Sometimes, Noctis is going to need to destroy Niflheim Empire bases. This will require him to employ stealthy tactics. Square Enix has improved the camera, automating it as much as possible so people don’t have to worry about it while sneaking around and can focus on taking out enemies and taking over. It’s designed to anticipate what someone might need.
The UI was also different during this footage, compared to the Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae demo, as was the control scheme. Button configuration will change based on when things unlock. Attack, defend, jump, and warp are the four attacks, and they’re mapped to buttons at the start.
During these battles, it was shown that Noctis will have weapons swirling around him as they change. It’s designed to look visual appealing. The four weapons were tied to the directional buttons for the footage shown here, with the decision made based on Episode Duscae feedback. Square Enix didn’t know how many abilities could be set to weapons during design. People will have more direct input, and it should make things more fluid.
A key to taking a base successfully is Blade Warp. If Noctis sneaks up on an enemy, he can perform a sword attack that “warps” him to that person to immediately take them down. However, it is still possible for Noctis and his group to be spotted while taking over a base. Should this happen, a battle will proceed as usual. There will also be warp points in the air, perhaps generated by allies, that could be used to keep him in the air indefinitely for attacks.
Combos were also discussed, with a fourth time revealed. In this new type, you give the ally a command, the camera switches to the ally for his action, then to Noctis. In the video, Ignis made a warp point for Noctis to use. More commands become available when allies level up. New commands for allies become available as they grow, with different skills having their own different trees.
We also saw fire magic used in the base infiltration. Magitek armor was damaged, so hydraulic fluid leaked out. It was set on fire with Fire magic. This caused more damage than usual to the equipment. The goal was to provide an example of how magic can influence the environment.
Guns are important as well. Noctis and his group can commander base artillery and use it to destroy as much as possible. A physics system is in place to decimate infiltrated bases. Though, Final Fantasy XV will also have some bases that can be captured.
We also learned the Luminous engine’s lighting doesn’t different much from other engines, like Unreal Engine 4. The lighting isn’t unique, but the post-processing and fundamental lighting designs in Final Fantasy XV are. The footage shown used optimized shadows, where shadows further away are drawn lighter with with L.O.D. There are multiple sources of light in each environment, so each object also casts multiple shadows. Fog was also subject to lighting, to bring out airiness and depth.
At the end of Final Fantasy XV base capture video, Aranea Highwind, The Dragoon, made an appearance. This was her first appearance in footage for the game so far.
The assets created by Square Enix on PCs is being prepared for consoles. So development on PC is about done, and they’re well into transferring to consoles.