Today the awakening could not be the most bitter: Hajime Tabata, or the Game Director of Final Fantasy XV, he officially resigned. Without a figure to lead the project, even the subsequent DLC dedicated to Arenea, Luna and Noctis have been canceled, confirming only the one dedicated to Ardyn as development on this additional content is most likely almost finished. In any case, those like me who have followed the development of the title very closely, know how everything was troubled, how the contents were created, torn apart, deleted and resumed, in an increasingly chaotic and confusing way. The climax came with the change of the Game Director, the passage that led Nomura to sit on the "bench", even if as we know he was totally focused on the development of Kingdom Hearts III, and the handover in Tabata. This happened a little more than a year after the official publication, which had to happen by 2016 due to contracts signed by Square Enix itself. Today, two years later, and after recent news emerged, pointing the finger at Tabata would be too easy. In fact, as is well known, when the Game Director took over the production, the state of the work was really on the high seas, with parts that could not be used and stories that did not match the narrative.
Tabata had to modify and change everything in the course of construction, trying to match the old with the new, a no small feat that, however, was not fully successful. This therefore led to having those famous narrative holes so criticized that they would have been filled with the help of DLCs. In fact, when I myself found myself interviewing Tabata, with the exclusive declaration on the publication linked to the Ardyn DLC, I was struck by the desire that the man had in wanting to give all the fans the game they wanted, complete even if delayed. Unfortunately, this did not happen. As mentioned earlier, shooting at zero would be easy, but not today. Today I want to thank a person who tried to the lastdespite its limitations. We as journalists are certainly called to criticize, create constructive discussions, but for this time at least I will come out of it, providing you with what will be my letter of thanks for the one who, despite his mistakes, has done everything to give to the fans what they have been waiting for for over 10 years.
Dear Hajime Tabata,
When Final Fantasy XV did not yet exist, when this chapter was still linked to the Fabula Nova Crystallis project, expectations were already very high, yet the game did not yet exist. After the failure of the saga linked to Final Fantasy XIII, the brand needed new life, fans were clamoring for it and Square Enix had no alternative. The change of course that took place had not brought the desired results, but now we had to move forward in this direction. Nomura was apparently the most suitable person, as he has demonstrated over the years his great ability to create articulate storylines fused with dynamic and very fluid gameplay. He seemed like the right man to revive Final Fantasy, yeah, it seemed. It seemed because he too found great difficulties, change of console, disproportionate increase in budget and much more. In the meantime, time passed and the shards continued to increase, fall and break, little by little they tried to glue something together, but if one part was fixed, another was destroyed. As Don Abbondio would have said, "This marriage is not to be done". Yet there was no turning back, some game elements had been created, the fans had been deluded, they could not be disappointed again.
Then still forward, without ever taking a step back, as if nothing had happened until you pass that fateful point of no return, the one that led you to become the Game Director of the title. The announcement came in 2014, two years before the game was released. From Final Fantasy Versus XIII, here comes Final Fantasy XV, a name change that, in part, meant abandoning what was done previously to make the game something new, something yours. Only that two years to do this type of enterprise were few, really. Tabata, despite human limitations, you were the only one and managed to put together almost all the pieces, a half miracle that for anyone else would have been impossible. Today you are taking unfair criticisms, since they are the same ones that were leveled at you at the time of the release of the fifteenth chapter. But anyone like me who has enjoyed the journey of Noctis and his companions knows very well that in your heart you did the best you could. So let's get the most out of this story, let's take what's left of it. A title that, albeit incomplete, has nevertheless restored luster to a brand that for too long has not shone as before. In your inexperience, if we want to call it that, with titles of this magnitude, Tabata San you did your best, and this must be recognized. Then Thank you, thank you because for all of us fans seeing a Final Fantasy of this caliber was a dream come true, thank you because it was years that a chapter of the saga did not thrill in this way, thank you because we will carry the characters of this adventure inside us forever, thank you because the story between Noctis and Luna makes your heart tighten with emotion and thanks because a villain like Ardyn hasn't been seen in the videogame scene for years. It is often said that it is not the destination but the journey that counts, e Final Fantasy XV's journey through good and bad was unique. Thank you.
