Final Fantasy XV-Official Thread.

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Finally decided to cave in and buy FFXV because waiting till mid-late 2017 is hard, but waiting till 2018 is torture (even if it's a rumor).

 

Gotta say, the world is beautiful. I am greatly disappointed however by the lack of detail in characters outside of cutscenes - I guess it is to be expected, considering other representations (TGS 2014, GDC(I think?)) had much greater quality.

[The 13th Kenpachi 4,279]

Finally decided to cave in and buy FFXV because waiting till mid-late 2017 is hard, but waiting till 2018 is torture (even if it's a rumor).

 

Gotta say, the world is beautiful. I am greatly disappointed however by the lack of detail in characters outside of cutscenes - I guess it is to be expected, considering other representations (TGS 2014, GDC(I think?)) had much greater quality.

This is a common complaint and I agree. So much content was cut to meet fan's expectations of the release year. The game was only in development for 3 years realistically.

[Emrys 3,192]

*family is visiting for Christmas. I'm playing FFXV

Mom : why is he only wearing 1 glove?

New: idk. His style I suppose

Mom: he thinks he's hot shit

Me: he IS a prince

Mom: is that his kingdom?

Me: no this place is just a town. * pulls up map. His royal city is right here. Crown city of Insomnia

Mom: INSOMNIA? Omg I love that. Is it a city that never sleeps?

Me: well it used to be

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Now that my skipping audio is fixed I'm going to actually progress in the story. Gotta say, Galdin Quay especially at nighttime is absolutely stunning.

[KHLegendIII 709]

Posted at the release of Final Fantasy XV, Roberto Ferrari, Italian artist and one of the character designers for the game, spoke out on his Facebook about his designs from in the game. Despite this post being almost a month old, it seems that it went unnoticed by the majority of the Internet until today.

In this post, he describes changes made to his original designs for many of the characters and briefly describes the development of Final Fantasy XV from his experience. Thanks to the user Philippo over on NeoGAF for the translations.

Aranea

 

She hasn’t changed at all, I only had to change the spear because it lacked scenic impact […] I drew a quick draft of Biggs and Wedge, but my prototypes weren’t taken into consideration and ended up being two “mannequins” in a suit. She initially was supposed to always be accompanied by those two. Her original was that of a member of a squadron that had specific attack patterns based on jumps.

 

Gentiana

 

Compared to my original concept, they changed Gentiana’s clothes for script reasons. Still, the new dress kept much from the two versions I drew (a formal outfit and a party dress). The face remained unchanged. She also originally had red-framed glasses. […] She originally had a white armor on the arm and a heavy sword at her side. Gentiana’s original role was that of Stella’s messenger, and a contact point between the countries of Tenebrae and Niflheim.

 

Ardyn

 

I gave birth to Ardyn in December 2010, before Kingsglaive was even in the works. The game’s version is closer to my concept.

 

Umbra

 

There were characters that I liked more but got removed from the story: they were closer to ninjas and very similar to those who appear in Kingsglaive but more Japanese. […] This stays between us, but Umbra the dog was supposed to turn into one of those.

 

Development

 

I wasn’t part of the 2010 group from XIII that “would have scratched their bellies” (and then turned into the XV one), I came into May 2010. I know I was called in when a (female) designer resigned since she wasn’t able to get any kind of approval from the art director. Then from 2010 till the end of 2011 I worked on the designs I got assigned with, without any big issues. That’s why when the team got resized from 200 workers to around 20 in 2012 (right before the arrival of Tabata and the Type-0 team), I was still there and worked with the newcomers till 2013. Then I left because I followed mister Nomura.
I had no story planned for Gentiana, but I can confirm you that the writers changed the script I received in 2011.

[…] I stand behind what Sakaguchi said about big budget games development: it’s not worth it anymore. But they are also very disorganized. The staff -200 souls- had to work when the story still wasn’t completely defined. In fact, this story kept changing every 3 months and the definitive delivery date for the game was for the end of 2014 (who would have thought it would have been pushed back to November 2016?).

