Final Fantasy XV - General News Thread

[Storm]

you can see the player using a glitch to explore the altar of tidemother and the rooftops in altissia in this video, everything works just fine.

also, ruins underwater were discovered months ago in the area you fight leviathan; i suppose its where she slept all this time; a concept art in the arbook match perfectly with this find:

(in 0:38 you can see the altar where luna made her ritual, just like in the art below)

 

[Paperchampion23]

The shit they make for this game and we cant even see it lol

 

[Jubileus]

Guys I found a video with the new dialogue between Noctis and Ardyn!

Wow... there’s definitely a lot going on with Ardyn.

I’ll put it in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler: New dialogue video

It seems to me that

Spoiler

they had to cut out some of the dialogue during the final battle because at the time of release, the game didn’t have enough lore for it to make sense.

 

[Ikkin]

Guys I found a video with the new dialogue between Noctis and Ardyn!

Wow... there’s definitely a lot going on with Ardyn.

I’ll put it in the spoiler tag.

Spoiler: New dialogue video

It seems to me that

Spoiler

they had to cut out some of the dialogue during the final battle because at the time of release, the game didn’t have enough lore for it to make sense.

"A lot" is right. =O

Spoiler

I almost feel like the dialogue is easier to fit into the lore skeleton of the original game than the more fleshed-out version, though it can work with either given the proper context. After all, the original game's implication seemed to be that Ardyn was the original Chosen King and that he had reneged on his duties and been replaced while Episode Ignis seems to have implied that the Crystal had already made its choice when Ardyn decided that the glory should be his.

With that said, the idea of Ardyn rebelling against the demands of the Crystal because of the sacrifice involved is fantastic and I completely approve, even if it would require a little bit more effort to explain now. It really sells the idea that, no, there aren't any other options for a good King to take, since attempting to take the easy way out is exactly what caused the problem in the first place.

I think my favorite part of the Pocket Edition exchange is when Ardyn tells Noct that the Kings of Yore won't protect him and he responds that he is the protector. So good.

 

[Jubileus]

"A lot" is right. =O

Spoiler

I almost feel like the dialogue is easier to fit into the lore skeleton of the original game than the more fleshed-out version, though it can work with either given the proper context. After all, the original game's implication seemed to be that Ardyn was the original Chosen King and that he had reneged on his duties and been replaced while Episode Ignis seems to have implied that the Crystal had already made its choice when Ardyn decided that the glory should be his.

With that said, the idea of Ardyn rebelling against the demands of the Crystal because of the sacrifice involved is fantastic and I completely approve, even if it would require a little bit more effort to explain now. It really sells the idea that, no, there aren't any other options for a good King to take, since attempting to take the easy way out is exactly what caused the problem in the first place.

I think my favorite part of the Pocket Edition exchange is when Ardyn tells Noct that the Kings of Yore won't protect him and he responds that he is the protector. So good.

Spoiler

I do hope that the Royal Edition will clear up once and for all whether Ardyn was the First King, or if he was King first but then it got stolen by his brother. Lot's of conflicting information surrounding this.

In Episode Ignis, it was said the line of Royalty was founded by his brother, but now due to this new dialogue scene, Ardyn used to be a kind King.

So.. which is it? Lol.

You can really feel Ardyn's rage and disdain with these new lines. We definitely need new lore expansions regarding the Crystal, the nature of it's origins, and what it's purpose was in regards to Royalty.

It's also nice to see that, to an extent, Noctis knew that Ardyn was a good guy at some point and he wanted to help him.

The question is, where and when did he learn about this..!?

you can see the player using a glitch to explore the altar of tidemother and the rooftops in altissia in this video, everything works just fine.

also, ruins underwater were discovered months ago in the area you fight leviathan; i suppose its where she slept all this time; a concept art in the arbook match perfectly with this find:

(in 0:38 you can see the altar where luna made her ritual, just like in the art below)

What's interesting about that concept art is we see Noctis running around in the ruins where Leviathan was resting.

It makes me wonder... were we supposed to do that in the actual game at some point?

