Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata has revealed to us that he is currently working on a secret project with Square Enix, with him potentially at the helm of a brand new game that doesn’t involve the Final Fantasy universe.
In our exclusive interview with Tabata we asked the director if he would want to direct Final Fantasy XVI, a successor to his Final Fantasy XV, to which he replied: “If the company came to me and said “This is your next important mission,” I would do it and I’d put my all into it. But what I want to do and what my team wants to do is create something new, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Tabata then suggested that Square Enix have given him the go-ahead to start on this new game. “From doing Final Fantasy XV, we got so much experience and know-how, we really want to be using it to make something with a clean slate,” he continued. “From the company’s perspective, it’s come together that I think they want us to do that.”
When asked when he planned to embark upon this new project, he said: “It’s already started.”
Also: Square Enix’s Hajime Tabata Would Turn Down Final Fantasy VII Remake
However, Tabata noted that the Final Fantasy XV DLC is taking up most of his time in the near future, adding that this DLC will continue into 2018 and that the announcement of his new project will be pushed back as a result. “When we start really releasing information about this new project… that will be quite a ways down the line,” he told us.
The entire interview is a very candid look into the development of the Final Fantasy series, and you should definitely read the whole thing. It remains to be seen what he’s currently working on for Square Enix, but it sounds like JRPG fans should expect something completely new from him, unrelated to his work on Final Fantasy XV.
