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[injurai]

Versus XIII was announced in 2006. XIV was announced in 2010. FFXV was a problem before XIV even stepped on the scene.

I understand you feel for Nomura, but just as you suggest some posters are being cold with regards to his departure, I feel like some of your posts undermine the importance of accountability.

Nomura is (was) director, so yes, the blame is coming down on him. That's kind of how it works, in any industry, on any project.

Before XIV was a problem, XIII was the problem. They had HUGE production problems before versusXIII was even off the ground. Really nothing was being done on versus. XIII was actually planned as a ps2 game because they weren't ready for ps3 architecture. Then during XIII pre-prod they switched gears to put it on the PS3. Now for must of it's production it was in mind to be on the PS3 because that decision came early on. But Square wasn't ready, the PS3 was giving TONS of developers issue right at the start of that generation. They weren't prepared for the expenditures that were required.

As the project balloned the lost creative vision, and the dev team had all these siloed verticle slice concepts that couldn't be integrated into one vision of the game. Tones of effort was wasted, tons work was scrapped.

Once they spent so much effort, they needed to push out sequels which would have a low development cost and turn around after spending so much time and money laying the ground work. They also doubled down on the fans that they knew they could count on.

versusXIII/XV had way more issues related to squares problems as a whole than any problems distinct to that team. The issues kept plague them, and they were the project that was pushed to the back burner time and time again. Kind of like the class that you ignore a bit when your about to fail another.

 

[De_Legend]

If it's at least a very good game, I won't give a crap about who is directing it right now... on the other hand if it's average or good at best, now there is gonna be problems!

 

[Valus]

So why is Nomura being ousted from SE after KH3? Is that really happening? I feel like I missed something.

 

[Hiko]

I think that a lot of people look at a long development period and assume that it is reasonable to say that. But that's not always true, especially if a large and ambitious project is developed over a long period of time with the idea and even core concepts evolving over time.

Let's consider these three particular points - story, character design, battle design.

The story in a RPG also dictates the overall scope and scale of the game. Is it likely that a story outline was completed many years ago, and a screenplay for most if not all of the cutscenes finished? Sure. But isn't it equally likely that if the scope of the game is redefined at various stages of development, that the story outline and even entire scripted scenes would have to change? In a stable and well managed production, there would be a content freeze once the team has determined exactly what they wanted the game to be after pre-production. Clearly this hasn't happened here since every 2 years or so we hear Nomura talking about huge changes, and eventually the game even changed platforms and title. So I wouldn't be so sure that the story is completely done either.

An example I will put forth is FFXII. Matsuno stepped down as director and left early in 2005. The game was in development for about four years at that point. Matsuno also well known as a director who focuses on both story and gameplay. Yet based on all the interviews after the game was released, it is very clear that they added writing staff to the game after he left and had to restructure some stuff and write new scenes. Why? Wouldn't the entire story be complete at that point? Shouldn't Matsuno have completed the story? Did they not like some of what he wrote? Was it simply incompatible because they had reduced the scope of the story and needed to make things more cohesive? We might never know the truth of the matter, but I'm sure a lot of these questions apply to FFXV as well.

Next we turn to the character design. Yes, this is usually one of the first things that should be completed in terms of pre-production for the visuals. But again, this production hasn't really been "normal" so to speak. We've seen character designs even for the main characters change a little here and there over the course of development. What's even more interesting to me is that usually Nomura shares singular credit for character design on games he works extensively on, but when the game was reannounced as FFXV last year, the design credits attached to the copyrights of the game are different. They now read "CHARACTER DESIGN: TETSUYA NOMURA & Roberto Ferrari". So there has clearly been a substantial change which the company felt deserved an amendment to design credit. Again, this is evidence that even now there could be ongoing design changes for one reason or another, so I wouldn't say that it is certain that whatever we see really represents some sort of absolute perfect vision Nomura had for the character designs from the start.

