Final Fantasy XV came out in 2016, but it still has DLC planned throughout 2019. Or at least it did, until Square Enix suddenly gave a huge chunk of the remaining DLC the axe. Or maybe it was that Hajime Tabata, the game's director, suddenly called it quits. It's hard to say, given the vague nature of the announcement. But the big takeaway is that Final Fantasy XV might finally be over.
The announcement came from a Final Fantasy XV live stream, of all places. The 45-minute special, meant to celebrate the game's second anniversary, was the format Square Enix chose to announce that three of the planned DLC episodes are canceled. Director Hajime Tabata has also resigned from Square Enix as of October 31st, IGN reports.
The four episodes planned for 2019 were meant to give the game's story a much-needed fleshing out. Side characters Aranea and Lunafreya were going to get starring roles that further explained their motivations, the antagonist Ardyn would get a prequel to further explain his actions, and protagonist Noctis would see a continuation of his story.
Now, the Aranea, Lunafreya, and Noctis episodes are canceled. Only the Ardyn story, set for March 2019, will see release, presumably because it was already mostly completed before Tabata left.
As for Tabata, he took over the game back in 2013, when original director Tetsuya Nomura left to finish Kingdom Hearts III. No reason was given for his seemingly-sudden exit.
So with the game's director gone, there's reason to believe that the FFXV train might finally slow down. The thing is, a bunch of content was announced during the live stream. The game's multiplayer, called Final Fantasy XV Multiplayer Comrades, will get a standalone release for PS4 and Xbox one on December 12th. It will come with new content, and cost $9.99.
December 12th will also see a collaboration event between FFXV and Final Fantasy XIV. Noctis will enter the MMO's world and take on one of its bosses, earning players themed-FFXIV costumes.
Finally, the Episode Ardyn DLC is getting a set of short anime episodes to tease it, which will release in December and January.
That's a lot of content for a dead game. But maybe, just maybe, 2019 will be the end of Final Fantasy XV.
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