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Final Fantasy XV |OT2| For Jared!

No release date for the free content update, right? So I presume it will come in December with Episode Ignis.

In these Universe trailers, when they show Free Updates it usually comes out in the next patch and we've been getting monthly patches adding things. I'm not saying it's guaranteed to be coming in the next month. But it is a pattern. And we haven't gotten this month's free update...
 

Ochibi

Member
My English isn't the best. I tried my best and I've only translated parts from the interview where it's about FFXV. The entire interview is also about Arnaud Leonard's work so I don't think it is interesting for you.

Finaland: What did you like in Ardyn to agree to voice him?

Arnaud Léonard: It's funny because it's been several years that on stage I'm more willing to play villains roles and Ardyn is the same style. I had the chance to play Scar at the Mogador Theater but also the vile Sykes in Oliver Twist and so suddenly there is a similarity with my vocal rendering. It is amazing to see that even without seeing the ignoble face that I can do when I am not happy, or even when I am happy, my voice is enough for me to receive role proposal and play little darker roles and this is the thing that pleases me at Ardyn. The bad guy is never the free bad guy, there's always a motivation at the start, a cause or suffering, so we'll look into it.

Finaland: How is it to work for a Japanese company?

Olivier Daubry: I was fortunate to have a lot of projects, whether with French, American or Japanese clients, but on Final Fantasy we felt like we were really part of the team and we had many truly constructive exchanges with them. We did not have the position of a service provider in front of a customer, we were really a team followed without being heavily hierarchical-dependent or other and it was really cool. I do not know if it's specific to Japanese culture, but for example, having worked with many Americans often we are just service providers, they give us the job, there is not really dialogue and when we request things, we do not always have a return. On Final Fantasy XV it was easier, despite the distance. We also had the help of Laurent Sautière.

Bruno Meyere: Laurent is the translator responsible for the French version. He works for Square Enix Japan and he followed the project from A to Z to the point that we were perpetually connected to him via Skype, he also came to see us in France. It's true that as Olivier said, compared to the different experiences I had in the direction of French versions of video games, there was really a follow-up, a dialogue and we were given the maximum of contexts and information, including "work in progress" videos that allowed us to have enough understanding of the scenes.

Olivier Daubry: They were listening to us. For example, when we started recording we had a standard rhythm but that was a little too fast compared to the complexity of the dialogues and the psychology of the characters etc. so from the beginning we asked more time for such a project and they said ok without hesitation. It is so rare that we are given good conditions as quickly.

Bruno Meyere: We were nevertheless explained that this was a long awaited project, there was pressure to do things well but there was really a follow-up as rarely seen in the video game. If people appreciate the French Voices this is really super rewarding for us, but it must be pointed out that it does not always happen like that in the video game, there was a real involvement for FFXV.

Finaland: What was your degree of freedom in this project?

Bruno Meyere: It's quite broad as a question, but we had a great deal of freedom in the sense that we put forward personal choices, especially to propose actors. They let us give our opinion on the actors and finally the final choices have all relieved us.

Olivier Daubry: Besides for the anecdote, Arnaud Léonard came twice in casting. The first time we had American references, which were quite exaggerated.

Arnaud Léonard: It was a bit overplayed, yes.

Olivier Daubry: There was a cartoon aspect, even snake-ish, so Arnaud did the same since it was the reference we had but we found it a little too cartoonish so we asked Arnaud to come back to make test and when he came back he was sick, his nose was completely stuffy and he was picked on those tests there (laughing).

Bruno Meyere: He was asked to reproduce the cold but even with a clothespin on the nose it did not worked (laugh). More seriously, on the first trials we had only the English voices as reference, and even on these voices the choices were not definitive. Noctis for example had a super serious voice in English, for me it did not stick at all with the character and it turned out that later the actor of Noctis (Ray Chase) lightened his voice so we were sent excerpts in Japanese for that we can make better decisions.

Finaland: Who decided on the pronunciation of the word Gils?

Olivier Daubry: It was imposed, there was no doubt about the pronunciation. But on the other hand, Ardyn pronunciation at the beginning was "Ardene" (aʁ.ˈd̪ɛn) but culturally in France it was a little odd and not necessarily logical. We talked about it with the French marketing department of Square Enix, and the feedback went to Japan.

Finaland: So, were you contacted to play Ardyn again?

