On Saturday, March 12, Square Enix Japan invited 20 Final Fantasy XV fans to meet and chat with the game’s development staff at the company’s headquarters in Shinjuku.

After receiving their name cards fans arrived at Business Division 2’s office – where iconic Final Fantasy characters drawn on a dry-erase board, Final Fantasy XV concept art and display items, and a group of development staff all greeted them. Members of the development team present included: Ken’ichi Shida, Yusuke Naora, Takashi Honjo, Hiromitsu Sasaki, and Wan Hazmer, along with others. Community team members from Square Enix Japan and Square Enix Europe were also present to facilitate the meeting.

The gathering began in earnest. After a round of self-introductions from both staff and fans, fans had a question-and-answer session with development staff and community team members. According to one participant of the morning session, who goes by the Twitter name Naked_T, Taji and Mittsu (Final Fantasy XV community team members) were asked about Final Fantasy XIV; Hazmer shared a few words on the Final Fantasy XV demo released last March, titled “Episode Duscae,” as well as Final Fantasy VII. Interspersed within these conversations were small comments about Final Fantasy XV‘s development:

• Signs and boards in Final Fantasy XV all have different designs
• Many enemies have yet to be revealed
• The staff want fans to look forward to dungeons

Another participant, Maitako, had asked about the game’s realism. Discussion revolving around this topic revealed that the team are walking on a fine “reality line.” Everything – from character animation, to city and monster designs, to dialogue and reactions – has been painstakingly designed to exude this realism. In other news, the staff have once again expressed their desire for Final Fantasy XV to achieve the same impact that Final Fantasy VII once did.

After these various discussions, fans soon knew the purpose of the meeting: Square Enix sought to gather fans’ opinions about a launch event to be held the night before Final Fantasy XV’s release. During the brainstorming segment of the meeting, fans offered suggestions that ranged from impossible to implement to more realistic. Naked_T himself suggested a timed boss battle between fans and staff. The community team plan to pass on these suggestions to the game’s director Hajime Tabata, who was not present at either session. At the end of the gathering, fans received an event-exclusive Business Division 2 T-shirt as well as a box of Chocobo-themed cookies.

Final Fantasy XV is a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One title that is set for release sometime in 2016. Square Enix plans to announce the game’s release date on March 30 at Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV, an event to be held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Reports courtesy of: Naked_T, Maitako (Tsumige). Additional information and images can be found on our initial report of the event here.