Final Fantasy XV

Unreleased

Final Fantasy XV, originally known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, is the fifteenth installment in the main Final Fantasy series. While regarded as another installment of the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy series alongside the Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-0 games, it has no physical connections to the rest of the project, and will feature a wholly independent story and a unique visual design. It is currently under development for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is yet to have a release date, but director Hajime Tabata would like to see a simultaneous worldwide release.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced at E3 2006 alongside Final Fantasy XIII. Final Fantasy Versus XIII was originally developed with the Crystal Tools engine for the PlayStation 3, but it was announced in December 2011 the game had been moved to a game-specific engine for the gameplay mechanics with the lighting being done by the Luminous Engine and the Crystal Tools still doing the real-time graphics. At E3 2013, the game was revealed to have been rebranded as Final Fantasy XV for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The story centers around Noctis Lucis Caelum, a protector of the last remaining city in the world with control over crystals. The game's focus is to examine the characters' humanity and distinguish it from the fantasy setting in other titles in the series. It was originally said the game would take around 40 hours to complete, excluding other content, but in an interview in January 2015 director Hajime Tabata said that due to the ever-increasing content of the game it seems less and less likely players would be able to clear the game in that time.

Gameplay
The game is set in a world with one giant land mass, meaning players can cross the entire world. The player party's car can be either driven manually or put on autopilot, although walking is also possible. Trains will also be available and players will be able to explore them freely when riding them. Monsters wander throughout the field and sometimes hostile ones will suddenly appear to ambush the player. The battles are real time action with the player controlling one person, Noctis, the other party members being controlled by the AI with the player able to issue them commands. The system has been described as streamlined rather than full of button-smashing, and readily accessible in that with obtaining good weapons and leveling up players will be able to clear the main scenarios, but further challenges are implied to lie waiting in the optional content requiring more player skill.

Summons will be called Eidolons and are based on a ranking system with their size influencing their rank. For example, Leviathan is one of the top-ranked summons, as shown by its massive size. Titan is an Eidolon the party can obtain that will play a role in the story. Eidolons are a symbol of the power of stars and only Noctis can summon them. Some Eidolons must be defeated in battle to obtain them as summons.

The game will support the new-generation consoles' features, such as sharing, but the remote play function on PlayStation 4 is yet to be decided. With the remote play, the players can play their PlayStation 4 games on PSVita anywhere as long as their internet connection is fast enough. The feature won't be in the demo, but it might be added to the retail game.

Battle System
The battle system is called Active Cross Battle (AXB). Battles will be seamless with no load times, taking place in real-time environments using all regions of the field from up-high buildings to down-low streets. Battles can take place in areas with great differences in height, and players will have to fight using the full environment. This means fighting what's both in front of the player and above and below (vertical battles). Players can climb onto large enemies to reach their weak points, and to take down specific parts. Battles against huge enemies are carried out in the same fashion as standard battles, but will enable exclusive party co-op actions. Players can jump during battles. Smaller enemies are easier to aggravate, but the bigger ones have "aggro radius", meaning one can approach them within reason without them immediately attacking. What monsters spawn depends on the time of day. Even within the same monster species, the creatures come in different physical sizes, and can have different move sets.

A red encounter gauge appears on the screen when enemies are close. It also has an audio cue. When the red encounter gauge fills, battle starts, but the player can run before it does. The combat system will utilize three buttons: an attack button, a defense button, and an interactive button for abilities and interactions between different party members. Using abilities expends MP. Abilities are tied to equipped weapons. Defending also uses MP, so keeping track of MP use is important.

Players can continuously dodge while holding down the block button, and auto-attack by holding down the attack button, or perform combos by tapping the attack button. Both styles have their pros and cons, e.g. timing the button presses allows the party to insert parries and co-op moves. Holding a button to continuously guard or evade drains the user's MP, and thus the player won't be able to do that indefinitely, and not all attacks can be evaded.

Players can move around while defending. Holding the attack button invokes the standard combo and the player can change the actions by using it in coordination with the directional buttons. The actions depend on the circumstances—such as when guarding, there might be a chance to counterattack, or whether other party members are close by; it is said this combat feature will be easy to pull off as long as Noctis has allies nearby. If the enemy flashes the following attack is going to be an extra strong one. This is a chance to counter or defend. After parrying, "partner attacks" can kick in automatically. As the party grows closer, new partner moves are unlocked while they talking at camp.

The player can switch position quickly with another character for strategic gameplay and there is also a cover system where players can take cover to avoid attacks and recover before returning to the battle.

