Next Final Fantasy Game Could Be Open-World Again; FF15 Director Talks Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Final Fantasy XV is on its way to PC, but that may not be the last time we see an open-world game in the series.

[PhoenixUp]

Except for FFX & FFXIII, most mainline games in the series has had an open ended design

[Radiozero]

That isn't really true. You can explore, but it's not open world.

[rainslacker]

Is there really much of a difference? Open world is basically just exploration with tasks to do. Even the exploration aspects usually had things to do while you explored. Maybe not as robust as you see in "open world" games, but open world is basically just a big world with stuff to do, with no particular order to do such things. Even those open world games have restrictions that don't usually allow you to go everywhere right away.

[Gardenia]

FFXV was more like a big map, not a world. I like the older Final Fantasy that had different continents and whole planets were you could fly around in an airship. I guess the technology and the time it take to create all that is too much nowadays

Makes me wonder what the FFVII remake is going to look like

[_-EDMIX-_]

Ok, you get a airship in FFXV

https://youtu.be/pN2o-E3KNE...

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I would prefer a return to the style of older games, the last decade or Final Fantasy hasn't been that great for me with a few exceptions.

[-Foxtrot]

Hopefully Tabata isn't directing this time round

[Angainor7]

If Nomura was still on, FFXV would've been a late 2020 release.

[TheColbertinator]

No problem. At least we would have gotten a game living up to the FF name.

[-Foxtrot]

Nothing really to do with Nomura I just don't think Tabata did a good job

Some of the things he said when he took over just sounded arogant and like he was thinking about himself rather then what players would want. I remember saying he did something to the battle system because he liked, not fans.

Nomura might be slow but the thing is the guy is bounced around a lot, it's not like it's him doing it where he just starts a project, gets half way and goes "DONE" while walking out of the room.

Nomura's vision for FF15, when it was FF Versus seemed better in my opinion and the plot seemed more interesting.

I just don't want another FF game where it's missing content which is mostly development and story stuff which should have been in the game. Lets face it after Chapter 8 the story takes a nose dive and it becomes a race to the finish rather then actually giving it a good second half where it's supposed to pick up and get better. The ending was so sweet but it's ruined by the build up and lack of development.

[_-EDMIX-_]

That's a possibility but who knows. I think people need to also consider that we don't really know 100% exactly what either director was going to keep or remove if you consider it's not as if everything involving Final Fantasy 15 was changed in such a short amount of time.

@TheCol,-every Final Fantasy is different in terms of concept and you actually don't really know what no Maurice final game was ever going to be like for all we know Final Fantasy 15 as it is it's mostly what he wanted anyway.

I'm sorry but you guys might need to seriously give up on this strange fantasy that the previous director was going to make some completely different game than he himself has confirmed the concept of the game is what he wanted.

A bunch of guys driving around in open world fighting monsters.

I'm having an extremely hard time believing that concept drastically changed. The story probably changed a bit yes but even the original writer confirmed he was okay with the changes.

I'm simply saying you guys don't really know if it would have been this amazing Final Fantasy game like you guys might be exaggerating if the director stayed because you're not even 100% aware of what was specifically changed in terms of every last function. I'm very doubtful it was even that much if you factor how many years it was in development before the change of directors.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@fox-that's the thing you don't even really know every last one of the features that was even contributed to each director for all you know a lot of the things you don't like about 15 were originally always going to be there so this literally sounds like somebody wishing something to be true with really no evidence to support the theory.

This is seriously just sounds like a bunch of people desperately pretending that the trailer was this amazing game in their mind what's 0 flaws when they have no clue how the final product was ever going to turn out for all you know Final Fantasy 15 with the exception of a few character changes is probably exactly what the original director wanted.

Mind you I've never heard him publicly say otherwise. Of course I wish Final Fantasy 15 turned out the way I thought it would in my mind but at the end of the day I think anyone could say this about any game on Earth you have to factor you're basically making up a game from trailers in your mind 😂😂😂

I'm sorry but we just don't know how bad the story was always going to be.