Arnaud Léonard: Not yet, no.
About this one, we did this interview 2 or 3 months ago.

This part is interesting :

Finaland: Who's your favorite character in the game?

Olivier Daubry: Noctis because it is the hero anyway. But Cid too, because the actor who voiced him (José Luccioni) has exactly the same personality as the character (laugh).

Bruno Meyere: For my case, I have affection for each of the characters, it is hard to choose. I have a small preference for Cindy, she's fresh, natural ... Well it will be said that she is pulpy but she supports what she's saying (laugh) and I find it pimpy and not pitcher as we often see in manga. Edwige Lemoine has voiced the character with a real natural, she is one of those people who we do not need to explain much and who is very intelligent.

Arnaud Léonard: Well, I know only one, so ... (laughs)

Finaland: Really only one? You did not take an interest in others to better understand the plot?

Arnaud Léonard: Only on the moment though, but I forget very quickly, a real goldfish.

Bruno Meyere: And then each actor records individually. It is explained to him with whom it interacts and the context but the actor guesses the personages in the surroundings.

Finaland: We had a question about that, have you recorded with another actor?

Arnaud Léonard: No, in video games it is always alone that we record.

Olivier Daubry: On the other hand if we talk about our disappointments I would say Ravus Nox Fleuret, although I'm happy with the work that was done, in the end his role in the game is really disappointing compared to his place.

Finaland: In this regard, did the scenario change during your work?

Olivier Daubry: There were a lot of recorded scenes that were not actually used. Iedolas, voiced by Vincent Grasse, there really was a great potential and in the end he did not even have two scenes. Verstael (Jean-Claude Donda), we recorded twice and in the end he has oly 4 dialogues in the game. Dave also who was supposed to be the charismatic leader of the hunters was not very well integrated. It is more of a disappointment compared to the work we have done.

Bruno Meyere: When you record you can't know who is going to be important or not. We have an organizational chart but we do not know the place of each character, we discover them as we go. We send our records on a day-to-day basis, there is validation or not, and sometimes we are asked to add a replica or other. Laurent has done a remarkable job starting from the Japanese version.

Finaland: Why did not you work from the English version then?

Bruno Meyere: If it's vague in Japanese it will be as vague in English or French, so starting from the English without having any context will be even more catastrophic.

Olivier Daubry: In this case there is also the question of the time limit for production, because the English translated version was done at the same time as the French. Basically we recorded on the English files for the lip sync because we did not have our own sync and after a month we were told to stop because they were too fuzzy on the English version so we had to recalibrate everything on the Japanese. For the anecdote, there are only 3 cutscenes in which we have synchro on the English lip sync and at the time of the release of the game they did something wrong and put the Japanese sync instead of the English one, many people have seen that in the CGI introduction of the game, there was a gap.

Bruno Meyere
: A translation it's also to adapt the text to the language and Laurent knew to put us the good volume of work so that it sticks in the French version since he's bilingual.

Finaland: Arnaud, is there a moment in the scenes of Ardyn that oustanded you more than others? And did you inspire yourself somewhere else to play Ardyn?

Arnaud Léonard: That would be his leit motiv, it is his relationship with the player in particular. It is that there will always be an absolute contempt for the person to whom he is addressed, and especially toward the player. For inspiration, we obviously one use the myths that have crossed the world and all the deceitful characters of the ancient theater to today. Let's take Shakespeare's Richard III, for example, who is going to pull himself out of the room to talk to the audience or Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, who stands out from the action to talk to the camera. It is also and above all for that that the bad guys are so exciting.
 

Koozek

Member
My English isn't the best. I tried my best and I've only translated parts from the interview where it's about FFXV. The entire interview is also about Arnaud Leonard's work so I don't think it is interesting for you.








About this one, we did this interview 2 or 3 months ago.

This part is interesting :
Ohh, thank you! :) Interesting bits.

What is the general consensus on the VA in the French fanbase? The parts I heard sounded quite nice as far as I can judge as someone who knows no French, though Cor sounds hilarious, lol: https://youtu.be/O3dVuA2hubo?t=6m46s
 

Ochibi

Member
Ohh, thank you! :) Interesting bits.

What is the general consensus on the VA in the French fanbase? The parts I heard sounded quite nice as far as I can judge as someone who knows no French, though Cor sounds hilarious, lol: https://youtu.be/O3dVuA2hubo?t=6m46s

Overall, the French fanbase really liked the French VA. They really did a great work. I planned to play in Japanese first but at the last moment, I've chosen the French voices and I wasn't disappointed.

