It'd probably be far more entertaining to watch, that's for sure. XD
G-cat and I were discussing the problem of "finished product" as well, and she brought up an interesting point: Square Enix doesn't treat AC like a movie... rather, their modus operandi is the same thing they've been doing for their main games since FFVII.
FFVII Original Japanese Release--Arguably a playable game, but missing stuff. FFVII Original NA Release--More info about Zack, Ruby and Emerald inserted into the game as additional bosses, a few more fancy cutscenes, and the full version of Sephiroth's Super Nova attack... While knowing more about Zack isn't absolutely necessary, it certainly helps to fill in a huge gap of Cloud's storyline and gives the audience some idea who Zack is. FFVII International Version--The Japanese re-release of the NA version of the game.
The same method was used for most of the FF games since then, both Kingdom Hearts, and Dissidia... and probably some of their other games, too, but those are the only ones I can say for certain. (Also, there tend to be more bugs in the original Japanese releases that get fixed in the NA/International versions. I also recall that Dissidia is much more playable and enjoyable in the NA and rerelease versions.) I'd probably hate to be a fan in Japan, because I'd want to hold off on buying the game until the eventual re-release comes out, but then you don't get the glories of having the original game... and yeah.
The funny thing is, in the US we've been left largely out of that kind of loop (merely pining after the sometimes-more-content-added Japanese re-release/International/Plus version), and AC is the first time Square screwed over their NA fans as much as their Japanese fans, with however many releases of it there have been.
So I'm not sure if the same "once published, it's finished" rule applies here, because Square wasn't following those rules with AC to begin with. They were following game business rules, which unfortunately is a lot of, "Well, we have to publish it by this deadline, we'll just release patches to fix it all later."
The thing is, Square doesn't really worry that much anymore if the original version sucks, because they know they'll still get enough people buying the initial releases of their games to set up and pay out for the re-releases. It's a sucky model for us consumers, but it's worked well enough for them, and AC falls directly into that model. It'd be really nice if they'd just sacrifice more time and push games back so they can release a really well-built, unchanged, happily non-glitchy Japanese/NA/International version from the get-go--
Surprisingly, FFXIII doesn't fall into their usual trend. There are minimal changes between the Japanese and the NA/International versions, from what I've heard, and the game itself has a very smooth, happily non-glitchy experience. Dare I call it delightful?
We'll see whether or not that still holds, since now that Square actually outdid itself and didn't follow its usual release pattern, some of the critics claim FFXIII sucks, and Square is stuck wondering what they did wrong.
Hopefully they'll realize it was just bad marketing on their part and NOT the way they released the game.
THAT said and that particular point elaborated upon, I can't wait to see what you say once you get home. XD
This is how Gackt feels when he realizes he has to purchase yet another version of the same FF.
G-cat and I were discussing the problem of "finished product" as well, and she brought up an interesting point: Square Enix doesn't treat AC like a movie... rather, their modus operandi is the same thing they've been doing for their main games since FFVII.
FFVII Original Japanese Release--Arguably a playable game, but missing stuff.
FFVII Original NA Release--More info about Zack, Ruby and Emerald inserted into the game as additional bosses, a few more fancy cutscenes, and the full version of Sephiroth's Super Nova attack... While knowing more about Zack isn't absolutely necessary, it certainly helps to fill in a huge gap of Cloud's storyline and gives the audience some idea who Zack is.
FFVII International Version--The Japanese re-release of the NA version of the game.
The same method was used for most of the FF games since then, both Kingdom Hearts, and Dissidia... and probably some of their other games, too, but those are the only ones I can say for certain. (Also, there tend to be more bugs in the original Japanese releases that get fixed in the NA/International versions. I also recall that Dissidia is much more playable and enjoyable in the NA and rerelease versions.) I'd probably hate to be a fan in Japan, because I'd want to hold off on buying the game until the eventual re-release comes out, but then you don't get the glories of having the original game... and yeah.
The funny thing is, in the US we've been left largely out of that kind of loop (merely pining after the sometimes-more-content-added Japanese re-release/International/Plus version), and AC is the first time Square screwed over their NA fans as much as their Japanese fans, with however many releases of it there have been.
So I'm not sure if the same "once published, it's finished" rule applies here, because Square wasn't following those rules with AC to begin with. They were following game business rules, which unfortunately is a lot of, "Well, we have to publish it by this deadline, we'll just release patches to fix it all later."
The thing is, Square doesn't really worry that much anymore if the original version sucks, because they know they'll still get enough people buying the initial releases of their games to set up and pay out for the re-releases. It's a sucky model for us consumers, but it's worked well enough for them, and AC falls directly into that model. It'd be really nice if they'd just sacrifice more time and push games back so they can release a really well-built, unchanged, happily non-glitchy Japanese/NA/International version from the get-go--
Surprisingly, FFXIII doesn't fall into their usual trend. There are minimal changes between the Japanese and the NA/International versions, from what I've heard, and the game itself has a very smooth, happily non-glitchy experience. Dare I call it delightful?
We'll see whether or not that still holds, since now that Square actually outdid itself and didn't follow its usual release pattern, some of the critics claim FFXIII sucks, and Square is stuck wondering what they did wrong.
Hopefully they'll realize it was just bad marketing on their part and NOT the way they released the game.
THAT said and that particular point elaborated upon, I can't wait to see what you say once you get home. XD