[Adrian_v01]

@edmix

You need to write more concisely. Your posta are always so long and most of the post is repeating what you already said. Anyways, things we know were taken out from Nomura's version:

-all characters playable
-unique mechanics for each character (e.g. fps mode for Prompto)
-buildings that can be climbed for better vertical combat
-vehicles like Magitechs that can be entered and controlled
-a full story from Nocts childhood to his grown up days (no anime or movie)
-Shakespear-ish love story with Stella opposing Noctis (Stella wasn't the oracle in the original story, Gentiana was the Oracle)
-grimreaper worship which was a big part of the story but taken out to avoid a mature rating
-generally more mature themes and details (e.g. Noct breaking opponents' limbs during battle)

These things are known and enough for me and many others to say that the original was more intriguing.

[_-EDMIX-_]

@adri-I understand.

Great post but at the end of the day a lot of that is still unknown if it would of even been a great mechanic. All were really know is what was shown in the trailer and we also have to understand that it was changed to Final Fantasy 15 while it was still under the previous director which means a lot of those changes were okayed by that director in the first place. I think it's still an unknown. All we have is our imaginations to tell us that result would have been better but if resulted in a bad game we probably would have just went back and made those statements about some other trailer I don't really know what that game would have turned out to be and it's clear they might have had great reason to change those features.

I mean you're saying a mature tone but you also saying this off of a few minutes of a trailer versus 100 hours of the actual game. I honestly don't know how the other version would have turned out and for all we know it's seriously might have been just as bad. Trust me I know the "What If" part of us wants to say that what we saw would have been better but I don't know if all that we saw in the trailer would have turned out the way any of us are imagining. I legitimately believe lots of fans have essentially made up a fake game in their minds based on what they all individually wanted those games to actually be for all we know Final Fantasy 15 was always simply going to be a "okay" game and not this magical title that we've built up in our minds.

[Adrian_v01]

@edmix

I don't really dig the 'Nomura approved it' excuse, this is Japan we are talking about. Imagine Nomura didn't agree with what the final game looks like (which I find very likely as he's someone known to take time to plan every tiniest detail which XV certainly lacks), he would still have given the same statement out of respect for his superiors. This isn't the West where everyone's open about that stuff.

Second, it's difficult to talk in what ifs, yeah, but no matter the direction I just wish XV could have been completed. ::Spoilers ahead:: I didn't really care when Luna died, there was no effort to make the player like her; I didn't find the quarrel between Gladio and Noct believable, it came and passed out of nowhere; I didn't find Ignis' blindness impactfull, I dig that they made him unable to fight properly at first but this was too rushed as well; Ardyn had the potential to be a likable villain, one whose motivation the player can understand and feel sympathy for (the original Shakespeare quote used by Nomura applies to him best I believe -Nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so- but his character wasn't flashed out enough. Disregard all the change in mechanics, just imagine we had a game that starts off with Noct as a child and we witness his friendship with Luna, his relationship with his father, the attack on Insomnia, the main party's back stories, etc. it would have been the best FF in years.

Also, there is a leak of the original Versus storyline by Nomura. It mentions that Gentiana was the original oracle and wore a samurai-ish outfit but was redesigned, which was later confirmed by the costume designer of XV. After the leak of XV's story I find the possibility that this leak is true high. In case it was the true story, it was a masterpiece we will never get to play.

[Erik7357]

The combat system though controversial before it came out will probably be implemented in the next FF because after it came it it proved to be the highlight of FF15.

[-Foxtrot]

It was good but the magic was "meh" and the summons were like not even in your control

[Steveoreno1]

I hated the combat. Worst battle camera ever.

[rainslacker]

I actually really liked the combat, but it didn't really feel like Final Fantasy. It felt more hack and slash. While there was some strategy to it, it wasn't really all that robust. I actually felt the FFXIII system was better, it's just it couldn't really be seen except on the more difficult enemies.

I'd like them to find a nice balance between the old systems and something more cinematic since that's the way they handle successive FF games. Seems they're struggling in the transition between old school and more modern game play principals.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Magic was ridiculously over powered, that's pretty much how I won most of my fights despite being under leveled. I would prefer ATB or turn based myself but to each their own.

[Nara_shikamaru]

I disagree. Tabata had to take someone else's project that was incomplete and in disarray and shape it into something that would bring the company a good amount of profit. He was given a strict deadline and told to make a game That would appeal to various target markets. He got the project going and changed it appropriately to the instructions he was given. Now im not saying that everything bad wasn't his fault, but i think that considering the circumstances, that he did a good job.
I would love to see a game that he has total freedom with and can take his time to make. And according to his interviews, he seems very knowledgable about what games are considered good by the market base and why they are considered good. I think he definately knows why FFXV gets hate and has definately learned from it.
Also, i don't see why everyone praises Nomura so much. He hasn't actually directed a complete game yet and only had some involvement in FF7 and i believe a few others. Where do you guys get all this faith from?

