Former Member of FFXVÂ Design Team Airs their Grievances Online
Final Fantasy XV (FFXV for short) has had a long, tumultuous development cycle. The game was originally part of the Final Fantasy XIII series, with Tetsuya Nomura directing the game. In 2012 Nomura was replaced by Hajime Tabata and the project was rebranded as FFXV. This change in project title also meant a move to the new generation of consoles (PlayStation 4, Xbox One).
Former Character Designer Roberto Ferrari recently spoke about the disorganization inside the studio. He said that design work was in progress “while the story still had to be finalized.” Ferrari went on, lamenting that the story “changed every three months or so” while the release date loomed.
Ferrari observed that other industries do not follow this practice, “in order to avoid this kind of a waste.”
Ferrari (who designed Ardyn Izunia, Cindy Aurum, Cid Sophiar, Iris Amicitia, Aranea Highwind, Gentiana, Umbra, and Verstael) also talked about some character changes made after his departure. He spoke of characters he liked who “were removed from the story.” Ferrari even alluded to changes with Umbra, regretting that players would “never see him in human form.”
Ferrari also worked on the FFVII Remake, but he did so with less creative control. That project was more focused on upgrading existing character designs from the original version of the game.
If FFXV’s development cycle is any indication, it may quite some time before we get any news regarding the FFVII Remake. Perhaps the next E3 conference will have more than a single trailer to satiate fans. In the meantime, hopefully the development cycle for that game ends up less contentious.
SOURCE: WCCFtech