Airships, a staple of the Final Fantasy series, are still to be confirmed for Final Fantasy XV, but director Hajime Tabata says he understands it’s something the fans are looking forward to seeing.
“To be completely honest, that’s still to be determined,” Tabata told GameSpot when asked if airships would appear. “But the development team does understand that this is something everyone is looking forward to. It is a huge technical challenge; as mentioned earlier, all areas are connected. We are trying to tackle that challenge. So at the moment we can’t say yes, they will be included, but we do want to and we’re ready to take on that challenge and see what can be done.”
While the fate of airships are still unclear, summons, another series staple, are said to act as guardians of Final Fantasy XV‘s world.
“Summons will be protectors of the planet, guarding parts of the world from annihilation,” Tabata said.
Classic dungeons, of course, will also appear.
“In the most classic Final Fantasy title category, for me, dungeons [were] very scary things that were chaotic and uncontrollable,” Tabata said. “In the dungeons, there is this kind of strangeness where something that shouldn’t necessarily be there in real life is existing. That kind of strangeness, the non-normal, that feeling you get in those circumstances, will be experienced in XV.”
To illustrate this kind of “strangeness,” or feeling of not belonging, Tabata pointed towards the E3 2013 trailer for Final Fantasy XV, which showed protagonist Noctis hiding behind a wall in a stone dungeon as a large Behemoth walked by. He also brought up the idea of a Behemoth appearing in the game’s Shinjuku-based city, which was first showcased in the 2011 trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
Final Fantasy XV is in development for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.