Final Fantasy XV

[ACertainStark]

From GAF here's Cidney-tan:

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by com_gwp

I like this constant flow of information that's been going on for FFXV; the practise would be unheard of if it were Square Enix from 2011.

Most exciting news from today for me is the fact that the summons themselves will be of the same scale when you use them. It's gonna be wicked to see how that works.

I think that's just the result of Tabata taking charge instead of Nomura. Notice how we still have next to nothing on Kingdom Hearts 3

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

I think that's just the result of Tabata taking charge instead of Nomura. Notice how we still have next to nothing on Kingdom Hearts 3

Not a very fair comparison, since Kingdom Hearts 3 is ridiculously early in development (evident by the sudden engine change). And Nomura's produced a dozen games in that span, plus he did give attendees of the 2.5 launch event a sneak peak at the work-in-progress combat. I really believe the key here is the changing policies of Square, where they're becoming much more open to the idea of showing off their work-in-progress builds (an idea that would be completely impossible before).

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by com_gwp

Not a very fair comparison, since Kingdom Hearts 3 is ridiculously early in development (evident by the sudden engine change). And Nomura's produced a dozen games in that span, plus he did give attendees of the 2.5 launch event a sneak peak at the work-in-progress combat. I really believe the key here is the changing policies of Square, where they're becoming much more open to the idea of showing off their work-in-progress builds (an idea that would be completely impossible before).

FFXV was subject to the "sudden engine change" as well.

Also keep in mind FFXV's work in progress build wasn't shown until the announcement that Tabata took over either.

It's not like before when Nomura had no choice but to put KHIII aside to FFXV, so the fact of the matter is he simply chose not to show what he's working on until it's nearly finished.

[Kyero Fox]

Originally Posted by ACertainStark

From GAF here's Cidney-tan:

She looks better than the Lead's GF.

and reminds me WAY TOO MUCH OF P4! XD

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

FFXV was subject to the "sudden engine change" as well.

Also keep in mind FFXV's work in progress build wasn't shown until the announcement that Tabata took over either.

It's not like before when Nomura had no choice but to put KHIII aside to FFXV, so the fact of the matter is he simply chose not to show what he's working on until it's nearly finished.

The engine change happened, if interviews were to be believed, 2-3 years ago, and Tabata had already taken over the project as least a year before he made director. So no, I don't believe Tabata is any more transparent about his game than Nomura is; XV has just reached a point in development where the company is comfortable about showing it to people, and this includes selling Tabata as the new director (even if we want to credit Tabata, it's more for speeding up development to this point)

I'm backpedaling a little here, but rather than SE becoming more open about their games, it's seems more because XV is the sole megafranchise title on the horizon that the company's focus have shifted as such.

But hey, whatever the reason, leadership or policy or something else altogether, this stream of marketing information for the game is something I never thought would happen.

Originally Posted by Kyero Fox

She looks better than the Lead's GF.

and reminds me WAY TOO MUCH OF P4! XD

I saw the P4 comparison on Gaf and Kotaku as well, but I don't really see it in her. Now MGS's Eva on the other hand...

[ACertainStark]

Next Tabata’s Active Time Report penned in for February

The next time we hear from Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata won’t likely be until February 2015. The director mentioned on stream yesterday that January will be a busy month for him, so the next broadcast will likely be after the start of the year.

For the next Report, Tabata says he would like to do a sort of video tutorial for both Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae as the former drops a month later in all regions. Essentially, he would like to show players how both games control and how to play by using video demonstration.

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD will launch in North America on March 17th, in Japan on March 19th and in Europe on March 20th. All regions will receive both a standard edition of the game along with Collector’s Editions with Japanese fans also having the chance to purchase a Type-0 “Suzaku Edition” PlayStation 4 hardware. All first print copies will come bundled with a voucher for the downloadable FFXV demo.

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2014/1...-for-february/

[Iron Maw]

Looks like this hasn't been posted yet, but Kotaku posted a breakdown on FFXV with Tabata:

http://kotaku.com/final-fantasy-xvs-...ail-1673513161

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

I think that's just the result of Tabata taking charge instead of Nomura. Notice how we still have next to nothing on Kingdom Hearts 3

It reminds of what happen with FFXIV when Yoshida took over from Tanaka.

EDIT; That said I agree com gwp as Tabata did come on board FFXV as a co-director back in 2012. Nomura also noted back last year in a siliconera interview that Tabata had been handing a lot of day to day operations in the development from that point onward.

[Iron Maw]

Luminous Studio

• The current version of the engine is version 1.40. When the Episode Duscae demo launches, it will be at 1.50. The final version of the game is planned to be 2.00.
• There are about five million polygons per frame, witch each character made up of at max 100,000 polygons. The inner hair alone has about 20,000 polygons, which is five times the previous generation.
• Character models have around 600 bones, which is roughly 10-12 times greater than what was seen last generation.
• Data capacity for textures is also much greater than before.

