wmlk said:

Yuki Matsuzawa. You should look him up. His stuff's great.

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anaron said:

if the dude is practically killing himself over the game I'm not sure the work culture has improved very much

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JunkoEve said:

Thanks! Is he also the one who drew the picture at the end of Duscae demo ending? The one with Luna in rags and the city of Insomnia in shambles + the prophecy portrait with 4 guys and the summons?

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ULTROS! said:

This song needs to be in FFXV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=195QtkOJCYg

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Koozek said:

See this interview:

"You'd be appalled," says Hajime Tabata, director of Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and Final Fantasy 15. "Just as a reference, I sleep maybe three hours each day. It's difficult every day ..."

"There is a sense that this is shortening my lifespan. But it's all worth it."

"I knew whatever lifespan I'd already shortened with Type-0 would be even further shortened with 15," Tabata says. "But after a minute or two of thinking it over, I thought, 'That shouldn't be much of a problem.'"

It's not just sleep Tabata is sacrificing, either. As a husband, and as a father to a daughter in kindergarten, he says the time he spends at home never feels like enough. He cranks into the early hours of the morning during the week in order to spend his weekends playing with his daughter or eating with his wife. His own alone time is nearly non-existent, pushed back into the hours he spends in the car on the way to work.
Final Fantasy Type-0

"In the car, I listen to music," Tabata says. "That's all I really do. In essence, that's the only place where I listen to music now."

Yet by taking on these projects — and by tackling Final Fantasy 15 specifically — Tabata feels that the reward will outweigh the work.

"I can finally kind of be on the same battlefield as some of the globally popular AAA titles, the major hits," Tabata says. "That's been one of the best feelings that's come from working on this."

There's something special about watching Final Fantasy fans get excited, too, he says. Tabata says it's worth all the struggle when a game is finally released and feedback comes pouring in. Criticism is only a temporary setback, and it inspires him want to work harder. But the real joy is finding the players who enjoy the team's work.

[...]

"I think it was at that point that I started to feel like it's OK — it's really not a big deal if I'm shortening my lifespan to bring enjoyment to others. That's when my mindset started to change."

[...]

"I put everything into all the titles that I create," Tabata says. "Final Fantasy sticks in many people's memories, so ... if I'm bringing a positive outlook to those who are playing it, if I'm delivering a positive experience — then I guess yes, it'll be great to be remembered as someone who was part of the franchise.

"It's really the drive to create the best experience. Something that surpasses everything ... That's just what Final Fantasy development is like."​

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wmlk said:

Nope, that was Isamu Kamikokuryo, one of the Art Directors for this game.

Matsuzawa drew the concept art where Regis holds a young Noctis, and another one where Luna brushes away the imperial troops and takes a trident from her attendant.

EDIT: Kamikokuryo drew the one where Luna was in Insomnia. Matsuzawa drew the one for the prophecy portrait you're talking about.

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The idea is to create an array of enemies that feel real (and deadly) in the world.

Enemy attack patterns were also impacted by this thought process. In other action-driven games, a monster might tele-graph its next move clearly – like keeping a paw raised for a second before striking, or sweeping in an easily dodged arc. The Behemoth juts its claws out quickly and ferociously like a predator, making its attacks difficult to avoid.

“Some people said, ‘If we do it that way, then it won’t really be much of a game,’” Hasegawa says. “But then Tabata-san said, ‘Disregard that. Create a living creature.’ So we’ve spent evenings watching videos and studying them.”

