Do you have the Final Fantasy Disease?

[Shaissa]

Do you have it? According to Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, “lots” of fans do. From the sound of it, some people at Square Enix have been infected, too.

In a refreshingly frank talk with Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada on Japanese site 4Gamer, Tabata mentions what he calls “FF byou” (FF病) or “Final Fantasy disease.”

The interview is several pages long, but things get very interesting when Harada asks Tabata if there was backlash during the reorganization that occurred when he took over.


“Oh yeah, there was,” Tabata said. “It wasn’t only from inside the team, but outside as well. The reason was that if my way of doing it ended up working, there are those whose circumstances will worsen.” (4Gamer noted that Tabata laughed after saying this.)


According to Tabata, there’s been negative feedback for Final Fantasy XV, such as, for example, folks not being happy with the character choices and whatnot. Of course, Tabata knew that Final Fantasy was a series with a lot of history, but felt it was important to make changes.

“Around that time, I realized that among fans as well, there are people who’ve caught FF disease,” Tabata said.

4Gamer asked what exactly Final Fantasy disease was, and Tabata replied, “It refers to people within the company who can’t imagine anything other than their own view of Final Fantasy. Since the root is a strong self-affirmation, one’s own view of Final Fantasy takes more priority than the team’s success. If that view of Final Fantasy isn’t fulfilled, then they’re convinced that it’s bad for Final Fantasy. They think, ‘Since Final Fantasy is a special team, then we are also special because we are making it. When the new Final Fantasy comes out, everybody is going to be so into it.’ But that’s not the reality of the situation, is it?”

Damn. Real talk from Tabata.

Continuing, he said, “Because of that, there was a time I told off the team, saying, ‘We’re not special. Wake Up.’ Yet, I realized that when Final Fantasy XV news was made public, this wasn’t only inside the company. Everyone has FF disease.”

Harada pointed out that, to a smaller degree, he’s faced pushback when big changes are made to Tekken’s game system or character line up.

The voices of those wanting to maintain the status quo, Tabata explained, are certainly the loudest. But, according to him, Final Fantasy has become stronger, bringing it back from the edge of crisis because of the changes. “At this point,” Tabata said, “if the series didn’t modernize, I think it could’ve been done for.”

We’ll have to wait until this fall to see if Final Fantasy XV is just what the JRPG doctor ordered.

Source: Kotaku

What do you think? Do you have the Disease? Where you can only see one path for Final Fantasy and everything off that path really isn't Final Fantasy?

For me I think I have this to a little degree sadly, I like to see Final Fantasy in a certain way, but when I go and play the games in a random order, you have to realize how little they all have in common. I think Tabata is right in many regards that Final Fantasy XV is going to something that many people might not like to call "Final Fantasy" but the changes have to be made in order to push forward to a new generation.

 

[ZaXo Ken'Ichi]

I myself have purposefully made it a mission of mine to avoid "Final Fantasy disease". I used to have it, back when Final Fantasy XII was close to release. I hated that game so much because it was different. But once I played it, I realized that is was amazing in its own ways. That allowed me to reflect on the rest of the series and realize that they all have masterpiece-like qualities, and horrible, glaring flaws. But they're all unique. I love them more than ever, now that I can see them for what they really are.

I certainly have things that I would prefer for the series. But I understand that my vision isn't the next guys, which isn't the next guys. And I also understand that it can get boring making similar games over and over. Just like any artist, devs always want to push things in new, interesting, and innovative directions. They make games to realize creative dreams, just like we play them to immerse ourselves in those dreams.

From this point of view, I've been able to appreciate the great things that all of the games (XIII trilogy included) have to offer. And I'm content letting the games be designed in whatever way feels right for the team, with the hopes that they don't buckle under fan expectations too much.

The most important thing to me is that the games get more and more balanced. My biggest pet peeve in gaming is when games aren't balanced for mechanical fun/strategy. I don't like 'bullet sponges' and half-baked time waster quests or enemies. I don't like it when battles expect me to get into the head of the designer and play it exactly the way they want. And I also don't like it when they do the opposite, and give the player a solution so simple and effective that you can rely in it for most everything. These games are supposed to be strategic after all. What can I say? Dark Souls has spoiled me, and made me realize how effective it can be to balance mechanics so that they're difficult but fair, and simultaneously allow a wide variety of strategies to be relevant. I want that for FF, but the closest they got to that was FFXIII, which everyone dismisses at the outset, so... I guarantee Square threw out any and all ideas from those games, no matter how much potential they may have. Unfortunate.

 

[FinalxxSin]

I don't have it. As long as the mainline titles are some form of an RPG, I don't care how they are designed. Just because there is a game in the mainline series that I don't care for, that does not make it an invalid title not worthy of Final Fantasy. For example, I don't care for 1 - 5 due to their settings and also 9. I don't care for XI and XIV either since they just aren't for me. The poor DLC methods of FFXIII-2 I don't care for. However, in my eyes they are all still Final Fantasy titles.

I think what the problem is that a lot of people got a set idea of what a FF title should be. If you go to forums and/or YouTube, you'll see a lot of "Final Fantasy died at IX or X" comments. This isn't true at all. Just because there wasn't exposure to a certain situation after a certain amount of time, doesn't mean that it won't ever happen. As technology increases, more radical changes should be expected. History has proven this already, has it not? Personally, I feel the FF mainline series should not be just a good turn based RPG series, but rather a good RPG series period. FF mainline series is completely capable of having good quality RPG titles that don't fit the classical turn based approach (e.g. XI and XIV as MMORPGS).

Since Hironobu Sakaguchi can look at a game like XIV, and still deem it worthy of the title Final Fantasy, I don't know why anybody else wouldn't be able to do the same. I wish there weren't so many close minded "fans" within the fan base.

