Final Fantasy XV |OT| Reset Your Throne

[Deleted member 426]

So do we think the differences in PE will be added in to the main game? Like I'd love to see the shiva mini dungeon, and definitely the additional dialogue for ardyn.

 

[Deleted member 8117]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

 

[Lukar]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabatasa says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

Just further proof that Brian Ashcraft was correct.

Also, wow, I didn't realize that so much of Shimomura's work didn't make it into XV. I wonder if we'll ever hear it in one form or another.

 

[Koozek]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabatasa says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

Ouhh, thanks for posting this!

 

[DiipuSurotu]

 

[Aran]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

What I wouldn't give for there to someday be a full on behind the scenes look for what happened happened to Versus and the transition to XV.

 

[Koozek]

What I wouldn't give for there to someday be a full on behind the scenes look for what happened happened to Versus and the transition to XV.

Click to shrink...

Yeah :( Man, imagine a post-mortem with both Nomura and Tabata! Either Jason Schreier or the Noclip guys have to do it (they already know SE from their FFXIV docu series).

 

[Deleted member 426]

It makes me even happier (even prouder) that Tabata managed to make a working game out of Versus. I was very sceptical of him given Crisis core and type 0, but the finished game is great.

 

[Aran]

Yeah :( Man, imagine a post-mortem with both Nomura and Tabata! Either Jason Schreier or the Noclip guys have to do it (they already know SE from their FFXIV docu series).

Click to shrink...

Something like that by either of these of guys would almost make me faint on the spot. It's such a shame too since it seems like one of the most interesting projects to do a behind the scenes with. I want to know how much of that 4chan leak was true since a lot of people say it only presented a skewed perspective of the game and is not really indicative of the game's development. God, The more I hear about it the more I want it!

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

Still all bd5 fault
Fake news

 

[Rurouni]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

Well. Guess that settles part of it, kudos to Duckroll & Kotaku especially. So Versus XIII really was officially cancelled, Tabata truly did do his best to make XV a reality.

Is it cool of you could upload scans of this, or is that a no-no here?

 

[Koozek]

Well. Guess that settles part of it, kudos to Duckroll & Kotaku especially.

Is it cool of you could upload scans of this, or is that a no-no here?

Click to shrink...

No no.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for posting the info.

I wonder if there will be a day when Versus fanboys understand that the project was an absolute disaster. All the people who claim that XV was a mess, and that Versus XIII would've obviously been better really need to get a grip and stop projecting their headcanons.

It's annoying to read people posts about Stella or "Lord Nomura's glorious vision".

There was never a clear, concrete vision. Tabata was given the almost impossible task to release a critically and financially successful mainline title and he pulled through despite being given a broken, unfinished and disjointed foundation.

Nomura's original vision never saw the light of day because it did not work.

At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.

Click to shrink...

This particular part. Damn.

 

[ala1995ginobiko]

Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimimura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol.

Click to shrink...

This is really interesting, thank you for posting.

 

[Deleted member 8117]

Tbh what interests me most is the Hashimoto comment. It seems than Versus XIII was more "complete" than we initially thought, and the problem was less "we're producing nothing" and more "what we've produced is kinda shitty". I hope we see more of that project later down the line.

 

[Karysonson]

Thanks for posting the info.

I wonder if there will be a day when Versus fanboys understand that the project was an absolute disaster. All the people who claim that XV was a mess, and that Versus XIII would've obviously been better really need to get a grip and stop projecting their headcanons.

It's annoying to read people posts about Stella or "Lord Nomura's glorious vision".

There was never a clear, concrete vision. Tabata was given the almost impossible task to release a critically and financially successful mainline title and he pulled through despite being given a broken, unfinished and disjointed foundation.

Nomura's original vision never saw the light of day because it did not work.



This particular part. Damn.

Click to shrink...

I don't believe the lack of "vision" was an issue. Nomura is pretty anal about what he wants and definitely hates compromising. I just think that as a project, it wasn't able to gather a consistent "momentum" and able to hit a consistent "stride" so the speak. As already stated nomurous times, the Wada era wasn't pretty at all during those days. XIII and XIV were kinda killing the company and the already small Versus team was one of the causalities of that.

