Square Enix recently released nearly an hour-long gameplay video for their upcoming Final Fantasy XV. After the two month delay that further prolonged fans’ anticipation for the game’s arrival, Game director Hajime Tabata promised he’d make it up to fans by releasing a long gameplay demo at this year’s Gamescom. Below is the video:
We are first presented with Prince Noctis, the game’s main character, fighting his way through what appears to be an inferno like dungeon, where sitting at the helm is a demonic like figure. But just until things get too out of hand for Noctis and his friends, the screen goes white and we cut away to a scene from the present day – the four heroes are stuck in the middle of some desert. Let’s try to gloss over the fact that the first few minutes of Final Fantasy XV’s gameplay revolves around pushing a broken down car on a deserted highway. Because the four heroes eventually meet a mechanic that gives them a map. This is when we realize that this Final Fantasy is not like any of the others, it’s a Final Fantasy with a truly open world.
Noctis then talks to an owner of a diner while he waits for his car to be fixed. In this scene we get a view of how the dialogue system works, which is still similar to previous titles. After realizing he’s short on money, Noctis is then offered some hunts to pay off his car’s repairs. He heads off to fight some giant scorpions for practice. During the fighting scene Noctis summons weapons and quickly covers the entire battlefield at the push of a button. Players will also be able to direct the other heroes on their team.
One new feature that is added is the time-saving phone call from Cindy: instead of having to go all the way back home to complete a mission, you can get a call on your cell phone that will save you the time. Another feature that we can see from the gameplay demo is the ability set up havens as camps where you can rest before a fight; you’ll be able to make meals in these camps that can aid your abilities temporarily.
In this open-world game, one question fans of the franchise have asked is whether or not boss battles will still feature the traditional turn based combat system. According to Gamingbolt, it looks like Final Fantasy XV is going to mostly feature gameplay with free movement and attacks – more free movement than any other title has attempted. So with fighting bosses, this means that they can be defeated in multiple way. Hajime Tabata stated that
There’s both styles really in there, you’ve got those where you’re pretty much free to beat the boss any way you’d like, and you’ve got lots of different options to choose from. And then there’s others where you’re more guided to a certain way to do it and it’ll tell you this is the best way to defeat the enemy.
Final Fantasy XV looks like it’s going to be a massive game that will have so much to offer longtime fans of the franchise and new ones as well. Final Fantasy XV will be released on November 29th for both Xbox One and PS4.