Final Fantasy XV - Aftermath of Uncovered

Limited Edition Blu-Ray original Soundtrack for FFXV (November 3rd, 2016):
Site: https://store.na.square-enix.com/pr...soundtrack-limited-edition-blu-ray-music-disc
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On January 23rd or 24th, FFXV will be getting a carnival event taking place until mid February I believe. Also, during this patch update, players will be able to take photos when they want in the game now, instead of strictly relying on Prompto. If there ends up being other updates for the upcoming patch, I'll edit this post. Trailer is down below:
 
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*Translation credit goes to xXShuyaXx* ATR February 2, 2016:
original link: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/5rme5e/atr_translation_recap/
2/21Update will include. 1. PS4 Pro 60FPS Patch 2. Limited time hunts 3. Level cap will be increased from 99 to 120. Do note you cannot save exp pre-patch to level post-patch. Pre-patch exp will be invalid toward levels over 99. So update before levelling. 4. Photo limit - 200. 5. A new MP3 item will be added to Regalia's shop which will allow you to listen to music while riding Chocobos.


60FPS patch will not be full 60FPS, but the FPS limited will be unlocked to a new max of 60FPS. (Guess they couldn't really work out the kinks).


Booster Pack DLC Paid will include - 1. Booster Sword 2. Dragon Mode 3. New fishing reel 4. Plus other additions


Booster Pack Free will include - 1. Invincible suits.


Date for the free version of the DLC will be announced at a later date.


3/28 Episode Gladio DLC 3/28 Along with the addition of DLC, a update to the game will be made to improve the story aspects of the game, specially with Chapter 13. Other various upgrades and fixes will also be included.


Episode Gladio will focus on combat. Episode Prompto will focus on story and character development, showing a side of Prompto we have yet to see.


They are working on to add off-road driving. But no promises are made. but it's one of the ambitions they have to add to the game. They showed off test footage of free driving with added new mechanics. It was running on PC as it was a dev kit, but it is still buggy so it's in no condition to release yet.


Platinum Demo will finish distrubution on 3/31.


New Trailer


In other news, The English VAs of the Chocobros streamed FFXV. Here are some highlight moments:
Beatbox Chocobo theme ---> https://clips.twitch.tv/loudannoying/LivelyCatSeemsGood
Ignis reads a recipe book ----> https://clips.twitch.tv/loudannoying/StupidGaurHassanChop
Rickroll chat? ---> https://clips.twitch.tv/loudannoying/VivaciousCurlewVoHiYo
Beatbox Stand By Me ---> https://clips.twitch.tv/loudannoying/HandsomeJaguarEleGiggle
 
Feb 2017 ATR (English Translation):


Original Link: http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/02/07/final-fantasy-xv-broke-even-development-costs-day-one/ *Spoiler tag used to condense info*
"Final Fantasy XV is already a profitable game, and it broke even much earlier than many expected: on the day it launched.


Many have been speculating on how many copies Final Fantasy XV would need to sell in order to break even, and DualShockers asked just that to Director Hajime Tabata during a recent visit to the Business Division 2 development floor in Tokyo,


Tabata-san clarified that not only Final Fantasy XV already has already broken even with its development costs, but it did so on day one, which means when it launched on November 29th.


Square Enix announced almost immediately that the day one shipments, including digital downloads, were over five million copies, marking the fastest selling Final Fantasy game ever at its debut. This means that those five million copies were enough to recoup costs, even if we don’t know by how much.


In January, we heard that the number of copies sold had grown to six millions, so it’s safe to assume that the title is now firmly in profitable territory.


If you want to read more, Tabata-san also revealed that the game is currently being used as a development environment to test visual fidelity, and 70% of its staff are still at work on free and paid additional content.


Speaking of DLC, Square Enix recently showcased a trailer of Episode Gladiolus and Episode Prompto, and If you want to see something even more interesting, you can also check out an early prototype of the regalia modified to drive off-road."


Ignis's DLC episode will come at a later point in time given how it is the most impacting story wise of the three Chocobros. Announcement date has not been revealed for that as of yet.
 
Polygon Interview with Hajime Tabata (February 24, 2017):
original link: http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/24/14724980/the-future-of-final-fantasy-15
The future of Final Fantasy 15
How FF15 director Hajime Tabata is making his game a living platform for embracing the next steps of game design and technology.


jime Tabata has a confession to make:


"You know, I don't really work on handheld games anymore. It's all consoles now."


You can hear a tone of apology in his voice that comes through despite the Japanese/English language barrier. But his admission comes as no real surprise. Tabata may have gotten his start at Square Enix working on some of the company's highest-profile mobile and PlayStation Portable games, but these days he's all-hands on Final Fantasy 15, arguably Square Enix's biggest and most demanding project to date. After quietly assuming the directorial role for 15 back in 2012 (when it was "Final Fantasy Versus 13," a spin-off rather than a mainline title), Tabata not only managed to guide the long-delayed — and, for a while, seemingly doomed — project to release; it also netted positive reviews across the board, a rare accomplishment for a game entangled in a difficult, decade-long birthing process.


