Final Fantasy versus XIII has been on my mind for about 5 years now (for some it's been teasing them for 7 years now) and, for a while, it looked pretty bleak for this game. First of all, nobody I asked knew about it at all (which was understandable because even those who did know about it didn't know much). A fair number of people bought PS3s mostly to play this game. We got a few trailers and even a trailer showing gameplay in 2011. It looked truly amazing. The makers of the game have promised traditional elements such as a world map and airships would return. It seemed like a game too good to be true.
And then there was silence. There was well over a year of it.
Next there was a rumor that it was cancelled. Yoichi Wada had to tweet us that it wasn't cancelled.
There was more silence.
And then BAM. E3 2013. I didn't see a Square Enix announcement and I didn't expect any. But luckily for me, Final Fantasy versus XIII got a new trailer. But to my utter surprise, they re-branded it to Final Fantasy XV.
To me, this was good news. Nothing but. I didn't care that I had to get a new system for it because I was for sure getting a next gen console. I didn't care that it had non-traditional combat for the series because the combat doesn't define the Final Fantasy series. And the PS3 I bought? There are plenty of other reasons to have one.
I was shocked by the backlash of the game. I remember when versus XIII (XV) was rumored to be cancelled. N4G comments things like, "If they do, then I'll never buy a game from them again".
Now it's shit like: I'm not buying this game because Final Fantasy stopped being turn-based.
Do you really play Final Fantasy for it's turn-based combat? Not for the atmosphere? Not for the plot? Not for the characters? Not for the adventure?
You seriously play the games... for the turn-based combat?
My point is that this game looks really awesome. It doesn't mark that the series is becoming less traditional. When I played XIII, I barely felt like I was playing a Final Fantasy game, granted, I did feel like I was, but not completely. I see Final Fantasy staples in XV believe it or not. A futuristic yet strikingly modern society? Reminds me of VII. Airships! Reminds me of other games in the series. Big ass swords? Reminds me of VII as well. Behemoths. Totally FF.
You're not going into go a game that's devoid of tradition.
Look, I'm also a big Metal Gear fan. I played Metal Gear Rising despite it having radically different combat. I enjoyed it. I felt it was Metal Gear at heart. And that was done by a different company.
FFXV is being done by the same company that did the rest of the series and is being directed by Testuya Nomura. You know him. Has he often steered people wrong? No.
So, gosh darn it, buy XV if you're a Final Fantasy fan. And remember, they said that remake you know everyone wants of Final Fantasy VII will only happen when it is outsold. So let's make sure this outsells them all.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I'm not even a big FF fan, but this game is spectacular. Tried the open beta cuz a friend asked me to and I was hooked.
Thank you! If anything this game will revitalise FF and surpass VII .
To me Final Fantasy has a LOT to prove.
I grew up playing IV and VI on the SNES and I loved VII as well but VIII was just plain awful with its terrible battle system and ridiculous story. But I wasn't gonna bail on the series yet. Square deserved a second chance and I'm glad I stuck with them because IX and X were amazing and totally restored my faith in the series.
I hate MMO games so XI and XIV were immediately unappealing to me and judging by my friends responses, I'm glad I stayed away from them. I remember being so excited about XII but delay after delay really killed my buzz for it. When XII finally did release I was horrified because they had made the combat like an MMO but the worst part was the story. My god, what a boring pile of "meh". I wish I had never played it. But things were about to get so much worse...
Final Fantasy XIII killed what little faith I still had in the series. It could hardly be called a Final Fantasy game at all. Things inexplicably missing include: towns, shops, world maps, airships, a plot or characters that I cared about. Nothing even resembled FF. The only good thing I can say about it is it looked pretty. But apparently SE sold lots of copies because they made, not one, but two sequels to it. But you couldn't pay me to listen to one more second of Vanille talking about L'Cie's.
I haven't enjoyed a FF game in 12 years and after all that... FFXV better be so damn amazing that it puts the rest of the series to shame. I am not even kidding.
Very little of any of the footage that has ever been shown from that game has ever screamed "Final Fantasy" to me. And even the footage from this past E3 looks exactly like it always has: a game designed for, and still should run on, PS3.
Very few fragments of the footage I saw said "I was designed from the ground up for next-gen systems". To me, this is still v13 with a 15 slapped on it.
Nice blog.
I agree with you I will support FFXV because
1. And that's my primary reason because this game is so freaking awesome!
2. I hope this game outsold so we could get FFXV-2, KH3 and FFVII Remake.
That game is also one of the reasons why I'll be moving to PS4.
:)