The People Who've Waited Half Their Life to Play 'Final Fantasy XV'

Some games take a while to come out. Some games are delayed a few months, some can be delayed up to a year.

But others can take far, far longer. Such is the case for Final Fantasy XV, which suffered from management changes and a switch from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4, among other things, that led to a ten year cycle of development. Another game, The Last Guardian, announced back in 2009, also switched from PS3 to PS4, and was in development for half a decade before finally being shown to the public once again at last year's E3.

For those that have been waiting for well over a decade for either game to come out, these delays have to be a disappointment. But despite the constant setbacks, enthusiasm for the games have never faltered.

"I always tried to be optimistic about the game and the delays," GameFAQs member LegendaryUman said regarding The Last Guardian. "Every time Sony reconfirmed the game's existence by having [President of Sony Worldwide Studios] Shuhei Yoshida or someone else mention that it was still in development, I viewed that as a good thing while other people would just respond with 'haha, never coming out!'"

"I've waited for the game for around half my life now," Reddit user raisasari, in regards to Final Fantasy XV. "A delay is great. It wouldn't be disappointing to me if the game isn't a masterpiece, but it'd be really disappointing if it has [Assasin's Creed Unity]-level of glitches. Besides, I've waited years, what's a few months?"

But raisasari isn't the only one who has waited for years. Krispet, also on the FFXV subreddit, recalls being in high school when it was first announced in 2006, with him mentioning how he's graduated college and has been in a job long since then.

"Was definitely hard the first few years with very little updates, but after [a while] you kinda forget but then suddenly you see [the trailer] at E3 and all the excitement is back again," he mentions.

Another Final Fantasy XV fan, SwggrBck, echoes these sentiments, also following the game since its reveal.

"All of us have grown up now, and we have actually seen this game grow up too," he told Motherboard. "I obviously can't speak for everyone here, but to me, I already feel like I intimately know [main character] Noctis and the gang. They feel like friends I haven't seen in a really, really long time. And now it's almost-sorta-but-not-really here. For me, it's one of the final things directly from my youth that is still present today, and I guess that's what's different about it."

Despite further delays, both Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian are expected out this year, with FFXV arriving on November 29 and The Last Guardian on December 6. One can only hope that after all the years of waiting, both games finally deliver what fans have been looking for all this time.

"I think highly creative works often take a very long time to accomplish," said GameFAQs user FredericChopin with respect to The Last Guardian, "cannot be rushed, and there will be inevitable writer's block, for lack of a better expression."