[09/03] FFXV director: I hope the ending will make fans cry + have same emotional impact as FFVII

[Linnaete]

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Director Hajime Tabata spoke to Game Informer magazine and in the latest April 2016 issue release, he hopes that FFXV's ending will leave tears streaming down the cheeks of players. Having devoted so much time to the roadtrip story of Noctis and bros, it is only natural that you should be rewarded with an emotional ending, or something along those lines.

In his words as published in the magazine: "I want to create a very emotional ending to the game and want to make as many people cry as possible. You’re spending so many hours playing the game, so when I finish a game and it ends on a sour note and it doesn’t move me, it gets me disappointed. At least make me cry or give me some emotion! I want to give a moving ending for the consumers who invest so much time."

With that out of the way, he turns to talk about FFVII - this imposing, immovable, influential colossus that has dominated the hearts and minds of fans and developers alike for nearly two decades. That's right. Tabata dreams of FFXV having just as similar an impact:

"There are some team members that were here for VII,” he said. “They’re taking on the challenge of trying to exceed that title once more, which is a great motivator for them. FFVII sets a very high goal for us, but it serves as a good goal. It brought in new audiences, sales, and more."

Final Fantasy XV is due out sometime this year for both the PS4 and the Xbox One. Its announcement date is expected to revealed at a special event in Los Angeles on the 30th of this month.

Nova Crystallis

 

[Dionysos]

It would be brilliant if I could emotionally invest in this game. I haven't really cared in any deep way for FF characters for a while now.

Pulling off a good ending is very important. FFVI, VII, VIII and IX all had very strong endings, I felt. Others were good too. In addition to the ending itself, I liked how FFIX's credits also showed a number of key moments from the game while the song Melodies of Life was played. It helped the player reflect on everything that had happened, remembering moments experienced a while ago, and fitting them into the context of the ending. It got me in the feels, as they say.

FFXIII ended with Leona Lewis' My Hands. I didn't emotionally invest in the ending because it was poorly delivered, but I didn't dislike the game in its entirety.

Will they deliver on this for FFXV? It'll be interesting to see how they end it. Maybe the T-Birds disband because one of them dies, or maybe Noctis gets married and can no longer spend as long with the T-Birds. Worse, maybe they fix the problem with the darkness of night getting longer, but as a result Noctis can no longer exist because it is discovered that he embodies the night itself. It'll be like Tidus all over again.

 

[Soulcorruptor]

It would be brilliant if I could emotionally invest in this game. I haven't really cared in any deep way for FF characters for a while now.

Pulling off a good ending is very important. FFVI, VII, VIII and IX all had very strong endings, I felt. Others were good too. In addition to the ending itself, I liked how FFIX's credits also showed a number of key moments from the game while the song Melodies of Life was played. It helped the player reflect on everything that had happened, remembering moments experienced a while ago, and fitting them into the context of the ending. It got me in the feels, as they say.

FFXIII ended with Leona Lewis' My Hands. I didn't emotionally invest in the ending because it was poorly delivered, but I didn't dislike the game in its entirety.

Will they deliver on this for FFXV? It'll be interesting to see how they end it. Maybe the T-Birds disband because one of them dies, or maybe Noctis gets married and can no longer spend as long with the T-Birds. Worse, maybe they fix the problem with the darkness of night getting longer, but as a result Noctis can no longer exist because it is discovered that he embodies the night itself. It'll be like Tidus all over again.

I began thinking that somewhat myself as well after reading they wanted to make fans cry. I immediately jumped into thinking that they want to kill someone off or several people, either midgame or even end game with post credits. I'm not sure if they are trying to make this into another XIII series with multiple games but I could see that happening, I just hope it doesn't since in a way that would ruin some of the emotional impact on my opinion.

 

[Linnaete]

I do think a distinction has to be made between a) making fans cry because the story is deliberately written to be harsh and tragic, often employing transparently cheap ways to elicit a strong emotional reaction, such as killing off the female love interest; and b) making fans cry in a more indirect way because they have stuck with these characters for 60 hours, have enjoyed their time with them, can empathise with each of them, and have laughed and cried with them all the way through. I certainly experienced the latter when I finished Xenoblade Chronicles several years ago. I had bonded with these characters from start to finish, have thoroughly enjoyed my time with them and became personally invested in their collective and individual plights. When it came time for the game's end credits to roll, with a bittersweet ending on top of it (hi, Melia), it did hit me hard, because this was like saying goodbye to friends.

