Why Final Fantasy XV's Reinvention May Be Exactly What The Franchise Needs

Battle Screen's Gregory Edwards discusses the recent news about Final Fantasy XV, and what it potentially means for the franchise as a whole.

[EasyOneTwoThree]

100% Agree

[camel_toad]

Yep Im pumped for this one and I havent been for a FF in a long time.

[Pennywise138]

NO! If anything Final Fantasy needs to go back to its roots. Final Fantasy 1 thru 9 and to just a slightly lesser extent 10 has always been able to be fresh while maintaining its identity. Now the series has the same problem as resident evil. Its forgotten what's made it so great in the first place. There's nothing wrong with square enix making a game like Final Fantasy 15 just don't call it Final Fantasy because a bunch of bro dogs cruising around in a convertible will never be a true Final Fantasy game to me.

[DarkOcelet]

Final Fantasy XII was amazing , i dont know why no one acknowledge that . Its like X was the final good one , i thought it was one of the best with some really cool characters { Baltheir , Fran , Basche , Ashe , Penelope , Vaan } . It was the only Final Fantasy i spent 1000 hours in or more , although every other final fantasy was great , this one held a special place in my heart and i am sad alot of the fans hated it .

[Dune_09]

I believe the game design and level layout were the problems with FF12. There were huge spaces but not much depth and not that much to do side quest wise beside fetch quest monster hunts. A lot of parts of the game (especially the desert sand sea area) went on for far too long.

[Adrian_v01]

It generated a lot of interest because people didn't know what was going on. While I had hopes in Nomura and his KH style game, I feel like Tabata is bad for this game. Noctis as the only playable character, how is that positive in any way??? FFXII had gambits, but you could at least play with all the characters. And this sounds worse than XIII. While I had the option to ignore the Auto button there, it seems like this time the Auto-attack button will be the only option.

I hope for more clear news, because after all the updates they gave us in the past 2 days, my anticipation for this game really dropped.

[Paprika]

Only playable character in the demo. Full game you can switch. Also decks will likely be customisable, but to streamline play, water based swords auto take effect vs water based monsters, water based magic appear etc. Its fast paced, how many times did you scroll past unneeded skills to get the one you want? It won't be auto. It will be predictive based on set instances, likewise with low health, potions or cure appearing etc. This is how I've interpreted it. Its still final fantasy, if anything, auto has gone!

[Adrian_v01]

I didn't say it's not FF, it is. I got nothing against fast paced either, I was hyped for that. But the info given is vague. Some say Noctis is only playable in the game, some say in the demo. Info on the battle system is causing confusion. I was hyped cause I wanted a game where I directly control the battle, where when I win, I would feel like I did it with my own skills. I do hope that potions and cure will be scarce, but I don't like the predictive based thing. Such a game feels dumbed down to me.

[hkgamer]

yeah, definitely needs to be explained more, demo should also represent the game more. ffxiii demo did a piss poor job.

changing directors does seem like a bad thing, but you never really knew what was going on in production. maybe tabata made this game more final fantasy (whatever that means) then what it was going to be.

anyways i hope this game learns from xii. xii had gambits, a fluid atb and option to choose the wait mode which paused the game when choosing skill i think. anyways, good options to cater for all types of gamers.

[HeavenlySnipes]

If it was up to FF purists every release would have a top down game world with static backgrounds, random battles and text based dialogue. Any use of modern technology to realize all the combat moves we've seen in boxed animations, creating dynamic open world, explorable areas, etc is a regression

It must suck hating change that much :/

[Pennywise138]

As a Final Fantasy purist I'd love to see them take all those things you mentioned and meld them with today's modern technology. I'd love to be able to take an airship and fly all over a world map and find secret hidden towns in nooks and crannies of forests and desserts that hold amazing summons spells that only true explorers will find. With today's technology we could have the best of both worlds.

[star129]

Could this be that "finaly" we are getting a Final Fantasy XV with free roam. And that we perhaps are getting a more mature and adult Final Fantasy!?! also if possile, dialoge tree option with meningful and story altering consequences. And know that what I am about to say may seam a little controversy. But how cute and sometimes funny, Kupos and cactuars and your everyday Cait Sith or whatever his name is? Please get rid of those elements and make FF mature. Let them be more of a symbol or trinket such as Kupos being what they really looks like, a "teddybear" not with mysical powers or being able to talk with you or any of that. Perhaps they can be some form of sidequest thing. ad cactars can be plain and simple a art of cactus.

Final Fantasy needs to grow up, converting it´s heritage and lore to a more grown figure/shape.

[hkgamer]

im guessing ffxii was the closest thing to what you want atm.

dialogue trees are ok, but i never really knee of they had any real impact or not.

there was a western final fantasy in the making but that got scrapped a few years back. i doubt you will ever get what you want unless eidos team has a go at a final fantasy.

[Pennywise138]

As I mentioned before, seeing a bunch of bro dogs riding around in a convertible is not what I would call mature. Did anybody here play Final Fantasy 4 (2 in america?) That may have been a super Nintendo 16 bit game but it had one of the most mature storylines of its time. Death, genocide, sacrifice, confronting inner demons, standing against a corrupt empire. Hell give me that game remade for next gen and I'd be happy.

[Dune_09]

Based on narrative and written on paper FF4 sounds like a mature game, but throw in voiced dialogue and it might not seem that way at all.

Everything you said: Death, genocide, sacrifice, confronting inner demons and standing against a corrupt empire is almost exactly what every FF is.

[AudioEppa]

This is the only Final Fantasy game that has ever interest me. I hope more Japanese games in the future get away from the stop menu RPG style and become a more open fluid action adventure game.

[hkgamer]

i think the author has misunderstood what tabata meant. or maybe i have misunderstood.

from the translated interview with tabata that i read on neogaf, it sounded like he has streamlined the action a little bit, so its not like kh.

from what i gater, there is two stances, attack and evade. evade puts you in evade mode (obviously) where your character dodges(sidesteps) pass enemy attacks, you see that in the trailer and the day/night cycle preview footage. attack mode puts your character in attack stance and what seems to be picking out every action for you so that you dont have to keep mashing x. im guessing most strategy will be made in the pause menu where you possibly pick gambits?

also read on gaf that 2 years ago, tabata or se patented a one touch battle system.

not saying if its a good or bad thing, i loved ffxii, one of my favourites, setting up gambits fun and had the best active time battle.

anyway, dont expect kh, expect more of an ffxii type game. versus xiii game mechanics are gone

[gooney121]

Oh no, I gathered the stuff about stances and recognise it won't be like KH, that's why I'm more optimistic, honestly, much as I love Kingdom Hearts, I'm glad this is doing something more unique, sorry if my post didn't really reflect that. To be clear, I love FFXII, and if this borrows the gambit system, I'm all for that, I think that was an excellent innovation that more games should use. But outside of that, I'm just glad that a new FF is really changing things up in a big way. I love FF as a franchise, but I'm just glad to see some younger staff members be given a chance to really make their marks on the franchise.