 

[Linnaete]

I think the only time I had this "disease" was also when FFXII was first released. I felt it was a radical departure from the games I was used to it and it was alienating. I too resented the game. The mechanics were deemed too convoluted and esoteric for me to handle (which is funny considering I had endured FFX's Sphere Grid) and I had trouble acclimatising myself to how different it was. My limited exposure to RPGs and Final Fantasy at the time was restricted to the old turn-based or ATB systems, so I simply presumed this was what the genre was a decade ago. FFXII was deviating too much from my earlier conception of what Final Fantasy was and it intimidated me. Fortunately, I gave the game another opportunity over a year later and I deem it to be one of the better entries in the series precisely because it was attempting a bold new direction funnily enough, despite pitfalls with aspects of its execution.

I understand the pressures facing any AAA developer these days. Current generation triple-A games are exorbitant when it comes to development costs, time and manpower. Market forces determine that risk is inherently dangerous and that focus testing and reusing formulae that work are valuable and almost intrinsic to your goal of making a game that is able to sell well enough to recoup costs and turn over a profit. It would be a dark day for the franchise if a bold vision is to be sacrificed in favour of the standard me-too formulae consisting of a general checklist of what sells these days. Open world for the sake of an open world. A million collectables. Sidequests of nary any interest that could well send you off to sniff some Chocobos. An experience that just lacks a sense of soul or identity. What I'm saying is: a mainline Final Fantasy game should have some kind of vision. It doesn't have to be that coherent, because in the world of games development, it rarely turns out that way. It shouldn't simply be a passionless and frantic pursuit of what is currently the trend and then doing a half-arsed job of it.

I'm not suggesting FFXV is in danger of falling into this trap and neither have any of us played it yet, so no one can say for sure as of this moment. I have a lot of misgivings about the game, intertwined with general apathy towards it and most of what Tabata has said and done, but I can at least find some assurance that FFXV has a vision behind it to set itself apart from other games, lend itself an identity and remain not too unrecognisable as a Final Fantasy game. If it ever decided to turn into Destiny then yes, I would cry foul, because you've suddenly butchered that beast. The most important thing is: will it be any good? That's the main question we should be asking. Are we looking at a game that has the potential to be good? For me, while I'm interested to see how it will differentiate itself from other games in the series and from its contemporary AAA competitors, I just want a good game that instills a strong sense of adventure and sufficient scope and one that isn't plagued with dreadful combat, technical nightmares and unbearably amateurish writing from someone who has only had experience writing bad anime.

This is also a good reason why they shouldn't listen to fans any more than they need to. By all means listen to feedback, but never be dictated by them, especially when there is no coherent fanbase. It's splintered into so many groups with varying and contradictory desires. It's symptomatic of a franchise that is so different with each new installment. To try and appease them all, you create a disjointed chimera that is the equivalent of dumping a hundred ingredients into the stew. It looks and tastes horrible and appeals to no one but the most desperate. You're not going to "cure" this disease. I would rather see them try with something weird and interesting and fail, than to see them be as derivative as humanly possible. If a lot of people still can't get over that and espouse FFX as the "last true FF game" (which is funny, because FFX eschews a lot of elements that classic FF games had!), then that's on them.

 

[Rey]

I don't feel like I have the Final Fantasy disease at all. I don't set my expectations to see FF in a certain way, and I do like to embrace possible change in the franchise. Final Fantasy XIII, for example, was criticized for the battle system because it was a battle system where the auto battle command would make it easy to do everything. There were only a good few parts where auto battle wasn't so useful. Yes, I agree that XIII had a horrible battle system and fans didn’t view paradigm shift well. We all had the FF disease for FF XIII, but I think fans still do have it! Final Fantasy XV is different. I've seen comments call it metal gear x FF. Obviously, it is a comment that should be viewed in a joking matter, but FFXV is more different than any other final fantasy. Some fans don't even think it is a recognizable title in the franchise because of this disease. Tabata is right about the disease, but I don't have it. FF isn't a series for me that is pre meditated by my mind. I like to look forward to the upcoming titles with new things in mind. Of course, every FF game is going to have magic, chocobos, eidolons, etc. That is just how things are. Creating a more modern FF in FFXV doesn't bother me at all because the vision is there for the game and SE are very hard at work on it, and I think it is incredible they can undergo criticism of the title not being an FF one, and still build their game because of said vision. I have no doubt FFXV will be a great game, but you can bet on people still having that disease after release.


To answer the question, no, I do not have this disease. FF XII was bizarre at first but I grew to like it immensely after finishing it a few years later.

 

[Razberry Knight]

Hajime Tabata is referring to something very specific. He was referring that ff13 is so special and so sacred that the device felt like gods and anything that hurt their views would be bad for ff. And I don't agree with that. I think he's exaggerating to make a point.

I don't have the desease. I doubt anyone ever did. Ff12 I fully embraced. And I truly did try to embrace ff13. But then again, ff13 fails at something. Ff at the time was already close to animals archetypes. I was OK with it. But Ff12 felt like it was going for something less animal like, something that it can be classified on its own. And I thought that was the direction Ff12 was going for. Ff13 has devolved. It not only focused on animals like archetypes, but had a restricting and it was trying to escalate every moment.

Ff15....with the flying car, that mechanic just defeats everything that made fevers us 13 and even what currently Ff15 is about. There is literally airships at their disposal. Even a small airship would be more fitting.

And I'm going to guess this was one of the things Hajime Tabata was referring to when he stated this. Honestly tho, I think Hajime Tabata is trying to turn ff into something more universal. And it's not a desease, every ff game up to Ff12 tried to refine the ff name, not make it broader.