THE TRUTH MOST FANS IGNORE:
Over the course of this decade, I can remember one prominent opinion that resonated with fans:
That Nomura is a terrible director and mismanages every game he produces, and Tabata is the honest, most transparent director that gives us the truth and he is the savior of Final Fantasy XV.
But is this true? Is Nomura the sole reason why we didn't get the Final Fantasy XV he originally envisioned? And has Tabata truly been the most honest developer at least more honest than Nomura?
This is going to be a rant about Final Fantasy XV, but also on the fandom and how misguided they were. So if you really want to read all this, please keep an open mind. If you still don't want to read all of this and still think you should comment, I'll make a TLDR section.
The Relationship between Nomura and Tabata:
I find this one of the most important topics that need to be discussed. A lot of the work Tabata received was mostly because the devs chose to work together. Nomura was one of the first to use Tabata for "Before Crisis: FF7". The developers of Compilation wanted to use him again for Crisis Core. Although they did want to use him specifically to remake Before Crisis into PSP at the time.
It didn't just stop at Compilation of FF7, Tabata and Nomura worked together on other titles with Tabata such as The 3rd Birthday and can you believe it Final Fantasy Type-0. All these titles I mentioned were not Nomura serving only as a character designer either. Tetsuya Nomura was a creative producer which isn't a small role.
So it is important to know that before Final Fantasy XV/Versus XIII situation, they had a good work relationship together.
It's not all Nomura's fault (but he had a hand to play)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced in 2006. During that time, he was working on Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts coded and Re:coded, Dissidia, Dissidia Duodecim, and of course Final Fantasy Type-0. Now let's not take that list at face value. Not every title he worked on he put the most attention to and half of them were managed by other developers with different divisions. But it is important to know that Nomura wasn't just "sitting" around.
In addition to all those games Nomura was developing on (or provided assistance), we need to look at what mindset Square Enix had at the time too. Back when Final Fantasy XIII was being developed, Square Enix was hell-bent on developing its own proprietary engine that was better than the competition. Ever since the PS3 era, they were obsessed with making their games as pretty as possible, at the expense of good gameplay and storytelling. Square Enix and many other Japanese developers were not prepared for the HD graphics generation the PS3 and Xbox 360 were offering. However, unlike most Japanese developers that just chose not to do HD graphics until they were comfortable with it, Square Enix was trying to push forward no matter the sacrifice.
This led to the infamous "Crystal Tools Engine". This engine was not meant for open-world games and favored more on the graphical side of development. As of yet, this engine has yet to provide superb games and many developers retroactively criticized Square Enix for wasting money on developing it. Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy 14, and lastly Dragon Quest X. One of these we never really received.
This engine was originally planned for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Early in production, however, this engine proved to be a failure for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Now for SE, the rational thing to do at this point is outsourcing to another prominent engine that allows them to do what they need for the game. Unfortunately, they didn't. Instead, they chose to use the Crystal Tools engine as part of the foundation for a new engine which we all know as Luminous. The luminous engine was announced around 2012. That was 5 years after the Crystal Tools engine.
To this day, the Luminous engine has not been finished and still being worked on. To say this wasn't Nomura's fault at all is a stretch. And he's not perfect. i have a love-hate relationship with Kingdom hearts too. If i can blame Nomura for anything is trusting in Square Enix too much.
Square Enix holds most of the blame
Square Enix asked Nomura to leave the project at the beginning of 2013. At the time, it was to focus on Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake. But Square Enix's timing couldn't have been worse. Because shortly after Nomura was asked to leave Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix demanded the changes to the game. They didn't want Final Fantasy XV, to be a trilogy, they didn't want religion based on death to be used
So big changes to the original plan. It could be speculated that Square Enix wanted to get rid of Nomura from XV to allow these changes to be made quicker, but it's also a terrible decision nonetheless even if it was planned.
It's not all Hajime Tabata's fault (But he still had a hand to play)
It is clear in past interviews that Hajime Tabata had creative differences with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, as he considered old characters like Stella weak and he didn't like the idea of an all-male party. And he even said the original was too dark. As irritating it can be to see someone be part of a project they didn't agree with, there was more to it than just some creative differences.
