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Famitsu interview with Tabata details Final Fantasy XV's battle system and more

duckroll

Member
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201409/22062014.html

I've only highlighted the points which are unique to the Famitsu interview in terms of new information. I've skimmed over stuff which was repeated in the Kotaku and Game Informer interviews in the other thread.



Tabata on taking over Nomura as director:

- He joined the project in July 2012, Wada personally asked him and the Type-0 team to help out on the Versus XIII project. They also decided at that point to change platforms and rename the game to FFXV, changing the direction of the project.

- About half a year after he joined the project, the tech demo they were working on for FFXV got the greenlight (sounds like a vertical slice), and the project moved full steam ahead.

- He didn't take over the project as director suddenly, since he has been working on this project for a while now. He has had many discussion with Nomura and the development team about the characters and world setting, the meaning of a numbered FF, the best way to make a good game with satisfying content, etc.

- He feels that there is no downside at all to the change in director for the development of the game. He understands fans who have been waiting for a long time might be uneasy, so they had a playable stage demo at TGS along with the trailer, and furthermore if people are still doubtful, there's a playable demo coming next year.

- Tabata's personal vision for the game is the design incorporating the themes of "friendship" and "the journey" into every aspect of it. The story scenes and the battles will all show Noctis and his friendship with the party.



Tabata on the battle system:

- The battle system will feature very flashy moves and abilities, and feel like an action packed flow of moves. There will be warping and magic attacks, and there will be combination attacks with party members which are generated automatically based on context.

- He also mentions that because this is a RPG, you can also play more strategically, and that during combat you can pause the game into a menu and adjust party behavior, change weapons, etc.

- The weapon system in the game is treated like a deck. You set weapons on the deck in the menu, and during combat the most appropriate weapon in the deck will be used based on the situation.

- The evasion in the game is executed by "defensive movement" which is a stance the player goes into when holding down the defense button. This allows the player to move around defensively avoiding attacks.



Tabata on the Day/Night cycle:

- There is a day/night cycle in the game, and at night more aggressive monsters will show up. In day time the monsters will be passive and won't attack the player automatically.

- They might change it in future, but currently one day in the game time is about 30 minutes of play. You can fight the Adamantoise seen in the trailer, but Tabata jokes that it might take 30 in-game days to beat it. Sounds to me like it's an optional enemy which probably has a gimmick to beating it normally, like in FFXIII. Who knows.



Tabata on Share and Remote Play:

- The demo will support Share features, but they're not sure if Remote Play will be in. For the actual game both features will be supported.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Noctis is the only playable character.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

- Only controlled Noctis, but final game will allow control of characters other than Noctis. No demonstration of this.
- Verendus

FML.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
- They might change it in future, but currently one day in the game time is about 30 minutes of play. You can fight the Adamantoise seen in the trailer, but it might take 30 in-game days to beat it.

900 minutes...

So about the amount of time it takes to beat some of the FFXII superbosses. D:
 

Mortemis

Banned
- The weapon system in the game is treated like a deck. You set weapons on the deck in the menu, and during combat the most appropriate weapon in the deck will be used based on the situation.

Correct me if im wrong, because I really hope I am. So you can't manually weapon switch yourself, you choose what you can use in a menu and the system chooses it for you while attacking? Hold X to do everything is sounding more appropriate.

This could end up good but this sounds horrible. Just ugh.

And no more character switching either. Fuck.
 
Shame with Noctis being the only playable character. Quite disappointing. I mean the soul director is the Type-0 director... How many people could you play as in that?
14
I feel like he'd want to push harder for more playable characters. Oh well...
 
They might change it in future, but currently one day in the game time is about 30 minutes of play. You can fight the Adamantoise seen in the trailer, but it might take 30 in-game days to beat it.
How long was the average time needed to beat Yiazmat again?
 

Gorillaz

Member
interested in what they meant about waiting days to come back to the boss

hopefully that is still positive news about backtracking and being open enough...maybe
 

aly

Member
Kinda disappointed with only being able to play as Noctis. Also the battle system sounds weird, but I think I need the demo to decide how I feel about it.
 

