Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV forms part of the "
Final Fantasy XV Universe", a multimedia project based around the 2016 video game
Final Fantasy XV that includes the
original net animation series
Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV: the story of
XV, originally a spin-off title called
Final Fantasy Versus XIII, was large enough to have covered several games, but as the team did not want to create any additional games, they decided to create additional media. While similar in style to the
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII project, the media associated with
Final Fantasy XV came before the game's release rather than after it, acting as insight into the world and characters.
XV and its associated media likewise hold a thematic connection to
Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy, a compilation of games and associated media sharing a common mythos while boasting unconnected stories and settings. While distanced from the
Fabula Nova Crystallis brand for marketing purposes, the world of
XV still uses its mythos and design elements.
Kingsglaive was designed so it would not be necessary for people to watch to understand the main game. Despite this, references to the events of
Kingsglaive were included in the game. Following the release of the game, director
Hajime Tabata described
Kingsglaive and
Brotherhood as granting a better view of the game's world, adding that those who only played the game might notice the missing context.
Kingsglaive was primarily developed by
Visual Works, a division of
Final Fantasy developer
Square Enix dedicated to the creation of CGI cutscenes. The director was Takeshi Nozue. Nozue's previous notable experience with feature-length productions was the 2005 feature
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. While he had been co-director of
Advent Children, he was sole director of
Kingsglaive. Speaking about his role, Nozue said he felt overwhelmed by having to answer to so many producers on a single project. Tabata acted as one of the film's producer. While compared upon reveal to
Advent Children, it was stressed that the two served very different purposes: while
Advent Children was designed for fans of its parent title
Final Fantasy VII (1997),
Kingsglaive was intended for both prospective players of
Final Fantasy XV and people new to the
Final Fantasy series, acting as an entry point into the narrative of
XV. The project was also much greater in scale than
Advent Children, requiring help from multiple external studios. Nozue later commented that another aspect of
Kingsglaive was to bolster sales of the game's platforms prior to release, with a film offering a greater means of reaching potential buyers. Production work on
Kingsglaive began three years prior to its release, with full development beginning in 2014 after an extended period of preparatory work. From this point, production lasted approximately two and a half years. So the production could be managed in the short time available, the film's development was separated into three phases, with each phase being dedicated to a particular part of the production process and run by a different unit director answering to Nozue. The film went through multiple phases of trial and error until the final product was solidified.
Kingsglaive was kept a secret until 2016 when it was near completion, as the developers felt that they had announced its parent video game too early. So as to remain close to the development of
Final Fantasy XV, the lead staff of
Kingsglaive moved from Visual Works to Business Division 2, the department of Square Enix responsible for the game's development. This was part of an overall shift in development methods when the game was changed from a spin-off to a mainline entry. In addition to the staff of
Advent Children, Western companies in gaming and film production were involved:
Digic Pictures, who had worked on the graphics for the ''
Assassin's Creed series; and Image Engine, who had worked on multiple films including Jurassic World (2015) and the television series Game of Thrones''. According to Nozue, around 50 different companies were involved in the film's production: among these was Europe-based company Puppetworks Animation Studio. This approach was unconventional in Japan, and the first major collaboration entered into by Square Enix for CGI projects. The internal team was estimated at 50 people. The cooperation of studios overseas meant that work on the film could proceed continuously. Without this external aid, Nozue estimated that they would have needed a staff of five hundred people to complete the film in the given timeframe. According to Nozue, the film was only half-finished two and a half months before its planned release, and a huge effort was needed from all the involved studios to complete it in time. Nozue attributed the large number of helpful overseas studios to their common liking of the
Final Fantasy franchise.
Story and characters The story of
Kingsglaive was based around a portion of the original opening of
Final Fantasy XV, which would have shown the invasion of Insomnia by Niflheim's army. This had to be cut from the game due to concerns over the volume of content, but as the team still wanted to show this event, they incorporated it into the plot of
Kingsglaive. To ensure a connection between the film and the game, both projects used the same shared script as their core. That script was written by Saori Itamuro based on a draft by
Kazushige Nojima. The team also wanted a proper cinematic experience that would appeal to a large audience, so they brought in a professional screenwriter, Takashi Hasegawa, to create a full-length cinematic script. Nozue described the majority of Hasegawa's work as that of a
script doctor, with him spending one and a half months tweaking the script created by the
Final Fantasy team. Los Angeles-based company Hydra Entertainment assisted with creating the script alongside Hasegawa, in addition to writing assistance from Hollywood staff. The storyline was designed to complement and set the stage for the events of
XV without revealing major plot elements from the game. The film was created for a primarily English audience, with the script translation handled by Square Enix's in-house localization team. The narrative was split into three acts, with production on the CGI element of each act finishing before beginning work on the next. This meant that last-minute adjustments were taking place until the end of production. As many team members were
Final Fantasy fans, frequent nostalgic references to earlier entries in the series were included. The central theme for the overall story of
Final Fantasy XV was the bond between father and son:
Kingsglaive represented the theme from the father Regis' point of view. According to Nozue, another key element during the early segment of the film was displaying how the world's society sees Regis's responsibilities, along with the emotions involved in such a role. The main goal for the film's characters was to portray them as normal people with character flaws, rather than magical superheroes. Nyx was an original character created for the film with no connection to the events of the game, intended to act as a medium for the wider audience
Kingsglaive was aimed at. Nyx also provided a medium for the story themes surrounding immigration issues, which in turn brought the audience closer to the main cast. While Nyx was original, multiple key characters from the game played prominent roles, particularly Regis, Lunafreya, and Ardyn. Lunafreya was highlighted as the "keystone" connecting the game, the film, and the anime series
Brotherhood. While her role in the film was not an active one, her strength was conveyed through her single-minded devotion to her goals.
