Everything FFXV Datamining Related

[IwakuraLain]

what the hell haha xD
i have no idea why those would be on insomnia's city walls...they're promos for game not fake ads xD i wonder what they say tho... idk japanese :<

They're likely just placeholders that the dev team forgot to replace, I just found it amusing. Platinum Demo has a few like these as well, but they use real brands instead of Versus logos.

Spoiler

Funnily enough, some of the vehicles placeholders are still referred to by their real world names as well, such as "ford e-series" "ford sedan" and "lincoln town car". Maybe before Audi partnered with them they were thinking of working with Ford? Ambulances, taxis, and police cars are all based on ones found in New York City, but I have no idea what they're doing there because(as far as I remember) even the earliest Versus trailers had Toyota Crown police cars rather than the Ford Crown Vic this is obviously based on. Note these textures are for low-poly vehicles far away, hence the small resolution.

Here are a couple more signs that would have been around Insomnia. From the stylized kana and alphabet it looks like these are from when it was still Versus (or very early XV - fantasy based on reality).

Spoiler

 

[Bazztek]

Finally a clear look at the nwspaper, I always knew the bottom part of the cover page had that image of Verstael and the city shot that were from the older CGI scenes, though the city shot is zoomed and cropped from the actual shot.

And the Iedolas pic is just his CG face render with the Niflheim flag behind him.

But the top and middle pic look similar to the CGI in the Jump Festa 2015 trailer though the shots are different despite the same look and ToD, so they were likely other CGI scenes that we never saw, but they just used images from it to add to the newspaper.

 

[Amareth]

Finally a clear look at the nwspaper, I always knew the bottom part of the cover page had that image of Verstael and the city shot that were from the older CGI scenes, though the city shot is zoomed and cropped from the actual shot.

And the Iedolas pic is just his CG face render with the Niflheim flag behind him.

But the top and middle pic look similar to the CGI in the Jump Festa 2015 trailer though the shots are different despite the same look and ToD, so they were likely other CGI scenes that we never saw, but they just used images from it to add to the newspaper.

Am I the only one who missed so much lots of cgi in ffxv ? I always felt these were always kind of „reward” for me and was looking forward to see all scenes from trailer i dont ubderstand why they were erased. I would really prefer way more cgi than non-influencing choose-ur answer dialogues. What can i just say SE... „my heart wont let go” :<

 

[Ikkin]

Am I the only one who missed so much lots of cgi in ffxv ? I always felt these were always kind of „reward” for me and was looking forward to see all scenes from trailer i dont ubderstand why they were erased. I would really prefer way more cgi than non-influencing choose-ur answer dialogues. What can i just say SE... „my heart wont let go” :<

I suspect that most of the CG created for FFXV before the changeover was for the invasion, so the game ended up with practically none left once the decision was made to move the invasion to Kingsglaive.

With that said, I feel like FFXV didn't really let its lack of CG limit the sort of scenes it chose to portray, so if it did do CG, it would probably just be pretty much the same sort of thing as the final game, just prettier...?

 

[358/2 Belts]

I suspect that most of the CG created for FFXV before the changeover was for the invasion, so the game ended up with practically none left once the decision was made to move the invasion to Kingsglaive.

With that said, I feel like FFXV didn't really let its lack of CG limit the sort of scenes it chose to portray, so if it did do CG, it would probably just be pretty much the same sort of thing as the final game, just prettier...?

A lot of the CG cutscenes shown off in the very first XV trailer seemed to have been made more for Versus or an earlier version of XV, but they needed something to show so that's what we got in 2013. Regis still having his older design in the dining scene gave that away. I imagine a lot of money went into Kingsglaive too so in the end we got 3 FMV's I think; Regis seeing off Noctis, Luna's death and Noctis' sacrifice? Basically the beginning, middle and end.

The only FMV that should've been included in the game from the trailers was the Dawn cinematic imo, Regis holding a sleeping Noctis is a powerful moment. We had flashes of it in the DLC I think but there definitely should've been a little more Regis and Noct.

 

[ArbyWorks]

Kingsglaive was decided to be made a movie from the start of the project; Tabata knew from the get go the invasion was never gonna be in the game. If they had built invasion elements for modern XV and then scrapped it, they'd have utilized it for Chapter 14. Instead, Chapter 14 Insomnia at launch was literally all they had developed for FFXV. The other set pieces from Versus were repurposed for Kingsglaive. Scenes like the ship crashing into a building above Noctis while they're on the streets echo a similar scene in Kingsglaive. The shot of Noctis staring out the car, watching the ships flying is replaced with a similar scene in Kingsglaive where Nyx is watching the landing of Imperials.

