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New Final Fantasy 15 footage is pos-Cid-ively Titan-ic
Square Enix showed off new Final Fantasy 15 footage this weekend as part of Japanese gaming, anime and maga convention, Jump Festa 2015. While short, there's plenty of new footage to be enjoyed, including first glimpses at series mainstays Titan and Cid. Titan is quite a bit larger than the last time he appeared in a Final Fantasy game, but it's Cid that's been given a more thorough makeover; the character, usually portrayed as a male airship mechanic, is now "Cidney," a female. A tough-n-tumble sort of lady who gets down in the dirt and doesn't run around in a chainmail bikini ... because she's wearing hotpants and a jacket too small for a toddler instead. Kotaku reports that game director Hajime Tabata said the town shown in the trailer will be seamlessly connected to the outside world, and though the development team is aiming to make the whole game seamless, "it may turn out that for important places there will be loading." Tabata also clarified that players will gain experience via battles, but those experience points will not convert into levels until a player makes camp to rest. A demo for Final Fantasy 15 will be available as part of the initial run of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD when it launches on March 17, 2015. [Image: Square Enix]
Final Fantasy 15 English-language trailer hits the road
It's time to take another look at Final Fantasy 15's TGS trailer -- this time, with translated dialog. The trailer above gives a brief sample of Final Fantasy 15's English-language voice cast as our heroes embark on a fantastical road trip and square off against mammoth creatures. A demo version of Final Fantasy 15 will launch as an exclusive pre-order bonus bundled with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD in March. [Video: Square Enix]
Joystiq Weekly: Final Fantasy 15, The Crew review, readers' favorite PS1 games and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. The Final Fantasy series has had a fun couple of weeks lately, but between the PC version of Final Fantasy 7 coming to the PS4 and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster's incoming port, most of its news is focused on the past. Leave it to the spring release of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, a take on an old PSP game, to bring things into the present – those that grab a copy from Type-0's first run will get an exclusive demo of Final Fantasy 15. So, Final Fantasy fans: Is it going to work? Are you going for Type-0 HD solely because of the demo, or do you kind of want to play the game anyway? Don't worry if it's the former – plenty of people only bought Crackdown to get into the Halo 3 beta before even realizing developer Realtime Worlds' superhero sandbox had its own merits. Demos and ports weren't the only thing that happened this week – The internet seemingly frustrated Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada enough to keep a character out of the North American release, we reviewed The Crew and Never Alone, and we highlighted our readers' favorite PS1 games. Those stories and more are all waiting for you after the break!
Final Fantasy 15 demo exclusive to day-one copies of Type-0 HD
Final Fantasy 15's demo will be exclusive to those with a copy of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, Square Enix revealed. In fact, the publisher confirmed via PlayStation Blog that the demo is "intended to be a special gift for those of you who purchase early," so only the first shipment of Type-0 HD will include the "Episode Duscae" demo. In September, reports began circulating that Square Enix would offer the Final Fantasy 15 demo in 2015. Episode Duscae will feature around an hour's worth of narrative content, and thorough explorers will get around three to four hours of gameplay out of the demo. Square Enix stressed today that the publisher is "never going to release [the demo] as a stand-alone piece down the line." Square Enix also divulged details on Type-0 HD's $100 Collector's Edition bundle. The Collector's Edition includes a steel book case, 15-track song collection, 200-page manga set during the events of the game's opening moments, 80-page art book and five collectible cards. Those that pre-order the Collector's Edition will gain access to Final Fantasy 15's demo as well. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD will launch on March 17, 2015. [Image: Square Enix]
Watch a 10-minute 1080p jogthrough of Final Fantasy 15's greenery
It's essentially a demo to showcase the open environments in 1080p, but Square Enix calls its new Final Fantasy 15 video a "walkthrough." In reality, it's more of a jogthrough. After revving round road-trip style for a minute, hero Noctis and his band of merry men step out of the car and go for a run. Then... they keep on running. It's another five minutes before Noctis, with his comrades gasping for breath, decides to quickly slash one of the many, many monsters he'd been avoiding up until then. And afterwards? He starts running again. Check out the footage below the break, along with a three-minute tech video blueprinting the level of detail going into FF15. Now under the helm of FF Type-0 and Before Crisis: FF7 director Hajime Tabata, the PS4 and Xbox One RPG remains without a release window. However, players will be able to take a demo for a spin via vouchers included with FF Type-0 HD, which is due to arrive in North America on March 17, 2015 and Europe on March 20.