Then we get to battle design, which is actually the trickiest part of all. For the games Nomura directs, he usually has significant input in the gameplay design, yes. For many of the Kingdom Hearts games he comes up with the concept for a lot of the battle gimmicks and sub-systems. But he also leaves it to the actual battle directors and planners to flesh out his ideas into actual playable systems. In the case of XV here, we've seen signs that they've been experimenting a lot with the battle interface and mechanics over the years. For an action RPG, the most important thing for the gameplay is that it has to be fun. Sometimes you can have a good idea of what you want the game to "feel" like, but it can be very challenging to actually implement that into something that plays well. If they've been having trouble with that during the development of the game, then I don't think it's certain that Nomura's ideas for the battle design has been fully implemented either. Tabata is also a very gameplay-oriented director, so with him taking over completely, depending on how much he has to work with, his ideas could well be replacing Nomura's, especially if that's what is needed to get the game done.

Good post. This really is like FFXII all over again. FFXII was great, but what we ended up getting clearly wasn't the original intent. It was a watered down, misinterpretation of the original concept in many ways. And the reason for this was Matsuno leaving the project and other people taking over trying to fill in the gaps or come up with their own stuff based on the source material.

What I see from FFXV now doesn't resemble what I saw in 2006. Stylistically and thematically it just isn't the same and doesn't give me the same vibe I got from Versus XIII back then. The counterarguments I've seen from fans claiming there has been no change so far just revolve around superficial aspects ("oh look, a mercedes! and look, Venice and Tokyo! See, it is modern fantasy just like promised!") but ignore how much more focus grouped and designed by committee the game comes off as now. The old trailers and the old interviews from Nomura painted a very bleak and relentlessly dark vision for an FF game, one that was hyper-real, ultra violent, and focused on human conflict rather than man vs monster type stuff. Basically something that could never be a mainline FF game, hence Versus.

 

[DangerMouse]

Versus XIII was announced in 2006. XIV was announced in 2010. FFXV was a problem before XIV even stepped on the scene.

I understand you feel for Nomura, but just as you suggest some posters are being cold with regards to his departure, I feel like some of your posts undermine the importance of accountability.

Nomura is (was) director, so yes, the blame is coming down on him. That's kind of how it works, in any industry, on any project.

You're right, because of XIII, which hit it's problems even before XIV did. Not that Nomura isn't guilty too, so this was an entire S-E clusterfuck.

It's been hinted at numerous times that virtually nothing of Versus was built when it was announced in 2006.

 

[De_Legend]

Good post. This really is like FFXII all over again. FFXII was great, but what we ended up getting clearly wasn't the original intent. It was a watered down, misinterpretation of the original concept in many ways. And the reason for this was Matsuno leaving the project and other people taking over trying to fill in the gaps or come up with their own stuff based on the source material.

What I see from FFXV now doesn't resemble what I saw in 2006. Stylistically and thematically it just isn't the same and doesn't give me the same vibe I got from Versus XIII back then. The counterarguments I've seen from fans claiming there has been no change so far just revolve around superficial aspects ("oh look, a mercedes! and look, Venice and Tokyo! See, it is modern fantasy just like promised!") but ignore how much more focus grouped and designed by committee the game comes off as now. The old trailers and the old interviews from Nomura painted a very bleak and relentlessly dark vision for an FF game, one that was hyper-real, ultra violent, and focused on human conflict rather than man vs monster type stuff. Basically something that could never be a mainline FF game, hence Versus.

So the game will be about man vs monster only, ok.

It was just a trailer for the possible demo.

 

[R-User!]

Will Nomura get directing credit equal to the directing credit that Tabata will get?

Will it say:

----------DIRECTED BY----------

------TETSUYA NOMURA------

-------------------&-------------------

---------HAJIME TABATA--------

or not?

Spoiler

hope I remembered their correct spelling... Kinda out of it right now...

 

[Squire]

I know SE is troubled, I'm just honestly not comfortable with this "lay off Nomura" rhetoric. Especially on a forum where he's regularly praised and referred to as "Lord Nomura", jokingly or otherwise.

