A former art director for the studio said their version was “really, really cool”
Seems like in another timeline, we could’ve seen a fairly different take onFinal Fantasy XVlooked like. In a new interview, a former Eidos Montreal developer says the studio worked on a version ofFinal Fantasy XV, before Square Enix canceled it.
In an interview withTrueAchievements, former Eidos Montreal art director Jonathan Jacque-Belletête said the studio once worked on a version of the game.
“[Eidos-Montreal] brought backDeus Ex,” he said. “I was the art director on that—Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Then [I was] the executive art director onMankind Divided. Then we tried to doFinal Fantasy XV. Then they decided to bring it back to Japan—which I think was a big mistake, but it’s still the truth. Ours was really, really cool.”
Jacque-Belletête didn’t expand further on what exactly this meant. We don’t have any specifics on how far along the game was, or what stage it reached internally before it was cut off.
It does partially reinforce a 2018 report from YouTuberSuperBunnyhop, though. The report there was that their version of the nextFinal Fantasywas a “space opera” RPG.
New horizons
With the gap betweenDeus Ex: Human Revolution(2011) andDeus Ex: Mankind Divided(2016), it certainly seems plausible.Final Fantasy XVdid go through apretty tumultuous production timeline. Whatever there was of Eidos Montreal’sFinal Fantasyis lost to time now, though.
Square Enix recently parted ways with Eidos Montreal and several other of its western studios. The publisher soldEidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Montreal to Embracer Groupfor $300 million. Included in the deal were several big-name properties, includingDeus Ex, as well asTomb RaiderandLegacy of Kain.
Now, Eidos andFinal Fantasywon’t get their chance, it seems. Given their surprising success with last year’sGuardians of the Galaxy, I’d still like to see what kind of space opera RPG that crew could put together.