“THE FF SERIES AS A WHOLE HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT, YOU KNOW, TRYING SOMETHING NEW.”
However, the first time I met Tabata, back in 2013, no one outside the company knew of or could have predicted the critical role he would play in wrestling Versus 13 into shape. Instead, he was simply the little-known director for portable projects like Crisis Core: Well-received games, but decidedly mid-ticket and generally overlooked outside Japan due to their platform. I'm sure I struck him as something of an oddity, a Western journalist who specifically sought him out because of his work in a format that generally gets short shrift in the West. Because we first met due to our common interest in handheld games, he's always seemed a little apologetic when we speak that he's left that format behind, beginning with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD, a portable game reworked to run on consoles.


Then again, that willingness to leave the past behind is precisely the kind of personality that Final Fantasy 15 required. After six years in development hell, 15 demanded an unflinching willingness to strip the project down to its foundations and start practically fresh, throwing out the parts that didn't quite work and even changing fan-favorite elements (as in the transformation of feisty heroine Stella to the more demure Lunafreya).


"The FF series as a whole has always been about, you know, trying something new," Tabata says. "The original Final Fantasy was born as a means of creating [Square's] take on Dragon Quest. That was the popular game at the time here, so [the creators] wanted to surpass that, if you will. With 7, you have a new generation that was created — 3D RPGs. Then with 11, trying to bring online gaming to the mainstream. I may not be sure how Final Fantasy is going to change in the future, but one thing that's going to stay the same will be that spirit of really pushing boundaries and breaking limits, if you will."
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That forward-looking attitude continues to guide Tabata's vision for Final Fantasy 15, as the company considers a new model for the franchise: Life for a single-playing story-based game beyond its initial release. That includes a number of quality-of-life tweaks, such as a promised overhaul to the game's controversial Chapter XIII, as well as several add-on story DLC packages centered around secondary characters. At the more extreme end, 15 will also eventually cease to be strictly a single-player RPG with the addition of a multiplayer component.


"There are a lot of things I can't really say about the multiplayer future just yet," Tabata says, "but it will tie into the game — the main game — at some point in the story. And for the multiplayer feature, we are less focused on playing as the four main characters but rather as an avatar that the user creates themselves. So rather than having you and your friends play as these four guys and experience their journey again together, it's more about the journey that you and your friends have together with each other in this world."


Tabata's description of 15's multiplayer mode seems to line up with fan speculation that it will be set during the main story's 10-year time skip. The popular line of thought is that the multiplayer component seems likely to repurpose the main game's assets in order to allow players to experience the world of Eos's descent by way of a cooperative take on the story mode's combat system — one that replaces AI-controlled companion characters with other players.


“I DON'T WANT [15] TO BE A ONE-OFF EXPERIENCE WHERE YOU PLAY IT, YOU COMPLETE THE STORY, AND THEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT. I WANT IT TO BE SOMETHING THAT USERS CAN ENJOY FOR YEARS TO COME.”
It seems an intriguing approach to drawing more value out of the costly art assets that comprise Eos. Perhaps not coincidentally, it also connects back to Tabata's handheld gaming legacy. Though its HD remake ended up dropping the feature, Final Fantasy Type-0 was a multiplayer RPG on PSP; it's not hard to imagine 15's online component amounting to a high-spec rendition of Type-0's drop-in-drop-out cooperative mode.


With Square Enix supporting two MMO Final Fantasy titles, it might be easy to read the addition of a significant multiplayer feature for 15 as signaling an always-online future for the franchise. Tabata, however, prefers not to read too much into it.


"It's kind of hard to say how this will impact future Final Fantasy titles," he says. "Again, the series has always been about taking the next step — challenging and pushing the boundaries of technology and what people are expecting. So I feel that each one is different in that regard.


"Even though it may not be an MMO, or similar to an MMO, we want players to enjoy the time that they spend in the world of Eos for as long as possible. We have a year of downloadable content lined up, and we think that we'll be able to provide players with a really satisfying experience and allow them to create even more memories in this world."


While we can't necessarily divine the shape (or even the existence) of a Final Fantasy 16 from Tabata's plans for FF15, he sees the game's ongoing evolution as the next step in the franchise's drive to push console role-playing games in new directions — an experience closer in nature to the likes of Grand Theft Auto Online than a traditional Final Fantasy. "It's a bit of a new business model," he muses. "Again, even though this is a packaged title, I don't want [15] to be a one-off experience where you play it, you complete the story, and then you're done with it. I want it to be something that users can enjoy for years to come, something they can continue enjoying even after they complete the main storyline.
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"As you see in games like The Witcher 3 or the GTA series, you have periodic updates, right? That helps satisfy the user base. It gives them new content to enjoy, and that's one of the goals for us — not only the main game development, having this big, open world, but also the downloadable content that they have planned for this current year. In a way, because we're putting everything out simultaneously worldwide, it will become kind of a collective experience."