He was director of the game, he's clearly the strongest creative voice and force the company has. I'm sure he had a difficult time, but damn, Uncle Ben wasn't bullshitting: With great power really does come great responsibility.

 

[chaosblade]

So why is Nomura being ousted from SE after KH3? Is that really happening? I feel like I missed something.

They haven't said that, people have just implied (somehow) KH3 might be his last game with the company because... reasons. Maybe because he might be pissed having the rug pulled out from under him on his most ambitious project yet.

I think his name is too big for SE to just throw him out, if he leaves it would be on his own accord. And if he was going to leave over this, he probably wouldn't have waited until after KH3.

Good post. This really is like FFXII all over again. FFXII was great, but what we ended up getting clearly wasn't the original intent. It was a watered down, misinterpretation of the original concept in many ways. And the reason for this was Matsuno leaving the project and other people taking over trying to fill in the gaps or come up with their own stuff based on the source material.

What I see from FFXV now doesn't resemble what I saw in 2006. Stylistically and thematically it just isn't the same and doesn't give me the same vibe I got from Versus XIII back then. The counterarguments I've seen from fans claiming there has been no change so far just revolve around superficial aspects ("oh look, a mercedes! and look, Venice and Tokyo! See, it is modern fantasy just like promised!") but ignore how much more focus grouped and designed by committee the game comes off as now. The old trailers and the old interviews from Nomura painted a very bleak and relentlessly dark vision for an FF game, one that was hyper-real, ultra violent, and focused on human conflict rather than man vs monster type stuff. Basically something that could never be a mainline FF game, hence Versus.

It's hard to judge based on early CG renders, but I agree that the trailers they showed while it was a PS3 game seemed darker (literally and figuratively) than what we're seeing now. And yeah, some of the design changes come across as designed-by-committee, namely Stella.

 

[sappyday]

Will Nomura get directing credit equal to the directing credit that Tabata will get?

Will it say:

----------DIRECTED BY----------

------TETSUYA NOMURA------

-------------------&-------------------

---------HAJIME TABATA--------

or not?

Spoiler

hope I remembered their correct spelling... Kinda out of it right now...

It will be extremely fucked up if they don't. XV is Nomura's game.

 

[Slowdive]

Good post. This really is like FFXII all over again. FFXII was great, but what we ended up getting clearly wasn't the original intent. It was a watered down, misinterpretation of the original concept in many ways. And the reason for this was Matsuno leaving the project and other people taking over trying to fill in the gaps or come up with their own stuff based on the source material.

What I see from FFXV now doesn't resemble what I saw in 2006. Stylistically and thematically it just isn't the same and doesn't give me the same vibe I got from Versus XIII back then. The counterarguments I've seen from fans claiming there has been no change so far just revolve around superficial aspects ("oh look, a mercedes! and look, Venice and Tokyo! See, it is modern fantasy just like promised!") but ignore how much more focus grouped and designed by committee the game comes off as now. The old trailers and the old interviews from Nomura painted a very bleak and relentlessly dark vision for an FF game, one that was hyper-real, ultra violent, and focused on human conflict rather than man vs monster type stuff. Basically something that could never be a mainline FF game, hence Versus.

Nomura said he didn't want people to think it was too dark, and he said it's more like a road trip movie with a focus on brotherhood, which is what we saw in the trailer. I'm not saying things haven't changed, but we really don't know how much of Nomura's vision is going to be in the final game. (I think a lot of it will be) Also the footage from the trailer is from the demo which is near the beginning part of the game, so I'm pretty sure it gets darker.

 

[wmlk]

Good post. This really is like FFXII all over again. FFXII was great, but what we ended up getting clearly wasn't the original intent. It was a watered down, misinterpretation of the original concept in many ways. And the reason for this was Matsuno leaving the project and other people taking over trying to fill in the gaps or come up with their own stuff based on the source material.

