Airships are up in the air
A bunch of ‘lil tidbits are coming out of interviews with Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, who is spinning the caught-up, Japanese version of, “see those mountains? You can walk there,” that Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma also did for the new Legend of Zelda.
Will we continue to be impressed with this? Tabata did explain this goes towards the goal of creating a holistic world, telling GameSpot that with “[t]he towns and the cultural references that you see throughout the world, you’ll get a sense of realistic towns and cultures.” Tabata then notes that there are game areas modeled off of Shinjuku, Havana, and Venice, which are three places on different continents that are not connected by, “continuous land,” as Final Fantasy XV‘s bro’d trip world is.
“If those areas were disconnected, it would feel distant from reality. You’ll find that you’ll be able to walk or drive or take a train and travel through this world seamlessly. I feel you’ll be able to experience something similar to a real trip.” The weird thing is that these areas’ real-life reference points are incredibly disconnected and smooshing them together like these different cultures and histories grew up next to each other sounds much more uncanny to me, but maybe I’m thinking about it too hard.
Airships are “a huge technical challenge” and “to be determined.” Tabata knows fans want them, but we may have to be content with plains, trains, and automobiles.
Final Fantasy XV’s Map Is One Giant, Connected Land Mass [GameSpot]
