People have been hoping for a Final Fantasy XV PC version for a while. Now those hopes are becoming reality.
Final Fantasy XV is quite lovely, really. It sort of fails as a roleplaying game to a certain extent; you might also argue that it’s not really a particularly strong example of the Final Fantasy series. But as an open world, dicking about with your mates simulator? The fifteenth entry is sublime.
And in much the same way that developers avoid talking about whether their game is coming to the Nintendo Switch (because it probably isn’t) the team at Square Enix have struggled to avoid talking about a Final Fantasy XV PC port.
We could all tell they wanted to do one. They could tell that we all wanted it. But nobody wanted to commit to anything in case it didn’t come off; this was a game that suffered through development hell for ten years, after all. You can’t blame them for being a little timid.
But now the Final Fantasy XV PC version has been officially announced, and we can expect to see it in early 2018. Which, you know, in Square Enix time is sometime in mid 2021 (probably just before the actual release of Kingdom Hearts 3).
The thing everyone wants to know, though, is just how pretty a Final Fantasy XV PC version is going to be. It’s already a splendrous game on console, so with the graphical oomph of high-end gaming PCs behind it it should really fly, especially with the addition of the following Nvidia features:
- NVIDIA Flow – for extra shiny fluids, fires and smoke.
- NVIDIA HairWorks – the ludicrously pretty hair hardware (that kills your frame rate in The Witcher 3).
- NVIDIA ShadowWorks – enables characters to cast shadows on themselves.
- NVIDIA Turf Effects – creates life-like grass and vegetation in the game environment.
- NVIDIA VXAO – adds depth and realism using physics-based lighting systems.
And also these handy GeForce Experience tools:
- NVIDIA Ansel – the gorgeous in-game photography tool named after Ansel Adams.
- NVIDIA ShadowPlay – for easy capture of screenshots and video.
Yay! Nvidia HairWorks chocobos!
If anybody wants to send us a GTX 1080 Ti or two before FFXV launches on PC, that’d be lovely, thanks.