When a party member falls to 0 HP they are "wounded" and unable to attack or use abilities. There is a "wound" system similar to that of in Final Fantasy XIII-2 where some attacks reduce characters' maximum HP, which is only restored by camping. This means that even using a Phoenix Down to recover one won't necessarily be able to heal back up to full HP. If all party members fall to 0 HP, the party can only run away to recover. Characters become KO'ed if their max HP threshold gets reduced to 0. The party's HP and MP regenerate when behind cover and MP also regenerates by attacking enemies. If Noctis is KO'ed his party members can revive him.

According to Tabata, the combat isn't about pressing a button once for a single action to happen, but a continuous flow of movements associated with the buttons, and building upon them for actions through the combat system. The gameplay is less about focusing on menus and more about navigating 3D spaces with predetermined moves, similar to the Gambit system of Final Fantasy XII. There are no menu commands in combat. The game controls like an action game where players switch between offense and defense. The player can give orders to other party members and swap weapons on the fly.

All team members will have different approaches and specialties in battle unique to them. There will be situations where the party will perform co-op attacks, such as Noctis fighting an Iron Giant and teaming up with Prompto and Gladiolus to take it down. Party members will automatically react to situations differently according to the circumstances, but certain abilities, equipment and weapons may encourage the characters to cooperate more likely when the circumstances are right. The co-op moves can be pulled off continuously and although invoking them is automatic the player must aim their mark. For example, to connect a co-op move while avoiding an enemy attack, the player must keep an eye out for an indication when to invoke it.

Noctis has a number of different weapons with different methods of attack, and some will be usable as shields to go along with Noctis's crystal power. Weapons will have some sort of customization element. Weapons are set in a deck to up to five weapons and during battle it will choose the most appropriate weapon based on the situation. The player can set the weapons before battle considering what actions can be used with each weapon. The player can determine one weapon to be the main weapon, and that weapon will come with techniques that can be invoked at the player's discretion in battle. The player can also change weapons mid-battle in the menu, e.g. if they want a different skill.

Besides the basic attack button, the player can invoke techniques with the technique button. Combos are automatically formulated based on which weapon is currently being utilized out of the ones equipped. Abilities locked to weapon categories exist, as do weapons with no abilities. Rare weapons acquired from dungeons will have unique properties, some examples being those with hack-and-slash aspects.

The "Phantom Sword" is Noctis's "Limit Break". During Phantom Sword all abilities cost 0 MP and Noctis's damage output is increased, but it drains MP until it reaches 0, and Phantom Sword ends. When Noctis unleashes his power, swords will fly around the area severing off the damage Noctis takes. In that state his Attack rises greatly and, on top of automatically guarding enemy attacks, he can move at high speed. There will a powered-up state even beyond that.

Noctis can warp around the field and throw his sword and warp to that location. The player can only teleport to certain locations and depending on the circumstances, there is a glowing icon denoting a warp spot. Noctis can teleport to certain places in the environment, and also to all enemies. Warping, along with special moves and dodging, requires units of MP to perform, but the Warp command will be exclusive to Noctis.

A "Link Form" command has also been seen in use during the E3 2013 material, which allowed Noctis to grapple with a soldier and slam the enemy into the side of a car, and climb up a Behemoth's horns to reach a more favorable position. This suggests Link Form could be an invaluable function for interacting with enemies and vehicles alike.

Magic will be available and spells will have unique effects and manifestations among each team member. Magic doesn't use MP. Weather will have a tactical impact on battle conditions, with different types of magic having varying effects depending on weather patterns. Using fire spells on a clear day, for example, will not only hurt monsters, but also ignites the surrounding area, and monsters afraid of fire will be sent fleeing, but it can hurt party members as well. As such, using magic can be a liability, too.

Game World
The world of Final Fantasy XV is similar to the real world with modern technology, such as cars and highways, but also contains countries with medieval elements, such as castles and armored soldiers. According to the developers the game's locations are based on real world places. So far, the following replicas have been seen or confirmed by the developers: Piazza San Marco and Basilica (from Venice, Italy), Manchester (England), a U.S. gas station and Shinjuku (an area of Tokyo, Japan), and the Bahamas.

The game is seamless open world with vast fields able to be explored as far as the eye can reach, although currently Square Enix can't guarantee the entire game will be entirely seamless as important scenes will likely require some loading. The player will be able to drive the party's car, RHS-113. In early information on the game it was said the party would be able to fly airships like in older Final Fantasy titles, but in January 2015 director Hajime Tabata said the airship issue was "still to be determined". The development team is aware airship travel is something everyone is looking forward to, but recognizes it a huge technical challenge. The player will be able to rent chocobos.

Depending on the terrain, characters' walking and running animations will change and running long distances sees party members tire and catch their breath. Some developers even climbed a mountain to make the mountain portions of the game more realistic. At lakes or rivers the party will be able to fish, and in the woods the party can find sheds where NPCs live. Objects and terrain are said to be destructible.

