Final Fantasy has been a turn based RPG since as long as any of us can remember, but with Final Fantasy XV all of that history is about to be blown well and truly out of the water in a move that will usher in a new action based era for the series. There are inevitably going to be a lot of long time fans of the games that will be frustrated by the move, but from the look of the trailer we think that sentiment will last until they get their nail chewed mitts on FF15.
The game has been discussed and talked about for more than a few years now, but it has previously been know as Final Fantasy Versus XIII. It was announced by Square Enix as FFXV at this year’s E3 show and it genuinely looks amazing. Our best description for it a super detailed, high intensity CGI blur between reality, the Final Fantasy universe and some of the gameplay style of Kingdom Hearts, Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden 3, but you can see for yourself in the trailer below.
The story follows the escape of protagonist, Prince Noctis, from his ancestral home of Lucis, which looks more like modern day Manhattan, Tokyo or London than it does a city on a Final Fantasy game. The cityscape country is invaded by a one of its neighbouring factions, Niflheim, which seems hell bent on capturing the last remaining power crystal that sits at the seat of power in Lucis. With a small band of surviving rebels, Noctis fights back to save everything he’s ever know.
The game continues on with a new direction for the mythology of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series that started with Final Fantasy XIII, but probably has its routes in The Chrystal Chronicles. With a single crystal with divine and magical powers at the heart of the battle, but a feeling of modern day reality in some of the visuals it’s going to be cool getting to play the game for ourselves to see how it all works together.
In terms of the game-play, things are very fast paced with a range of hand-to-hand fighting, 3rd person shooter and magic powers to unleash on the invading Niflheim. As ever with Final Fantasy games there will be a good level of beautifully rendered cut scene CGI to tell the story elements of the game and to initiate longer dialogue based scenes to find out more about the characters involved and the reasoning behind the attack on Lucis.
Final Fantasy XV will be released on both the Microsoft Xbox ONE and the Sony PlayStation 4, flipping the previously held concept that the game would be a PS exclusive. With both consoles in the mix, this isn’t going to be a game to separate the warring factions in the next generation games consoles war (except for freezing Nintendo out of the equation, but that’s nothing new for Square Enix).
Though an official release date has still yet to be set for the latest FF title, the fact that developers were a bit cagey about answering questions about the game’s level of completeness would seem to hint at late spring 2014. The amount of time that Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been on the production table for would also imply that this one isn’t going to be fast in the making, but hopefully they’re getting close because the trailer looks very impressive, although it will be good to see an English version in the not so distant future.