Final Fantasy XV

• Battles against huge enemies are carried out in the same fashion as standard battles, but there will be some exclusive party co-op ctions for the bigger fights.
• There will be several mini-games, including fishing.
• Restalm (we called it Restaru, then Restarg, we were wrong twice – it’s hard to play by ear sometimes) is being made in the image of the Bahamas.
• Right now, the ropeway in Restalm cannot be rode. We might add the ability to ride it if there is time to do so.
• The development team wants players to get a feel for the world and find it relatable not just through sheer visuals, but also through the characters.
• In town, you can stay in hotels or go shopping.
• NPCs in town are controlled by AI, and you can talk to them.
• Restalm is a main town in the first half of the game.
• Cindy shows up in different places throughout the game. Something happens with her at the start that shakes her up and gets her moving around.
• While she’s not deeply involved in the story, she’s relevant because of her profession as a mechanic.
• Players will have to fight Summon Beasts in order to be able to use them.
• Summon Beasts in the game are a symbol of the power of stars. Only Noctis can actually summon them.
• Combat-wise, the plan is holding down a button will start a set combo, but timed button presses are what will enable coordinated moves with other party members.
• To parry enemy attacks, you have to match the timing of their strike. This is intended for expert players.
• Magic isn’t what consumes MP, nor is the system akin to the Draw system Final Fantasy VIII had.
• MP is consumed by using special actions, such as dodging and warping.
• Weapons are equipped several at a time, with one main weapon. The main weapon has a corresponding ability, and it’s also possible to switch the main weapon during combat.
• Combos are automatically formulated based on which weapon is currently being utilized out of the ones being equipped.
• Abilities aren’t separate from a weapon’s given category and there are also weapons that have no abilities at all. Apparently not unlike what was seen in Captain Tsubasa 5, a game that Tabata apparently worked on back in the day.
• Rare weapons that can be acquired from dungeons and other sketchy areas could potentially have some hack-and-slash aspects to how they’re used. The Phantom Sword, which floats in midair, will also be acquirable as a special weapon.
• The battle system from the demo is planned to be fully featured.
• After the Tokyo Game Show this year, the systems going into the demo were slightly changed as a result of fan feedback.
• Players will also be able to run around in areas such as the mountainous areas where the Behemoths roam.
• In the full version, you’ll be able to rent Chocobos.
• Camps are inherently designed to be a safe haven, making them ideal headquarters when setting out to explore new areas.
• There are bonuses that come with cooking ingredients purchased in towns and cities. You can also get ingredients off monsters in the wild.

Additionally, the magazine reveals that a Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Blu-ray Disc music soundtrack is being planned for release.

Read more at http://gematsu.com/2014/12/final-fan...HvLizfuBYT3.99

BTW bones=animations

[Chaos2Frozen]

Cat Cam from Tapei Game Show

[SilverSyko]

Wait, so this Cat Cam thing is going to be an actual function in the game? That's amusing.

I could easily see it being used as a way to access secret areas to find rarer items.

[Iron Maw]

Nah, the devs said it's only for demonstration.

[Iron Maw]

The demo is day 1 BTW.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/0g9c1ZyYSok

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

[Iron Maw]

Final Fantasy XV updates: Active Time Report next week, Jump scan, and PAX East panel!

If the camp menu is anything to go by looks like a traditional leveling system might be back rather than another Sphere Grid or Crystarium deal. Though we could also we going the direction of a hybrid growth system like in FFXII which used traditional levels for stats and a grid based system (License Board) for abilities. Lots of possibilities here.

[Chaos2Frozen]

Final Fantasy XV demo walkthrough broadcast to air on Feb. 20th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWO0mwafBJI

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=991229

Tabata will explain controls and how to progress through the demo. Time is at 20:00 JST.

[Iron Maw]

Only a couple hours left now...

DAT WATER O_o

[Chaos2Frozen]

They are streaming the demo in a couple of hours right?

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

They are streaming the demo in a couple of hours right?

And I'm going to avoid every second of it. The demo is short enough as is, why spoil the 3 hours I'd get? Waited almost a decade for this, so what's one more month?

[Iron Maw]

For those who missed it. Needless to say do not watch if want to remain unspoiled:

EDIT 2: Better quality video.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/0BjgVETH6S8

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

EDIT:

