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Tabata: More Final Fantasy XV related products incoming, talks game's dev history

Hey Gaf, I recently got to sit down with Tabata at Gamescom and ask him about something I have long been fascinated with - XV's long and complicated development process.

Not so much filled with ground breaking news ( except the part about new FFXV cinematic universe content coming) but hopefully an interesting look into the troubled development process behind the game.

New expanded universe content
fter ten years in development Square Enix tripled down on Final Fantasy XV’s universe, releasing the feature-length CG film Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV and the anime series Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV. So is this what fans can come to expect from future entries in the series?

“We very much did this as a new approach, a new idea and challenge for XV, so I can’t really say if that’s going to be the future of Square Enix or not,” Tabata admits, but as producer of Kingslaive, he’s been happy with the reception it’s received. “I am feeling now, though, that it’s had a really good result and that it’s hitting what it was supposed to hit, because there are a lot of people who would otherwise have not been interested in Final Fantasy coming and checking out the game now.”

Having spent a decade in the world of Final Fantasy XV, it’s not surprising that Tabata’s involved in every aspect of it, and it sounds like there are still more stories to tell. “This isn’t going to be everything you’re going to see from XV’s universe,” Tabata teases. “There are things that haven’t been announced yet, so you’ll see more from XV.”


Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opini...r-hajime-tabata-bares-all#St4sviAEROsKCYLF.99

FFVI influence
Replaying VI and other games in the series reaffirmed to Nomura and Tabata that they should focus on creating a story that felt personal and had a strong emotional resonance. “It wasn’t that we played VI and decided that it was the inspiration behind XV,” Tabata clarifies. “The idea of having that very human, very emotional tale was already decided, but I think there may have been some influence there in more of an indirect sense. From seeing VI, I got to understand the classic Final Fantasy feel. From the games previous to VII that emotional core was really what Final Fantasy was about.”
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opini...r-hajime-tabata-bares-all#St4sviAEROsKCYLF.99

Dev problems
While creating not only a new type of combat system but also marrying it with an incredibly ambitious open world was a vision happily shared between Nomura and Tabata, it seemed a pretty daunting task to many of the team. “It certainly wasn’t an easy thing to get the whole team to have that courage to move ahead and try something so out of their comfort zone,” Tabata confides. And with Japan falling behind the curve when it came to tech, he explains why XV’s development process became a difficult and increasingly lengthy one.

“I think, first of all, the big reason why obviously the West did overtake Japan when it came into the HD console development era was very much because Western developers had that previous base of PC development experience and they were able to use that very effectively in the switch to the new consoles. In Japan, however, most places didn’t have that base of knowledge and experience with PC gaming, they’d just worked on different generations of consoles. So it was much harder for them to make [the transition].”

Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opini...r-hajime-tabata-bares-all#St4sviAEROsKCYLF.99

FF XIII Reaction
As well as the technological struggles of a new console generation and attempting to create an entirely new type of Final Fantasy, the team faced other obstacles. After the largely negative reaction to Final Fantasy XIII, the team was all too aware of the pressure to win back fans. With Nomura being moved to Kingdom Hearts III in 2014, the last two years have seen Tabata step up as director and leader. Tabata is hesitant, initially towing the party line and defending XIII, but then he replies...

“A lot of the staff on the XV project also worked on XIII as well. While there were arguably a lot of fans for FF XIII too, there were clearly those bits that people were a bit negative about and treated very harshly.

“So in some ways I think those [devs] obviously did think, in their own way, that ‘Yes, with this development we have to turn that around’ and ‘We have to learn from that and work out what we did wrong’. There was probably that element for them.”


Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/opini...r-hajime-tabata-bares-all#St4sviAEROsKCYLF.99

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opini...-revealed-as-director-hajime-tabata-bares-all

Enjoy.
 

Arkeband

Banned
Expanded universe stuff really feels like putting the cart before the horse.

