Square Says WiiWare Size No Problemo, Users Still Frustrated
For a company known well throughout the industry as pioneers for ever-expansive environments that require ever-expansive storage media to accommodate, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - My Life As a King (deep breath) has plenty of flash and flair for a game that is surprisingly skinny. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, FFCC: MLAaK co-creators Fumiaki Shiraishi and Toshihiro Tsuchida discuss their task in creating a game specifically as a downloadable for the Nintendo Wii:
"It actually wasn't that difficult. I think we designed the game to fit in the memory space. It wasn't so much that we had a game and had to squeeze it down. If anything, I think the size restriction helped us. I don't think we would've had this game design idea if we didn't have the memory restriction to begin with."Once we had the restriction, we had... all our artists are veterans, so if you tell them the size, they'll hit it right on. And once we started making it, in the beginning, a lot of people didn't think we could fit this game in the given size, but we were actually quite a bit under. It uses a little bit of compression, and a little bit of techniques. You can fit a lot of game in a small size."
While I'm happy with the results, the minimal storage space available on the Nintendo Wii has really belabored my ability to enjoy more of the launch lineup. Knowing that WiiWare would be launching early this morning, I prepped late last night by copying Virtual Console titles over to a spare SD Card in an effort to ensure for easy downloads. Unfortunately, all I had was a 128MB, card and I'm still thirty-some-odd MB short of being able to download LostWinds as a second title. Perhaps I'll be able to try more of the WiiWare lineup tomorrow.
This entire launch demonstrates Nintendo's newest priority in developing an expansion to console storage space--Not for developers, but consumers.
Content Kings: Square Enix's Shiraishi And Tsuchida On WiiWare And Risk [Gamasutra]
[via: Kotaku]
Noun
Posted to Video Games on 12 May 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: crystal chronicles, final fantasy, my life as a king, nintendo wii, wiiware
I haven't downloaded a lot of games yet so I wasn't worried...I downloaded LostWinds and Final Fantasy:My Life as a King. Both games are amazing and I am very happy with my purchases. I am really hoping they come up with a small USB hard drive we can attach and use...I am seeing more stuff I want to download but will stop when I run out of space.
I highly recommend both games to anyone wondering if they should buy them.
I downloaded Lost Winds and love it! However like you, I had to clear a lot of room off my Wii to be able to get it. I have no room for My Life As King, but I wasn't so keen on that as it's more of a sim/builder game. I am hoping they figure something out. How about just letting us attach a flash drive through the USB port? That would seem to be the simplest solution, aside from also somehow making use of the SD slot for more than just storage.
I really want a USB drive or the ability to play games off of the SD drive. I'm planning on picking up a few games tonight (prolly Defend Your Castle and Lost Winds), but I know I have to clear some space first.