Defunct GRIN Was Working on New Final Fantasy

August 20, 2009 11:20 AM

When Bionic Commando and Terminator Salvation game developer GRIN closed earlier this month, the studio lamented that it had an "unreleased masterpiece that we weren't allowed to finish"--a title that now appears to have been a new Final Fantasy entry.

Various LinkedIn listings uncovered by superannuation indicate that GRIN was working with Final Fantasy owner Square Enix on a project codenamed "Fortress," with one ex-staffer noting his work at GRIN on an "unannounced Final Fantasy project."

Destructoid adds, via sources, that the project was an action game set in the Final Fantasy XII universe, and that Square owed GRIN "upwards of a few million dollars." In addition, former GRIN artist Tomislav Spajic posted some "Fortress" environments (above), which certainly bear a resemblance to some FF12 areas.

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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IndigoAK

 reply
August 20, 2009 11:28 AM

Eh, no big loss, I don't think. Given he monstrous amount of hate for Final Fantasy XII and the clusterfucker that was Dirge of Cerberus, I really can't imagine it would have turned out too well.
- IndigoAK
  
   reply
  August 20, 2009 11:30 AM
  
  Also, the screenshots up there look nothing like Final Fantasy XII to me.
  - Chris Faylor
    
     reply
    August 20, 2009 11:34 AM
    
    I could totally see that being the castle/surrounding desert area from the first part o fthe game.
- Wadmaasi
  
   reply
  August 20, 2009 11:37 AM
  
  FFXII got lots of love. I sure as hell got my 90+ hours' worth of enjoyment out of it!
- wretchedradio
  
   reply
  August 20, 2009 11:38 AM
  
  Monstrous amount of hate for FF12? FF12 was great and it was received rather well. The only people who didn't like it were mindless JRPG drones who were pissed off that their crappy battle system was actually upgraded to something that worked and was fun.
  - MH Knights
    
     reply
    August 20, 2009 12:48 PM
    
    I think a lot of hate was directed towards two of the characters, the one young male that looked like Meg Ryan and the loli female. If I remember right both were added later in development so young angsty kids would have someone to relate too.
    - CyCo_PL
      
       reply
      August 20, 2009 1:37 PM
      
      If those were the reasons, why didn't people hate every final fantasy?
      - Dr_Tran
        
         reply
        August 20, 2009 1:58 PM
        
        Oh snap, lol.
    - Mecha Tofu Pirate
      
       reply
      August 20, 2009 1:46 PM
      
      Yeah, but terrible character design by them is nothing new.
- st4rdog
  
   reply
  August 20, 2009 1:35 PM
  
  I'm guessing you haven't played it from the wording of your sentence.
  
  FFXII was one of the best FF's. Great new combat system.
  - IndigoAK
    
     reply
    August 20, 2009 3:45 PM
    
    I've put more than a hundred hours into it...
  - goblez
    
     reply
    August 21, 2009 7:58 AM
    
    The new combat system was crap. If I wanted to run around with 2 brainless morons in my party I would have played FF11 or WoW. FF is NOT about active/action combat, it IS a JRPG. You can only slowly buy and uprgade them to be barely functional.
    
    I managed to get by and enjoyed the game. But I really disliked the combat system all the way through. Best? not even close. Good, sure. I wish they would have used the Dress combat system they had in FF-X2, even with how horrible that game was, the mechanics of the combat system I loved.