If FFXV ends up sucking, all of the effort they (and fans) have put into getting to know these characters and watching the movies and downloading the apps is simply going to be a lesson learned in consumerism.

Or not, since the thing to do now is defend their aggressive monetization schemes, retailer exclusivity (Kings Tale), and DLC plans.
 

Wagram

Member
I'm going to die with laughter if XV is worse than XIII. They keep talking shit about it as if XV will be such a massive improvement. I'm not seeing it.
 
Bonus point for being FF6 fans

Still the game to beat in the whole series at this point

Gimme a remake that can actually capture the sheer imagination that game evokes...
 

Ishida

Banned
I'm going to die with laughter if XV is worse than XIII. They keep talking shit about it as if XV will be such a massive improvement. I'm not seeing it.

Well, characters and music are already a lot more likable than the ones in XIII, so...
 

Ishida

Banned
Pretty subjective. What I've seen of XV's characters, especially Cidney and the main crew, do not fill me with hope.

Not having the summons as Transformers and the fact that you can do side quests besides the main story are also pretty big steps up from XIII.
 

kennyamr

Member
Thanks fo the interview.
I'm hyped for this game.

They seem to be a good bunch of people that are trying to fix the problems of the last FF games while trying to capture the magic of the old ones.

Only positive stuff here.
 
Thanks fo the interview.
I'm hyped for this game.

They seem to be a good bunch of people that are trying to fix the problems of the last FF games while trying to capture the magic of the old ones.

Only positive stuff here.

That's the thing.

We'll have to see whether the game is good or not when it comes out in November, but Tabata and his team certainly have the right idea at least.

With a game this ambitious it really could go either way.
 
Im not crazy about how many plates they are trying to spin with the gameplay...

But the Anime at least solidified the characters in a more positive light. If they can build on that i think at least the story could be tolerable

That combat though... I hope i can find something to love there lol
 
I really hope we get like a thirty-hour-long documentary on this game someday. They have to have taken video footage over this past decade.
 

Famassu

Member
There's a mistake in the article. Tabata hasn't spent a decade on FFXV/Versus XIII. He wasn't brought in until ~4 years ago after they moved the project to this generation and somewhat rebooted the development process to take advantage of the more powerful hardware instead of developing a PS3.5 game.
 

Wagram

Member
What I've seen of Brotherhood was alright but Kingsglaive was a mess, which one will translate to the game?

Haven't seen it myself, but some are saying the opening to XV is disappointing and there's not a lot of cutscenes.

Red alarms in my opinion.
 
Having spent a decade in the world of Final Fantasy XV, it’s not surprising that Tabata’s involved in every aspect of it, and it sounds like there are still more stories to tell. “This isn’t going to be everything you’re going to see from XV’s universe,” Tabata teases. “There are things that haven’t been announced yet, so you’ll see more from XV.”

Mxf2YLl.jpg
 

Ydelnae

Member
I wonder what could be next. Ardyn live-action TV sitcom? A Insomnia podcast? I doubt the remaining projects are as big as Kingsglaive, Brotherhood and A King's Tale, but I feel like these were enough for now.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Do you prefer the XIII soundtrack to what we've heard of XV?

I mean, that's a completely valid opinion, but... Shimomura is Shimomura.
I absolutely do.

I mean, I love Shimomura. I think what we've heard of XV's soundtrack is "okay" (i feel like I've heard the piano and gregorian chanting thing before. Seems a bit played out? It will need a lot more range for it to hook me).

But to the point, XIII's soundtrack was one of the greatest soundtracks contributed to a game, IMO. The experimental electronic pop sounds mixed with Hamauzu's strings and symphony was a tasty treat and something I'd never hear in a Hollywood film.

So yeah I'm hopeful for XV's music but the casual dismissal of XIII's soundtrack is a nope for me ;)
 
Btw when he says products you know he's talking about shit like a Final Fantasy 15 perfume and a Final Fantasy 15 bathroom spray.

