Final Fantasy 15 Dev Hoping to Make "Even Better Games" Next

Final Fantasy XV may have had a long development cycle, and one that recently got longer, but the game will eventually come out and all the work could lead to better games in the future.

In an interview with Vice, game director Hajime Tabata said the development team now has a "solid production base" for future games as a result of Final Fantasy XV. This represents "the groundwork for the future," Tabata teased, going on to say future games stand to benefit.

"I have so many expectations for what we can do now, with the experience we have; I think we can move forward as a team and make even better games," Tabata said.

Tabata went on to say that something new for for the Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy XV is its "global strategy," one part of which is travelling the world and speaking to fans and media about the game before it's finished. "I don't think that we, as the Final Fantasy studio, ever really did this before," he said.

A benefit of travelling the world is getting to experience new things, some elements of which could inspire future work.

"I was in London, just the other day, after we'd had a meeting about the delay. I had a day off, and I walked around, and I was thinking about how much more we could do with this game, with future games," Tabata explained. "I was looking at all the European architecture, and thinking about how we could mix that into these games, to make these fantasies more realistic, but also more fantastical. It was really inspiring."

Tabata also talked about how making Final Fantasy XV was stressful at times--the game has been in production for a decade--but overall, the experience has been "a lot more fun than it has been stressful." Development began with the series' longtime producer and designer Tetsuya Nomura at the helm. However, directing duties were later transferred to Tabata, whose previous work includes spinoffs such as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Type-0.

Square Enix will support Final Fantasy XV with DLC after launch, but no new games from the development team have been announced.

Read the full Vice interview here.

It's been suggested that Final Fantasy XV is a "make-or-break" moment for the overall franchise, but Tabata doesn't quite see it that way.

"I don't think whether Final Fantasy XV does well or not will kill the franchise or keep it living," he told GameSpot last week from Gamescom. "I don't think it's really going to mean that."

After a delay, Final Fantasy XV is now slated to come out on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on November 29. For more on the delay and the reasoning behind it, among other topics like how there are no plans to make it a Lightning Trilogy-Style series, read GameSpot's interview with Tabata.

In other news about the game, Square Enix today released a new trailer that introduces fans to the voice actors behind Final Fantasy XV's main characters.