Tabata's admiration of recent Western hits probably shouldn't come as too big a surprise, given the soft sales of consoles and console games in Japan; big console games need international appeal now. Even PlayStation 4 has struggled there, and 15 was the first mainline Final Fantasy game in decades that failed to sell more than a million units in its home territory during week one of its release. For Japanese gamers, the same mobile devices that more than halved the sales of the handhelds Tabata once called home have now largely replaced consoles as well.


“I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO ANNOUNCE ABOUT A PC VERSION OF THE GAME, BUT WE HAVE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT IDEAS FOR NEW APPLICATIONS OF TECH.”
"The idea that the Japanese market has shifted toward mobile games has definitely crossed my mind," Tabata admits. Rather than perceive mobile gaming as threat, though, he says he sees it as an opportunity.


"If people are playing on their smartphones, then a lot of them are also using social media, right? So one of my goals in creating 15 was to craft a game that could have a big impact on social media. That's what you've seen with the photographs and all the videos the players are sharing, and that's a way of sort of reaching this audience. I think we did a pretty good job of it."


Rather than fret about the challenges that face the current generation of games, Tabata has already set his sights further out. In addition to building DLC and multiplayer additions for the game, his team has also been using 15 as a proving ground for technology tests — tests that go beyond the recent 60 fps patch for PlayStation Pro — though for the moment, these remain under wraps.


Much of the post-launch tech vision Tabata has for 15 sounds more exploratory than anything else. It certainly makes sense for the company to treat 15 as an experimental test platform; besides being the most expansive single-player game Square Enix has ever produced, 15 also has the distinction of being one of the few games remaining to run on a bespoke engine. While the company has largely shifted to standard, off-the-shelf technology and extensive outsourcing for its projects, 15 remains defiantly traditional in that regard. Square Enix primarily developed the game in-house on the purpose-built Luminous Engine, and there appears to be a strong interest in making further use of the engine beyond this one game, similar to Final Fantasy 13's Crystal Tools (which also served as the underpinning for that game's sequels, as well as Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Quest 10).


The next logical step for the Luminous Engine would seem to be 4K systems such as Microsoft's Scorpio and personal computers — though Tabata says the team has no firm plans in place for either at the moment, despite the growing fan demand for 15 on PC. "I don't have anything to announce about a PC version of the game," he says cautiously, "but we have been experimenting with different ideas for new applications of tech. If we find something we like, well, maybe we'll have news to announce.
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"We're trying our hand with VR development for the first time as well, and it's certainly a learning experience," Tabata adds, acknowledging ambitions beyond the limited Final Fantasy 15 VR Experience Square Enix showed off at last year's E3.


"I can't really say much about what we're doing, or what we're developing currently, but one thing that we have realized is that ... we have the episodic content featuring [protagonist Noctis's] three buddies coming out, right? So if we were to use this VR technology to create a similar type of gameplay, it really wouldn't be a new experience. It's sort of just rehashing that same style with different technology, not truly new. Sure, you could sort use the technology and apply VR to stuff you've already seen in the game with minigames or other aspects of the game to make it a more realistic, more simulated experience. But we've realized that's not really what we want to do — we want to take things in a newer direction. We want to take our time and really figure out what direction we want to take it in before just throwing something out there."


“I'M NOT REALLY SURE IF HANDHELD GAMING WILL STILL RUN ON DEDICATED SYSTEMS, OR WHETHER THEY'LL BE ON MACHINES OR DEVICES THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO GAME AND ALSO DO OTHER THINGS.”
The common thread running throughout Tabata's thoughts on 15's future speaks to a desire to do something more with advanced tech than simply give fans a prettier version of an experience they've already enjoyed. In that light, his recent admission that the 15 is unlikely to make its way to Nintendo's Switch may come as something of a surprise. While, technologically speaking, a conversion to Switch would represent a step in the opposite direction from possible post-launch 4K and VR ambitions, the portability and flexibility of the console could potentially effect a meaningful change in the relationship between players and the game.


But Tabata, true to his confession, currently doesn't have any handheld projects in the works — even for a system that's only portable some of the time. Still, he admits he personally finds Switch intriguing.


"Given my track record," he muses. "... I've worked on handheld titles, but I've also worked on console games. So the fact that Switch is both at the same time is really fascinating to me. I'm really interested in coming up with ideas and how to capitalize on that technology and how to create the best experience possible on the technology. But I'm not quite sure that I have it yet.


