Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata has expressed his desire to move players, in the same way that players were moved and impacted by Final Fantasy VII.
In a new interview, Tabata shared his belief that when players invest many hours into finishing a single game and uncovering its secrets, they should be rewarded with an emotionally moving ending. He personally gets disappointed when he does play a very long game, and the ending does not give him the emotional payoff that that investment warranted. Tabata says these kinds of games should at least make their players cry, or leave them with some other strong emotion. With this in mind, his intention with Final Fantasy XV‘s ending is to make as many players cry as possible.
When bringing up Final Fantasy VII, Tabata revealed that there are still some developers in the current Final Fantasy XV who helped make VII. The developer team really does want to exceed VII in terms of impact, and Tabata describes it as a great motivator for them.
As Tabata pointed out, Final Fantasy VII was a breakout title in terms of sales and bringing in new audiences. In fact, it was more than another hit PlayStation game in Japan. It sold one million copies in the US, within only three months of release. This prompted an analyst to state, far back as 1997, that Final Fantasy VII redefined the RPG, and expanded the conventional audience for RPGs, as well as for video games.
Final Fantasy XV is planned for release in PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Its release details will be revealed in an Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV event this March 30. The developer team earlier revealed their plans to release it worldwide simultaneously.