I think from a business standpoint, the project was eating up too much money at that point without having a significant enough focus. That's why they probably decided that it needed to be cut all the way down, refined, change directions, and most importantly refocused. Obviously from a SE perspective, a mainline title will have way more focus, manwork, and money poured into it as opposed to a spin off. Now as for why they got Tabata to lead as opposed to Nomura? Honestly, I don't think they believed much in this project at that point and needed it to be released by 2016. They probably knew someone with Nomura's character couldn't get it done so they got rid of him(possibly also to start up the VIIR project). And as we have seen, Tabata will definitely release a game...no matter what the cost. But lets not go into that lol.
Tabata wasn't given a "broken, unfinished and disjointed foundation" to work on, in fact he was literally told to rebuilt it from the very roots. And indeed he did. Much like what the original trailer of Versus stated and what Hashimoto in the actual magazine above stated, this isn't a story of black and white, good versus evil. It's a story of circumstance. "Everyone was doing what they thought was right with these projects. Nobody was deliberately trying to grind the company into the dirt. But there are some things where the problem only becomes clear once the games take shape. Sometimes you only realize where you've gone wrong after the work is finished". - Hashimoto

Sleep well in fantasy sweet prince.

 

[cj_iwakura]

I would happy buy the game again for Episode Iris.

 

[FLCL]

I'm trying to decide if I should get the PC version or just upgrade my PS4 pro version when royal edition hits. There has been no word on the modding except that it's coming or?

 

[Lukar]

I'm trying to decide if I should get the PC version or just upgrade my PS4 pro version when royal edition hits. There has been no word on the modding except that it's coming or?

Click to shrink...

Nope, no word. All we know is that mod support exists in some form. Hopefully we hear something soon.

 

[Koozek]

I'm trying to decide if I should get the PC version or just upgrade my PS4 pro version when royal edition hits. There has been no word on the modding except that it's coming or?

Click to shrink...

Nothing concrete about the mods yet. They said they want to include level editors and let people create their own quests etc. No clue if it comes at launch or later. We'll see.

 

[FLCL]

Ok thanks guys. Was there going to be an ATR or do I remember wrong? Maybe there will be new info there.

 

[Koozek]

Ok thanks guys. Was there going to be an ATR or do I remember wrong? Maybe there will be new info there.

Click to shrink...

Nah, the last one was the final one. They'll share new info in other ways, though.

 

[Karysonson]

Ok thanks guys. Was there going to be an ATR or do I remember wrong? Maybe there will be new info there.

Click to shrink...

ATR's are dead. When new info comes out, it's most likely only going to be in press releases going forward.

 

[Rurouni]

As already stated nomurous times, the Wada era wasn't pretty at all during those days. XIII and XIV were kinda killing the company and the already small Versus team was one of the causalities of that.

Click to shrink...

I feel it was both tbh, a combination of XIII & XIV 1.0's woes + Versus XIII's very own unique issues rooted to its foundation, hence leading to the latter being cancelled/rebooted into FFXV.

 

[Koozek]

I don't believe the lack of "vision" was an issue. Nomura is pretty anal about what he wants and definitely hates compromising. I just think that as a project, it wasn't able to gather a consistent "momentum" and able to hit a consistent "stride" so the speak. As already stated nomurous times, the Wada era wasn't pretty at all during those days. XIII and XIV were kinda killing the company and the already small Versus team was one of the causalities of that.