Re-reading Tabata's comments, I hope it's more of b) than a). The series has managed to pull off some really effective endings that have elicited player emotions in their own ways, such as FFIX and FFX, but to most people, neither of those endings would have been half as effective if the game had failed to get you invested in these characters all through the journey. If I don't care about the characters, seldom will I care when you begin to build up a body count. But having said that, Versus XIII was always billed to be a more tragic story from the very get-go, and Tabata has quite a record of directing games that end with notable character deaths, so I imagine a) will also play an integral part in the package. Unfortunately, I lack the faith that they will avoid falling into the pit of making it all overly melodramatic. I don't really like being told how I should feel as it is without someone also resorting to constantly and loudly trying to hammer an emotional response out of me when you've not earned it.

Put it this way: the Dawn trailer (either version will do) was supposed to be powerfully poignant. Square-Enix wanted me to be emotionally invested in these characters I have yet to actually meet and nor do I know anything about. The context was simply not there to elicit any genuine feeling from me. The most I felt was sympathy for young Luna, because it's essentially a grown man tossing a kid around, but Square would have wanted me to focus mainly on a tearful father on the cusp of...wait, what is happening, exactly? Is he losing his son? The mission for Square therefore, if Tabata actually expects the audience to respond in a way that he wants us to, is to sell these characters and have good writing to back it up. Make us start to organically grow to gradually care about them, THEN think about moving the chess pieces around to tug at our heartstrings once that foundation has been met. Otherwise, you rely on forced melodrama and produce something like the Dawn trailer from August, which had as much impact as a wet firework.

 

[Busta]

That would be nice if the end of this game, or heck even all throughout it would leave us hanging on the edge of our emotional seats. Thinking back to how FFX ended and the shocks, surprises, anger, and sadness we felt as the plot wrapped up, leaves us to hope that Square-Enix can once again find that magic and pull us in just to push us over the edge once the game is completed.

That's good news though, especially that the release date will soon be made known publicly. Finally, a countdown can begin and the anticipation will grow bigger and bigger.

 

[The Witch]

No Cloud, no Aerith... not even a chance!

Kidding!



No but seriously.... Like Linn said, if you don't care about the characters the game's fucked. And right now, every character in this game has not won my attention, not even in looks.

But I'm still going to try and play it.

 

[AuronX]

FFVII - this imposing, immovable, influential colossus that has dominated the hearts and minds of fans and developers alike for nearly two decades

Sounds about right. Personally I'm always a bit concerned when a developer sets out to top another game. Too often it happens that in focusing on another product they forget to make something that is truly good in its own right.

The thing here is, I know Tabata has the capability to pull that off.

Perhaps not to transcend FFVII in the hearts and minds of those who can't let go of it, no, but to direct a story that leaves gamers with some lingering emotional impact. Type-0 was barely an inch away from it, itself. All the pieces of the puzzle were there, but too limited by the PSP and muddied by forced integration into the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythos to have their full effect. With just a bit more connection to the characters, that game could have absolutely emotionally wrecked anyone who played it through to the end. And that's the thing: FFXV's primary focus is characters. It's a manageable cast too, small enough for each to be really fleshed out into someone you bond with over time. I look forward to seeing whether it succeeds--because as it is, it's going to have to really succeed for me to shed a tear over it. As decent as Episode Duscae was, emotionally investing it was not.

 

[FinalxxSin]

There are quite a few possibilities:
1. Noctis could end up alone on the throne in the end.
2. Somebody close to Noctis may perish.
3. Noctis himself may end up dead.
4. The antagonist may have such a legit stance from start to finish, not the bad guy gone good cliche, that defeating them for good won't bring the typical satisfaction. Instead it would make some stop and ask if what they did as a player was truly right in the first place.

 

[Razberry Knight]

This is where the theory of noctis or Luna dies....

Now knowing Hajime Tabatas track record. You know someone is going to die. You know that will be leading to the ending. Ff7 crisis core although was suppose to lead to it. Fftype0 was once again a spiritual successor to crisis core.

And ff15 with all the changes made to it (with the exception of allowing to choose characters) is more and more of a spiritual successor to type 0 rather than kingdombhearts and final fantasy.

Look back at what we we're told before hajime tabata. Claims of more KH we're made. But now although it's not being said publicly, everything about this seems like type 0.


Someone is obviously not going to get the happy ending they want. Will it make us cry in the end? I specifically remember the Last Remnant making those claims.

And it shows it tried. When type 0 class ending. I thought I was going to cry because I saw the ending before I played the game it was going to be very emotional. So when I finally got to play it, I noticed how lacking it was in characters. With very few exception, I didn't feel any empathy for any of them.

