In terms of FFXV game design, that’s about the extent that I can talk to about. But since I’m here and since we have this wonderful opportunity, we have a little bonus topic.
Slide 12
Maybe we caught you guys by surprise, but we’re going to talk a little bit about the next
Final Fantasy.
Slide 13
But unfortunately, this is straight-up, honest talk. If
I were to make the next
Final Fantasy, these are the kind of things that I would like to do. So I want to share some of my ideas with you guys.
While I have been on
Final Fantasy for a very long time, I’m not a producer or director, so I don’t even know when the next
Final Fantasy’s coming. I don’t know if I’m even going to be on the team. So this is all just what’s in my head.
But if I were to make the next FF, I have some ideas in mind about things I like to do differently. I’d like to share what’s in my head.
Slide 14
Similar to the previous section, from a game design perspective, I break it out into categories I want to try something new and areas I want to carry over from what we did last time.
Slide 15
We learned a lot of things as we endeavored on from FFXV, and things that—three features that I’d like to carry over and continue in the next
Final Fantasy would be the System Features, the Action Battle System, and the Open World design.
System Features is a repetition from the traditions that we kept for FFXV, but the identity of
Final Fantasy is that all those RPG elements are in place. No matter what, we want to make sure everything is included for every numbered
Final Fantasy title.
The second feature we’d like to carry over is the Action Battle System from FFXV.
What we learned from our experience in designing the Action Battle System for FFXV is that players have two ways of winning in battle. One is the traditional RPG style where they’re just strong enough to beat certain enemies. But on the other hand, you could kind of encounter enemies that are much stronger, but if you’re god at the Action, you could actually win. So after we designed FFXV, we thought there’s a lot of room and a lot of potential for this kind of system.
In keeping, obviously, RPG at the baseline, we want to make sure that the next—I want to make sure that my next game would have an Action Battle System that really does take advantage of the RPG aspect.
And lastly, what we did with FFXV, the open-world design, that’s something I’d like to explore once again.
We broke a lot of traditions in designing an open-world game with FFXV, and we saw a lot of things—we saw a lot of the potential that an open-world design has, and we don’t want to go backwards. We want to continue moving forward in this direction and it’s something I’d like to definitely put in place for my next FF.
These are the three things I would probably carry over from FFXV, but obviously, if we just did this, it would just be another FFXV. So there are certain things that I’d like to change next time around.
Slide 16
The three things would be Story Placement, Ability and Leveling System, and Leveling Balance.
For Story Placement, when you really think about it, FFXV had a very similar design with previous FF where the main story was clear to the player, and the optional side quests were also very obvious to the player.
What I’m thinking is to really take advantage of the open-world design, maybe the main story shouldn’t always be so obvious to the player. Maybe the player should have to explore and kind of find out where they need to go next. And maybe it’s just the line between the main story and the side quests are a little blurred where it’s more of a gradation and more of a blend, so the side quests are more of an extension of the main story. And so it’s more about the players seeing the adventure through on their own.
Ability and Leveling System, when we look at FFXV, it was actually pretty orthodox. I mean, the design was different, but what was intended to do was the same as any other FF.
With FFVII, there was the Materia System. FFX, there was the Sphere Grid. FFs always have something new in their back pocket, and next time around, I would like to make a brand new system.
One idea I have is for every player character that becomes part of your party, they have a different means of leveling up.
Maybe one character would have a very traditional means of leveling up where it’s really just about gaining experience and leveling up. Maybe a second character, their leveling up is purely based on how many times they actually attack enemies and how many times they get hit by enemies. Maybe a third character is a blue mage, and they level up only when they learn a new spell from an enemy. Maybe if we want to make a true open-world design, maybe the characters all should have different features, different attributes, and design a leveling system that revolves around those unique characters.
If we take it to a far extreme, maybe there’s one character who doesn’t level up at all, but their strength is completely dictated by the amount of accessories and the amount of equipment that they equip.
Maybe it’s about building off the uniqueness of each of the characters. Maybe where they’re from in that open world dictates what kind of character they are, how they level up. But a game that’s that open, I think, has a lot of potential to be fun.
Again, going back to the earlier point, ability is more on a horizontal axis, so what we plan to do is just make sure that it gives you more options and more variety in your gameplay style. The leveling system is dictated to how strong your party is, but it’s this blend of these two systems that we think that we could take a new approach next time around.
And the last feature that we’d want to change up is the Leveling Balance.
For FFXV, this is an area where we change up. It used to be your character level-based, but now it’s more playtime based. The reason we did that for FFXV was we wanted to make sure, because it’s an open world you could explore how you want to, we want to make sure everyone has a good experience in and they don’t encounter anything that hinders their overall game experience.
But one thing I learned from designing a playtime-based Leveling Balance for FFXV is that while you can explore everywhere in the world, the entire world felt a little flat in terms of there weren’t that many areas that were drastically different than one another. So that was definitely one takeaway that I feel I got from FFXV.
Maybe next time around the main story should still be clear to the player, but maybe the side quests offer up a lot more color. Maybe some are extremely difficult, some are extremely easy, some are very serious, some are very fun. But just giving a lot more variety to this open-world design and really making it feel cohesive is my goal for the next time I come around to making an FF.
As you explore an open world where there’s a broad scope of places and locations, maybe if you encounter a really bizarre mission, you get a really bizarre reward. Or if you are able to conquer a really really difficult mission, you get a really powerful weapon as a reward. It’s putting all those things in mind where what’s around the next corner is unpredictable is what I’d like to explore.
These are kind of the ideas I have in my head about what I want to do differently next time I make an FF—the Story Placement, the Ability and Leveling System, and Leveling Balance—all revolving around this open world is something I’d like to see and realize.
As I said earlier before this section, I’m not a producer or a director, so I don’t know what the next FF is going to be like. But if it were up to me, this is the kind of things I’d like to try.
Slide 17
But with that being said, our team—Business Division 2—after we finish FINAL FANTASY XV, we’re constantly working on something new, and so we hope that you guys look forward to our next project.
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