They simply utilized the 25% of Versus Nomura had completed to fluff up early trailers. Even if it was on PS3, the few CGI cutscenes Nomura would have made (and did make, considering how many cutscenes were shown off in abridged format in old Versus trailers) would look pretty enough for FFXV's "PS4 footage". The game was made in chunks with several chapters being worked on at once concurrently, and due to changes in the story or just the fact that it was different teams, they'd have these completed chunks that were incompatible with each other and required retooling, leading to a similar problem XIII had wherein the teams wanting the engine retooled for various areas broke the game until it was super linear to make up for the demands. FFVersus seemed like they were going the cutscene route like XIII, and so they had a plethora of footage and set pieces to fluff up for their Ebony tech demo for E32013. Only in 2015 it seems did we start getting exclusively XV footage without Versus content thrown in. Kingsglaive's CGI took three years to develop and polish.

The anime is an example of content that was cut later into development and thus required an inexpensive method of telling the story. They had to cut out the DotF stuff and thus focused on the bro trip; then early on, like the invasion, realized that they couldn't tell the bros story and the Niflheim conclusion, so we got DLC announced, presumably with story to lead up into it. Then they had to cut out this story to lead into it because the game was facing development problems with its main story, so it becomes Brotherhood anime. Like DotF and other DLC addition, Kingsglaive started off as a piece of cut content from XV before getting fleshed out as its own unique piece of content. As they did not want to reveal Kingsglaive until before the game's launch in Uncovered, they kept using Versus footage of the invasion as the game's events are triggered by the invasion.

The complaints about the invasion not being in the game are why we have the jarring, awful Kingsglaive clip show in the main game when before, the slow lead up to the newspaper scene was more impactful. Every time they realized they had to cut something out, if they cut it out early, it became refined content. If it was closer to development's end, it became other content like the anime or Platinum Demo. If they had a last minute cancellation of development for a specific piece of content, it became cheap material like the novel.The prologue, Parting Ways, definitely feels like they planned to have it tie in to Kingsglaive more and showcase Noct's normal life, but given they were struggling with the end and already had a decent beginning, fluff like Parting Ways and Brotherhood couldn't be given proper TLC in the game. Same with DotF. Each time they cut content, they got ambitious and tried to do more afterwards, which blew up in their face with the final DLC.

 

[358/2 Belts]

Kingsglaive was decided to be made a movie from the start of the project; Tabata knew from the get go the invasion was never gonna be in the game. If they had built invasion elements for modern XV and then scrapped it, they'd have utilized it for Chapter 14. Instead, Chapter 14 Insomnia at launch was literally all they had developed for FFXV. The other set pieces from Versus were repurposed for Kingsglaive. Scenes like the ship crashing into a building above Noctis while they're on the streets echo a similar scene in Kingsglaive. The shot of Noctis staring out the car, watching the ships flying is replaced with a similar scene in Kingsglaive where Nyx is watching the landing of Imperials.

They simply utilized the 25% of Versus Nomura had completed to fluff up early trailers. Even if it was on PS3, the few CGI cutscenes Nomura would have made (and did make, considering how many cutscenes were shown off in abridged format in old Versus trailers) would look pretty enough for FFXV's "PS4 footage". The game was made in chunks with several chapters being worked on at once concurrently, and due to changes in the story or just the fact that it was different teams, they'd have these completed chunks that were incompatible with each other and required retooling, leading to a similar problem XIII had wherein the teams wanting the engine retooled for various areas broke the game until it was super linear to make up for the demands. FFVersus seemed like they were going the cutscene route like XIII, and so they had a plethora of footage and set pieces to fluff up for their Ebony tech demo for E32013. Only in 2015 it seems did we start getting exclusively XV footage without Versus content thrown in. Kingsglaive's CGI took three years to develop and polish.

The anime is an example of content that was cut later into development and thus required an inexpensive method of telling the story. They had to cut out the DotF stuff and thus focused on the bro trip; then early on, like the invasion, realized that they couldn't tell the bros story and the Niflheim conclusion, so we got DLC announced, presumably with story to lead up into it. Then they had to cut out this story to lead into it because the game was facing development problems with its main story, so it becomes Brotherhood anime. Like DotF and other DLC addition, Kingsglaive started off as a piece of cut content from XV before getting fleshed out as its own unique piece of content. As they did not want to reveal Kingsglaive until before the game's launch in Uncovered, they kept using Versus footage of the invasion as the game's events are triggered by the invasion.

