In recent years, Square Enix has shown it is more than willing to listen to player feedback. When Final Fantasy XIV first released, it was a buggy and horribly designed mess of a game. Players pointed out these problems and Square Enix responded by scrapping the game, redesigning it from the ground up, and re-releasing it as the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. Square Enix is at it again with a survey (that can be taken here) that will “shape the future” of Final Fantasy XV.
If the feedback demands it, Square Enix will gladly change its plans for Final Fantasy XV. For example, at the beginning of the Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary, the company announced the Magitek Exosuit DLC. However, the company decided to delay and redesign the suits after Saban contacted the publisher regarding similarities between the outfits and Power Ranger suits (which, full disclosure, seemed like an intentional design choice). Depending on the feedback found in the survey, Square Enix could change Final Fantasy XV and its upcoming DLC in any number of ways.
The survey starts simple enough and asks for your age and gender, what video game genres and platforms you prefer, what social networks you use, and so on. The most surprising question in the survey asks you to pick your favorite Square Enix game franchise. Among the available answers are Sleeping Dogs, the open-world crime thriller by now-defunct United Front Games, and Legacy of Kain, a franchise developed by Crystal Dynamics that stars some of the most memorable video game vampires outside of Castlevania. As lesser-known Square Enix properties, their inclusion in the survey is unexpected, but nonetheless welcome.
In a moment of brilliance, the survey does not assume that you already own Final Fantasy XV. One question asks if you own the game, and if you select no, the next question asks why. Answers range from waiting for all the DLC, to wanting the game to be turn-based. The survey also provides a blank space at the bottom of this question. allowing you to answer with almost any reason you can imagine.
And finally, the survey ends with two open ended questions: “In one or two brief sentences, please tell us how you feel about Season Passes & DLC. NOTE: Doesn’t have to be limited to FINAL FANTASY XV” and “If you ask one thing to the developers of FINAL FANTASY XV, what would it be?” Again, survey takers can answer these questions any way they please.
If Square Enix lives up to its promise, this survey can alter the future of Final Fantasy XV. Gamers could convince Square Enix to release the game on PC, develop special outfits that dress the main protagonists up as characters from other Square Enix games, or even create a new mode that reworks the game as a classic turn-based JRPG. Only time will tell what will come of it.