"You have your Switch sitting in front of the television and you're playing on the big screen and then you take it out, put it down on the table. It becomes a monitor. You take out the two Joy-Cons, and you play with a friend ... it doesn't stop there, because in my mind, it would be really perfect if you could then take this new monitor and use it like a tablet, for example, and play different apps on it like you would on your iPhone or your Android. So basically, it's accomplishing three tasks in one machine. It's kind of like the dream machine."


"While I may not be working on anything for it at this point in time, a lot of people on the staff are really interested in the Switch," he says. "Myself included! Many of the people on the dev team are older; they're married; they have kids. One of the things they'd like to do is create something they could also play with their children, or that their children could play on their own, for example."
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Like many game enthusiasts, Tabata seems unconvinced by Nintendo's statements that Switch is meant to be a traditional console rather than a handheld crossover device to replace both the Wii U and 3DS. If anything, he says, it's more of a transitional device that speaks to what is perhaps an inevitable transformation for portable gaming. "You have the Switch, and you have smartphones. I'm not really sure if handheld gaming will still run on dedicated systems, or whether they'll be on machines or devices that will allow you to game and also do other things. It's hard to say.


"It could be like cloud gaming. Something that, for a long time, people have said, 'Oh, this is the future.' Maybe the future is cloud gaming, but it hasn't taken off as much as people had anticipated. Maybe once it becomes a little bit more mainstream, when things are a little bit more clear on what happens on the client side and what happens on the server side ... then things will really start to take off.


"If cloud gaming then becomes mainstream, I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility for you to be able to pick up a game on your phone, start playing for a little bit, and say, 'Oh, you know what? I want to play on the big screen,' and put it down and play the exact same thing — pick up where you left off — on the television."


“IT'S THIS LIVING, BREATHING ENVIRONMENT — IT'S FLUID; IT'S MOVING; IT'S EVER-CHANGING ... I THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE GAMES IN THE FUTURE CAPITALIZE ON THAT AND EVEN TAKE IT A STEP FURTHER.”
So no, Tabata doesn't work on handheld games anymore, but perhaps that's because in his mind it's all the same in the end. As gaming technology matures and platforms converge in capabilities and potential the barriers may eventually break down. Mobile, handheld, portable, PC: Ultimately, he says, there may be no real distinction; in that sense, Switch is an evolutionary forerunner of gaming's inevitable direction.


"There's definitely a need, or a desire, among players for a game, a cloud-based gaming device that would allow you to have the option to play on your own, but also to let you play on a big screen." He pauses for a moment and jumps to a personal anecdote. "My daughter — she actually doesn't play games with a controller. She's just too used to playing on a touch screen. I had her play 15, and because she's so used to playing on the touch screen, she picked up the controller and said, 'You play it with this?' She was able to figure it out, more or less, after a couple of tries but ultimately, she's still just more used to playing on a touch screen.


"Once her generation then steps up and starts, you know, creating new things, that might become the standard then. Touch screens might overtake consoles."


However games are delivered, Tabata finds the most important consideration to be the interplay of technology and invention. And he clearly takes great pride in how these factors came together in 15, and how his team continues to use the game as a platform for further innovation.


"We focused on implementing two major technologies in 15," he says. "First was the artificial intelligence, as in the party members. We also looked at the procedural display of elements like the sky, such as how you can track the changes from day to night over a 24-hour cycle. By implementing those features, we were also able to change the way players experience this world and the game as a whole. It's this living, breathing environment — it's fluid; it's moving; it's ever-changing. So ultimately, I think you'll be able to see games in the future capitalize on that and even take it a step further, with environments that you can truly change in real time, and things like that."


Dualshockers Interview with Mr. Tabata over bringing FF back to being a Challenger (March 1st, 2017):
original link: http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/03...ector-talks-challenger-family-day-saved-team/
During a panel at Game Developers Conference 2017 in San Francisco, that DualShockers attended, Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata shared quite a lot of information about the development of the game.


Tabata-san mentioned that the organizers of GDC asked him to host a panel to share his development expertise based on the success of Final Fantasy XV. While the team managed to meet people’s expectations business-wise, he doesn’t feel that his is really a “success story.” After all, he doesn’t have much of an expertise to speak of, and he didn’t suddenly become a millionaire either.


So instead of a success story, he has a lot of learnings to share, and he intended to talk about the challenges he faced with his team mates.


First of all, Tabata-san shared a story from his youth, mentioning that he used to ski, taking part in slalom competitions. He was the fastest of his club, so he used to enter a lot of tournaments. Before a local competition, his parents promised to buy for him one of these old Game & Watch video games if he won. They never bought him a game before, so he was very excited, and he spent his time thinking on whether he’d buy Donkey Kong or Mickey & Donald.


When the day came, he did his best, but lost in the first round. Initially he convinced himself that his opponent was really strong, but it turned out that he lost in the finals. Also, the boy who won the local tournament got beaten in the regionals.


Back then he was 11, but he learned the lesson that out there there is always someone better than one is. On top of that, even if you can’t win alone, you can still play to make your team win.


