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simply didn’t have the ability to
do that 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
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
though it will be well
worth the wait. Reviewers
and 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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