 

[Paperchampion23]

Spoiler

I do hope that the Royal Edition will clear up once and for all whether Ardyn was the First King, or if he was King first but then it got stolen by his brother. Lot's of conflicting information surrounding this.

In Episode Ignis, it was said the line of Royalty was founded by his brother, but now due to this new dialogue scene, Ardyn used to be a kind King.

So.. which is it? Lol.

You can really feel Ardyn's rage and disdain with these new lines. We definitely need new lore expansions regarding the Crystal, the nature of it's origins, and what it's purpose was in regards to Royalty.

It's also nice to see that, to an extent, Noctis knew that Ardyn was a good guy at some point and he wanted to help him.

The question is, where and when did he learn about this..!?

What's interesting about that concept art is we see Noctis running around in the ruins where Leviathan was resting.

It makes me wonder... were we supposed to do that in the actual game at some point?

I think Episode Ardyn is more likely to clear that up, regardless if it takes place 2000 years ago when it started or at any other point.

 

[Jubileus]

Here's the video for the expanded Shiva section.

This tells me that, even now, it is still possible for them to add considerable changes to just about any chapter in the game if they so wish.

The change in the video is minor, but like I said, it's good to see that change is still possible.

It's kinda cute that we get to eat at the diner with Aranea, Biggs, and Wedge though.

 

[FFChocobo18]

Here's the Leviathan battle in the Pocket Edition, the section on running around to defeat MTs was a little different, and looks better in my opinion, along with how you approach Leviathan in the first phase.:

 

[Ikkin]

Spoiler

I do hope that the Royal Edition will clear up once and for all whether Ardyn was the First King, or if he was King first but then it got stolen by his brother. Lot's of conflicting information surrounding this.

In Episode Ignis, it was said the line of Royalty was founded by his brother, but now due to this new dialogue scene, Ardyn used to be a kind King.

So.. which is it? Lol.

You can really feel Ardyn's rage and disdain with these new lines. We definitely need new lore expansions regarding the Crystal, the nature of it's origins, and what it's purpose was in regards to Royalty.

It's also nice to see that, to an extent, Noctis knew that Ardyn was a good guy at some point and he wanted to help him.

The question is, where and when did he learn about this..!?

Spoiler

I think the underlying lore is as follows:

Ardyn was, in fact, a king, but he was not the king who founded Lucis proper.

In Ardyn's time, the Starscourge became a pressing concern. He was offered the option of using the Crystal's strength to deal with the Scourge, but upon hearing that the Crystal would demand his youth and/or his life, Ardyn spurned the Crystal and decided that he would find his own solution to the problem. He started absorbing the Scourge and became the Usurper we know and love.

Ardyn's brother, meanwhile, agreed to the Crystal's terms, so the Crystal granted him kingship of Lucis and founded a new line of kings upon him. As a result, he received the title of Founder King.

In Biblical terms, Ardyn is the Saul to his brother's David - he was a legitimate king once, but became an usurper by rejecting the authority that chose him in the first place, and so his brother received the honor of being the foundation for the chosen nation.

 

[Storm]

both the levi section and chapter 12 are better paced in the pocked edition i feel, the mini-dungeon is really nice; those segments felt too rushed in the base game.

about the new dialogue, i really liked the exchange of words

- it emphasizes ardyns hate towards the lucis line and the crystal
- painted the crystal as a more ambiguous figure
- retained all the cool lines of the original exchange
- all this talk about finding peace in the dark reminded me of Dark Souls, so its already a plus ;P

@Ikkin
thats a compelling explanation.

 

[FFChocobo18]

both the levi section and chapter 12 are better paced in the pocked edition i feel, the mini-dungeon is really nice; those segments felt too rushed in the base game.

about the new dialogue, i really liked the exchange of words

- it emphasizes ardyns hate towards the lucis line and the crystal
- painted the crystal as a more ambiguous figure
- retained all the cool lines of the original exchange
- all this talk about finding peace in the dark reminded me of Dark Souls, so its already a plus ;P

@Ikkin
thats a compelling explanation.

