Final Fantasy X-2

By: Des Manttari Editor-in-Chief Phoenix Genesis / MBS LP www.phoenixgenesis.com March 11, 2004.

I.    Project Overview

My goal for Phoenix Genesis was to create a DVD Interface for the popular Squaresoft PlayStation 2 video game entitled, "Final Fantasy X-2." The project includes information on the story and characters as well as a slide show, a brief history of the "Final Fantasy" video games, a slideshow of artwork and concept designs, links to various websites, and several video clips from the game.

  

II.    Project Assets

The project includes a variety of multimedia from the game including video clips, images, sound effects, music, character design, and artwork. As far as the movies were concerned, I tried to pick video clips that would not spoil the story, but give the viewer a taste of some of the highlights and background. Crucial to any "Final Fantasy" game is the multitude of random battles and boss fights a player encounters. I included a clip from the newly designed battle sequence. I also included a movie from the "Final Fantasy x" game which precedes "Final Fantasy X-2." I think the movies work in the DVD interface. The slideshow is nicely varied as well and the music fits with the visuals shown throughout the interface.

  

III.    Navigation and Interactivity

The navigation of the project is made with the viewer's attention span and ease in mind. I tried to include back, next, and quit buttons as much as possible. The project is set to autorun once the viewer has inserted the disc into his or her computer. I find this a nice feature. It then opens with a nice intro of the titles and two characters coming onto the screen all keyed to music from the game. However, in hindsight, I should have included a "skip" button for those who have already seen the intro. I did include a back button for those who would like to view it again.

I have included credits to the project after the opening intro, but I should also place credits for the individual music pieces as well as the Amano artwork as well as credit for Squaresoft (now "Square-Enix) somewhere in the project. Once at the credit page, I offer back, next, and a "story" button. The story section offers rollover images of several of the main characters as well as a quick story synopsis and character bios in a scrolling text box so the viewer can read the bios at his or her leisure. It would have been a nice feature to rollover the character images and go directly to that character's biography.

The next button takes the viewer to an interactive menu of the highlights of the DVD interface. The buttons include extras, movies, music, games, and a back and quit button as well as a rollover link to our video game media website phoenixgenesis.com. Although effective, the menu page is a bit plain. Also, with the exception of the quit and back button, the other buttons only offer simple key phrases to the actual content. Perhaps I should have offered more explanation.

This was a massive project undertaking and, as a result, some of the sections could have been a bit more fleshed out. The music page offers only two links to game music sites. I could have added a description of the music and links to listen to more songs from the game. The game page has an intro to the Academy Gaming Club followed by a link to a visual and text description of the "Final Fantasy" games. I think the link is not well defined and may be lost to the unsophisticated viewer. The history is done with pages that can be advanced to the next page. However, it would have been nice to add navigation to each individual page as well as the courtesy of a quit button on each page. As it stands, the viewer is forced to endure the entire experience straight through. This is something I would have corrected given the time as well as the chocobo sound effect in advancing the page that many viewers quickly tired of.

The extras page offers a nice random slideshow of game art and concept assets. The slideshow is set to a three-second timeout of each image if left alone or it can be advanced to the next image by clicking the mouse. I tried to offer a nice variety of artwork set to music from the game. There is a quit and back button that is a nice feature. Although I enjoy the slideshow, the randomness of the images does repeat images which ignoring others, thus the viewer who wishes to self-navigate may get frustrated at seeing the same images and cheated by not being allowed to see all 64 of the images.

Lastly, the movie page is the meat of the DVD interface. I tried to be creative with the main menu page in this section, offering an old fashioned television with remote control buttons for all the movies. There are some nice extras for the curious viewer, so there is a bit of extra interactivity besides the typical menu navigation. The sound effects of clicking on the numbers works well as well as the static sound for the TV which gives it a nice touch. The zero button takes the viewer back to the main DVD menu. The other 9 buttons go directly to each movie. Once viewing a movie clip, the viewer can watch all the movies without returning to the TV menu each time. There are also back and next buttons. So, the viewer can watch each clip from first to last movie. I think this works well and the movie clips I selected are interesting without spoiling the game. Now that the game is released, this DVD project provides the hardcore "Final Fantasy" fan with a nice collector's item.

     

IV.    Conclusion

Overall, I am pleased with the work I did on this project, both in the actual CD-ROM and in the packaging of the project. This is the first DVD Interface project undertaken by Phoenix Genesis as a professional interactive look into gaming and I hope to complete more such projects in the future.

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Des Manttari is the Editor-in-Chief for Phoenix Genesis.
You can email her at: (phoenixgenesis@game-developer.com)
See also: Editor's Pics (Misc. Game Reviews) and: Des' Retro Attic Profile.