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Final Fantasy XV - Everything we know so far - [Up: Character artwork/descriptions]

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ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Kagari said:
Oh, also I think the whole "we're already planning sequels" bit also deflated my excitement somewhat.
Click to expand...

Well, every FF post IX had a sequel of some sort so it shouldn't be too surprising.
 
ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
M

Mr. Wonderful

Member
LOL at people who want a well-written script when going off Nomura's track record there is a good chance this story is going to be the 201x equivalent of "Kingdom Hearts is the light! Kingdom Hearts is the darkness! Kingdom Hearts is this door! Kingdom Hearts is this giant moon thing!"
 
H

Hedge

Member
Mr. Wonderful said:
LOL at people who want a well-written script when going off Nomura's track record there is a good chance this story is going to be the 201x equivalent of "Kingdom Hearts is the light! Kingdom Hearts is the darkness! Kingdom Hearts is this door! Kingdom Hearts is this giant moon thing!"
Click to expand...

I personally loved the Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and BBS writing. It was naive and pure. Like looking at the world through the eyes of a child.
I have utter faith in the script, myself. :)
 
P

PlanetSmasher

Banned
Mr. Wonderful said:
LOL at people who want a well-written script when going off Nomura's track record there is a good chance this story is going to be the 201x equivalent of "Kingdom Hearts is the light! Kingdom Hearts is the darkness! Kingdom Hearts is this door! Kingdom Hearts is this giant moon thing!"
Click to expand...

Kingdom Hearts is a Disney RPG, man...
 
R

raven777

Member
GoddyofAus said:
4, 5, 6, 13 and 18 aren't and they look gorgeous.
Click to expand...

4,5,6, and 18 ARE CG. Kagari and few others mentioned it few pages back. They are target CG render of the gameplay, but it has HUD to make it look like it is actual gameplay.

the Lucis part (modern buildings) are real time. Most of Venice stuff is CG.
 
G

GoddyofAus

Banned
Ol No Bones said:
I hope this game can truly revive final fantasy. Games for a long time have been garbage with a name to back them up.
Click to expand...

Cautious optimism. For the love of fuck, don't get yourself hyped.

raven777 said:
4,5,6, and 18 ARE CG. Kagari and few others mentioned it few pages back. They are target CG render of the gameplay, but it has HUD to make it look like it is actual gameplay.

the Lucis part (modern buildings) are real time. Most of Venice stuff is CG.
Click to expand...

Bullshots, in other words. That's a shame. That Sea Serpant is holy shit awesome.
 
Exentryk

Exentryk

Member
A longish summary from the news and interview articles so far.

  • Square Enix suggested the change from Final Fantasy Versus XIII to Final Fantasy XV two years after the game’s announcement in 2006.
  • It was possible the game would still retain its original name, but the ultimate decision to change it to Final Fantasy XV was decided when Final Fantasy Agito XIII was renamed Final Fantasy Type-0 [around 2011].
  • FFXV development was moved to next-gen a year ago (2012), and the name was officially changed. It was a result of the project's increasing size and scale, and the limitations of the current gen hardware.
    “For example, when you would speed up a vehicle such as a car on the world map, the processing power could no longer keep up.”
  • An alpha version of Versus XIII was built last year [2012]. The company responded with, "‘If you remained bound to the current generation, will it will be the product you envisioned?’ They suggested shifting fully to next-gen, and that was the spark that led to the move.”
  • “As for the timing of the announcement,” Nomura explained, “given that we were changing platforms as well, the timing wasn’t something we could decide on our own discretion. We worked together with other divisions to get it announced at this E3 [2013].”
    The re-announcement was actually planned for 2012, but was postponed for various reasons. The life span of current generation consoles became a problem.
  • On the question of whether or not the game deserves to be a mainline title based on its mechanics, Hashimoto explains that each entry tends to be different anyway so this time they wanted to move ahead with an action-based system. However, this doesn’t determine what future titles will be – the next mainline title may very well be a more traditional RPG. That said, Hashimoto eagerly anticipates fan feedback on the less RPG and more action focused gameplay. He believes there is a future for both action-based and command-based RPGs, but the action style is definitely more fitting for XV’s design.
Click to expand...

