There was a time, not too long ago, when the Final Fantasy brand was a hallmark of quality. Recently, however, Square Enix have stamped Final Fantasy on a bunch of titles and not all of them live up to the same standard.
Final Fantasy fan site FF-Reunion reports Square Enix have formed a Final Fantasy committee to ensure the quality of games in the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn director Naoki Yoshida, Final Fantasy XV co-director Hajime Tabata, Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama, and Final Fantasy VI director Yoshinori Kitase are members of this four person party.
Yoshida is an interesting choice since he hasn’t worked with the series as much as the other team members, but the successful re-launch of Final Fantasy XIV probably earned him a seat. Aside from Yoshida, all of the other staff members are part of the 1st Production Department.
Tetsuya Nomura, who is co-directing Final Fantasy XV and is the director of the Kingdom Hearts series, is not part of the committee since his time is taken up by other projects. Takashi Tokita, designer of Final Fantasy IV and The 4 Heroes of Light, and Shinji Hashimoto who leads the 1st Production Department, are also notably absent from the list. Hiroyuki Ito, director of Final Fantasy XII and one of the designers on Final Fantasy Tactics isn’t on the team either, but that’s probably because he’s spearheading Guardian Cross and the zombie themed spinoff Deadman’s Cross.
