Millions of Square Enix fans were dazzled by the Final Fantasy XV trailer shown at Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2014 (embedded below). Many longtime fans of the series were disappointed in the last few FF games and believe that Final Fantasy XV will return the franchise to glory. Gamers loved the brilliant graphics and modern gameplay shown in the TGS 2014 trailer, so it’s easy to understand why so many people are excited. I’m quite excited for Final Fantasy XV too, but for a different reason — Hajime Tabata.
Mr. Tabata was the director of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. As I mentioned in Coffee Talk #286, Crisis Core was the last game I loved. The storytelling, gameplay, graphics, and music delighted me completely. For the type of videogame experience I adore, Crisis Core was just about perfect. When Mr. Tabata was installed as the new director of Final Fantasy XV roughly two years ago, my interest in the game went from “excited” to “OMG can’t wait!!!” With all due respect to former FFXV director Tetsuya Nomura, who has had a legendary videogame career himself, I’m way more excited about a Final Fantasy game with Mr. Tabata in charge.
There are other incredibly talented people working on Final Fantasy XV too. Kazushige Nojima is the game’s main writer. His scenario credits include Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Composer Yoko Shimomura is writing the game’s music. Her awesome tracks can be heard in Street Fighter II, numerous Kingdom Hearts games, several Mario & Luigi titles, and more. I’m hoping that all these talented people come together to form an unforgettable videogame.
While I enjoyed the Final Fantasy XIII games more than most, they certainly didn’t entertain me as much as FFX, FFVI, FFV, FIV, and FFVII (probably in that order). Loads of gamers have blasted the FFXIII games, going as far as saying that the titles tarnished the series’ reputation. Many of these gamers loved what they saw in the TGS 2014 trailer and are dreaming about Final Fantasy XV reestablishing the franchise as the king of RPGs. As for me, I’m just dreaming about a Tabata-directed Final Fantasy game. Hopefully it won’t turn out like Final Fantasy XII; originally directed by one of my all-time favorite developers — Yasumi Matsuno — the game’s creation was a disaster and the end product…wasn’t the best.
Anyway, check out the Final Fantasy XV trailer below and let me know what you think. Do you like what you see? Do you think the game will be a triumphant return for the series? Leave a comment and let me know (please!).
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The characters look like dude bros driving around. I shudder at the impending dialog and bad attempt at a love story.
I can’t tell anything really from the trailer. Looks like an Action RPG. That only means that I will judge it by Mass Effect 2 and those are pretty steep comparisons.
I enjoyed Bravely Default so I might give this a shot. I’ll wait for the reviews and see what the verdict on the characters are first though.
Ha! The car actually reminded me of Johnny Drama’s from Entourage. Did you like Nojima’s other writing? I loved the story in Crisis Core, many people swear by FFVII, FFVIII had a superior story, and I’m a big fan of FFX.
FF7 is a fun game but story wise it was pretty awful. FF8 did have the superior story. FFX was good. I played through it at least twice. However the scene of Titus and Yuna laughing was horrible!
Your expectations are reasonable. Go read fanboy comments on ign proclaiming it a masterpiece already. This title has been in development for 8 years now so that should temper anyone’s anticipation.
I agree that a lot of FFVII is bad, but with Advent Children and Crisis Core it makes much more sense. That said, it shouldn’t take multiple spinoffs to flesh things out into coherence.
While that game has been in development for eight years, I think it’s (arguably) fair to give it a reset since Tabata has only been working on it for two years.
HBD, Ray
Thanks very much, Sir!