The long 10 year wait for Final Fantasy Versus XIII is nearly over as the game will be released on the 30th of September, retitled as Final Fantasy XV.
Kicking off the event, Hironobu Sakaguchi went on stage to welcome the crowd to the event. During his speech, he admits that he has doubts over the franchise direction as a whole. He expresses said doubts with the Director of Final Fantasy Hajime Tabata, and with that meeting, they’ve decided that they will be bringing Final Fantasy XV back to its challenger roots. Simply put, Final Fantasy may possibly be one of the more challenging Final Fantasy games in recent memory.
After the opening speech, Square Enix revealed a new trailer for Final Fantasy XV. Following the trailer, hosts Greg Miller and Tim Gettys come on stage to introduce the image illustrator Yoshitaka Amano. They’ve showcased a piece of artwork by Amano on stage called “Big Bang” which was then rendered in 3D by the animators in Square Enix. As for the scoring of Final Fantasy XV, Nobuo Uematsu revealed that he won’t be working on this installment of Final Fantasy. Instead, that honour would go to Yoko Shimamura, the person responsible for scoring Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts.
For gameplay, Square Enix has given us a more in depth look at both the combat and the travelling sections of Final Fantasy. First off, the travelling. In Final Fantasy XV, you will traverse the world on foot, on a Chocobo, or even in a car. Special mention must be made of the car as it features a radio that would playback music from old Final Fantasy games. As for combat, the combat system has been slightly tweaked to make it feel a little more like Kingdom Hearts (sorry fans, its not turn based). Enemy AI has also been improved upon, as they would now run away from battle if the odds are against them.
While Final Fantasy XV is still months away, Square Enix will begin building the lore for the game starting today. For that, Final Fantasy XV will be receiving an anime-miniseries and a feature-length 3D CGI film. The anime-miniseries is Final Fantasy XV Brotherhood, while the film is Final Fantasy Kingsglaive. Brotherhood will be 5 episode series that builds up the main character of the Final Fantasy XV game, of which the first episode will be available soon. As for Kingsglaive, this movie will build up the world of Final Fantasy XV and will feature voice work by Lena Headey, Sean Bean and Aaron Paul.
Consoles aren’t the only one getting the FFXV treatment of course as Square Enix revealed that the Justice Monsters Five minigame will be available for iOS, Android and Windows 10 soon as well.
A demo of the game will also be made available tonight. If you own a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox One, you will be able to download Final Fantasy XV Platinum Demo on the console’s respective online store later today for free.
While no prices were given for the game at the event, Square Enix did reveal that Final Fantasy XV will be getting a Deluxe Edition as well as an Collector’s Edition version. Both versions will be available for pre-order on 8pm Pacific Time (11am tomorrow local time).
