After a defining moment in Final Fantasy XV’s epic story, Noctis and his band of bodyguards ditch open world exploration for a much more linear quest that literally moves on rails. A train connects each area that they visit, and while it gives the impression of a much larger world, the game actually becomes much more condensed at that point.
Still, fans believe that these areas were originally meant to be much larger, and time and budget were not on Square Enix’s side, forcing much of their content to be left the cutting room floor.
To prove this, YouTube user Fotm Hero used an old invisible glitch to break into the second linear area, the mining region Cartanica, and record his findings. To everyone’s surprise, the entire continent contains almost as much if not more content than the main completed one. The nation of Niflheim is much larger than Noctis’ kingdom of Lucis, and it shows in this video.
Ghost towns, mountains, snowy tundras, roads, power lines, train tracks, and dungeons. It’s obvious Square Enix originally intended this nation to be an even larger area to explore, but it needed to get the game out in a timely fashion.
Cuts had to be made for Final Fantasy XV to be released
It happens, but I wouldn’t call it a shame. After ten years, I’m pleased with how Final Fantasy XV turned out, and any extra content would have just been icing on what’s already a fantastic game.
Another of my all-time favorites is SaGa Frontier, the first game Square made after releasing Final Fantasy VII. It too had two entire campaigns cut from its story, and it definitely feels incomplete. Lots of areas remain unused, lots of characters serve little to no purpose, and the huge pieces of the story remain unconnected. Still, that’s actually half the fun of SaGa Frontier, and even as a kid, I would try to fill in those gaps with my imagination.
To this day, it remains the number one game I’d like to create fan-content for if I was ever able to, and it wouldn’t be that way if the game was finished. Incomplete games can still be immensely enjoyable.
Final Fantasy XV at least can benefit from DLC, and while I doubt Square Enix will open up the entire continent before it is finished, my guess is that small portions will open over time. This game isn’t nearly ready to toss in the towel yet, and that’s why it is still one of the most exciting games of 2017, as well.
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