Verendus

Banned
This sounds like they've removed the switch mechanic and it's now part of a customisation aspect in a menu. Still no jump. And no other playable characters. He needs to clarify how combinations work now. How can you combo without the manual switch? It sounds like they went backwards.
 

Paracelsus

Member
- The weapon system in the game is treated like a deck. You set weapons on the deck in the menu, and during combat the most appropriate weapon in the deck will be used based on the situation.

So they shoehorned gambits into KH battle system. Yeah, heavily against until/unless demo proves wrong.
 
As I said, it dosn't sound very good on paper. But it really made it seems like a mix of action based and turn based, because like in turn based RPG, all you do is select the action you want to perform.
 

JoJoSono

Banned
Sounds like a fusion of XIII and XII's ideas. That could work, but I feel like making it not action based may hurt it. I feel like an action rpg is exactly what current gamers want.
 
Enemies more agressive at night. I love that.

The defense maneuver should not always work. Otherwise the game will be easy as hell.

I'll reserve judgement but you couldn't get any further from a mainstream FF combat system then this. I like that you can pause and open up the menu system though

No mention of potions and such?
 
This sounds like they've removed the switch mechanic and it's now part of a customisation aspect in a menu. Still no jump. And no other playable characters. He needs to clarify how combinations work now. How can you combo without the manual switch? It sounds like they went backwards.

Jump Festa?
 

Xenus

Member
I feel like over the last few days I read somewhere and interview where he said Noctis is the only playable character in the demo but that could change in the finalgame. But I've read so much over the last few days I no longer know if that was an actual interview or writer/insider speculation
 

Tagg9

Member
- He joined the project in July 2012, Wada personally asked him and the Type-0 team to help out on the Versus XIII project. They also decided at that point to change platforms and rename the game to FFXV, changing the direction of the project.

- About half a year after he joined the project, the tech demo they were working on for FFXV got the greenlight (sounds like a vertical slice), and the project moved full steam ahead.

So the game only entered full production in early 2013. That explains a lot.
 
I guess since it's more action oriented, I could see why you only control one character. If you can only control one character in a turn based system, then that's stupid.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
This sounds like they've removed the switch mechanic and it's now part of a customisation aspect in a menu. Still no jump. And no other playable characters. He needs to clarify how combinations work now. How can you combo without the manual switch? It sounds like they went backwards.

Where did your 'battle system notes' come from anyway? You sounded confident there.
 

desmax

Member
Oh, you'll be able to play as others characters in the full game? That's neat.

Though it was only going to be Noctis because of the teleporting mechanic; hope the other characters have their own unique skills
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
So they shoehorned gambits into KH battle system. Yeah, heavily against until/unless demo proves wrong.

eh, KH1 and 2 had invisible gambits already with how the AI worked for your friends. Sometimes did really dumb shit too so being able to edit it might not be such a bad thing.

Not switching your playable character works in a game like KH...but Final Fantasy? Some games try to force a character into your party for story reasons but nothing like this.
 
One day in the game world is about 30 minutes in real time, Tabata told Famitsu.

You will mostly camp out during the actual game, he told 4Gamer. And camping out is important. Since time is a real factor, characters who don’t sleep will do worse in battle.

When a day is over, accrued experience will be calculated in an effort to give players an idea of how much they’ve accomplished over that stretch of time.

Monsters in dungeons will also wander above ground during night, adding extra impetus to camp.


Very cool!
 
The queuing of weapons is interesting too. And how it will all flow based on " context ", guess like situations in the video occur and noctis is hurt so a buddy goes and slices the charging animals feet to knock it over. But was that caused by a command or just by context?

Also loving how various things will change the combat dynamically like weather or fatigue. Love that
 

Werewolf Jones

Gold Member
At least the whole Action RPG element is still being expanded on. Don't see an issue with just Noctis being playable as long as the other characters are decently written.
 

HHTurtle

Neo Member
I think this forum is overreacting over the battle system issue.

