Eidos Montreal is known for its successful prequel to Deus Ex, the classic PC immersive sim. But after that, the studio has been middling- the Thief reboot was the opposite to what happened with Deus Ex, the sequel to Deus Ex Human Revolution, Mankind Divided, was good (as per our review) but focused too much on unneeded micro-transaction and an ancillary game-as-a-service mode no one wanted that the ending to the main game was anti-climactic. Now they are working on Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, another sequel of the new rebooted series previously handled by Crystal Dynamics.
But a recent report by YouTube channel Super BunnyHop suggested that the Eidos Montreal had some other interesting projects that unfortunately were cancelled. One of them was supposed to be a mainline Final Fantasy game.
You read that right, a numbered title of the long-running JRPG made by a studio in Canada. Though this should not be shocker as much currently.
Codenamed Project “W” (as in “Western”), the game would be a space opera based on interstellar travel, had a love triangle dynamic with its main three party members and would have feature a unique artstyle utilising fractals as a motif. The idea was spearheaded by Yoichi Wada, then CEO of Square Enix back in late 2011, a period where two of the numbered titles, XIII and XIV, were badly received.
A change in management which saw Wada being replaced, meant that the project lost its biggest champion and was immediately scrapped. But it was pitched again as its own brand-new IP, Project “Nova”. Unfortunately the project received little to no backing, even after being pitched to various partners such as Sony and Microsoft to help back it, and was again, scrapped, in favour of safer sequels to Deus Ex and Tomb Raider.
This is not the first time Square Enix flirted with a western developer to work on Final Fantasy. Spanish developers Grin pitched an idea for a spin-off Final fantasy game based in FFXII’s world of Ivalice but was rejected.
But the story, being told by anonymous sources of course- so consider this story as a rumour- but should it be true, it all adds up. The change in management in Square Enix around 2012-2013 has not given its western arm of developers some proper love. Io Interactive almost got shutdown due to Hitman 2016’s lukewarm reception which in part due to its odd episodic launch, something the publishers wanted to push. Just Cause developers Avalanche studios’ partnership to develop FFXV’s airships never happened, Sleeping Dogs did not get a proper sequel but got made into a free-to-play online game that was not received well are among such examples. The Super BunnyHop Super Channel Super Sleuthing Spectacular Fiasco also surfaced some public information that coincidentally lined up with his report to show credence, though take it with a grain of salt.
Super BunnyHop last made headlines after his exposé on the working conditions at Konami which lead to the departure of Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima, attracted a cease and desist order by the Japanese publisher.