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake

 

I’m already working on other episodes but what I did for XV was a lot.
[…] Sadly there aren’t many new characters in VII Remake, I just reinterpreted the ones that already existed. I don’t have the freedom of choice I had with XV.

 

 

 

Source:

 

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2016/12/artist-roberto-ferrari-speaks-designs-final-fantasy-xv/

Edited December 24, 2016 by KHLegendIII

[The 13th Kenpachi 4,279]

Posted at the release of Final Fantasy XV, Roberto Ferrari, Italian artist and one of the character designers for the game, spoke out on his Facebook about his designs from in the game. Despite this post being almost a month old, it seems that it went unnoticed by the majority of the Internet until today.

In this post, he describes changes made to his original designs for many of the characters and briefly describes the development of Final Fantasy XV from his experience. Thanks to the user Philippo over on NeoGAF for the translations.

Aranea

 

 

She hasn’t changed at all, I only had to change the spear because it lacked scenic impact […] I drew a quick draft of Biggs and Wedge, but my prototypes weren’t taken into consideration and ended up being two “mannequins” in a suit. She initially was supposed to always be accompanied by those two. Her original was that of a member of a squadron that had specific attack patterns based on jumps.

 

 

Gentiana

 

 

Compared to my original concept, they changed Gentiana’s clothes for script reasons. Still, the new dress kept much from the two versions I drew (a formal outfit and a party dress). The face remained unchanged. She also originally had red-framed glasses. […] She originally had a white armor on the arm and a heavy sword at her side. Gentiana’s original role was that of Stella’s messenger, and a contact point between the countries of Tenebrae and Niflheim.

 

 

Ardyn

 

 

I gave birth to Ardyn in December 2010, before Kingsglaive was even in the works. The game’s version is closer to my concept.

 

 

Umbra

 

 

There were characters that I liked more but got removed from the story: they were closer to ninjas and very similar to those who appear in Kingsglaive but more Japanese. […] This stays between us, but Umbra the dog was supposed to turn into one of those.

 

 

Development

 

 

I wasn’t part of the 2010 group from XIII that “would have scratched their bellies” (and then turned into the XV one), I came into May 2010. I know I was called in when a (female) designer resigned since she wasn’t able to get any kind of approval from the art director. Then from 2010 till the end of 2011 I worked on the designs I got assigned with, without any big issues. That’s why when the team got resized from 200 workers to around 20 in 2012 (right before the arrival of Tabata and the Type-0 team), I was still there and worked with the newcomers till 2013. Then I left because I followed mister Nomura.

I had no story planned for Gentiana, but I can confirm you that the writers changed the script I received in 2011.

[…] I stand behind what Sakaguchi said about big budget games development: it’s not worth it anymore. But they are also very disorganized. The staff -200 souls- had to work when the story still wasn’t completely defined. In fact, this story kept changing every 3 months and the definitive delivery date for the game was for the end of 2014 (who would have thought it would have been pushed back to November 2016?).

 

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake

 

 

I’m already working on other episodes but what I did for XV was a lot.

[…] Sadly there aren’t many new characters in VII Remake, I just reinterpreted the ones that already existed. I don’t have the freedom of choice I had with XV.

 

 

 

 

Source:

 

http://www.novacrystallis.com/2016/12/artist-roberto-ferrari-speaks-designs-final-fantasy-xv/

There aren't that many new characters in the remake. Hmm

Edited December 24, 2016 by Barry Bacon Allen

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

There's something I don't understand...Ferrari says that the game was originally supposed to be released in 2014. That means they must've had a significant amount of assets done by 2013, right? So when they showed gameplay footage at E3 2013, it must've been real footage, right? Yet people keep saying it was all pre-rendered footage. And why would they even release a gameplay trailer at E3 2013 if the whole thing was pre-rendered? Even Tabata said that what was shown in the 2013 trailer was possible, it's just that it was running on another engine. So what's the truth, was the 2013 trailer the real game running on another engine or was it fully pre-rendered and Square pretended it wasn't?