When Tabata-san met with Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy asked him to make the series “a challenger” again. He meant approaching the project like it was the last chance, like there won’t be a next time if this one isn’t successful. That’s where the “Final” in the title comes from.


Right after he was made director of Final Fantasy XV, Tabata-san met the Sales Head at Square Enix, and was given the sales forecast for each region: it was pretty low, under five million units worldwide. He was told by everyone that switching away from turn-based combat was unwise, and that the Final Fantasy brand was diminished and it was in danger.


In response, Tabata-san set the sales goal one million copies higher than the forecast, at six million units. He hoped that knowing that high sales goal would bring the team together and push them to break through any obstacle in their way.


He decided to approach developing the game like the original Final Fantasy, with the mindset that failure would mean that it’s over for the series.


Tabata-san compared his previous games and Final Fantasy XV to mountains. While his previous portable titles were 3000 meters high mountains, Final Fantasy XV was 6,000 meters high.
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While he had set a high goal for the game, all he could do was doing the proper preparations, yet that resulted in making a lot of friends among his team mates. Scaling that mountain wasn’t just his goal, it was a goal for the whole team. True friends are people who stick with you through hard times.


The first lesson he learned was to set a goal high, and if that goal is abstract, to make it so that it can be conveyed to others.


The second lesson is about teamwork. The team needed knowledge and technology to scale a 6,000 meters high mountain. The experience they had in scaling mountains half as high wasn’t enough. The team’s concept became “a mass of mastery,” and each member told told Tabata-san about his expertise, and the Director asked them to do what they were able to do best.


He tried to pair strength and personality for each developer, maximizing performance at all times. The image was pretty much that of a football team, with each player playing according to his talents. As a result, the team changed their “formation” to optimize it for each development milestone.


Due to that, the Final Fantasy XV “mass of mastery” had a lot of energy once it started rolling. They managed to overcome the technical hurdle of creating an open world RPG and a game system in which they had no previous experience.


When Square Enix released the Episode Duscae demo, which was a proof of concept for the team, it gave them a clear idea on how much more work it would take to finish the game, also showcasing the day and night cycle.


The reaction of the fans to the demo was as expected, but the development team faced a really serious problem: they realized that they were only at the third station on their way up the mountain. They were halfway done in terms of development progress, but the peak was still far away.


The volume of work left to do was big, with even more challenges looming ahead. There was pressure, fatigue and insecurities, so the team’s performance dropped sharply. This was between summer and autumn of 2015.


Tabata-san found the answer to solve that situation at home: one day, before going to work, his six years old (back then) daughter came up to him and gave him a big hug without saying a word. Then she asked “how much longer will it be?” He did not know how to answer, so he responded “It’s going to be a while.”


His daughter held her tears back and pulled out a big smile, telling him “chin up and keep up the good work, daddy!” Then she went back to her room and brought back a drawing portraying him at work. She put her worry for her father ahead of her own loneliness, and seeing her fight to hold back tears hit Tabata-san very hard as a parent. He realized how much his family put up with.


Immediately after, he had a meeting with his team, and they decided to organize a family day with the objective of achieving a better balance between work and life, and to show appreciation to their family, giving them peace of mind and allowing them to learn about their work and goals.


They spent a lot of time to prepare for the family day, even if they were in a hurry, and worried about development milestones and schedules. Back then, Business Division 2 had 250 staff members, so bringing all of their family members the office was quite a big project.


They actually customized Final Fantasy XV for the kids, and made them play with it on the PCs at the office for the whole day. Tabata-san’s daughter was there as well. Developers were allowed to show their wives, husbands, parents and kids their work desks, and what they do on the job.


By having the family day, the team set their sights on the goal again, and lesson Tabata-san learned is that to have a strong team, it’s necessary that staff members have the support of their families.


Towards the end of the development cycle, as things were winding down, Square Enix organized events all over the world to get the audience excited for the release, but there was amother big crisis awaiting for them.


This wasn’t the two months delay that was announced in August, instead, it was when some stores broke the street date and spoilers started to circulate.


Since this was the first simultaneous worldwide release, the company lacked the expertise to stop copies from leaking. They were ok with early purchasers enjoying the game on their own, but there were people actively trying to ruin the experience for others intentionally with spoilers.


Tabata-san spoke to the relevant parties, and many were actually complaining about it. He discussed this internally, and made it clear that they wouldn’t take this kind of intentional behavior lightly.


After that, the spoilers died down a bit, but Tabata-san had to face criticism for that. Yet, he learned a lot from the experience: if he found himself in the same situation again, rather than relying on enforcement, he would probably come up with a solution, for instance to take advantage of the spoilers and trying to somehow integrate those leaking them in the game’s promotion.


As with the family day, Tabata-san believes that it’s critical to turn crises into opportunities. In any project there are always crises, drama and problems, and turning crises into opportunities is one big takeaway from Tabata-san’s experience in developing Final Fantasy XV.


