FINAL FANTASY XV | "JOURNEY TO THE GAME AWAKENS"

People keep asking me "how I will feel if FFXV doesn't live up to the hype?", I would always give a basic answer. But I thought I would throw my thoughts on a page so in the future I can just link this; so hello again if I've just linked this to you!

To start, Final Fantasy XV is seen as FFXIII-Versus to a lot of people, the game that had a trailer debut back in 2006 at E3 Expo. Now, to me FFXV is no longer FXIII-V. There has been so many changes made in the last decade, removing major characters from the story altogether, adding some and changing plot lines. Even in the last two years the game has changed so much. So when I see people hyped over the game because they think it's still FFXIII-V I think it's silly as I don't follow that hype train. Don't get me wrong, I've been waiting since 2006 for the next major good Final Fantasy title release, but I'm more excited because of everything Square Enix has done right. Before I go into it, I want to make a comparison to another major franchise.

Star Wars.

Yes, I'm relating the build up to FFXV directly to Star Wars. You'll soon see why these two properties are similar in hype, and why it was important for square enix to follow the same template Disney was able to present with their 'Journey to the Force Awakens' campaign.

Okay - let's look at the Star Wars Franchise prior to The Force Awakens:

Massive Fan Base
Last major titles being met with harsh criticism both from movie critics and fans alike.
I believe this is where FFXV is currently sitting, it's safe to say even the hardcore Star Wars fans were skeptical of Disneys takeover of the brand, and the release of a post-ROTJ (Return of the Jedi) movie. Fans had complete trust in George Lucas; the creator of Star Wars and they were let down with the prequels. They were in a situation where even the creator didn't recreate the magic of the first trilogy, so how was Disney meant to? What did Disney do to get everyone ready for the Movie? Not only the hype, but the correct expectation? They created 'The Journey to the Force Awakens' campaign as mentioned, letting the world know what was coming.

A year out from the movie Disney started "hyping" the film the right away, not only showing trailers that didn't give away the movie but releasing their developed journey part-by-part with fans. They were able to release Novels for all ages (Kids, YA and Adult) that built up expectations of the new Star Wars world/adventure, comics that introduced us to fan favourites, as well as characters that would normally be considered background and video games, phone applications, movie reference books, re-releases of the movies in cinemas, 'Force Friday' TFA toys and much more. This, building up is why I think TFA was not only met with create critical reception, but also fan reaction. Yes; there are some valid points people have about the movie, but there is nobody out there that can deny the movie was a hit.

Ok ok, how does this relate to FFXV? Well, they're doing the same thing. Where is the Final Fantasy community sitting right now? Our last major release (FFXIII) was not met well by long time fans of the series, FFXIV Online was released as a copy/paste mmo, while it is now a strong MMO the press did not treat it kindly on launch, FFXII was never picked up majorly by a western market despite how great I feel the game is (it remains my favourite Final Fantasy game), and FFX-2 was dreadful. Our last fan accepted release was FFX.

My hype comes from the trust SE has built into it's product by being transparent and forthcoming with details about their upcoming release. Square Enix have been very clear to the public that they know the state of their franchise and how important the release of FFXV is to them. They have created their own version of 'They Journey to the Force Awakens' with their uncovered events, their appearance at major gaming expos and their ATR (Active Time Reports). Every month we are getting an appearance from them, to give us more details on the game so that fan expectations are on the right course, in their ATRs they break down features and how they're working towards fixing any bugs (like the frame rate issues which delayed the game) or how they're making it better. As well as releasing things like;

Kingsglaive (A Major theatrical length movie that launched worldwide)
FFXV Brotherhood (a small anime series)
Phone Apps (mini-games that will be inside the FFXV Game)
Getting Florence + The Machine to develop the title track as a major song release
FFXV Playable Demo
FFXV Playable Tech Demo (Plat Demo)
.. and much more
All in all, I am hyped for FFXV because SE has shown me enough in the last twelve months that makes me confident they will not release a title they're unhappy with, they've made big decisions to delay and release certain things at the correct time, to ensure their finish product is amazing. I think if companies follow the same template that FFXV/Star Wars has followed, we will have less of the *cough* No Mans Sky *cough* hype train ruining it. The game itself looks beautiful. Areas and towns look full of life, the characters are strong and don't sound like little brats and the story seems filled with strong, non-confusing *cough FFXIII *cough* lore.

But then again, there are going to be people out there that complain and hate the game for some stupid reason, it's 2016 of course!

Fin.