Hajime Tabata also spearheaded the Luminous engine development which meant developing the engine and the game at the same time. The game was also under contract to release at a specific time, so the game was rushed to the highest degree. And Because he couldn't fit everything in the game, he resorted to creating a Film and an Anime series just for Final Fantasy XV. This is understandable because the luminous engine couldn't handle a whole invasion scene. These changes were demanded by Square Enix themselves.
However, what I personally can't forgive Tabata is using the films, and TV series and feel more like spin-offs on what should've been part of the game eventually. Characters like Nyx Ulric robbing events that Noctis should've experienced first-hand. By making it about some new character that barely holds any weight to the game's story, it's impossible for the invasion scene to be part of a DLC/update. The same with Brotherhood anime.
Especially when it has been proven that they can add new scenes and events to the game as DLC with little to no effort.
Why XV and Versus XIII are so different:
Every game has to sacrifice something for the sake of development Band games change vision throughout development. But is this the case for Final Fantasy XV? Was Final Fantasy XV revealed too soon to the public?
In my humble opinion, I don't think it was revealed too soon. The reason why is because Final Fantasy Versus XIII was never intended to be the next main installment of Final Fantasy when it was in production. It was supposed to be a passion project for Tetsuya Nomura. The concepts, characters, story and all came from him. Any changes he was willing to make in the future was within his right because it still met the goal of making a game he wanted to make. So it didn't matter how long it took, so long as we got what was advertised (His project).
Another jab fans love to bring out is "He wanted to change it into a musical! That's so stupid!" Well, it was perfectly within his right. Does a musical sound so bad? Especially if he took inspiration from Les Miserables? In addition, Yoko Shimomura was producing the music. So having voices attached to the beautiful music would've been interesting. But again, even if it wasn't for you, at the time the goal was to make a Final Fantasy he always wanted to make. People forget he made this proposal when the Shakespearean themes were apparent and when it was still Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
However, it wasn't just the game that changed, but the entire reason for existing. This game, at its core, wasn't intended to be the main Final Fantasy. It had ideas that exceeded that of a main Final Fantasy title. A world resembling our own, Shakespearean themes, Mafia-like kingdom, and the themes of Death closely tied to their religion. Tetsuya Nomura's sole reason for changing the title into "15" was because he was promised that the game's vision and scope weren't going to change.
So what are we left with Final Fantasy XV? Unfortunately, it's a censored mess. Important lore was removed and altered, characters were removed and replaced (Stella/Luna), and the ones that remain have been redesigned completely to characters with no personality (Regis/Ravus). New characters were added in that just don't add anything to the world of Final Fantasy XV, they're just filler.
It would be different if Nomura made all these changes himself and released it. But because he had to work on others with zero input on the new changes made. It's just not a good look for Final Fantasy XV.
Civil War among the fandom:
Ever since Tokyo Game Show 2013, something was off. Tabata started reporting information such as development hell and the game was only 30% complete. And he had to restructure the entire setup. In addition, he didn't like the mindset of certain developers on how they viewed Final Fantasy and attempted to correct them. There was information revealed that gave negative ideas about the old development team of the game, and the primary person to blame was Tetsuya Nomura.
The fans have made negative such as Nomura never finishes his games, or he takes too long. Those who were there from the beginning could be more sympathetic. There were also two different mindsets among the fans: "the ones who wanted to see what Nomura planned" and "The ones who want to see the next mainline Final Fantasy because it's taking too damn long".
And for this, I can only blame Tabata alone for this. This is information that didn't need to be said. Or if it was needed to be said, definitely needed clarity in making sure the fandom doesn't rise in anger. But he didn't.
Throughout the years, Tabata received all the sympathy, all the praise, and all the support from fans. And fans went out of their way to turn a blind eye to the inconsistency of his statements and the lack of clarity. I don't hate Tabata, but over the years I admit I shifted my hatred toward Tabata on what should've been the misguided fans, and he didn't deserve that. I personally still have a strong distaste for FF15 and most of his management, but I'm less angry for reasons I'll get to in a bit.