What I see from FFXV now doesn't resemble what I saw in 2006. Stylistically and thematically it just isn't the same and doesn't give me the same vibe I got from Versus XIII back then. The counterarguments I've seen from fans claiming there has been no change so far just revolve around superficial aspects ("oh look, a mercedes! and look, Venice and Tokyo! See, it is modern fantasy just like promised!") but ignore how much more focus grouped and designed by committee the game comes off as now. The old trailers and the old interviews from Nomura painted a very bleak and relentlessly dark vision for an FF game, one that was hyper-real, ultra violent, and focused on human conflict rather than man vs monster type stuff. Basically something that could never be a mainline FF game, hence Versus.

This is exactly what he described back then, too. It's just that the previous trailers have always been serious, and this is lighthearted.

He never promised something that's relentlessly dark. The pieces that make this work were totally his ideas. You can piece it together.

Everyone knows going from lighthearted to dark makes more sense. Heck, his dad isn't even presumed to be dead yet when it's heavily implied he was before.

Do you really expect something that's so brooding from a really early part of the game? Nomura even said that the early trailers are like an endgame Noctis.

My prediction is that they go on a road trip to Altissia/Accordo to meet Stella or Luna or whatever, and then when they get there things get bad; like an ambush. That's why you see airships swoop in during the night, presumably during Noctis' meeting with Stella. And what did we see in the 2013 trailer? Airships in Accordo with a raging Leviathan warring against Noctis. I don't see the disconnect.

 

[injurai]

Nomura said he didn't want people to think it was too dark, and he said it's more like a road trip movie with a focus on brotherhood, which is what we saw in the trailer. I'm not saying things haven't changed, but we really don't know how much of Nomura's vision is going to be in the final game. (I think a lot of it will be) Also the footage from the trailer is from the demo which is near the beginning part of the game, so I'm pretty sure it gets darker.

I remember reading that roadtrip stuff way back in a game informer, circa 06/07 maybe.

The way I will end up gauging how close this was to the original vision is by how much it mirrors Shakespeare. Because it was my understanding pretty much up through now, that this very much is a Shakespearean story it would be drenched in very much the familiar tonality.

 

[DangerMouse]

Nomura said he didn't want people to think it was too dark, and he said it's more like a road trip movie with a focus on brotherhood, which is what we saw in the trailer. I'm not saying things haven't changed, but we really don't know how much of Nomura's vision is going to be in the final game. (I think a lot of it will be) Also the footage from the trailer is from the demo which is near the beginning part of the game, so I'm pretty sure it gets darker.

Yup, this is one of the first things he said.

I remember reading that roadtrip stuff way back in a game informer, circa 06/07 maybe.

The way I will end up gauging how close this was to the original vision is by how much it mirros Shakespeare. Because it was my understand pretty much up through now, that this very much is a Shakespearean story it would be drenched in very much the familiar tonality.

Same here.

 

[LouisaFerre]

Will Nomura get directing credit equal to the directing credit that Tabata will get?

Will it say:

----------DIRECTED BY----------

------TETSUYA NOMURA------

-------------------&-------------------

---------HAJIME TABATA--------

or not?

Spoiler

hope I remembered their correct spelling... Kinda out of it right now...

If It doesn't that's gonna be fucking garbage.

Nomura has worked on this game for years, and planned it even longer. It's bad enough SE management wasn't letting him do what he wanted, but if he didn't even get credited properly I would be genuinely angry.

 

[QuantumZebra]

That sounds fantastic to me, since it seems to me the biggest weakness of the new FFs - convoluted story with characters you don't care about.




Yes, 'blonde''s looks are pushing it a bit for me as well. Can't help you there.

Yea but the problem is I don't care about the characters in this story already - I mean I seriously could not force myself to give a damn about a jpop/nu-metal boy band. The character design makes me want to puke.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

What's Toriyama doing nowadays?