Maybe they'll release a Stella body pillow for people to cry on.
 

Wagram

Member
People are criticizing them for saying they want to do better than they did with FFXIII now? Would it be better if they were talking about how great they did with XIII?

Well XIII is obviously polarizing, but the combat and technical quality of the game were never a debate (at least in my circles). Two points that XV will be mangled for. I have no issue with them striving to do better than a previous entry, but I do take issue when they talk smack, but then show footage that looks arguably worse than said previous entry. It's like saying the right things, but knowing full damn well they were lying the entire time.

Will XV be fantastic? I certainly hope so, but i'm not filled with much hope. The marketing has been piss poor and the impressions seem quite mixed.

EDIT: Updated.

I should have been more clear. It was never a debate in the circles I was involved with. It was mostly the level design and the characters (auto-battle is straight garbage though).Technically though, XIII was never a 23-29fps experience with frame pacing issues. Whatever the opinion may be of XIII it was polished on PS3.
 
There's a mistake in the article. Tabata hasn't spent a decade on FFXV/Versus XIII. He wasn't brought in until ~4 years ago after they moved the project to this generation and somewhat rebooted the development process to take advantage of the more powerful hardware instead of developing a PS3.5 game.

Yeah I noticed that, nevertheless awesome interview.
 
Well, characters and music are already a lot more likable than the ones in XIII, so...

Music in FFXIII was amazing. One of the best parts of the game. I do expect Yoko to op it however.

FFXV has to absolutely be better than XIII. It's also already time for the series to go back to it's roots.
 

.JayZii

Banned
Well XIII is obviously polarizing, but the combat and technical quality of the game were never a debate. Two points that XV will be mangled for. I have no issue with them striving to do better than a previous entry, but I do take issue when they talk smack, but then show footage that looks arguably worse than said previous entry. It's like saying the right things, but knowing full damn well they were lying the entire time.

Will XV be fantastic? I certainly hope so, but i'm not filled with much hope. The marketing has been piss poor and the impressions seem quite mixed.
I understand what you're saying, and mostly agree with you, but the bolded is some revisionist-ass history.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Well XIII is obviously polarizing, but the combat and technical quality of the game were never a debate. Two points that XV will be mangled for. I have no issue with them striving to do better than a previous entry, but I do take issue when they talk smack, but then show footage that looks arguably worse than said previous entry. It's like saying the right things, but knowing full damn well they were lying the entire time.

Will XV be fantastic? I certainly hope so, but i'm not filled with much hope. The marketing has been piss poor and the impressions seem quite mixed.

Yeah of course the quality of combat system of XIII needs no debate. It's flat out garbage.
 

Wagram

Member
I understand what you're saying, and mostly agree with you, but the bolded is some revisionist-ass history.

I should have been more clear. It was never a debate in the circles I was involved with. It was mostly the level design and the characters (auto-battle is straight garbage though).Technically though, XIII was never a 23-29fps experience with frame pacing issues. Whatever the opinion may be of XIII it was polished on PS3.
 

Lynx_7

Member
More things in the XV universe, huh?
Well, I for one can't wait to play Noctis Kart and the sequel to Pokemon Snap we never got: Prompto Snap.

Well XIII is obviously polarizing, but the combat and technical quality of the game were never a debate.

I take issue with this statement.
 
Final Fantasy XV: Xtreme Beach Volleyball on PSVR, and Cooking Mama: Final Fantasy XV on NX incoming.

What if these are the dlc episodes?

Gladios's Final Fantasy XV: Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Ignis's Cooking Mama: Final Fantasy XV

Prompto's Final Fantasy XV Snap
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
I really wish they would see the actual reception to the game before talking about all this other nonsense.

We already have a ton of content from FF15 at this point, they should not be speaking about more before the game comes out

Also, i keep wondering why they assume tabata has been apart of the team for 10 years, he was not.
 
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