Final Fantasy XV (was Versus XIII)

[Gary Caelum]

The other thing I'm curious about is: has Episode Ardyn been in development for a whole year? They did announce these DLC in April.

If so, it could be twice as long as any of the previous DLC. Prompto was the longest and was only in development for like 3-4 months. This could be quite substantial. I really hope it has multiple locations/settings. I want to see more than just Insomnia.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Not to rain on that parade, but I'd expect that it'll be likely to be the same in size as the other DLCs.

The initially were gonna drop the four final DLCs back-to-back-to-back-to-back every month. Given that it's clear that the teams who still released content had started scaling back fairly early into their projects' development – you can tell when the Comrades standalone development shifted by the fact that only the first few of the new bosses unlock fluff text additions in the menu when you beat them – it's likely that they shifted development just enough to still finish Ardyn by that release date. Since his combat mechanics are largely a mirror of Noctis' and he's been put into the game in combat before, those technical considerations for that chapter would've been relatively small. They likely populated that dev team with what they needed to hit the deadline like they did with Comrades. Meanwhile, the other Engineers would've all moved onto other projects (likely started focusing on becoming familiar with Next Gen game development).

So, while the development cycle for this one chapter has been longer than any others, it was also meant to've been a year for 4 DLCs, which matches the 3-4 month cycle that the other games took. When scaling back the other teams who were doing similar work, but only maintaining the release date for one of the DLCs, it's highly unlikely that this will mean the content will be any different in scale than what came before.

This is all just logistically speaking based on what we've been able to infer about SE's internal development focus shifts over the last while, so there's a chance I'll be dead wrong, but I wouldn't get your hopes too high.




X

 

[Gary Caelum]

Do we have any indication of when they abandoned the other 3 DLC though? If it was early on, then they might have worked on Ardyn for quite some time.
If it was much later on, they frankly should put together the content they've made and put it into some kind of free update, even if it's a bit messy. Or adjust it so it fits into episode Ardyn. The Aranea stuff could easily be adjusted so it fits into a more Ardyn-based framing. The only negative would be that it would be quite disconnected from the main story they're telling. No-one would really care though. Just have the story from past Insomnia be the main playable campaign. Then if you complete it, it unlocks new scenes set around the fall of the empire, which includes both Ardyn and Aranea, and are just inserted into the main story.

 

[Lulcielid]

That's not a good idea because they would have to rework the levels and gameplay loop of Ardyn to fit Aranea into, which also means taking away the time and (little) resources they currently have that could be used to polish what they currently have.

 

[Gary Caelum]

That's not a good idea because they would have to rework the levels and gameplay loop of Ardyn to fit Aranea into, which also means taking away the time and (little) resources they currently have that could be used to polish what they currently have.

I'm talking about the part set in the last third of the main story when the empire falls apart. I wasn't suggesting they include any new gameplay stuff. I meant just include maybe a few short cutscenes set around Tenebrae or Gralea.

 

[Lulcielid]

This was recently pointed out to me, while the dev team expressed desire to make the cancelled DLC stories in some alternative format, SQEX itself did not make such promise on any capacity on their press announcement.

https://press.na.square-enix.com/re...cond-anniversary-with-new-content-and-an-impo

So temper your expectations a bit more.

 

[Gary Caelum]

It probably depends on how well Ardyn does. If Ardyn sells like 4 million copies, I imagine they'll reconsider doing more.

Chances are, it probably won't though. Only the hardcore fanbase are still following things at this point.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Even if it did sell a ton, they wouldn't reverse position on the other DLCs – at least DLCs. If what we've managed to pick up about the company internally with them moving their devs off onto next gen development is correct makes that even more the case. The likely reason for them scrapping the DLC is that even if they put it out and it did amazingly well, that the RoI they'd get out of them but delaying their devs in starting out earlier at learning next gen Vs. having their engineers just have that much extra time getting experience on what they're looking at in the future wasn't worth the time it'd've cost to do. That's also change that seems to've been made at an upper-company level, and not something that the individual game studios have a lot of control over at all.

Tres & I were surprised that the Comrades standalone came out at all, actually because everything about that had been radio-silent for so long.

That all being said, with them having a really loyal fanbase, and having put in a lot of the story-related work in advance (since a lot of that would've been done in the planning stages, there's a fairly passionate group who wants to try to find a way to get that stuff to fans. I'd bet we'd see something like OtWtaS put together from what'd been planned for all the cancelled DLCs. That's still far from any guarantee, since they'd still need to find a budget for it somewhere that's likely dependent on Ardyn being a success before there's a chance of that happening.

However – it should be noted that the individual who said, “we still hope to deliver something that showcases what type of story we were aiming to deliver in some way, shape, or form.” was Episode Ardyn producer Yuji Shinoda, when talking about the cancelled DLCs. As a producer, he's likely closely connected to a couple of things: early-phase storyboarding and planning, as well as budget assessments. I doubt he'd've made any one hopeful if there wasn't a decent possibility, since it'd've been easier not to've said anything at all. Also, even with the internal development changes, those are all things that're likely to still be in place to let him & whoever else might be involved get that unused DLC content put together into something that the fans can get ahold of one way or another, but I'd expect a bit of a wait until we hear anything on that front.





X

 

[Gary Caelum]

Yeah I bet that's mostly true. But then again, if a DLC did sell 4 million copies, that return on investment would probably be huge, given that it must be much lower budget than creating something new. We know they already had a lot of leftover assets that never made it into the main game. They're probably using a lot of those for the DLC. We know the game originally started in daytime Insomnia, they probably didn't have to create it from scratch for the Ardyn DLC.