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Koozek said:

Lol, nice "easter egg" (thanks to @RedMakuzawa):

Solomon Ring from FFVIII possibly used to inspire the royal Lucis ring in FFXV. Sounds pretty cool. (Via @Finaland_)​

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th4tguy said:

When does this go on sale? I checked my local GS today and it was still gears 4.
Edit: the magazine

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qualitydisc said:

Just came here to post this. You beat me

Here's a photo of the Square Enix Merchandise version for comparison


VERY cool reference

FF8 and FF15 same world confirmed haha

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Koozek said:

Lol, nice "easter egg" (thanks to @RedMakuzawa):

Solomon Ring from FFVIII possibly used to inspire the royal Lucis ring in FFXV. Sounds pretty cool. (Via @Finaland_)​

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Koozek said:

Lol, nice "easter egg" (thanks to @RedMakuzawa):

Solomon Ring from FFVIII possibly used to inspire the royal Lucis ring in FFXV. Sounds pretty cool. (Via @Finaland_)​

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Blasian Persuasion said:

Where can I buy this? I went into a GameStop today and they said it's not out yet, but it sounds like some of you already have it.

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Exentryk said:

Man, I hope Tabata doesn't get to direct any more big games. His philosophy towards gameplay is terrible. He'd be better off doing a movie or some documentary.

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Twookie said:

most of us are reading the digital version i'm pretty sure

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Koozek said:

Digital. Get the GI app and you can buy the issues as IAP.

https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/game-informer/id526096699?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gameinformer.tablet

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Blasian Persuasion said:

Oh, so physical copies can't be bought yet? That's a shame.

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Koozek said:

@RedMakuzawa

You can buy a physical copy of this month's Game Informer on April 22nd (cover designed by Yuki Matsuzawa). #FFXV​

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Dark_castle said:

That's an interesting quote. Perhaps it would explain why many people find the dodging in this game tricky to master, since enemy don't telegraph their attacks very much like in other action games. This is fine, but Noctis's attack has a lot of locked animation, and when you put the two together, it kinda makes for an uneven experience.

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wmlk said:

It's weird considering humanoid enemies definitely have tells.

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YankeeDonB said:

I suppose it emphasizes the value of hold to defend. Optimal to use when approaching a powerful enemy when you don't know what they're capable of yet. I suspect most of the must-manual-dodge-to-evade moves will have more of a tell.

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Koozek said:

Lol, nice "easter egg" (thanks to @RedMakuzawa):

Solomon Ring from FFVIII possibly used to inspire the royal Lucis ring in FFXV. Sounds pretty cool. (Via @Finaland_)​

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DirgeExtinction said:

So I know Tabata said they won't be in, but

Spoiler

There's a section in the article that says "Other familiar enemies we noticed include the Malboro, Cactuar, Tonberry, and Naga

.
So are they in or not?

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DirgeExtinction said:

So I know Tabata said they won't be in, but

Spoiler

There's a section in the article that says "Other familiar enemies we noticed include the Malboro, Cactuar, Tonberry, and Naga

.
So are they in or not?

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.JayZii said:

That ring stuff must have seeped into my subconcious because have an urge to play FFVIII for some reason.

The bolded one could be interesting in an action rpg. I wonder how they would handle that with the established characteristics of the monster and systems.

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• 
  4Gamer:
  Criticism. For example?
  T:
  What we hear the most is “you changed Versus without any consensus!” From the point of us developers, we have to change what we have to change, though.
  
  4Gamer:
  I remember you spent quite an amount of time explaining why you changed heroine on an ATR.
  T:
  It turned out pretty soon that we had to change the role of heroine to wrap up the story of FFXV in just one game. Fans had the image of Stella even though her traits and all had not been released completely. In such a case, it is really hard to change her role alone since her image would be totally different from what fans have had on her. It’s only natural some of them won’t appreciate it.
  
  4Gamer:
  If you had kept Stella and just changed her role, then people would have felt her trait changed completely.
  T:
  Our emotions are with her, and there’s no way on the earth to present a perfect explanation. Developers feel uncomfortable to work on if a character they have known well for a long time completely changed his/her role. So we decided to change the character itself.
  
  4Gamer:
  Oh. So developers would mind as well.
  T:
  If what the have believed right gets criticized, then we can’t shake it off thinking we could have done better. After all, we are also humans. Besides, staff who haven’t engaged in Versus XIII would feel that they’re doing something wrong.
  This is not healthy at all. So we decided not to let anything haunt us including the heroine issue.
  
