How the Lives of ‘Final Fantasy XV’ Fans Have Changed During their 10-Year Wait

The long wait for Final Fantasy XV, announced 10 years ago as a PlayStation 3 RPG called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, ends today. A lot can happen in 10 years, and unsurprisingly, a lot did happen to those patient Final Fantasy fans—love, loss, growing up, and plenty more. As players start Final Fantasy XV for the first time, I talked to fans about what it’s like for the wait to be over.

(For simplicity, I’m going to refer to the game by its current name, Final Fantasy XV, for the rest of the article.)

Brandon Harding was 15-years-old when Final Fantasy XV was announced. Since then, he’s learned to drive, graduated high school (and college), and seen relationships come and go.

“This game might be the longest relationship I’ve ever had!” he told me. “It’s actually really crazy to think about the fact that in the background of my life, this whole time, this epic story has just been looming in my mind.”

Harding first encountered Final Fantasy for tragic reasons. As a kid, his sister was in and out of the hospital constantly. (She’s okay now.) But since his parents were preoccupied with his sister, they looked for ways to keep him busy. Games became a reliable outlet, and during one of his sister’s episodes, he randomly decided to pick up a copy of Final Fantasy VIII.

“The characters were and still are so easy for someone to find something to identify with,” he said. ” […] Having those outlets and stories to pour myself into was definitely a big part of the reason I was able to cope with what was going on. I’ll always be grateful to the Square for what they have done for me, even though they had no idea they were doing it.”

Final Fantasy VIII‘s awkward and largely silent main character, Squall, “made him extremely easy to identify with, especially during a time in my life that was full of chaos and uncertainty.”

Harding’s not sure what to expect when he unwraps Final Fantasy XV, but he’s run the scenario in his head. He suspects it’ll be emotional, and got nervous when I asked him what would happen if the game isn’t any good. (“Oh man please don’t curse me! I have to like this game!”) Soon enough, he’ll find out. Good luck, Brandon.

It’s a similar situation for 36-year-old Brian Kindle, who’s been playing the series since the original came out on NES, back when he didn’t even understand how the game worked.

“I thought antidotes being ‘ineffective’ on the original Final Fantasy on the NES [was] so awesome,” said Kindle. “Seriously, I used one and screamed to my sister ‘Look, it’s ineffective. Isn’t that awesome?’ not knowing that it meant it did nothing.”

All Final Fantasy XV screens courtesy of Square Enix

Ever since then, Final Fantasy has been a part of Kindle’s life. Each year, he plays through Final Fantasy VI (which was first released as Final Fantasy III in the US) and Final Fantasy VII. When Final Fantasy VII came out in Japan, he watched a friend play through it, even though he couldn’t understand what was happening. When the game was released in English, he faked being sick, and spent all day figuring out what was going on in Midgard. And if kids are in his future, the names Terra and Branford, characters pulled from Final Fantasy VI, will be on his list.

Unsurprisingly, Kindle’s seen his life changed dramatically since Final Fantasy XV’s first reveal.

“Probably the biggest thing that happened in my life was my marriage to my wife, and all the work we had to do to get her US citizenship,” he told me. “You hear about supposedly how easy it is to get citizenship, but it was a long, grueling process and we just finished that process in October of this year.”

He wasn’t kidding about long and grueling, either. His wife was born in Peru, but they met in the US. The two started dating in 2006, and after quickly falling in love, married in 2007. And yet, it took nine years, nine years in which they were married, for her to gain citizenship. That’s almost as long as it took Square Enix to finish development on Final Fantasy XV!

“That citizenship ceremony was one of the highlights of my life,” he said, “cause I know how hard she worked to get to that point with all the interviews and tests she went through.”

“The characters were and still are so easy for someone to find something to identify with. Having those outlets and stories to pour myself into was definitely a big part of the reason I was able to cope with what was going on.”

Though Kindle’s copy of Final Fantasy XV is supposed to show up today in the mail, due to a last-minute business trip, he won’t be able to play it for a few days.

“I’ve waited 10 years to play this,” he said, “and I can probably wait a few days more.”

Harding and Kindle weren’t the only people I reached out about this, though. Here’s a few other stories of what happens when you’re waiting for the release of a game over the course of 10 years:

• Milkshake00: “Largest changes over the years have probably been my personal moves. Going from a little town in the middle of nowhere to living in New York City, and getting engaged to my fiancé are probably the largest things that have happened since that announcement.”
• Regenshire: “In the last ten years, I have moved three times, many of my friends have gotten married, and I recently got engaged. I feel much more like an adult then I did 10 years ago when I was in my twenties.”
• Justin Drew: “I’ve graduated high school and college and spent several years in my adult life.”
• DotaLoveless: “I had actually begun, and ended, my service in the United States Marine Corps in that time. Started and paid off a car loan in that time. Started and ended many relationships during that time. Went from being in high school while depending on my family from everything, to being entirely independent. Never actually thought about that, but it really has been quite some time.”
  
  
  

(As you might have picked up on, several folks I talked to didn’t want to reveal their names.)

Most video games aren’t in development for 10 years, and those that are don’t often find their way out of development hell. But Final Fantasy XV, like Duke Nukem Forever before it, is unique in that regard. And weirdly enough, next week will see the release of yet another one of those late bloomers, The Last Guardian, which has been kicking around Sony for eight years.

The reason I wanted to talk with Final Fantasy fans, though, is that unlike most other video game franchises, people have such deep-rooted emotional attachments to the series, recalling specific games, characters, moments. A lot of people have been playing Final Fantasy as long as they can remember. 

I’m not usually “rooting” for a game to be good, but in this case, I want Final Fantasy fans to be happy, and hope the wait has been worth it. 10 years is a long time.