and then you have posters like the above. these trailers do have weight. many have millions of views each.
And many of those millions don't spend hours on GAF analyzing differences in every single frame and what's still in the game because they've been busy, well... playing the game. Nor do most even know much about Versus let alone details about its development since 2006. The majority of million-seller games' audiences, including FFXV's, does not mirror the small hardcore audience on GAF.
Look, obviously the development was troubled and content was clearly cut in the final game leaving glaring narrative seams, yes, but I don't think the dev team intentionally set out to "deceive" their fans. They had to show something at E3 2013 and Tabata was tasked with creating a next-gen prototype/concept to show off there. At that point they haven't yet fully rewritten the Versus trilogy into a single game and haven't started actual development of the next-gen only FFXV yet. So what option did they have? CG-only trailer? Okay, but then you would still have the problem of cut content because the story wasn't set in stone yet with constant rewrites happening in 2013 as Roberto Ferrari stated. Wait until TGS '14 to only show stuff after the actual development started? Then people would've still talked about Versus being cancelled for another 2 years and "How the hell have they not shown any new mainline FF yet since 2006? FF is dead!". Now think what you will of Kingsglaive, but the CGI they used in the TGS '14 trailer and which wasn't in the game technically still was part of the game's lore, ending up being in KG instead (reworked and rerendered, obviously), and being shown through the (badly-edited) random clips from KG in the game itself too. Btw, in hindsight I think Kingsglaive was a waste of resources, likely didn't reach many series outsiders (or maybe it did, who knows - would like to see official numbers), and instead could've been condensed into a intro CGI with a voice-over narrative explaining the world's situation similar to the one in Kingsglaive. Well, hindsight is always 20/20, of course. They wanted to try out this cross-media approach, let's see if it worked out for them in the long run.
It's not about "joe gamer." If the content of the trailers does not matter at all, then why have anything representative of the final product at all? I mean, your friends and Joe Gamer aren't watching, right?
The argument to me is if the trailers are a misrepresentation of the final product. While it's obvious they do not represent it exactly and they've changed dramatically from what players will play, they are in fact representative but do show a product that has been dramatically altered over time. That's interesting to me.
Joe and Jane Gamer
do watch, but they care more about the general tone and motifs of the trailers and primarily remember the most recent ones only, which weren't misleading in FFXV's case. Most don't rewatch 2-5 years old trailers dozens of times and compare them frame for frame. A few seconds of CGI scenes from an airship flying over Insomnia or Cor talking to Noct from a 2 years old trailer not being in the game in 2016 doesn't matter to most - if they even remember those few seconds at all, anyway. They ultimately still got the game they saw and were hyped for, mainly one with a road-trip theme, flashy combat, huge world, Fantasy Based on Reality aesthetics etc.
But anyway, this whole thing is definitely interesting to have witnessed, yeah. I would love a very candid, in-depth post-mortem about
everything since Tabata came on board from mid-2012 onwards. At least we have the Ferrari comments and recent leaks in the meantime
I'm legit asking: is it reasonable to expect so much from XV considering game development scales up exponentially? There's a reason SE said for years that an FF7 remake was 'impossible' - there's yet to be, as far as I know, a game of the PSX era FFs level of variety, scale, and scope, with modern triple A graphics / open world sandbox design. The Witcher series is probably the only thing even remotely close - and even the Wild Hunt had MMO elements, rinse and repeat game design, and totally missable narrative sequences (not a complaint, just an observation).
SE tried to make a modern game as story heavy as 7 - it was called Final Fantasy 13. When people flipped out about 13 being too linear and cutscene heavy, SE seemingly cut down XV's storyline as a result. I somehow doubt this 'Goldilocks' syndrome is solely attributable to SE's incompetence. It really seems this is a case of a fanbase who want what they want uncompromisingly, despite knowing little to nothing about the practicalities of designing and completing a modern triple A game.
I'm not denying the trailers are misleading - but I keep seeing people express disappointment that XV isn't like the late 90s era Final Fantasies. If you build a contemporary, Skyrim-like game with an entire continent of content, you probably won't be able to feature as much in terms of depth, story, cutscenes, or linearity. I'm not a game designer, but I've played enough RPGs to notice the inverse relationship between level of open world elements and level of compelling linear story/ narrative complexity. I'm sad the later parts of the game felt like XV stalling for time too, but I don't think adding even more to this already 'behemoth' size game would have solved its problems. I think it'll still be a while before we get the cutting edge, fully open world modern FF 7 we all dream about.
Very good points.