On today's FFXV Active Time Report stream, Tabata listed the full lead staff for the game. This is interesting because it is the first time we have a direct comparison with the ancient full lead staff list released for Versus XIII way back. It is now clearer than ever that when Kotaku reported that Versus XIII had been canned and was being re-purposed into FFXV, they were dead on. 100% accurate.
This was the Versus XIII staff list, I have bolded the names which no longer appear in FFXV:
This is the FFXV staff list released today, and I have bolded the names which are in the same roles without any change, while those whose names were in the original list but the roles have changed are in italics:
I removed certain credits from the original Versus staff list - the image art, mechanical design, and clothing design, because those are contracted art positions which likely still part of the game but simply not represented in the FFXV list.
It's painfully obvious now more than ever that the majority of the development team has been completely overhauled, in pretty much every division of development. Not only is Nomura no longer directing the game, but Nojima isn't even writing the screenplay anymore. Jun Akiyama no longer seems involved (I had heard about this previously too ;_, and the gameplay designers are completely different. RIP Versus XIII!
This was the Versus XIII staff list, I have bolded the names which no longer appear in FFXV:
Director/Game Design/Creative Design/Character Design/Concept: Tetsuya Nomura
Producer: Shinji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Kitase
Scenario: Kazushige Nojima
Music: Yoko Shimomura
Main Programmer: Hiroshi Harata, Kentaro Yasui
Planning Director: Yuichi Kanemori, Takayoishi Nakazato
Planning Director (World): Takeshi Endou
Planning Director (Event): Jun Akiyama
Graphic Director (Character Model): Tomohiro Kayano
Graphic Director (Animation): Tatsuya Kandou
Graphic Director (Map model): Masahide Tanaka
Graphic Director (Visual Effects): Shuichi Sato
Graphic Director (System Menu): Takeshi Arakawa
Art Director (Character): Tomohiro Hasewaga
Art Director (Map): Takayuki Otachi
Movie Director: Takeshi Nozue
This is the FFXV staff list released today, and I have bolded the names which are in the same roles without any change, while those whose names were in the original list but the roles have changed are in italics:
Director: Hajime Tabata
Concept/Main Character Design: Tetsuya Nomura
Character Design: Roberto Ferrari
Story Concept: Kazushige Nojima
Development Manager: Yasuaki Nasu
Movie Director: Takeshi Nozue
Art Director: Tomohiro Hasegawa, Yusuke Naora, Isamu Kamikokuryo
World Map Director: Yasuyuki Matsunami
3D Graphic Director: Akira Iwata
Lead Engineer: Takeshi Aramaki, Hiroshi Iwasaki
Game Designer: Masanori Sato, Masashi Takizawa, Kenichiro Yuji, Prasertvithyakarn Prasert
Lead Enemy Designer: Yuichi Kanemori, Takayuki Kanbayashi
Lead Level Designer: Takefumi Terada, Kunihiko Kimura
Lead Scenario Designer: Saori Itamuro
Lead Technical Artist: Seiji Nanase
Lead Event Artist: Toshiaki Hirota
Lead Technical Animator: Takaharu Aono
Lead 3DCG Animator: Kenichi Shida, Yusuke Tanaka
Lead Environment Artist: Norihito Ueno
Lead 3D Character Artist: Kazutaka Kurosaka
Lead VFX Artist: Keiichi Kurita
Composer: Yoko Shimomura
Producer: Shinji Hashimoto
I removed certain credits from the original Versus staff list - the image art, mechanical design, and clothing design, because those are contracted art positions which likely still part of the game but simply not represented in the FFXV list.
It's painfully obvious now more than ever that the majority of the development team has been completely overhauled, in pretty much every division of development. Not only is Nomura no longer directing the game, but Nojima isn't even writing the screenplay anymore. Jun Akiyama no longer seems involved (I had heard about this previously too ;_, and the gameplay designers are completely different. RIP Versus XIII!