[Dio Brando 5,810]

There aren't that many new characters in the remake. Hmm

Honestly no new characters are that much needed cuz this is a remake not a reboot

There's something I don't understand...Ferrari says that the game was originally supposed to be released in 2014. That means they must've had a significant amount of assets done by 2013, right? So when they showed gameplay footage at E3 2013, it must've been real footage, right? Yet people keep saying it was all pre-rendered footage. And why would they even release a gameplay trailer at E3 2013 if the whole thing was pre-rendered? Even Tabata said that what was shown in the 2013 trailer was possible, it's just that it was running on another engine. So what's the truth, was the 2013 trailer the real game running on another engine or was it fully pre-rendered and Square pretended it wasn't?

To build hype

 

Pre rended footage are done as proof-of-concept trailers that are made for the purpose of generating hype

 

The triple A industry does this all the time 

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

Honestly no new characters are that much needed cuz this is a remake not a reboot

To build hype

 

Pre rended footage are done as proof-of-concept trailers that are made for the purpose of generating hype

 

The triple A industry does this all the time 

I see...I still don't get why they pretended it was real though. For KH3, they clearly said everything in the trailer was pre-rendered. Why didn't they do the same for FFXV? I mean even a year later they were still pretending it was real gameplay. Kinda lame. Sorry, lots of questions I know...

Edited December 24, 2016 by PrinceNoctis

[Isamu Kuno 2,512]

Honestly no new characters are that much needed cuz this is a remake not a reboot

To build hype

 

Pre rended footage are done as proof-of-concept trailers that are made for the purpose of generating hype

 

The triple A industry does this all the time

 

Ah, but he says "not that many new characters" not "no new characters" so there may be a few new side characters.

[Setrex 1,031]

These comments from Ferrari suggest that the entire development of Versus XIII / XV was an absolute shambles. Whether that's Nomura's, Tabata's or Square Enix's fault we'll never know, but I'd put money on it being the latter's.

 

 

There's something I don't understand...Ferrari says that the game was originally supposed to be released in 2014. That means they must've had a significant amount of assets done by 2013, right? So when they showed gameplay footage at E3 2013, it must've been real footage, right? Yet people keep saying it was all pre-rendered footage. And why would they even release a gameplay trailer at E3 2013 if the whole thing was pre-rendered? Even Tabata said that what was shown in the 2013 trailer was possible, it's just that it was running on another engine. So what's the truth, was the 2013 trailer the real game running on another engine or was it fully pre-rendered and Square pretended it wasn't?

To be honest, it's entirely possible that the E3 2013 was how the game was supposed to be all along before Tabata took over. It's possible that Tabata didn't like the gameplay or combat. Tabata even said himself that he preferred simple combat as he was getting older (I'm paraphrasing here but still). That's what makes me believe the E3 2013 trailer wasn't pre-rendered and the gameplay system was simply over-hauled in favour of what we got.

[NemesisSP 160]

The game was not pre-rendered in that trailer. Nomura has always been very upfront when a game was being played on an actual system. The TGS 2011 trailer he stated was the game running not on a PS3 but on a computer. The game went into full development around that time and the story had been finalized. It was around 2012 that the game was changed to XV, but since Nomura was still on board as director the story had not changed. He even said so himself in an interview after the rereveal.

 

An interesting thing concerning an interview was Tabata was that the game was 50 percent done at the time he took over but that "you should consider the development reset now that I'm director". An interestING way to phrase it.

[Dio Brando 5,810]

I see...I still don't get why they pretended it was real though. For KH3, they clearly said everything in the trailer was pre-rendered. Why didn't they do the same for FFXV? I mean even a year later they were still pretending it was real gameplay. Kinda lame. Sorry, lots of questions I know...

