Final Fantasy XV: Thoughts on the Development

[NemesisSP]

didnt single you out man,. didnt have any negative intent to anyone here when writing my message, just writing it for the sake of writing it about stella. the only explanation i have to them always showing stella and the early scenes and nothing of the dragoon knight of black haired woman is they didnt have much of the game made until 2012. just bits and pieces and tech and R&D. which is why we only saw those few sections over and over again. think about it, the first teaser and its extended battle, the party scene, in different variations leading to the most polished and detailed one in 2011., and the gameplay in the city, during the invasion and a few seconds of it outside. and they combine the cgi of the first trailers, we only ever saw insomnia,

The problem with that reasoning is that we know it was around the time after that trailer that the game started going through a rebranding process. The only reason they focused on Insomnia was because we had not had a full gameplay trailer for the game before. They were all prerendered FMVs aside from the Stella and Noctis party scene. If the game had progressed as was originally intended, we probably would have seen more of the world. This is supported by Nomura's comments about how the game became too big for the PS3 to handle. If it was just two areas that were done, that wouldn't make sense.

He's correct on that point. The core team for Final Fantasy XV is totally different, so it's essentially a brand new installment in the series. What they're recycling from Versus XIII are the basic story, universe, and characters, but there are naturally going to be changes to fit the new specifications.



The FMV was created separately through Square Enix's Visual Works department, so it shouldn't be taken as an indication of overall progress. This was all promotional/pre-production stuff.......attributed to a total of two people (one of whom was Eiji Kitada, who was involved on and off until late 2009).

If this article is true, Versus XIII may not have been in full scale production for long (if at all) before Square Enix pulled the plug. It isn't a decision to take lightly and would more or less be unthinkable if the game had been on the road toward completion.

As for choice of director, much rests on who can get stuff done under the burden of today's development climate and scale. I think some comparison can be drawn to FFXIV, for which the old leadership team was replaced and the project effectively restarted from scratch (while using the Eorzea universe and story as a base to build on).

While the game may not have been in full development, that doesn't mean progress was not being made. The game being delayed for other big projects is just another sign that Square Enix just didn't know what to do with it. Same with the development team change, we have no idea just what decisions were actually made, so saying that only part of the game was finished is just an assumption that could turn out to be false. If Square Enix had just been more open about the game after releasing the first XV trailer, then maybe we could understand more about these changes.

Also, even though they were developed by a different department, FMVs still are not cheap. So discarding ones that were done and originally set to be in the game (not counting the promotional ones from the early days) still is wasteful.

 

[llazy77]

At the end of the day without Tabata this game wouldnt have come out at all. Even if he is changing what nomura originally wanted the game to be under Nomura meant the game would never have been released. Tabata is allowing the game to come out. And it all comes down to speculation if Tabatas vision or Nomuras vision of the game would have been the best. Imo I think Tabatas vision is going to be better because its going to be one game instead of many games.

 

[Kagari]

I think it's hilarious how Kingdom Hearts III is basically doing its own thing without parading around about fan feedback nonsense or anything, yet Tabata is stuck pushing the PR line and comes off as someone who has no real faith in his own game.

 

[CRIMSON-XIII]

i think they had the whole world in concept and semi created at least by 2011 but as far as presentable to the public and working with the story, i feel they didnt have much created to show. and tabata joined in 2012 to really create the assets and stuff of the e3 2013 trailer, with the team, i believe i read it in an article. and then by tgs 2014 reveal last year, they had spent all the time porting the engines and assets of the last few years to the working ps4 build we have via jump festa and onward. it was from ebony to current. i just cant wait to see this game nextg month. very exciting moment

 

[Yause]

I think it's hilarious how Kingdom Hearts III is basically doing its own thing without parading around about fan feedback nonsense or anything, yet Tabata is stuck pushing the PR line and comes off as someone who has no real faith in his own game.

Was that his own initiative, or was it something that the company decided? Square Enix seems rather skittish when it comes to the recent reputation of Final Fantasy (hence the huge PR/feedback campaign around FFXIV 2.0), but they have few worries over Kingdom Hearts beyond the long delay between II and III.

 

[Infest]

I think it's hilarious how Kingdom Hearts III is basically doing its own thing without parading around about fan feedback nonsense or anything, yet Tabata is stuck pushing the PR line and comes off as someone who has no real faith in his own game.

The difference is that Kingdom Hearts always had one formula throughout the entire series that basically never changed and one consecutive storyline. It'd be ridiculous if they would suddenly start to question this formula, especially with Kingdom Hearts III ( the final conclusion of the "first" chapter of Kingdom Hearts - the Xehanort-saga ). They don't need any feedback because they have a clear direction for this game since day 0. The only thing they have to look at is the popularity of certain Disneys franchises so they can select the worlds they want to choose from.

On the other side we have Final Fantasy. A franchise that constantely changes its formula (sometimes more, sometimes less) with each new entry. With the Final Fantasy brand constantly losing its relevance over the past decade and the troublesome development history of versus XIII, XV is more important than ever for SE. The project obviously had no clear direction for the most part of its development, which has changed now but the pressure on it is still absolutely enormous. I don't think it's strange that they finally wanted to hear what the Final Fantasy community thinks after they made one huge mistep after another. Contrary to Kingdom Hearts there is no real "Final Fantasy formula"and Final Fantasy XV is not only the most ambitious game in the series so far, it's also the most divise and experimental because it also breaks with one of the few traditions.

To cut a long story short, you can't compare those two projects so easily.

 

[Nova]

The difference is that Kingdom Hearts always had one formula throughout the entire series that basically never changed and one consecutive storyline. It'd be ridiculous if they would suddenly start to question this formula, especially with Kingdom Hearts III ( the final conclusion of the "first" chapter of Kingdom Hearts - the Xehanort-saga ). They don't need any feedback because they have a clear direction for this game since day 0. The only thing they have to look at is the popularity of certain Disneys franchises so they can select the worlds they want to choose from.

On the other side we have Final Fantasy. A franchise that constantely changes its formula (sometimes more, sometimes less) with each new entry. With the Final Fantasy brand constantly losing its relevance over the past decade and the troublesome development history of versus XIII, XV is more important than ever for SE. The project obviously had no clear direction for the most part of its development, which has changed now but the pressure on it is still absolutely enormous. I don't think it's strange that they finally wanted to hear what the Final Fantasy community thinks after they made one huge mistep after another. Contrary to Kingdom Hearts there is no real "Final Fantasy formula"and Final Fantasy XV is not only the most ambitious game in the series so far, it's also the most divise and experimental because it also breaks with one of the few traditions.

To cut a long story short, you can't compare those two projects so easily.

100% agreed.

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

I think it's hilarious how Kingdom Hearts III is basically doing its own thing without parading around about fan feedback nonsense or anything, yet Tabata is stuck pushing the PR line and comes off as someone who has no real faith in his own game.

How Square Enix presents a product to the public has been one of my issues with Final Fantasy XV since the Final Fantasy Versus XIII days and still continues to be one. Everything might be fine in actuality but I don't think they're really doing a good job communicating that to the public.