True Fantasy Live Online

Cancelled video game

True Fantasy Live Online was an MMORPG in development by Level 5 for the Xbox. Initially proposed as a standard RPG, it was re imagined as an MMO, reflecting Level 5 CEO Akihiro Hino's interest in online games. If released, it would have been one of the first console exclusive MMORPGs, following the Square developed Final Fantasy XI for the PlayStation 2. It was planned to be set in a large fantasy world, where users could choose a character from one of five races and almost thirty unique classes, including many non combat roles. True Fantasy Live Online would have attempted to appeal to both hardcore and casual players at the same time, with proficiency based skills rather than an overall player level. While it was well received and anticipated by critics as the Xbox's "great hope" for the MMO genre, Microsoft ultimately cancelled the game on June 2, 2004 following development delays, despite Level 5's desire to see the game completed. The cause was speculated by Hino to be the Xbox platform's failure to gain a large Japanese userbase, given that True Fantasy Live Online was to be a Japan centric game.

True Fantasy Live Online was planned to have different features than most MMOs of the time. Akihiro Hino, the CEO of Level 5, expressed the belief that while MMOs were fun for the first 20 or 30 hours, he became distressed when he realized that he was on a "level treadmill" of equipment, items, enemies and player characters advancing at the same rate. Instead, he planned for real human gamemasters to constantly monitor the world. A "life timeline" for each character class was created, in an attempt to make each class interesting to play for hundreds of hours. The game would have supported five active characters per account, with nearly thirty unique classes. The concept of "leveling up" would have been abolished, and instead characters would have gained skill proficiencies through repeated use, and by combining ones already learned. This was designed so that casual and hardcore players would not be stratified into different groups depending on their level. Combat in the game was real time, allowing players to target enemies for attacks. Some classes were designed as non combat roles, such as being a chef, blacksmith, or entrepreneur. For example, a player could not only catch fish, but also make it into sushi. The game would have contained a fully featured character creation system that allowed for a choice of five available races: elf, dwarf, human, chilto, and vogul, and customization of every aspect of the player character's face. Depending on the player's class and race, the game would have filtered players' voice chat to match their character, in an effort to boost immersion such as making a fairy character speak in a high pitched tone, or an ogre in a deep and powerful one. Spoken macros would also have existed to supplement the voice chat. Hino stated that the cancellation was "terribly disappointing", noting that Level 5 wanted to see the game's development through to the end. He called it entirely Microsoft's decision, saying it was likely due to the Xbox's unpopularity in Japan. While saying he wanted to continue development, he said it would not be feasible under current market conditions. In a 2008 interview with Edge magazine, Shane Kim, former general manager of Microsoft Game Studios spoke in regard to failed Microsoft MMORPG projects, including True Fantasy Live Online. While acknowledging that the cancellations were the right thing to do at the time, Kim also felt that such games could have been successful on the Xbox 360 platform.

In an E3 2003 preview, Hilary Goldstein of IGN wrote that character creation was "relatively painless", and praised the fact that players could not run out of things to enjoy even if they simply remained in town and never went out adventuring. Remarking that every item had value, and players could set up their own street market anywhere, she also called the battles "smooth" and "fairly easy to perform", noting that the combat system was more fun than EverQuest. She called the visual style one of the best she had seen in a video game, saying it was filled with "awesome visual touches" like leaves in trees blown by the wind, despite falling short of games in the Zelda series. XBM also complimented the graphics, calling it an "amazing looking game".