Being kept far away from Final Fantasy hopefully, was not a huge fan of the "Waifu" trilogy.

Spoiler

Love your avatar

 

[Squire]

Yea but the problem is I don't care about the characters in this story already - I mean I seriously could not force myself to give a damn about a jpop/nu-metal boy band. The character design makes me want to puke.

No one in this thread or really anywhere outside of the dev team cares about these characters because they don't know them.

 

[duckroll]

If It doesn't that's gonna be fucking garbage.

Nomura has worked on this game for years, and planned it even longer. It's bad enough SE management wasn't letting him do what he wanted, but if he didn't even get credited properly I would be genuinely angry.

Where's Matsuno's director credit on FFXII?

 

[Jonnax]

Where's Matsuno's director credit on FFXII?

Did he not get recognition in the credits?

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

They haven't said that, people have just implied (somehow) KH3 might be his last game with the company because... reasons. Maybe because he might be pissed having the rug pulled out from under him on his most ambitious project yet.

I think his name is too big for SE to just throw him out, if he leaves it would be on his own accord. And if he was going to leave over this, he probably wouldn't have waited until after KH3.

I think SE just wanted him to focus on the more important game, without him KH doesn't exist and the series is really pushing it as is.
If KH3 makes it out in 2016 it will be 10 years since the last main title, thats way too long for a series mainly targeting a younger audience.

 

[Loakum]

Good. Maybe now the game will be completed.

^This.

 

[duckroll]

Did he not get recognition in the credits?

He did. In the English credits it is for "Story and Concept", while in the Japanese credits iirc it was "Concept and Supervision". Nomura will definitely be in the credits for FFXV for similar things, and character design.

 

[Mr. Nice_Guy]

I feel like I am out of the loop here. I keep seeing people say that FF Versus XIII/FFXV was going to be this career defining, ambitious game for Nomura. But hasn't his career already been defined by a slew of incredible and ambitious games? Doesn't get much more ambitious than mixing Final Fantasy and Disney together!

So what was so special about this game?

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

Or Grab Sakaguchi along with Itou, Matsuno and Uematsu and head over to Monolith Soft instead. The old Squaresoft all together again, basically.

At any rate, I don't know what to think. I don't foresee Nomura saying with Square Enix after KH3 though. Maybe I'm wrong... who knows.

Oh my god that'd be fucking magic. Just start a new golden JRPG era on the WiiU.

 

[killatopak]

Oh my god that'd be fucking magic. Just start a new golden JRPG era on the WiiU.

It'll be kinda hard though. Nomura is the face of SE and kinda like Kojima, they don't want him to leave the company.

 

[Duderz]

It'll be kinda hard though. Nomura is the face of SE and kinda like Kojima, they don't want him to leave the company.

I wouldn't be so sure about that anymore.

 

[Dark_castle]

I feel like I am out of the loop here. I keep seeing people say that FF Versus XIII/FFXV was going to be this career defining, ambitious game for Nomura. But hasn't his career already been defined by a slew of incredible and ambitious games? Doesn't get much more ambitious than mixing Final Fantasy and Disney together!

So what was so special about this game?

Nomura has had multiple career defining moment in the past. FFV was his first, FFVII was the big one. KH is his first directorial role. Versus XIII was his baby in a sense it encapsulates his vision of a darker, more mature Final Fantasy with some serious ambition in its scope of gameplay.

In a way, it's his dream project. It's really terrible that he is no longer attached to his creation. Then again, these things happen. At least he now can just focus on KH3, another big SE title, and I trust XV in the hands of Tabata, who is also a man with keen vision and a tendency towards more mature game, demonstrated in Type-0. This actually aligns with XV original vision.

 

[HeelPower]

He did. In the English credits it is for "Story and Concept", while in the Japanese credits iirc it was "Concept and Supervision". Nomura will definitely be in the credits for FFXV for similar things, and character design.

Do you think he could still be involved in some capacity as a consultant maybe ?