Final Fantasy 15 gameplay details, demo content revealed
New details revealed this week paint a clearer picture of what players can expect from Square Enix's RPG Final Fantasy 15 prior to its upcoming launch for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Director Hajime Tabata estimates that Final Fantasy 15 is currently around 55 percent complete, though the game changed drastically after he took over the project two years ago."This is not the exact same game," he explained in a recent interview with Kotaku. "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."
Joystiq Weekly: Sony financials, Destiny review, Minecraft sale and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. What would you do with $2.5 billion? Sure, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson isn't pocketing the entire sum from Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, but something tells us he'll uh, be okay for a few years. Unless you're keen on buying small nations and playing a real-world game of Risk, it's tough to imagine spending your share of a massive buyout like that. There was loads more to this week than business deals involving yacht-sized bags of money, though. There's hope for a playable taste of Final Fantasy 15 in 2015, reviews for Destiny, Hyrule Warriors, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, a full timeline of Minecraft's progress from day one and loads more, all awaiting you after the break!
Nomura no longer directing Final Fantasy 15, new TGS trailer [update]
Square Enix announced designer Tetsuya Nomura is stepping away from Final Fantasy 15 to focus on other projects, with Final Fantasy Type-0 and Before Crisis: Final Fantasy 7 director Hajime Tabata appointed as the game's new director. In a statement released today, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda said Nomura will shift efforts to "production of titles that can only be made possibly by Nomura himself," and that includes the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3. The news comes as Square Enix confirmed reports of the Episode Duscae demo for Final Fantasy 15, which players can access via vouchers included with copies of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the 2011 PSP game are due in North America on March 17, 2015, Japan on March 19 and Europe on March 20, with a US price-tag of $60. As for the Duscae demo, Square Enix said the it's based on the game's opening sections "but alters story progression and more to create a unique first-play experience." [Update: On the PlayStation Europe Blog, Square Enix's Daniel Seto says the demo will be available for PS4 on March 20, which suggests it'll likely also be available on the same day Type-0 releases stateside] Square Enix marked the news with a two-minute Tokyo Game Show trailer for Final Fantasy 15 featuring some of the combat, and you can check it out below the break. The trailer closes with main protagonist Noctis saying, "It's been a long time coming. Almost there." That said, the PS4 and Xbox One JRPG remains without a release window.
Report: Final Fantasy 15 demo in 2015, Type-0 HD release date
Players can sample Final Fantasy 15 next year through a downloadable demo, according to a now removed Game Informer post. The report claimed the demo is titled Episode Duscae - a name Square Enix trademarked earlier this year - and it features some opening sections from the PS4 and Xbox One game. Square Enix hasn't as yet announced a Final Fantasy 15 demo, and we've reached out to the publisher for clarification. The JRPG wasn't included in Square Enix's announced Tokyo Game Show line-up, but today's report will fuel speculation that'll it'll nonetheless appear in some form at the Japanese expo this week. Game Informer also reported a March 17 release date in North America for Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, the PS4 and Xbox One port of the 2011 PSP game released only in Japan. The post said the game includes a voucher for the Final Fantasy 15 demo, adding, "A representative from Square Enix could not confirm that the demo will be available the exact same day as Type-0 HD, but it will be coming to both PS4 and Xbox One when it does release." We'll update this story as we learn more.
