Also some other notes. May as well put this out there.
- Car drives using triggers for accelerate/brake. So you can drive and rotate the camera at the same time to look at everything around you. Not final. Car was taken off-road although I didn't go far with it as this was near the end of my experience. Car reacted well to the off-road terrain, looked good. Handling is okay, like any other non-racing game. Nothing special. Of note, I controlled the car, but Noctis was not in the driver's seat. Likely just a demo thing, or Glasses is a determined driver from birth.
- Two new areas seen. Pictures that are similar in style:
Sticking point of first area was the atmosphere; the broken road surrounded with desolation. Area had rainfall which added to it all.
Second area was just rocks, hills, and red/brown surroundings. Nothing particularly special here as it was empty. Just looked really nice.
- World is quite expansive, and they've said there are many more areas with a big scale like the ones I've now seen. No details on how they're connecting these areas with towns and dungeons, or how the car would work in terms of entering and exiting these areas.
- Towns are of an impressive scale. Don't even understand what this really means.
- Game is designed to provide choice of approach, to an extent. Huge areas for those who want to spend time exploring, but will allow those who want complete the story to focus and go through at a quicker pace. Idea is best of both worlds for the different types of players.
- Mentioned that players will have access to world at beginning.
- Various set pieces in the game that are interactive, in some cases environmentally, and they want to provide big memorable moments that Final Fantasy was known for. Set pieces in boss battles and outside of them. Almost sounds like there will be some SOTC moment (or moments) in this game with scaling some big monster/boss.
Just a general note on one thing. When it was mentioned that players will access to the world at the beginning, I assumed this meant we'll get access to it near the beginning. Since then, my imagination has gone to other places.
It would be pretty cool if we just started in the world. You're on the road and introduced to some massive vista whilst Noctis is in the backseat of a car, and you then take control of the car and drive to town. You get access to driving, and see the world. Then in town, the focused opening begins and you're back into the world soon after. Maybe you can start fighting before you reach the town. This is all my imagination though.
...