Behind the Game Designs of Final Fantasy XV panel summarized

Final Fantasy XV headed to PAX this year under the banner of a panel titled “Behind the Game Designs of Final Fantasy XV” featuring game designers Wan Hazmer and Prasert Prasertvithyakarn. The pair are currently working on the game as lead designers in their respective areas – Hazmer on the Culture team, and Prasertvithyakarn, or “Sun” as he’s called, on the Buddy team in charge of character AI.

Director Tabata was unable to make an appearance himself, but he did provide a video message explaining he was away for his daughter’s graduation. Instead, Hazmer and Sun began the presentation with an overview on Final Fantasy XV.

As the next Final Fantasy tite, the goal is always there “to create the best Final Fantasy is the series” which includes retaining the charm of past works and moving it forward to a new experience. They’re calling this charm fantasy with believability. Final Fantasy XV is a game about a road trip with your best buddies in a fantastical yet believable world. Sun says that in FF your buddies typically follow alongside you.

Onto Episode Duscae, which is included with first print copies of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, the duo explained that Duscae is a region in the game with is home to a lot of natural landscape. The part in the demo is only a fraction of the Duscae region in the full game and that itself is just one tenth of the entire game world.

The story behind Duscae revolves around your car. It’s broken because of a certain blond party member and in order for the mechanic Cidney to repair it you’re going to have to collect a bunch of money. The demo’s main quest involves the hunting of a behemoth, which will grant you a decent sum of cash. Should you choose to go that route, you can track the behemoth through its tracks in the wilderness.

At night you’ll need to camp because… well, it’s dangerous and Ignis can cook food to supply your party with buffs along with auto-saving your progress in the game. The food in the demo is automatically chosen but in the final game you’ll be able to pick your own. Cooking buffs include:

  • Fresh – Slightly increases attack, defense, and EXP gained.
  • Prime – Greatly increases attack, defense, and EXP gained.
  • Sharp – Increases critical hit rate.
  • Immune – Negates status ailments.

Of course, if you’ve been paying attention to demo coverage so far you might have already seen most of this. Moving onto new content, however, we’ve got a closer look at XV’s buddy system. To start off, Hazmer introduced Noctis’ friends which we know as Gladiolus Amicitia, Prompto Argentum and Ignis Scientia.

Gladio is the oldest one of the group. He’s also the strongest and bravest – trained well since he was young and takes his place in the front of battles. Despite that, he’s a relaxed person who cares a lot about his friends. He also has the highest HP in the party.

Ignis has known Noctis since they were both young and wants to be his counsel so he has studied quite a bit. He likes to cook and in battles he stays by Noctis to try and protect him. In the demo you can rely on him to use the Cure ability and uses dual daggers capable of dealing poison.

Prompto is one of Noctis’ classmates and unlike his peers he never learned how to fight. He’s a really anxious guy, always trying to show off and never gives up. In the demo he has a bind ability that can weaken enemies.

Final Fantasy XV may be a road trip game, but the road trip is always changing. For example if your buddy is walking around and sees a point of interest they’ll point it out to Noctis. Usually these things relate to a quest or other hint. These aren’t necessarily required though as they are considered requests.

One of the new areas shown in Duscae is the Wiz Chocobo Outpost. Because RPGs are all about relaxing in towns, they must be memorable, according to Hazmer. When you travel to a town it’ll have its own culture and you’ll be able to get help if you need so.

The demo contains two outposts – one is the gas station and the other is Wiz Chocobo Post. A character known as Wiz owns the place and is a passionate chocobo rider who created this destination and the chocobo merchandise sold at it. It’s a place for riders to relax and in the final game you’ll be able to rent chocobos from here.

The Post is also home to a caravan in which Noctis and friends can sleep at for a cost. Unlike camping in a tent, however, Noctis won’t be able to cook but you will receive an experience multiplier for your own stats.

We’ve got the full broadcast archived below, should you have missed it.


About the Author

Erren Van Duine As a self-professed Final Fantasy fan, Erren created Nova Crystallis in 2009 as a place to collect the latest information on her favorite series. As owner and Editor-in-Chief, she also spends her time as a freelance illustrator.

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