The complaints about the invasion not being in the game are why we have the jarring, awful Kingsglaive clip show in the main game when before, the slow lead up to the newspaper scene was more impactful. Every time they realized they had to cut something out, if they cut it out early, it became refined content. If it was closer to development's end, it became other content like the anime or Platinum Demo. If they had a last minute cancellation of development for a specific piece of content, it became cheap material like the novel.The prologue, Parting Ways, definitely feels like they planned to have it tie in to Kingsglaive more and showcase Noct's normal life, but given they were struggling with the end and already had a decent beginning, fluff like Parting Ways and Brotherhood couldn't be given proper TLC in the game. Same with DotF. Each time they cut content, they got ambitious and tried to do more afterwards, which blew up in their face with the final DLC.

Yes unfortunately it seems they decided early on that even in it's rewritten state there were still things they wouldn't be able to get into the game on time, this is likely what lead to Kingsglaive being a thing as well as the Episodic DLC's. The DLC thing is more of an assumption on my part, it feels like similarly to how Nyx was written into Noctis' initial role, the episodic DLC's with the bros were probably supposed to be in the base game too. The events of Episode Prompto especially feel like they were intended to be in the game originally, since Prompto just casually reveals to the bros that he's from Niflheim in the final dungeon. I'm guessing Noctis was originally going to go looking for Prompto and group would've discovered his origins and fought Verstael first-hand, but there just wasn't time to fit this in.

In hindsight, as much as I like Episode Ignis, the Altissia battle section in the base game was very short, and given that Ravus and Noctis were supposed to have this big rivalry, it makes some sense that Noctis originally had Ignis' role in that part of the story. So they'd both be rushing to reach Luna and be forced to work together and understand each other. Having said that, the two protectors angle worked too, seeing Ignis' dedication to Noctis was touching and the DLC was well executed, but again you can see that perhaps this was born of rewrites.

My point is, it seems like Noctis had to be written out of certain story moments because FFXV is from Noct's perspective, but at the time they just didn't have the means to get all of those moments in the base game. I like Kingsglaive, I like the DLC's, but it is a shame that perhaps they were going to have Noctis involved in them originally. It's a shame Tabata and co were given little time to get these things in, a lot of story got outsourced to other mediums. But that's just assumption, maybe I am entire wrong but it's plausible I think.

 

[IwakuraLain]

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I thought this was kind of interesting. It seems the chunk of Insomnia during the Kenny Crow fight in Comrades (along with the Mystery Disc version this is probably a reskin of?) is using a version of Insomnia much closer to that of the one in Platinum Demo. As such, I've actually found those vehicles shown above and the old signal light poles (sans "West Insomnia").

Spoiler

After replaying PD again as well, I am starting to think at least some of those strange textures I found might belong to the train-station directly across from the Citadel (where Ardyn is dropped off in Ep. Ardyn). Without a tool like Ansel or the ability to import the area into the PC version, it's near impossible to know for sure though unfortunately (the Kenny Crow version is not the same).

Actually, those streetlights still exist in Episode Ardyn as well! But only in OoB areas like above.

Spoiler

Edit:
This is pretty strange and I almost missed it, but I was replaying RE4 on the Switch and noticed this.

Spoiler

One of those weird textures was actually used as decoration in the castle section of the game! I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be depicting, but I know during development of RE4, a team at Capcom traveled Spain and took photos of artwork and architecture which ended up becoming objects and decorations in the game. I guess during Versus development, SE must have done something similar (which makes a lot of sense). If anyone could tell me what it's actually supposed to be, that would be cool.

 

[mozzafaralj]

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I thought this was kind of interesting. It seems the chunk of Insomnia during the Kenny Crow fight in Comrades (along with the Mystery Disc version this is probably a reskin of?) is using a version of Insomnia much closer to that of the one in Platinum Demo. As such, I've actually found those vehicles shown above and the old signal light poles (sans "West Insomnia").

Spoiler

After replaying PD again as well, I am starting to think at least some of those strange textures I found might belong to the train-station directly across from the Citadel (where Ardyn is dropped off in Ep. Ardyn). Without a tool like Ansel or the ability to import the area into the PC version, it's near impossible to know for sure though unfortunately (the Kenny Crow version is not the same).

