As most of you are aware, yesterday Square Enix revealed a brand new trailer for Final Fantasy XV at Taipei Games Show. Probably the element of that trailer that drew most people's attention was a "stealth" section, with some even making funny jokes like calling the game The Final Pain ().

So anyway... I was analyzing the footage and wondering what can it mean to Final Fantasy XV. Obviously the simple stealth sample we've seen is just a small element of the game, more like an extra. As we could see, the infiltration mission could be tackled either way: by stealthly killing enemies from behind, or by just getting into the combat: and this didn't have big consequences other than having to fight a larger number of enemies; so it's clearly just an extra like I stated above.

After giving some thought, I realized that this mechanic will mainly benefit one aspect of the game: avoiding underisable combat. 

It's no secret that many JRPGs, including most Final Fantasy games, sometimes make you pick up fights you didn't wanted to... simply because sometimes it's very hard to avoid contact with enemies. If Final Fantasy XV gives us the option to crawl, walk silently, etc. it will be much easier to avoid combats we didn't wanted to get into, and honestly this is a very nice addition.

Thoughts? Please share your opinion.

That trailer looked a lot like Metal Gear Solid V. The only thing that was left is a "a Hideo Kojima game" mention.

I don't think this was representative of the final game. As you said, it's just an option, but not a necessity. This was already established in FFXII, where you had the possibility to sneak around enemies and avoid an encounter.  FFXIII had that, too.

Yeah, but the trailer showed us more freedom to do that, that's the point. Like, you could see them sneaking behind objects or instantly killing enemies from behind. I think this is just an improvement on what could already be done in XII and XIII, like you said.

Saw the video... didnt look like a rpg game frankly... which is odd.
Im kinda scared they walked to far from the path, I mean its supposed to be a rpg right?

Im not a fan of this... too actiony for my tastes, I want final fantasy to stay a true rpg.

(too much fps, action & stealth, and it isnt really a final fantasy game in anything other than name)

Final Fantasy VII already featured stealth, when you were trying to save certain party member in Midgard.

I dunno. The FF XV demo already had you using stealth to quietly chase a big monster. If you want to avoid undesirable combat, just run. I could go in a straight line on the demo, and even though at times some monsters try to join the fun, I don't need to take detours or anything. Just keep running straight.

Well they are going for realism more than ever, and let's be honest. Four men wearing no armor charging into a base with giant mechs shooting at them? Highly unlikely. Ok, so it is slightly more realistic this way anyway lol.
It's also another way to show off Noctis' warp mechanic, as well as giving more possibilities for team takedowns via stealth.
I like it

Huh, who knows. I wouldn't like stealth giving you more XP points or anything like that, though. :(

I feel like the warp mechanic is designed to work a lot with stealth. I'm not sure how much you'll be able to do it on the open map, but it's nice to be able to pick and choose your battles.

It makes sense since they're running away from a whole empire. They most likely don't wear  armor in a normal casual day since they are royalty(not to mention the setting is based on modern times in the real world). So far the story suggests the army just attacked their city and they are forced to flee from them, not really much time to wear armor if that was the case.