History Trivia / FinalFantasyXV

-->[[Creator/YoshitakaAmano Yoshitaka]] [[http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/04/27/the-art-that-shaped-final-fantasy-thoughts-from-famed-artist-yoshitaka-amano.aspx Amano]]: “[[LampshadeHanging Oh, it’s finally being realized after all this time]].”

** While Creator/DarinDePaul has played plenty of villains, they're usually [[BadassBaritone deep-voiced,]] [[TheStoic calm]] and imposing figures. Ardyn, by contrast, is a suave and dramatic schemer.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The announcement on November 7th, 2018 that all future DLC save for ''Episode Ardyn'', as well as the PC port of ''Comrades'' standalone, was effectively cancelled, as well as the announcement that Hajime Tabata quit Square Enix, has left a sour taste with people who were looking forward to said DLC (with the most vitriol generated over the cancellation of Lunafreya's episode). While the people on board the project promised to try and bring the intended stories, or at least the parts already done, to the audience in "some way, shape or form", the comments Square Enix is receiving for this choice are overwhelmingly negative. These DLC ended up being reformatted into a novel, titled ''Dawn of the Future''.

* TroubledProduction: Ooooh, boy. In 2006, Creator/SquareEnix announced ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'', which was planned to be a [=PS3=] exclusive game. The game's development didn't really get very far in the years to come, and the title was still in the pre-production phase by 2011. News of its progress was sparse as ''Versus XIII'' consistently abstained from game exhibitions, and rumours of its cancellation began to spread. In 2013, the production team announced that the game would now be developed for the UsefulNotes/{{PS4}} and UsefulNotes/XboxOne (rather than the originally intended [=PS3=]), and was to be retitled as ''Final Fantasy XV''. A year later, it was announced that Creator/TetsuyaNomura would be stepping down as the game's director to instead direct ''Kingdom Hearts III'', and would be replaced by Hajime Tabata. Tabata, citing the game's decade-long stay in DevelopmentHell, resolved to complete the project before the end of 2016[[note]]Supposedly, it's actually all but confirmed that it was contractual obligation that lead to them being forced to complete the game by the end of 2016 and that deadline could not be extended past December.[[/note]] leading to a number of changes to the game's established story, characters and gameplay. The game was then set to be released on September 30, 2016, but was later delayed again to November 29, 2016. [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1233181&page=1 An early leak from June 2016]] indicates that the script was still undergoing significant changes only months before the game was released.

* CastingGag: Ardyn [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII is]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts not]] [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} the]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 first]] [[EvilRedhead red-haired antagonist]] voiced by Creator/KeijiFujiwara. [[Manga/DeathNote It's]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts also]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 not the]] [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} first time]] his and Creator/MamoruMiyano's characters have been on opposing sides.

** Before ''Versus XIII'' was decided to be ''Final Fantasy XV'', Eidos Montreal was commissioned by Square-Enix to create the next ''XV'' game, which would have made it the first western developed FF game. It was given the name "Project W" and has a space-opera RPG premise to Star Ocean with Final Fantasy elements and features a lost love triangle between a female character named Nova and an unnamed female warrior. The premise was rejected by Square-Enix higher-ups for "not being Final Fantasy enough". It was repurposed to be a new IP called "Project Nova" before, ironically, facing the same ExecutiveMeddling the Versus XIII/XV teams had, leading to a soft cancelation in 2013. Rumors of this project were circulating for the past years before the developers, unhappy that years of hard work went down the drain, leaked out the details to a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl6mG3U4vaY game jounalist]]. A former Eidos Montreal Art Director [[https://eveninsight.com/ would later confirm the rumor.]]

** Before ''Versus XIII'' was decided to be ''Final Fantasy XV'', Eidos Montreal was commissioned by Square-Enix to create the next ''XV'' game, which would have made it the first western developed FF game. It was given the name "Project W" and has a space-opera RPG premise to Star Ocean with Final Fantasy elements and features a lost love triangle between a female character named Nova and an unnamed female warrior. The premise was rejected by Square-Enix higher-ups for "not being Final Fantasy enough". It was repurposed to be a new IP called "Project Nova" before, ironically, facing the same ExecutiveMeddling the Versus XIII/XV teams had, leading to a soft cancelation in 2013. Rumors of this project were circulating for the past years before the developers, unhappy that years of hard work went down the drain, leaked out the details to a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl6mG3U4vaY game jounalist]]. A former Eidos Montreal Art Director [[https://game-news24.com/2022/05/21/eidos-montreal-once-worked-on-a-final-fantasy-game-entitled-project-w/ would later confirm the rumor.]]

