By Peter Brown on Jul 02, 2015 12:02 am
Final Fantasy XV has been entrenched in one of the longest development cycles of all time, with few games rivaling its prolonged gestation. Announced long before Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were put to pasture, Final Fantasy XV was originally called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, not to be confused with the mainline game, Final Fantasy XIII. Both games were announced at the same time, yet we've seen not just one, but three games tied to Final Fantasy XIII proper released since it was announced. Final Fantasy XV is supposedly nearing completion, but we still don't have a release date to hang our hat on. While we wait for more news on Final Fantasy XV, let's look back at the game's milestone moments, starting with a little press event in Tokyo almost ten years ago.
Sept. 2006 - Final Fantasy Versus 13 Announced at Tokyo Game Show
During a Square Enix press conference at Tokyo Game Show 2006, three Final Fantasy XIII games were announced: PlayStation 3 exclusives, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII (which would eventually become Final Fantasy XV), and a mobile game, Final Fantasy Agito XIII. Agito aside, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII were the first examples of what a then next-gen Final Fantasy could be. At the time, Final Fantasy XII still wasn't available outside of Japan, so for fans of the series in the west, these announcements were especially captivating. It was eight months before Versus XIII was seen again in the form of another cutscene trailer, but then the game would go dark for the next year, when signs of trouble with development began popping up online.
Jun. 2008 - Final Fantasy Versus 13 Development Confusion
After a long period of silence, an interview with Versus XIII director Tetsuya Nomura in Japan's Famitsu magazine seemed to indicate that staff working on the game had been appropriated by the Final Fantasy XIII team because the latter game was the studio's number-one priority. As such, work on Versus XIII would not resume until development on XIII was wrapped. However, despite being translated by numerous sources, Square Enix claimed that the quote was misinterpreted. Rather than what was reported, Square Enix clarified that "reports that development for Final Fantasy Versus XIII is on hold are false. The truth of the situation is that when free, some staff from the Versus team have been helping with the Final Fantasy XIII team on development...Development for both titles is continuing as originally scheduled." Whether the follow up from Square Enix was genuine or not, we now know that Versus XIII would not meet its initial release schedule, suggesting that Nomura's concerns were valid, even if the truth of the matter wasn't as dire as it first seemed. This was the last anyone heard of Versus XIII until 2010, when yet another brief trailer was released. That trailer gave us the first look at gameplay, but it was all too brief, with tightly composed tidbits of exploration and combat that lasted for less than a minute total. However, in early 2011, Square Enix would open the floodgates.
Jan. 2011 - Square Enix Unveils Final Fantasy Versus 13 Gameplay
Following years of short trailers based primarily on cutscenes, Square enix released a seven minute video in 2011 filled with footage of combat and new environments, including city streets, interiors, and grassy wilderness. There was also footage of Noctis, the main character, taking control of weaponized vehicles, including a bipedal mech and a tank, which he hijacked on-the-fly mid-battle. While it's anyone's guess whether or not he will still be able to do that when the game's ultimately released, given that we know a lot has changed in the last few years, it's safe to say that other scenes, particularly where the player is controlling one of Noctis' cohorts, Prompto, is something that won't be in the final game; we now know that you can only control Noctis, with other characters reacting to his needs automatically. Regardless, this trailer, coming five years after the initial announcement, was what players had been waiting for, being the first concrete evidence that the game has had significant work put into it. Despite this reassurance, in 2012, director Nomura would once again hint that something suspicious surrounding the game was afoot.
Jul. 2012 - Final Fantasy Versus 13 Cancellation Rumors
18 months after the massive gameplay trailer dropped in 2011, with little new info surfacing in the meantime, a source close to the game reportedly told Kotaku that production had been shuttered, six years after final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced. This came on the heels of Nomura talking to Famitsu, yet again, about impending news regarding the game's development. "We're almost done with preparing the latest info for the game," he stated. "Because of a totally unrelated reason, there are circumstances in which that info cannot be released." Kotaku was also told that development resources had been folded into the next, standalone game in the series, Final Fantasy XIII. This rumor would be addressed the following year, during Sony's press conference at E3 2013.