I remember Miyazaki had a similar role with Dark Souls 2.

Final credits should reflect something significant.It would hurt otherwise.As a fan I would be upset.

 

[manipulate]

bleeding hard for Nomura-sama right now.

 

[anaron]

Mind explaining some more?

From articles circa 2002:

Squaresoft has announced a couple of PlayStation 2 games based on Final Fantasy X, to be released within this fiscal year in Japan. Sceptics have cited growing financial pressure on the company as the reason for these uncharacteristic spin-offs, which will expand on the stories of Yuna and Rikku from Final Fantasy X, within the same game engine and world. Depending on what sort of a job the former FFX development team does with these, we can either expect further financial problems for the Japanese RPG giant, or a couple of enjoyable companions to help the time pass before the next single player Final Fantasy, XII appears. Squaresoft's financial report also highlighted changes in the structure of the developer, aimed at reducing costs, with developers moved into divisions rather than freeform team

In other announcements made in the meeting, Square has revealed changes in their company in order to cut development costs. Reported by Bloomberg, while Square formally took a development style where teams were formed and dispersed per project, developers will now be fixed into divisions. Source codes and resources will be shared for efficiency, and employees will receive varying bonuses depending on the profit of their division.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/article_46064
http://i.imgur.com/JelHnAM.jpg

 

[GringoSuave89]

From articles circa 2002:





http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/article_46064
http://i.imgur.com/JelHnAM.jpg

No wonder they're in such a sorry state.

 

[LouisaFerre]

Where's Matsuno's director credit on FFXII?

I know there's a good chance Nomura won't be credited properly. You don't have to rub it in

Didn't Matsuno leave earlier in development, though? I'm assuming FFXV is probably going to be releasing in not much more than a year.

 

[wmlk]

To be fair, even if Nomura's stepping down was done with the utmost grace, people would still be skeptical. Especially when we have mods who shove that tone down everyone's throats.

I'm optimistic until further notice. XV may or may not be a better game with him gone, and I appreciate what he's done since it clearly hooked a lot of people in. It's too soon to even consider Kingdom Hearts III.

 

[duckroll]

I know there's a good chance Nomura won't be credited properly. You don't have to rub it in

Didn't Matsuno leave earlier in development, though? I'm assuming FFXV is probably going to be releasing in not much more than a year.

Earlier? Development supposedly started in 2000 or 2001. At E3 2004 Matsuno was actually in LA doing press stuff for the game and showing off the first playable demos for it. He stepped down in 2005, and the game shipped in March 2006.

 

[LouisaFerre]

Earlier? Development supposedly started in 2000 or 2001. At E3 2004 Matsuno was actually in LA doing press stuff for the game and showing off the first playable demos for it. He stepped down in 2005, and the game shipped in March 2006.

I must have been mistaken, then. My apologies.

Spoiler

Everything is doomed and I've fallen into despair, someone put me out of my misery.

 

[Gamespawn]

Didn't Nomura have to help finish XIII and that's why Versus was originally delayed? I think people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I think XV is pretty much finished from Nomura's perspective and SE wants him to start up on KH3 to get it out sooner.

At least in my opinion.

 

[dragonzdogma]

Like many of you I was concerned with this news, but after reading the wiki about
tabata's past I am pretty sure Nomura and Tabata are problably very good friends.

And most likely Nomura requested for him to continue wrapping FF15,
after all we get a demo of the game in like 5 months,
the game has to come about by November 2015, no?
If not internatial atleast in Japan ( 2015, ff15 sounds good )

After joining Square Enix, Tetsuya Nomura had indirectly made a request for him to create a mobile game starring the Turks from Final Fantasy VII. Thus, Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- was created. After the game's release, Yoshinori Kitase moved him to the console division. With the launch of the PlayStation Portable, Kitase had instructed him to develop a Final Fantasy title on that platform and left him in charge of the content. He then discussed it with Tetsuya Nomura and they decided to portray Zack's story from the same Final Fantasy VII universe. That game was named Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.

