During today’s Active Time Report event, Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata showed off a handful of information – ranging from concept art and information to brand-new in-game footage of Final Fantasy XV.
This article will detail all the important notes from within the event.
First and foremost, Tabata has re-confirmed officially that Final Fantasy XV will be releasing in 2016.
Tabata: “I want to take this opportunity at PAX Prime to announce that we will officially release Final Fantasy XV in 2016.”
Tabata also added that more information regarding the full release date will be given at a ‘special’ event in March 2016. No specified date details has been given in regards to the event but expect to hear them in the coming months.
Next, a handful of concept art and in-game shots were previewed in the Active Time Report with which all of them had purposes of them being shown.
Starting with the city of Altissia, it was modeled after the city Venice, in Italy. Additionally, two images of Altissia where shown, with one being a complete concept art and the other pre-rendered. Tabata says that the visual quality of Altissia in-game will be of the same standard as the Altissia pre-render.
Also, a concept art of Hammerhead and Lestallum was shown. The Hammerhead is a maintenance shop modeled off an actual Hammerhead Shark. If you look closer at the Hammerhead concept art, you can see Cindy is in it but she does not own the place. Tabata teased something from that very concept art that might interest long-time fans of the Final Fantasy franchise so I’ll leave you guys to guess who it is.
Looking closer at the Lestallum concept art, there is a huge structure at the center of Lestallum and it plays a important part in the town. That very structure is how the town is getting it’s power. Deeper in the structure, lies a crater and within the crater, rests a meteor that is still burning.
There is another concept showcasing the expansive world of Final Fantasy XV, where players are able to stop anywhere at any time, set up camp and bond with the party members.
According to Tabata, the concept art showing off Regis and the car Regalia is “very important.” The Regalia of course, is the vehicle that Noctis and friends use it to travel through their journey. As we learned a while ago, the Regalia is owned by King Regis, Noctis’ father. Though one of the key themes in Final Fantasy XV is the “bond between friends,” another key theme is the “bond between father and son.” This means that even while Noctis is traveling with his friends, he’s also indirectly bonding with his father as well.
Returning concept arts such as Lunafreya, Myth and Leviathan were also shown during the event – the former two coming straight from the FFXV demo.
With regards to Leviathan, many Eidolons in Final Fantasy XV have their own personalities, are intelligent and play a “vital role” within the story. Specifically, we learned XV’s Leviathan is female and has a connection to the city of Altissia.
The Myth artwork details how the world of Final Fantasy came to be. On the right side of the image you can see the Eidolon Ramuh, the old fatherly figure. Him and other Eidolons are involved with the creation of the world.
Finally, the Lunafreya concept art. Though it has been shown a number of times before, Tabata has this to say about the game’s heroine:
Tabata: “We’re actually going to reveal some more information concerning Luna at our Tokyo Game Show event, but what I really wanted to get across is that she’s a very strong character – a very strong woman.”
To our surprise, the official Final Fantasy XV twitter profile has uploaded an additional concept art of Luna, as a bonus of what’s more to come in the Active Time Report at Tokyo Game Show 2015.
Last but certainly not least, Tabata showed off a never before seen concept art of Final Fantasy XV, depicting an outpost known as Caem. Located near the ocean, Noctis and friends will arrive at the outpost and take a boat across the ocean to reach to a town called Accordo.
When asked if the boats will be rendered in real-time and provide seamless travel, Tabata said:
Tabata: “Yes, of course, everything will be rendered in real-time. You’ll get in the boat in real-time, seamlessly. Your travel across the ocean in real-time, as well… But you won’t be journeying on the boat, as well. It’s sort of a one-way trip, in that sense.”
Next up we were shown new footage of Final Fantasy XV focused on the driving mechanics. Tabata pointed out that they changed the position of the steering wheel from the right side to the left side of the car as a result of discussions with the FFXV team.
Square Enix also shared a video message from Avalanche Studios’ CEO Christofer Sundberg in which he outlined the collaboration between Square Enix and Avalanche Studios in regards to sharing technology for the development of Final Fantasy XV. Though discussions are early and not much can be said at this point, Avalanche Studios is interested in the collaboration.
Rounding out the panel, Square Enix will host yet another Active Time Report at Tokyo Game Show 2015 where more details on Luna will be shown, as well as the game’s fishing and chocobo features.
As an added bonus, Square Enix has set up two official Final Fantasy XV twitter accounts with one that is the official English twitter account and the other for Japan:
Two videos of in-game footage of Final Fantasy XV are now available to watch as well, with one showing off the car mechanics and the other showing development in progress footage of the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VbxPcFU-VY&feature=youtu.be
Update: The videos have been replaced with better quality versions.
Below we’ve compiled a gallery of concept art and in-game screenshots from the panel.
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