Nomura on Final Fantasy XV: Online Necessary to Keep Players Playing, Won't Lag Behind Western Devs

In an interview Final Fantasy XV Director Tetsuya Nomura shared some info about the game, and his views on online gameplay. He also added that he plans to show the world that Japanese developer won't lag behind during the next generation.

[Hellsvacancy]

Versus was announced 7 years ago, is that not a kind of lag?

And I bet you my left testicle that it will land on the PC

[Abriael]

I'll double that bet, especially if Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is successful on PC in Japan. I know quite a few of my Japanese friends are buying a new PC for it.

[Need4Game]

Final Fantasy XV confirmed online Action-MMORPG

[user5575708]

online isn't necessary just make a great game with new game + options and people will keep going

[TheLyonKing]

But that's the problem stop trying to imitate western devs and make that great jrpg!

I don't give two sh!ts about online functionality with this game.

[Abriael]

People said that about Mass Effect 3 too, yet it turned out quite great. Can't we just wait and see how they'll implement it? What about if it's Co-op a la secret of mana?

[TheLyonKing]

Ff9 had basic co-op which was pointless.

I really think what se will come up with wont be worth checking in online.

Bad gut feeling that there will be micro transactions :/

[Abriael]

@TheLyonKing: yeah, but if you look at The Secret of Mana you could basically play the whole game with a friend.

Personally, I would love something like that in a next gen JRPG.

Edit @below: I'd be totally disappointed myself if the online model was based on microtransactions, even if I'm sure that we can expect a LOAD of costumes.

[TheLyonKing]

@abriael while I can your point I do think that is a small niche of players that would want to complete and ff together.

My friends have completely different play styles than me and we wouldn't be able to play together. IMHO I would prefer to it be completely offline and single player. If there's online for people who want two players that's fine. If there are micro transactions I will be disappointed and if oine feature are mandatory and try to enhance the game I will be just as disappointed.

[Irishguy95]

Demons/Dark souls was a J-arpg...has one of the best online this gen imo

I wouldn't mind co op missions or something for this, or just co op in general. Having the option just to have a friend or two controlling the other members of the party wouldn't be too bad. I mean I know you want to control them yourself..which you can..but the option would be nice.

[TheLyonKing]

Yeah as long as it is not a nessisty to collect everything like say in lbp then I will be happy.

[Hadoukameha]

Yeah, I LIKE Japanese games. If I wanted a damn Western styled game I'D BUY ONE. Westernization is literally slaughtering the games I love, just fucking raping them.

Proof FFXV sucks right here. Focus on online and immitation of the West. Focus 100% on my story, characters and single playrcampaign. Tack on optional multiplayer later.

Ugh, FF Death Match and Horde modes confirmed, killstreaks too.

[Irishguy95]

That's right...Japanese games don't have online.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/...

[izumo_lee]

I play FF for the single player experience. This talk better not be to appease these BS policies of the XBone cause that system needs to be always online & single player games are much more difficult to play on it.

Squarenix already has a multiplayer game it is called FF14. If i wanna play a multiplayer game i would play that. I do not like what Squarenix is trying to do with this game that many of us has waited over 7 years to play, now that it is finally coming out we are getting talk of unnecessary add on that i could care less for.

[TheLyonKing]

If only I can bubble your comment more than once.

[Abriael]

There's a large difference between a MMORPG and a single player game with some multiplayer elements, that now is basically industry standard. Nomura obviously wants to add online to add value and replayability to the game (IE: let people play longer).

I have nothing against this.

[GenericNameHere]

If you need online multiplayer to make a numbered Final Fantasy (except for XI and XIV of course) longer, have more value and replayability, then you're doing everything WRONG.

[Abriael]

@GenericNameHere: really?

There's no limit to "longer". Even if the single player has say 100 hours of gameplay, why exactly is it bad to add more?

"Please don't give us more Square!" doesn't seem a very sound standpoint.

Edit below: "it's a JRPG!" is a completely moot argument. I'm sure that when developers added action to JRPGs some people cried "it's a JRPG!"

No matter how much replayability it has in single player. Multiplayer adds more, and getting more value for your money is good. Being reactionary and refractary to change before even seeing it helps no one.

[izumo_lee]

It's a JRPG! These games have over 30 hours at least in gameplay! I can understand adding multiplayer to shorter games like FPS, or action games that have less than 10 hours. However to unnecessarily add it to a game that really doesn't need it is pointless.

