Tabata: XV taking inspiration from VIII and older games instead of XIII

“I think the balance presented in Final Fantasy X, between the freedom it offered and its limitations, that was quite well done,” he muses. “But for 15 we’re very much trying to make a big expansive open world and in a way move back to that more primitive, more visceral, direct emotional satisfaction you get from just walking around the world and exploring, finding new areas and things.

It’s moved away from the very story-driven, character-driven ideas that were present in a series like XIII, which basically drags the player around to places where the story needs them to go. It’s basically moving back to games closer to 8, or maybe the ones previous to 8 where you’ve got an open world to explore. We’re definitely trying to go in that direction with 15.”

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I'm glad to hear that XV won't be like what the bolded part says.

Can't argue against that. I hope they pull it off and you can feel the homage while playing

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Originally Posted by Egami

closer to 8

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Well. That's disappointing news.

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Originally Posted by DMKA

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Originally Posted by Egami

closer to 8

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Well. That's disappointing news.

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Taking inspiration from the second best Final Fantasy is great news! :P

But even for people who didn't like 8, he did mention all the ones preceding 8 aswell. Kinda suprised he didn't include 9 but that's perhaps because it went back to the very old fashioned world. VII and VIII probably have the more similar worlds to FFXV

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Originally Posted by Tyson

Kinda suprised he didn't include 9 but that's perhaps because it went back to the very old fashioned world.

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Doesn't surprises me that he didn't include it just as it doesn't surprises me how it is so often forgotten about in general. Oh well, I think it is a good thing what he said anyway but I really can't wait for the demo to finally come out so that we, hopefully, can get to see more about the game, the plot, supporting cast, other places, more complete game play and the like. So much focus on the demo area and road trip style stuff is giving a false and incomplete impression of the game...I hope.

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Originally Posted by DMKA

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Originally Posted by Egami

closer to 8

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Well. That's disappointing news.

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No way. Say what you want about VIII, but even players who didn't like it can't deny the impressive open world.

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Haha. That map is so wrong. The White Seed Ship's actual location is "In the ethereal void, where it cannot be found save for during the full moon during the alignment of the planets. Only then is the space between dimensions thin enough to see it".

FFVIII is not a good FF. But it is still several orders of magnitude better than FFXIII and it at least had an actual world worth exploring.

I love the idea of having a big open world in a FF game. I think something was lost when the world map was lost and it would be good to recapture that spirit of freedom and adventure.

Psychotic summed it up perfectly. I just love the open world idea and I hope it truly is an open world FF.

I think people dismissing the VIII comparison are mostly missing the point. It's a great example of a more open world map, and this was really the only comparison being brought there. I think earlier the majority of comparisons they were making were to the snes era FFs.

Ironically Psy, FFXII had a fantastic world to explore without the need for a world map. One of the best in the series if you ask me. And all because they just said smurf it and made the thing so massive I don't think I ever saw everything there was to see.

I doubt that in XV there will be a distinction between the world map and say...towns and other locations but that all will be seamless and at the same scale. So I think we shouldn't really be talking about it having a "world map". I reckon it will play rather like XII but with seamless transitions between the places and the ability to fast travel across different areas on the map.

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Originally Posted by Egami

I doubt that in XV there will be a distinction between the world map and say...towns and other locations but that all will be seamless and at the same scale. So I think we shouldn't really be talking about it having a "world map". I reckon it will play rather like XII but with seamless transitions between the places and the ability to fast travel across different areas on the map.

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Exactly. The only reason world maps ever existed was because there wasn't enough power to have a fully fleshed out world with everything to scale. In modern games, you can have the same kind of "world map" feeling but with no distinction between important places like cities/dungeons and the less-important space between.

Sounds pretty good to me. I definitely miss the freedom to explore new areas in FF. I feel like XII was a little too open and you could easily get lost and forget what the hell was going on, so hopefully they scale back a little bit on that.

The most important thing is that all the pieces fit together to make one cohesive experience. If it doesn't make sense in the context of the other gameplay and story elements, all the openness in the world won't make up for it. An open world is fun to explore only if it is worth exploring.