It's a marketing ploy,if the audience believed that what they saw was geniune game footage the hype will start.Theory videos will pop up,analysis videos of said footage will be plentiful thus spreading hype through word of mouth and media outlets covering each and every possible news on the game.

 

Rarely will they ever outright say that the footage was from an early build unless it's absolutely necessary to avoid media backlash when the differences between the early build and final game show up

 

in XV's case it was because the game was constantly changing heck even the episode duscae demo differs greatly from the final release.The game's development cycle was a mess pre-2014 so a LOT of things needed to change even if the previous built at some point was considered a possible final one

[KHLegendIII 709]

There is something I forgot to put up on this thread, something that talks about cut content.:

 

[NemesisSP 160]

It's a marketing ploy,if the audience believed that what they saw was geniune game footage the hype will start.Theory videos will pop up,analysis videos of said footage will be plentiful thus spreading hype through word of mouth and media outlets covering each and every possible news on the game.

 

Rarely will they ever outright say that the footage was from an early build unless it's absolutely necessary to avoid media backlash when the differences between the early build and final game show up

 

in XV's case it was because the game was constantly changing heck even the episode duscae demo differs greatly from the final release.The game's development cycle was a mess pre-2014 so a LOT of things needed to change even if the previous built at some point was considered a possible final one

However, this is all speculation. After all, we only have Hajime Tabata's word on several things and he's been known to change his mind and admitted to lack of sleep.

 

It doesn't mean what we saw before was finished or not. We can speculate that the E3 trailer was prerendered, but it could be that it really was actually running on an early PS4 build.

[Dio Brando 5,810]

However, this is all speculation. After all, we only have Hajime Tabata's word on several things and he's been known to change his mind and admitted to lack of sleep.

 

It doesn't mean what we saw before was finished or not. We can speculate that the E3 trailer was prerendered, but it could be that it really was actually running on an early PS4 build.

Well not all of what I said it's confirmed but it's based on information we got over the years and comparisons between all the builds

 

Although whether or not it was running on a Ps4 early hardware and not an actual PC back when the first trailer was shown is unknown

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

Hmm, well this is interesting! This is just a small taste of how development for a game can drastically change up from one year to another! It seems that Nomura's original vision for XV didn't quite make the cut, since there were so many story re-writes! Still, I found the game to be amazing, but I'm curious as to how the game would have been had Nomura stayed as director, ya know?

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Hmm, well this is interesting! This is just a small taste of how development for a game can drastically change up from one year to another! It seems that Nomura's original vision for XV didn't quite make the cut, since there were so many story re-writes! Still, I found the game to be amazing, but I'm curious as to how the game would have been had Nomura stayed as director, ya know?

If Nomura stayed director, this game would have never been finished. Nomura works too hard and wants to focus on KH anyway.

 

There is something I forgot to put up on this thread, something that talks about cut content.:

 

I believe everything I've seen so far, and I will continue after I've beat FFXV tomorrow. Luna was way less fleshed out than she should've been. Content was cut, point blank. The whole of those two damn Dawn trailers never showed up in the game. Ravus showed up five times in the game, and in all his cutscenes was seen for less than three minutes with barely 50 seconds of speaking time. Ardyn had twisted motivations which still weren't clarified, Ieodolus wasn't even in the damn game properly, almost anyone of importance died offscreen, and most of the lore was explained the chapter before the game ended. The gods were gone, the near death experience crap was gone, the other three crystals are gone, scripted counters are gone, the afterworld is gone, half of Altissia's battle is gone, Insomnia is gone, everything is just gone! The gameplay was phenomenal, the *main characters were phenomenal, and overall I love it. If they could simply patch the game then that'd be amazing, but I'm 200% sure the game didn't have "technical issues" BD2 had to iron out before the game was released.

