After a weak showing at Gamescom, Final Fantasy XV gets a release window…kind of

It feels like a lifetime ago that Square Enix showed off Final Fantasy Versus XIII at E3 2006.  That’s because it has been.  An entire console generation has come and gone, and we are heading into year three of the PS4/Xbox One life cycle.  

Final Fantasy XV’s development has been unquestionably troubled, and it’s debatable whether or not any progress was made during many of the years that the game was in the dark – despite what Tetsuya Nomura and the most forgiving Final Fantasy fans have claimed over the years.

“We really do get the feeling that people are a bit worried.” – Hajime Tabata

But finally at Gamescom 2015, Game Director Hajime Tabata (likely reluctantly) confirmed in an interview with Gamespot that the release date of Final Fantasy XV is “not going to be 2017. It’s going to be before that”.

After skipping E3 2015 to focus on Gamescom, Tabata and Co. promised a strong presence in Cologne, teasing a reveal of “never-before-seen gameplay”.  In the technical sense, they delivered, but it was nowhere near the big blowout people were anticipating.

Sqaure Enix started off Gamescom by showing a story trailer that was meant to “establish the relationship between Noctis and his father”, according to Tabata.  Eventually, they did show a very brief trailer with a few new environments and an encounter with a classic Final Fantasy monster, the Malboro.

Unfortunately, many fans and media members were left (unsurprisingly) underwhelmed, and Tabata acknowledged this in speaking to Gamespot:

“We really do get the feeling that people are a bit worried. Certainly, one thing I would like to say to them to reassure them, is that we’ve set down the release date, we know when it is, and we’ve got a complete road map lined up, right up to launch, and we’re proceeding along that as planned.”

‘Worried’ may not be the right word in this circumstance.  At this point, people have gotten their hands on a build of the game, so whether or not the game exists is no longer a question. Weary is more like it.  Weary of the delays, the excuses, and watching a once great and proud franchise fall as far as it has.

What do you think? Are we rightfully exasperated with this game? Let us know in the comments!