Square Enix producer Kitase on Lightning Returns reviews, HD remasters, and that FF7 tech demo
Lightning Returns brought an end to what's been - relative to the series' high standards and typically universal acclaim - a divisive trilogy of games. While we enjoyed the final fantasy in Lightning's saga, other reviewers were happy enough to say so long to the rosy-haired heroine. When I spoke with series producer Yoshinori Kitase days after the game launched, I asked if he'd had a chance to read the reviews, and what he thought of them. "Yes I have scanned through more or less all the reviews, as well as user feedback available on the Internet," Kitase said, through a translator "I wasn't really shocked. There are negative reviews and positive reviews, it's a real mixture. When I started making this game I took on very new challenges, so in a way I had anticipated that there would be mixed opinions, so this is more or less what we had anticipated." Kitase, a Square Enix veteran of some 24 years, also argued the game might leave some with a negative impression at first, but as you play it the whole way through, your mind might change. For a second I wondered if we'd gone back in time to 2010, and Kitase was talking about the ever-so-slow introduction that put some players off Final Fantasy 13. "In a normal process where we make numbered Final Fantasy games, it takes at least two or three years, [and it's] quite a long turnaround," Kitase pointed out, referring to the much shorter cycle that saw three FF13 games released in just under four years. "In the space of three years, lots of things can [change] quite dramatically," he added. "The market situation, user trends, users' preferences, everything can change. So we've always taken feedback both from media and users on board, and when we want to reflect those views on the next project, in the space of three years, the situation might be completely different. The changes we've affected or implemented as a result of this feedback may not mean very much in three years' time, because of the long cycle."
Nomura: Final Fantasy 15 on PS3 may have 'caused us to look inferior'
Square Enix game director Tetsuya Nomura has elaborated on the choice to bring Final Fantasy 15 – previously known as Final Fantasy Versus 13 – to next-generation consoles instead of PS3, the original platform when the game was first announced in 2006. In an interview with Famitsu (via Polygon), Nomura said Square Enix moved the game to Xbox One and PS4 because "the lifespan of the current generation of consoles was starting to pose a problem" to Square Enix. "We had originally thought about making this announcement last year, but due to assorted reasons that got delayed. This meant that the lifespan of the current generation of consoles was starting to pose a problem to us. If we were a year later, other companies will have more time to research the next generation, and releasing the game against their products on the older generation could have caused us to look inferior when people inevitably compared us." Keeping Final Fantasy 15 on the current generation posed too many concerns to Square Enix – concerns that the final game wouldn't match what the company set out to do. "With current-gen systems, we couldn't fully express what we wanted to do in this project," he said. "There were more and more things that we would've had to change the form of. However, the assumption was that we'd go ahead with a current-gen release, so went through a trial-and-error process to do as much as we could. So we built an alpha version about a year ago, and the company response was 'If you remained bound to the current generation, will it will be the product you envisioned?' They suggested shifting fully to next-gen, and that was the spark that led to the move." As for a PC port, Nomura says it largely "depends on the demand" – if enough people want it, then Square Enix may pursue it. The full interview can be read through the source link below.
Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 15 coming to Xbox One
While featured heavily in yesterday's Sony E3 keynote, both Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 15 are also coming to Xbox One as well as PS4. Shinji Hashimoto, producer at Square Enix, announced the news this morning at a Square Enix event in Los Angeles (via Siliconera). Kingdom Hearts 3 is said to feature a more mature Sora, the Keyblade-wielding protagonist of the series. Final Fantasy 15 – previously known as Final Fantasy Versus 13 – will use DirectX 11, making it easier to develop for both Xbox One and PS4 since both consoles are built on x86 architecture.
Square Enix bringing Final Fantasy Versus 13 to PS4, now Final Fantasy 15
Square Enix showed a fresh trailer for Final Fantasy Versus 13 during Sony's E3 press conference today. At the end of the trailer, Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura noted the game is now known as Final Fantasy 15, and the game will be coming to both PS3 and PS4.
