Final Fantasy Versus XIII refuses to die, while Final Fantasy XV struggles to be born. The end result is a game that never quite figures out what it wants to be - or perhaps more accurately, given what we know about its agonizing development cycle, wasn't ever allowed to be what it wants to be.

The dark and moody story of Noctis's ascension to the throne strangulates the carefree and sunny atmosphere of the road-trip, while the road-trip's precedence above almost all else in the game means the pathos at the core of the game's original concept is never given the time to grow and thrive. Both suffer, both fall flat, and not even a relatively strong finale to this grand series of missteps can erase the trail of skewed and stumbling footprints that it leaves in its wake.

Even the game's attempts at forging a strong emotional core, rooted in the rapport between the main party, is squandered by the final act. The game appears to harbor musings on the ephemeral nature of "better days," but said transience is neutered (if not outright butchered) by the game giving you a convenient way to return to said "better days" at literally any time. Perhaps more perplexingly, the bulk of the open world content is only available after said return to the past, as if the game wants us to stay focused on the past and the good times therein rather than reflect on days gone by in the wake of one's transitional period from innocent, wayward youth to the responsibilities of adulthood. Above all else Final Fantasy XV attempts to concern itself with the abstract concept of legacy as it struggles to piece together something cohesive out of its fragmented being, and yet all that which came before is not allowed to remain just that.

Would Nomura's vision for Final Fantasy Versus XIII have yielded a better game than the product that Tabata's direction eventually delivered? Would Final Fantasy XV have been able to prosper the way it truly wanted to if it were unfettered by the ideas and concepts it was forced to wear as its skin?

I don't know, and we'll probably never know. One thing is for certain: I think I would have preferred to see a game that knows what it's about and is given the room to fully commit to it, for better or for worse.