During Square Enix’s E3 live coverage, Final Fantasy XV Game Director Hajime Tabata provided a lot of information about the game during a Q&A Session.

Below you can read a recap of what he shared. Incidentally, the last two answers hidden under the screenshots can be identified as mild spoilers (which is why I shifted them at the end), so if you prefer to go in blind completely, don't look there.

  • You can turn the HUD off.
  • There is a camera mode that allows players to take their own pictures. There won't be a theater mode.
  • There is a minigame in the coliseum in Altissia. Monsters fight against each other, and you can bet on which monster you think is going to win.
  • Maybe post-launch there will be additional content set in the coliseum.
  • At the moment there are no plans to give an option to adjust the camera distance. Soon the team will have to take a final decision on whether to implement it or not.
  • If you level up too much, there can be situations in which you one-shot enemies. Tabata-san doesn't think that's necessarily a problem. He feels that some people enjoy to progress enough to beat easily certain tough enemies. He personally enjoys it as well.
  • In Final Fantasy XV if you fight a boss a bit over your level, you can bridge that gap with skill.
  • There will be an item that will prevent you to overlevel if you so wish. It's specifically designed for people who enjoy low-level clears.
  • The UI design we saw at E3 is not final. It will be renewed once more and the team is currently working on both functionality and aesthetics.
  • There are two different control layouts. One is the default one and the other is the same included in Episode Duscae. There might be a third one implemented before launch. You can change freely between them.
  • The team anticipates 40-50 hours of gameplay just for the main story, but there are a lot of side-quests and other extra things. Just the extra stuff alone is about 100 hours of gameplay. The whole game, everything included, is probably going to sum up to about 200 hours. A lot of gamers have been waiting for a long time, so the team wanted to make sure that they will have a whole lot of content to enjoy.
  • The team is constantly optimizing the game, so it's hard to exactly predict where the final version of the game will be in terms of resolution. That said, Tabata-san provided the specs for the current build of the game presented at E3, that comes with a "slight difference" between the Xbox One and PS4 version.
    • On Xbox One it uses dynamic resolution between 800p and 900p (usually closer to 900p) and mostly consistent 30 FPS. It's performing better than Episode Duscae and Platinum Demo. It currently dips to 26-27 fps in certain situations, for instance when using party commands. Since they managed to achieve this kind of performance for the E3 demo, the team is optimistic for the final version.
    • The PS4 also uses dynamic resolution, and the range is between 900p and 1080p.  Most of the time it's at 1080p and 30 FPS. There are occasional frame rate dips on PS4 as well, but the team will continue to optimize the game.
  • Tabata-san mentioned not to worry about frame rate for the final version of the game, because the team is working on it.
  • In order to keep the processing load manageable, temporal anti-aliasing is implemented every few frames.
  • There is a difference between normal movement speed and dash. Running normally does not consume stamina. The dash does. The duration of the dash mode can be influenced by what you eat back at the camp. Character level won't influence the stamina gauge. In the final version of the game you will be able to toggle between visible and invisible stamina gauge.
  • Stand-by Me is now the official main theme of the game, but Somnus is still included and is used in a "very very important way."
  • There will be serious moments and sad moments in the story. The story is appropriate to the latest numbered Final Fantasy, and it's not an upbeat and happy romp all the way through.
  • There isn't a whole lot of summons (Astrals) in the game. Some fans may feel that the number is underwhelming, but each is very impactful. The summons are integrated with an important aspect of the story. Instead of focusing on the number of summons, Tabata-san would like to focus on their different personalities and impact.
  • Astrals aren't guardians of specific nations. They're guardians of the world.
  • You can use summons under different conditions, depending on each summon. Some can be used when Noctis is in a pinch, others can be used when his allies are in danger. Others have different conditions and personalities and are bound to certain situations. For instance, you can't summon Leviathan if there's no water nearby, while Ramuh won't be able to use his spell in a dungeon, so he'll throw his staff.
  • The Airstep Sword and the Engine Sword from Final Fantasy Versus XIII are still included in the game. The Engine Sword will have special features.
  • DLC plans "are pretty much finalized." The concept is that people who purchased the game should feel that they have made a great purchase. Among the DLC there will be many things Tabata-san himself is excited to play, but it's too early to announce them. There will be additional story content and additional costumes, but there's more than than that, and fans will be pleasantly surprised by what the team has in store. The VR experience will also be DLC. The development team is focusing on the final game, so just a core team is working on DLC now. After the game goes gold, the whole team will shift on DLC development.
  • Party member behavior during battle will be affected by equipped weapons and by the abilities you have. The weapons you're equipping will influence their actions. The abilities you have at every given point influence the overall AI of your party members. If you press L1, your can select the abilities you want your companions to use. There is a cooldown so you have to wait a bit between uses. There are also automatic abilities that companions use on their own. What kind of abilities you have affects when they use those. Other party members can also use magic through items.

FFXV (2)

  • Insomnia isn't in the game as a town you can fully explore like Altissia. It's a location for battle. It's a much bigger area than the city all plaza we saw in the trailer. Everyone will understand this when they watch Kingsglaive.
  • The last scene of the E3 trailer is set close to the very end of the game, after the group returns to Insomnia. Tabata-san confirmed that they are wearing the uniform of the Glaives (as seen in Kingsglaive), but he won't explain why, because it would be a spoiler.