[_-EDMIX-_]

To be honest I'm not sure where ever really going to know if anything he really did really negatively affected the game to the extent that many have exaggerated, you also have to consider that the previous director Nomura made it pretty clear that is concept was still intact so I just don't believe that a game that's been in development for 10 years drastically turned into a different game it's very very very likely and I think the most realistic that what we got from Final Fantasy 15 was largely in part what we were going to get with the previous director's vision.

[-Foxtrot]

If you read all the info and look at the early gameplay videos, especially the ones around Stella (now Luna) with their Romeo and Juliet themed story while not only bring love interests but enemies fighting one another I think it's safe to say it's nothing like the game we got

Hell the film we got used assests from the early stages of Versus. That means Noctis would have been in the city when the empire attacks and that alone changes everything.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I've got the feeling they have changed the story significantly at least once but unfortunately we'll never know for sure. We only have the trailers and interviews leading all the way up to the final game to know that some things did change.

[DevilOgreFish]

i hope they make good on that level editor for XV. the game can use more places to explore.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Cool

[Clown_Syndr0me]

The world was a bit bland IMO so I hope they can expand on it and make more variety.

I didn't hate the combat nearly as much as I thought I would but I really hated the summon system.

I'm up for open world as long as it is done way better this time around.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

This is what annoyed mean about the open world, it was pretty barren as far as cities or town (outposts) are concerned. I really wanted to wander around big cities like Insomnia or Niflheim.

[Asuka]

Eh. i would prefer to hear more emphases on the story, and not about whether it'll be open world or not. haven't played an FF with a decent story in a long time imo.

[rainslacker]

This 100%. Open world means nothing if its as bland as we saw in FFXV. FF is about the story, backed up by the game play and copious things to do. The story in FFXV was just boring, and seemed practically non-existent, and was only made worse due to the open world nature of the game.

The biggest problem I find with any open world game is this disconnect between the urgency of the story, and the desire to expore the game. While this exist in more traditional FF games as well, the open world exploration of something like FFXV didn't even make sense. Fetch quests, or most of the mundane stuff in FFXV was just a distraction, and seemed completely out of place given the circumstances surrounding the character. because of this, any narrative about the story felt forced, as it seemed more about the guys being buddies, rather than focusing on avenging his fathers death, restoring his kingdom, saving his supposed love, protecting the people, and overall, saving the world. Every side thing to do belied the actual gravity of the story, because it was all completely unrelated.

[Asuka]

Wow. Not gonna lie but if i was going to sum up my thoughts on the story about FFXV i don't think i could have done it better. 100% agree

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I just wanted to add, they obviously dropped alot of plot points that was never really explained, e.g. Noctic's sickness

[rainslacker]

@FFFanatic

I think the game felt incomplete. Not on the level of say MGSV or anything, but seems a lot of things were left out, as there was a huge break between Noctis being gone for a long time, and then coming back and the game sped through the chapter.

There was tons of stuff to do, but most of that content wasn't even story related, and I think the story suffered for it.

I think in the attempt to make the game more open world, they lost sight of making sure the core story was solid, interesting, and well fleshed out. It was the weakest story in the series to be honest. For all the criticism that FFXIII ot over it's story, it was at least complete, if not poorly delivered. In FFXV it was incomplete, and poorly delivered. It had less interesting main characters, and even most of the side characters were uninteresting. Those NPC's that were integral to the plot were the most interesting, and even they felt watered down.

[Exvalos]

Woah pause friggin Tabata could not get a switch, lol I somehow doubt that.

[Nara_shikamaru]

A switch of his own, for his own household i imagine. Because he did say that they ran tests for FFXV on the switch, so i guess the only switch he has access to is their testing one at the studio

[Sokol]

While not as good as older FF games I actually enjoyed FFXV. In fact I platinum it. I did liked the modernized gameplay, as much as I grew up with tuned based titles it was time to adapt.

Also the music was phenomenal, game looked amazing and gameplay was solid with average story.

[SarcasticDuck]

i don't care about the type of game it is, as long as it ends up being a FF with a good story, i'm good with it

[gamer7804]

focus on a strong story and a diverse cast of characters from the beginning, don't let open or linear world drive the game production.