Time has validated Nomura
The good news is that time has validated Nomura. Nomura has released the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3. Final Fantasy VII Remake is also coming in March 2020. There's plenty of room for delays but we know that we're getting the game sometime next year (unless something unpredictable happens). People are building trust again that Nomura can bring out games, and just because he's silent doesn't mean he's not working. Keep in mind that these games had their own obstacles to coming into fruition.
Tabata, on the other hand, left Square Enix, and even though people want to claim he was overworked, he was still one of the fastest promoted developers in the company. Handing him his own studio. Tabata's previous statements of Final Fantasy XV would come to haunt him as contradictory information would rise, rumors of mismanagement, and even admitted his own statements were false. Statements such as Final Fantasy XV were complete when it was originally released only to say Final Fantasy XV wasn't complete after the Royal Edition was released. His planned projects for XV were are also gone and had to be filled with a novel instead.
Let's not forget that Final Fantasy XV wasn't even his own passion project. His passion was to release the game. He had other planned projects that he advertised. He set up a series such as Final Fantasy Type-0. I know people are still huge fans of Tabata after this and will try to defend him. The mysterious Final Fantasy Type-Next is nothing but just a concept.
And fans are starting to see his glaring flaws.
Time has validated me (and others)
Over the years, I was treated as scum of the fandom for having the facts (that were made available) and voiced it. It was a terrible time to be alive. Imagine an entire fandom that you were apart of for years misconstrue your words to the point that they called you stupid and idiotic, no matter how many times you explained and clarified. it sucked. But I know one thing. I'm not alone, and the disappointment in FF15 has taken away some of the rose-tinted glasses. To the point that some have apologized to me the way they treated me, and wish they saw the signs sooner.
I don't expect any positive response to that here in this forum. But I'm at peace knowing there were others who did research on the game so extensively and couldn't ignore what was going on in front of us and have stuck together.
Over the course of this decade, I can remember one prominent opinion that resonated with fans:
That Nomura is a terrible director and mismanages every game he produces, and Tabata is the honest, most transparent director that gives us the truth and he is the savior of Final Fantasy XV.
But is this true? Is Nomura the sole reason why we didn't get the Final Fantasy XV he originally envisioned? And has Tabata truly been the most honest developer at least more honest than Nomura?
This is going to be a rant about Final Fantasy XV, but also on the fandom and how misguided they were. So if you really want to read all this, please keep an open mind. If you still don't want to read all of this and still think you should comment, I'll make a TLDR section.
The Relationship between Nomura and Tabata:
I find this one of the most important topics that need to be discussed. A lot of the work Tabata received was mostly because the devs chose to work together. Nomura was one of the first to use Tabata for "Before Crisis: FF7". The developers of Compilation wanted to use him again for Crisis Core. Although they did want to use him specifically to remake Before Crisis into PSP at the time.
It didn't just stop at Compilation of FF7, Tabata and Nomura worked together on other titles with Tabata such as The 3rd Birthday and can you believe it Final Fantasy Type-0. All these titles I mentioned were not Nomura serving only as a character designer either. Tetsuya Nomura was a creative producer which isn't a small role.
So it is important to know that before Final Fantasy XV/Versus XIII situation, they had a good work relationship together.
It's not all Nomura's fault (but he had a hand to play)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced in 2006. During that time, he was working on Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts coded and Re:coded, Dissidia, Dissidia Duodecim, and of course Final Fantasy Type-0. Now let's not take that list at face value. Not every title he worked on he put the most attention to and half of them were managed by other developers with different divisions. But it is important to know that Nomura wasn't just "sitting" around.
