Ten years. Ten whole years since Final Fantasy XV was unveiled to the wanting masses – then titled Versus XIII – but now, Square’s long-in-development JRPG has emerged blinking into the sunlight, and the live-action launch trailer is here to prove it.
Set against Florence Welch’s delicate cover of “Stand by Me,” the sizzle reel follows a group of four young boys as they engineer a booby trap deep in the woods. As an Iron Giant – or some variation of the FF stalwart – lumbers into sight, the trap is sprung, though the explosive device only manages to stagger the hulking monster. That’s when Noctis and his crew – namely Prompto, Ignis and Gladiolus – leap to the rescue, and not a moment too soon.
In related news, the BBC caught up with FFXV Game Director Hajime Tabata ahead of the JRPG’s launch. It’s a fascinating and insightful interview, one which explores the much-touted development woes that threatened to engulf Final Fantasy XV early on in production.
Square’s open world title lived to tell the tale, thank the heavens, and here Tabata-san touched on how the core gameplay of FFXV differs from previous installments in the legendary series.
“Traditionally, Final Fantasy had a turn-based battle system, where it’s about the commands the player inputs and it comes up with the damage as numbers. We created the monsters that appear in the game as monsters to fight – but this time it was a completely different approach. We created a whole world, and created the monsters in that world.”
Final Fantasy XV is available from today, November 29, across PS4, Xbox One and PC. We Got This Covered’s official verdict will go live in the coming days, but in the meantime, you can feast your eyes on some all-new gameplay.