  • Nomura describes Noct as “not cool” on the inside. Appearances can be deceiving. He’s rather cocky, and him not being cool is actually his main characteristic.
  • Noctis doesn’t defy gravity/use gravity spells, but rather has the ability to teleport himself, including into the sky. In trying to make a game realistic, it becomes impossible to enjoy. Nomura has been trying to figure out a good balance between realism and the game’s main entertainment as a “fantasy.”
  • The announcement trailer contained a great deal of CG. Nomura says the line in the trailer “about the fifteenth coming” was more of a gag joke than anything – it will not be in the game.
  • Nomura acknowledges that the “A world of the VERSUS epic” tagline at the end of the trailer specifically refers to the possibility of turning the setting into a series of its own. He says the story in FFXV will reach a climax, but it is like the conclusion of a single part of a larger epic poem. There will be room for more stories to be told. Nomura says the game has become absolutely huge and as a result he is considering a compilation similar to that of Final Fantasy VII. Given the game’s seven year wait, however, he doesn’t want to keep fans waiting long between potential entries.
  • Nomura calls Cor a "Yakudoshi". He is 42 years old, and joins the party later than Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus. Cor's VA was actually the driver from 2011 trailer who says "Noctis oouji!" They changed driver's VA because now he voices Cor. Cor is also the last to join the group among the 5 guys.
  • There are a lot of male characters, but expect some females ones too besides Stella and the black-haired girl. Expect much more characters than the ones we saw in the latest trailer.
  • Concept of asymmetry between the main characters and the Nifleheim ones, who wear white.
Click to expand...

  • The way of developing the game (or games in general) has changed. Before, when going multi-platform, a game would be fit to one console’s specifications and would be “evened out” to other consoles. But now, games made in a different way. Nomura always had in mind that he didn’t want to make a game that compromises quality.
    Final Fantasy XV will make use of DirectX 11 based tools – developed in a high specification PC environment. Because of this, porting to platforms that support that tool set will be an easy match for potential porting.
  • Development is currently being done on both parts of Luminous Studio and the team’s original tools as well as a middleware solution. Eventually they want to move over to Luminous Engine completely, but the engine itself is still incomplete and it would be too late for them to start the game anew if they waited for that moment. Both Luminous Studio and the FFXV team are working simultaneously to create an engine and a game at the same time.
  • Luminous Studio is focusing on the parts of the game that involve camera placement, scene flow and of course pre-rendered movies.
  • A PC version is “currently undecided” and according to the team, FFXV will require a high end PC to operate and because of this they would want to see what sort of “demand” from the PC user base would potentially be.
  • The main development staff has not changed very much since the development of the PS3 version – in fact many have been added instead.
  • “I [Nomura] wanted FFXV to be as seamless as possible, and to achieve that, we needed to have all the actions you could potentially do always be available in memory,” said Nomura. “Since this is FF after all, you have lots of potential factors, from the varied weapons to the party members’ individual actions and magic spells. Keeping this massive amount of RPG character data around, and having them fight all kinds of monsters on a large map, is a lot to process. To that we’re adding light sourcing, physics, filters, and other graphical elements, but there’s only so much we could display at once, so we were forced to go through a selection process.”
  • “The trailer we showed at E3 has battle scenes that make use of a wide swath of space,” Nomura explained, “like how Noctis warps up to a higher area. Characters can go around this large yet intricately-detailed space, and it feels like an FF battle. This presentation takes a lot of processing. Trying to do it on current-gen systems would mean that the display of objects may not be able to keep up within a world map-sized space. The map changes and destruction we showed in the video was also something we really wanted to do.”
  • Nomura wished to create all scenes without character control in pre-rendered CG, but that wasn’t entirely possible. Using the same technique that was utilized for Agni’s Philosophy, the team at Visual Works will create the base for those cutscenes and then drop them into Luminous Engine to run in real time. Everything seen in the E3 trailer was made using the current rendering engine and tools, but will eventually be moved entirely to Luminous as XV and that engine are being developed in tandem.
  • “In the [E3 video] you can notice an icon that displays when an enemy is locked on to – it becomes a lens flare and is something that Nozue proposed for us to do,” explained Nomura.
  • They want to find an use for the different console-specific gimmicks such as the PS4 share button.
Click to expand...

