Square Enix has canceled Final Fantasy 15 episodes Aranea, Lunafreya and Noctis in the wake of FF15 game director Hajime Tabata resigning.
Three of the next four character-focused add-ons for Final Fantasy 15 have been canceled, Square Enix announced today, and game director Hajime Tabata has left the company.
One of the add-ons, Final Fantasy 15 Episode Ardyn, will still be released in March 2019, but episodes based on the characters Aranea, Lunafreya and Noctis have been scrapped. All four episodes were previously planned for release in 2019, and would have offered side stories and an alternate finale to Final Fantasy 15.
Episode Ardyn will let players step into the role of Final Fantasy 15 ’s main antagonist in a chapter set before the events of the main game. Square Enix will release an accompanying anime, Final Fantasy 15 Episode Ardyn — Prologue, as well. Here’s a sneak preview of Episode Ardyn:
As for the departure of game director Hajime Tabata, Square Enix announced that he had resigned from the company in October and will start his own company. Akio Ofuji, global brand director of Final Fantasy 15, explained in a YouTube video that Luminous Productions, the new studio established this year to develop a AAA title for a global audience, will shift its focus from developing DLC to working on a new game entirely.
Tabata did not appear during the video hosted by Ofuji, and instead offered a written statement about his resignation from Square Enix:
It’s almost going to be 2 whole years since the release of FFXV. I honestly believe the reason we were able to get this far is because of all you loyal fans. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Today, I have a personal announcement to make to all of you. I, Hajime Tabata, will be resigning from Luminous Productions and the Square Enix Group as of October 31,2018.
I was able to gain so much experience with my time at Square Enix. Every title I was able to be a part of means a lot to me. However, FFXV stood out from that group as it was a special project for me which I went all-in.
Therefore, I decided to take this opportunity to officially announce my departure from FFXV to all the fans who have supported the title across the globe.
In regards to my next endeavors and near future, I have a project that I truly wish to solidify as my next challenge after FFXV. For that reason, I have decided to leave my current position and start my own business in order to achieve my goal.
As production of Episode Ardyn continues and Luminous Productions works on new projects, I felt that it was time for me to hand over the torch to the next generation group of talented and trustworthy colleagues and believe that they will create something amazing.
From this day on, I will cheer on and support Square Enix and Luminous Productions together with all you fans.
I would like to thank everyone who continue to support FFXV and those who have also supported myself personally.
Tabata was announced as the head of Luminous Productions in March. When we spoke to Tabata at last year’s Gamescom, he told Polygon that he was interested in working on something entirely different for his follow-up to Final Fantasy 15, which launched in late 2016.
“The next project I want to do is a completely new IP,” he told us then. “I think it’s gonna be a very large-scale project based around everything we learned and developed for Final Fantasy 15 .”
We also talked to Tabata in September, where he spoke about his outlook for the future of Final Fantasy and beyond — which assuredly now has changed drastically.
