La Royal Edition of Final Fantasy XV has been on the market for a few weeks now, and it's time to take stock of what Square Enix's latest effort has represented for the fanbase of the series and the gaming landscape in general. In doing this, however, it is necessary to analyze in detail the long and tortuous process that the title has faced over the last decade. E3 2006 was a somewhat memorable scenario for Final Fantasy fans, who witnessed the announcements with great fanfare of projects that ultimately found only minimal concrete feedback. On this occasion, as you will recall, the ambitious as well as complex was presented Fabula Nova Crystallis, made up of a shortlist of titles that shared a good part of mythology, which was centered on Crystals, absent since the beginning of the series. The project should have included Final Fantasy XIII, the main episode exclusively for the brand new PlayStation 3; Final Fantasy Agito XIII, a spin-off for mobile devices; and finally the dark one Final Fantasy Versus XIII, also a derivative work of the final thirteenth fantasy, and exclusive to the new Sony flagship of the time.
In short, in the space of a few minutes Square Enix literally inflamed the souls of the lovers of the series, and this promising trio immediately captured everyone's attention. Following these announcements, however, the Fabula Nova Crystallis partly fell into oblivion, and too many signals gave the impression that the company did not have a clear direction in which to push the aforementioned subsaga it was approaching to achieve. In 2008 Final Fantasy XIII became the first cross-platform chapter, also landing on Xbox 360; traces of Agito XIII were lost, which then only arrived on PSP in 2011 under the name of Type-0, and which we know only through the remastered version. What immediately catches the eye is the total absence of the number XIII at its side, thus suggesting a clear detachment from the main chapter. The worst fate, unfortunately, suffered Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which following a fleeting trailer in 2008 and then one in 2011, completely disappeared from circulation.
Tetsuya Nomura, who at the time was in charge of the title, never went too far, often releasing ambiguous statements that provided very little information on the status of the project. Following the publication of Final Fantasy XIII, which took place in 2009 in Japan, it was easy to expect a greater dose of information on this spin-off, but in fact this did not happen. Probably, the technical problems that the title encountered with the PlayStation 3 hardware, perhaps insufficient for what Nomura intended to create, stopped the work altogether. After all, Versus XIII promised an exciting story combined with a vast and lively world in front of which the Cell was highly inadequate. The worst came when rumors began to circulate about the title cancellation after six years of total silence in the press, in which players could actually count the information on the fingers of one hand. This rumor, however, was reflected in the passage of name a Final Fantasy XV for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, announced with a satisfying trailer during E3 2013.
To this was added a change at the top of the project, which would now be entrusted to Hajime Tabata, further confirming how the previous team proved inadequate in managing such a title. Furthermore, also in this case there was a real disintegration of the Fabula Nova Crystallis, which saw another chapter coming out of the scene that should have enriched this new and interesting reinterpretation of the mythology of the Crystals. From this point of view, therefore, it ended up being one of the biggest failures of the Japanese company, which first revealed its inability to systematically give a type of games with extreme potential. The second result was that we passed from one extreme to the other: if with Nomura at the reins the communication on the state in which he poured his game was completely absent, with the new Director we witnessed a mass of new information that began to become somewhat excessive. Undoubtedly, with Final Fantasy XV in the hands of Tabata there was a greater chance of following development of the next main episode of the series, which was officially released to the market simultaneously worldwide on November 29, 2017, although it was initially supposed to be released on September 30.
It goes without saying that this announcement also came in a big way during theUncovered, an event set up just to communicate the fateful date, and where they were later revealed Brotherhood e Kingsglaive, respectively an animated series and a spectacular CGI movie, which would have deepened the lore of the universe of Final Fantasy XV. But what happened following the launch of Final Fantasy XV on the market? Given the wait, which lasted over ten years, any player expected a complete and meticulous product from every point of view, but unfortunately, on an objective level, this was not the case. The amount of updates that the Tabata team has published has added and modified several parts of the title several times, giving the player the impression of having in hand a product still far from the end of development, which we remember having started almost from scratch following the change of name and direction, taking with it a number of years of development far less than those spent waiting for it.
