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What Hajime Tabata Said About Final Fantasy XV, Remakes and the Series’ Future

Hajime Tabata declined the idea of directing a Final Fantasy VII remake in 2017, but said he would accept another Final Fantasy assignment. His team’s plan for a new project was not an announcement that the series was ending.
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In a November 2017 interview, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata said he would not direct a remake of Final Fantasy VII, while leaving open the possibility of taking on another Final Fantasy assignment. His team wanted to begin a new project, but he did not say the Final Fantasy series was ending.

Why Tabata said he would not remake Final Fantasy VII

Asked whether he would take over Final Fantasy VII Remake, Tabata answered, “It’s such a special numbered game that I don’t think I can remake that one.” He said the game had many fans and he did not think he could satisfy all of them. This was his personal view in 2017, not a statement of Square Enix policy or a verdict on the remake itself.

He said he would be happy to make a new Final Fantasy in a different direction. Tabata suggested Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura as people he thought could take on a modern remake. The distinction he drew was between revisiting a beloved, established game and creating something new within the series.

Read the November 1, 2017 GameRevolution interview with Tabata.

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Did Tabata say Final Fantasy was ending?

No. The “end of series” implication is not what his answers support. Tabata said his team wanted to start a completely new project and that work on it was already underway. He also said he would accept a Final Fantasy XVI assignment if Square Enix made it his next mission. His team’s immediate creative preference was not an announcement that the franchise would stop.

At the time, Tabata also said Final Fantasy XV’s post-launch service would continue through the end of 2018, with more DLC and story-related content. He cautioned that FFXV’s service model did not mean every Final Fantasy game would follow the same approach. Those were plans described in 2017, not current support or release information.

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How Tabata described Final Fantasy’s identity

When asked whether Final Fantasy had become a label for any high-budget Square Enix RPG, Tabata argued that change had long been part of the series. “It’s always been part of the series DNA that it always changes,” he said. He associated Final Fantasy with technological ambition and a willingness to challenge assumptions, alongside shared core values that teams could use to decide what belonged in a particular game.

That is Tabata’s interpretation of the series, not an objective definition that all fans must share. It helps explain why he could favor a new direction while still seeing continuity in Final Fantasy’s values.

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Why Final Fantasy XV received story updates

Tabata said the development team had concentrated on finishing FFXV and did not recognize every place where the story needed more explanation until after release. Player feedback mattered, as did the team’s own later review, when deciding to add context. His account describes updates as a response to what the developers and players noticed after launch, while recognizing that a production eventually has to stop and ship.

In a 2016 Famitsu interview with Tabata and film director Takeshi Nozue, Tabata described the FFXV restart as an effort to modernize Final Fantasy for contemporary games. He discussed the challenge of making an HD-era title while rethinking established practices, in the context of a broader project spanning the game, film and animation. At the 2017 Game Developers Conference, his presentation was titled “FINAL FANTASY: A Challenger Once Again”; its slides frame lessons around target, team and result.

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What Royal Edition adds

For players looking at the expanded game, PlayStation Blog described Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition in March 2018 as the most complete edition “available at this time.” Its listed contents included the main game, more than 20 DLC pieces, new features and gear, and the Insomnia City Ruins dungeon. That description is a snapshot from 2018; it does not establish current price or retail availability, guarantee the same contents in every regional package, or confirm present-day platform compatibility.

See PlayStation Blog’s March 2018 Royal Edition overview.

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