Actually, those streetlights still exist in Episode Ardyn as well! But only in OoB areas like above.

Spoiler

Edit:
This is pretty strange and I almost missed it, but I was replaying RE4 on the Switch and noticed this.

Spoiler

One of those weird textures was actually used as decoration in the castle section of the game! I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be depicting, but I know during development of RE4, a team at Capcom traveled Spain and took photos of artwork and architecture which ended up becoming objects and decorations in the game. I guess during Versus development, SE must have done something similar (which makes a lot of sense). If anyone could tell me what it's actually supposed to be, that would be cool.

Thank you for these interesting things

in episode ardyn

Is there a way out of the bounds in the PlayStation 4?

 

[IwakuraLain]

Thank you for these interesting things

in episode ardyn

Is there a way out of the bounds in the PlayStation 4?

I'm not sure, sorry. The OoB stuff I do is on the PC version using cheat engine and sometimes the old debug executable and it involves setting the jump height higher than the invisible barriers. If you have a PS4 on an exploitable firmware there is a memory editor which should allow you to do the same thing, but that's the only way I'm aware of. From what I understand, SE did a good job patching out OoB glitches on the consoles.

 

[mozzafaralj]

I'm not sure, sorry. The OoB stuff I do is on the PC version using cheat engine and sometimes the old debug executable and it involves setting the jump height higher than the invisible barriers. If you have a PS4 on an exploitable firmware there is a memory editor which should allow you to do the same thing, but that's the only way I'm aware of. From what I understand, SE did a good job patching out OoB glitches on the consoles.

ok thank you

 

[FeniX_TX_]

Sorry to keep bumping this thread, but I thought this was kind of interesting. It seems the chunk of Insomnia during the Kenny Crow fight in Comrades (along with the Mystery Disc version this is probably a reskin of?) is using a version of Insomnia much closer to that of the one in Platinum Demo. As such, I've actually found those vehicles shown above and the old signal light poles (sans "West Insomnia").

Spoiler

After replaying PD again as well, I am starting to think at least some of those strange textures I found might belong to the train-station directly across from the Citadel (where Ardyn is dropped off in Ep. Ardyn). Without a tool like Ansel or the ability to import the area into the PC version, it's near impossible to know for sure though unfortunately (the Kenny Crow version is not the same).

Actually, those streetlights still exist in Episode Ardyn as well! But only in OoB areas like above.

Spoiler

Edit:
This is pretty strange and I almost missed it, but I was replaying RE4 on the Switch and noticed this.

Spoiler

One of those weird textures was actually used as decoration in the castle section of the game! I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be depicting, but I know during development of RE4, a team at Capcom traveled Spain and took photos of artwork and architecture which ended up becoming objects and decorations in the game. I guess during Versus development, SE must have done something similar (which makes a lot of sense). If anyone could tell me what it's actually supposed to be, that would be cool.

Yep, multiple versions of Insomnia appear to exist in the game, I've noticed this while going OOB with the debug menu too, Pre-Royal Edition Insomnia still exists in the PC version, it allows you to go anywhere in the map without unloading stuff just like you could on PS4, Post-Royal Edition Insomnia makes everything but the actual Royal Edition map disappear as soon as you go too far out. And I would assume the "Open Combat" version you could play on consoles while the game was installing is still in there too

, which I guess is the earliest version on the final game, probably based on the Platinum Demo version. I haven't played Comrades all that much, but I guess they are using the Mistery Disc version just because is more convenient, watching a video of the fight and it definitely seems like a straight reskin of it the like you said.

And of course now Episode Ardyn's version is also there.

 

[IwakuraLain]

Yep, multiple versions of Insomnia appear to exist in the game, I've noticed this while going OOB with the debug menu too, Pre-Royal Edition Insomnia still exists in the PC version, it allows you to go anywhere in the map without unloading stuff just like you could on PS4, Post-Royal Edition Insomnia makes everything but the actual Royal Edition map disappear as soon as you go too far out. And I would assume the "Open Combat" version you could play on consoles while the game was installing is still in there too

, which I guess is the earliest version on the final game, probably based on the Platinum Demo version. I haven't played Comrades all that much, but I guess they are using the Mistery Disc version just because is more convenient, watching a video of the fight and it definitely seems like a straight reskin of it the like you said.

And of course now Episode Ardyn's version is also there.

Interesting. How do you manage to get to the pre-Royal Edition Insomnia? Is there a teleport location in the debug menu, or does it load in a specific location?