  • When asked about the mix of tech and magic in Final Fantasies, Nomura said, "I don't like the extreme cases of tech or magic. If I choose, I choose a modern setting — but that's not a good setting for a game. So if you look at "FFXV," it starts in a very modern world similar to Shinjuku (in downtown Tokyo), but when the story starts, you go to the medieval world — but the weapons they are using are high tech-weapons; that kind of combo is what I like.
  • On character hair, Nomura said, "If you look at the real world, you don't see too many extreme hairstyles. That's why characters in games should have unique hairstyles. It's just one way to showcase each character's personality. We do have to deform some realistic hairstyles to more game-appropriate styles.
    Sometimes I wish we had the easiness Western FPS (first-person shooters) have, to make everyone bald. We're a company that's known for unique hairstyles, but in a way we're running out of ideas."
Click to expand...

  • Hajime Tabata – of FF Type-0 and Crisis Core fame – is now co-director alongside Nomura. Takeshi Nozue has seen his position upgraded to Total Visual Director. Even though Nozue is head of Visual Works, right now he is working together with the development team. The goal is to make the real time cutscenes look as close as possible to the pre-rendered movies. Using techniques like that of Agni’s Philosophy to create the visuals for FFXV, Visual Works develops a pre-rendered movie which is then ported to real time by Luminous Studio – it’s a technique called “Look Development.”
Click to expand...

  • Noctis’ level in the E3 2013 trailer is quite high, so he is able to use many weapons and warp freely. Players won’t be able to use all of those skills from the beginning of the game.
  • The starting point is the Kingdom Hearts series’ simple and exhilarating action feeling. It’s not difficult. Most things can be performed intuitively. I am also considering each difficulty level’s specific operation procedures. Companions support the player with co-operative attacks and respond to situations with autonomous actions. The battles will be varied.
  • It is possible to free-run towards monsters outside the map, as well as ride on monsters and aim at specific parts of their bodies.
  • The feeling of speed is important during battle. The player can freely control the character’s movements, but spectators (people watching, not playing) might lose track of what’s going on.
  • Warp is a Noct-only ability. We saw examples of its "short" version in the latest trailer, but expect some footage of a "long" warp.
  • To be considered FF, the battle must revolve around party members and numbers. This means that numbers display both damage and HP, the player can switch between each of the three party members freely, a lot of chain actions and even characters outside of the active party will have some sort of role.
  • One feature being added will be the ability to climb larger monsters while in battle – as demonstrated in the debut gameplay trailer as Noctis and his friends take on a massive behemoth.
  • Leviathan is a boss battle and he creates a typhoon during battle. The player will have to jump through destroyed buildings one by one in order to fight. Not just Leviathan, but other boss battles will feature grand situations as well.
  • “We are considering a number of features such as multiplayer or co-op – as well as how smartphones and tablet connectivity can fit in. If possible, I want to think about including elements that will allow players to play even longer.”
  • Summons will also return in FFXV and like typical FF you’ll have to defeat them before they join your side. Summons will have a sort of hierarchy or ranking system – Leviathan being one of the top-ranked to explain his larger size.
Click to expand...


  • The theme of the game is “bonds” with the core of the story quite serious, but there will be many elements of humor as well. The story is also quite simple in that it focuses on the recovery of a crystal – the final one housed within Noctis’ own homeland.
  • The four great nations that originally received protection from the crystals are Lucis, Tenebrae, Solheim and Accordo – and together with Niflheim and several other cities and villages – make up the vast world of FFXV. Lucis is based on a modern day Tokyo while Accordo – the new city seen in the trailer – is modeled after Venice.
Click to expand...

  • Nomura was unable to comment on any sort of completion status or release date. He asks that fans please look forward to that news in the future. “I’m truly sorry for having kept you waiting such a long time. I hope that the presentation this time has met the expectations of everyone who has been waiting. From here, the quality will become much greater. I want to take advantage of events like this one and put out new information at every big event to come like Tokyo Game Show, so please watch out for the evolution of Final Fantasy XV from here on out."
  • “Some have said that this generation, Japanese developments have fell short overseas. In the next generation, I don’t want this to be the case at all. I want to showcase this title.”
Click to expand...
 
R

raven777

Member
Exentryk said:
So, I went through all the interviews and news articles, and noted these points. It turned out to be a pretty long summary, if you can call it that lol. I included the quotes as is for most cases.