I agree, I think they should add these new sections to Chapters 9 and 12, it would make them feel better, along with that new Ardyn dialogue if they could as a special treat.

 

[Paperchampion23]

Best part about that shiva section is that it's not linear in the slightest, which should make people happy if anything is updated similarly.


Solves half of the Chapter 12 problem for me, now if we can just get Tenebrae as something.

 

[FFChocobo18]

Best part about that shiva section is that it's not linear in the slightest, which should make people happy if anything is updated similarly.


Solves half of the Chapter 12 problem for me, now if we can just get Tenebrae as something.

We'll see what happens, perhaps I could go check on the Shiva area when the March update comes out through the Armiger glitch to see if anything get's put in.

 

[SonOfEtro]

Spoiler

I think the underlying lore is as follows:

Ardyn was, in fact, a king, but he was not the king who founded Lucis proper.

In Ardyn's time, the Starscourge became a pressing concern. He was offered the option of using the Crystal's strength to deal with the Scourge, but upon hearing that the Crystal would demand his youth and/or his life, Ardyn spurned the Crystal and decided that he would find his own solution to the problem. He started absorbing the Scourge and became the Usurper we know and love.

Ardyn's brother, meanwhile, agreed to the Crystal's terms, so the Crystal granted him kingship of Lucis and founded a new line of kings upon him. As a result, he received the title of Founder King.

In Biblical terms, Ardyn is the Saul to his brother's David - he was a legitimate king once, but became an usurper by rejecting the authority that chose him in the first place, and so his brother received the honor of being the foundation for the chosen nation.

about the new dialogue, i really liked the exchange of words

- it emphasizes ardyns hate towards the lucis line and the crystal
- painted the crystal as a more ambiguous figure
- retained all the cool lines of the original exchange
- all this talk about finding peace in the dark reminded me of Dark Souls, so its already a plus ;P

Spoiler

@Ikkin, I can think of two other parallels from the sources of XV's lore. The obvious one is the remnants of FNC lore which XV uses.

The second is the Shinto traditions around the principal deities spawned by Izanagi after washing himself. In this, Ardyn and his brother play the roles of Susano and Amaterasu. In particular, it parallels Susano being left out in the cold while Amaterasu was showered with honours, which turned into a bitter feud lasting centuries and caused great destruction and suffering to others around them both human and divine. In both, the irony is that Susano/Ardyn have direct connection to the ruling family of their respective tales (Japanese Imperial line/Lucis Caelum line). The difference is in the context and detail.

And I agree, @Storm. You can feel Ardyn's bitterness. And the whole thing casts the Crystal - and I think by extension the Astrals - in a more suspicious light that simply being saviours by proxy. What terrors does light hold for humans that they should find comfort in darkness? Weren't they made in the gods' image? There must be something there, and Ardyn likely saw it.

Oh yes, and there's a video of the full fight with Ardyn up now. It's not just the final exchange that got expanded. I don't remember there being any dialogue from Ardyn confirming that the first Daemons were spawned from him, then later infected other humans.

 

[FFChocobo18]

Spoiler

@Ikkin, I can think of two other parallels from the sources of XV's lore. The obvious one is the remnants of FNC lore which XV uses.

The second is the Shinto traditions around the principal deities spawned by Izanagi after washing himself. In this, Ardyn and his brother play the roles of Susano and Amaterasu. In particular, it parallels Susano being left out in the cold while Amaterasu was showered with honours, which turned into a bitter feud lasting centuries and caused great destruction and suffering to others around them both human and divine. In both, the irony is that Susano/Ardyn have direct connection to the ruling family of their respective tales (Japanese Imperial line/Lucis Caelum line). The difference is in the context and detail.

And I agree, @Storm. You can feel Ardyn's bitterness. And the whole thing casts the Crystal - and I think by extension the Astrals - in a more suspicious light that simply being saviours by proxy. What terrors does light hold for humans that they should find comfort in darkness? Weren't they made in the gods' image? There must be something there, and Ardyn likely saw it.