Sometimes the player can find hints in the environment on where to find bosses, such as big foot steps. Party members will also point things out, and say they want to go to certain places to let the player discover optional stuff organically. The player can set can set their destination marker, making it easier to navigate. Items found on the field appear as blue shiny things and some items can be traded for cash. Even if the player is free to explore far and wide and possibly stumble upon optional content, such as dungeons, the objectives are laid out clearly so players won't get lost in the vastness of available area.

The day and night cycles and cloud formations are done by physical calculations, the lighting and the shadows changing as the day goes on. At night towns will be lit up, with people turning the lights on in their homes. It was decided to be made this way to have a smooth change between the cycles and to have a more dynamic lighting system, reflecting the mood of a certain region/place. One in-game day lasts a real-life hour with 40 to 45 minutes being daytime, and the rest being night time. This bit is currently in development, and is subject to change. There will be events where the party must fight for days at a time.

Camping out is important. Camps are safe havens, making them ideal headquarters when setting out to explore new areas. Camps can be set up at any time of the day, but can only be set up on "safe" areas. Using a camp to rest progresses the time to the next day and when a day is over, accrued experience will be calculated to give players an idea of how much they've accomplished over that stretch of time. If the party forgoes sleeping the stat boosts obtained from food will lose effect. Players can can eat meals at camp for status buffs and obtain ingredients to cook at camp from monsters and shops. The party's "Cooking Level" determines what dishes they can cook. By properly sleeping, the party will maintain the buffs obtained this way, such as bonus multipliers applied to EXP gain. The party needs to take a break to level up as experience points earned in battle are converted towards level progression whenever the party sleeps. Not sleeping makes it possible to to attempt low-level challenge runs. The party can go three days without sleep, but any longer than that will lose the status buffs.

Monsters in dungeons will wander above ground during night, adding extra impetus to camp. The party can camp out in the open, or stay at a hotel while in town. There are gas stations alongside the roads where the party can also stop by to rest, eat and compile information.

Playable Characters

 * Noctis Lucis Caelum - The main protagonist. A childhood affliction endowed Noctis, heir apparent to the throne of Lucis, with the mystical power to see a heavenly light, through which he can sense others' deaths. Noctis rejects rigid royal conventions and acts as somewhat of a renegade, much to the dismay of those who tend to him. Yet while "Noct" may act brash at times, he does so in defense of those loyal to him.

Supporting Characters

 * Ignis Stupeo Scientia - Ever the unwavering voice of reason, Ignis was weaned on shrewd logic and a classical education from boyhood so that he might one day counsel the would-be king, Noctis. He applies the deep mutual understanding and trust they have built over time to help smooth over Noctis's brusqueness with others.
 * Gladiolus Amicitia - As lord of the noble House Amicitia, Gladiolus continues a line sworn to protect the crown. "Gladio" shares a friendship with Noctis that transcends birth and title, and his loyalty to his liege is born not of duty, but of brotherhood.
 * Prompto Argentum - The puckish playboy Prompto befriended Noctis in his school days. He wears a chip on his shoulder as an outsider to the royal circle, but remains eager to do all he can for the cause.

Guests

 * Cor Leonis - A living legend of Lucian lore, Lord Commander Cor Leonis's devotion to the art of war is surpassed only by that to his king. Little love is lost between the ill-starred stalwart and Noctis's retinue, yet honor binds him to keep watch over the group all the same.

Setting
Noctis Lucis Caelum—the latest in a lineage of kings, and the heir apparent to the throne—hails from the kingdom of Lucis, a country holding the world's last crystal, which is beneficial to his country's military, political, and economic standing. Because of increasingly apparent industrialization in contrast to neighboring nations, Lucis has isolated itself from the rest of the world.

At one time, all countries possessed a crystal, but many lost them due to fighting over them. They thus pooled their resources into weapons and warfare, granting them firearms along with swords and magic, becoming modern and advanced in only their military power, and in consequence, left regressive in their cultural and societal aspects, severely affecting their standards and quality of life. A cold war has gone on between Lucis and the rest of the world about the use and possession of the last crystal, but recently, a peace treaty was negotiated, ending the standoff.

There exists a myth in the kingdom of Tenebrae about a goddess of death, the Goddess Etro, who is said to greet the souls of the deceased, and open the door to the afterlife. When the door opens the released souls burst out in a streak of light that ascends to heaven. Few people are able to see the light, and those who can are given power from the Kingdom of the Dead. Both Noctis and Stella have gained this power.

Story
Under the guise of peace the kingdom of Niflheim breaks the treaty, conquering the nearby nations of Solheim, Tenebrae, and Accordo before attacking Lucis. During the chaos Noctis and his friends attempt to stop the seizure of Lucis's crystal before the affair escalates into a global war.

