Final Fantasy XV is about 55% done

Originally Posted by FFFFsephychibi

It really doesn't make sense, that nomura's idea's were so ambitious, his idea's cannot be executed, with ps4 technology. (when compared to the ps3)

They sure don't seem to have trouble spending 6 months perfecting water puddles though.

I'm tired and sick, so I may not be making my point clear... not that it matters in the grand scheme of things. I just think they are reevaluating what they can and can't do in general so that we don't run into more ridiculously long development cycles and find out that their overall vision doesn't work on the PS4 as well. Whatever ideas they had while it was still a PS3 game doesn't mean those ideas had been implemented on it at all.

It's not really that there were things the PS3 was capable of doing that the PS4/Xbox One isn't. I think his statement just has to do with having a realistic vision for the system so that we don't have another ridiculously long wait for the game to come out from this point on.

Why not just release it now? If 55% complete was good enough for XIV, it should be good enough for XV.

As I've said before, I feel the reason the game is only 55% complete and still took 8 years to make was largely because the team pulled an FFXII and had to build a completely new engine to get what Nomura wanted. Tabata saying they wouldn't work on implementing anything new mainly means that even if someone came up with a cool new idea at this point, it won't make it into the final game because it would take too long to figure out how to program it.

Back when Versus XIII was first announced Nomura was talking about making the cities fully explorable with your characters able to enter every building with NPCs and various rooms as well as seamless gameplay change with Noctis being theoretically capable of switching from an action game mechanic to a FPS one on the fly and this was still before anyone knew the PS3 was a kind of a bitch to program for. I'm pretty sure this got toned down and even though the PS4 could potentially make some of these ideas come to fruition, the fact it took them 8 years to get to this point means the team is done with trying to expand the scope of the game, which is why I feel Tabata said that. The finalized what they wanted the game to be and they are sticking to it instead of trying to throw every bell and whistle they dreamed up in pre-production into it while also trying to finish the game. Its been almost a decade, SE needs to cut their losses and build the best game they can with what they have developed so far.

I am not concerned about Nomura stepping down, especially since it had more to do with getting him back to work on other projects he's put on hold for XV as opposed to being removed because he's a lousy director, most interviews I've read say the story, characters, and game structure are still Nomura's ideas, Tabata is just seeing them to completion. It sounds to me that the software has been finalized and they chose someone familiar with the hardware, so 55% completion is probably not as bad as it sounds since he'll be able to make the team build the game pretty smoothly. Of anything, we should be happy Tabata was honest enough to seriously give real answers to the questions fans have been asking for awhile. I find it amusing that it's the new comers Tabata and Yoshi-P who are being more up front and frank about their projects as opposed to the old guard of Nomura, Kitase, and Toriyama.

Originally Posted by Scotty_ffgamer

Originally Posted by FFFFsephychibi

It really doesn't make sense, that nomura's idea's were so ambitious, his idea's cannot be executed, with ps4 technology. (when compared to the ps3)

They sure don't seem to have trouble spending 6 months perfecting water puddles though.

I'm tired and sick, so I may not be making my point clear... not that it matters in the grand scheme of things. I just think they are reevaluating what they can and can't do in general so that we don't run into more ridiculously long development cycles and find out that their overall vision doesn't work on the PS4 as well. Whatever ideas they had while it was still a PS3 game doesn't mean those ideas had been implemented on it at all.

It's not really that there were things the PS3 was capable of doing that the PS4/Xbox One isn't. I think his statement just has to do with having a realistic vision for the system so that we don't have another ridiculously long wait for the game to come out from this point on.

Nah brah it's cool. I'm just cranky over these interviews. I'm glad it sounds like they are prioritizing to get the game done.

Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Back when Versus XIII was first announced Nomura was talking about making the cities fully explorable with your characters able to enter every building with NPCs and various rooms as well as seamless gameplay change with Noctis being theoretically capable of switching from an action game mechanic to a FPS one on the fly and this was still before anyone knew the PS3 was a kind of a bitch to program for. I'm pretty sure this got toned down and even though the PS4 could potentially make some of these ideas come to fruition, the fact it took them 8 years to get to this point means the team is done with trying to expand the scope of the game, which is why I feel Tabata said that. The finalized what they wanted the game to be and they are sticking to it instead of trying to throw every bell and whistle they dreamed up in pre-production into it while also trying to finish the game. Its been almost a decade, SE needs to cut their losses and build the best game they can with what they have developed so far.

I mean skyrim, did exactly that on both ps3 and xbox360. Shame square can't figure that out themselves, time to hire new programers.

It's a shame they can't make an evolution of the KH hearts battle system on a ps4 either, when they perfected it on the ps2. It's starting to smell like Square got nervous over last years e3 2013 trailers reaction to it being an action rpg.

Skyrim can do that through extensive asset-reuse. Not that I think Skyrim isn't a cool game, but I don't want FF15 to go that route when it comes to art direction and level design.

Originally Posted by FFFFsephychibi

Originally Posted by Wolf Kanno

Back when Versus XIII was first announced Nomura was talking about making the cities fully explorable with your characters able to enter every building with NPCs and various rooms as well as seamless gameplay change with Noctis being theoretically capable of switching from an action game mechanic to a FPS one on the fly and this was still before anyone knew the PS3 was a kind of a bitch to program for. I'm pretty sure this got toned down and even though the PS4 could potentially make some of these ideas come to fruition, the fact it took them 8 years to get to this point means the team is done with trying to expand the scope of the game, which is why I feel Tabata said that. The finalized what they wanted the game to be and they are sticking to it instead of trying to throw every bell and whistle they dreamed up in pre-production into it while also trying to finish the game. Its been almost a decade, SE needs to cut their losses and build the best game they can with what they have developed so far.