Cor is the only disappointment but it was a complicated situation. When the voice actor (Pascal Germain) sent his demo voice, it was his voice but a long time ago. His voice has changed and when they've noticed that, it was too late.
 

Koozek

Member
Overall, the French fanbase really liked the French VA. They really did a great work. I planned to play in Japanese first but at the last moment, I've chosen the French voices and I wasn't disappointed.

Cor is the only disappointment but it was a complicated situation. When the voice actor (Pascal Germain) sent his demo voice, it was his voice but a long time ago. His voice has changed and when they've noticed that, it was too late.
Hm, I see. The German VA was surprisingly good too, imo. Was the first time I've played a game in German and I think it's better than the English one. Ignis and Gladio are much more natural. Well, Prompto is overly goofy in any language.

Btw, I just discovered these making-of videos on FFXV from the French site JeuxVideo.com and I actually don't remember if I ever saw these oO I think they came out when I started going on a blackout two weeks or so before release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNjJiq6ltz8&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UiDxSifMow&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW&index=6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BADHojvmwqY&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wIEZ4pI8o&index=2&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW
 

Ochibi

Member
Hm, I see. The German VA was surprisingly good too, imo. Was the first time I've played a game in German and I think it's better than the English one. Ignis and Gladio are much more natural. Well, Prompto is overly goofy in any language.

Btw, I just discovered these making-of videos on FFXV from the French site JeuxVideo.com and I actually don't remember if I ever saw these oO I think they came out when I started going on a blackout two weeks or so before release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNjJiq6ltz8&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UiDxSifMow&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW&index=6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BADHojvmwqY&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5wIEZ4pI8o&index=2&list=PLKaICRmeQIX_R2N1eyApZ3lbq_SrRIoVW

I've heard the German VA during gamescom. It was strange for me as a French guy, but I thought they were fine and good. It was funny to see Prompto yodeling haha.

About those videos yes, it was around 2 - 4 weeks before the release
 

Keym

Member
They enjoyed the experience but were disappointed a lot of things got cut. Better? It just surprised me because the English VAs never talked about cut content like that, as far as I recall.
 
FFXV may have my favourite OST in the series. Its right there with FFVI IMO with FFXV having better battle themes. I find myself humming to the battle themes to this day (Veiled in Black, Up for the Challenge, Stand your Ground).

I am waiting to replay this game when all the story DLC wraps.
 
FFXV may have my favourite OST in the series. Its right there with FFVI IMO with FFXV having better battle themes. I find myself humming to the battle themes to this day (Veiled in Black, Up for the Challenge, Stand your Ground).

I am waiting to replay this game when all the story DLC wraps.

You can make a strong argument that its the best OST of all time.
 
I enter the ever illustrious Regalia sewers but the bros don't follow but quip as if they're there. I have tried returning to the car to give a load screen and hopefully reset so many times. Nada. They're also acting so fucking stupid and have a hard time keeping up with me when walking down the stairs to the entrance. And then Ignis ends up floating above the alley whenever I exit the tomb to see WTF is up.

Dumb.
 
Five times in a row, loaded two different save files. AI is acting funky even at Hammerhead. Guess I have a gamehalting bug which will prevent me from 100%ing post game content. Sucks.
 

Xetherion

Member
I enter the ever illustrious Regalia sewers but the bros don't follow but quip as if they're there. I have tried returning to the car to give a load screen and hopefully reset so many times. Nada. They're also acting so fucking stupid and have a hard time keeping up with me when walking down the stairs to the entrance. And then Ignis ends up floating above the alley whenever I exit the tomb to see WTF is up.

Dumb.

Yeah that dungeon was buggy for me too. It shouldn't affect the rest of your game though. Also there a certain spots in the dungeon that will bring your bros back to you when you pass through. Getting to those spots alone can be tough, but it's doable. I was like L.50+ when i went through it though.
 
Yeah that dungeon was buggy for me too. It shouldn't affect the rest of your game though. Also there a certain spots in the dungeon that will bring your bros back to you when you pass through. Getting to those spots alone can be tough, but it's doable. I was like L.50+ when i went through it though.
It's just annoying hearing them quip and point things out and they're not there. I'm gonna upload a video and share because my son was laughing his ass as I was containing my frustration.