Noctis and his three friends—his royal advisor Ignis, his bodyguard Gladiolus and his childhood friend Prompto—set out on a road trip across the continent toward Altissia to meet a woman named Luna.

Music
The music is composed by Yoko Shimomura, who was also responsible for the soundtracks of the Kingdom Hearts series, Super Mario RPG, and the first Parasite Eve. She was also one of the composers for the critically-acclaimed Xenoblade Chronicles.

The game's theme song, performed by Aundréa L. Hopkins, is titled "Somnus - Sleeping" (「somnus - 眠り -」), refers to the. The god is often depicted as a young man sleeping, which matches the game's logo art.

"Omnis Lacrima" is the second released track from the game. On May 26th, 2014 it was released as a bonus track from Yoko Shimomura's compilation album, memoria: The Very Best of Yoko Shimomura. "Omnis Lacrima" is Latin for "all the tears." Before its release, it was used as the music in three trailers for the game: the 2008 DKS3713 trailer, the 2011 Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier trailer, and the E3 2013 gameplay trailer.

A new track that was used in the Tokyo Game Show 2014 trailer was the collaboration between composer Yoko Shimomura and Video Game Orchestra, a well-known orchestra that had collaborated with composer Masashi Hamauzu for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

2006-2009
Unveiled at E3 2006, Final Fantasy Versus XIII was said to be "not merely a sequel, but a wholly independent story unfolding in a different world with different characters." The game was going to be developed by the team responsible for the hit Kingdom Hearts series. Tetsuya Nomura would be the director and character designer, but not costume designer, as Square Enix signed a contract with Japanese fashion brand Roen to promote their clothing designs in the game through different characters, and thus Roen Creative Director Himuro Takahara serves as the game's costume designer.

In E3 2013 it was revealed Square Enix was thinking Final Fantasy Versus XIII could be made into Final Fantasy XV much earlier in the game's production than what was revealed to the public. Within the company, about one to two years after Versus XIII was announced, discussions were had on its scale and concept and the talks went on for several years.

2009
After nearly a year of silence, Final Fantasy Versus XIII was briefly shown at Tokyo Game Show 2009 in a private theater showcasing the game's first gameplay footage, though Nomura commented it was merely a demo and most footage would not be used in the final game. He said the clip was made to prove the game was still in development.

At Jump Festa 2010 Noctis's new outfit was put on display. It had a more modern look with a jacket and pants, as opposed to his old outfit from past trailers.

2010
During an interview with Famitsu, Nomura stated he was unsure whether Versus would be shown at E3 2010. When E3 took place, the game was not shown.

On May 18, when asked by a Square Enix investor at a shareholders' meeting about a possible Xbox 360 port, president Yoichi Wada stated "We'll be looking into it internally until right before the formal announcement." After some backlash, he later clarified his original statement by saying on Twitter "It looks like the [inter]net is heating up. Versus on Xbox? What I said at the earnings press conference was just that until a formal announcement is made at the announcement time; all points about all titles are not finalized."

On June 23, new in-game screenshots and details about Final Fantasy Versus XIII were revealed, and it was confirmed the game would appear at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show.

On June 29, an issue of Dengeki PlayStation stated Nomura and the fashion company Roen had completed all character designs and the scenario was finished as well.

On August 9, Nomura announced via Twitter that voice casting for Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII had begun along with other bits of news.

On August 25, Yoshinori Kitase announced, during an interview with GamingUnion.net, that Final Fantasy Versus XIII "may not be released until after 2011".

During the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix confirmed they planned to present Final Fantasy Versus XIII in their January 2011 conference, which was part of their Fabula Nova Crystallis conference.

On September 17, the 30-second trailer for the game had been leaked onto the Internet along with that for Final Fantasy Type-0. The footage contained Noctis in his new outfit briefly running through the areas shown in previously released screenshots. The trailer ended with Noctis fighting a Behemoth and there were instances of blood shown whenever Noctis slashed at it. On October 8, the combined Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer from Tokyo Game Show was officially released on the Internet through the Japanese Square Enix Members website.

2011
On January 18, 2011, Square Enix held the 1st Production Department Premier. It was originally named the Fabula Nova Crystallis Conference and the original date was set on January 11. The event included new trailers and the announcement of official release dates. Fans got to hear Noctis speak for the first time, along with the other characters. Besides Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the event featured new video content of Final Fantasy Type-0, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix, and other titles. Square Enix hinted at several new titles to be revealed at this event, such as Final Fantasy XIII-2.

On July 2011, in an interview with Tetsuya Nomura, it was revealed that Final Fantasy Versus XIII hadn't yet entered full production. He went on to say the date for the next showing of the game had been set.