In the end, the team managed to complete Final Fantasy XV, and in a month they managed to sell about six million copies. While failure would have meant that there wouldn’t be a next time, success means that this probably isn’t the final Final Fantasy, and the series will live on.


Tabata-san continued by mentioning once again that his story developing the game isn’t a success story, but now he knows that the greatest goals can only be achieved by taking big chances. The team knows that there are big chances ahead, so they will keep taking on more challenges for Final Fantasy XV, on top of completely new challenges.


In conclusion, the Final Fantasy XV team is a team of fighters, and he believes that Final Fantasy is now a “challenger” once again.


After the talk, Tabata-san showcased a video with some gorgeous technical experiments the team is conducting for the future, and you can check that out here.


Below you can see all the slides of the presentation. Incidentally if you are a game developer (to which this panel was mainly addressed) but didn’t have a chance to attend, you can send me a mail requesting the full audio recording.


FF - A Challenger Once Again - GDC 2017 [Tech Video] (March 2nd, 2017):




Hands-on FFXV Episode Gladiolus with GameInformer(March 10th, 2017):
original link: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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At PAX East 2017, I played around 30 minutes of the upcoming Final Fantasy XV: Episode Gladiolus (The full DLC should take around 2-3 hours to complete). While story spoilers are off the table, I'm eager to share just how Gladiolus plays.


I had a lot more fun with Gladiolus than I ever did with Noctis. Gladiolus features an in-your-face smashy-smashy playstyle that's all about huge offense and precise defense. Through attacking, Gladiolus charges up powerful moves, often area-of-effect attacks, that dish out tremendous damage. But that's not all, Gladiolus is much more than an attack spammer. A block/guard ability allows Gladiolus to prevent incoming damage and negate attacks, and if you time it right, builds up a rage meter that can add a ridiculous multiplier to your outgoing damage.


Your blocks must be precise in order to really get the meter going though, so you must pay careful attention to enemy movements and attack signals. If you can time the block just before an incoming attack lands, you'll build your rage in addition to leaving the enemy vulnerable to devastating attacks.


I took down two bosses in the DLC, and I have to say, it really felt like there was a little bit of Dark Souls inspiration behind some of the enemies and bosses, which I loved. Because you need to play Gladiolus with a completely different playstyle than Noctis, with different tools at your disposal, each fight was quite refreshing.


In true Gladiolus flavor, there's also a segment where you can actually rip pillars right out of the ground and crush your enemies with them. This segment really in-sync with the style and flavor of all that is Gladiolus, and was my favorite part of the demo.


While I can't spoil the story, I can say that I found the tale from Gladiolus' past to fit the character well, and while almost hilariously cliché, fairly effective and compelling.


I'm looking forward to checking out the full DLC when it launches later this month, and this demo gave me high hopes for other character DLC coming online, with characters that play and feel much different than Noctis. I really don't like Noctis. Heck, let us play as Ardyn.
 
FFXV: March Trailer (March 26, 2017):


Patch update 1.07 is live as of right now. it is 5.657 G on the PS4 side. This patch update should provide an update for chapter 13.
 
Update 1.09 should now be live! Hunts have made a return with a ranking system set in place. Font size on certain things can now be made larger, and an option has been added for PS4 Pro to improve frame stability.




Final Fantasy XV Director Talks About Being “Challenger” Again, and How a Family Day Saved the Team:
original link: http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/03...ector-talks-challenger-family-day-saved-team/
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During a panel at Game Developers Conference 2017 in San Francisco, that DualShockers attended, Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata shared quite a lot of information about the development of the game.


Tabata-san mentioned that the organizers of GDC asked him to host a panel to share his development expertise based on the success of Final Fantasy XV. While the team managed to meet people’s expectations business-wise, he doesn’t feel that his is really a “success story.” After all, he doesn’t have much of an expertise to speak of, and he didn’t suddenly become a millionaire either.


So instead of a success story, he has a lot of learnings to share, and he intended to talk about the challenges he faced with his team mates.


First of all, Tabata-san shared a story from his youth, mentioning that he used to ski, taking part in slalom competitions. He was the fastest of his club, so he used to enter a lot of tournaments. Before a local competition, his parents promised to buy for him one of these old Game & Watch video games if he won. They never bought him a game before, so he was very excited, and he spent his time thinking on whether he’d buy Donkey Kong or Mickey & Donald.


When the day came, he did his best, but lost in the first round. Initially he convinced himself that his opponent was really strong, but it turned out that he lost in the finals. Also, the boy who won the local tournament got beaten in the regionals.


Back then he was 11, but he learned the lesson that out there there is always someone better than one is. On top of that, even if you can’t win alone, you can still play to make your team win.


When Tabata-san met with Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy asked him to make the series “a challenger” again. He meant approaching the project like it was the last chance, like there won’t be a next time if this one isn’t successful. That’s where the “Final” in the title comes from.


