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anymore? Why would they
deny the fans something they
actually wanted instead of
trying to placate them with
experiments that seemed
to be almost guaranteed
to not impress? And
where the hell was
FFXIII Versus,
whose
trailer had captivated
them so?
On the inside,
Tabita had to deal
with what he called
‘Final Fantasy Disease’.
He described it in an
interview with 4gamer:
“It refers to people
within the company who
can’t imagine anything other
than their own view of Final
Fantasy. Since the root is a
strong self-affirmation, one’s
own view of Final Fantasy
takes more priority than the team’s success.
If that view of Final Fantasy isn’t fulfilled, then
they’re convinced that it’s bad for Final Fantasy.
They think, ‘Since Final Fantasy is a special
team, then we are also special because we
are making it. When the new Final Fantasy
comes out, everybody is going to be so into
it.’ But that’s not the reality of the situation, is
it? Because of that, there was a time I told off
the team, saying, ‘We’re not special. Wake Up.’
Yet, I realised that when
Final Fantasy XV
news
was made public, this wasn’t only inside the
company. Everyone has FF disease.”
Inner storm before
calm release
From all accounts, FFXV now looks as though
it will be well worth the wait. Reviewers and
so much fiction comes out of those – it would
be easier to make future Final Fantasy games if
we were to create a shared mythology and base
games on that. I remember when Yoshinori
Kitase came around and told me to make the
first Crystal Legends game – he said that if you
pay attention to the legends and the idea behind
them, you can make almost any sort of game
around it."
Development hell and the
Final Fantasy Disease
It’s now 2016, an unbelievable ten years since
the announcement – it’s a miracle that
Final
Fantasy XIII Versus
, or
Final Fantasy XV
, is being
released in any form at all. Square Enix had
promised title after title in the same year that
the PlayStation 3 was going to be released, and
the Final Fantasy XIII titles which had already
started their development on the PlayStation 2
now had to be brought over to the PS3.
In that ten years, the culture of Final Fantasy
changed, and problems were present both
externally and internally. Fans' passion failed
to be kindled by FFXIII, and they clamoured for
any titbit of information they could find about
FF Versus. Delay after delay and announcement
after announcement, urges from execs to
‘be excited’ for upcoming information (which
ultimately led to nothing) saw rekindled interest
diminishing rapidly.
To the outsider, it seemed like Square Enix
had lost its way or given in to pride. In 2012,
Yoicha Wada said that they wouldn’t begin
a remake of
Final Fantasy VII
until they’d
produced an FF title that matched it in terms
of quality, which begged the question: what
if they simply didn’t have the ability to do that
commentators have remarked
on the fluidity of combat,
exceptional dialogue and
gorgeous, expansive world.
Personally, seeing Ramuh, the
lightning god, being summoned as
a skyscraper-tall entity that unleashes electric
hell upon your enemies was enough to make
my jaw drop. Watching FFXV’s accompanying
anime series
Brotherhood
was like reliving my
teenage years cruising with my friends and
teasing each other relentlessly. And the fighting
system is reminiscent of
Final Fantasy: Crisis
Core
, my second favourite entry to the series
and the one that found the right mix of turn-
based and action combat.
It’s been a long time coming, but FFXV looks
like a completely new, revitalised, and welcome
direction for the much-loved series.
Best
Selling
Final Fantasy titles
FFVII
11.14
million
FFVIII
8.7
million
FFX
8.10
million
FFXII
7.48
million
•
Final
Fantasy XV
is out now
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