In early August for the 500th issue of Dengeki PlayStation magazine, Nomura stated Final Fantasy Versus XIII would not be shown at Tokyo Game Show 2011 in September.

On August 31, 2011, a renewal for the trademark of Final Fantasy Versus XIII was filed by Square Enix.

On September 10, 2011 during the Final Fantasy XIII-2 fan meeting, producer Yoshinori Kitase was questioned about the development of Final Fantasy Type-0 and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. His answer was: "for Type-0 and Versus XIII we are giving 100% to development."

In 2011, developers began to hear about next-generation consoles, and the team decided to make Final Fantasy Versus XIII into Final Fantasy XV, but this was not public knowledge yet. While the game was rebranded, the ideas of having a different story from previous Final Fantasy games and an action-based battle system did not change. Nomura had to confirm this during talks of the game being rebranded as the next numbered Final Fantasy, but after being told it wouldn't be a problem, the project went ahead.

2012
On the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, Nomura announced the game will be a mix between real-time cutscenes and pre-rendered cutscenes with a ratio of 7:3 (70% real-time and 30% pre-rendered). He stated the next time the game will be shown there would be a demonstration using real time footage. Nomura said working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII takes priority, in response to fans' requests for a Final Fantasy VII remake.

On July 24th, 2012, the then Square Enix president Yoichi Wada posted a tweet dismissing rumors that arose about the game being cancelled after a long period of media silence, also hinting its progress would surprise its fans, particularly in the game's city environments.

On September 1st, 2012, in the event of Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary, Tetsuya Nomura did a sketch of Noctis for the event. "Congratulations on the 25th anniversary. Please wait for his turn to appear".

On October 10th, 2012, Nomura said that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is still in development and asked fans to wait for more detailed news regarding the game.

In 2012 it was decided development would shift to next-generation consoles, and the name was officially changed into Final Fantasy XV within the company, although the public revelation of the re-branding would wait until E3 2013. In July 2012, around the time of the cancellation rumors, Wada ordered the Final Fantasy Type-0 team to join the Final Fantasy XV development with a mission to create a prototype for the next-gen consoles.

In December 2012 Hajime Tabata became co-director to finish the project, which would eventually have him transition as the new director. At the time Tabata joined there was a lot of discussion and hard looking at the project, what the team had planned and what they had made, and a lot of time was spent thinking about how to change the team structure. The game's development was re-examined between the gameplay team, the CG team, and the game engine team and Tabata decided to merge them.

Tabata has said that with the change of name and platform and thus the game engine and him taking the reins it would no longer be "the exact same game" as some things had to re-evaluated to fit the change of circumstances. But he assured the game did not lose its core and he had sat down with Tetsuya Nomura about the direction of the title to ensure that characters, like Noctis, would be maintained in the best possible way.

2013
On February 21st, 2013, GameSpot reported that Shuhei Yoshida, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, said about Final Fantasy Versus XIII that "I have some knowledge, but I'm not in a position to talk about it".

On March 19th, 2013, VG Leaks reported that not only has production been halted because of the failure and subsequent rebuilding of Final Fantasy XIV, but that it has been moved to the PlayStation 4 and was being co-developed by Sony as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, and was reworked into Final Fantasy XV. Square Enix refused to comment on the rumor.

On April 17th, 2013, during the inaugural episode of Square Enix Merchandise Radio, Tetsuya Nomura spoke briefly about the game: "It's a delicate situation within the company. The date for our next reveal is set and we are working toward preparing information for that. Perhaps the details as to why information couldn't be released might be touched upon with the next information announcement".

During this time Nomura briefly envisioned making Final Fantasy XV into a musical after watching the 2012 film version of Les Miserables. He charged into the Square offices the next morning intent on transforming Final Fantasy XV but Square Enix convinced him to continue on the game's current trajectory.

During Sony's press conference at E3 on June 10, 2013, a prerecorded video of Tetsuya Nomura was played. In the video, Nomura acknowledged that not much information on the project had been released as of late, and that while he couldn't immediately share new details himself, new information on the game would be revealed in the coming days. Following the message, a new trailer for the game was shown, with the end of the trailer announcing the game has been renamed Final Fantasy XV, with development moved to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Square Enix's Final Fantasy brand director Shinji Hashimoto wouldn't comment on how close to completion Final Fantasy XV was. The game shown at E3 was running on a prototype environment (Ebony), rather than the actual environment (Luminous Engine). , and the footage shown was the "prototype" company president Yoichi Wada had tasked Hajime Tabata's team with.

2014
In February Yoshinori Kitase commented that the game was "quite far in development" and that the game was given a high priority within Square Enix. Final Fantasy XV was not shown at E3 2014, but producer Shinji Hashimoto promised new information would be revealed some time after the event.

