During an interview, the video game director, Hajime Tabata has labeled some members as having the “Final Fantasy disease”. Tabata says that “everyone has Final Fantasy disease”, and while it might be hyperbole to suggest every gamer in the world has an opinion on Final Fantasy, it’s certainly true that many people reacted negatively to the game’s first trailer.
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Further in the piece, Hajime Tabata revealed that early on in development he told the team bluntly, “we’re not special”.
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“.
He added: “Since the root is a strong self-affirmation, one’s own view of Final Fantasy takes more priority than the team’s success”.
Fans were excited when they heard that the upcoming remake would go into the action-focused gameplay in the molds of “Dissidia Final Fantasy”. “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?”
The difficulties surrounding Final Fantasy XV’s development can’t be underscored enough. For instance, he recently mentioned the team was considering including an “easy mode” in Final Fantasy XV – extremely conventional wisdom by Western game development standards, but not something Square Enix has implemented in a main Final Fantasy title before. Translated by Kotaku, the conversation kicks off with Harada asking if there was a backlash following Tabata’s appointment.
The interview is pretty big, and Final Fantasy fans who understand Japanese should definitely give it a read.
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That close relationship between the notion of a Final Fantasy game and JRPGs, however, might not have been as beneficial as Square Enix and gamers alike previously thought. This is in reference to the “FF disease”. That trailer showed very different gameplay than fans were accustomed to, which sort of proves Tabata’s point about everyone believing Final Fantasy 15 has to fit into a certain formula. Although Tabata is aware that the Final Fantasy is a series with great history, he felt that it was important to make changes. “Everyone has Final Fantasy disease”. Here is a sneak peek to have a glimpse of what “Final Fantasy 7 Remake” will look like when it finally releases.
