Final Fantasy XV (FFXV for short) has been more or less confirmed to launch in 2016, but there are still many unknown elements to it.

　　A lenghty interview conducted during Gamescom by fansites Finaland, Final Fantasy World and Final Fantasy Dream sheds some light on certain topics. For instance, quite a few gamers had expressed their worry about realistic elements being prevalent in FFXV, but Square Enix's Hajime Tabata explained that the game will get more fantastic as the plot unfolds.

　　To reassure you, the construction of the game and the way the areas differ throughout the game starts out as a world very much based on reality. It feels more solid and more grounded in reality. As the game progresses, you will certainly more fantastic, otherworldly kind of elements. You will see these different tastes, this kind of magical and superb ideas that you see in previous Final Fantasy games will be seen close to the end of the game. It's all in there.

　　Tabata also reiterated that Square Enix is trying very hard to add airships in the game, while underwater battles are very low right now in their development priority.

　　There is a difference in how important these two features you mentioned are. To start with airships, we are still trying very hard to get them in the final game... if we can. Ideally, if we had enough time and resources for the development, we would spend that time working out the technology to get airships into the game, making sure it all fits in and polishing it to the level it needs to be. We still may achieve that, because we really want to, but if we can't, we need a back-up plan, because unfortunately we don't have unlimited amount of time and money to do this game. When we changed over the project, we decided that we can't keep people waiting beyond 2016. We have to get the game out in the best possible state it can be at that time within the budget we've set. If we can't get it into the game at that point, we think the best option is to add it after rather than just give up on it. I made this announcement to let people know that we understand Final Fantasy fans love airships and that, if we can't get them into the game in the form they need to be, then it is better to have them later in the right form rather than force them in an incomplete form that would be unsatisfactory.

　　Compared to that, underwater battles are quite low among our development priorities because they are not so necessary for the game to be what it should be, and because some elements are much more important to include. In terms of priorities, even more important than having airships or underwater battles to me, the real core of FFXV is that it should be a game which has the high level of technology to support the ultimate story experience. This is what we are prioritizing in the development of the game.

　　If we made the decision to not include the airships in the final game, we maybe wouldn't need to go through these discussions and try and get that technology. But the reason why we pushing ahead to try and close the discussions to get that is because there are a lot of people like you out there who want to see airships in the game. We are trying to get them in in any way possible that we can.

　　FFXV team also enlisted the help of Avalanche Studios (who is working with Square Enix to publish Just Cause 3), as their technology could aid with the implementation of airships. Would you be disappointed if they didn't make it into the final game?