In August co-director Hajime Tabata assured development on Final Fantasy XV was Square's top priority, unhindered by the announcement of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD during the E3. When new release info on Final Fantasy Type-0 HD arose during Tokyo Game Show, it was revealed every copy would include a voucher for a playable Final Fantasy XV demo. A new trailer was released on September 17th, showcasing the setting, the party and their car, battles, and a new character, Luna, and unlike the E3 2013 showing, the game was running on Luminous Engine. During Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced Hajime Tabata had taken over directing the game with Nomura focusing on Kingdom Hearts III. Nomura later told Famitsu it had been Square Enix's decision to remove him from the Final Fantasy XV project.

Final Fantasy XV returning to media focus was met with enthusiasm and Tabata showcased a gameplay demonstration showing different weather effects and elaborating on the game's battle system and day and night cycles. In his numerous interviews Hajime Tabata mentioned the game was 50-60% done, with the team working on it from the beginning to the end, meaning the beginning portions were more complete than others. He said the release date was still a way off, and lamented on the "Versus era" when the team was not able to reveal any information on release timing because the project had to overcome many problems. In around 2012 when Tabata officially joined the project the team did a major directional change in deciding to abandon the previous generation, and Tabata hoped people would "reset their timers" from when he joined the team, restarting the count from there. He also mentioned the fundamental parts of the game's systems are implemented, and did not expect there to be too long a wait after the demo is out. The development team was revealed to be around 200 to 300 of staff as Tabata doesn't want a 1000-plus team like for big western releases, as he'd rather have a team with people who can make the most of their individual potential.

On 2nd October Square Enix broadcast a livestream showing the game being played, and Tabata elaborated on its progress and gameplay details. He said the team was in the process of migrating functions from the prototype environment into the actual game environment (Luminous), but it would take time to complete. Despite this, Tabata had wanted to show footage in the actual environment and thus something unfinished was shown, with Tabata stressing it was primitive to what the final game would be like. Based on fan reactions to the Tokyo Game Show footage, the goal was to shed light on the concerns that had arisen with Tabata receiving daily reports from development staff about what people had been discussing on the Internet. Tabata said he'd like to release development information again in another live broadcast on November 1st, and include information from others in the development team than just himself. Tabata confirmed Final Fantasy XV had entered the phase where the team was mass producing resource material, and after that it would be a fight against the amount of resource material and time. It was said Square Enix hiring to help make the game. On a lighter note, Tabata mentioned he found the image macros fans had been compiling of Noctis and the party in the car looking out with different backgrounds photoshopped in hilarious, and provided official assets for people to use as a template.

On 1st November lead programmer Takeshi Aramaki and movie director Takeshi Nozue livestreamed from Paris Games Week with new footage on the party traversing the map with enemies and events removed, and a tech demo showing off different environmental effects. The game's transfer from its previous Ebony Engine to its current Luminous Engine was said to be 80% complete with Aramaki noting the engine has surpassed even Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Next livestream was scheduled for Jump Festa in December.

A part of the reason the team scheduled so many press meetings and gave up so much new information on a half-finished game was because the team was well aware there were many fans who had been following the game since beginning eager for news, and the more open atmosphere with giving new information was set up as a way of "apology" and to quell fans' worries on the game's development.

On 20th December Final Fantasy XV featured prominently at the Jump Festa 2015 convention with a new trailer and new information on summons and the world. The trailer was made by the Square Enix marketing department rather than by the development staff, and thus the omission of some of the material the staff had requested to be in the trailer caused unhappiness among the team, but some of the cut footage was shown separately.

2015
At Taipei Game Show at the beginning of February Hajime Tabata announced Taiwanese publisher and developer XPEC Entertainment as one of many outside firms pitching in to help develop Final Fantasy XV. An extended version of the snowy train scene from the Jump Festa trailer was shown, as well as a newly revealed area still in-development: a big city train station. The footage was given in a "cat cam" format, following the eye-view of a cat, XPEC's take on Square Enix's "dog cam" shown at Jump Festa when exploring Lestallum.

On 20th February director Hajime Tabata streamed himself playing the Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae demo over YouTube, introducing the battle system.

Development to different gaming platforms
At E3 2013 it was said that until a year before, the developers were making the game for then current-generation consoles as well, but this was abandoned when it became clear next-generation consoles would have superior quality. Tetsuya Nomura commented that the way of developing games in general has changed and that before, when going multi-platform, a game would be fit to one console's specifications and would be evened out to other consoles, but Nomura said he didn't want to make a game that compromises quality. Using a different development method, Nomura chose not to look at consumer consoles to meet their specifications.