I think from a business standpoint, the project was eating up too much money at that point without having a significant enough focus. That's why they probably decided that it needed to be cut all the way down, refined, change directions, and most importantly refocused. Obviously from a SE perspective, a mainline title will have way more focus, manwork, and money poured into it as opposed to a spin off. Now as for why they got Tabata to lead as opposed to Nomura? Honestly, I don't think they believed much in this project at that point and needed it to be released by 2016. They probably knew someone with Nomura's character couldn't get it done so they got rid of him(possibly also to start up the VIIR project). And as we have seen, Tabata will definitely release a game...no matter what the cost. But lets not go into that lol.
Tabata wasn't given a "broken, unfinished and disjointed foundation" to work on, in fact he was literally told to rebuilt it from the very roots. And indeed he did. Much like what the original trailer of Versus stated and what Hashimoto in the actual magazine above stated, this isn't a story of black and white, good versus evil. It's a story of circumstance. "Everyone was doing what they thought was right with these projects. Nobody was deliberately trying to grind the company into the dirt. But there are some things where the problem only becomes clear once the games take shape. Sometimes you only realize where you've gone wrong after the work is finished". - Hashimoto

Sleep well in fantasy sweet prince.

Click to shrink...

Versus had around 200 people working on it though between 2010 and 2012 before Tabata was brought in. There were comments from Roberto Ferrari who joined in 2010 and he mentioned how disorganized everything was and how the story kept changing all the time. Duckroll heard stuff about Versus not having a fun foundation, too. That kinda sounds like a lack of vision to me and not a question of a lack of ressources. The decision to make it a mainline title was considered in 2008 already and then decided in 2011 before Tabata came in, btw.


The comments from Roberto Ferrari, the Co-Character Designer (he designed Gentiana, Ardyn, Aranea, Cid, Cidney, Iris etc.), who worked on Versus starting from 2010 until 2013 around when Tabata's team came in.

I wasn't part of the 2010 group from XIII that "would have scratched their bellies" (and then turned into the XV one), I came into May 2010. I know I was called in when a (female) designer resigned since she wasn't able to get any kind of approval from the art director. Then from 2010 till the end of 2011 I worked on the designs I got assigned with, without any big issues. That's why when the team got resized from 200 workers to around 20 in 2012 (right before the arrival of Tabata and the Type-0 team), I was still there and worked with the newcomers till 2013. Then I left because I followed mister Nomura.
I had no story planned for Gentiana, but I can confirm you that the writers changed the script I received in 2011.

[…] I stand behind what Sakaguchi said about big budget games development: it's not worth it anymore. But they are also very disorganized. The staff -200 souls- had to work when the story still wasn't completely defined. In fact, this story kept changing every 3 months and the definitive delivery date for the game was for the end of 2014 (who would have thought it would have been pushed back to November 2016?).

Source: http://www.novacrystallis.com/2016/12/artist-roberto-ferrari-speaks-designs-final-fantasy-xv/

Click to shrink...

The duckroll posts for whoever missed them:

From an interview with the FFXV team:

The team is not so open to tell us the story of what went wrong with Final Fantasy Versus 13, the game that morphed into Final Fantasy 15 in 2012, however. That may never be known (one Square employee tells me that Tabata and Hasegawa began telling him the story, over a drunken dinner, last year, and didn't stop talking for three hours) but there are obvious clues. In 2001 Final Fantasy The Spirits Within, a Hollywood film that borrowed the video game series' title and little else, lost approximately $94 million at the box office. In the aftermath, the film's director and Final Fantasy's originator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, was first side-lined, then shunted from the company. Senior staff, whom Sakaguchi had hired, soon followed.

Tetsuya Nomura, the artist who designed many of Square's best-known characters was promoted to the role of director on one of the company's next major titles, Final Fantasy Versus 13, to plug the gap. Despite his studied nonchalance in interviews, Nomura, now one of the company's most senior staff was reportedly an anxious director (during one event in Tokyo a few years ago, when early footage of the game was shown to fans, Nomura sat backstage in front of a monitor relaying live footage of the crowd's faces, so he could watch their reaction in real time.) The game lunged in different directions and, at some point, Nomura was removed from the project. Presumably to recoup sunk costs, the game was retooled and retitled as the next entry to the company's flagship series.

