The Man Who Saved Final Fantasy XV

“Even though it’s a single player game, we want you to feel like you are actually going across the continent with your companions in the car,” Tabata said. “It’s as if they’re real people traveling with you.”

According to Tabata, players can drive the car themselves, but there is also auto-pilot—and, from the looks of the trailer, you might be able to let other characters drive. The driving isn’t like, say, Gran Turismo. You cannot tune the steering or change the tires to tweak the handling. The team did look to games like Need for Speed for current-gen references. “We certainly made the driving so it’s enjoyable and fun,” he said. “The driving replicates the feel of controlling a car, but doesn’t go into the nitty-gritty of it. Still, it was designed to feel real. Myself and other members of the staff are very much into cars.”

But since this is Final Fantasy, this car is more than just a car. According to Tabata, “You can consider the car like it’s a member of your party—like airships are in other Final Fantasy games.”

The car, though, as a symbol, represents so much. The open road. Far off destinations. And freedom. It seems like a perfect symbol for Final Fantasy XV itself. “Whether it’s driving or combat, you can do what you like in the game,” Tabata said. “There is that freedom. It’s open world, and it’s possible to go where you want and explore.”

“That being said, if the game is totally open world, it kind of defeats what makes a Final Fantasy game Final Fantasy—which is the dramatic and cinematic storytelling. The game is balanced to ideally satisfy those fans who like traditional Final Fantasy storytelling so they can feel like they’re following an epic story.”

From what Tabata said, it sounds like Final Fantasy XV aims to offer the experience players get from some of the best open world games: There is the freedom to do as one pleases and explore, but a narrative arc, forgive the pun, drives the game forward.

In the trailer, Noctis and his crew get out of the car and battle with enemies along the road. “How does combat work?” I asked. The trailer showed characters engaging with each other during combat, and everything appeared quite fluid. Tabata described how players are “always tag-teaming” with the characters in their party. “So,” he continued, “the game has that action element, but it’s also taking into consideration the traditional Final Fantasy party play.”

While Square Enix hasn’t gone into great detail about how combat explicitly works, the way Tabata described it certainly sounded interesting. “The controls aren’t you simply press a button once for a single action to happen,” said Tabata. “Rather, they are a continuous flow of movements. It’s more about the movements that are associated with the buttons and building upon them for actions through the combat system.”

I’ll be honest, it was hard to visualize what he was saying without seeing a controller layout, but Tabata offered this assurance: “I think if you tried it, you’d think it was very natural.” Throughout the interview, he stressed that the way a game plays and feels is “so important.” According to him, “The way a game plays has to feel good.”

Make no mistake, there’s a bunch riding on this game. At this point, it might seem like the aim is simply to get the game out, but Tabata and Square Enix have a bigger goal in mind: To make a benchmark game that defines a generation.

“Before I joined Square Enix, I always looked at Final Fantasy games as the benchmark for game consoles,” Tabata said. “Each new game showed what was possible on video game hardware.” So, two years ago, when Tabata joined this project, that was the goal: Make a game that would knock everybody’s socks off. According to him, the attitude on the team is that they have to make a great game and that they have to impress.

“If we don’t do something that people think is amazing, it’s meaningless,” Tabata said. “If we don’t do something that’s challenging, it’s also meaningless.”

With the changes that have been made to the team, I asked, do you think that future, numbered Final Fantasy games will be released in a more reasonable and timely pace?

“If the development is for the PS4 and the Xbox One, then I think it would go smoothly. But, there are various factors to keep in mind, such as the amount of content and whatnot. So across the board, I don’t know if it would be shorter. Personally, if I was making another one, though, with the same process and for the same platforms, then development would be fast. We came this far in two years, so I think we could develop it quickly.”

Then you should make Final Fantasy XVI, I quipped. “If I could do anything I’d like,” Tabata replied, “I’d want to make Final Fantasy Type-1 first.” That’s fine, but if Final Fantasy XV meets people’s expectations, then Tabata should have something new to work on: his second numbered Final Fantasy