The shift in platform had several reasons. The lifespan of the current generation of consoles was starting to pose a problem, as if Square Enix was a year late entering the next generation, other companies would have had more time to research developing for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and releasing the game against their products on the older generation could have caused Square to look inferior. Nomura also thought they had hit the wall with the power offered by PlayStation 3 due to limitations of having a seamless world and simultaneously having all required actions always available in the memory; world map sized maps that can have elements change and be destroyed during battles, the myriad of weapons, party members' individual actions, magic spells, monsters on a large map, light sourcing, physics, filters and other graphical elements; and that to fully realize his vision they would need to shift the project to the next generation of consoles.

Square Enix is developing Final Fantasy XV on DirectX 11, which is not based on either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, letting the team develop full-spec without worrying about individual platforms, then port it to each console in the most appropriate way. The original Final Fantasy XV runs on a high-spec PC, and how close a console gets to the original depends on its specs. Nomura has explained the idea is to keep the options open in case a console comes out in the future that can recreate the original. It is the opposite approach from Square Enix's previous 'multiplatform' projects, which were based on the specs of a single console and then ported to other platforms. Nomura even mentioned the possibility of bringing Final Fantasy XV out on high-end PCs if there was ever enough demand.

Hajime Tabata works both as director of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and director for Final Fantasy XV. The decision to release the former for PlayStation 4 and XBox One was in part because Square wants to push the install-base for the consoles to ensure the success of Final Fantasy XV in turn, in Japan as well as overseas.

Gameplay
The game takes place in a seamless open world. Though the player is free to explore, the game was designed around clear objectives so players would not wander into the world haphazardly. The game is balanced to ideally satisfy fans who like traditional Final Fantasy storytelling for a feel of following an epic story.

When making the transition from a Nomura-led project to a Tabata-led one, the two directors discussed the game with Tabata feeling it should shift to be more realistic. "For example, when you're battling a really strong boss like a behemoth, if you go at it from just the front you're going to get hit with his counter-attacks. You have to think about baiting it to attack forward, but then break its stance and attack it from the side. I wanted to make it so you're fighting a real animal, but with easy-to-manipulate controls as well as dramatic effects. My basis was to keep it grounded in reality."

Tabata wanted to make the game accessible for a broad audience, so both casual and hardcore gamers would find something to enjoy. For example, the party's car can be set to autopilot, or it can be driven manually. The idea of streamlining was used when designing the combat system, made into "a one-button action" with the AI intuitively outputting an action that gives instant player gratification. The idea was not to design a game that requires frantic button pushing, but that still has depth. Despite striving for a game "anyone can immediately be able to play", the game as a whole is said not to be casual, even if it has basic controls.

Previously it had been said players would be able to switch characters on the fly, allowing the opportunity to create multi-character combos, but although it was shown in the E3 2013 trailer, in its current specifications Final Fantasy XV does not allow the player to switch the playable character, allowing direct control of only Noctis. The development team looked into an "Active Cross Battle system" that made free use of attack, guard, and co-op functions, but as a result concluded that changing characters would be too difficult. Early footage showed a third person aiming mode for firearms, exclusive to Prompto, and the player being able to control mechanic structures, such as tanks or robots. The old footage depicted a menu titled "EX Arts," but it has been absent since the 2013 gameplay demonstrations.

Originally it had been planned only Noctis would use magic in battle as per game lore but it was changed so all party members could wield it to make the battles more fun. In Jump Festa 2015 it was mentioned the magic system has a prototype as the battle system exists, but its polishing had been delegated to the later stages of development.

The 3rd Birthday, a PlayStation Portable action game also directed by Hajime Tabata, has an Overdrive function where the player could switch position quickly with another character. Tabata drew on that idea for Final Fantasy XV and it can be utilized strategically. He also drew ideas from The 3rd Birthday for the cover system.

Visuals and Art Direction
In July 2012, Final Fantasy Versus XIII was cancelled and reshaped into Final Fantasy XV. Hajime Tabata was placed in charge of the game and event director Hiroki Chiba was brought in to help Jun Akiyama remake the event scenes in Luminous Studio. Due to the game being remade in this new engine, all of Akiyama's event scenes using Crystal Tools when the game was called Final Fantasy Versus XIII were scrapped. Akiyama has since left the project, with Chiba taking over as the event director.

Final Fantasy XV uses Square Enix's Luminous Studio game engine. There are about 5,000,000 polygons per frame with 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, roughly 10-12 times greater than what was seen previous generation. About 150 bones are for the face, 300 for hair and clothes, and 150 for the body. There is a bone-based physical simulation technology applied so that clothing reacts to the body's movements.

The capacity of just one character's textures is about 30 megabytes. The team are using 2048×2048 texels and 4096×4096 texels for HD textures. The game’s resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels (1080p), with a target of 30fps frame rate.

