- 2014 Updates : The new director Tabata :
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“In terms of development, about 50 to 60 percent of the game is complete. We kind of started from the beginning of the game, so the first part is more complete than the others.”
Tabata said the percentage complete was 55 percent . But we guess that’s more or less the same as 50 to 60 percent. But that percentage, Tabata told Kotaku, isn’t 55 percent since the game was announced in 2006 as Final Fantasy Versus XIII. It is 55 percent during the two years that Tabata has been on the project.
Fundamental parts of the game’s systems are more or less already implemented. He doesn’t expect there to be too much of a wait after the demo is out—certainly not years and years.
Tabata’s planning since becoming a director was to have progress be in lockstep towards a set release date in his mind. The Tokyo Game Show demo this year was doable because of progress made since July 2012 when this shift to new consoles occurred.
The team works on stuff only after things have been really hashed out, so as to not waste time and resources. The framework is now solidly in place, so Tabata doesn’t expect any major scheduling shifts moving forward. The end goal is in sight.
The development team is around 200 to 300 staff. Although being billed as a triple-A game, Tabata doesn’t want 1000-plus people working on the title like western teams, as he’d rather have a comparatively small team with people who can make the most of their individual potential.
From Nomura to Tabata
Tabata detailed the sequence of events leading to his becoming director.
In July 2012, Yochi Wada, the then president and CEO of Square Enix, ordered theFinal Fantasy Type-0 team to join the Final Fantasy XV team in the game’s development. It was around that time that the game transitioned from Final Fantasy Versus XIII to Final Fantasy XV, and also moved to current gen consoles. Tabata’s team’s involvement was then formally announced at E3 2013.
The transition to Tabata as director was therefore not just sudden and out of the blue, and he feels there is no disadvantage in the change, development-wise. When the platform transition occurred, fundamentals for the characters and world were already in place. There was plenty of consulting with Nomura, the development team, and management to put Final Fantasy XV on track to be best it can be.
“I joined the project about two years ago, and around that time, we changed platforms,” Tabata told Kotaku. “We re-examined Final Fantasy XV‘s development structure. We had the gameplay team, the cinematics or CG team, and the game engine team. And we finally merged them all together to work on this game. I think we can deliver the best that Square Enix has to offer.”
Tabata said that Final Fantasy XV will be a title for gamers who have been waiting since the game was known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but notes that it’s somewhat changed.
“This is not the exact same game. The director is different, and the platform was switched to the current gen. And because the platform has changed, there were things we had to re-evaluate, like what we can and cannot do or even what we have to do. The various circumstances are different.”
But that’s not to say the game has lost its core. Tabata sat down with original director Tetsuya Nomura about the direction the title is going to take.
“I wanted to make sure that characters, like Noctis, that are so important to Nomura, are maintained in the best possible way.”
The party is still male characters only. This has been true since the game was still Final Fantasy Versus XIII. The road movie vibe has also been there since those days.
“When I joined the development team, we’ve also shifted from primarily using pre-rendered CG to a mix of pre-rendered CG and in-game images that are at the quality of a pre-rendered image,” Tabata told Kotaku.
“The Final Fantasy XV trailer was all in-game engine, except for the part with the spaceships flying. That was pre-rendered.”
Tabata’s personal concepts for the game are “friendship” and “the journey,” he told Famitsu. The game design takes advantage of both of these. Noctis is the main character, but the party itself, Noctis’ friends, should be treated as main characters in all scenes of the game.
According to Tabata, the graphics are currently at about 70 percent of what they’re aiming for.
“I think we can get the demo’s graphics at about 80 percent of what we hope to achieve,” he said. “By the time the game is released, we hope to achieve 100 percent.”
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- Final Fantasy XV is woven around Fabula Nova Crystallis mythology, but it does not take place in the same world as the other games of XIII era. FF XV is Tetsuya Nomura's take on the mythology.
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- Final Fantasy XV was announced on on May 8 2006 at Square Enix's E3 Press Conference in Los Angeles, NA .
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- Versus ( the game was known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII ) in Latin means “to turn around” and in English it means “against”. The meaning is that the game is based on new directions that is different or even opposite of what we have seen before in Final Fantasy games.
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- Final Fantasy XV artwork showes dark and heavy scnces in comparison to Final Fantasy XIII’s white theme. This is going to be translated into the game.
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- Final Fantasy XV will offer premises and experiences that haven’t been seen in other Final Fantasy games or other games in general. It’ll be something truly interesting.
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- Final Fantasy XV is a title that will unite the nostalgia of the past Final Fantasy games and will tie it to a whole new way to experience the franchise. Level and overall design will be extremely valued in this game.
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- This game will involve a lot of action, but old Final Fantasy elements will be present as well. They will be taken to a whole new level with the technology that Crystal Tools and PS4 are able to provide.
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- In Versus, there are two types of event scenes. Pre-rendered and real-time. The real time cut scenes are controllable. The team decided to get rid of the non-controllable real time cut scenes in order to keep the player from stopping. The controllable cutscenes will have more natural expression as opposed to the game-like expression of past games. The cut scene ratio is 7(real time) to 3(pre-rendered) with Visual Works handling the pre-rendered ones.
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- CGI cut scenes are present but there won't be much of it. This change has happened because the development staff has reached their target render for the world and the characters. Therefore, Jun Akiyama and the planning directors decided to scrap most of CGI scenes and re-do them with a lot of real-time cut scenes and very little pre-rendered cut scenes. Nomura confirmed that the opening scene in the 1st Production Department trailer is CG, the scene between Stella and Noctis has been changed to a pre-rendered cut scene(was originally a real-time cut scene) and everything else in the trailer is real-time. The reason for the Noctis and Stella change is because it's an example of an area where adding player control wouldn't really have much of a big effect on things.
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- One reason the game may look so good is because there are only minimal differences between the game's high and low quality models. Nomura says that they have kept the high and low quality models the same, with exception to the greater hair detail in the high quality versions. The inclusion of Takeshi Nozue on the staff also helped, said Nomura. Nozue was able to apply use his pre-rendering knowhow on the game's real time scenes, specifically with regards to lighting technology.
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- Yoshitaka Amano artworks will appear as paintings throughout the game and they will not be exclusive to the goddess fal'Cie Etro
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- Final Fantasy XV will using lighting technology from the Luminous Engine. Versus aims for photo realism so it places greater importance on lighting.
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- Final Fantasy XV has its own action game-oriented engine. The lightning tech from Luminous is being coupled with this for Final Fantasy XV.
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- As of July 2011. Nomura siad that because they're trying out a lot of new challenges, the development staff is still focused on the core members. However, they're making preparations to enter full production.
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- Also as of July 2011. They're also gradually recording the game's voices. Regarding the recording, Nomura said that there are many scenes where the four male characters are engage.