 

It was the story.

 

[NemesisSP 160]

If Nomura stayed director, this game would have never been finished. Nomura works too hard and wants to focus on KH anyway.

 

 

You're saying that as if it is a fact. But that's disregarding the reason for why FF Versus XIII was frequently delayed had less to do with Nomura and more of an extension of the issue concerning FFXIII's prolonged development. They had issues with the original engine, the Crystal Tools, that took years to fully iron out and some of the staff were pulled away from the development to finish XIII. After XIII was finished, work on Versus XIII had fully started.

 

Nomura wasn't to blame for the delays, believe it or not. Yes, he is hard working and he focuses on KH most, but remember that the game was never intended to be a main game until 2012, a year after the game had finally entered full development. Hajime Tabata was originally brought on as co-director only, so that Nomura could work on both KHIII and FFXV along Tai Yasue. Hajime Tabata is also not to blame (fully) for much of the changes if we're to believe that leak. It seems entirely likely that the new higher ups at Square Enix were to blame for the constant delays and changes.

 

Hmm, well this is interesting! This is just a small taste of how development for a game can drastically change up from one year to another! It seems that Nomura's original vision for XV didn't quite make the cut, since there were so many story re-writes! Still, I found the game to be amazing, but I'm curious as to how the game would have been had Nomura stayed as director, ya know?

 

It's less that it made the cut and more that Tabata just wanted a different game entirely, but was stuck with much of the pre-existing material.

[The 13th Kenpachi 4,279]

Is it really worth bickering about and playing the blame game? Let's just take it for what it is and look forward to 7 remake, 2.8, KH3 and FF16.

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

You're saying that as if it is a fact. But that's disregarding the reason for why FF Versus XIII was frequently delayed had less to do with Nomura and more of an extension of the issue concerning FFXIII's prolonged development. They had issues with the original engine, the Crystal Tools, that took years to fully iron out and some of the staff were pulled away from the development to finish XIII. After XIII was finished, work on Versus XIII had fully started.

 

Nomura wasn't to blame for the delays, believe it or not. Yes, he is hard working and he focuses on KH most, but remember that the game was never intended to be a main game until 2012, a year after the game had finally entered full development. Hajime Tabata was originally brought on as co-director only, so that Nomura could work on both KHIII and FFXV along Tai Yasue. Hajime Tabata is also not to blame (fully) for much of the changes if we're to believe that leak. It seems entirely likely that the new higher ups at Square Enix were to blame for the constant delays and changes.

 

 

It's less that it made the cut and more that Tabata just wanted a different game entirely, but was stuck with much of the pre-existing material.

I didn't say Nomura was to blame. I said he had way too much on his plate, and Vs. XIII wasn't even his priority; it was years of drawn out concepts. Crystal Tools was a good enough engine to make and finish almost every KH game, FFX-XIV, and the likes. It was stable. The Luminous Studio engine was being developed, and someone wanted to make Vs. XIII, the game which would become XV that had been announced but not developed, take full advantage of the new engine. Before Nomura left XV, he stated he was still in the process of porting assets into the new "Ebony" engine. Remember Agni's Philosophy? This was going on before the announcement of Vs. XIII's transition to XV.

 

Yet, Luminous was as much of a mess as XV's development. With Tabata on board, the game's engine was being enhanced, more stable, more graphically demanding... At the cost of hands-on XV development. Lies come out that content was cut because it would make the story complex; in actuality, Tabata and Nomura were tasked with creating both a game and it's beautiful engine simultaneously. A choice had to be made to either stabilize material for the future generations of FF considering that XV did well, or focus on XV with a hugely buggy and unstable platform (obviously seen in Episode Duscae). The former was chosen.

