A brand new cinematic trailer for Final Fantasy XV dropped this weekend from Square Enix, and in it, we see more on the new game's storyline, some more combat, and the first ever female "Cid" character renamed Cidney.
The trailer was released in time for Japan's Jump Festa 2015 anime expo where gaming news site Kotaku had a chance to ask a few fan questions to game director Hajime Tabata.
When asked about the giant Titan show at the end of the trailer, Tabata reveals that it is a summonable Titan that will be usable at that gigantic size, but you'll need to obtain them through several different methods. Tabata says he had originally hoped to have the Titan as part of a playable demo that will be included with Final Fantasy Type-o HD next year, but that may not be possible.
"Unfortunately, it turns out Titan is a summon that plays a rather important role in the plot, so we're putting a different summon in Episode Duscae to show players what happens when you tame one or when you use one," Tabata said. "So we're putting the prototype of the summon system in the demo, so I hope people can actually try it out and see what it's like."
Seamless towns are also shown off in the new trailer, allowing players to drive up to a town, get out of their cars, and enter the town all seamlessly. But the entire game isn't like that, Tabata explains. "But as to whether the entire game is seamlessly connected like that, that's what we're trying to do in development, but it may turn out that for important places there will be loading. But in terms of what's offered in the demo, everything is seamless, so you can get the feel that this entire world is connected."
A debuff status is also discussed in regards to resting and camping in the game. When you sleep for long periods, or eat certain foods, your character will enjoy special buffs like increased spirit or the conversion of experience into levels. This mechanic also allows players to remain at low levels by not sleeping.
In fact, the day and night cycle in relation to sleep is very important in Final Fantasy XV. Tabata explains that as young men, the main character Noctis is a young man, so he can go several days without sleep, but he will be negatively affected if he tries to carry on much longer than that. He goes on to say that right now, a game day is about an hour in real life, but that may be tweaked, and there are some battles that may go on for several days in the game.
The absence of magic has also caught the keen eyes of fans as one asks why we don't see it in this trailer. "Magic has been delegated to the later stages of development," Tabata said. "To be absolutely honest, there is a prototype of course, and the battle system has been made, and we'll be brushing up the graphics before releasing the final product. So for combat we make the basic system, brush up the graphics, and what we do next is add all the different actions that occur in battle, so at the moment, the magic looks kind of disappointing. That's why we haven't shown it yet."
Tabata does go on to reveal, though, that Noctis is the only one who can use magic in the world of FFXV. "He's the only one with magic abilities. But as a game, having only Noctis be able to use magic doesn't really work, so we're implementing a rather unique system so that everyone in the party can use magic," he continued.
And finally, there's the question of Cidney. Is she a female version of Cid? And why did Square decide to go in this direction?
"Well, her name is "Cid"-ney, so that should give you an idea," Tabata teased. "But in terms of who she is to the player, well, she isn't integral to the story, rather she's integral to the player's adventure - she's a mechanic who supports your travels. What she works on, you can probably guess [from the trailer]."
Final Fantasy XV does not have a release date yet, but many rumors suggest that it will launch for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sometime in late 2015 or early 2016.
