Square Enix’s Hajime Tabata, who served as the director for 2016’s Final Fantasy 15, recently spoke with GameSpot about what the future holds for him and his team in terms of their upcoming projects, and his answers were intriguing, to say the least. Tabata talked about whether or not his next project and/or Final Fantasy 16 will be an open world game, and how Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild could have an influence on it.
When asked if his next game too would be an open world title like its predecessor, Tabata was hesitant to confirm anything either way. He said that while he did not know if it truly would be a proper open world game this early in its development, he did confirm it would indeed have “the overall experience that users get from playing in a massive area”.
He was then asked about Breath of the Wild, and about how its success as a massive open world title might influence future projects. Tabata said that, due to the Switch’s stock shortages in Japan, he hasn’t been able to play the game yet, but based on what he’s heard of it from his friends and colleagues, he can tell that it is “very polished, almost a perfect game”.
“Our goals are probably to take that experience that players felt with Breath of the Wild, but with our own technology and our own knowhow,” Tabata said. “We have in our disposal to create a very, very high-quality game with a strong visual element to it, while creating a world that’s really immersive and really beautiful. That’s probably our goals in terms of what we want to be with our next project.”
You can read the full interview through the link provided enough. Meanwhile, tell us about whether or not you think the next Final Fantasy should be an open world title through your comments below.