Tabata, who until this point had only worked on relatively minor projects, was promoted to director. He arrived to find an exhausted and fretful team. The new director's treatment was severe and controversial. "The entire staff was 'deconstructed' in a sense," explains Akira Iwata, a senior artist at Business Division 2. "Tabata created a flat environment; he got rid of the hierarchy. Everyone was put on the same level and had to make the argument for what they should be doing on the game. Some were freed up to do things that they'd longed to do but had previously been unable to take on. Others felt like they'd been demoted."

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-27-finishing-final-fantasy

Click to shrink...

 

[cj_iwakura]

O my god lol!

Click to shrink...

+1 for Off My Throne Lightning.

 

[Vashetti]

Absolute travesty if that unused Shimimura music never sees the light of day.

 

[Ishiro]

There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.

Click to shrink...

That reminded of something Koji Fox said in the NoClip documentary about FFXIV 1.0... except they ended up going live with that shit anyway.
The Wada era was truly this company's darkest time.

 

[Koozek]

Man, that Edge issue is amazing. So many cool anectodes in the interviews.

 

[ala1995ginobiko]

Someone should get Tabata/Nomura drunk and then ask all the questions

 

[Karysonson]

Versus had around 200 people working on it though between 2010 and 2012 before Tabata was brought in. There were comments from Roberto Ferrari who joined in 2010 and he mentioned how disorganized everything was and how the story kept changing all the time. Duckroll heard stuff about Versus not having a fun foundation, too. That kinda sounds like a lack of vision to me and not a question of a lack of ressources. The decision to make it a mainline title was considered in 2008 already and then decided in 2011 before Tabata came in, btw.


The comments from Roberto Ferrari, the Co-Character Designer (he designed Gentiana, Ardyn, Aranea, Cid, Cidney, Iris etc.), who worked on Versus starting from 2010 until 2013 around when Tabata's team came in.



The duckroll posts for whoever missed them:

From an interview with the FFXV team:

Click to shrink...

Ah yes, forgot about the Robert comments. That would indeed paint a different light, however my comment about the need for reorganizing and refocusing still stand. I think the foundation wasn't in a solid light for whatever reason to the point where the added staff weren't being properly utilized. I'm not sure that can be considered strictly a "Nomura issue" considering that same team(Tokyo I believe?) are going onto finish KH3 this year. I also believe some of the members are also working on FFVIIR? I could be wrong though.

As for script changes, that fits in with the "disorganization" and whatnot. And just kinda fits in with development in general, hell a XV worker that leaked some stuff online pre release stated the game got rewritten a year before release in 2015 lol.
Ultimately, there was some kind of "circumstance" with that project that may never be properly told. I find it hard to believe "fun" was that much of an issue considering not only previous works, but also putting him onto arguably the biggest remake in the industry. It wouldn't make sense to do that if he couldn't make an "enjoyable" experience. I do however believe with the notion that SE didn't believe in the project and therefore didn't give it the full production light.

Speaking of which, they put 200 people on a project that they didn't feel like putting into production? That's...interesting. I think theres definitely a lot of perspectives to this issue(some maybe even conflicting), but I don't think "vision" was an issue...just literally everything around said vision lol.

Again though, I think an important thing or link to see here is SE's lack of belief in the project and the mandatory 2016 deadline. Those two factors definitely lead the decisions on this project.

 

[Karysonson]

Absolute travesty if that unused Shimimura music never sees the light of day.

Click to shrink...

Sadly that's just development in general. It's kinda why Omnis Lacrima was changed a bit in tone and used only for none plot important fights and why Somnus went from being the main theme song to only being played once(Twice if you count the title screen).

They might release a Plus album at some point though, after the development is over.

 

[Karysonson]

Someone should get Tabata/Nomura drunk and then ask all the questions

Click to shrink...

A staff member apparently did(forgot where it was stated. An interview maybe?), Tabata ranted about it non stop for 2 hours lol.

 

[Vashetti]

Sadly that's just development in general. It's kinda why Omnis Lacrima was changed a bit in tone and used only for none plot important fights and why Somnus went from being the main theme song to only being played once(Twice if you count the title screen).

They might release a Plus album at some point though, after the development is over.

Click to shrink...

