IX took inspiration from older games as well. I think you might be afraid of copying more than inspiration?
Inspiration isn't the same as photocopying.
Except the poor buildup for that one plot twist, I find FF8 to be a very good game. It has one of my favourite game worlds, and a lot of very fantastic and awesome locations. Centra ruins, deep sea research center, a mothersmurfing space station, lunatic pandora, heck even tear's point is a cool looking place.
everything is wrapped in gray
i'm focusing on your image
can you hear me in the void?
That kind of makes me think how much I'd love to be able to just explore some of the FFVIII places in the current generation. It would look really pretty, I think.
I imagine that XV's world is going to be closer to XII's in that there isn't a traditional overworld map, but it looks like it will probably be a little more seamless. I'd love to see more of the world. I'm already digging the direction of the monster design.
Oh my god, that map looks like so much fun, I have to go back and complete 8. It's the only FF I never finished. I got anxiety after I got the ship, and stopped playing cause I didn't know what to do. (mind you I was like 14 lol)
Also that's awesome we have confirmation they are inspired by older games!
I find it semi-humourous that a company is taking inspiration from its own previous work. Square-Enix I hope you're not still looking completely internally. =)
In some of the demo footage, the gameplay is reminiscent of popular western games. I feel like they are taking inspiration from a lot of sources, which is all good !