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Final Fantasy 15 director's JP Games studio has two large-scale titles in development

After having left Square Enix in 2018, Hajime Tabata's new studio is apparently working on two major games with the first past pre-production.

TJ Denzer

June 30, 2021 12:55 PM

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Hajime Tabata has quite some Square Enix projects under his belt. He directed both Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy 15, which arguably largely shifted the style of gameplay utilized in the core franchise. Having left Luminous Productions under Square Enix in 2018, Tabata is now leading a new studio called JP Games and he recently shared that there are two large-scale projects the studio is working on at this time.

Tabata recently took time to talk about JP Games’ efforts in a conversation with Famitsu, as reported by Gematsu. According to Tabata, JP Games has at least two large scale projects in the works, one of which has finally gotten past pre-production. Tabata described that one as a high-speed RPG which is meant to be somewhat experimental, as well as evolutionary of the action-RPG style found in Final Fantasy Type-0. Apparently, Tabata wants to reduce the amount of time spent clearing an RPG with this game and give it more replayabillity and game time in multiplayer. The second project is meant to be an AAA traveling RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy 15 that will invite and encourage free exploration.

Final Fantasy 15 was widely considering to be an interesting turning point of the series. Its action-heavy style of combat mixed with light decision making when it came to spells, skills, and items, as well as its explorative journey, made it an incredible standout among the series as shared in our Shacknews review. FF15 was a game changer and that can be seen easily in the combat and exploration of Final Fantasy 7 Remake where much of Final Fantasy 15’s elements still live on. It’s looking to be the case with Final Fantasy 16 as well.

With Tabata’s guiding hand at JP Games pushing to take what he built for Square Enix and evolve his particular RPG style further, it will be interesting to see what comes of his studio’s efforts in the coming years. When there’s a reveal to share, you can expect to hear about it here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.