Final Fantasy XV Uncovered Recap – Game, anime, movie, date!
Final Fantasy XV Uncovered is finally starting and with the pre-show out of the way, we’re here to keep you updated as all the exciting news comes to light!
The father of Final Fantasy, Hinorubu Sakaguchi, takes to the stage to talk about how the series is his child and he wishes to ensure that it remains true to its roots and is happy with how Final Fantasy XV is shaping up to be. With his talk over, we’re treated to a brand new trailer featuring new gameplay and a rendition of Ben E. King’s Stand By Me (later announced to be by Florence + the Machine) as the four boys make their way across the world whilst fighting and chilling out by playing cars, driving, playing with pinball machines, etc, and it all looks rather cool! We’ve got 14 things to uncover about Final Fantasy XV to see revealed tonight!
Along with voice-actor Dave Fennoy, the co-hosts of the show, Greg Miller and Tim Gettys of Kinda Funny fame (I’m a big fan), have arrived and are talking about why they’re hosting it and what they expect. Tim’s there as a massive fan of the series, and Greg is there as someone who Square Enix wishes to convert into a fan with Final Fantasy XV. After a brief introduction, we’re treated to an awesome video with art from Yoshitaka Amano, the resident artist for Final Fantasy, which shows off plenty of summons from Final Fantasy XV. Both the artist and composer Yoko Shimomura are present in the audience. If that wasn’t enough, Nobuo Uematsu sends in a recorded message as he can’t be there due to live symphony Distant Worlds, speaks about how he’s sorry for not being able to record for the game and that he has high expectations. And the guests keep coming! Florence from Florence + the Machine sends in a recorded message about her involvement with the game and how she’s long since had an interest in video game music. Out of the 14 things to uncover tonight, 4 have now been revealed.
Now we’re about to see not only one video, but several gameplay videos showing off the game. The first one revolves around ‘Adventure’, with the guys talking about how vast and expansive the world is, with a Chocobo (and its iconic theme) making an appearance! AND OH MY CHOCOBO’S HAVE LEARNED HOW TO DRIFT! The second video shows off ‘Driving’, with a radio in your car that plays Final Fantasy songs throughout the series including songs from Final Fantasy XIII. The guys drive past a side-mission in the form of a broken down car with people, showing that side-missions can show up anywhere in the world. With the chill moments out of the way, we’re thrown into a combat video, with one fight including a grand behemoth, which uses ‘Smart AI’ where enemies can run from battle just like you can if they feel like they’re in danger. The video ends with a massive enemy, seemingly a summon, smashing down as the screen snaps to black.
There now seems to be an issue where French hosts are having their audio streamed through too, drowning out the Kinda Funny guys which seems to have been quickly rectified with a jump to a video focusing on the environment of the game. Spanning multiple locations and various times of day, we get a good look at the living, breathing world that Square Enix has created with Final Fantasy XV. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and words can’t properly describe how beautiful Final Fantasy XV is, so hopefully we can include links to the video later.
We’re now onto the characters with Noctic, of course, being introduced first as the main protagonist who’s fighting to reclaim his kingdom, with Ignis following as Noctis’ adviser and close friend. Gladio gets a good response from the audience, likely due to showing off a little more skin, and he’s introduced as a bodyguard with the group with Prompto (who’s apparently always on time, according to Greg) is apparently the fan-favourite who is the only one who isn’t of royal descent. The CGI characters have now changed to an anime style, with it being announced that there will be an original five-episode series based on the events before the game and how the four became friends. It’s named Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV and the first episode is out now to watch free online for all, with all five episodes releasing before the game does. A-1 Pictures will be handling it.
King Regis and Luna, Noctis’ betrothed, are introduced as the main characters in a feature-length full CG movie named Kingsglaive which is going to show more backstory to the main game – and it’s also so damn good looking. The car, an Audi R8, is being produced as one, just one available worldwide, real car that’ll be available to buy. I mean, if someone wants to buy me it then feel free too! English actress Lena Headey now takes to the stage and you may know her as Cersei Lannister of Game of Thrones game, and it’s revealed that she’s voicing Luna in Kingsglaive. Sean Bean is revealed to be voicing King Regis in the movie too, with a recorded video being sent in as he talks about how fun it was to work on the series. Aaron Paul is involved too as new character Nix! Kingsglaive will be available to download and stream online, and it seems that that too may be free to watch for all! Square Enix are putting a lot into Final Fantasy XV, and it all looks amazing.
Woaaah! With mention of Tetra Master, Blitzball, Triple Triad and other mini-games being spoken about, it’s clear that mini-games are coming to Final Fantasy XV with the content being shown off now! As teased in an earlier trailer, there is a pinball machine named Justice Monsters Five which is a pinball game where you seemingly aim to destroy monsters, and it’s going to be available both in the game and outside of it via Windows, Android and iOS. That’s not all though! Next up is the demo showing off a younger Noctis with the summon Carbuncle, as well as the ability to play as the older Noctis too. It looks lovely with a Kingdom Hearts feel to it, with items bigger than you and such, and it’s a demo that’ll be available to all soon. It’s called the Platinum demo which acts as a separate story with content that won’t be in-game.
There’s now a live gameplay demo (fingers crossed nothing goes wrong), with the demo being used so young Noctis and Carbuncle are the focus now. You can collect crystals to use on pads to unlock monsters, which you then play as, and the demo will allow you to change the weather. Because Noctis is young, his magic isn’t fully fledged-out so spells such as fire appear as tiny fireworks instead. Noctis is armed with a squeaky hammer as his weapon, but that’s all we get to see with the demo today! It’s going to be completely free and not a pre-order bonus or paid for demo. Beating the demo allows you to use Carbuncle in the main game, and you can name Carbuncle whatever you want! And it’s available tonight! Tonight! On Both PS4 and Xbox One.
Next up is the deluxe edition of Final Fantasy XV with an exclusive steelbook, Kingsglaive on-disc, DLC and the game. There’s an Ultimate Collector’s edition too with a 192 page artbook, a soundtrack featuring music from the game, Kingsglaive and Brotherhood, a Play-Arts Kai Noctis, and the content of the deluxe edition. Only 30,000 copies will be made of the Ultimate Collector’s edition, and will be going live tonight.
Director Hajime Tabata is now on-stage as they all get ready to finally hit the red button to announce the release date but it’s broken! Hajime has the real button! The release date is 30th September 2016! The victory fanfare is playing! It’s 4:13am and I’m super excited but I should be asleep! But I’m glad I stayed up!
With so much exciting news announced, we get to take a look at a new trailer for Final Fantasy XV which shows off new characters, story, combat and Stand By Me once again. And, what’s that? Your car can transform and fly?! Yes, yes it can!
I’m truly very excited for Final Fantasy XV and Square Enix has done brilliantly with tonight’s event, and I know that I’ll be highly anticipating its release. You can bet that we’ll be covering more about Final Fantasy XV during the year, and I’m sure one of us will be reviewing the game, anime and movie (you can bet I’m already on it!). Time to go watch the first episode of the anime!
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