Final Fantasy 15 may not be the best game in the series, but it certainly has its strengths. Flashy combat and likable characters have been enough to establish just this Final Fantasy entry as a minor cult classic, despite somewhat shallow combat mechanics, an uncertain story, and a bland open world, even by 2016 standards.
But everything that people love and hate about Final Fantasy 15 almost never came to be, because Noctis' urban-fantasy adventure was once quite different. Originally called Final Fantasy Versus 13the early days of Final Fantasy 15s development envisioned the final product as a PlayStation 3-exclusive action RPG led by Kingdom Hearts puppeteer Tetsuya Nomura. But the rapid advancement of technology, combined with remarkable internal turmoil and all-too-common development problems, resulted in a dramatic mutation. Yes, while Final Fantasy 15 is quite an interesting game, its development history is downright fascinating, and digging into it reveals useful insights into the complexities of game development, especially on the scale of a franchise that Final Fantasy.
Final Fantasy Versus 13 and Fabula Nova Crystallis
Fabula Nova Crystallis
Final Fantasy Versus 13 was meant to be part of the wider Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, which is described as a kind of loose connective tissue between games that Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy 13-2and Final Fantasy Agito. According to Final Fantasy 13 director Motomu Toriyama, the Fabula Nova Crystallis Games can be conceptualized as a kind of epic saga: they share the same myths and gods, but their actions are at best tangentially connected.
In this original draft, Noctis was still written as the prince of Lucis, the enemy state of Niflheim, but the magical crystal in the former's possession was said to be more closely tied to the crystal lore of Final Fantasy 13. The epic political intrigue and warfare seems to have been a central part of Final Fantasy 15s story from the very beginning, even though its days as Final Fantasy Versus 13 would have seen a completely different plot, and key characters and locations would ultimately be reworked for the final game. For example, the role of Luna was originally intended for a character named Stella, who appeared in Towards 13s first reveal trailers.
Final Fantasy Versus 13 was in development until 2011
Although it was first revealed in 2006 with a movie trailer, it is not exactly clear when the development of Final Fantasy Versus 13 began in earnest. Given its relationship to Final Fantasy 13it is widely believed that full-scale development on Towards 13 began after the former launched in 2009. Regardless, 2009 was the year Square Enix first showed in-engine footage of the game, although then-director Tetsuya Nomura said this was more like a proof-of-concept, a snippet purpose-built for presentation and not intended for the final construction of the game.
Versus 13 gameplay footage shared in 2011 depicts an action RPG in the style of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core: enemies are presented in scripted encounters, and battles operate via a command menu on the left side of the screen. Interestingly, it seems that players would have been able to switch between party members during battle, and each of them would have had a different fighting style. For example, Prompto would have been controllable, able to use a handgun to shoot enemy weak points and even trigger environmental hazards.
Tetsuya Nomura wanted Towards 13 to be a seamless open world, despite being a companion to Final Fantasy 13. To this end, the Luminous Studio engine was created, later renamed the Luminous Engine, which was presented at E3 2012. As it would happen, this was precisely at the time that another major technological milestone would redefine Final Fantasy Versus 13s development.
Luminous Studio marked a significant technological leap forward for Square Enix and Final Fantasywhich allows for much more detailed environments, and especially detailed character models.
PlayStation 4 played an important role in the creation of Final Fantasy 15
In 2011, Square Enix's leadership would appear on the PlayStation 4 for the first time, prompting them to reconsider Final Fantasy Versus 13which was still slated for a PS3 version. Additionally, although it had been in the pipeline since 2006, progress on the game had been slow, with even Nomura himself often seeming unsure of its launch horizon. The combination of Sony's new hardware, a sporadic development timeline and the ambitious Luminous Engine led to the decision to sever the link between Final Fantasy Versus 13 and Final Fantasy 13turns the former into Final Fantasy 15a definitive main entry in the wider series.
During this process, Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core director Hajime Tabata assumed the role of co-director alongside Nomura, who eventually relinquished full control of the project to the former. Reportedly, Tabata worked closely with Nomura to ensure that essential elements such as the main cast would remain intact, before embarking on a ruthless editing campaign. A lot of Towards 13The story changed fundamentally, and its connection to the other Fabula Nova Crystallis games decreased significantly. The game's scale would continue to inform its identity as a standalone mainline FF drop.
Whether all this back and forth was worth it in the end is debatable, but it certainly makes for an interesting development story. One particularly revealing insight Tabata offers concerns the problem of revealing a game too early. The director has said he thinks it was a mistake to reveal Towards 13 2006, as this resulted in it being weighed down by audience expectations, making for a messier development process. It is actually fascinating to trace the long-winded creation of FF15 all the way back to 2006, as it shows how factors such as communication, clarity and leadership can have a far greater impact on a game's development than financial resources, which were never among Towards 13s biggest problem, by all accounts.
