While there is still a loyal following among those who have played a ton of the titles in the Final Fantasy series, the developers of this iteration know they need to treat Final Fantasy 15 as something that is just starting out. The game’s director Director Hajime Tabata recently sat down with Game Informer and talked about how the dev team basically had to start over and win back the fans.
“We can’t assume that everyone is expecting or desiring Final Fantasy. This is the current state of Final Fantasy, and we need to bring all our efforts together in order to communicate what Final Fantasy is about and the good aspects about it…We are no longer the only triple-A RPG out there, and ever since the PS2 and onward, a lot of the Western [developers] have gained prominence both in size and in terms of technological progress.”
“A lot of the staff on the Final Fantasy development team have been with the franchise a long time, they have this sense that they’re special because they’re developing a Final Fantasy title and whatever they create will be well received. That kind of mindset had been ingrained in them for a very long time, and so we had to start by resetting everything to create something that would appeal to the current generation,” Tabata added.
Tabata has been talking quite a bit about how much he and his team have been working to get the excitement worked up about Final Fantasy 15. Earlier this month the director made it clear that he knew the popularity of the series had waned a bit and how they are planning to fix it. Final Fantasy 15 is due out on the PS4 and Xbox One on September 30.
