Final Fantasy XV #HO

Famitsu: Can you talk to the NPCs?

Tabata: Of course. This town, Lestallum, is a kind of base of operations. If you break the game down broadly into an opening section, middle and ending section you could say it’s the main town during the opening section. Here you’ll gain information and secure goods whilst travelling the surrounding areas.

Famitsu: You said before that “road tripping” would be a theme for this game so I had this idea that you’d just be moving from place to place, but you have a base as well, huh?

Tabata: To be really precise it’s not actually a base, but I’d imagine it will feel that way to those playing, who might think “Huh, okay, I should return to Restalm soon”. When the story moves on it’s the kind of place you’ll drop by to stock-up before moving on. Geographically speaking it’s close to the area you’ll be able to go to in the [Episode Duscae] demo.

Famitsu: You’re eyes are sort of just drawn to her cleavage, you know?

Tabata: Yeah. The person overseeing her really put his all into the character, added a load of details. At first there was so much jiggle I wasn’t sure what to do about it. (laughs)

Famitsu: They jiggled at one point, huh? (laughs) So, what kind of character is she?

Tabata: She’s not deeply involved in the main story. She’s an engineer who will be useful to you on your travels. She’ll appear in the demo as well. When you think of Final Fantasy “Cid” is an irreplaceable part of that, so maybe she’s related to “Cid” somehow?

Famitsu:
Wait, you mean she’s [the Cid]?!

Tabata:...Maybe. (laughs)

Famitsu: With the Eidolons being that big how would that even work? ... Speaking of which, is the battle system against giant monsters different from a regular battle?

Tabata: Fundamentally they’re the same. There are cases where they’ll be fight-specific actions or fight-specific team-attacks but you won’t be seeing the [fundamental] system change just because it’s a boss fight.

Tabata: The Phantom Sword is an exotic weapon, when Noctis unleashes his power swords will fly around the area around him, severing off the damage you take. When you’re in that state your Attack rises greatly and, on top of automatically guarding enemy attacks, you’ll be able to move at high speed. And there’s a powered-up state even beyond that.

Famitsu: A mountainous region seems like a Chocobo’s natural habitat.

Tabata: They’re in the game, but unfortunately we couldn’t get them into the demo. Speaking of Chocobos, they come in the wild variety as well as the kind you can rent from Chocobo Stations. The latter are [bred] for riding. You won’t be able to rent them in the demo, but we’re planning to have the Chocobo Station facility be in it.

Famitsu: I’m interested in the camping elements. If I remember correctly it’s an interwoven part of the gameplay isn’t it?

Tabata: That’s right. Keep in mind you’re exploring a world with a night and day, where time moves. We added the camping to add a lifestyle regularity to proceedings. You fight enemies and gain experience and such, and when you lay down a camp and rest there that EXP will be added to your character. In addition your condition will restored to default.

Famitsu: So hold up - if you level up by resting at camps doesn’t that actually make them really important! Is there any restriction on when you can use the camp? Like only at night or something like that?

Tabata: You can use it at any time of day. It’s not time dependant but you will have to find a safe place first. For that reason you’ll end up exploring the field using your camp as a central set-out point. The hotels in towns fulfil the same function.

Famitsu: Can you use the camp multiple times in one day?

Tabata: If you use the camp time progresses to the next day, so there’s not much merit in using it repeatedly. (laughs) However I think it’s best if you stick to a cyclical play style to some extent, so fighting in the day and resting using the camp at night – you get some perks that way, for example, bonus multipliers getting applied to EXP gain. Oh, and Ignis will cook for you when you’re at camp.

Famitsu:
So there are lots of elements [like this] in battles to stop players from getting bored, right?

Tabata: Final Fantasy XV has a vast world, so we wanted the try and maintain the players’ enthusiasm throughout. We’re still not sure if we’ll have magic in the [Episode Duscae] demo, but we’re planning to have combos, team-attacks, summoning, basically the whole complement of the battle system and even some things that aren’t even going to be in the final release.