Final Fantasy 15: Too Much to Live Up to?

Final Fantasy has sort of had a rocky time with the last couple of releases in these last few years. The 13th installment was highly anticipated as it was also revealed alongside Final Fantasy Versus and Agito as part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology. This was all back in 2006 at E3 with 13 and Versus set for the PS3, and Agito for cell phones. Much has changed for this set of games but was it a change for the best? Final Fantasy 13 was eventually released in 2011 and marked the first game to jump from Playstation exclusivity with release on the Xbox 360. While I enjoyed it, the game was met with some backlash from die-hard fans due to majority of the game revolving around straight hall-ways and no towns. You weren't given the option for free roam in an open world until way late into the game. Agito was soon moved to a game for the PSP in Japan and hasn't been released to the States yet. That soon will be changed with Agito being renamed to Final Fantasy Type-0 and receiving an HD release for the PS4 and Xbox One around the end of Summer 2015.

Where's Final Fantasy Versus? First off let me correct myself in saying that at E3 2013, the game was renamed to be marked as the 15th entry in the franchise complete with a jaw dropping trailer with a tagline of "In Development"--or something like that--at the end. I read an article on Kotaku explaining why the wait for this game is getting a little bit out of hand and dangerous for other modern games (in the RPG genre specifically). When the author spoke to series creator Hironobu Sakuguchi what he thought about the franchise today, his response was basically "Final Fantasy 15 is taking too long". I got down to the comments of this article when one in particular stood out to me and put things into perspective just how long this game has been in development.

That long? Oh my

Final Fantasy 15 was announced as I said above in 2006. At that time frame:

• Nintendo Wii was just announced
• Assassin's Creed didn't exist
• Call of Duty didn't kick into it's Modern Warfare craze
• Mass Effect wasn't around
• God of War, Uncharted, Bioshock and many other hit franchises weren't released either

Now?

• Final Fantasy 13, which was released alongside 15, has received 2 sequels to form its own trilogy in a span of the 2 years that followed when the original was finished. 13-2 addressed the problems people had with 13, and I didn't even bother with Lightning Returns since the demo turned me off on buying it
• Nintendo and Sony might i add, have went through 3 other systems
• Assassin's Creed has 8 main entries with 2 of them soon to hit this year
• Mass Effect completed its trilogy and is heading into the future with new ideas for the next game
• All the other franchises I listed have gone through multiple entries and have achieved major praise 
• Final Fantasy 14 Online was released, sold horribly, scrapped, remade from the GROUND UP and re-released as FF14: A Realm Reborn and is doing alright so far
• Square Enix's other major franchise hit Kingdom Hearts has gone through multiple handheld spinoffs and HD re-releases to prep the fans for the incoming 3rd entry (which was also shown at E3 2013)

I don't know when Square will announce another major update on how development is going for FF15 so I'm pretty much betting that this game won't even be out in 2015. Maybe 2016 but that would officially make it 10 years. That's crossing over into Duke Nukem Forever territory and many know how that game was right? Bioshock Infinite was pushed back several years but that got lots of praise and high remarks (I sure as hell loved it). I'm wondering if this game does badly due to the prolonged wait, will it end the franchise as we know it? 8 years and the footage we've seen (while little) does look gorgeous but I'm highly speculative. No doubt I'm going to get this game and I hope it lives up to the hype, but could Final Fantasy be reduced to either nothing at all or just ports and HD re-releases of every other past game? I like to imagine that if this does tank, that Square has an Final Fantasy 7 remake ready to announce in a "Break in Case of Imminent Bankruptcy" glass case.

I love you Square Enix as you've given me some incredible games and fond memories but please, get things rolling on this pronto.

You boys better be ready to bring the house down when you show up!