I don't acknowledge the changed Omnis Lacrima, they ruined it.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

I don't acknowledge the changed Omnis Lacrima, they ruined it.

Click to shrink...

No they didn't. The new version fits a boss theme a lot better.

 

[Deleted member 8117]

I want a clean version of 2009's Somnus. Easily my favorite version.

 

[Vashetti]

No they didn't. The new version fits a boss theme a lot better.

Click to shrink...

The original is the hype-ist shit.

~2:45 in this trailer still gives me chills

 

[Koozek]

A staff member apparently did(forgot where it was stated. An interview maybe?), Tabata ranted about it non stop for 2 hours lol.

Click to shrink...

From an interview with the FFXV team :D

The team is not so open to tell us the story of what went wrong with Final Fantasy Versus 13, the game that morphed into Final Fantasy 15 in 2012, however. That may never be known (one Square employee tells me that Tabata and Hasegawa began telling him the story, over a drunken dinner, last year, and didn't stop talking for three hours) but there are obvious clues. In 2001 Final Fantasy The Spirits Within, a Hollywood film that borrowed the video game series' title and little else, lost approximately $94 million at the box office. In the aftermath, the film's director and Final Fantasy's originator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, was first side-lined, then shunted from the company. Senior staff, whom Sakaguchi had hired, soon followed.

Tetsuya Nomura, the artist who designed many of Square's best-known characters was promoted to the role of director on one of the company's next major titles, Final Fantasy Versus 13, to plug the gap. Despite his studied nonchalance in interviews, Nomura, now one of the company's most senior staff was reportedly an anxious director (during one event in Tokyo a few years ago, when early footage of the game was shown to fans, Nomura sat backstage in front of a monitor relaying live footage of the crowd's faces, so he could watch their reaction in real time.) The game lunged in different directions and, at some point, Nomura was removed from the project. Presumably to recoup sunk costs, the game was retooled and retitled as the next entry to the company's flagship series.

Tabata, who until this point had only worked on relatively minor projects, was promoted to director. He arrived to find an exhausted and fretful team. The new director's treatment was severe and controversial. "The entire staff was 'deconstructed' in a sense," explains Akira Iwata, a senior artist at Business Division 2. "Tabata created a flat environment; he got rid of the hierarchy. Everyone was put on the same level and had to make the argument for what they should be doing on the game. Some were freed up to do things that they'd longed to do but had previously been unable to take on. Others felt like they'd been demoted."

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-11-27-finishing-final-fantasy

Click to shrink...

 

[Koozek]

Ah yes, forgot about the Robert comments. That would indeed paint a different light, however my comment about the need for reorganizing and refocusing still stand. I think the foundation wasn't in a solid light for whatever reason to the point where the added staff weren't being properly utilized. I'm not sure that can be considered strictly a "Nomura issue" considering that same team(Tokyo I believe?) are going onto finish KH3 this year. I also believe some of the members are also working on FFVIIR? I could be wrong though.

As for script changes, that fits in with the "disorganization" and whatnot. And just kinda fits in with development in general, hell a XV worker that leaked some stuff online pre release stated the game got rewritten a year before release in 2015 lol.
Ultimately, there was some kind of "circumstance" with that project that may never be properly told. I find it hard to believe "fun" was that much of an issue considering not only previous works, but also putting him onto arguably the biggest remake in the industry. It wouldn't make sense to do that if he couldn't make an "enjoyable" experience. I do however believe with the notion that SE didn't believe in the project and therefore didn't give it the full production light.

Speaking of which, they put 200 people on a project that they didn't feel like putting into production? That's...interesting. I think theres definitely a lot of perspectives to this issue(some maybe even conflicting), but I don't think "vision" was an issue...just literally everything around said vision lol.

Again though, I think an important thing or link to see here is SE's lack of belief in the project and the mandatory 2016 deadline. Those two factors definitely lead the decisions on this project.

Click to shrink...

The KH3 team is in Osaka, pretty far away from Toyko (iirc, they're still part of BD3 though). The FFVIIR team is mostly the FFXIII team plus some from KH and Dissidia, and obviously a lot of new hirees since they shifted it to internal development 1-2 years ago.

