In a post on the Japanese Final Fantasy XV forums, Programmer Satoshi Kitade revealed that the game is playable internally from start to finish, with the first half at a state where it’s reflective of the finished product.
Square Enix translated the full statement into English, where Kitade explained what they’ve achieved with the pre-beta version of Final Fantasy XV:
- We have managed to get the game in a state where you can play the whole thing through from the opening to the ending. By doing this, all the dev. staff are now able to get a shared impression of the overall game.
- We have polished the first half of the game to final retail quality and established the final feel of the gameplay.
Entering pre-beta back in October, Kitade wrote, “In short, we can now say that we have done the groundwork for finishing all the different areas of content in the game and the overall product itself to a high standard, polishing up each individual element and fine tuning the gameplay.”
However, there are mechanics and elements still undergoing testing, and Kitade is able to “concentrate on the process of optimization.”
With the first half of the game up to final retail quality, Square Enix is able to determine “how much work will be necessary in order to bring all aspects of the game, including the feel of the gameplay and the standard of the visuals, up to the final quality level we envisage.” Additionally, they’ve been able to see how players will approach playing the game through focus testing.
Kitade finished up by saying, “We have entered the final phase of development now, where the technology and people’s feelings and intuition come together, and this is where the programmers can really show their stuff. You can expect great things from us!”
Although they’ve entered the final phase, Square Enix Community Manager Dan Seto warned that development is very complicated and “there’s still quite a lot of work needed to be done on FFXV.”
Final Fantasy XV is scheduled for a 2016 release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a firm release date being announced in March 2016.
[Source: Final Fantasy XV Forums (1), (2) via NeoGAF]
