Yesterday Final Fantasy XV Art Director Yusuke Naora held a lecture at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and during the livestream Square Enix displayed an interesting piece of Final Fantasy XV concept artwork, that you can see below:

FFXV Cards

The artwork quite evidently showcases Noctis and his prett... ahem, merry companions as they play a card game on what looks like an oil drum in what appears to be a moment of rest during their road trip.

Does that piece of concept artwork suggest that we're going to see a card minigame in Final Fantasy XV? We don't know for sure, but it's certainly possible.

Director Hajime Tabata mentioned multiple times that Final Fantasy XV aims to both revolution the series and to go back to some of its roots, and in a recent interview on ConsoleWars he said that minigames are part of the plan, and we'll hear more about them after the release of Episode Duscae. 

Alongside Chocobo Racing, card games are doubtlessly the most popular among the Final Fantasy minigames. Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII and Tetra Master from Final Fantasy IX are the most well known, so much that Square Enix launched a stand-alone version of Tetra Master alongside Final Fantasy XI, and just recently included Triple Triad in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

If you're wondering just how popular it is, just check out the picture below. I don't think I've seen that many characters occupying the same space in quite a while. I'm quite sure Square Enix noticed that as well, since it caused the servers to nearly implode, locking out many from even getting to the area on the first day of its implementation.

ffxiv 2015-02-27 23-45-53-67

While we don't know whether the game could be one that we have already seen or a completely new one, its implementation would make perfect sense within Final Fantasy XV's main theme of a road trip.

One of the classic things to bring along when you go on a road trip with friends is a deck of cards, and that's as true in Japan as it is in the west.

Ultimately, we'll have to wait and see if Tabata-san and his team will bring back cards as a main minigame in Final Fantasy XV, but the picture showcased yesterday is definitely promising. The future will tell, but the future seems bright.