Hello, GM. I remember your rumour from back in your December 2011 issue where you said Final Fantasy XV would be announced at E3 2012. Was the game you were referring to the Agni's Philosophy tech demo?

As far as we're aware, Agni's Philosophy is not FFXV. Perhaps we should further clarify the rumour. An extremely trustworthy, industry source who has successfully tipped us off on Square Enix news in the past (such as FFXIV being announced at E3 2009, FFXIII being announced for Xbox 360 at E3 2008 and the FFXIII Compilation being announced at E3 2006) told us in November 2011 that FFXV is currently deep in development at Square Enix Japan and will release on all major current gen platforms. He said that he was 90% sure the game would be announced as part of Final Fantasy 25th anniversary. It was us that predicted that the place of the announcement would be E3. He only told us a vague, "Next year, as part of FF 25th anniversary." What that means is that it could still show up at Tokyo Game Show in September.

You may think this is all BS but the track record of this source with Square Enix news is hard for us to ignore. We wouldn’t have run the story if we didn't believe it was true. As for Agni's Philosophy, one thing you should remember is that PS2 real-time tech demos of FFVIII and The Spirits Within were shown at the PS2 reveal in March 1999. Around a year later in January 2000, FFIX was announced for the PS1. So basically, a PS4/720 real-time tech demo being shown by Square Enix doesn't prove that FFXV will not still be announced for current gen hardware.

Also, FFIX was announced for PS1 almost a year after the PS2 hardware was publicly announced. Seeing as PS4/720 have not yet to be publicly announced by Sony and Microsoft, FFXV being announced this year would actually be earlier than when FFIX was announced in its console generation.

Having said all that, to make up for the lack of a reveal at E3 and to hold you over until FFXV actually is revealed, here's further information on what we've been told about the game:

• Including the concept planning and pre-production phase, the game has already been in development for over 4 years.
• It entered full production in January 2010, a month after FFXIII was released in Japan. Since then it has had a development team of just over 200 people.
• The director is the same person who directed FFVI, FFIX and FFXII.
• The co-director led a small part of the development team to make Tactics Ogre for the PSP in parallel with FFXV. He's currently multi-tasking as lead UI designer of FFXIV 2.0 and co-director of FFXV.
• The game design and battle system will be a major evolution of FFXII.
• The game will be open world and have sprawling, crowd-filled cities on par with Assassin's Creed.
• The battle system now allows you to target different parts of an enemy’s body like in Vagrant Story.
• Yoichi Wada (president of Square Enix) wants the game to have a world scale and volume of content that surpasses The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He also wants the game to surpass FFVII in worldwide sales and critical reception.

Of course, take this as a rumour and with a grain of salt until the game is actually announced. For us, we have no reason to believe it's not true based on the sources track record.

• The director is the same person who directed FFVI, FFIX and FFXII.
• The co-director led a small part of the development team to make Tactics Ogre for the PSP in parallel with FFXV. He's currently multi-tasking as lead UI designer of FFXIV 2.0 and co-director of FFXV.
• The game design and battle system will be a major evolution of FFXII.
• The game will be open world and have sprawling, crowd-filled cities on par with Assassin's Creed.
• The battle system now allows you to target different parts of an enemy’s body like in Vagrant Story.
• Yoichi Wada (president of Square Enix) wants the game to have a world scale and volume of content that surpasses The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He also wants the game to surpass FFVII in worldwide sales and critical reception.

O cara que fez dois dos melhores e o segundo pior títulos da série. Vish.
Also, péssima escolha de sistema de batalha. Also, deixem TES pra TES, copiar só pra ficar na moda é tenso...
Isso só me lembra do Dargor falando algo que logo menos virava The Elder Fantasy / Final Scrolls. Triste.

Nao é copiar para ficar na moda; se trata de entregar aos fãs o que eles querem. Vide o tumulto que a lineariedade de XIII causou.

• Yoichi Wada (president of Square Enix) wants the game to have a world scale and volume of content that surpasses The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. He also wants the game to surpass FFVII in worldwide sales and critical reception.

Nao é copiar para ficar na moda; se trata de entregar aos fãs o que eles querem. Vide o tumulto que a lineariedade de XIII causou.