With Final Fantasy XIII-2 just around the corner, it may come as a surprise that if director Yoshinori Kitase had things his way, there would be a new Final Fantasy game every 1-2 years, a la Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed.
Kitase recently stated in an interview with Game Reactor
that (referring to the above franchises) “They
make a new game in 1-2 years. That is
something we need to follow up, because that seems to be the best way to keep
our fans interested and attracted to the franchise.” Kitase continues to admit that Square-Enix
took too long to finish the original Final Fantasy XIII, but that there are no
timelines set for faster releases of future games.
I have a really hard time believing that what Kitase says is true. I don’t necessarily think that simply releasing games every 1-2 years is what makes fans attracted to the above franchises. I think it’s the consistency and polish associated with those franchises that keeps them coming back, and I worry that Square-Enix, in rushing to get a game out every year, will have their quality suffer even further than it already has. We as fans of Final Fantasy just want to see better games, not more frequent games.