Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV

Kingsglaive takes place on the Earth-like world of Eos, running parallel to the opening events of Final Fantasy XV. The kingdom of Lucis is home to a magical Crystal, given to humanity by the world's deities and used by the ruling Caelum dynasty to defend Lucis from invaders via a magical barrier known as the Wall. The Crystal is kept in a special chamber within the Royal Citadel, its powers only accessible through the hereditary Ring of the Lucii.[3][4][5] For centuries, Lucis has been at war with the militaristic and technologically advanced empire of Niflheim, which has conquered the other nations using its Magitek armies.[4][6]

Lucis's crown city Insomnia is protected from Niflheim by the Kingsglaive—an elite corps made up of immigrants from beyond the city limits with whom the Crystal's power are shared by the ruling monarch Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII.[4][5][6][7] The film opens with Regis accepting a peace treaty with Niflheim: as part of the treaty, Regis must cede the territories around Insomnia to Niflheim and have his son Prince Noctis marry Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, former princess of Tenebrae.[6][7][8]

During a visit to Tenebrae, Regis and Noctis—who is recuperating from a near-death experience—are targeted for assassination by Niflheim. Tenebrae is subsequently attacked, and in the invasion Queen Sylva is killed by Niflheim's General Glauca. Regis attempts to flee with Lunafreya, but she decides to stay with her brother Ravus; both become subjects under Niflheim's rule.

Twelve years later, the Kingsglaive fight to protect Lucis's borders from attacks by Niflheim's Magitek army and Daemons, unnatural monsters tamed for military use. During one such operation, Nyx Ulric defies his orders to withdraw to rescue his friend Libertus from a Daemon. Regis, whose magic powers the Wall and is growing weaker due to advancing age, accepts Imperial Chancellor Ardyn Izunia's offer of peace. This causes dissension among the Kingsglaive, who feel Regis is abandoning their families. Two days before the treaty is to be signed, Kingsglaive member Crowe is sent on a mission to escort Lunafreya to Altissia to meet Noctis, but is killed en route. Her death causes Libertus to leave the Kingsglaive and join a group of Lucian rebels. At a party dedicated to the signing of the treaty, attended by both Regis and Niflheim's emperor Iedolas Aldercapt, Lunafreya meets with Nyx before being secretly abducted by Glauca. Nyx discovers this and finds that Niflheim has stationed their army outside Insomnia.

Regis agrees to deploy the Kingsglaive, although their commander Drautos has disappeared. While Nyx succeeds in rescuing Lunafreya, many of the Kingsglaive turn on him; Nyx, Lunafreya and rebel leader Luche Lazarus escape as the ship disintegrates. At the treaty-signing ceremony, the Niflheim delegation springs a surprise attack and kills the ruling council, while their army enters by destroying the Wall with help from the rebels, who are subsequently massacred. Lunafreya and Nyx reach the Citadel just as Regis is battling Glauca. During the fight, Glauca cuts the Ring of the Lucii from Regis's hand. Ravus attempts to put on the Ring and claim its power, but it rejects him and destroys his arm before he can remove it. Nyx, Lunafreya and Regis retrieve the Ring and flee with Glauca in pursuit. Regis forces the two to go on without him, dying in his ensuing battle with Glauca. Aldercapt and Ardyn—having successfully stolen the Crystal—leave Insomnia to be destroyed by Niflheim's Daemons.