If you add to this the various Season Passes, and the different DLCs dedicated to each character, which are placed in points that clearly explain the actions of each of them, then you have to turn up your nose in the face of the policies of Square Enix . The well-known Japanese company, in fact, since the dawn of Final Fantasy Versus XIII has consistently shown that it has not been able to manage its flagship series, making all those enthusiasts who have decided to believe in the product by pre-ordering it lose the trust. Let's be clear, Final Fantasy XV from the point of view of plot and gameplay is and remains an RPG of excellent workmanship, but the idea that there is much more behind it, and that in fact a good portion of the public has played a substantially work version in progress, it definitely leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Looking back at past trailers, we can see the large number of content cut from the full version, thanks to the fact that the team found itself faced with an unthinkable planning of the works, which required the publication of the game no later than the end of 2016.
La Royal Edition, available from last March 6, intends to be forgiven by all the owners of the vanilla edition, but also tries to regain the trust of those who have chosen not to believe in the work of mum Square. After all, the re-edition in question is profoundly different from the original one, presenting much more content both at the plot level and at the gameplay level, which deeply change the gaming experience, managing more and more to show the high potential that the Director and his colleagues intended to offer from the beginning. Just think of the possibility of impersonating a character other than Noctis in battle, or the possibility of freely guiding the Regalia, as well as the numerous parts of the plot revisited in order to be told better. These are just some of the new features that greatly enrich Final Fantasy XV in every respect. What is certain, however, is that the Royal Edition will by no means represent the end of support for the title by the Japanese company, which has already made it known that it is working on new updates and additional content, which will dot the adventures of the Chocobros. at least until the end of 2019.
In short, it would seem that to enjoy a complete experience it will be necessary to wait a long time, despite the giant steps taken in this direction you cannot fail to notice. The fifteenth chapter of Final Fantasy has an incredibly high potential, with interesting characters and a noteworthy underlying mythology that after more than a year of release is finally showing. But is it acceptable? The answer, clearly, emerges without too many scruples from what is written, but at the same time we must not omit the fact that Square Enix is concretely trying to remedy its mistakes, albeit at a very high price for the entire user. The problem of this fifteenth chapter must be sought at the base: the original Versus XIII, for what little we know, had in mind to offer an extremely high amount of content, and undoubtedly among the entire range of titles presented in that now far away E3 2006 was proposed as the most intriguing and mysterious of all, capable of bringing with it a breath of fresh air on the entire saga, which in those years had disappointed the most loyal on several occasions.
In the end, however, either because of too many ambitions, every idea collapsed on itself, and this happened together with the Fabula Nova Crystallis, which never managed to take off. Summing up, therefore, it can be said that the Royal Edition of Final Fantasy XV intends to relaunch the Action-RPG of Square Enix in a big way, trying to give new prominence to the story set in the world of Eos. However, there is still a lot of work to be done, and the players who paid full price for the title were the most burned of all, and with good reason. But should they give a new chance to what Tabata has achieved? Probably yes, as the result will surprise them in every respect, although it is hoped that this does not become a habit for the gaming industry. Releasing such obviously incomplete titles of such great importance represents an injustice towards both the product and, above all, the enthusiast., which must fight so that this does not happen again. We therefore hope that Final Fantasy XV will remain an isolated case within Square Enix, and that it will not become a bad habit for the future as well. The fear is that a similar fate could also happen to Kingdom Hearts III, which is also surrounded by an aura of mystery and has become legendary over the years. On the other hand, the greater the expectations that are created towards a title, the more likely it is that players will be dissatisfied at the time of the fateful release. This, in large part, was caused by the spasmodic wait, which led fans to idealize the game and, consequently, to forget that perfection does not exist.