Right after he was made director of Final Fantasy XV, Tabata-san met the Sales Head at Square Enix, and was given the sales forecast for each region: it was pretty low, under five million units worldwide. He was told by everyone that switching away from turn-based combat was unwise, and that the Final Fantasy brand was diminished and it was in danger.


In response, Tabata-san set the sales goal one million copies higher than the forecast, at six million units. He hoped that knowing that high sales goal would bring the team together and push them to break through any obstacle in their way.


He decided to approach developing the game like the original Final Fantasy, with the mindset that failure would mean that it’s over for the series.


Tabata-san compared his previous games and Final Fantasy XV to mountains. While his previous portable titles were 3000 meters high mountains, Final Fantasy XV was 6,000 meters high.


Final Fantasy XV Director Talks About Being


While he had set a high goal for the game, all he could do was doing the proper preparations, yet that resulted in making a lot of friends among his team mates. Scaling that mountain wasn’t just his goal, it was a goal for the whole team. True friends are people who stick with you through hard times.


The first lesson he learned was to set a goal high, and if that goal is abstract, to make it so that it can be conveyed to others.


The second lesson is about teamwork. The team needed knowledge and technology to scale a 6,000 meters high mountain. The experience they had in scaling mountains half as high wasn’t enough. The team’s concept became “a mass of mastery,” and each member told told Tabata-san about his expertise, and the Director asked them to do what they were able to do best.


He tried to pair strength and personality for each developer, maximizing performance at all times. The image was pretty much that of a football team, with each player playing according to his talents. As a result, the team changed their “formation” to optimize it for each development milestone.


Due to that, the Final Fantasy XV “mass of mastery” had a lot of energy once it started rolling. They managed to overcome the technical hurdle of creating an open world RPG and a game system in which they had no previous experience.


When Square Enix released the Episode Duscae demo, which was a proof of concept for the team, it gave them a clear idea on how much more work it would take to finish the game, also showcasing the day and night cycle.


The reaction of the fans to the demo was as expected, but the development team faced a really serious problem: they realized that they were only at the third station on their way up the mountain. They were halfway done in terms of development progress, but the peak was still far away.


The volume of work left to do was big, with even more challenges looming ahead. There was pressure, fatigue and insecurities, so the team’s performance dropped sharply. This was between summer and autumn of 2015.


Tabata-san found the answer to solve that situation at home: one day, before going to work, his six years old (back then) daughter came up to him and gave him a big hug without saying a word. Then she asked “how much longer will it be?” He did not know how to answer, so he responded “It’s going to be a while.”


His daughter held her tears back and pulled out a big smile, telling him “chin up and keep up the good work, daddy!” Then she went back to her room and brought back a drawing portraying him at work. She put her worry for her father ahead of her own loneliness, and seeing her fight to hold back tears hit Tabata-san very hard as a parent. He realized how much his family put up with.


Immediately after, he had a meeting with his team, and they decided to organize a family day with the objective of achieving a better balance between work and life, and to show appreciation to their family, giving them peace of mind and allowing them to learn about their work and goals.


They spent a lot of time to prepare for the family day, even if they were in a hurry, and worried about development milestones and schedules. Back then, Business Division 2 had 250 staff members, so bringing all of their family members the office was quite a big project.


They actually customized Final Fantasy XV for the kids, and made them play with it on the PCs at the office for the whole day. Tabata-san’s daughter was there as well. Developers were allowed to show their wives, husbands, parents and kids their work desks, and what they do on the job.


By having the family day, the team set their sights on the goal again, and lesson Tabata-san learned is that to have a strong team, it’s necessary that staff members have the support of their families.


Towards the end of the development cycle, as things were winding down, Square Enix organized events all over the world to get the audience excited for the release, but there was amother big crisis awaiting for them.


This wasn’t the two months delay that was announced in August, instead, it was when some stores broke the street date and spoilers started to circulate.


Since this was the first simultaneous worldwide release, the company lacked the expertise to stop copies from leaking. They were ok with early purchasers enjoying the game on their own, but there were people actively trying to ruin the experience for others intentionally with spoilers.


Tabata-san spoke to the relevant parties, and many were actually complaining about it. He discussed this internally, and made it clear that they wouldn’t take this kind of intentional behavior lightly.


After that, the spoilers died down a bit, but Tabata-san had to face criticism for that. Yet, he learned a lot from the experience: if he found himself in the same situation again, rather than relying on enforcement, he would probably come up with a solution, for instance to take advantage of the spoilers and trying to somehow integrate those leaking them in the game’s promotion.


As with the family day, Tabata-san believes that it’s critical to turn crises into opportunities. In any project there are always crises, drama and problems, and turning crises into opportunities is one big takeaway from Tabata-san’s experience in developing Final Fantasy XV.