In addition to all those games Nomura was developing on (or provided assistance), we need to look at what mindset Square Enix had at the time too. Back when Final Fantasy XIII was being developed, Square Enix was hell-bent on developing its own proprietary engine that was better than the competition. Ever since the PS3 era, they were obsessed with making their games as pretty as possible, at the expense of good gameplay and storytelling. Square Enix and many other Japanese developers were not prepared for the HD graphics generation the PS3 and Xbox 360 were offering. However, unlike most Japanese developers that just chose not to do HD graphics until they were comfortable with it, Square Enix was trying to push forward no matter the sacrifice.
This led to the infamous "Crystal Tools Engine". This engine was not meant for open-world games and favored more on the graphical side of development. As of yet, this engine has yet to provide superb games and many developers retroactively criticized Square Enix for wasting money on developing it. Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy 14, and lastly Dragon Quest X. One of these we never really received.
This engine was originally planned for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Early in production, however, this engine proved to be a failure for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Now for SE, the rational thing to do at this point is outsourcing to another prominent engine that allows them to do what they need for the game. Unfortunately, they didn't. Instead, they chose to use the Crystal Tools engine as part of the foundation for a new engine which we all know as Luminous. The luminous engine was announced around 2012. That was 5 years after the Crystal Tools engine.
To this day, the Luminous engine has not been finished and still being worked on. To say this wasn't Nomura's fault at all is a stretch. And he's not perfect. i have a love-hate relationship with Kingdom hearts too. If i can blame Nomura for anything is trusting in Square Enix too much.
Square Enix holds most of the blame
Square Enix asked Nomura to leave the project at the beginning of 2013. At the time, it was to focus on Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII Remake. But Square Enix's timing couldn't have been worse. Because shortly after Nomura was asked to leave Final Fantasy XV, Square Enix demanded the changes to the game. They didn't want Final Fantasy XV, to be a trilogy, they didn't want religion based on death to be used
So big changes to the original plan. It could be speculated that Square Enix wanted to get rid of Nomura from XV to allow these changes to be made quicker, but it's also a terrible decision nonetheless even if it was planned.
It's not all Hajime Tabata's fault (But he still had a hand to play)
It is clear in past interviews that Hajime Tabata had creative differences with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, as he considered old characters like Stella weak and he didn't like the idea of an all-male party. And he even said the original was too dark. As irritating it can be to see someone be part of a project they didn't agree with, there was more to it than just some creative differences.
Hajime Tabata also spearheaded the Luminous engine development which meant developing the engine and the game at the same time. The game was also under contract to release at a specific time, so the game was rushed to the highest degree. And Because he couldn't fit everything in the game, he resorted to creating a Film and an Anime series just for Final Fantasy XV. This is understandable because the luminous engine couldn't handle a whole invasion scene. These changes were demanded by Square Enix themselves.
However, what I personally can't forgive Tabata is using the films, and TV series and feel more like spin-offs on what should've been part of the game eventually. Characters like Nyx Ulric robbing events that Noctis should've experienced first-hand. By making it about some new character that barely holds any weight to the game's story, it's impossible for the invasion scene to be part of a DLC/update. The same with Brotherhood anime.
Especially when it has been proven that they can add new scenes and events to the game as DLC with little to no effort.
Why XV and Versus XIII are so different:
Every game has to sacrifice something for the sake of development Band games change vision throughout development. But is this the case for Final Fantasy XV? Was Final Fantasy XV revealed too soon to the public?
In my humble opinion, I don't think it was revealed too soon. The reason why is because Final Fantasy Versus XIII was never intended to be the next main installment of Final Fantasy when it was in production. It was supposed to be a passion project for Tetsuya Nomura. The concepts, characters, story and all came from him. Any changes he was willing to make in the future was within his right because it still met the goal of making a game he wanted to make. So it didn't matter how long it took, so long as we got what was advertised (His project).
Another jab fans love to bring out is "He wanted to change it into a musical! That's so stupid!" Well, it was perfectly within his right. Does a musical sound so bad? Especially if he took inspiration from Les Miserables? In addition, Yoko Shimomura was producing the music. So having voices attached to the beautiful music would've been interesting. But again, even if it wasn't for you, at the time the goal was to make a Final Fantasy he always wanted to make. People forget he made this proposal when the Shakespearean themes were apparent and when it was still Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
However, it wasn't just the game that changed, but the entire reason for existing. This game, at its core, wasn't intended to be the main Final Fantasy. It had ideas that exceeded that of a main Final Fantasy title. A world resembling our own, Shakespearean themes, Mafia-like kingdom, and the themes of Death closely tied to their religion. Tetsuya Nomura's sole reason for changing the title into "15" was because he was promised that the game's vision and scope weren't going to change.
