Several weeks ago, Hajime Tabata, the man behind Final fantasy 15 and a number of other less-mainline Final Fantasy titles, quit Square Enix to start his own studio. Now, in an interview with Nico, Tabata sat down and explained why he left, and talked about the cancelled DLC packs as well.
Final Fantasy 15 is the most recent of the main Final Fantasy games, focusing on Prince Noctis of the Kingdom of Lucis and his friends as they attempt to stop the end of the world and free their homeland. The game got positive reviews on release, and had a good amount of DLC episodes focusing on other characters planned.
The first three DLCs released focused on Gladiolus, Prompto, and Ignis in various episodes that take place when each briefly leaves the party. Before Tabata left, the success of each DLC meant we were going to get others, focusing on characters like Ardyn Izunia (which will be coming out in March), Lunafreya, and more. However, after Ardyn, the departure of Hajime Tabata means all of these DLCs will be cancelled.
Tabata said that the reason he quit Square Enix was because, after working there for a decade, was because he no longer felt motivated in the same way that he had. While he was supposed to stay on until the rest of the DLC had been completed, and he believed that the team had done good work, he didn’t follow through on that.
Square Enix cancelling the rest of the DLC apparently disappointed Tabata immensely and he wishes that players could have seen what they involved. But, Episode Ardyn will hopefully at least be able to give us some more insight into his character.
And hopefully, Hajime Tabata’s new studio JP Games will be able to give us the same sort of quality when they make their own original titles.
