Edge – Issue 387, September 2023
English | 132 pages | pdf | 46.5 MB
Welcome at Edge Magazine Issue 387, September 2023
Has a big-budget game series ever made as significant a shift in direction as Final Fantasy XVI? Zelda’s transition from Skyward Sword’s structure to the open sprawl of Breath Of The Wild was a rush, but the core beats retained a familiarity that does not exist in Final Fantasy’s case. Fallout 2’s progression to its sequel might be a better example, although that was a more naturally evolutionary step, the 1998 release’s isometric 3D making way for realtime polygons ten years later. The segues from Resident Evil 3 to 4 and, especially, 6 to 7 feel more like overt creative decisions,
unafraid to overturn expectations. These are risks, and it is amusing to see Final Fantasy XVI concede this point in how its UI represents the current members of your party – not with the headshots you might expect, but with full-body sprites rendered in jumbo pixels, as if they’ve been plucked right out of 1994’s Final Fantasy VI. Against the backdrop of such palpable change, these hits of unalloyed nostalgia feel like pillows placed behind the player’s head: “Yes, things are different, but look, remember these? That’s right – just like the old ones. Sit back. Everything’s going to be OK.”
Square Enix has been making hay out of its heritage ever since it put out its first sequel, but in modern times it’s become more explicit, the success of the Octopath Traveller series’ so-called HD-2D visuals paving the way for Star Ocean: The Second Story R, a remake that pushes vintage sprite design even harder. That its debut trailer was met with almost universal enthusiasm will see more games follow suit. Yes, the audience says, we’dlike our remakes to take advantage of modern hardware – but can you do it so that they also feel like they’re old at the same time? Thanks.
In the case of Star Wars: Outlaws, the debt to the past is paid right at its centre, with a story set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. Ubisoft Massive doesn’t have any old-fashioned sprites to fall back on, but it is spending some of its many resources in crafting a suite of era-faithful visual effects. Our cover story begins on p78.
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