Quote from the Famitsu article:

"コマンド選択ではなく,アクションバトルでオフェンスとディフェンスを切り替えながら戦います。プレイヤーが操作できるのはノクトだけですが,ほかのキャラクターは,プレイヤーが出した作戦に基づいて,自律的に行動します。もちろん戦闘中でも,設定画面を呼び出してパーティ全体に対する作戦や個別の武器を変更することはできます。"

"You don't select from a list of commands. In battle, you switch from offense to defense and vice versa. The only character that the player is in direct control of is Noctis. However, the other characters will act according to tactics that the player set beforehand. Of course, there will be a screen with settings that you can use to control the entire party to attack or switch o various weapons."
 

duckroll

Member
I checked out the 4Gamer interview, and regarding the playable character thing...

When Tabata says that the player only controls Noctis and the other characters have AI commands, it sounds more like he's describing how the system works as it is. In the demo shown so far, the only playable character in Noctis. It could be that they have removed character swapping, but it could also just be him describing the fact that as an action RPG you only control a single character. At the same time, he does talk about how the game is very much about Noctis and his friends "helping each other", so that might be why only Noctis is playable.

The important points he highlights is that there will be AI settings in the menu which can be changed, and the player will have a degree of control over the battle flow.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Oh, you'll be able to play as others characters in the full game? That's neat.

Though it was only going to be Noctis because of the teleporting mechanic; hope the other characters have their own unique skills

Apparently not anymore. :(

I do like the sound of Gambit.
 
I checked out the 4Gamer interview, and regarding the playable character thing...

When Tabata says that the player only controls Noctis and the other characters have AI commands, it sounds more like he's describing how the system works as it is. In the demo shown so far, the only playable character in Noctis. It could be that they have removed character swapping, but it could also just be him describing the fact that as an action RPG you only control a single character. At the same time, he does talk about how the game is very much about Noctis and his friends "helping each other", so that might be why only Noctis is playable.

The important points he highlights is that there will be AI settings in the menu which can be changed, and the player will have a degree of control over the battle flow.
There just better damn well be character switching! :mad:
 

sn00zer

Member
Okay okay...phew...alright this sounds better....seems like action combat is still in and Im totally down to changing AI behavior on the fly...wouldnt mind it in Kingdom Harts...oka..okay...this is good...tis is good....really not feeling that defensiv stance still, but okay....rolling and such are still in
 

injurai

Banned
I've been dispelling misplaced concerns, and saying we need to wait and see how combat ends up looking.

And this comes as the first definitively troubling news in my mind... not liking this one bit.
 
- They might change it in future, but currently one day in the game time is about 30 minutes of play. You can fight the Adamantoise seen in the trailer, but it might take 30 in-game days to beat it.

If I can sit through Knights of the Round Table a million times in a row for FFVII, I can sit through something a lot more interactive for FFXV.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Nothing sounds irreparably wrong, so I'm okay with what he has said.

I am hoping the Demo won't come out too far next year.
 

duckroll

Member
Okay okay...phew...alright this sounds better....seems like action combat is still in and Im totally down to changing AI behavior on the fly...wouldnt mind it in Kingdom Harts...oka..okay...this is good...tis is good....really not feeling that defensiv stance still, but okay....rolling and such are still in

The action definitely sounds very much automated now though. You customize stuff beforehand, and in combat you basically pick between holding down defend or holding down attack, or picking other more active moves like warping or casting magic. Even combination attacks with other party members are triggered by context.
 

Exentryk

Member
- The weapon system in the game is treated like a deck. You set weapons on the deck in the menu, and during combat the most appropriate weapon in the deck will be used based on the situation.

What is this BS? No manual weapon switching either? But Verendus had that control scheme?
 

benzy

Member
The action definitely sounds very much automated now though. You customize stuff beforehand, and in combat you basically pick between holding down defend or holding down attack, or picking other more active moves like warping or casting magic. Even combination attacks with other party members are triggered by context.

That sounds like a snoozefest. :(
 
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