Final Fantasy XV Director Confirms No Character Switching and New Combat Details
Final Fantasy XV is Square Enix’s proverbial son, returning after its announcement 8 years ago. With development restarting nearly 2 years ago, under Hajime Tabata’s new direction, fans have been concerned with possible changes to the project. Tabata cleared up a few misconceptions in this morning’s Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Extended Talk Show, including the hotly debated combat system and rumored character switching feature.
When asked if Final Fantasy XV‘s combat would really require holding down one button, Tabata responded, “It’s not that simple! (Laughs.) Yes, when you continue to hold down the guard button, you can basically auto-guard and evade, but it consumes MP. You can’t infinitely evade. You have to think about timing, when it’s a good idea to attack or evade. Also, you aren’t invincible. There are attacks you can’t avoid. In those cases, there are also essential technical evasion methods.”
“When you push the attack button, you invoke the standard combo. You can change the actions by using it in coordination with the directional buttons,” Tabata continued. “The actions change depending on your circumstances—things like whether you’re guarding and whether the timing is right, (imagine in this circumstance: when you’re guarding, you might get a chance to counterattack or something), or if your companions are nearby.”
In response to questions whether the game’s combat resembled Type-0 or Kingdom Hearts, Tabata noted, “when you push the attack button, you invoke the standard combo, which is similar to Type-0. Considering the battle system as a whole, however, it is different from both Type-0 and Kingdom Hearts.”
And then there’s character switching. Whether this would be possible in Final Fantasy XV or not has been a back and forth discussion. Tabata cleared up any confusion on this subject as well: “Everyone on the development team thoroughly looked into an Active Cross Battle system that made free use of attack, guard, and co-op functions, but as a result they arrived at the conclusion that changing characters would be too difficult. In order to create a new and interesting battle system, we ended up not being able to put in the character switching.”
Tabata also shared that there will be an independent jump button, free running ability, and continuous co-op chain moves.