* ExecutiveVeto: At one point Nomura thought of making the game a musical after he saw the 2012 film adaptation of ''Film/LesMiserables''. For better or worse, that was vetoed by Square Enix's higher-ups. Of course, the actual quote was provided second-hand back in 2013, so it's impossible to know if this was actually genuine or just another case of Nomura's trademark quirky humor that got misrepresented, though a [[https://www.khinsider.com/news/Nomura-Shimomura-Joint-Interview-for-KH-Orchestra-8752 2017 interview with KHInsider]] leans more on the latter.

* CastingGag: Ardyn [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII is]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts not]] [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} the]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 first]] [[EvilRedhead red-haired antagonist]] voiced by Creator/KeijiFujiwara. [[Manga/DeathNote It's]] [[Franchise/KingdomHearts also]] [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 not the]] [[{{Anime/Pokemon}} first time]] his and Creator/MamoruMiyano's characters [[RelationshipVoiceActor have been on opposing sides]].

* RelationshipVoiceActor:
** Eight of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0''[='=]s voice actors reunite in ''XV'': [[Creator/RobbieDaymond Kurasame (Prompto)]], [[Creator/MatthewMercer Trey (Cor)]], [[Creator/SteveBlum Cid Aulstyne (Verstael)]] and [[Creator/JasonSpisak Izana (Loqi)]] in English, and [[Creator/KeijiFujiwara Izana (Ardyn)]], [[Creator/YuuichiNakamura Trey (Ravus)]], [[Creator/HirokiTochi Zhuyu (Cor)]] and [[Creator/MiyukiSawashiro Sice (Aranea)]] in Japanese.
** Jin Urayama (Verstael) and Creator/TetsuyaKakihara (Prompto) previously voiced [[spoiler:another father-son duo as]] [[Manga/MobileSuitGundamTheOrigin Degwin Sodo Zabi and Garma Zabi]].
** [[Creator/TatsuhisaSuzuki Noctis]], [[Creator/KeijiFujiwara Ardyn]], and [[Creator/YuuichiNakamura Ravus]] are [[Series/TokumeiSentaiGoBusters Usada Lettuce, Cheeda Nick, and Beet J. Stag]].

* TalkingToHimself: Creator/RayChase voices both Noctis and Wiz in the ''Episode Duscae'' demo.

* CreatorBacklash: Tabata claimed that his team that worked on ''Type-0'' didn't want to take on the project and had to talk them into it. There was also internal backlash from him taking over the project from Tetsuya Nomura. This led to many of the team such Roberto Ferrari leaving the project out of solidarity with Nomura, and the project generally had a bad reputation within the company. While not outright stated, many such as Naoki Yoshida, have made many subtle potshots at the game's development under Tabata over the years, while he also clearly has a lot of respect for Nomura, as they've collaborated on ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Final Fantasy XIV's]]'' Eden raid series and said ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' has been an inspiration for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXVI''.

* NamesTheSame:
** The Carbuncle of ''XV'' is not to be confused with the Carbuncle found in the ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' series.
** Noctis's Engine Blade is not to be confused with [[Series/KamenRiderW Kamen Rider Accel's]] Engine Blade.

** The 2011 TGS trailer (when the game was still intended for the [=PS3=] and called ''Versus XIII'') placed a large focus on Noct & company being caught in the middle of Niflheim's invasion of Insomnia, the Crown City of Lucis, which provided a number of action set-pieces. Post-rebranding material, particularly the 2014 TGS trailer, the 2015 Jump Festa trailer and the ''Episode Duscae'' stinger, all posit that the crew has instead already left the city when the invasion goes down, which Tabata later confirmed, meaning that a lot of the sequences in the 2011 trailer have been scrapped or possibly re-purposed - even the "party scene", featured so prominently in earlier material, is no longer in the game.
*** [[spoiler:And, of course, the full content of the ''Duscae'' stinger, when taken together with the other material, suggests this change greatly affects the tone of the wider story - from the personal, "gangland"-esque conflict of the early trailers, to a story more about trying to salvage something out of tragedy and disaster.]]

** There are quite a few noticeable differences between ''Versus XIII'' and the final product. [[http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/e7/Prince_gang.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20130611094713 Noctis and the gang had different outfits]], Prompto originally had a shotgun instead of dual wielding pistols, Noctis and the gang were present during the invasion of Insomnia, and Emperor Aldercapt appeared to have a more significant presence. The game was also going to have been much more violent, with blood spraying from enemies whenever struck, and one shot in an early trailer had Noctis perform a NeckSnap on an Imperial soldier.

