For those of you who never lost faith these past eight years, Final Fantasy XV is very much alive and well according to the latest from developer Square Enix’s this weekend’s Jump Festa 2015, along with a new trailer and some fresh new faces.
Read on to discover each and every bit of the magic as it was discussed in full by Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata and be sure to check out the game’s newest trailer way down below.
The Titan
Talking directly with Kotaku in a live Q&A, Tabata shared a number of new details on the long-awaited JRPG, starting with one familiar summon – The Titan. The same beast that fans will remember from the game’s last E3 showing a year ago, Tabata confirmed that The Titan would indeed be the gargantuan size as it was depicted in the trailer. Like every summon in XV, though, players will have to fight it first to unlock it as a summon.
Tabata went on to say that the Titan will not appear in the game’s upcoming demo, however, as it will play “a rather important role in the plot.” In turn, a summon less integral to the story overall is intended for Final Fantasy Type-0‘s four-hour preview of XV, Episode Duscae.
Towns
A Final Fantasy would be nothing without its traditional towns and for XV, Shabata seemed quite confident in just how “seamless” they’ve grown from that of the over worlds of its predecessors.
“So you see the characters approach the town in their car and they get out and enter the town, so that part is all seamless. But as to whether the entire game is seamlessly connected like that, that’s what we’re trying to do in development, but it may turn out that for important places there will be loading. But in terms of what’s offered in the demo, everything is seamless, so you can get the feel that this entire world is connected.”
Resukarunu, one of the more prominent towns in question, was said to be “fairly close” to the Duscae region included in the game’s demo and critical to the story arc involving the Titan. Describing it as “big,” but not “the biggest town,” Shabata also confirmed that Resukarunu would include the usual RPG amenities, i.e. shopping, eating, and chatting with characters at the typical number of inns, err, “hotels.”
Battles
As to the nature of battle sequences in XV, Shabata discussed that the battle locations already shown off would vary more greatly in the finished product. So to all of you JRPG grinders out there, you might not have to sit still in on place to farm that gil all day.
Camping
Like you’d expect, your characters can get a bit tired on the road and you might just have to sleep off a few ill-effects you’ve gotten from your travels. In XV, camping will be your answer to literally sleep off the series’ infamous status effects, or “debuffs,” as Shabata explained. If you’re into camping in the physical world, you can actually learn how to set up camp the right way.
“Buffs” are statuses with positive effects, and you stop getting those. Basically, things like increased spirits or feeling good or other added bonuses stop getting applied if you don’t sleep for long periods of time.”
“Camping is one of the base features of XV,” Shabata continued. “It’s a world where time passes from morning to night, so in order to have Noctis and the others who inhabit it be more than just puppets, but living characters players can feel empathy towards, if you have them remain awake all the time, I thought it would be more effective if that was a bad thing.”
Players who’re looking to increase their levels better sleep, according to Tabata. Noctis and his friends will have to sleep at least every couple days (Now an hour in real-time) to keep themselves in battle-ready, but don’t worry, no one’s going to die from too little sleep, at least not in FF XV.
Trains
As it was featured in the new trailer below, Tabata mentioned that there is indeed something of a snowy train segment to the game. Whether it’s anything like Chris Evan’s Snowpiercer, Tabata wouldn’t say, but what he did is that you can move “freely” in it.
Cidney
As longtime Final Fantasy fans might surmise, XV will surely have its Cid (see the header image above), but in a decidedly more feminine form this time around. Tabata described her as “a mechanic who supports your travels,” saying that her job should be obvious from the grease-covered overalls and garage the trailer finds her in. We don’t know if “Cidney’s” piloting a plane or an airship in her spare time, but apparently she’ll be able to lend your crew a car.
Magic
As for magic? That’s been delegated to “the later stages of development,” according to Tabata. “To be absolutely honest,” he said, “there is a prototype of course, and the battle system has been made, and we’ll be brushing up the graphics before releasing the final product. So for combat we make the basic system, brush up the graphics, and what we do next is add all the different actions that occur in battle, so at the moment, the magic looks kind of disappointing. That’s why we haven’t shown it yet.”
As he stated further, magic is one of the last gameplay elements to have some “brushing up” to do, namely for Noctis, XV‘s only character with magical abilities. That said, Noctis will somehow be able to transfer his powers to everyone in the party via a unique system Tabata was not a liberty to discuss just yet.
Language
For die-hard JRPG fans, Tabata lastly confirmed that you’ll have the option of listening to FF XV‘s Japanese and English voice-acting alike with whatever subtitles you wish, either in the game’s demo next year or the full-version. Not only that, but Shabata disclosed that the team was looking to come complete with “German, Italian, French, and Spanish subtitles” and more, but don’t hold your breath on that until the game launches.
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If you were excited about all of that above, watch all of it in action in the company’s action-filled (and English-dubbed) trailer below. Is it just us, but does anyone here sense Troy Baker and James Arnold Taylor’s voices at work?
All that said, we’re probably still no closer to knowing just when we’ll be driving down Final Fantasy XV’s roads. The game’s still pegged for a release sometime in the near future (we don’t know when) and “in development” for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
In the meantime, the almost equally anticipated remastering of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is coming stateside Mar. 17th for the same systems along with the said demo for Final Fantasy XV.
We’ll let you know what beans Tabata or others at Square Enix choose to spill in the time being. Until then, stay tuned to all of your favorite games, movies, TV, comics, and all things entertainment here at BagoGames.
Via Kotaku