Summoned to the city plaza by a call from Drautos, Nyx and Lunafreya are cornered by Luche, who reveals himself to be Crowe's killer. Luche almost kills Nyx before being tricked by Lunafreya into putting on the Ring, resulting in his death. Drautos then appears, but is attacked by Libertus, who reveals that Drautos is in fact Glauca. Just as Glauca is about to kill them, Nyx puts on the Ring. He is confronted by the spirits of the past kings of Lucis; initially rejected due to being not of their bloodline, his resolve and the threat to the Crystal persuade them to allow his use of their power at the cost of his life. After fending off Glauca, Nyx returns the Ring to Lunafreya before entrusting her to Libertus, telling them to flee. With the Ring's borrowed power he engages Glauca in a titanic battle throughout Insomnia, animating the city's statues of past rulers, known as the "Old Wall," to combat Niflheim's Daemons. Their fight ends as dawn approaches, with Nyx mortally wounding Glauca; Nyx dies shortly after as payment for using the Ring's power, wishing for Noctis to rule well in the future. In the aftermath, Libertus escorts Lunafreya out of the city, but she tells him to stay behind. Lunafreya then leaves with the Ring to find Noctis.

In a post-credits scene, Noctis and his companions are en route to Altissia when their car breaks down, leading into the opening scenes of Final Fantasy XV.

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.[43] To ensure a connection between the film and the game, both projects used the same shared script as their core.[44] That script was written by Saori Itamuro based on a draft by Kazushige Nojima.[45] 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.[23][37][41] 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.[36]

Los Angeles-based company Hydra Entertainment assisted with creating the script alongside Hasegawa, in addition to writing assistance from Hollywood staff.[21][40] The storyline was designed to complement and set the stage for the events of Final Fantasy XV without revealing major plot elements from the game.[40] The film was created for a primarily English audience, with the script translation handled by Square Enix's in-house localization team.[21] 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.[36] As many team members were Final Fantasy fans, frequent nostalgic references to earlier entries in the series were included.[32]

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.[41] 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.[32] The main goal for the film's characters was to portray them as normal people with character flaws, rather than magical superheroes.[46] 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.[25] Nyx also provided a medium for the story themes surrounding immigration issues, which in turn brought the audience closer to the main cast.[46] While Nyx was original, multiple key characters from the game played prominent roles, particularly Regis, Lunafreya, and Ardyn.[25] Lunafreya was highlighted as the "keystone" connecting the game, the film, and the anime series Brotherhood.[47] While her role in the film was not an active one, her strength was conveyed through her single-minded devotion to her goals.[46]

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.[48][49][50] Character designs and modelling was overseen by Business Division 2; the team was led by Kazuaki Iwasawa, the character model supervisor.[51] The character Crowe's hair was based on the hairstyle for the main female protagonist of Agni's Philosophy.[48] 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.[51]

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.[52] 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.[21] For characters who appeared in the game, the team tried to keep their facial features as close as possible to their in-game counterpart.[40] 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.[51] 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.[53]

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 XV's development, when it was known as Versus XIII.[48] 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.[25] The overall theme of the Final Fantasy 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.[8][23][25] 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.[51]

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.[53] 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.[21] For procedural environmental elements such as falling rubble, they used the Houdini animation software.[48]

The film's score was composed by John R. Graham, with the main theme by Yoko Shimomura, the composer for Final Fantasy XV.[22][37] The score for Kingsglaive was described by Nozue as "Shimomura meets Hollywood". This effect was reinforced by Graham's work.[22] 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.[52] 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.[54] Recording was done in Nashville using a symphonic orchestra.[52] The soundtrack was released as a two-disc album on September 7, 2016.[55]

Kingsglaive was included on Blu-ray in the "Deluxe Edition" and "Ultimate Collector's Edition" of Final Fantasy XV, which were released worldwide on November 29, 2016.[8] The film was also included in the "Final Fantasy XV Film Collection", a box set which includes Final Fantasy XV and Brotherhood.[62] The digital version of the film was released on streaming and download services on August 30, 2016; the standalone Blu-ray and DVD versions were released on October 4, 2016. It was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray in March 30, 2021.