About the thing from duckroll 's comments, I guess we'd have to ask him what he meant with "put in production".

 

[Rurouni]

I'm fine with either version of Omnis Lacrima lol

 

[Caiops]

I'm curious why the Type 0 didn't want to merge with th the Nomura team, and where all of them is now, helping Osaka Team with KH3?

 

[Karysonson]

The KH3 team is in Osaka, pretty far away from Toyko (iirc, they're still part of BD3 though). The FFVIIR team is mostly the FFXIII team plus some from KH and Dissidia, and obviously a lot of new hirees since they shifted it to internal development 1-2 years ago.

About the thing from duckroll 's comments, I guess we'd have to ask him what he meant with "put in production".

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Thought so as well, but apparently I read this line backwards two days ago which changed my perception lol.

"According to Square Enix, everyone in the Osaka studio is working on Kingdom Hearts 3, with 100 people from its Tokyo studio also involved"
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-kingdom-hearts-3-trailer-shows-monsters-inc-wo/1100-6456687/

 

[Aran]

I'm curious why the Type 0 didn't want to merge with th the Nomura team, and where all of them is now, helping Osaka Team with KH3?

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The reason stated was that the Versus project had a terrible reputation which is why they were afraid of wanting to merge with Nomura's team. As for your second question they are currently working on making new content for FFXV in addition to working on Tabata's new ip, which is right now in pre-production.

 

[Caiops]

The reason stated was that the Versus project had a terrible reputation which is why they were afraid of wanting to merge with Nomura's team. As for your second question they are currently working on making new content for FFXV in addition to working on Tabata's new ip, which is right now in pre-production.

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I asked about the original Nomura Team.

 

[Koozek]

The reason stated was that the Versus project had a terrible reputation which is why they were afraid of wanting to merge with Nomura's team. As for your second question they are currently working on making new content for FFXV in addition to working on Tabata's new ip, which is right now in pre-production.

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Think they meant what the Nomura team is doing if I understood that right?^^ Because the Tabata team that at first didn't want to merge with the Nomura Versus team did go on to work on FFXV in the end.

EDIT: Ah, beaten.

 

[Aran]

I asked about the original Nomura Team.

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Oops, sorry about that.

 

[Koozek]

Man, you could make dozens of threads from parts of these interviews in this Edge issue :D Here are pieces from the Tabata section:


Tabata on Versus:

Hajime Tabata:
In 2012 I took a phone call from our previous CEO, Yoichi Wada. He told me that there was a great deal of trouble with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a separate project to Final Fantasy XIII. He told me that he was considering whether or not to cancel the project. If he did, he said, then he'd want to really start it up from scratch again and take it off in a new direction, and maybe have me take on that project.

There are problems with every videogame project, of course. But with Final Fantasy Versus XIII the period of trying to fix the issues just went on way too long. It had already been in development for six years by that point. It couldn't carry on in the same way. That was when I became involved and started to change the project towards becoming Final Fantasy XV.

Hashimoto:
Everyone was doing what they thought was right with these projects. Nobody was deliberately trying to grind the company into the dirt. But there are some things where the problem only becomes clear once the games take shape. Sometimes you only realise where you've gone wrong after the work is finished.

Tabata:
I didn't actually say "Yes" straightaway to the offer. I took it to my team and we discussed it all. In actual fact, about 90 per cent of the team were opposed to taking it on.

There was a lot of antipathy, because my team didn't want to merge with Tetsuya Nomura's, and they knew about the snags the project had encountered.

It took about six months to reduce resentments and take control. Creating a team where we could all work together and be on the same page when we entered the pre-production stage for Final Fantasy XV was crucial, so I paid a lot of attention to making sure the team integrated well and worked together. I even gave a motivational speech.

[...]

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Tabata on the difficulties of modern AAA game development:

Tabata:
One of the big things in doing a project like this – a numbered Final Fantasy game, such a big part of the overall business strategy for the company – is that you really do come to realise how all the different departments in the company are supporting a project. People who aren't involved at all in the actual development of the game, how they're involved was something that really struck me.

