Over the last seven years the fellowship has been broken, and we’ve received Final Fantasy XIII as promised, as well as a bonus sequel in the form of Final Fantasy XII-2 (and for the sake of clarity, another sequel called Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is due in 2014). Final Fantasy Agito switched names and platforms and was released exclusively in Japan as Final Fantasy Type-0for the PlayStation Portable.
Final Fantasy nomenclature is kind of a mess and the Fabula Nova Crystallis banner didn’t make it any easier. Final Fantasy XIII Versus has only made sporadic appearances over the last seven years, and yet repeatedly demanded interest because A) it looked awesome every time and B) Square-Enix’s Kingdom Hearts team was assigned to development. Nevertheless it joined the ranks of The Last Guardian, Mirror’s Edge 2, and Beyond Good and Evil 2 as games that are nice to dream about but have a statistically low chance of actually coming out one day.
One could probably forgive my ecstatic lapse in appropriate language when a Final Fantasy XIII Versus trailer broke out of Sony’s 2013 E3 press conferences. And again when it was clearly a PlayStation 4 title. And, finally, once more when Square-Enix rebranded it Final Fantasy XV. I was on the verge of a nuclear meltdown not necessarily because the footage looked great, but rather due to the fact that we were seeing a unicorn in motion for the first time in literally years. There it was, and Square-Enix appeared to be serious about getting it out the door in 2014.
While the trailer looked incredible, it also admittedly made almost no sense. Dragons, giant water tunnel demons, crystal lust, behemoth slicing, extended portrait shots – such are the pains of trying to forge a synopsis out of a 50+ hour game that isn’t completely finished (or even translated), but one couldn’t deny its technical prowess and visual appeal. There was a scene toward the end with Noctis dancing and sliding around a posh interior that appeared to be live gameplay, but rule #1 with E3 trailers, especially for consoles that haven’t hit retail, is to keep your expectations in check. Obviously this is difficult to do with a game as elusive as Final Fantasy XV, but if it’s real, if it might actually get make it holiday 2014, we should be seeing much more of it soon.
That’s a lot of “ifs,” but Final Fantasy XV is finally poised to oblige its ridiculous level of anticipation.