  4Gamer:
  So you prepared a stage to explain about the change of heroine for the entire team?
  T:
  I explained the reason why we would bring in a new heroine. Among Team FFXV, we openly share the information unless it is highly confidential. We control the information strictly, of course.​

• 
  4Gamer:
  What was the most difficult and impressive decision ever made so far?
  T:
  Well, we make decisions everyday, so… Ah, the one whether we implement open world technology or not.
  N:
  Ah! That was really tough.
  T:
  In the end we decided to implement open world with the following string attached: “It’s okay if we end up failing.” There was/were staff/some staff who was/were aggressively against the idea of introducing open world. “There is a story going on. Switching maps and let the events take the lead. Make the contents enough on there.” He/She/They might have thought and been afraid that introducing open world would lead the game almost empty.
  
  4Gamer:
  Why did you stick with open world?
  T:
  If non-open world RPG is released at this timing, RPG fans from all over the world would wonder why it’s not open world. In FFXV we travel around the world, so we would definitely be criticized.
  Besides, there was once an era that FF has been the top-notch RPG. To make FF back onto the top-notch RPG game, implementing open world was the must. If we had chosen to go with old-style RPG way, then people wouldn’t take our words: “we challenge against Skyrim.”
  So I couldn’t back down. The game goes as the story goes, but it is expressed in open world.
  N:
  We spent a night together to discuss until we all agreed on open world FF.
  4Gamer:
  When was that happen?
  T:
  A few months after E3 in 2013, where we presented FFXV. Luminous Studio team and we were just merged. At that time, engineers insisted that it was impossible to develop open world game with Square Enix’s know-hows. Especially the ones from outside of Japan had that propensity.
  
  4Gamer:
  “Impossible to develop open world game,” I feel a tint of sadness hearing that as one of people who root for Square Enix and FF franchise…
  T:
  That was the proof that the world considered we had little knowledge on technology. Especially because the first HD FF game was happened to have a linear map, the world came to the conclusion that Square Enix cannot develop open world AAA games.
  While the world was still in that point of view, we released Episode Duscae. And the wind direction suddenly changed to “what? You guys CAN develop such thing?”
  
  4Gamer:
  Still, you told them “it’s okay if we end up failing.” That’s a bold call.
  T:
  Otherwise people couldn’t dive into the challenging situation with confidence. I wanted them to think “if we fail, it’s all on Tabata” and be relaxed. We first built the environment, and now we can control the seamless world dynamically. They said that it was next to impossible, but they wouldn’t wanna make the filed so infertile, so…
  N:
  They use their knowledge to the fullest and develop a better one
  T:
  When I say “I told you it’s okay that the field has almost nothing,” then they say “no way in hell!”
  4Gamer:
  So, apparently, they can do it but they were against it.
  T:
  From the technical point of view, it’s a really huge challenge to make the game open world.
  The loading system, the designing of the map, all techniques are different from the current ones. At first, I myself was like “whoa, so this is how you develop open world!” They were all open world engineers in the making, so when looking at “Grand Theft Auto” or “Red Dead Redemption,” they were overwhelmed thinking “no way we can develop that…”
  
  4Gamer:
  Of course these two titles are top-notch games…
  T:
  Well, I understand how they felt. Anyways. We got over it, we’ve earned the know-how on technology and now we can design the map. It’s not a perfect open world, but players can enjoy the seamless world. We got so excited when we finally arrived on this level.
  
  4Gamer:
  Did you have a confidence that you could build FFXV with open world?
  T:
  Yes, of course. The technology was not a new one. Other companies have been using it, and it’s not a mysterious technology.
  However, I had a doubt on whether the members in the development team could keep their best performance skills until we finish developing the game on the level that can be delivered to the world. So I decided to first build the division, and have kept updating where we were going and shared it with the team. I mean, I put priority in taking care of mind issues, not technical issues.
  