** [[Creator/DavidLodgeActor David Lodge]] voices both Vyv and Bahamut.

* UpliftedSideStory: ''XV'' began life as a SpinOff game under the ''Franchise/{{Fabula Nova Crystallis|FinalFantasy}}'' banner, originally named ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'' and sharing its mythos with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. However, ''Versus XIII'' went through a lot of DevelopmentHell. The rebooting of the project and transition into a mainline installment was basically an attempt to salvage it.

* DevelopmentHell: The game was notoriously stuck in this after it's initial announcement due to the Crystal Tools engine not being finished in a timely manner and when it did, it had numerous issues that made it almost impossible to do the kind of gameplay Nomura's team wanted to do, meaning that they had to make another engine just to keep up. Confounding matters was the fact that the team constantly was taken off to help with other projects, such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', so it was strongly considered to just cancel the game outright and start from scratch, even though 2011 finally saw the game in full production and making great strides. This was also because Square Enix had gotten a look at the tech behind the next gen consoles and were worried ''Versus XII'' would be left behind by the time it was finished. Eventually it was decided to rebrand it with Hajime Tabata's ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy Type0'' team also being added to help work on it. While the game did leave DevelopmentHell once the engine issues were solved with the creation of the Ebony Engine and made great strides in 2010 and 2011, it also ran fully into TroubledProduction.

'''Yoko Shimumura''': There was a musical number in KINGDOM HEARTS II. That was rough.\\

'''Shimumura''': Thank goodness that never happened... (laughs)\\

* ExecutiveVeto: At one point Nomura thought of making the game a musical after he saw the 2012 film adaptation of ''Film/LesMiserables''. For better or worse, that was vetoed by Square Enix's higher-ups. Of course, the actual quote was provided second hand, so it's impossible to know if this was actually genuine or just another case of Nomura's trademark quirky humor that got misrepresented.

* TroubledProduction: Ooooh, boy. In 2006, Creator/SquareEnix announced ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'', which was planned to be a [=PS3=] exclusive game. The game's development didn't really get very far in the years to come, and the title was still in the pre-production phase by 2011. News of its progress was sparse as ''Versus XIII'' consistently abstained from game exhibitions, and rumours of its cancellation began to spread. In 2013, the production team announced that the game would now be developed for the UsefulNotes/{{PS4}} and UsefulNotes/XboxOne (rather than the originally intended [=PS3=]), and was to be retitled as ''Final Fantasy XV''. A year later, it was announced that Creator/TetsuyaNomura would be stepping down as the game's director to instead direct ''Kingdom Hears III'', and would be replaced by Hajime Tabata. Tabata, citing the game's decade-long stay in DevelopmentHell, resolved to complete the project before the end of 2016[[note]]Supposedly, it's actually all but confirmed that it was contractual obligation that lead to them being forced to complete the game by the end of 2016 and that deadline could not be extended past December.[[/note]] leading to a number of changes to the game's established story, characters and gameplay. The game was then set to be released on September 30, 2016, but was later delayed again to November 29, 2016. [[http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1233181&page=1 An early leak from June 2016]] indicates that the script was still undergoing significant changes only months before the game was released.

* AllStarCast: Inverted, with Creator/SquareEnix seeking out mostly promising and upcoming actors for the main characters instead of going for an all-star cast. They did consider carrying over the cast of ''Kingsglaive'' into the game at one point, but decided against it due to budgetary concerns.

* CreatorBacklash: Tabata claimed that his own team that worked on ''Type-0'' didn't want to take on the project and he had to talk them into it. There was also internal backlash from him taking over the project from Tetsuya Nomura. This led to many of the team such Roberto Ferrari leaving the project out of solidarity with Nomura, and the project generally had a bad reputation within the company. While not outright stated, many such as Naoki Yoshida, have made many subtle potshots at the games development under Tabata over the years, while he also clearly has a lot of respect for Nomura, as they've collaborated on ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV Final Fantasy XIV's]]'' Eden raid series and said ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' has been an inspiration for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXVI''.

* DeletedRole: Due to the games' TroubledProduction, several characters were cut from the finalized story as confirmed by Roberto Ferrari, the secondary character designer. The biggest example among them being Stella Nox Fleuret, the original heroine of the game, who later was replaced by Lunafreya. The game developers have stressed that Stella and Luna are completely different characters on many occasions, though designwise Luna is a reworked version of Stella.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: For people who have copies of ''Episode Duscae'' and ''Platinum Demo'' stored in their consoles, it would be wise to keep both since it's impossible to download these again as both are unlisted from online stores. It's still possible to redeem unused codes for ''Episode Duscae'' if you're lucky to find one on sale (even if it's indicated that the code had expired), but if you didn't download ''Platinum Demo'' when it was available, there's no way of getting it again.

