by Siren » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:11 pm
A few points of discussion:<p>Neo: I doubt it was for money. They turned alot of people off the franchise/series because of the change. As you'll see in this interview, they were trying to create a lasting experience. If they really wanted to make more money, they would have made Ep.III the same as I&II with new settings and few changes.<p><blockquote>Does it really matter that much to you? It's just aesthetic.</blockquote> <p>Nope, I'm afraid you're wrong there, Benoit. I'll quote an interview with Yuji Naka.<br> <i>Source: Nintendo Power</i> <p><i>"Nintendo Power: Can you tell us a bit about how the card battle system for PSO Episode III came about?<p>Yuji Naka: When my team had a discussion about how the player could enjoy an online experience for a long time, <b>we returned to the idea of a card game</b>, which we had thought about before. We then developed a game system and tested it. After that system was in place, we searched for a franchise to attach it to. Like the Pokemon Trading Card Game, we wanted recognizable characters, so we decided to make it a Phantasy Star title. <b>The system was originally designed as a paper (non-electronic) card game, though.</b> When we decided to make a video game, we wanted to have connectivity between the paper cards, a GCN game and an Arcade game. For now, however, we're only doing the GCN game. The benefit of a digital card game is that you can introduce dynamic elements to make some cards stronger in certain cases and weaker in others. You cannot always rely on a few very powerful cards. You must adapt your strategies to suit different situations.</i> <p>So, as you can see, it was originally a card game. As the developement process went along, though, it became less of a card game and more of a tactical RPG with a card battling system, like many RPGs out there.