Final Fantasy XV Director Addresses Top 15 Demo Complaints

Despite much excitement, Episode Duscae, the demo version of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XV released last month, was a disappointment to some, with criticisms aimed at the game’s lock-on targeting, poor camera controls, and AI faults. Now, the game’s director, Hajime Tabata has, unexpectedly, complied the most common complaints and addressed them, point-by-point, on the latest Final Fantasy XV Active Time Report video podcast.

Here’s the list of complaints taken from the video, followed by Tabata’s responses:

1. “The lock-on was useless.”

“Honestly, there were many instances where we also felt the targeting system wasn’t behaving as we had envisioned.”

“We’ve already begun addressing it.”

2. “The camera is too close. I can’t tell what’s going on.”

“We may consider allowing the player to choose from different camera distances.”

3. “Camera felt heavy or sluggish.”

“We’ll make sure the camera is smoother. Simple as that.”

4. “The AI is dumb. Allies get in the way.”

“We will probably properly address it from the programming end…”

5. “The jaggies. But the drop in frame-rate is even more concerning.”

“We consider [frame-rate] a high priority issue. The only option is to persistently optimise.”

“We are working towards full HD. But frame-rate is more important than resolution.”

6. “So I get that motion is realistic. But because of that, it feels slow.”

“If you’re using a heavy weapon, then the movement is consequently going to feel sluggish.”

“We are working on trying to increase the dynamic range of the action by differentiating the sense of speed when using a light weapon and the sense of weight when using a heavy weapon.”

7. “Can you at least add a minimap or a compass?”

“Ah yes, we will.”

8. “I want a dodge action that doesn’t rely on MP.”

“You’re talking about something like a dodge roll, right? So, there actually is a dodge roll. I think it was in the E3 trailer, too. That’s the default dodge, and the warp-dodge that was in the demo is a higher level dodge action.”

9. “A game that’s all about hiding behind rocks and replenishing MP.”

“The amount of MP that recovers, and the time needed to recover is something we balanced within the context of this demo, so I think what you’re seeing is a result of that. For the final release, before even worrying about MP use, there are other features that will be included. There will be various features to shorten the time or each battle. Whether it be magic, or combo-ing with joint attacks, there will be a lot of tactics at the player’s disposal, so the amount of time spent recovering MP will probably go down in proportion to that.”

10. “Battles are too difficult or too easy.”

“There’s no difficulty option currently in the works for the final release. But since we’re working towards releasing the game simultaneously worldwide, instead of releasing first in Japan and then to the rest of the world, we do feel there is a sense of obligation to fulfill lots of needs. And as one of those needs, we understand that difficulty options may be important.”

“So I think we’ll include it. We will.”

11. “It’s too monotonous.”

“One thing we were thinking about is allowing players to remap the button configuration to their liking. But there is probably more to it, so I would like to dive deeper into this and get the full picture.”

“The monotony is probably due to battles feeling long. (Like the hiding behind rocks?) Yes. That probably also contributed to making the battles feel long. And also, for players who are seasoned action gamers, the demo didn’t include a lot of situations to take advantage of your skills, so you probably couldn’t carry out battles the way you wanted to, thus making it feel too monotonous overall.”

“As I said earlier, resolving the issue of battles being too long will also resolve the issue of battles feeling too monotonous, so I think it’ll change things a lot. Especially because you’ll have the tools to shorten battles so that’ll have a great effect on the experience. In that sense, I feel like it will become less of a problem.”

“And then, if we were to add the difficulty settings, maybe it can bring out the more technical skills.”

“Currently perfectly timed evades even use MP, but it will make it easier to do things like making the gameplay significantly difficult, but eliminating the need for MP.”

“I think we should allow the option of players choosing an easy mode.”

12. “The stamina needed for dashing is annoying. You can’t even run that fast.”

“In terms of dashing distance and speed, well… Improving both by eating certain foods, I think that would be a neat feature for Final Fantasy 15.”

“So if you procure the right ingredients to strengthen your boost for the next day, then you can make that meal. If people were stressed out by the dash in the demo, I think this will take care of it.”

“So if you’re planning to travel far the next day, then you can boost your dash if you know which meal will give you that status effect. In Episode Duscae, there are two states, I think they were Fresh and Prime. You get buffs from the meals. The dash distance was actually lengthened under these states, but the speed wasn’t affected.”

“In the final release, it’s perfectly possible to have meals that can boost both speed and distance, and I think that’s the way it should be. So hopefully we can meet players’ expectations in that direction.”

13. “Many players enjoyed warping, but would like to see it usable as a regular means of moving around.”

“I can’t say with absolute confidence that we’ll be able to manage it in the final release. If a breakthrough happens, I’m sure we’d implement it so you could use warping as a means of getting around, but there’s a good chance it will be left as is.”

14. “Please let me cancel attacks by evading.”

“Now that we have delivered the demo, we’re already able to cancel attacks. It’s already in that for sure.”

“You can’t cancel out every single attack. So this is going to require some strategy and technique. I’m not fully aware of all the details at the moment, so I’ll go over this once we’ve locked in the final features.”

15. “Lots of bugs.”

“As we work on the final release, bugs like the aforementioned ones caused by warping in the field, our know-how isn’t quite affluent yet when it comes to action in an open-world environment, so we are honestly faced with many unforeseen bugs. So we’ll be very thorough as we head towards the final release. I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience.”

Tabata also pays lip-service to the complaint that the cast is all-male, saying that he and his team will not be adding a female party member to the four protagonists, but that women will be well represented in the supporting cast.

Thank you Eurogamer for providing us with this information.