One week ahead of Square Enix’s March event, Director Hajime Tabata, has released a few more details regarding Final Fantasy XV.
During a NicoNico live stream event, the director was able to talk about his team’s progress on the game, while saving some surprises for March 31. The least important news being that players should level up their fire magic, because the incredibly annoying Cactuars will be making an appearance in the game. Airships will also be returning to the series with big updates. Tabata claims that even from early stages of development, the team knew “this is the kind of Airship that should be in Final Fantasy XV.“
The game has grown a lot since 2006, as the main scenario will take around 50 hours to complete. This being 10 hours longer than earlier reports. The phrase, “Main Scenario”, meaning just the tear jerking story, no side quests, mini-games or any other fun things in Final Fantasy. Tabata went on to state that the development team are currently in the balancing phase of the game, as they begin readying the game for retail.
This includes optimizing the frame rate to their intended 30fps, and vaguely claiming that “If they’re unable to fixate on the 30fps, they will do something different.” Tabata is keeping the game’s final resolution a secret until the Active Time Report in March, however, he mentioned that Square Enix is currently working with Sony to release a Final Fantasy XV PS4 bundle.
Despite the restrictions with which Tabata was able to talk, the most surprising detail was his conversation with Final Fantasy legend, Hironobu Sakaguchi. After the release of the Episode Duscae demo, Tabata received a phone call from the Director of Final Fantasy II, III, IV, V, VI and VII to discuss his experiences playing it. Once again remaining tight lipped out of respect, we can only assume it was good as Tabata didn’t burst into tears at the shame he brought to the franchise.
The only bad news for western gamers is that, while the Los Angeles event will feature a brand new trailer, it will only feature Japanese voices. However, an updated tech demo of the game will be making its debut at the event as well.
Final Fantasy XV will be releasing later this year for the PS4 ands Xbox One, but fans can look forward to Square’s Active Time Report on March 31.
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