  4Gamer:
  So their minds were the ones that weren’t ready for the challenging situation.
  T:
  They first lined up things they couldn’t do, such as “If we make it an open world game, then the quality would be terrible” or “We can’t put much contents in the game.” So I kept telling them that it’s okay to lose in the quality, it’s okay to make the map lack of contents.
  
  4Gamer:
  But you have always had the expectation that they can do it if they really put themselves into it.
  T:
  50 %, yes. The rest of 50 %, it’s really okay if the game is finalized even though there is few contents in it.
  
  4Gamer:
  That’s a really bold call especially when considering that you’re developing one of the numbering titles of FF.
  T:
  Still, I wanted to share with the team that the technology we implement in the game and the perfectness of the contents are different things to be considered. I was looking for an example, and I found “Shadow of the Colossus.” When I showed that to the team, they understood. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not making fun of “Shadow of the Colossus.” I respect the game so I used as the example.
  
  4Gamer:
  It’s a good example that even though there are few contents in the game, the game can be awesome if you really develop it right. In fact, the reputation of “Shadow of the Colossus” is high outside of Japan as well.
  T:
  We can feel the world just going toward the destination. The team also re-recognized how wonderful the “Shadow of the Colossus” is.
  Furthermore, “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” is also a good example that we can feel its world. When comparing to the current games, the contents wasn’t abundant. Still, we can immerse ourselves into the world of “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” by riding on a horse and running around the seamless living world.
  
  4Gamer:
  As of now, can the final version of FFXV be the one you have been picturing?
  T:
  All the things I’ve wanted to put in the game can be achieved.​

Shredderi said:

I don't actually buy that it's more productive to sleep three hours a day instead of getting a decent rest after a day of hard work. I mean what is he doing all that time since he is the director and not making assets non-stop etc.? Is it actually doing any real favors for the project or is it another case of japanese "gotta show how I'm working myself to the literal bone or my bosses will replace me"?.

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Koozek said:

.

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TheTux said:

Looks like Tabata took a huge responsibility with the open world call.

Spoiler

Tabata era

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YankeeDonB said:

Wow, never occurred to me that there'd be so much resistance to open world from inside of SE. Tabata really is a ballsy guy.

And I hope and trust the map won't be as stuffed with repetitive side content as an Ubi game or Skyrim. Really heartening to hear Tabata reference SotC, and how it's OK to have large space as a canvas for a traditionally more-or-less linear FF plot. After playing W3 (with map markers off), I realized I do like open world games, but only when they have a strong directional plot and good pacing.

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DirgeExtinction said:

So I know Tabata said they won't be in, but

Spoiler

There's a section in the article that says "Other familiar enemies we noticed include the Malboro, Cactuar, Tonberry, and Naga

.
So are they in or not?

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Joe Juba ‏@Joejuba Apr 6
Regarding Tonberries and FFXV: We definitely saw a model in an in-game monster lineup. If they make the final cut is obviously up to BD2.

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Koozek said:

From Mognet's @RetroPS4:

From Uncovered event iphone case for XV (left-most)

Versus: (the skull Sigil is the same!!!) We havn't seen this image in any scenes of XV or Kingsglaive yet, but here it is on brand new FFXV merchandise, *KeanuWhoa!.gif*

Versus:

FFXV:

Versus:

FFXV:

Versus / Kingsglaive:

​

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unity of the void said:

Just FYI I think if you don't have a Mognet account, those images are broken. T_T

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unity of the void said:

Just FYI I think if you don't have a Mognet account, those images are broken. T_T

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Koozek said:

From Mognet's @RetroPS4:

From Uncovered event iphone case for XV (left-most)

Versus: (the skull Sigil is the same!!!) We havn't seen this image in any scenes of XV or Kingsglaive yet, but here it is on brand new FFXV merchandise, *KeanuWhoa!.gif*

Versus:

FFXV:

Versus:

FFXV:

Versus / Kingsglaive:

​

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