So what are we left with Final Fantasy XV? Unfortunately, it's a censored mess. Important lore was removed and altered, characters were removed and replaced (Stella/Luna), and the ones that remain have been redesigned completely to characters with no personality (Regis/Ravus). New characters were added in that just don't add anything to the world of Final Fantasy XV, they're just filler.
It would be different if Nomura made all these changes himself and released it. But because he had to work on others with zero input on the new changes made. It's just not a good look for Final Fantasy XV.
Civil War among the fandom:
Ever since Tokyo Game Show 2013, something was off. Tabata started reporting information such as development hell and the game was only 30% complete. And he had to restructure the entire setup. In addition, he didn't like the mindset of certain developers on how they viewed Final Fantasy and attempted to correct them. There was information revealed that gave negative ideas about the old development team of the game, and the primary person to blame was Tetsuya Nomura.
The fans have made negative such as Nomura never finishes his games, or he takes too long. Those who were there from the beginning could be more sympathetic. There were also two different mindsets among the fans: "the ones who wanted to see what Nomura planned" and "The ones who want to see the next mainline Final Fantasy because it's taking too damn long".
And for this, I can only blame Tabata alone for this. This is information that didn't need to be said. Or if it was needed to be said, definitely needed clarity in making sure the fandom doesn't rise in anger. But he didn't.
Throughout the years, Tabata received all the sympathy, all the praise, and all the support from fans. And fans went out of their way to turn a blind eye to the inconsistency of his statements and the lack of clarity. I don't hate Tabata, but over the years I admit I shifted my hatred toward Tabata on what should've been the misguided fans, and he didn't deserve that. I personally still have a strong distaste for FF15 and most of his management, but I'm less angry for reasons I'll get to in a bit.
Time has validated Nomura
The good news is that time has validated Nomura. Nomura has released the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3. Final Fantasy VII Remake is also coming in March 2020. There's plenty of room for delays but we know that we're getting the game sometime next year (unless something unpredictable happens). People are building trust again that Nomura can bring out games, and just because he's silent doesn't mean he's not working. Keep in mind that these games had their own obstacles to coming into fruition.
Tabata, on the other hand, left Square Enix, and even though people want to claim he was overworked, he was still one of the fastest promoted developers in the company. Handing him his own studio. Tabata's previous statements of Final Fantasy XV would come to haunt him as contradictory information would rise, rumors of mismanagement, and even admitted his own statements were false. Statements such as Final Fantasy XV were complete when it was originally released only to say Final Fantasy XV wasn't complete after the Royal Edition was released. His planned projects for XV were are also gone and had to be filled with a novel instead.
Let's not forget that Final Fantasy XV wasn't even his own passion project. His passion was to release the game. He had other planned projects that he advertised. He set up a series such as Final Fantasy Type-0. I know people are still huge fans of Tabata after this and will try to defend him. The mysterious Final Fantasy Type-Next is nothing but just a concept.
And fans are starting to see his glaring flaws.
Time has validated me (and others)
Over the years, I was treated as scum of the fandom for having the facts (that were made available) and voiced it. It was a terrible time to be alive. Imagine an entire fandom that you were apart of for years misconstrue your words to the point that they called you stupid and idiotic, no matter how many times you explained and clarified. it sucked. But I know one thing. I'm not alone, and the disappointment in FF15 has taken away some of the rose-tinted glasses. To the point that some have apologized to me the way they treated me, and wish they saw the signs sooner.
I don't expect any positive response to that here in this forum. But I'm at peace knowing there were others who did research on the game so extensively and couldn't ignore what was going on in front of us and have stuck together.