It’s no secret that Final Fantasy 15 has been in development for a long time. Now that we’re finally drawing closer to the release of the long-awaited title, we’re starting to see a few more details arise from the development staff. We still don’t have a release date for the title, but it’s expected to release sometime this year, so more information should be released in the coming months.
One of the big gameplay features that was missing from the Final Fantasy 15: Episode Duscae demo was the ability to use magic. Just about every Final Fantasy title has offered magic in some sort, and Final Fantasy 15 will follow suit. Not only do the magic spells look better than they have in any previous Final Fantasy title, but how you use them will greatly impact your team and your enemies.
In past titles there were often multiple forms of the same magic type. For example, you might have a basic fire spell to cast Fire on a single target. However, if you needed to cast Fire on multiple enemies at once, you would have to cast something along the lines of Firaga. We don’t yet know if multiple spell types exist in Final Fantasy 15, but what we do know is that casting Fire on the grassy plains featured in the game will cause the spell to spread. As it spreads it will hit multiple enemies and even your allies if they get too close to the flames.
Other Final Fantasy games, such as the upcoming PC and iOS release of Final Fantasy 9, have featured the ability to attack your own party members with spells. However, with Final Fantasy 15 being more action-oriented than many previous titles in the series, it’s interesting to see that positioning your teammates could have a significant impact on the battle. If a basic Fire spell can spread, there’s a good chance that some of the huge blasts from summons will also spread. If you don’t have your party positioned well, it could end up disastrous.
In addition to magic spells, Final Fantasy 15 will also feature Magitek Armor. This is nothing new to the Final Fantasy series, as even the online game, Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn features Magitek Armor that you fight against and that you can ride as a mount. Seeing it in Final Fantasy 15 is no surprise, but the question of whether or not you can hop onto the armor still remains to be seen. We know that Noctis and his friends engage in battle against enemies riding Magitek Armor, but that’s about all we know at present.
We do know that Noctis can mount monsters he encounters in the wild. Doing so instantly reduces the physical strength of the enemy, which should factor into battle strategies. There’s probably a limit to which monsters Noctis can mount, and at what point during the battle the monster can be mounted, but knowing you can mount these beasts to lower their physical strength is important. You can also battle against aerial monsters by jumping. However, it’s unknown if you can mount aerial beasts after attacking them.
Almost everything we’ve seen and heard about Final Fantasy 15 indicates the title is heavily story-focused, something that was somewhat lacking from Lightning Returns. However, even with the heavy story focus, there’s plenty of exploration and combat to partake in. Noctis rides around with his friends in a car as they traverse the huge world map, and there’s still a lot we don’t know about Noctis and his father.
We’ll have more on Final Fantasy 15 as the 2016 release of the title swiftly approaches. We don’t yet know an exact release date, which means it’s likely going to happen in the latter half of the year. Hopefully we’ll have more to update between now and E3, but for the time being be sure to check out how Final Fantasy 15 combat compares to Kingdom Hearts, and exploration in the Duscae demo.
