Final Fantasy 15 director Hajima Tabata left Square Enix in 2018 and is set to announce his own studio’s first JRPG in 2022.
Back in 2018, Final Fantasy 15 director Hajima Tabata left Square Enix in search of a new job.
Back in 2018, Final Fantasy 15 director Hajima Tabata left Square Enix in search of a new job. Sadly, this departure has resulted in the cancellation of all Final Fantasy 15 DLC projects, including the actual ending of the game. While Final Fantasy is going stronger than ever for Square Enix, Tabata has moved on to found his own JP Games studio launching in January 2019.
Announcing the studio’s first game to be released in June 2021. During the Summer Paralympic 2020 event, Pegasus Dream Tour is the only JP Games game currently known to the public. However, JP Games is still working hard on another project that will be revealed in 2022.
First revealed by 4Gamer, Tabata said that “it looks like” he’ll be announcing a brand new JRPG in 2022. Details on the title are obviously still scarce, but the JRPG genre had a strong year of growth. That’s why 2022 could have even more big titles, including this new one and Atlus projects, etc., whether they’re about to be released or just about to be announced.
JP Games’ participation in other promising game genres like The Pegasus Dream Tour is understandable, but JRPG is still basically Tabata’s “cabinet” genre.
Tabata has a long history of working in game development, and while JP Games’ entry into other promising game genres like The Pegasus Dream Tour is understandable, JRPGs are still essentially the same genre. Tabata’s “cabinet”. At Square Enix, he worked on a number of projects other than Final Fantasy 15 such as Monster Rancher 2, Final Fantasy 7 Before Crisis and Crisis Core, Final Fantasy Type-O, Final Fantasy Agito, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, and more and more.
While it’s unclear if JP Games’ new JRPG will be another Final Fantasy-style title or it will develop its own identity, for fans of Final Fantasy 15 and the FF series in general, it could be. It is a product worth keeping an eye on. Meanwhile, of course, there are still plenty of other compelling Final Fantasy titles to come out ahead.
Final Fantasy 14 is as popular as ever, and perhaps even more so. The game’s latest expansion, Endwalker, has overwhelmed new players to the point of causing server congestion. It’s a serious problem, but given the popularity of the game, it’s not a bad thing. Final Fantasy 16 news is also rolling out as the next major reveal for the title comes to gamers next spring. In the end, it seems that the future of the JRPG genre is still very promising.
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