In the end, the team managed to complete Final Fantasy XV, and in a month they managed to sell about six million copies. While failure would have meant that there wouldn’t be a next time, success means that this probably isn’t the final Final Fantasy, and the series will live on.


Tabata-san continued by mentioning once again that his story developing the game isn’t a success story, but now he knows that the greatest goals can only be achieved by taking big chances. The team knows that there are big chances ahead, so they will keep taking on more challenges for Final Fantasy XV, on top of completely new challenges.


In conclusion, the Final Fantasy XV team is a team of fighters, and he believes that Final Fantasy is now a “challenger” once again.


After the talk, Tabata-san showcased a video with some gorgeous technical experiments the team is conducting for the future, and you can check that out here.


Below you can see all the slides of the presentation. Incidentally if you are a game developer (to which this panel was mainly addressed) but didn’t have a chance to attend, you can send me a mail requesting the full audio recording.


Director Hajime Tabata Compares Final Fantasy XV Development To Climbing Mt. Denali (March 1st, 2017):
original link: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...asy-xv-development-to-climbing-mt-denali.aspx
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Today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata took the stage to discuss some of the hardships and what he's learned while developing the game.


The stakes were always high for Final Fantasy XV, as the team had to prove it could compete in this new generation of games. Tabata said from the start of the project, the famed father of Final Fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi said, "This [is] our last chance." The series was in trouble, and if Final Fantasy XV failed, the series couldn't live on.


Tabata said since the stakes were so high, he also raised his own bar. Original projections had the game selling under 5 million copies worldwide; Tabata set a goal for his team to reach 6 million copies. Tabata knew playing it safe wouldn't do. The team had to take risks if they wanted to make a memorable game. This meant switching away from the turn-based combat the series was known for and creating a more open world, something the team had never done before. "The greatest goals can only be reached by taking chances," Tabata said in his talk.


Tabata, a skier, compared his evolution as a developer to climbing mountains. His previous work was on handheld and mobile games. He compared his previous games to different mountain sizes, saying Crisis Core was like climbing Mt. Kitadake and Type-0 was akin to Mt. Fuji, but to really drive home the scope of ambition of Final Fantasy XV, he used Mt. Denali, which has an elevation of 20,310 feet and is the highest mountain peak in North America, to illustrate the challenges in front of him. The elevation is close to double his other games.


Tabata brought up many times the importance of his team at Business Division 2, which was built for Final Fantasy XV. He said it was integral that they work together, but he noticed after launching Episode Duscae that his team's passion diminished. The demo was a proof of concept, but it also showed the team how much work still needed to be done. To motivate his team, Tabata decided to have a Family Day, after his six-year-old daughter one morning asked him, "How much longer do you have to go?" When Tabata told her it was still a long time, she held back tears and told him to "keep up the good work." The Family Day allowed the team to show their family what they were working so hard on. They set up stations for the kids to play the game all around the office. This gave the team a new appreciation for what they were creating and restored morale to get them to the end of the road.


Tabata ended his talk on a positive note, showing the team had surpassed the 6 million mark in sales, which was initially seen as a high goal when he set it. He said he's learned to turn challenges into opportunities, even when unpredictable problems occur, such as people leaking spoilers of the game before release. He then fired back at those who were leaking things by integrating that into the marketing. He said when all is said and done, he considers Final Fantasy XV a success and "the series will probably live on."


He ended his talk saying the team is looking to improve even more on Final Fantasy XV, improving destruction, A.I. and procedural elements. He then discussed having more monster battles where the A.I. analyze players' patterns and adapting to it better as a new goal.


Prompto's Facebook: How a Buddy-AI Auto-Snapshots Your Adventure in FFXV (March 14, 2017):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ictRlPZQCZI


Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Terra Battle Announces Final Fantasy XV Crossover Event (April, 22nd 2017):
original link: http://www.dualshockers.com/2017/04...e-announces-final-fantasy-xv-crossover-event/
Looks like the rift between Final Fantasy Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and Square Enix is pretty much healed, as his studio Mistwalker announced a brand new crossover event between its mobile RPG Terra Battle and Final Fantasy XV.


The event will start on April 27th, and will feature three quests, including Noctis, Ignis, Prompto and Gladiolus and familiar enemies like behemoths and Titan. We’ll also get to listen to a new track by Nobuo Uematsu (who worked on part of the original soundtrack of Terra Battle) titled “Bonds.”


Below you can see a few screenshots from the upcoming quests.


This is not the first event crossing over Terra Battle and a Final Fantasy game, as a Mobius Final Fantasy event just went live today.


Sakaguchi-san himself picked Final Fantasy XV as his game of the year for 2016. He was also present at the Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV event, and sent a hilarious video message during the Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Celebration event. We also heard about his interaction with Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata.


Terra Battle is currently available for iOS and Android, while Final Fantasy XV is available for PS4 and Xbox One.
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Afrosword Announcement Video (April 24th, 2017):
 
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