Design Prior to full production, the team created a
tech demo in 2012 to test the creation and movement of highly detailed models and environments. This tech demo was titled ''
Agni's Philosophy, which also acted as a test demo for the Luminous Studio engine which would be used for Final Fantasy XV''. Character designs and modelling was overseen by Business Division 2; the team was led by Kazuaki Iwasawa, the character model supervisor. The character Crowe's hair was based on the hairstyle for the main female protagonist of ''Agni's Philosophy''. The hairstyles for both Crowe and Lunafreya were first modelled using a real mannequin wig to ensure they could be managed. Their fully rendered wigs were composed of three thousand curves each, a thousand more than originally estimated. The characters' body and facial movements were recorded using
motion capture: these included capturing static figures for dialogue segments, and full-body capture for action sequences. The motion actors provided the basis for their characters' appearance: the actors were chosen based on how well they fitted with the staff's vision for the characters. The motion actors' facial expressions were captured using a special head-mounted rig the team had previously developed for the 2012 tech demo. When the character designs were being created, Nozue needed to regularly consult professional hairstylists to ensure that their chosen hairstyles for characters would be feasible in real life. For characters who appeared in the game, the team tried to keep their facial features as close as possible to their in-game counterpart. As with other Japanese CGI films aiming for a realistic tone, the team relied on
photogrammetry and an extensive 3D scanning process combined with motion capture. Character clothing was created in a similar way to real-life clothing, with a number of different design variations being tested using paper cutouts. Something that both in-house and external staff contended with was making character movements realistic without being symmetrical; the biggest example was Libertus's need to walk on crutches for much of the film, shifting his weight balance and movement speed. Insomnia—the capital of Lucis—was based in general on international cities, while its core was based on Tokyo: Western elements were added based on fan criticism of Insomnia being too similar to Tokyo during the game's early stages. The design of the Niflheim airships was an updated version of those in the earlier days of
Final Fantasy XVs development, when it was known as
Versus XIII. Regis was extensively redesigned for the film, which in turn altered his appearance in the game. Initially created with a younger appearance, the team wanted him to have a proper regal air so he would have presence in
Kingsglaive, so they aged the character significantly and created a story-based context for the change. The overall theme of the
XV universe was "a fantasy based on reality": to reinforce this, Square Enix collaborated with
Audi on a custom version of their
Audi R8 model as the royal family's personal transport, and included references to real-world brands and companies such as
Japan Airlines. Most of the film's individual props such as the car, Nyx's daggers, the Niflheim mechs and the Ring of the Lucii were created and rendered before main production had begun. Lighting and its effect on characters' skin was of particular importance to the Business Division 2 team, with a lot of work going into making sure shading and transparency fitted with each character's position in a scene in relation to its lighting.
Previsualization was initially going to be done entirely in-house, but the team eventually decided to bring in The Third Floor, an external company specializing in previsualization. The Third Floor ended up handling around 40% of the work. The animation was also supposed to be handled in-house using the
V-Ray software, but the team found it difficult to adapt the software to their needs. As Nozue wanted to use the experience and technology of Visual Works to create
Kingsglaive, they decided to bring in experienced and dedicated outside help to handle V-Ray. This resulted in the cooperation with Digic Pictures, which included former staff from Square Enix's North American branch and were highly skilled in the creation of high-quality cutscenes. For procedural environmental elements such as falling rubble, they used the
Houdini animation software.
Music The film's score was composed by
John R. Graham, with the main theme by
Yoko Shimomura, the composer for
Final Fantasy XV. The score for
Kingsglaive was described by Nozue as "Shimomura meets Hollywood". This effect was reinforced by Graham's work. According to Graham, Nozue wanted a complex musical score. The harmonics and themes change throughout the score to create both an ambiguous atmosphere and a sense of impending tragedy and loss. Graham was brought on board to create a score that would fill the film's world and act as a counterbalance to Shimomura's music from the game, which was incorporated into the overall score. Due to the themes and events of
Kingsglaive, Graham needed his music to reflect the weight, contradictions, and shifting "light and dark" perspectives of the characters and locations. To achieve this, he used a combination of live orchestra and electronic elements. He wrote more than 100 minutes of music. Recording was done in Nashville using a symphonic orchestra. The soundtrack was released as a two-disc album on September 7, 2016. ==Release and promotion==