Is it worth putting it in the OP, or is too much?
Click to expand...

did you see my post about Cor? I don't know that was worth updating on OP
 
H

Hedge

Member
Exentryk said:
So, I went through all the interviews and news articles, and noted these points. It turned out to be a pretty long summary, if you can call it that lol. I included the quotes as is for most cases.

Is it worth putting it in the OP, or is too much?
Click to expand...


Maybe put in a link this post in the OP, so as not to make the OP incredibly long? And title it "interview summary" or some such?
 
S

Shikoro

Member
These are actual gameplay, the other ones are gameplay renders and CG:
nXKHRqo.jpg

9ySxpPP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SBCkWj8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EAZz7Oi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0q4NV4b.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JIyJfot.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/KBFK5WZ.jpg
 
T

Thorgal

Member
Exentryk said:
So, I went through all the interviews and news articles, and noted these points. It turned out to be a pretty long summary, if you can call it that lol. I included the quotes as is for most cases.

Is it worth putting it in the OP, or is too much?
Click to expand...
I say put it in the OT.

If you think it's too long then it may be worth a new thread.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
In the interview Nomura pointed out there was a new girl in the trailer but admits it's a sausage fest :lol
 
R

raven777

Member
Exentryk said:
No sorry! Can you please link it for me?
Click to expand...

raven777 said:
by the way, Cor Leonis uses Katana in the battle, and he is 42 years old.

also there are 4 kingdoms in the game, the ones that were mentioned int he trailer.

the Venice looking city is Accord and you travel there after Lucis(where you start)
Click to expand...

Now that Cor uses Katana, I wonder what weapon Ignis use since he was using Katana in 2011 trailer.
 
H

Hedge

Member
God, that comment about summons makes me really curious if there will be hidden summons to obtain, like XII, X and VII.

And also - if they'll appear as a party member and we can take control over them. :D
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
To be more specific, Nomura says that Cor is "yakudoshi":

Yakudoshi are the years of calamity. This is a Japanese belief that people at the ages of yakudoshi are likely to experience misfortunes or illness. It is generally believed that men's yakudoshi are the ages 25, 42 and 61, and for women 19, 33 and 37, though there are local and historical variations. One's yakudoshi is measured by adding one to the actual age.

The ages of 42 for men and 33 for women are considered to be particularly bad years, honyaku (great calamity). This is probably because the numbers 42 and 33 are phonetically unlucky numbers. 42 can be pronounced "shi-ni" which is homophonous with the word " to death," and and 33, when pronounced as "sanzan" means "hard," "terrible," or "disastrous". When reaching yakudoshi, many people go to Shinto shrines for exorcism (yakubarai). Although this is just a superstition, it may not be improbable because people seem to go through hard times with their health or jobs around these ages.
Click to expand...
 
Exentryk

Exentryk

Member
private400 said:
I say put it in the OT.

If you think it's too long then it may be worth a new thread.
Click to expand...

I've linked my above post in the OP. That should leave it relatively small.


raven777 said:
Now that Cor uses Katana, I wonder what weapon Ignis use since he was using Katana in 2011 trailer.
Click to expand...

Hmmm! I was hoping Cor would use Gunblades.
We've seen Ignis use Katana, so most likely they both can use it.

Anyhow! I'll add something about your quoted post in the OP. Thanks again.

EDIT - OP updated!
 
W

WiiFan

Neo Member
Nothing has been said about cities, npc interaction, shops, subquests...nothing? Something to point out that this is not like FFXIII?
 
R

raven777

Member
WiiFan said:
Nothing has been said about cities, npc interaction, shops, subquests...nothing? Something to point out that this is not like FFXIII?
Click to expand...

it is suppose to have a world map, and you can drive a car around world map.

I am not sure we will have traditional type of towns where they have shops and inns.
 
A

Apoptomon

Member
WiiFan said:
Nothing has been said about cities, npc interaction, shops, subquests...nothing? Something to point out that this is not like FFXIII?
Click to expand...
Only about cities/world I believe, which was there original vision was sort of open-world. I dont think NPCs or shops have been mentioned at all. (Though there was a screenshot of a gas station at one point), and plenty of people at the party scene. But that info was from a while ago now.
 
W

WiiFan

Neo Member
Apoptomon said:
Only about cities/world I believe, which was there original vision was sort of open-world. I dont think NPCs or shops have been mentioned at all. (Though there was a screenshot of a gas station at one point), and plenty of people at the party scene. But that info was from a while ago now.
Click to expand...

