a (v.bad) movie (need i say more?). Giving GRIN the rights to metaphorically defecate over a much loved and historical franchise such as final fantasy would be a sin!
Poor GRIN, a lot of person didn't like Bionic Commando, but infact this game was underrated ! If you could past the fact that their is a lot of loading in the begining of the stage, the first few stage ( Because after that you play a while before having a loading screen ) and if you can handle the grappling system, well this game becaume a lot of fun ! Well i had a lot of fun. So because of that i will but Wanted ! Some gamer said that the game is short but indeed, if the game is good i don't really care. At least we have another FF that coming up ! They just had to put more effort on it, anyway that what you should do when you work on a title like FF. You can't screwed up !
I doubt they worked on anything of note, anyhow. At best, it was probably just an Action-Adventure hack 'n slash / simplified version of Kingdom Hearts.
@ Misfit1119 What bollocks. Compare FF 1-5 to any 7+ game and it's clear which games are of better quality. The NES - SNES era FF games were mediocre and drab with as much personality as any other run-of-the-mill RPG. Get crystals, kill bad guy, rinse and repeat 4 more times. Me thinks you're wearing an extra powerful pair of rose tinted glasses. Although Final Fantasy 6 is a fantastic game. I haven't got a clue where you're getting the lack of personality comparison from. Compare Firion, Onion Knight or especially Bartz to Cloud or Squall and you'll see that they both have meaningful motivations and growth throughout the story, both overcoming crippling personality disorders to rise to their respective challenges. Again, compare that to "Go get crystals to save the world". What is it with the rampant Final Fantasy hate? Especially badly thought out hate like that.
@ leviharris I'm pretty sure they're saving the FF7 remake for when their money goes south. That's the only reason I can think of because I just don't understand why the frickin-a they are not remaking it! Everybody and their mother wants a 7 and 8 face lift. I wonder if Square even knows about this? Living all the way out there in Japan.
FF died with the PSone my left eye. If anything it died with the SNES. It was after the SNES days that graphics and pretty boys overcompensating for their lack of personality with big swords became all the rage. Then we got lots of whining and daddy issues, a terrible MMO and finally an offline MMO without any of the charm of an actual MMO (kind of like a poor mans .hack//G.U. really). FFVI was the last GOOD Final Fantasy title. Heck I'd even go so far as to say that Final Fantasy IX was only decent Final Fantasy game after that since it had some actual personality to it.
@azureblade89 I think you're alone in that line of thinking. FF VII was a great game, but it was hardly the best FF has had to offer before or since. In fact if anything, it's a tad overrated. FF VI remains the best FF ever (albeit for the SNES), and FF X for the PS 2 easily holds its own against VII. And I thought FF XII was a great game as well, MMO style combat system notwithstanding. So no, the FF franchise truly did not die off with Aerith...
Well it's not a major disappointment but it'll be interesting to see if it makes it to market
and to the guy that said the ff series died with the ps1, umm r u kidding, ff10 was one of the best ff ever made if not THE best one made! the ghraphics were unbelivable and the story was the best ff story ever, it was realy hartfelt, it was definatley the best ps2 rpg made!
a new FF side story? hmmmmm. Could be good or bad. Dirge of Cerberus was horrible yet, FFVII Crisis Core was really good. Personally I am happy for any FF game. Good or bad, I hand over the cash willingly.
Well... SE is simply taking so long to release XIII. And They have advertised FFXIV as a online game... grrr.... so at the time we play FFXV I will be 6 years older? just great...
I don't think a single game listed here by grin managed over a 6. This is not going to be much of a game. Good news is it will still be better than dirge of cerebus
I'm concerned about the quality of this product as well if GRIN's gonna finish it.. Their other games have been mediocre at best.
if this final fantasy "masterpiece" will be an fps "to please the american audience" ... i am glad it's canned. dissidia was great but imho the final fantasy series should really stay as a jrpg.
More final fantasy?! Its just a name these days isnt it? A title doesnt even have to look or play like a FF title to to allowed to be called Final Fantasy: Insert overrly long subcaption!
Anyone else think the final fantasy series truly died off after the end of PS1? FFX-XII have really just been riding on the coattails of such a glorious past. Final Fantasy XIII needs to look back at what made FFVII such a great title and work from there.
When Grin could happily churn out a total abomination like Terminator Salvation I don't want to imagine what this "masterpiece" would've ended up like...
Give a rubbish tailor some golden thread and the best they can ever do is make bad golden clothes.
Well, that sure is an unexpected fact. I trust only Square Enix when it comes to Final Fantasy titles.
Well what ever this FF game there making. I hope for some more info to see if it's interesting.
Where is final fantasy heading, i was expecting such an epic remake of ff7 and we just got the original game on psp, there hasnt been a final fantasy game for a long time. I was wishing more spin off titles and remakes of the original for the ds. Come on square enix
I wonder if GRIN's Final Fantasy was actually gonna have any testosteroned character designs. I love Final Fantasy, but cmon. When your main guys look like borderline girls....you need a better designer. I liked BC: Rearmed, it was fun. And SDBusdriver guy: I totally agree with you.
I have to disagree with the people saying Grin developed games sucked. Bionic Commando did not suck. It had flaws (the main one being that the main character died TOO FARKING EASILY) but that was easily gotten over with a trainer for the game for infinite health. Bionic Commando Re-Armed was also a kickin' game, with a few flaws as well.
Chrono Trigger sequel please...Cross is not a sequel, its a stand alone with a familiar name and some familiar, younger, faces. its like mass effect is to kotor, they are that far apart from each other.
For Square to have an outside source work on one of their most successful franchises is very unusual. However new ideas are always welcome too help older series stay fresh
Square Enix has been spending way too much time and money trying to appeal to the western market that eventually they are going to collapse on themselves. They are trying to be a jack of all trades but I don't see them succeeding at that. Go back to your roots and you will see extremely strong sales like Dragon Quest 9, rpg games don't sell on fire in the rest of the world but they sell very strongly in your home country. Every RPG doesn't need to be some grand adventure with some combat interface hook, and a insane budget. I know JRPGs are not the big thing but Atlus is getting by just fine, Lost Odyssey sold strongly (didn't even do anything new, it was just was well refined), and Namco can release a new Tales game every year. There is a reason why Square was the number one publisher for RPGs during the snes and playstation era but feels like they have only fallen off the bandwagon in recent times and Atlus coming in to replace them in a way.
GRIN was cool it's a shame we didn't see more from them, I was 1 out of 5 people who loved Bionic Commando. That's crazy that GRIN might have been working on a FF game. Terminator Salvation was terrible, that was the only game I played from them that sucked. They need to release FF13 versus already and then I think I'mm be done with that series, unless they make a FF 7 remake, which I won't count on coming out in this decade.
They should have let Avalanche made Bionic Commando, I mean all they would have to do was switch the grappling hook in Just Cause 2 to a bionic arm and they would have been done ^^
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