Now this is jot me hating Ff15 or hajime tabata, but keeping a track record. I believe ff7 crisis core ending worked so well because we got to play the ending. The soundtrack was amazing, the last battle was just one big plot device but it fits with the theme.

Things we haven't seen yet from final fantasy 15 to give us a hint of a possibility of such a sad ending:

Other than blind random, no positive reinforced characters. We have no true emotional positive or relatable feeling yet. We don't know who Noctis is, we don't know who Luna is, we don't know anything personal or deep.

One of the things that worked with ff7crisis core ending was that all Zack was trying to do was reach midgar and see aerith after 7 years.

Type 0 wasn't sad not only because they didn't support the characters. The problem was their goals. These characters had no personal goals, no potential to live and have happy endings. They we're scared of death, but they overcame it.

Lastly I want to sayabout ff15 is that if we compare versus xiii to ff15, ff15 has been oversimplified. We have literally the basic information we had back then but now it's being presented to us as the general information we need to know getting in. Who knows, maybe March will blow me away. Maybe just maybe Luna will get a haircut midway, a scar, and suddenly have a more grounded personality I can relate to other than being just a princess oracle who is arranged to be married to noctis and admittedly in love with noctis. Where is the dynamic relationship? Its complex, but not dynamic.



And lastly, I'm worried how I'm going to connect with all the other characters. If they had their own chapters, then maybe. But we know they won't. All these characters revolve around Noctis. You don't see Prompto having his own connections and his own friends. These characters live for him. And we see no individuality. Even if I do see something personal with Noctus I just don't see me crying for one of the if one of them do die.

 

[Kei]

I really hate when they spout things like that, just release the game and let us form our own opinion, I despise knowing what to expect in a game and I would consider this spoilers. Stop trying to surpass a game, each should be different and has its own image without the influence of the story of another successful game.

 

[greenyxi]

Exactly, they keep saying they need to surpass FF7, when FF9 did that yonks ago.

Either way, I'm all for emotion and stuff. They tried to do emotion at the end of 13 (I won't explain this point and spoil how) and that was garbage, so this doesn't give me any hope for the game. Still, fingers crossed.

 

[Linnaete]

FFXIII also fundamentally failed with its ending, because of both the power of anime-friendship-will-conquer-anything resolution and the fact that it completely destroyed itself in logical terms, leaving the player befuddled and confounded as to what even just happened and why. It was bad enough that I never liked most of the characters, without having a blatant deus ex machina ending that made little sense to me.

The basic that FFXV has to get right is an ending that is comprehensible and not resolved simply because a wizard did it. Then we can talk about emotional resonance and whether the writing and the characters have earned a positive appraisal.

 

[greenyxi]

FFXIII also fundamentally failed with its ending, because of both the power of anime-friendship-will-conquer-anything resolution and the fact that it completely destroyed itself in logical terms, leaving the player befuddled and confounded as to what even just happened and why. It was bad enough that I never liked most of the characters, without having a blatant deus ex machina ending that made little sense to me.

Exactly the truth. It made no sense and the fact that it was a character that only Square seems to care about that it happened to...very who cares ending.

The basic that FFXV has to get right is an ending that is comprehensible and not resolved simply because a wizard did it. Then we can talk about emotional resonance and whether the writing and the characters have earned a positive appraisal.

They need it to be something that really builds throughout (like, say, FFX did it). I will say that I think Square have a tough job on their hands in making an emotional ending when:

a) We already know there's something coming now. Like Kei said, this is a huge spoiler. We now know there's a sad ending coming and that can completely ruin the mood of the entire game. I think Square will have a tough time making people sad when it's already sort of known (try and make sense of that one lmao. Ranting midway...).

b) The characters aren't being considerably well-liked before the game is even out. Will people even care?

I'll be impressed if they pull it off.

 

[FinalxxSin]

Exactly, they keep saying they need to surpass FF7, when FF9 did that yonks ago.

That isn't true. Square is looking at surpassing from a sales and reception angle. If FFIX had truly surpassed FFVII, then it would be having its own universe expanded upon over the years and not FFVIIs. FFVII is the most talked about mainline title in the series. Perhaps it is impossible for any mainline game to surpass FFVII due to the giant wall of nostalgia that surrounds it making it out to be better than what it is in reality. Perhaps the timing will never be as good considering how the RPG competition has grown since PS1 days, and the gaming community diversity has grown greatly since that time.

 

[Razberry Knight]

That isnt making SE look better in terms of pleasing their fans.

