What’s Happening with Hideo Baba and Square Enix?
Tales of series director and producer Hideo Baba’s last few years at Bandai Namco were rougher than they should have been, given the contributions he made to the franchise over several years. He joined the company when it was still Namco in 2001, and directed and produced the PlayStation 2 version of Tales of Destiny and that version’s Director’s Cut as his first major job there. He continued to produce games in the franchise afterward, and became one of its biggest promoters inside and outside Japan.
His time with the franchise came to a disappointing and abrupt halt with Tales of Zestiria, all thanks to the nerdiest plot-related issue you can imagine. When Zestiria was being promoted, Alisha was advertised as the lead female character. But some fans who liked her were upset when she was bumped from that role and replaced with the arguably less likeable Rose part of the way through the game, which especially led to vicious backlash in Japan. If you’re reading this and think it all sounds incredibly dumb, don’t worry, it very much is. You can read more about it here, though keep in mind there are serious spoilers.
Bandai Namco tried to appease upset fans with free downloadable content focused on Alisha, but that still wasn’t enough. Though he had nothing to do with crafting the actual story, fans heavily associated Baba with the series, so he ended up taking the fall. He silently left the company at an unspecified time between 2015 and 2016. Fortunately, he wasn’t ready to leave video game development, and established a new venture with Square Enix known as Studio Istolia shortly after arriving in early 2017. Their first project was announced to be Project Prelude Rune, revealed through pretty concept art primarily provided to gauge interest for hiring purposes. Presumed footage of the game was shown in a short clip around Tokyo Game Show last year, where it was confirmed to be coming to PlayStation 4.
Given the title of this post, you likely know where this is going. Square Enix has provided very few updates on Project Prelude Rune over the last two years, though that’s understandable considering it had barely started development when it was announced. Yet, for some strange reason, it was confirmed that Baba left the company at the end of March 2019. Baba mentioned through an official Square Enix press release that he resigned thanks to a “change in Studio Istolia’s management policies,” and thanked the company for giving him experience. To no surprise, there’s no clarification as to why he’s departing; given how reserved Japanese company types tend to be in professional matters, who knows if we’ll ever find out what really happened.
Meanwhile, no details or hints were provided about the fate that will befall Studio Istolia or Project Prelude Rune. It might be a good sign that its cancellation wasn’t announced alongside this news, though a change in managerial policies could refer to anything. The game could remain in development under a team that doesn’t involve (or need?) Baba given that he likely wasn’t part of the main creative staff, and since Square Enix could use more B-tier games given how rough AAA development has been for them. I mean good B-tier games, unlike the recent Left Alive.
Baba is one of three recent key video game development heads who’ve left Square Enix lately. Just after his confirmed departure, it was announced that Million Arthur series producer Hiroaki Iwano also left the company at the end of March. It was nice that Square Enix let him announce this on a stream commemorating the series’ seventh anniversary, suggesting the split was amicable.
Both of these are coming months after Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata abruptly left the company, who didn’t get to announce his departure himself on one of the game’s Active Time Report livestreams. This also resulted in the cancellation of three of the final four FFXV DLC episodes, and the episode that released, Episode Ardyn, reportedly doesn’t feel like a conclusion. Notably, the Square Enix studio he helped establish, Luminous Productions, is remaining open, and they’re working on a new AAA property for next-generation consoles. Perhaps the same can be said of Studio Istolia and Project Prelude Rune.
Baba provided no clues as to where he could end up afterward, but I’d love it if he went back to Bandai Namco. They notably haven’t released or even announced a brand-new mainline Tales of title since Tales of Berseria in mid-2016, around the time of his departure — though he apparently wasn’t involved with that game’s development. This will mark one of the longest gaps between mainline Tales of installments. Baba’s return would ruffle the features of fans still upset about the aforementioned Alisha fiasco more than four goddamned years later, and this probably won’t happen because of that. But hey, I’d like it.
Square Enix is going though a transitional period, and recent moves show how they’re gearing up for the next console generation. In addition to the Luminous Productions project, Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida is also working on a new game for the upcoming platforms. There are no clues as to what it could be, but someone has to be working on Final Fantasy XVI. There’s also the presumably-still-episodic Final Fantasy VII Remake, which recently received a co-director, and will very likely be a cross-generation project now at least.
It doesn’t sound like Baba wants to retire, so we’ll see where he ends up next. Maybe he could join Tabata at his new venture.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
