Development of Final Fantasy XV

The PlayStation 3 version, which was originally built using the company's proprietary Crystal Tools game engine, was abandoned due to concerns about the platform's shortening life cycle.

[24] Early in development, Nomura said that the concept and thinking behind the game was unfitting for a regular numbered Final Fantasy installment, thus explaining its original status as a spin-off.

[29] Production began in 2006 by the development team responsible for the Kingdom Hearts series as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, although Nomura had created the game concept some years prior.

[38] When Type-0, originally titled Final Fantasy Agito XIII, was renamed, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were presented to Square Enix in 2011, it was decided to shift the game onto those consoles.

For a time, a PlayStation 3 version continued development, but after a title change announcement could not be made in 2012, the shortening lifespan of the console caused concern for the company and team.

[42] Due to the state of the project during 2012, Square Enix's then-CEO Yoichi Wada was considering cancelling outright so the team could start from scratch under Tabata's direction.

[1][73] During the transition process between Versus XIII and XV, the game "disconnected" from the mythos' core framework, existing as a thematic base for the world and story without being overtly expressed.

[16][74][75][76] Insomnia, the crown city of Lucis, is specifically influenced by the Shinjuku, Tokyo area which houses the headquarters of Square Enix and which Nomura passes through every day.

[24] This carried over into XV, with the stated aim being to distance the game structurally from XIII and its sequels, which featured divided zones rather than a large seamless world.

[88][89] The theme song of Versus XIII, "Somnus", was sung by Aundréa L. Hopkins; its lyrics were written by Nomura, which were translated and adapted into Latin by Taro Yamashita and Kazuhiro Komiya.

[94][95] Music for later content was handled by Yoshitaka Suzuki;[96] guest composers were brought in for major story expansions, including Keiichi Okabe,[97] Naoshi Mizuta,[98] Yasunori Mitsuda[99] and Nobuo Uematsu.

[108] The game's real-time graphics used 5,000 polygons per-frame, bringing its visual quality close to modern CGI cutscenes and to a level that would have been impossible for the previous generation's hardware.

[8][113] To solve the issues faced by XV, the team used a similar development approach to Ubisoft: they created an approximate game system that they could build on and edit in real-time.

[116] While using Luminous Studio for games other than XV was considered during production, the engine's technology manager Julien Merceron advised against it until it has been proven and released in a finished form.

[117] While CGI cutscenes created by dedicated Square Enix subsidiary Visual Works were present throughout its lifetime, there were far fewer than originally planned in the final game.

[71][121] Several initial concepts for the game had to be abandoned; a planned first-person view and the lack of a heads-up display (HUD) were scrapped because these ideas were deemed incompatible with the style of the Final Fantasy series.

[80] The team experimented with enabling compatibility with virtual reality headsets, but this proved impractical as players would likely be wearing them for hours at a time due to the game's size.

[140] After its reappearance, regular livestreamed shows called "Active Time Reports" (ATR) were broadcast, giving updates to the game and responses to fan questions.

[141] After its appearance at the 2014 Paris Games Week, Tabata announced that XV's release window was "roughly decided", with the company recruiting new staff to work on the master build.

[149] The idea behind Episode Duscae was to give players a personal look at the game due to its long absence from the public eye, as well as demonstrate its gameplay and the fact that it was being actively developed.

He said that Square Enix was considering using online elements and developing shorter stand-alone titles to keep players interested and to avoid long waiting times for them.

[165] According to Tabata, the Universe is split into two halves; media designed to reach a wider audience than the game might manage alone, and additional game-related content such as ports to other hardware and DLC.

[167] According to Tabata, Platinum Demo served a dual purpose: it both introduced players to the gameplay mechanics, and gave them insight into Noctis' young life and his relationship with his father.

[165] Brotherhood was produced by Square Enix and A-1 Pictures and was released through the game's official YouTube channel and anime streaming website Crunchyroll between March and September 2016.

[183] A second promotional item was A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV, released through GameStop and EB Games in North America as a free pre-order bonus.

[186] Square Enix and Machine Zone collaborated on a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for mobile devices based on the content of XV, first released on June 28, 2017.

[164] The special event, called "Uncovered: Final Fantasy XV", took place on March 30 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, hosted by internet celebrities Greg Miller and Tim Gettys.

The reason he gave was that, while the game had reached fully playable form, the team was not satisfied with the overall quality they were aiming for, so the extra time would be dedicated to polishing XV further.

[206][207] Titled Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition and developed in cooperation with Nvidia using an upgraded version of the Luminous Studio engine, the game includes multiple graphical enhancements, and comes packaged with all free and paid DLC released up to that point.

[15][41] Instead, the scrapped content and Episode Ardyn were turned into the novel Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future, written for long-term fans of the game to provide closure for the project and its universe.

A one-winged woman in flowing robes rests with her head on her arms. Behind her is a crystal sphere surrounded by a sun-like adornment, with a serpentine creature woven into it. She rests near the logo of Final Fantasy XV. The piece is done in a pastel watercolor style that fades from silver to blue to black.
The logo of Final Fantasy XV : designed by Yoshitaka Amano and incorporating the game's themes, the logo survived almost unchanged through the game's development. [ 1 ] [ 2 ]
A black-haired Japanese man in his fifties at a convension, wearing a light grey t-shirt and paler grey hoodie.
Hajime Tabata served as the director of Final Fantasy XV from 2014 to its release, assuming the role of producer for its post-release content prior to his departure from Square Enix in 2018. [ 36 ] [ 40 ] [ 41 ]
A replica of the Regalia
A nighttime view of a Tokyo highway filled with cars.
Shinjuku, Tokyo was the primary inspiration for Insomnia, capital of Lucis. [ 74 ] [ 75 ]
In front of a building at night, a black-clothed man summons translucent swords around him.
A screenshot from the original trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII , showing Noctis displaying his powers. The initial trailers would continue to influence development goals for the game despite story and gameplay changes. [ 40 ] [ 118 ]
A sunset scene with a group of dark-clothed man looking from a clifftop over a wild plain, with the logo in the bottom right corner.
The key visual for the original net animation series Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV , a part of the multimedia " Final Fantasy XV Universe". Brotherhood , together with the CGI feature film Kingsglaive , enabled the expansion of story and characters while keeping Final Fantasy XV as a single video game. [ 158 ] [ 159 ]