It took many years for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 15 to actually see the light of day, but late last month fans finally got the game they had been waiting a decade for. The game was very well-received from critics and fans alike, and now Sony is chiming in to share their own high praise for the project.
Sony Worldwide Studios’ Shuhei Yoshida recently did an interview with 4gamer, where he discussed Final Fantasy 15 and all of the risks it took to break away from series tropes and RPG tropes in general. He said that “Final Fantasy 15 dropped the rules of the so-called JRPG, and I think it was successful in the bold attempt to redefine Final Fantasy on the same level with the current standard of RPG in the western industry with high action combat and open world.”
He then goes on to discuss the approach that the team took to communicate directly with the fans prior to the launch of the game with demos and even movies. “The attitude “FF=Challenger” isn’t just about technology,” says Yoshida. “I thought it was wonderful to share the situation of development by communicating directly with the users, and to convey the feeling of the world and the characters in advance with a movie and animation.”
Yoshida concludes by saying that “I think it’s a monumental achievement that will go down in the history of RPG, showing overseas game fan that the Japanese AAA gaming industry is also working hard.”
While some have argued that Final Fantasy 15 might not have turned out quite as well as it could have, the fact that it did offer such a refreshing change of pace for the series and RPGs is certainly commendable. We definitely agree with Yoshida’s sentiments, giving it 4.5 stars in our own glowing review of the game.
The series won’t be falling off of the radar in 2017, as there’s plenty of DLC that fans will be able to look forward to. The DLC will allow you to take control of the other characters in Noctis’ team, which are Gladio, Ignis and Prompto. There will also be a 4-player online co-op mode, which is called Comrades and allows you to pick any of the 4 main characters to play together with friends.
