Amid the excitement for Square Enix’s next-gen offerings, many fans have probably forgotten that November 29, 2021 marks the fifth anniversary of Final Fantasy 15’s release. This game was the talk of the town for many years, starting life as Final Fantasy Versus 13 and changing with its staff and story to become a part of the main series. There are still some relics of the game that almost was buried within it, but Final Fantasy 15 only bears a passing resemblance to Versus 13. It was released in a rather controversial state too, given that there were a lot of rough patches and unfinished sections. Even its DLC ended up incomplete, thanks to further staff changes and Square Enix deciding it just wasn't worth the trouble.
With Final Fantasy 16 around the corner, it seems like Square Enix is trying to make good on what it intended to do with Final Fantasy 15. Now, the trusted development team behind Final Fantasy 14’s award-winning Heavensward expansion is making great public strides with FF16, likely learning from the missteps of FF15. Final Fantasy 15 made a lot of mistakes before, during, and after its release, but it also got several things right and was a major step in the action-oriented direction Square Enix has been moving in. A lot can be gleaned from the history of Final Fantasy 15, and it's worth celebrating for both what it did well and what lessons it taught.
The Charming Points of Final Fantasy 15
Starting with the positives, the main thing that Final Fantasy 15 supporters point to in regards to the game's strengths is its characters. The core cast of Noctis, Prompto, Gladiolus, and Ignis are very strong, and their journeys throughout FF15’s world are all very compelling. It's fun to watch these characters interact with each other, and because of the road trip nature of the story, they do so more than any other Final Fantasy party. The main villain, Ardyn Izunia, is also fairly charismatic, and players who experienced his DLC have an especially good impression of him. Most of the cast is sadly underutilized due to the game's format, but some recurring characters like Aranea Highwind and Iris still impress.
Final Fantasy 15 was also FF's first crack at an open world, and while it didn't do it perfectly with a lot of space clogging up the countryside, it brought Square Enix’s graphical capabilities to the next level. The world and its realistically rendered inhabitants all have a fantastical bent to them, and every environment is unashamedly beautiful. This project gave valuable experience to Square Enix’s development staff, and Luminous Productions’ upcoming game Forspoken will benefit greatly from Final Fantasy 15’s existence.
Where Final Fantasy 15 Went Wrong
Unfortunately, only so much good was packed into FF15. While the core cast is compelling and the story has some good emotional beats, a combination of the game’s general pacing and the weird content omissions left many players unsatisfied. There was an attempt to remedy this with updates and DLC, but even the alternate ending planned for the canceled DLC episodes would have still felt like a Band-Aid between several wounds. Final Fantasy 15’s development was deeply troubled, and it shows in many aspects of the game.
That problematic development caused some problems outside of the time it was available, as well. Even though this is the fifth anniversary of the game, one could be forgiven for thinking that it's been around for a lot longer than five years. Final Fantasy Versus 13 is still the poster child for Square Enix's nasty tendency to announce games before they are in full production. Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake both fell prey to this as well, but they managed to get their acts together faster than Versus 13 did. At any rate, Final Fantasy 15, coming after the controversial FF13 trilogy and the disastrous first launch of Final Fantasy 14 hammers home the development issues Final Fantasy has had for the past decade. FF15’s release was around the time where the franchise began to move away from those issues.
Lessons Final Fantasy 15 Can Teach to Other Square Enix Games
Fortunately, move away it has, and there are many lessons that modern Square Enix games have taken from Final Fantasy 15. First and foremost, it seems like an effort to solidify plans for flagship titles has begun at Square Enix, as Final Fantasy 16 was announced well into development. Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 and the next Kingdom Hearts project will probably follow his example, getting a fair amount of work done and a plan for the rest solidified before they are revealed to the world. Hopefully, it will take a long time before Square Enix makes the same mistakes it did with Versus 13 again.
Final Fantasy 15 has also laid down a great groundwork for Final Fantasy 16 to build upon. FF15 was a very experimental game for Square Enix, and trying different approaches to make action games appealing to an audience used to turn-based gameplay eventually resulted in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The work done in those two games will inform how combat options are implemented in Final Fantasy 16, perhaps resulting in a sort of fusion between the two games' mechanics. Final Fantasy 16 will also benefit from the response to 15's world and story. The importance of a complete world has already been demonstrated by FF16 leading with descriptions of its major nations, and the state of its world. Final Fantasy 16 is set to be fleshed out in a way that 15 never was, although Final Fantasy 15 may still hold one advantage in the form of its charming main party. Hopefully, Final Fantasy 15 walked so FF16 can run, and series fans will be more than happy to see how far 16 can go.
Final Fantasy 15 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.