http://www.gamerevolution.com/featu...lks-dlc-final-fantasys-future-nintendo-switch
On FFXV's narrative issues:
On the series demographic:
Much more at the link.
On FFXV's narrative issues:
GR: ONE OF THE NEWEST UPDATES WILL "FILL IN PLOT HOLES." DID ANYONE NOTICE THOSE PLOT HOLES IN DEVELOPMENT, AND IT WAS JUST TOO LATE TO TURN BACK? AT WHAT POINT DID YOU NOTICE THOSE?
TABATA: While developing the game, up until release, we didn't have that awareness. It was hard to see (things that required more explanation). What we valued most highly was that core experience of goin gon a journey with your friends. In order to realize that, we wanted to have enough content in there to make it feel right and to feel like that works. We were more worried about, "If that's the full 100%, how much is that is story, combat, the adventure?"
We put everything we had into it. We put our lives on the line. We were like madmen just trying to complete the game. At that time, we just couldn't see outside of that, just had to focus on getting the game out. Obviously, after we released the game, we started getting feedback, and then we started to realize maybe some things weren't as fully explained as they could've been.
GR: SO USER FEEDBACK PLAYED A PART IN NOTICING SOME OF THOSE (PLOT HOLES)?
TABATA: User feedback was important, but it was also important for us to take that step back and take a look at what we'd made, as well. To complete a game, you've got to make the decision at some point, to say, "No, that's where we have to stop." You're going to face that issue. There's no team out there that completed a game and didn't have any regrets -- that thinks what they've put out is perfect.
Looking back, we see things and think we could've, but, no we [had so much going on that we] couldn't have put them in. You only see after you've completed (development of) the game.
Going back and doing that was a really great opportunity and learning experience for us. I'm very glad that we made that decision.
On the series demographic:
GR: WELL, I TEACH A WIDE VARIETY OF STUDENTS, SO, SOME HAVE SMARTPHONES, YEAH.
TABATA: There are lots of people, we're finding out now, whose first encounter with Final Fantasy was through a smartphone game.
GR: OH WOW, I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT.
TABATA: We did a survey recently about people in their teens, and we asked where they first encountered Final Fantasy, and about 70% of them said it was a smartphone game...
That's why I think if you just sweep it away and do a companion app and say "Okay, we'll leave it at that," that's not going to work properly, if you don't make a proper entry to the series that way. That would put a barrier up, to the series in the future, if we didn't take into account what these people are actually playing games on.
GR: MY MIND IS BLOWN. IN THAT SURVEY, WHAT GAME WAS IT, THAT THEY POINTED TO?
TABATA: I don't remember exactly the title, but it was a free download. The sort of thing that's completely different than what a longtime series fan would've said was their first Final Fantasy game.
But then, in that survey, the people who played this game, they didn't pay any money for it, and practically none of them would go on to play the console games, so I thought that was a really bad thing.
GR: WAS IT ALL THE BRAVEST?
TABATA: Which one was All the Bravest?
GR: I'VE NEVER PLAYED IT, BUT I KNOW IT HAS A BUNCH OF CHARACTERS IN A STRAIGHT LINE AND UH....
SQUARE ENIX USA: It's like a tactics-style game.
TABATA: [The survey participants] didn't always say the name of the game, they'd just say, "Oh it was a smartphone game."
GR: I FIND THIS FASCINATING.
TABATA: That's where we're at now, demographically. Final Fantasy has traditionally attracted [players] mostly in ages up through their 30s and 40s, but with Final Fantasy XV, we've taken that down. The majority of our audience is like in the early 20s. That's not an easy ting to do. It's really hard to expand the age range and demographic of a series.
In order to do that, you can't just look at things from your own subjective perspective, you have to go out and see how things are, on the ground. Then you've got to create information that appeals to those people and gets to them, in the media that they watch and that they do. It wasn't an easy thing to do. It was a hard, hard thing.
Much more at the link.