Also, the way that the difficulty level of developing a project just expands so rapidly when it becomes a project of that level. To meet the needs of the fans, and give them what they want, is always going to be a hard thing, whatever level you're working at. But when you're moving onto the higher technical level, the scope of the project becomes so much more difficult. It's as if you're making a toy rocket, for example, and then moving on to make a much more professional, proper rocket – the technology, the level of detail and design that is involved in that, is just so much higher.

I had dinner with Naoki Yoshida, the director of Final Fantasy XIV, a little while back, and we were discussing our experiences of our two respective projects. What we both came to agree on very quickly, and a dilemma that both myself and he seemed to have, was how a lot of people in the company don't seem to understand how hard making a top-level triple-A game using current technology is. We really were talking about the best way to get more people in the company to understand that.

Hashimoto:
I trust these new guys. It's far better to have them in charge rather than the older generation.

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Sakaguchi on meeting Tabata and his view on FF nowadays:

Sakaguchi:
After moving away from Square Enix there was a need to remove my influence from the Final Fantasy series for various reasons. I'd started a new studio with Mistwalker, and there was a risk people would want to follow me from Square. As such, the CEO at the time wanted to remove any influence I had from the series. There was a long period where I stayed away. That changed with the arrival of the new CEO, Yosuke Matsuda. His thinking is different.

He acknowledges that I am the creator and the originator of Final Fantasy and could see that, from a promotional point of view, it would be good to have me on board again to send a positive message. That was about the time Final Fantasy XV was in development. Masuda introduced me to the director, Tabata, and we had dinner together. It was the first time we'd met.

Tabata:
We spoke at length and Sakaguchi had some critical points to bring up, which he shared. He always has a lot more to say when he's drunk. I have to take him out properly if I really want to get some information out of him.

Sakaguchi:
He said to me that night: "In my team we believe that a Final Fantasy game is a place to try new things." This guy, I thought to myself, he says some good things. Maybe I can get on board with him?

Tabata:
At that first meeting Sakaguchi told me that I could ask him anything I wanted. So I said: "How much money do you have?" And he replied: "You can ask me anything but that."

Sakaguchi:
So you see, while there was a long dark period, I am now allowed to talk pretty freely to Final Fantasy people. When I set off on my own path, Final Fantasy seemed to follow me around; it almost felt like a burden. But I've been making games away from Square for about 15 years and it's better now. It's a little like if your daughter gets married to a man you really can't stand. And then they have a grandson together and he's cute and it brings you back together. That's kind of how I feel about Final Fantasy now.

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And there's much more about the whole FF series from all the big names. You should really consider buying this issue digitally from the Google Play Store or wherever to support the great work even if you already read some scans/quotes. Edge has been doing amazing features.

 

[Falk]

They might release a Plus album at some point though, after the development is over.

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Highly doubt this would include anything from before the transition to XV that wasn't used in XV. There's a lot of (expensive or otherwise, depending if live recordings) work that goes into getting music to the point where it's publicly presentable, and I don't see that happening for concept pieces that aren't going to be used.

No they didn't. The new version fits a boss theme a lot better.

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Frank opinion here: I really, really wish the entire thing made it over to the new version, even if I think the new version sounds better.

 

[Deleted member 4869]

Highly doubt this would include anything from before the transition to XV that wasn't used in XV. There's a lot of (expensive or otherwise, depending if live recordings) work that goes into getting music to the point where it's publicly presentable, and I don't see that happening for concept pieces that aren't going to be used.



Frank opinion here: I really, really wish the entire thing made it over to the new version, even if I think the new version sounds better.

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Ah definitely. A "complete edition" of the theme would be great.

By the way Falk, do you know what the lyrics to Omnis Lacrima are? I don't think they were ever officially revealed.

 

[Falk]

They're Latin, they're specific (well, obviously, since a choir would have needed to track it, lol) but no, not up to me to post them on an internet forum if that's what you're asking.