Fast traveled to Hammerhead for a "reset" and Gladio starts off in mid-air, drops down and runs straight into Cindey's truck and runs in place for a long while until he eventually gives up but then runs straight to the diner before getting lost finding the entrance. And Prompto was already way down there. I have to see the footage again to see how he got so far so quickly lol.

But Ignis floating everytime I exit the sewers has me confused/angry.
 

Ludens

Banned
You can't play the new cutscene from the extra menu, you need to replay chapter 12. Not worth in my opinion, just Google it.
 
You can't play the new cutscene from the extra menu, you need to replay chapter 12. Not worth in my opinion, just Google it.

I would prefer it integrated into the game than be accessed from a separate menu. So I prefer what they did here. If they feel they have to pick or chose one of the ways to do it, I prefer the integration.
 
Uhm, no? The devs just contradicted themselves and got it wrong.

Yup. No way the devs know their own story that they've been writting for years and have QA teams to triple check story and lore. Nope. Devs are wrong. Random YouTuber is right. Praise be to Pez. Thank God we have his guiding light to lead us to the truth...or death...either works.
 

Toth

Member
Sounds like FF Pez is upset because the new scenes blow his theory away and is calling the new stuff "contradictory." Which is quite laughable.

I like the guy well enough but why is he so adamant about his theory? It was a given that new stuff would demystify it.

Besides we still don't know what Solheim did to betray Ifrit and cause him to go on his rampage.

We need to see more Solheim moving forward. Costemark was not enough (if that is Solheim related that is...)
 

ultima786

Member
Besides we still don't know what Solheim did to betray Ifrit and cause him to go on his rampage.

We need to see more Solheim moving forward. Costemark was not enough (if that is Solheim related that is...)

Didn't the new scenes clarify this, at least in a general way?
That they, with their "god given power" suddenly grew to believe themselves independent and without need of ifrit, and thus their hubris.
 

Toth

Member
Didn't the new scenes clarify this, at least in a general way?
That they, with their "god given power" suddenly grew to believe themselves independent and without need of ifrit, and thus their hubris.

I mean
hubris is one thing but it seems like some kind of push would be needed for him to essentially attempt to eradicate his civilization. I wonder if the Starscourge was the catalyst (whether Solheim created it or found it in the meteor Titan caught). Still more to come anyways to understanding the full story.

Gaaaah Solheim needs more exposure in game since everything Niflheim is related to Solheim technology.
 

Toth

Member
So looks like this patch has pushed FFPez over the edge...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=dGaGYE81O5w

I really do not understand the pushback. The new information already confirmed and expanded on things we already knew from previous patches. He is mad because he could have done it better? Well, of course that's the case for many hardcore players who would happily fix story issues with lots of FF games. Heck, I would redo a lot of FFVIII story but I am not the developer so my say doesn't matter. And I understand it. It's their game and their story.

This patch helps us understand Shiva's motivation more, gives Ifrit's fight some actual substance, and clarifies what the War of Astrals was about. I can't say I am not satisfied the information is there. Would I have liked some of his theories to be true? Sure. But I have no issue where they are going with it now. There are no contradictions anywhere to be seen with the main storyline.

**Oh and him harping on "the days after..." made me scream at the monitor that is not an expression that means "two days later" but rather "anywhere from the day after to a 1000 years later..."
 
So looks like this patch has pushed FFPez over the edge...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=dGaGYE81O5w

I really do not understand the pushback. The new information already confirmed and expanded on things we already knew from previous patches. He is mad because he could have done it better? Well, of course that's the case for many hardcore players who would happily fix story issues with lots of FF games. Heck, I would redo a lot of FFVIII story but I am not the developer so my say doesn't matter. And I understand it. It's their game and their story.

This patch helps us understand Shiva's motivation more, gives Ifrit's fight some actual substance, and clarifies what the War of Astrals was about. I can't say I am not satisfied the information is there. Would I have liked some of his theories to be true? Sure. But I have no issue where they are going with it now. There are no contradictions anywhere to be seen with the main storyline.

**Oh and him harping on "the days after..." made me scream at the monitor that is not an expression that means "two days later" but rather "anywhere from the day after to a 1000 years later..."

He is literally wrong from the first line he tries to "explain."
 
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