Tabata talks Final Fantasy XV, shows off a bit of new gameplay
New Final Fantasy XV head director Hajime Tabata took some time to address some of the recent gameplay concerns during a broadcast this morning. Dengeki Online published a report of the broadcast and thanks to Gematsu, here's the full transcript.
Q: So after all, the E3 2013 trailer was a lie? You can’t actually play like that?
A: You can fight like that. I think in the recent play demonstration we showed several techniques and functions, but at E3 last year the game was running on a prototype environment (Ebony). At TGS 2014 we showed the game running in the actual environment (Luminous). Right now we are in the process of migrating functions from the prototype into it. It will take time to migrate it all. I wanted to show footage in the actual environment as soon as possible, so I ended up showing something that is in the midst of migrating. The video shows actual footage, not an idealized version. It will become more and more advanced from here on out.
Q: Can you go into detail about the “holding down the button” issue? Is it really okay to just hold the button down?
A: It’s not that simple! (Laughs.) Yes, when you continue to hold down the guard button, you can basically auto-guard and evade, but it consumes MP. You can’t infinitely evade. You have to think about timing, when it’s a good idea to attack or evade. Also, you aren’t invincible. There are attacks you can’t avoid. In those cases, there are also essential technical evasion methods.
Q: What about attacks?
A: When you push the attack button, you invoke the standard combo. You can change the actions by using it in coordination with the directional buttons. The actions change depending on your circumstances—things like whether you’re guarding and whether the timing is right, (imagine in this circumstance: when you’re guarding, you might get a chance to counterattack or something), or if your companions are nearby.
Q: Can you change the operational character?
A: Not in its current specifications. Everyone on the development team thoroughly looked into an Active Cross Battle system that made free use of attack, guard, and co-op functions, but as a result they arrived at the conclusion that changing characters would be too difficult. In order to create a new and interesting battle system, we ended up not being able to put in the character switching.
Q: Is jumping in?
A: It is. Considering PlayStation 4 has plenty of buttons, there is an independent jump button.
Q: What about free running?
A: It’s there. Except for the character switching, everything that was in the E3 2013 trailer is still there. All the cool actions like the weapons barrier that surrounds Noctis called “Phantom Sword,” and the short warps and jumping from the Behemoth battle are in the actual game. We’ll release more information later on, so please look forward to it.
Q: What about weapon selection?
A: You set them yourself before battle. You set each weapon considering what actions you can use with which weapons. You can only determine one weapon from the ones equipped to be your main one, but that weapon will come with techniques which can be invoked at your discretion in battle. Besides the basic assault button (attack), you can invoke techniques with the technique button.
Q: I can’t tell if it’s more like Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy Type-0. Which is it?
A: We explained that when you push the attack button, you invoke the standard combo, which is similar to Type-0. Considering the battle system as a whole, however, it is different from both Type-0 and Kingdom Hearts.
Q: Is it being simplified for casual users? Is is still an action RPG?
A: In order to widen its appeal, we’re developing the game aware that anyone can immediately be able to play it, however the game as a whole is not casual. Because it’s a core game, we have casual controls. If you obtain good weapons and level up, you won’t have to worry about clearing the main scenarios.
Q: Will you listen to feedback from the demo version?
A: We want to reference your feedback during development, but how we’re going to do that is still under review.
Q: Haven’t you been poor at putting out information?
A: If our fans are uneasy about the information we have released, then our ways of issuing information may in fact be poor. Even though we didn’t have a lot of time, I wanted to make clear the current situation. In the future, our information releases might be poor, but I think we can receive your approval.
There is a little bit more gameplay to check out, which shows off Noctis in combat, teleporting around the battlefield.
Tabata also shed some light on other gameplay elements such as parrying and chaining attacks. We've seen in some trailers that Noctis can team up with his other party member to perform dual attacks with them, and Tabata explains that this can be done continuously. Triggering these requires positional consideration by the player, so knowing how to navigate the combat area is key to pulling these off. Additionally, Tabata explains you’ll need to keep on eye out when trying to pull off a one of these co-op moves because parrying is not automatic.
“Development progress is at 55%,” Tabata states. “Final Fantasy XV has entered the phase where they are mass producing resource material. After that, it’s a fight against the amount of resource material and time. We are also hiring people to help make Final Fantasy XV, so interested applicants should check out the homepage.”
Next month around November 1st, Tabata plans on releasing new information from other development members in addition to planned appearances at Jump Festa in December as well as the release of the eventual demo in March 2015.
via Nova Crystallis