We also don't know how much the next consoles will be different from the current ones. Given that they're both using the PC architecture now, the next consoles might just be a kind of power increase, like the XboneX (or like the Gamecube->Wii), rather than something completely new.
SquareEnix seem to have transitioned into using the Unreal engine for all of their main series now anyway, so they might not have much learning to do for a new console.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

 

[Blade]

I still can't get used to the idea that FFXIV dialogue is text based with tiny fonts.... it's like watching older FF games all over again. It feels awkward.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1092879065785270272

 

[Makoeyes987]

I know I shouldn't get my hopes up or anything, but what do they mean by "true past?"

Like... I understand there's another dimension/depth to Ardyn that we never saw but I dunno. The naive, foolish child in me sorta hopes there's maybe a hint of something more in this but knowing this is S-E that thrives on disappointing it's fans, I'll temper my expectations.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

@Makoeyes987
Go on. Elaborate, please.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Well, I just meant that there might be some unmentioned plot thread that might be revealed behind Ardyn's corruption/fall, where the Starscourge came from, and what made him the bitter, malicious and vengeful villain we know and love in FFXV.

Like, calling it the "true past" implies that the past we know of Ardyn is not completely true or there's something we don't know.

However, this *is* the last DLC episode for the game after they said they cancelled everything else, so it could just be standard PR hype building language for fans.

 

[Alex Strife]

Spoiler

Somnus will be the bad guy, Ardyn's character in FFXV will be a result of the former's actions.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I certainly hope so. It really would be grand for Noctis to be the descendant of an ancient villain -- or at least an eventually repentant douchebag who didn't realize what horrific days to come he had set in motion.

 

[Gary Caelum]

I certainly hope so. It really would be grand for Noctis to be the descendant of an ancient villain -- or at least an eventually repentant douchebag who didn't realize what horrific days to come he had set in motion.

I thought this was kinda implied by the main story already. So this wouldn't surprise me.

Maybe we'll actually find out what "Izunia" means.

I also wonder if this means the Ardyn anime will be longer. Weren't the brotherhood ones just 15 minutes each? That would be a bit short for it to have a special event dedicated to it?

 

[Kuja9001]

 

[Tetsujin]

 

[Tetsujin]

Wow, Somnus is a right piece of shit

#ardynwasright

 

[Lulcielid]

 

[Makoeyes987]

Wow.

This is fucking disturbing.

Not only was the history of Ardyn wrongly erased, but the perverse obfuscation of what kind of person Somnus Caelum was in reality is incredible. He was an incredibly, bloodthirsty dick who betrayed his own brother happily. I figured there'd be a sibling schism and falling out but this is beyond anything hinted at in the game.

Not only that, but it really calls into question the sincerity of Somnus's words when Noctis encounters his spirit that entreats him to save his "wayward" and "hate-consmued" brother.

Is he for real? What the fuck...? Is he just a total liar even in death?

I imagined the Ardyn of the past wasn't evil as he was in the present (especially considering he chose to heal the sick by sacrificing his own well-being) However... This new revelation is unreal. He was a legitimately kind, just and loving ruler.

He didn't want to just burn people alive on suspicion of being infected.

And he got fucked over hard.

No wonder he was consumed by hatred.

The most disturbing fact is Noctis and Ardyn are quite similar in that they both were made to shoulder truly unfair and unjust fates that cost them the women they loved. In another world, they'd be friends.

I don't know who is responsible for this but the gods of FFXV's Eos are cruel. Like, Fal'Cie levels of cruel.

No villain in Final Fantasy has ever had this much of a righteous and legitimate grievance regarding their fate as Ardyn. This doesn't absolve or excuse Ardyn of what he does of course but... This man truly was wronged in the worst, and cruelest way possible. I'm just floored.

I guess this is one way to sell having your new playable character go total annihilation for everything the protagonist of the main game fought to defend.

S-E is foolish to abandon this story with this much level of revelation of unexplored detail here. This is fucking wicked to reveal this late after the main game and opens up so many questions and possible threads of where the plot goes and how the world resolves. Just. What the fuck are they thinking...?

What did Tabata do to them? Did he bad touch them or something?

 

[Tetsujin]

Also, the canceled DLCs will be released as a book called The Dawn of the Future.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1096893383631466496

 

[Makoeyes987]

Like, I'm legitimately angry on Ardyn's behalf, lol. I can't believe this.

Of course on one hand, I wouldn't want Hammerhead, Galdin Quay, Lesthalum, Insomnia, etc to be purged of all humanity and replaced with nothing but Red Giants, Tonberries, Goblins, Gargoyles and every manner of daemon imaginable.

And I certainly feel for and rooted for Noctis, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto. They had to win, hell I wanted them to win and bring back the light.

......

But holy shit, someone's gotta pay for this.

LOL, like goddamn, there's something rotten in Eos.

Seriously, that crystal and that asshole Bahamut should just fuck off forever and eat all the assholes for eternity. Bahamut is a big ole' bag of dicks along with Somnus. They can fuck off and die for good.

Bhunivelze still wins as the most bizarre, cruel and unjust god in Final Fantasy but Bahamut and the Eos Crystal just said, "hold my beer."

EDIT: Omg, I just noticed Gilgamesh was there too, backing up Somnus.

Well fuck him too.