If you make a good JRPG the replay value comes from trying to find all the hidden secrets of the game. Add in side quests, mini games, secret bosses stuff that older JRPG games have had that for some reason are taken away to add as DLC!

So don't give me this BS about replayability or added value for a JRPG! Making a single player experience has worked for Squarenix for years & they made some of their best games with that mindset. This change in mindset is what is wrong with Squarenix now.

[GenericNameHere]

Uhh, because some developers are forced to tack on multiplayer into their game? Not saying multiplayer is bad, just that if there's one game that is able to withstand on its own, it's RPGs. Final Fantasy games can easily take you over 100 hours to do everything.

But you know, I'm going to give FFXV the benefit of the doubt (that's the correct saying, right?). It's now an action RPG, much like KH. I could definitely see coop gameplay. You'd finally be able to experience an FF game together with your friends rather than by yourself.

[MuhammadJA]

If they're going to add online to it, they should make it simple like an item trading system or some leaderboard rankings. DON'T RUIN IT WITH DEATHMATCH!

[LightofDarkness]

I imagine that this will simply allow players to fill the roles of other party members if they wish, but it better not be mandatory. Plus, I can't imagine myself or any other FF fans wanting to play the game together at once, I like being in control of my entire party.

[rezzah]

As along as MP doesn't affect SP, MP doesn't need to be played. However, if it is incorporated to improve the SP then MP could be a bonus.

[ecstaticpunk]

More than anything I think it's the fee they should be concentrating on people are willing to P2P Warcraft etc and yet may have an issue paying for something that isn't quite massively established yet as a MMORPG I know it's Final Fantasy and all but it's always been known as a JRPG they should've started with a F2P model get a larger community going and then eventually add a monthly fee in my opinion.

[GamePeace]

Good decision, Nomura. I hope your game can live up to the expectations. You can run, but you can never hide...

[GamePeace]

"The PS4 sees Sony move to a 64-bit x86 chip architecture, which will be music to the ears of developers, especially those used to working on PC games. The good news doesn’t stop there, though. Developers will be able to take advantage of Microsoft’s latest industry standard DirectX API — DirectX 11.1, but Sony has taken the time to improve upon it, pushing the feature set beyond what is available for PC games development.

Those improvements include better shader pipeline access, improved debugging support features out the box, and much lower level access to the system hardware enabling developers to do “more cool things.” That’s achieved not only through an modified DirectX 11.1 API, but also a secondary low-level API specifically for the PS4 hardware."

Last line is my favourite.

http://www.geek.com/games/s...

[GamePeace]

That's why AMD Chef said that you cannot built a PC like Ps4. Read between the lines. The oath is taken, the deed is done.

[Brucis]

>PC version may be made if there's enough demand
That'd be pretty nice for PC only gamers or people with great rigs that want to see just how good it can look.

>No lead platform
Nice considering you don't have to worry about getting an 'inferior' version.

>Considering a variety of online features
These could be anything from something like leaderboards to co-op to full-blown PVP.

>Thinks online gameplay needed to keep people playing for a longer time
Makes sense, the more stuff to do the longer you'll keep playing is usually how it goes. So long as it's fun it doesn't really matter.

>PS Vita integration is possible
Neat.

>Predicts the quality of the game to increase from what we saw and that we'll see more at TGS
Great, liked what I've seen so far.

>Thinks Japanese development lagged behind last gen and promises that won't be the case with next-gen
Pretty bold statement, one that seems to be in agreement with some other big-name Japanese devs. As for the promise, he's going to have to keep it now, no take-backs.

[Chard]

I wonder if it will have a 'Versus' multiplayer mode?

[Hadoukameha]

@IrishGuy95: Idiot, go play CoD.

[WeAreLegion]

Who's making you say these things, Nomura?!?

[leahcim]

I sadly smelling some new shitty FF game coming,

NOMURA stop trying to please the western audience!

YOUR BEST GAMES ARE TOTALLY JAPANESE AND ARE LOVED BY HALF OF THE EARTH

[LAWSON72]

If there is any game that will never need an online mode it is FF (excluding mmos)

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

...? I swear every JPN dev has tried this, and it RUINED companies, stop trying to be who you're not and cater to your god damn audience >_>