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[fireflame]

Hello, next year Final Fantasy XV is going to be released on PC, and I must say that this game seems to divide people, so i am really confused about what to do.

On one hand, there are people who say that Hajime Tabata is a genius(tensai in japanese) who literally saved the whole FF series and helped it to shine again. On the other hand, people blame him for being unexperienced and releasing an uncomplete, beta like game, whose story is not finished.

So what is really the contribution of Hajime Tabata to the FF series, is he the Hideo Kojima of the FF series or id he just produce a mediocre FF? Feedbacks i have read so far are very mixed, and FF15 does not seem to be as "universally acclaimed" as FF7 was in its time.

 

[Izuna]

 

[James Scott]

He helped a game in dev hell release...mediocre and unfinished.
His original game free of dev issues was also mediocre.
Not worthy of praise

 

[Neoleo2143]

His staff management seems pretty good, but his actual quality as a director feels quite dubious to me.

 

[Crankshaft]

I don't think making a video game makes you a genius. Unless you are like Carmack.

 

[Death Penalty]

Read my mind.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

I heard he's a hentai.

 

[Nibel]

He's tsundere imo

 

[AgentLampshade]

I think he'd be more suited to a producer role. I don't like his directorial style.

 

[KZXcellent]

Nah, he's a hard worker who delivered an alright game. Wouldn't call him a genius at all.

 

[brawly]

Baka is what you're looking for.

 

[Pepboy]

In my mind, yes. No other game was doing a manly roadtrip and I found it glorious. Great idea, not too shabby execution under the dev hell square has become.

 

[Stygr]

No, he's a normal guy who finished a product with very bad results.
Yoshida is the real genius
He resurrected a dead game, and this game is an MMO, with a better storyline than FF XV.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

As far as I am concerned, he is my senpai.

 

[MKIL65]

I heard he's a hentai.

He's the combination of a hentai and a tensai. A hensai!

 

[FinalAres]

FF games need 4-5 years dev time like any other AAA game. He had 3. He did okay.

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Tensai? OP wtf

Mentioning him next to Kojima..this is blasphemous. Talk about bad hot takes.

 

[Anung]

 

[Stygr]

In my mind, yes. No other game was doing a manly roadtrip and I found it glorious. Great idea, not too shabby execution under the dev hell square has become.

FFXIV

 

[CSX]

I needed to make sure this was the first post lol

 

[GetDigitized]

He is chunibyou.

Also, I wonder how much of Nomuras work and concepts people are attributing to Tabata.

 

[Cathcart]

Man just saying that the story is unfinished is letting them off easy. At this point I’m kind of done with JRPG stories so an unfinished one doesn’t bother me that much. This dude made an open world game about a road trip in which the driving is shit and the open world is mostly empty and featureless with a second half full of long corridors and warehouses that looks like something out of a Vita game. And yes, the hair is fantastic. By Vita game I mean the design of the levels, not the graphics engine.

Anyway, the whole thing was a huge disappointment that looked like what I should have expected out of a game with a ten year dev cycle that changed hands several times.

So I guess I’m saying “no.”

 

[Thud]

Have you watched Prince of Tennis lately or something?

 

[Opa-Pa]

You could say being able to only and consistently deliver mediocre to bad games requires some special talent, sure. He probably is.

Spoiler

Really now?... Well, you reminded me of Slam Dunk, so we good.

 

[Gbraga]

Making a mediocre game in the series and being Hideo Kojima are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Landford]

Tabata is a fucking hard worker that poured his tears and blood on FFXV together with his team. There is just no denying that. I remember an interview where even the reporter was kinda worried about him happilly saying he slept 3 hours a day and didnt see his family on the weeks.

I guess we cant really know how fucked Versus was already before he took over, and he will only have his next game, that will be free of baggage, to prove how good a director he is, but he has my respect until then, much more than these so called "Auteur" hacks.

 

[Anteater]

how incredibly rude, you mean Hajime Tabata san

 

[Crayolan]

It's Shin Megami Tensei

 

[Tiops]

He was definitely competent in handling the shitty situation he was put into, but the final product wouldn't put him into a "genius" status.