 

[greenyxi]

That isn't true. Square is looking at surpassing from a sales and reception angle. If FFIX had truly surpassed FFVII, then it would be having its own universe expanded upon over the years and not FFVIIs. FFVII is the most talked about mainline title in the series. Perhaps it is impossible for any mainline game to surpass FFVII due to the giant wall of nostalgia that surrounds it making it out to be better than what it is in reality. Perhaps the timing will never be as good considering how the RPG competition has grown since PS1 days, and the gaming community diversity has grown greatly since that time.

Reception and sales with FF9 were based on the game coming out around the PS2 release. Also, FF7 had ten tonnes of advertising around it while 9 barely had any. None of that was based on the strength of the game but how Square treated the release. The fact that FF9 doesn't have its universe expanded is because Square thinks FF7 is the best based on it being most mainstream and, again, not based on the strength of the game. Honestly though, who wants 2nd rate spin offs ala Crisis Core and Advent Children? They were both pretty darn bad compared with the original game.

The competition in the JRPG market right now is pretty huge yeah, but most of the JRPGs are extremely shallow in terms of story. If Enix could do a decent job in this department (I haven't seen that done in FF since X), then they could easily outshine the competition and have bigger sales than (for example) 13 had. I'm hoping 13 has a high focus on story. What we've seen so far from the trailers has been highly dramatic crying and...other stuff that doesn't really show depth to me. I'm sure there'll be a solid story after over a decade though.

 

[Rey]

I really hate when they spout things like that, just release the game and let us form our own opinion, I despise knowing what to expect in a game and I would consider this spoilers. Stop trying to surpass a game, each should be different and has its own image without the influence of the story of another successful game.

Well, it isn't like we didn't know the game will be sad. If you have been keeping up with Versus interviews and such, it was always branded as some sort of tragedy. I think what Tabata is saying here is that he has invested a hell of a lot of time into this game and he set a goal for himself to surpass Final fantasy VII's popularity in themes such as sadness. I think if we don't get the exact reaction Tabata wants from the ending, he would have failed. Then again, this is not forcing sadness on the fans. It just leads up to speculation about deaths, which I am okay with if they are done in a meaningful way.

Kitase even expressed that the game is sad back in like 2011 “People will cry because of the story, they will get involved into it and will be crying for a whole week and on!”-

Sure, this may not be entirely relevant as it was from back when versus was still a thing, but it still stands for FFXV.

 

[Razberry Knight]

Well just have to wqit and see....I can at least respect that Hajime Tabata wants to make us cry. Will he succeed? Hes not known for creating deep and emotional characters.

I have yet to see something storywise that tells me this is going to be amazing. And im normally good at catching quick which ones are good/bad.

I dont think anyone remembers me before ff13 released but it was one of those things. Ff explorers? Theatrhyth?

The only one I think no one has agreed with me was record keeper. But thats such a gimmicky game. Im sure no one plays it for the deep story.

What ticks me off is he still treats ff15 as a reboot to versus. He could gain more by admitting what remains from the original design.

Didnt not to long ago asked of this was still sad and he quickly denied it because this was ff15, not versus? Hes not doing any favors trying to get people to forget ffversus 13.

 

[FinalxxSin]

Honestly though, who wants 2nd rate spin offs ala Crisis Core and Advent Children? They were both pretty darn bad compared with the original game.

I'll provide a counter angle. When ever something gets expanded upon, the chances of that thing continuing to remain relevant can increase. It gives people more things to discuss, which in turn increases curiosity with some outside people due to word of mouth advertising. With the expanded reach, it becomes easier to lead some back to the original source where everything began that could increase sales of the original content. It's no different from comparing long running animation series to short running animation series, where on the overall short running series tend to be better in the aspect of pacing. However, it's the long running ones that end up with more attention more times than not since there is always something new to discuss.

FFXV won't be able to accomplish that as easily since it is planned to be a single installment instead of multiple releases in the past. It is possible to have its universe expanded upon through other media means going into the future.

 

[Busta]

I agree with the point about someone saying we need to form our own opinions of the game when it comes out, instead of just thinking it's going to be sad because a Square-Enix staff member stated it would be.

I think the emotion of the game is all on the gamer. I found FFX to be very sad at the end, but on the other hand, Final Fantasy VII, I did not really have to much care into the early death in that game. HOWEVER, I did find that I was a bit surprised and pissed about the death of a main character in Final Fantasy V. It may just be all on how many FF games you've played, your age, what your used to in life.

Heck, Razberry Knight probably cries everytime they watch the Lion King even for the 50th time, but Cabbage can see it once and never bat an eye at Mufasa's death. It's all personal opinion/emotion/circumstances. I think FFXV will be good. A tear-jerker? I don't know about that, but we'll see.