June 2013 - Final Fantasy Versus 13 becomes Final Fantasy 15
The rumor that Final Fantasy Versus XIII was being pushed aside was almost unbelievable, but at E3 2013, Square Enix confirmed that it was done with Versus XIII; instead, it would live on in a new form, as Final Fantasy XV. With the PlayStation 3 behind them, Square Enix had shifted development to the next generation of consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A new trailer accompanying the announcement showcased both new and redesigned characters, wide-angle views of large environments, and a wealth of combat scenarios against enemies big and small. It was the most substantial look at the game yet, suggesting that development had progressed quite a lot farther than previous trailers would have led us to believe. Considering that development moved to an entirely new and advanced generation of consoles, it was impressive, but another change, which would be announced over a year later, may have been the key to speeding up the pace of development.
Sept. 2014 - Hajime Tabata replaces Tetsuya Nomura as director of Final Fantasy 15
While Tetsuya Nomura was working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII, he was also working on Kingdom Hearts III, which was announced in 2010. With two massive franchises on his back, it's no wonder why development on Final Fantasy Versus XIII was taking so long. It's still unclear how the transition happened and when it became official, but around the time of 2013's Tokyo Game show, Square Enix announced that Hajime Tabata had taken over as director of Final Fantasy XV. Having previously worked on Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Type-0, Tabata seemed to be the right man for the job, and his appointment would free Nomura up, making it a win-win for Square Enix. For Final Fantasy fans, it perhaps signaled that Nomura's influence would be brushed aside, but it was also a sign that efforts were being made to actually finish the game. Little did we know, we'd actually get a chance to play it in just a few months time.
Mar. 2015 - Final Fantasy 15 demo, Episode Duscae, ships with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
Tabata, the newly appointed director, promised that a demo of Final Fantasy XV would be released alongside Type-0 HD at the 2014 Tokyo Game Show, and sure enough, people who picked up the initial printing were able to access a playable demo of the long-awaited game, subtitled as Episode Duscae. The demo was huge, giving you plenty of time to explore a single, large region of the world, and battle wildlife and soldiers to your heart's content. It also featured side activities such as cooking, but the most exciting moments included a battle against a large behemoth and a look at the game's summons, which in this instance, was a huge version of Ramuh, the series' elderly lord of lightning. When he announced the demo, Tabata noted that the game was 55% complete, but he also ensured everyone that it wouldn't take another eight years of development to complete the other half now that work on the demo was finished. As it turned out, the development on the demo wasn't exactly wrapped up.
Mar. 2015 - Square Enix seeks feedback from fans, updates Episode Duscae
A little over a week after it released Episode Duscae, Square Enix launched a survey where players could submit their feedback on the demo. Initially, this was pitched as a way for players to influence the final game, but this feedback was ultimately used by Tabata and his team to create an update for the Episode Duscae demo, which launched just a few months later in June. In addition to adjusting the camera and targeting system, Tabata's team also doled out a few new side quests, which partner Noctis up with one of his cohorts. One in particular, where Noctis teams up with Gladiolous, introduces a brand new mechanic known as cross chains. These tandem attacks allow you to take down larger, stronger enemies by following a series of button prompts that appear on screen during combat. It's interesting that such a patch would be released for the demo, but it's even more interesting that resources were devoted to it, rather than to the full game.
June 2015 - Changes from Versus 13 to 15 outlined by Tabata
During a episode six of Tabata's Final Fantasy XV livestream series, Active Time Report, he outlined some of the changes that were implemented into the game during its transition from Final Fantasy Versus XIII to Final Fantasy XV. Among them, Tabata pointed out that "after we had switched from Versus to XV, the first decision we made was to make sure that XV would have a complete, coherent story in one game." This suggests that the story was previously designed to suit multiple titles. This shift in thinking led to a reorganization of story events, but also characters. Previously, Noctis interacted in trailers with a character named Stella, who was intended to be the game's heroine. However, her character was totally scrapped in the transition to Final Fantasy XV because Tabata's team "found it increasingly difficult to make sense of Stella's character and role within Final Fantasy XV." Sensitive to the issue that such sweeping changes may have a negative impact on fans expectations, Tabata added: "All these things I have been talking about have been the subject of extensive debate, and were decided with a level of utmost resolve in order to make Final Fantasy XV into the best game possible, so at least in our minds, these decisions are making the game better."
Aug. 2015 - New information will be released during Gamescom
Square Enix and Tabata have promised that there will be lots of new information related to Final Fantasy XV coming out of the Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany. What that could mean is anyone's guess, but there's a good chance we'll finally get a release date for the oft-delayed game. Will it be September 2016, to mark the 10th anniversary of the game's announcement? It would be a shame to have to wait that long, but after nine years, what's one more? If it means the team will get the time it needs to finish the game without sacrificing quality, the wait should be worth it.
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