I'd like final fantasy XII towns but in a "ps4" scale. Lots of npc and subquest as well as shops, inns...bring me the old FF feeling...
 
G

GoddyofAus

Banned
Although I doubt this, has there been any confirmation that the original Japanese voiceovers with subtitles will be included in the Western release?
 
P

PlanetSmasher

Banned
raven777 said:
I kinda wanted Ignis to stick with katana and Cor to use fists....
Click to expand...

Do we have official confirmation (screenshot, scan, etc) that Cor uses a katana? I've only seen one person say it and everyone's just been quoting him on the subject.

We know that in addition to the katana (using QuickDraw style and wide-sweep slashes), Ignis also uses throwing knives, but that seems like a really lousy weapon to make his main combat tool if Cor took the katana user slot.
 
R

raven777

Member
GoddyofAus said:
Although I doubt this, has there been any confirmation that the original Japanese voiceovers with subtitles will be included in the Western release?
Click to expand...

no, but I really doubt they will release japanese voiceovers in Western release. Like, no way its going to happen from square.
 
Exentryk

Exentryk

Member
GoddyofAus said:
Although I doubt this, has there been any confirmation that the original Japanese voiceovers with subtitles will be included in the Western release?
Click to expand...

Nothing on it. I doubt we'll get it.

The closest we got was with the Asian version of LR, but the western releases don't have that, IIRC.
 
C

CrimsonCrescendo

Banned
So, exactly how far along are they on this? From what I'm getting from this, it could be another year and a half to two years before we get this title, and that's being nice about it.

Edit: I don't mean to sound impatient, but yeah, I'm getting impatient. Really impatient.
 
R

raven777

Member
PlanetSmasher said:
Do we have official confirmation (screenshot, scan, etc) that Cor uses a katana? I've only seen one person say it and everyone's just been quoting him on the subject.

We know that in addition to the katana, Ignis also uses throwing knives, but that seems like a really lousy weapon to make his main combat tool if Cor took the katana user slot.
Click to expand...

its from famtisu interview.
 
I

injurai

Banned
These caught my eye the most.

Nomura wished to create all scenes without character control in pre-rendered CG, but that wasn’t entirely possible. Using the same technique that was utilized for Agni’s Philosophy, the team at Visual Works will create the base for those cutscenes and then drop them into Luminous Engine to run in real time. Everything seen in the E3 trailer was made using the current rendering engine and tools, but will eventually be moved entirely to Luminous as XV and that engine are being developed in tandem.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that the engine would be a Hybrid of Crystal Tools and Luminous, but it seems it will be full blown luminous by release.

On character hair, Nomura said, "If you look at the real world, you don't see too many extreme hairstyles. That's why characters in games should have unique hairstyles. It's just one way to showcase each character's personality. We do have to deform some realistic hairstyles to more game-appropriate styles.
Sometimes I wish we had the easiness Western FPS (first-person shooters) have, to make everyone bald. We're a company that's known for unique hairstyles, but in a way we're running out of ideas."
Click to expand...

The self awareness of Japanese hair trends in entertainment is refreshing. I do think that this game in particular is hitting a good balanced stride in this regard. Wouldn't mind even a few more toned down styles.

The starting point is the Kingdom Hearts series’ simple and exhilarating action feeling. It’s not difficult. Most things can be performed intuitively. I am also considering each difficulty level’s specific operation procedures. Companions support the player with co-operative attacks and respond to situations with autonomous actions. The battles will be varied.
Click to expand...

I'm happy they are still drawing on KH for gameplay inspiration. The game design seems to be focused around the gameplay progression. It always annoys me where these two things don't seem to coincide.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
PlanetSmasher said:
Do we have official confirmation (screenshot, scan, etc) that Cor uses a katana? I've only seen one person say it and everyone's just been quoting him on the subject.
Click to expand...

メインの武器は刀ですね。
 
G

GoddyofAus

Banned
CrimsonCrescendo said:
So, exactly how far along are they on this? From what I'm getting from this, it could be another year and a half to two years before we get this title, and that's being nice about it.
Click to expand...

It's further along than Kingdom Hearts, that much is certain. I think the biggest hint is the change of platform to next gen. That would have almost taken production back to square one (heh.)

Holiday 2014, and that's being optimistic.
 
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