FINAL FANTASY XV: COMRADES

Release: November 15th, 2017
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Genre: Multiplayer DLC
Developed using: Luminous Engine, C++
Team: Business Division 2 (200+ people)
Period: January 2017 – November 2017
My Role: Multiplayer Systems Programmer
- Multiplayer Buffs
- Cooking & Ingredients System
- Chat & Auto-Chat System
- Quest Rewards
- Avatar Profiles

Comrades is the multiplayer expansion DLC for Final Fantasy XV. Players can customize their own avatars and team up with up to 3 other players or AI controlled partners to tackle mission-based quests.

The players start out in town where they can prepare for missions by buying and upgrading weapons. Selecting a mission will match them up with other players, who will meet up at camp and set off to start the quest. Completing the mission, the players head back to camp, where a chef NPC will take all the ingredients collected during the mission and cook a delicious victory meal for them, which will grant buffs for the next mission.

Below are some of the systems I created for this DLC:

Cooking & Ingredients System

Ingredients are found during missions in the wild or by defeating enemies. Each player can only hold a single ingredient, so they must carefully choose what ingredient they want to bring back to camp. The chef at camp also brings their own ingredients, which when combined with the ingredients brought back by the players will become a meal, buffing the players for their next mission. Guest chefs appear from time to time, featuring popular characters from the main game and their own special recipe.

Chat & Auto-Chat Systems

Players are able to communicate with each other using preset phrases which will show up as chat bubbles on the bottom right. Auto-Chat will also automatically show phrases depending on the situation, for example when someone needs to be healed, or when someone puts up a powerful barrier which other players can take shelter behind. Players can also purchase stamp stickers from the shops in town, which can be used in the chat to convey emotions.

Avatar Profiles

Avatar Profiles are shown while loading into a mission, showing the player’s avatar, their equipped abilities, and their stats.

I also helped with our livestream presentation of the game at Tokyo Game Show 2017. The event took place on the weekend after I got married, so it’s a very memorable one for me. You can watch the livestream below (only in Japanese), I’m sitting on the leftmost side of the stage, controlling the female character in pink (starting from 16:25):