Rumour: Matsuno’s ‘Final Fantasy Killer’ For Wii

You've heard of Rumor Reporter. The Advanced Media Network's game industry rumour blog has enjoyed a fair bit of attention this year, thanks to the intriguing posts of its editor Bruce Kelly.

Now, regardless of what anyone else thinks, I do think "Bruce" (if that is indeed his name) is fairly legit. A lot of his "predictions" have come true over time, and yes; they might take a while, but if you keep track of everything the man has said, he's a bit more reliable than EGM's rumours.

Lately, Bruce has decided to take one - just one question every two weeks and do some snooping around to answer it to the best of his abilities. The question that kickstarted his new column this week just so happened to be mine.

Hey Bruce,

Glad to see you’re back in action after a bit of a break. What’s gaming without a few rumours, eh? So, recently you pretty much asked for readers to send in hard questions, and I’m guessing that’s exactly what most of us are going to do. The gloves are really off now.

Here’s my question: What exactly is the deal with Monolithsoft and Nintendo? At this point, all we know is that Monolith is now a second-party developer and that they’re working on Disaster: Day of Crisis for the Wii, and a DS game as well. Now, anyone would think that Nintendo acquiring the studio means Day of Crisis is turning out to be one hell of a game. However, the chaps down at NeoGAF had other theories to present.

To make a long story short, this is what they believe:

* Yasumi Matsuno, the Director of Final Fantasy XII left Square Enix.
* Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been pushing for a role-playing game that rivals Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy
* Matsuno landed up at Nintendo.
* He worked with Entertainment Analysis & Development for 8 months.
* Soon, Matsuno pitched a role-playing game tech demo to Nintendo.
* Iwata loved it, but Matsuno had no team of his own at the Big N.
* Nintendo acquired Monolith to provide Matsuno with his own team.

Sounds far-fetched doesn’t it? I’m not ready to believe Matsuno would walk out from Square and next thing you know, he just happens to land up with Miyamoto’s team. Obviously, it would be mindblowing if anyone could confirm if this is true, but hey; that’s where you come in, right? Right?

– Ishaan Sahdev

His extremely lengthy and thought-provoking reply after the jump.

Bruce’s Take:

Interesting you ask this, because it’s been something that I’ve been dodging to answer for a while now. Not because of the subject, but because so many things weren’t as clear when Monolith had just been picked up by Nintendo from Namco Bandai.

This is what I hear, with the source being a former producer at Namco Bandai who had caught wind of some of Matsuno’s developments. Unforunately, that producer no longer works for the company and now works for a certain San Francisco-based gaming mammoth. Still, his reports on this have been recent tinkerings of rumors brought to the table with numerous publications and forums aiming to judge their validity.

Here’s what I was told:

- Yatsumi Matsuno left Square-Enix because the guy’s an opportunist. After seeing potential with the Wii, the former FFXII director decided to aim towards a brand-new, non-linear RPG project.

- Many sources have claimed the project to be Vision Red, a rumored Square-Enix RPG “apparently” shown at E3 2007. That is not the case, and the original post is clearly fictional based on its written structure.

- Some sources have claimed it to be Baten Kaitos 3, but this isn’t the case, even though I know for a fact that the game is already in its beginning stages.

- Disaster: Day of Crisis was delayed for a reason. The game will use the familiar “quick-press” Resident Evil 4 quick-reaction system to further immerse the player with a sense of danger and urgency. The game will release sometime in 2008, but it will definitely be before Matsuno’s actual new IP is announced. This is to test the waters towards interest of Disaster’s type of gameplay, which the new IP hopes to mimic in a more advanced way.

- Matsuno interest in the Wii is simple: “He wants to stress gameplay controls living up to high-quality, immersive environments.”

- So where does this leave us with the rumored Matsuno “Final Fantasy Killer?”

The new IP, at least in its design stages stressed the following elements of a brand-new RPG franchise aimed at a late-2008 announcement:

- A fully-immersive non-linear action-RPG set in a brand, new fantasy world which stresses the continuity of gameplay progression through team work and motion-controlling movements, mimicking interactions with objects and environments in the world. The game will be played in real-time, unlike Matsuno’s previous turn-based projects (Ogre Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story)

- The game is not currently planned for an expansion with an online aspect (MMO), but multiplayer gameplay is heavily stressed. “Imagine Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (GameCube) with a 3D environment.”

- Definite Wii Connect 24 support with brand new worlds to explore and interacting with other players.

- Being developed by Monolith Soft and Matsuno with Iwata and Miyamoto’s supervision possibly.

- Clearly obvious: Will be Nintendo Wii’s direct competitor to the PS3’s Final Fantasy XIII releases.

- If all goes well, will be planned as a series for the Wii and differentiate the system’s low reputation for RPGs on the console. A DS version is also in the planning stages simultaneously.

- So when will gamers be able to hear more? It’s hard to tell given even Disaster’s shaky release date, but expect GDC 08 to have more rumblings of Matsuno’s involvement with his Wii project.

Intriguing. Clearly, he isn't bullshitting, considering just how specific some of his information is. Then again, with the games industry you never know. Thoughts?

[Source: Rumor Reporter]