* DevelopmentHell: The game was notoriously stuck in this after it's initial announcement due to the Crystal Tools engine not being finished in a timely manner and when it did, it had numerous issues that made it almost impossible to do the kind of gameplay Nomura's team wanted to do, meaning that they had to make another engine just to keep up. Confounding matters was the fact that the team constantly was taken off to help with other projects, such as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII" and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', so it was strongly considered to just cancel the game outright and start from scratch, even though 2011 finally saw the game in full production and making great strides. This was also because Square Enix had gotten a look at the tech behind the next gen consoles and were worried ''Versus XII'' would be left behind by the time it finished. Eventually it was decided to rebrand it with Hajime Tabata's Final Fantasy XV team also being added to help work on it. While the game did leave DevelopmentHell once the engine issues were solved with the creation of the Ebony Engine and made great strides in 2010 and 2011, it also ran fully into TroubledProduction.

* CreatorsPest: The ''entire game'' -- or rather, ''Versus XIII'' -- was this to Square Enix. When the game was rebranded to ''XV'' in 2012, the game had been stuck in DevelopmentHell for six years with little progress made, so it was strongly considered to just cancel the game outright and start from scratch, and it was on Hajime Tabata's advice that they not do so because he felt it wouldn't be possible to continue development on the game if they did. Tabata has also claimed that his own team that worked on ''Type-0'' didn't want to take on the project and he had to talk them into it, there was internal backlash from him taking over the project from Tetsuya Nomura, he did a lot of staff restructuring when he took over that some didn't care for, and the project generally had a bad reputation within the company.

* ExecutiveVeto: At one point Nomura thought of making the game a musical after he saw the 2012 film adaptation of ''Film/LesMiserables''. For better or worse, that was vetoed by Square Enix's higher-ups.

* Luminous Productions published one of their CEDEC presentations a UI prototype for the game, which shows a [[https://imgur.com/tfd2qN9 diegetic design]] similar to the one shown in the ''Versus XIII'' trailers.

** The World of Eos used to be a [[https://i.imgur.com/YkIoUtv.png huge continent]] connected via roads and trains and also explorable with the regalia. In [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/ec/Final_Fantasy_XV_Topographical2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20141114224327 another old map]], Lucis and Niflheim were repositioned but were still neighbors and Accordo was connected to Niflheim. Some observant players [[https://i.imgur.com/jcbc8Wd.jpg discovered by comparing the old and current maps]] that the developers, forced to [[DummiedOut trim down Accordo and Niflheim]] due to the CosmicDeadline and story rewrites, separated Lucis and Niflheim into two continents and Accordo was repositioned then drowned so only Altissia and a few islands were left. Doing an OOB glitch will show some roads in Niflheim that go nowhere and train tracks in Altissia that go to the water, supporting this.

** The World of Eos used to be a [[https://i.imgur.com/ExxRlwz.png huge continent]] connected via roads and trains and also explorable with the regalia. In [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/ec/Final_Fantasy_XV_Topographical2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20141114224327 another old map]], Lucis and Niflheim were repositioned but were still neighbors and Accordo was connected to Niflheim. Some observant players [[https://i.imgur.com/jcbc8Wd.jpg discovered by comparing the old and current maps]] that the developers, forced to [[DummiedOut trim down Accordo and Niflheim]] due to the CosmicDeadline and story rewrites, separated Lucis and Niflheim into two continents and Accordo was repositioned then drowned so only Altissia and a few islands were left. Doing an OOB glitch will show some roads in Niflheim that go nowhere and train tracks in Altissia that go to the water, supporting this.

** The World of Eos used to be a [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/ec/Final_Fantasy_XV_Topographical2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20141114224327 huge continent]] connected via roads and trains and also explorable with the regalia. In [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/e/ec/Final_Fantasy_XV_Topographical2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20141114224327 another old map]], Lucis and Niflheim were neighbors and Accordo was connected to Niflheim. Some observant players [[https://i.imgur.com/jcbc8Wd.jpg discovered by comparing the old and current maps]] that the developers, forced to [[DummiedOut trim down Accordo and Niflheim]] due to the CosmicDeadline and story rewrites, separated Lucis and Niflheim into two continents and Accordo was repositioned then drowned so only Altissia and a few islands were left. Doing an OOB glitch will show some roads in Niflheim that go nowhere and train tracks in Altissia that go to the water, supporting this.