game length
if you get straight to the point it should take you 25-30 hours to complete the main story
number of cities
lestallum, altissia, orielle, tenebrae, 4 cities, there are small settlements all over the world but they are not that big, lucis is not explorable. the niflheim capitol is more of a dungeon
altissia is the biggest city in terms of what to do, lestallum and orielle are smaller but still packed, tenebrae is huge but it's more pretty than practical
Orielle has ancient greek/roman empire influence, the train station looks like Athen's temple from the outside
Nifllheim looks like a modern city but it's way more vertical, has a eiffel tower structure at the centre which holds the lucis crystal, it's a lot more industrial than insomnia. the interiors are inspired by italian architecture i think
Ignis is from Nifllheim, Ignis is not from the capital and he was brought to Insomnia when he was a baby, Regis knows about his past and he let him joy the Insomnia counceillor
summons
titan, ramuh, shiva, leviathan, ifrit and diabolos/bahamut/dragon thing are playable. carbuncle is optional if you download a dlc. odin and knights of the round appear in the game but they are not obtainable
Shiva looks like gentiana in glorified underwear. Bahamut looks like his FFVI rendition but he has horns and his tail is way thinner
rewritten script
they weren't confident enough on ardyn, people who watched kingsglaive and played some of the game thought he was too generic and not characteristic. they added more backstory on young luna and young noctis, made explanations of gods, heaven creatures and stuff more simple to follow
they got rid of some scenes shown in recent trailers too, va's were still re-recording lines in june, they have finished now
ps4 neo version
the sole focus is on the ps4 and xbone version. there will be a neo mode but it won't offer significant upgrades
older character designs
the only characters getting older designs are noctis, prompto, gladio, ignis, iris and ravus, ardyn keeps his old one
final boss
ardyn summons ifrit, then you fight ardyn and then weird yaoi ardyn+ravus fusion
Noctis survives, Ignis gets heavily wounded after the last boss fight but he survives. Luna and Regis die. Iris survives. Iedolas dies. Ardyn and Ravus die.
ten years actually pass, that's why you can't leave insomnia after the timeskip, they would have to have modelled another version of the entire world.
you meet iris in insomnia, i don't think that ifrit's resemblance to ravus is that striking, they are not related other than being ardyn's minions
the villains
i liked the first version of ardyn, felt it was one of the best ff villains, now they kind of made him spill too many bullshit, if you played the crisis core game then that's kinda what you're getting, but toned down. ravus is one of the most insufferable characters i've ever encountered in a ff game. he basically spends the game bitching about her mother, her homeland, her sister and stuff, he won't shut up.
iedolas, versatile, loki and glauca are barely in the game. aranea feels more like a rival than a villain
tl;dr: ardyn was better before they rewrote they script imo, ravus is the worst character in the game, the rest are barely in it
Ravus' motive
ravus entire motive is "i want to take back the entire world because the enemu took my hometown and i want the entire world to suffer because of it". he fuses with ardyn after he gets defeated by noctis in order to absorb his powers
no betrayals in the story other than ardyn and what happens to gentiana
you obtain shiva after defeating gentiana, you obtain ramuh in a temple near orielle and the dragon summon after it gets summoned by ardyn. you get ifrit after his bossfight and you can only summon him in the last dungeon.
odin is in the game, it's a boss fight
noctis has to sleep to gather enough power from the astral shards in the world, the party decides to sleep with him in order to not leave him alone
outfits
everyone gets an alternate casual outfit, and a jacket off version. gladio gets a shirtless outfit. noctis gets a gym outfit. you can use the old outfits in new game +
gentiana
she is shiva, she is luna's servant, after ardyn dispatches luna, he controls her
the party is heading to the place in which ardyn battled the bad guy 2000 years ago by train and in the middle of nowhere it starts snowing heavily and the train wrecks. noctis wakes up and shiva/gentiana is standing outside. she says that she has to obey ardyn and to forgive her for not saving luna, and then pryna and umbra appear. the fight reminded me of that one at the end of kill bill vol 1
number of cg scenes
one at the beginning of the game, another one before the leviathan bosfight, another when luna dies, one right after the timeskip and then one after you kill the final boss
there's a heavy spoilery story trailer coming next month, renders for the older designs of the rest of the characters are getting released and i'm pretty sure they are using the cg scene in which luna dies, but not the exact moment, you can check back my post then
How Luna dies
luna
zack 2.0 against ardyn, when noctis reaches the room she is already heavily wounded
once luna dies the game switches in tone and instead of "let's have fun saving the world" it becomes more serious and tragic. don't expect the characters to grow up all of the sudden, though. you are still getting embarassing moments with cidney and prompto even after luna dies
ardyn
he was the founder of lucis, he travelled the world 2000 years ago and defeated the source of darkness/whatever that was killing eos and was awarded the crystals and the ring of lucis to control them
the plot twist is that ardyn never defeated the bad guy, he just absorbed its power and went to sleep for a thousand years
They know about a hero who took care of the darkness long ago, but as I said before, they believe he died in the process. Nobody expects him to be 2000 years old.
Ifrit can control the summons because he used their powers in his journey long ago, Ifrit stood by him because they had similar interests
umbra and pryna
they are not important to the plot, it is hinted that they are supernatural beings, they talk in one scene
guest members
you get cor at the beginning of the game for a bit, luna for a bossfight, iris replaces gladion and pryna and umbra help you take down shiva/gentiana
the plague of the stars
has already been affecting the world before the game began, that's why they have to preemptively chose luna as the oracle. once ardyn kills luna, the nights become longer and ardyn's gains power
the astral shards hold the stars' power and are the source of power of the summons. after the timeskip the world is immersed in an endless night and it is resolved when noctis kills ardyn
he sky looks like after luna is killed. it remains like that until the timeskip iirc, then the darkness has normalized and nights are normal
How Cor will die
cor: "i will set things right and amend my mistakes"
>the party: "but you will get killed"
>cor: "no they call me cor the immortal"
>cor: *gets killed*
basically this, he dies in the empire capitol
the light of expiring souls" stuff, yeah, it's still in the game. he can see regis and luna after they are dead.
luna and noctis talk a lot at nights whe she is dead, and they remember things from the past
the lucis citadel, insomnia, is not explorable. it's the final dungeon
gentiana is shiva, it is hinted that pryna was leviathan all along, like it is hinted that umbra was fenrir
gentiana is not fightning leviathan because she is dealing with the soldiers meanwhile and meeting noctis
About Ardyn
he also has a retro car that he uses to travel the world, he uses the stolen lucis crystal to develop a magitek machine that casts barrier across the empire capital, he lets iedolas die in a fire/explosion
Noctis meets Ghost Regis outside the citadel building. He comments on how much his son has grown and says that he has already proven worthy as a king, now he has to be proven worthy as a savior. Then Noctis gets the cape thing.
tabata had a confidence crisis in the game and made people from s-e NA and EU play some of it to gain feedback =)