The modernistic art direction for Final Fantasy XV derives inspiration from real world locations, as opposed to the more fantasy-futuristic feel of Final Fantasy XIII. The cars driven in the game resemble modern cars rather than the various fantasy vehicles utilized in Final Fantasy XIII and the main characters' clothes are designed by the clothing brand Roen rather than being designed by Nomura. In its strive for a more corporeal-looking world, the style is somewhat reminiscent of Final Fantasy VIII, although darker and more monochromatic. While the beginning of the game takes place in a more contemporary setting, as the story progresses the player will find various fantasy environments and atmospheres similar to what past titles like Final Fantasy VII did.

With the improved processing power of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the need for prerendered cutscenes is diminished and thus Final Fantasy XV is set to have fewer prerendered cutscenes than many of its main series predecessors. Former director Tetsuya Nomura has commented that even in considerably dynamic scenes, the player will be in control of their character, and cited the scene where Leviathan is rioting through the city as an example.

One of the concepts of the game's graphic design is to keep the original monster designs by Yoshitaka Amano from the previous titles and to adapt them in a realistic way. However, director Hajime Tabata has mentioned that in creating a new game, throwing in familiar elements just to please the fans gives an impression of shallowness. Thus, Tabata thinks carefully how Final Fantasy icons apply to the setting and ensures they are included there because they are necessary.

Story
The theme of the story is said to be "a road trip" and adventure focusing on brotherhood. Though Noctis is the main character, the party itself, that includes Noctis's friends, could be treated as main characters in all scenes of the game.

Tetsuya Nomura said that because he designed his game to have a modern setting and a story focused on human drama, he chose not to use the names in the mythos, such as "l'Cie", instead using the concepts behind the terms and not directly referring to the mythos as Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Type-0 did.

Game World
The world continuously changes as time passes affecting player experience while journeying through it with day and night cycles occuring naturally. Weather affects the characters' appearance on the field; in wet weather, the party's hair and clothes get a subtle damp look. The game world is seamless with intention of making players feel all locations are connected. The locations are meant to have an air of verisimilitude.

Tabata has explained that in the most classic Final Fantasy titles dungeons were scary, chaotic and uncontrollable with an air of "strangeness" where something that shouldn't necessarily be there would be found, and wanted to replicate this feeling of "the non-normal" with Final Fantasy XV dungeons.

Localization
Square Enix is aiming for a multi-regional game, but the details on this are still uncertain as for the full game there's the issue of size and if it can contain everything (Japanese and English voices and all the language subtitles), or if there will be region-specific versions.

The first titbit on Final Fantasy XV localization came on June 15 2013, days after the game was revealed at E3, when Jay Preston, a relatively unknown actor, announced he has received an unspecified part in the localization of Final Fantasy XV, suggesting the localization for the game was further along than previously thought. In February 2014 further details on the English voice acting surfaced, with voice actress Katy Townsend having listed "various" roles in the game as part of her resume. Townsend's resume lists Chris Borders as voice casting director, which indicates the game's voice work will be performed by world leading voice over production company TikiMan Productions, of which Borders is CEO. Soon after the news broke David Yang, Senior PR Manager Square Enix, has confirmed English voice casting has yet to begin for Final Fantasy XV. In a later update, Yang stated that voice acting for the final game had yet to begin in all languages. On December 15, 2014, the TGS 2014 trailer with English voice over was released.

In 2014 the English version of the Tokyo Game Show trailer was the first time fans could hear the English voice actors for the cast.

Themes
Final Fantasy XV was announced in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The "Versus XIII" name comes into play in juxtaposition to Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels that take place in fantastical worlds that are literally and culturally disconnected (Cocoon and Gran Pulse in Final Fantasy XIII; the different eras and timelines in Final Fantasy XIII-2; and Nova Chrysalia and the new world in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.). For "Versus XIII" Square wanted the world to be different from the original Final Fantasy XIII by presenting one whole, connected world.

Sequels
During E3 2013 it was talked how Final Fantasy XV would likely have sequels.

However, in a later interview at Japan Expo 2013 Nomura was more cautious when talking of sequels.

Demos
A live demo called Final Fantasy XV: The Overture was featured during the Tokyo Game Show 2014.

A demo of Final Fantasy XV will come bundled as a downloadable code for players who purchased Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. The demo is known as Final Fantasy XV: Episode Duscae, named after a location from the game, which will show off the early stages of the game. The demo will be available for a limited time, offered with the first print editions of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. The demo will be available on the day Type-0 HD releases in all regions, and will have dual audio and various language options.

Square Enix is planning a free demo set in the same location as "The Overture" tech demo, and they are creating an extended version of it. However, the plans aren't yet finalized.

Trivia

 * The game is said to have many small details, such as Noctis drinking his coffee "properly" because he is a prince, compared to the way his companions do it.