Walkthrough translation

- When Noct changes speed, his party members will too, naturally. It's all in the animation.
- A red gauge appears when enemies are close. Encounter gauge. Then battle starts and it disappears (There's also an audio cue that kicks in when the gauge appears).
- Lock-on is in of course. There's also an auto lock. When the red encounter gauge fills, battle starts. You can run before it does.
- The current monster won't attack on its own. If you attack it though, it'll become hostile.
- Triangle button is assigned to abilities, but it uses MP. Abilities tied to weapons.
- Defending uses MP, abilities use mp, so keeping track of your mp use is extremely important in XV.
- When the blue particles appear and you dodge, that means you're using up MP. MP can completely vanish if you're stuck in a sticky situation.
- His two party members just helped each other while they were trying to move Noctis into a specific position. Killing this monster gets you Meat for cooking at camp.
- Even within the same monster species, they come in different physical sizes, and even sometimes have different move sets.
- Sometimes the enemy flashes. When it flashes, the following attack is gonna be real fucking strong. It's also a chance to counter.
- After parrying, partner attacks can kick in automatically.
- As your party grows closer, new partner moves are unlocked while they talk at camp etc.
- They basically found a super strong version of the monsters they were just fighting. The queen. HP/MP recover automatically, but it's slow.
- Apparently you can't dodge this enemies attacks, so he's gonna put everything into power/damage dealing.
- You can change weapons mid-battle by jumping right into the menu. For example you want a different skill, so you swap out.
- Behemoth Smoke Eye is one of the big bosses in the demo. Finding hints of where he went, and looking for him. AKA: big foot steps.
- You can set your destination marker , making it easier to navigate there.
- The blue shiny things on the environment are items you can pick up, some of which can be traded for cash. Though he's a prince.
- The goal of the demo is to get enough money to get their car back. They gotta fix the car.
- Beating Smoke Eye gets you a fair chunk of cash cause he's kind of a badass. They won't show any more of the main quest line.
- Your party members will point stuff out, say they wanna go places etc. They serve to point out that optional stuff organically.
- Night time! It's super fucking dangerous. Goblins! They're typically only in dark areas/dungeons, but they come out at night.
- Night time enemies have a lot of status inducing attacks.
- When your HP hits zero, you don't immediately die. You go into a certain status, and when that finishes, you die for reals.
- The longer they spend fighting, the more chances there are that other enemies will join, like the current squad of soldiers.
- For the record, these soldiers are actually machines, so they have really inhuman movement and some weird attacks.
- The more damage you deal to the machine soldiers, the more their bodies fall apart. Heads fall off, arms, etc.
- Also if you didn't notice, the battle music is completely different at night.
- Asses got kicked, so they ran the fuck away. The blue light designates a camp site. Mysterious powers, so no enemies can come.
- Can pick what meal to make for dinner at camp.
- Under the meal name is the list of stats the meal will have an effect on.
- First the buff comes in, and then you level up.
- FF fanfare as the stat boosts kick in and dawn arrives.
- Camps also function as fast travel. You can quickly return to the last camp you rested at.
- You can avoid camps to do certain challenge playthroughs, like not leveling up for example. Game is designed to allow for that.
- Oh hey, the floating swords move with the warping. Uses MP nonstop. Nostalgic to see it in action for reals. (For example you can you shift to high locations to restore MP provided you're fighting an enemy without long range weapons/attacks.)
- Smoke Eye is named as such cause he's blind in one eye. That's the key to defeating him.

Q&A

Q: What constitutes a gameover?
A: Noct has to die. But as stated, HP reaching 0 is not dead times. You're in a critical state. When that state's gauge falls to zero, you die. In that time though, you can heal and come back to battle.

Q; What's the framerate/res.?
A: Aiming for tops, not making any promises yet, but aiming for the bestest they can do.

Q: Talk a bit more about the size of the map in the demo.
A: You know, I really don't know. Our map creator said 10 times bigger but that's prob playing it safe. The whole map is prob somewhere between 10-20 times bigger than the demo. They want people to play the demo and get a handle for scale, size, to get a better idea of the proper game.

Q: Weather system?
A: They wanted to put the weather system in to the demo, but they couldn't. The different types of rain weren't finished in time. For example, the rain has physical effects on characters, monsters, environment, and they didn't finish that all in time for the demo.

Q: How many weapons can you get in the demo? Full game?
A: Well, there are the phantom swords, and the normal weapons. They're different. In the demo, the amount of phantom swords you have will be reflected in the actual ability. You'll see that amount float around you. (Basically they wanna see what sort of effect that has on gameplay and adjust from there.)

Q: Dual/Coop attacks?
A: Dual/coop attacks. There are not a ton in the demo, because they're moves you learn as the characters grow. They're also really strong. So they didn't want put a bunch in early on and make it super unbalanced.

Q: How much stuff is there to do?
A: Finding phantom swords. After you beat the main stuff, there is an ending. When that finishes, there's stuff unlocked in the demo for you go back and do. Finishing the main story is not the end of the content.

Q: Any kind of data carrying over to the main game?
A: Nope. You can however save in the demo. Is there anything that you might be able to do with that save in the final game? Prroooobbbably. It's not data carrying over, more like a bonus for seeing you played the demo.

Q: What about Adamantoise?
A: We said you could fight him. But there was some miscommunication. We meant you could fight him in the full Game, not the demo. Demo is in a completely diff location. But because we announced both at the same time, it got lost in the shuffle.

Q: Airships. Are you guys working hard at making that happen?"
A:We've been working on the demo, so no. But once that's out, well...

Q: Can you please give us some info on the characters and story? Jeezzzzz.
A: Right now we want you peeps to enjoy the demo. Then when all that has died down, we'll start going into those details. Patience pls. There is some story at the end of the demo though.

Q: What percent is the game done?
A: Hm, A lot of progress has been made on the systems etc. About 60% done, give or take. As things start to come together, it could jump to 80% in one go, etc. But right now, we're quite a ways way in to development.

[Iron Maw]

From the latest ATR in London
Final Fantasy XV trailers highlight dungeon, wildlife

Concept Art
Final Fantasy XV’s modern city artwork showcased during SMU lecture