Oh yes, and there's a video of the full fight with Ardyn up now. It's not just the final exchange that got expanded. I don't remember there being any dialogue from Ardyn confirming that the first Daemons were spawned from him, then later infected other humans.

That's really cool stuff right there, hope the dialogue makes it at some point.

 

[Paperchampion23]

On the note of updating his dialogue and potential fight in the DLC: If they do update his fight, I don't think they'd change the quicktime events in the fight, since that was that most iconic part of it, and it would be very easy then to implement this particular dialogue and the rest of it.

I don't really see them changing the fight so much as to maybe adding a much bigger fight in the "beyond" area where you actually vanquish him. Maybe it's possible it revolves around the Armiger Unleashed, even if you hadn't unlocked it at that point. I personally think that' where a "revamp" to the fight may come, especially if leaks from dec. 2016 basically confirmed there was more to the fight.

 

[Storm]

Spoiler

@Ikkin, I can think of two other parallels from the sources of XV's lore. The obvious one is the remnants of FNC lore which XV uses.

The second is the Shinto traditions around the principal deities spawned by Izanagi after washing himself. In this, Ardyn and his brother play the roles of Susano and Amaterasu. In particular, it parallels Susano being left out in the cold while Amaterasu was showered with honours, which turned into a bitter feud lasting centuries and caused great destruction and suffering to others around them both human and divine. In both, the irony is that Susano/Ardyn have direct connection to the ruling family of their respective tales (Japanese Imperial line/Lucis Caelum line). The difference is in the context and detail.

And I agree, @Storm. You can feel Ardyn's bitterness. And the whole thing casts the Crystal - and I think by extension the Astrals - in a more suspicious light that simply being saviours by proxy. What terrors does light hold for humans that they should find comfort in darkness? Weren't they made in the gods' image? There must be something there, and Ardyn likely saw it.

Oh yes, and there's a video of the full fight with Ardyn up now. It's not just the final exchange that got expanded. I don't remember there being any dialogue from Ardyn confirming that the first Daemons were spawned from him, then later infected other humans.

nice find

i especially like ardyns last line, you can see he finally loses all composure when he confess his hatred (with a slight hint of desperation), very human and believable reaction.

 

[FFChocobo18]

nice find

i especially like ardyns last line, you can see he finally loses all composure when he confess his hatred, very human and believable reaction.

Yeah, it also makes me feel bad for Ardyn even more, and makes me wonder even more about what Episode Ardyn could tell, my word, I am curious to find out how Ardyn came to that conclusion.

 

[Storm]

https://www.resetera.com/posts/4421965/

"Got my copy of Edge #314, and reading it, it got some cool little tidbits on FFXV's development. The main takeaway is that they're way more open about Versus being a disaster than ever before.

• Tabata says that in 2012, Yoshi Wada called him telling they're seriously considering canceling Versus XIII and start it from scratch with a new direction and him as a director.
• The period of trying to fix issues with Versus XIII pre that went for "way too long".
• "There're some things where the problem only becomes clearer once the game takes shape. Sometimes you only realize where you'd gone wrong after the work is finished." says Hashimoto.
• At first, 90% of Tabata's team were opposed to taking on the project because it had a terrible reputation and they didn't want to merge with Nomura's team.
• Yoko Shimomura says that only a third of what she wrote for Versus XIII made it to XV.
  
• Shimimura also says that while with Nomura it takes much longer to get the OK on a new piece, Tabata gives the great light very quickly but asks for changes later, lol".

what? i remember shimomura saying nothing from the ost was discarded or something, not cool... anyway the fact tabata's team refused to deal with the project and merge with nomura's staff at first implies they didn't have a good reputation at the time (maybe because of all the stressful delays or poor direction); also it confirms Versus XIII in whatever shape it was had problems that took them considerable time to fix.

edit: i need an Unreleased tracks album ;/

 

[Paperchampion23]

I think now it's time for people to also stop blaming Tabata for this. He practially saved what he could