Tabata's next project was Final Fantasy Type-0 which the world view has a consistent theme of "a real war within a fantasy world". He worked on the title as a documentary that records the account within a fictional world. One of the countries is a land of magic, so the concept of a magical academy was created. He wanted to make Final Fantasy Type-0 a fictional documentary so the development team built various elements on that template.

I kinda suck at captions.
Maybe someone can writte a caption on this phothoshoped pic I did.

 

[The Broken Ska Record]

It'll be kinda hard though. Nomura is the face of SE and kinda like Kojima, they don't want him to leave the company.

He's not exactly part of the Final Fantasy Cabal that SE started a year ago after the restructuring.

If Nomura stays, it's because of Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Icyflamez96]

wrong topic

 

[dragonzdogma]

Nevermind ....it's official :

If that wasn’t enough news, I’ve got a little something else to share with you. Now I know you guys want us at Square Enix to be more open with you and to keep you updated with all the goings on with our games so I’m going to talk to you a little more about Final Fantasy XV since I’m sure you guys are just as excited about it as I am (which is VERY excited).

The development of Final Fantasy XV is coming along really well and as a result Hajime Tabata (the director of the original Final Fantasy Type-0 and Type-0 HD) has taken over from Tetsuya Nomura as the director of Final Fantasy XV.

Now before you start to freak out, let me explain how this is a good thing. There’s no denying that Tetsuya Nomura has been instrumental to the development of Final Fantasy XV and he’s done an incredible job. His main role as director was working on the original concept for the story and universe and also creating the characters. Now that development of Final Fantasy XV has come so far, Nomura’s work is pretty much all in place so instead of having him keep an eye on the more day to day stuff, we thought it’d be a better idea to pass the reigns over to Hajime Tabata and let Nomura move onto other projects and make games that only he could do, you know, like Kingdom Hearts III.

So now we have Hajime Tabata and the rest of his team working as hard as they can on Final Fantasy XV and making sure it’s the best game it can possibly be and we have Tetsuya Nomura and the Kingdom Hearts III team working as hard as they can to make that the best game that can be. It also means that both games will come out much sooner this way. Instead of waiting until Final Fantasy XV comes out before starting on Kingdom Hearts III, Tetsuya Nomura can now properly begin work on Kingdom Hearts III right now and with Tabata in the director’s chair, Final Fantasy XV won’t suffer either.

Hajime Tabata and his team are a bunch of really talented people and Final Fantasy XV is in good hands for the rest of its development but even if you don’t want to believe me, you can find out for yourself when you play the Final Fantasy XV demo.

If you’ve got any other questions or comments then feel free to drop me a line in the comments below. I’m out and about at TGS 2014 and with the time zone difference I probably won’t be able to respond right away or until I’m back in the UK but I promise I will get back to you!

I hope you’ll agree though, it’s a very exciting time to be a Final Fantasy (and Kingdom Hearts) fan right now! I personally cannot wait until 20th March 2015!

You can pre-order Final Fantasy Type-0 HD along with Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae via the links below.

PS4 – http://bit.ly/1metmsT

Xbox One - http://bit.ly/1p27nAV

source

http://eu.square-enix.com/en/blog/ff-type-0-hd-coming-march-special-surprise

 

[Dark_castle]

I honestly just do NOT understand the criticisms with the look of the cast.... Like

I hear that they are over designed when they are some of the MOST GROUNDED FF main cast designs.

Then I hear that they're too dudebro and bland and it's like WTF they're not over designed for the world or FF in general but these are distinct character designs nonetheless.

Then I hear they look like douches, which is the one I hate the most. That just comes from people stereotyping someone by their looks which is why they could say they "look like douches" so they hate them before they even know what their character is actually like! It makes especially less sense when you realize they're talking about videogame characters who act like how they're written to act.