Naoki Yoshida was in a terrible situation too but delivered a better game with Final Fantasy XIV, and actually saved Square Enix from hell. I'd call him a "tensai" (genius [translator note: genius means tensai]).


But he's better than Nomura

 

[Nicky Ali]

He is tense

 

[Dark_castle]

He seems like a very effective businessman, based on how quickly he can deliver a product that has very high expectations and it didn't turn out to be a complete broken mess given the odds going against him. IMO, he should be moved to the producer role, because that's what he does best. However, I don't like his design philosophy based on XV.

 

[meltingparappa]

Boy, this thread title...

 

[Hayama Akito]

Nandakore

 

[Soulflarz]

No
Also stick to english in titles please?

 

[Ludens]

Well, to make sense of Type 0's ending you need a degree, so maybe.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

Nope, FFXV is a mediocre game. The combat, mechanics, open world design, and narrative are all subpar. The only areas the game excels in are visuals and music. Type 0 is pretty average too, so he doesn't exactly have an amazing track record.

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

We should recognize his efforts on getting a twisted project into a final product of some praise. But FF XV remains just as a big lost opportunity to me.

Great mechanics, with awful characters, a mediocre story and a tedious setting.

Back in the day FF used to deliver astonishing settings with great cities to be discovered and all. But this one? "Well let's put some outposts very similar to each other". Characters? Well diversed with great designs and all, but this one? "All male ... and all dressed in black just to make sure they suck even more".

A game filled with bad decisions in the end.

 

[GinoFelino]

Hello!

That first post perfection tho

 

[Soulflarz]

Wait actually reading the OP this time
Tabata did not save FF at all.
FFXV has probably hurt the brand in the long run more than helped it probably because its an awful mainline game that dozens of patches later people still make fun of. There's a reason they remade ff14 regardless of cost.

At best he...saved xv from not releasing at a high cost?

 

[MCD250]

So what is really the contribution of Hajime Tabata to the FF series, is he the Hideo Kojima of the FF series or id he just produce a mediocre FF?

Are we only capable of categorizing things in the most extreme and polar opposite terms? Best thing ever or worst thing ever?

 

[The Omega Man]

Are you one of "those" that use Japanese words on regular conversations?

 

[Acquiescence]

I don't know that manga tag, but whatever it is, it can't compare to Netorare.

 

[sappyday]

I think he's great on the development side of things and just a very hard worker overall. Creatively though he isn't that great. He's Nomura's opposite even though Nomura isn't the best creatively either

 

[The Wart]

LOL.

Ignoring the off-the-charts weeabooty in this thread, Tabata has demonstrated that he can actually manage and ship a AAA project, which is apparently a skill in short supply at SE Japan these days. But there's little indication that he has any unique creative vision or style. And that's fine. The last thing SE needs is another "visionary" like Nomura who spends 10 years adding and subtracting zippers from things.

 

[Toth]

He has a lot of unique ideas and seems to be a genuinely nice person to work with. He just needs to work on showing more of his ideas in game instead of just keeping big plot points locked behind text/ datalogs. He would really benefit from Toriyama as an event designer / director since both kind of complement each other's weaknesses.

 

[brawly]

Are we only capable of categorizing things in the most extreme and polar opposite terms? Best thing ever or worst thing ever?

Mediocre isn't an extreme...

 

[Pepboy]

FFXIV

You travel with npcs in a car/mount/vehicle and bond with them over 20+ hours? If so I might have to check it out, I thought it was an mmo?

 

[ev0]

Lord Tensai is currently head trainer down in NXT, I dunno how he'd have time to work on Final Fantasy...

 

[killatopak]

Helped FFXV take off but it sucked ass and changed so much of the original story.

 

[MegaMelon]

Literally the second sentence of the OP says what a tensai is (genius) now, also in the title. Odd use of the word but not really worth seeing so many off topic posts. Then again thisisneogaf.gif.

On topic I haven't played any FF games...yet. So hopefully some more series fans can weigh in.