I mean skyrim, did exactly that on both ps3 and xbox360. Shame square can't figure that out themselves, time to hire new programers.

It's a shame they can't make an evolution of the KH hearts battle system on a ps4 either, when they perfected it on the ps2. It's starting to smell like Square got nervous over last years e3 2013 trailers reaction to it being an action rpg.

Mirage beat me to it but I think Nomura was going for more of every building being unique as opposed to just copy/paste nonsense. Not to mention that when Nomura was doing these interviews it was like 2007 when Oblivion was just coming out. The point I didn't make was that Nomura wanted these structures to allow players to interact seamlessly with the outside, in an old Edge interview, he mentioned his original idea would look like fighting enemies on the street in an action setting and then jumping through a window into a building and switching to FPS mode to gun down the enemies from afar before moving up the stairs and jumping into the next building to avoid enemies. At the time it was unheard of but not far fetched now. Basically whole cities (plural) were suppose to be seamless with the game not loading new content just generating everything at once and allowing the player full freedom to navigate through it and switch from a DMC style combat system to a First/third person shooter mode on the fly with no loading or anything. Skyrim can do similar stuff but it also reuses textures and its combat system is hardly flashy if not kind of boring to watch. Japanese developers need that flashiness whereas Western developers are more practical.

As for the combat system, I felt KH perfected it with Birth by Sleep and frankly I'm not bothered by XV being an Action-RPG since Nomura was always up front about this. I think some fans are whining because A) they didn't really follow the few breadcrumbs fans had about Versus XIII and thus the revelation it was an Action-RPG caught them flat footed, and B) the majority of the console JRPGs on the market are some variation of an Action RPG which some people don't care for. It's not like we had a lot of gameplay video to really get an idea of how it was going to play out in the first place and frankly since we've never seen the team show the old scenario from a few years back redone, there is no reason to believe that night raid gameplay footage isn't still part of the game. I honestly don't think we ever knew enough about Versus XIII's original concept to get worked up over any changes that have been made since the latest developments. For all we know, Nomura may have dropped concepts from early footage long before Tabata joined the project.

Originally Posted by Mirage

Skyrim can do that through extensive asset-reuse. Not that I think Skyrim isn't a cool game, but I don't want FF15 to go that route when it comes to art direction and level design.

Agreed, a direction like skyrim probably wouldn't be the best. Just thought it sounded weird they originally were making it sound like those things were impossible on ps3 when there's huge open world games like skyrim (and oblivion/fallout/morrowind) that implement those functions.

One thing though that makes me super happy from these interviews is that they've given choice to the player to explore or progress the story.

It's crazy they've been talking about this game since before Oblivion came out, after which Bethesda went on to ship not one but two gigantic open world epic RPGS that will go down as two of the most ambitious games of the generation.

I know Square hasn't really cared about consoles for quite some time but I just wish I could have my Final Fantasy back.

It sounds good to me. We could get it by the end of the next year at the earliest and at the beginning of 2016 at the latest.

Originally Posted by Bolivar

It's crazy they've been talking about this game since before Oblivion came out, after which Bethesda went on to ship not one but two gigantic open world epic RPGS that will go down as two of the most ambitious games of the generation.

I know Square hasn't really cared about consoles for quite some time but I just wish I could have my Final Fantasy back.

And both those two Bethesda games added together still has fewer visually impressive locations than the almost entirely linear ff13. And I say that as a Ff13 hater.

Originally Posted by Mirage

Originally Posted by Bolivar

It's crazy they've been talking about this game since before Oblivion came out, after which Bethesda went on to ship not one but two gigantic open world epic RPGS that will go down as two of the most ambitious games of the generation.

I know Square hasn't really cared about consoles for quite some time but I just wish I could have my Final Fantasy back.

And both those two Bethesda games added together still has fewer visually impressive locations than the almost entirely linear ff13. And I say that as a Ff13 hater.

However at least in Oblivion/Skyrim you can actually visit whatever you see on the horizon. FFXIII has mostly pretty wallpaper, that add nothing to the world in terms of gameplay.

Dark Souls does it right. The world of Lordran is packed so tight all of it is noteworthy and none of it is blurb. Everything you see in the distance you will visit at some point, and clever map design makes it never go boring unlike the examples mentioned above.

I know. It's one of the bigger reasons why I dislike the game.

I think it's important to reiterate that the "55%" is just for the last two years, not eight.

However I don't understand why SE talk in percentages. It has absolutely no bearing on how long development takes. There are so many major stages in development that there's stages within stages. Alone pre-production could take much longer than actual production. Basically what I'm saying is that 45% they have left to develop could take three months or it could take another two years.

Originally Posted by Rostum

I think it's important to reiterate that the "55%" is just for the last two years, not eight.

However I don't understand why SE talk in percentages. It has absolutely no bearing on how long development takes. There are so many major stages in development that there's stages within stages. Alone pre-production could take much longer than actual production. Basically what I'm saying is that 45% they have left to develop could take three months or it could take another two years.

I felt the same way but I had to rethink about why anyone would say 55% instead of just saying 50%. So (I think) the 55% is more of like "we're at this stage of game-making now," as opposed to, "we're a little over halfway done." Similar to what Wolf Kanno said, they're done laying the groundwork and throwing their ideas at the wall; whatever stuck is what they're gonna go with until they get to 100% in 2022.

Think the they released it when it is 60% done.

But we are paying 100% of the price!