 

This isn't the days of Crystal Tools. BD2 had a lot on their hands, and frankly probably a bit more focus on graphical excellence than story enhancement. Crystal Tools was an engine created 15+ years ago, a tool that could provide framework but was definitely a bottleneck in some ways. I say it was inevitable that XV came out the way it did, and yet it's still an excellent and exciting game. Yet, it is unfortunate that so much content be cut, and it was obvious just looking back at even the most recent trailers. But having Nomura on the job with so much else he has to make would've created a worse game, if any.

 

This is only in part of the reason why FFXV couldn't reach its full potential. And FFXV, no matter the director, is still a team effort. I can't simply say that Tabata or Nomura were in the wrong, if I did. Crunch time was coming, and the pressures were extremely real. What they couldn't make into the game in time they had to put in the FFXV Universe. The game, however, needed only 25-30 hours to beat the main story. That isn't a case of "expanding over a variety of media", the technical issues were too much to bear in such a short time. Tenebrae is gone, the late game part is gone - so much was left incomplete. Just one of the reasons they had to be cut.

 

Some if not all of what I said may either be fact or may be complete bullshit that came out of my ass. But in knowing the hell that technical issues alone (let's not even begin with the flack that XV got for Cindy), these are the conclusions that, to me, seem very probable.

 

Is it really worth bickering about and playing the blame game? Let's just take it for what it is and look forward to 7 remake, 2.8, KH3 and FF16.

I hope it doesn't become an argument. Seeing another's perspective, to me, is a part of healthy discussion and disagreement about ideas. Gaining new knowledge isn't a bad thing. It's when people take it personal. Edited December 25, 2016 by Clouded Sun

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

If Nomura stayed director, this game would have never been finished. Nomura works too hard and wants to focus on KH anyway.

 

Ah, I see! Still, though, I wonder what XV would have turned out like had Nomura's vision for the story fully remained! It was supposed to be much darker, I heard! Still, I love XV to death, it's a beast of a game!

 

It's less that it made the cut and more that Tabata just wanted a different game entirely, but was stuck with much of the pre-existing material.

 

Ah, I see! So he wanted to make really big changes, eh? Interesting!

[Clouded Sun 1,232]

Ah, I see! Still, though, I wonder what XV would have turned out like had Nomura's vision for the story fully remained! It was supposed to be much darker, I heard! Still, I love XV to death, it's a beast of a game!

 

 

Ah, I see! So he wanted to make really big changes, eh? Interesting!

I really liked the Hamlet turn that Vs. XIII would've taken. I think I read somewhere that Nomura wasn't confident in romance, but the rest of the darker theme, like Shakespeare and starting at Insomnia and branching out to more wondrous places. I love the combat and comraderie that Tabata has created. If both were combined, and Luna were expanded and/or Stella's concept remained, or even if both coexisted, then I think this game would be perfect. Edited December 26, 2016 by Clouded Sun

[Dio Brando 5,810]

Chapter 13 of Final Fantasy XV.

 

 

 

Without spoiling much.firetruck this chapter,firetruck it to hell firetruck it to hades and firetruck it to all damnations

Ok I love Final Fantasy XV but this right here is the worst chapter in the game without a doubt and my biggest gripe with FFXV.

No it's not the hallways cuz storywise it makes sense.

 

IT'S THE MOTHER firetruckING GODDAMNED SHITSUCKING RING

Right at the beginning of the chapter they take all your weapons from you and leave you with the stupid ring of Lucis that does little to no damage and only activates the insta-death effect when it feels like it.Going through this chapter was a chore just for the ring alone and what I just described is exactly why I wanted to wait before finishing the rest of the game so it would be patched.

It's a stinking stain on what is actually a great game.How could this get past playtesting is beyond me.

 

But alas,I finally finished this godforsaken chapter and is heading towards the end of the game with chapter 14

 

Gonna post a review at some point when I'm done

 

 

[KHLegendIII 709]

I didn't like how long the chapter spanned out, at least it's getting patched along with story updates. One of the updates involves buffing the ring magic.

Edited December 26, 2016 by KHLegendIII