Only just picking up the PS4 version myself a couple weeks ago, I wasn't even aware of the Open Combat option. I'd love to be able to find that version as well, I'm sure it must be there somewhere.

 

[FeniX_TX_]

Interesting. How do you manage to get to the pre-Royal Edition Insomnia? Is there a teleport location in the debug menu, or does it load in a specific location?

Only just picking up the PS4 version myself a couple weeks ago, I wasn't even aware of the Open Combat option. I'd love to be able to find that version as well, I'm sure it must be there somewhere.

I deleted my torrented version with the debug menu a couple of weeks ago and only kept my steam version which can't use the .exe anymore. But from what I remember there were a couple of ways of loading that version, one was simply teleporting to the Insomnia area from Lucis, saving there in the water and loading that savefile, the option isn't find under "Move" but rather through Debug System>Main Story>Old Menu> and I think it was the opening option from here, you'll find it in here. The problem was that after finishing loading that save you would be greeted with a text explaining you had bought/unlocked the royal pack, and the game would reload again from scratch to the correct map, there was a way of bypassing this but I don't remember, you'll have to experiment a bit, I did this last year so I don't remember the details. I think the chapter you did this from was one way but I could be wrong.

While playing that pre-royal edition version on PC I remember I would get stucked right before the Ardyn battle would start, after the cutscene on the throne room the game would spawn me at the saving room underground, but the exit would be blocked by rocks so I couldn't progress. Even getting out and trying to activate the flag again would respawn me in there again with no way out xD.

 

[IwakuraLain]

I deleted my torrented version with the debug menu a couple of weeks ago and only kept my steam version which can't use the .exe anymore. But from what I remember there were a couple of ways of loading that version, one was simply teleporting to the Insomnia area from Lucis, saving there in the water and loading that savefile, the option isn't find under "Move" but rather through Debug System>Main Story>Old Menu> and I think it was the opening option from here, you'll find it in here. The problem was that after finishing loading that save you would be greeted with a text explaining you had bought/unlocked the royal pack, and the game would reload again from scratch to the correct map, there was a way of bypassing this but I don't remember, you'll have to experiment a bit, I did this last year so I don't remember the details. I think the chapter you did this from was one way but I could be wrong.

While playing that pre-royal edition version on PC I remember I would get stucked right before the Ardyn battle would start, after the cutscene on the throne room the game would spawn me at the saving room underground, but the exit would be blocked by rocks so I couldn't progress. Even getting out and trying to activate the flag again would respawn me in there again with no way out xD.

Cool, thanks for the explanation! I kept a backup of the debug version on my NAS. I'll try doing that this weekend.

 

[eezee2020]

Hola, ¿alguien sabe cómo hacer esto?

 

[Mewex]

Dlc luna lines

https://privatter.net/p/5845562

 

[Ikkin]

Dlc luna lines

https://privatter.net/p/5845562

I still find it incredibly interesting that Luna's lines heavily imply that she would have been able to summon Bahamut. It really goes to show how late the Dawn of the Future concepts were developed... and what could have been, had the Royal Edition remained the game's DLC finale. =(

 

[ArbyWorks]

I still find it incredibly interesting that Luna's lines heavily imply that she would have been able to summon Bahamut. It really goes to show how late the Dawn of the Future concepts were developed... and what could have been, had the Royal Edition remained the game's DLC finale. =(

Think it's moreso that as Luna fights for Bahamut, she would summon Bahamut, and Noct would have Ifrit and once again their rivalry would be renewed. Think the shot from Kingsglaive where nyx and Glauca clash in the air while the Old Wall clashes behind him, but Bahamut/Ifrit and Noct/Luna.

"Destroy the evil Sword God, Bahamut" sounds pretty much like DotF.

 

[Ikkin]

Think it's moreso that as Luna fights for Bahamut, she would summon Bahamut, and Noct would have Ifrit and once again their rivalry would be renewed. Think the shot from Kingsglaive where nyx and Glauca clash in the air while the Old Wall clashes behind him, but Bahamut/Ifrit and Noct/Luna.

"Destroy the evil Sword God, Bahamut" sounds pretty much like DotF.

I'm limited to Google Translate, but Luna saying, "The power to destroy evil and bring light to the stars again Bahamut" sounds more like a slightly syntactically weird way of calling on Bahamut's power than a syntactically bizarre way of talking about destroying Bahamut. Unless there's something else I'm missing?