I completely agree with you. I think people just need to give Square Enix a break here for at least trying something different. Like for real, how many JRPG, no, RPG out there who actually has no shame and be willing to cast a group of closely bonded male friends in a road trip? I've played a lot of them, can't think of even one. The closest would have been Final Fantasy I, but that's another story, and it wasn't really a road trip there.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot you can do about it. People will continue to find things to hate on, even if the cast is replaced by your stereotypical JRPG party with 2-3 male, 2-3 female.

 

[restraining order]

I wonder how much blame Hashimoto has to share in all of this as well. While it's sad to see Nomura go, it's perfectly understandable as to why this has happened. Still, a good producer should be able to both collaborate with and challenge their director when necessary. I wonder if the game has any other senior figures in S-E attached to it now, breathing down Tabata's neck until he gets the job done.

Or maybe Japanese producers just work in a different way and Hashimoto isn't the Rick McCallum (Lucas' Producer on the Star Wars prequels) kind of dude I have formed in my head.

 

[LiquidSolid]

What do you mean? I'm not judging the final product. I'm just saying that this is exactly what were were promised nearly a decade ago.

What remains to be seen is if the game drops off at a certain point.

I'm saying that there's a difference between getting what we were promised nearly a decade ago and saying it's Nomura's vision. I doubt his vision of the game is the same as the one he had when he first announced it, let alone the same as Tabata's revised version of that vision.

 

[DangerMouse]

He's not exactly part of the Final Fantasy Cabal that SE started a year ago after the restructuring.

If Nomura stays, it's because of Kingdom Hearts.

Yup, if he stays it's for KH, he's kind of the sole member of the KH one since he oversees the entire series himself, which he was always going back to by his own admission, KH is certainly his full time baby, probably why he's staying there unlike how this type of change usually leads to the person leaving, KH is an equally huge important series.

I honestly just do NOT understand the criticisms with the look of the cast.... Like

I hear that they are over designed when they are some of the MOST GROUNDED FF main cast designs.

Then I hear that they're too dudebro and bland and it's like WTF they're not over designed for the world or FF in general but these are distinct character designs nonetheless.

Then I hear they look like douches, which is the one I hate the most. That just comes from people stereotyping someone by their looks which is why they could say they "look like douches" so they hate them before they even know what their character is actually like! It makes especially less sense when you realize they're talking about videogame characters who act like how they're written to act.

Totally with you, I love the designs and the art style.

 

[Peltz]

Like many of you I was concerned with this news, but after reading the wiki about
tabata's past I am pretty sure Nomura and Tabata are problably very good friends.

And most likely Nomura requested for him to continue wrapping FF15,
after all we get a demo of the game in like 5 months,
the game has to come about by November 2015, no?
If not internatial atleast in Japan ( 2015, ff15 sounds good )

I kinda suck at captions.
Maybe someone can writte a caption on this phothoshoped pic I did.

By dragonzdogma.

 

[Heroman]

Totally with you, I love the designs and the art style.

I can see why people dont like them but to me they look pretty cool

 

[TaiKH92]

Nevermind ....it's official :



source

http://eu.square-enix.com/en/blog/ff-type-0-hd-coming-march-special-surprise

Well, I don't mind if development for KHIII will start moving on faster after this, his work with FFXV is already finished anyway (like it says in that article)

 

[legacyzero]

So why is Nomura being ousted from SE after KH3? Is that really happening? I feel like I missed something.

We did miss something. This game's release, like 2-4 years ago.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Maybe he should grab Itou, Matsuno, and Uematsu and just head over to Sakaguchi.

Or Grab Sakaguchi along with Itou, Matsuno and Uematsu and head over to Monolith Soft instead. The old Squaresoft all together again, basically.

Oh my god that'd be fucking magic. Just start a new golden JRPG era on the WiiU.

Instead, they'll do a Kickstarter with some Western staff for a mobile indie game meant to "revolutionarize" the JRPG genre, and no one will care about it, just like Sakaguchi's, Matsuno's and Uematsu's current Kickstarter projects.