The film debuted in Japan in 10th place, selling 22,818 tickets for a total of ¥35,516,460 ($345,507) in two days.[63] By July 20, over 70,000 tickets had been sold, bringing a total gross of over ¥105 million in Japan ($907,524).[1] Its high takings were attributed to positive word of mouth following the initial release.[64] During the openings of its limited run in the United States, the film grossed a further $190,000.[58] It eventually grossed $269,980 in the region.[2] Upon release in China in March 2017, the film entered at No. 4 in the top-grossing films of that week, being the highest grossing new release with $3.90 million.[65] The film went on to gross $4.2 million in China.[66] Its total worldwide gross reached over $6.4 million as of April 2017.[2] The home video releases of Kingsglaive were among the top 20 best-selling DVD and Blu-ray releases for October 2016.[67] The two releases reached a combined gross of $4,549,411 in the United States.[2]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 12%, based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 4.79/10.[68] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 35 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[69] Critics were generally negative about the film, although popular opinion rendered a more positive response.[58]

Christian Holub of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a score of C+, describing the film as a long cutscene for fans of the game rather than something equivalent to the recent Warcraft film adaptation: he said that the visuals "offer a deep dive into the Uncanny Valley", and praised the lead actors' efforts with a script he found weak.[70] Meghan Sullivan, writing for IGN, gave the film a score of 6/10, calling it "gorgeous", and praised the character design despite some issues with realistic facial expressions, and found the story was bogged down by the political elements when the action side and the plot focusing on the Kingsglaive worked. In contrast, she called the voicework "solid", saying that the leads brought their characters to life and prevented the script from sounding too ridiculous while the supporting cast was weaker overall. She summed up Kingsglaive as "a very beautiful and very confusing movie".[71] Andrew Barker for Variety frequently questioned whether Kingsglaive could count as a film, as he often felt like he was watching a recorded gameplay video, praising the visuals while generally faulting the plot as rushed and too full of throwaway characters.[72] Wired's Matt Kamen gave the film a score of 5/10. He greatly praised the film's visuals, and was positive about the lead actors' performances and the action scenes. His criticism was leveled at its poor portrayal of the female characters, called the narrative confusing, and felt that it focused too much on setting up the events of Final Fantasy XV. His main feeling was that, while it held promise, it relied too much on character stereotypes and world building, calling it "a gorgeous but over-stuffed slice of fanservice".[73]

Eurogamer's Aoife Wilson found it difficult to pin down why she had enjoyed the film, as she found it "bloated and badly done," ending up saying that, despite its flaws, it felt like part of the Final Fantasy franchise. She again praised the visuals, but found the dialog to be the film's weakest point despite the efforts of the lead actors. She summed up Kingsglaive by saying that "as a two-hour piece of promotional material for a game, it works".[74] Scott Clay of RPGFan called watching the film a necessity for fully understanding the world of Final Fantasy XV, and praised it for its visuals and action scenes, although he noted that there were probably better action films available. He felt that Kingsglaive managed to get him invested in the story of Final Fantasy XV, saying it was "no masterpiece — in fact, it's nowhere close to one — but it does its job nicely by setting up what could potentially be a very cool story".[75] Polygon's Ashley Oh missed the character development usually seen in the Final Fantasy games although the cast did their best with the script, and while she found the visuals "jaw-droppingly gorgeous" and enjoyed the references to other Final Fantasy titles, she found the story "very weak". She also faulted the lack of strong female characters, something that had been a noted feature in earlier Final Fantasy titles.[76] In contrast to the majority of reviewers, Anthony John Agnello of GamesRadar gave the film five out of five stars, calling it "an expert blend of world building, humanity, and the magical strangeness of Final Fantasy" and praising it for balancing its scene setting for Final Fantasy XV with creating a relatable experience, in addition to lauding its visuals and relatable characters.[77] GameSpot's Alexa Ray Corriea was also fairly positive: while she noted that it was not a coherent film on its own, she felt that it was a first step by Square Enix to regain fan trust after earlier missteps. She generally enjoyed the story despite a few contrived elements, and gave unanimous praise to the large-scale and more intimate visuals.[78]