http://www.siliconera.com/2015/06/04...says-director/
Tabata talked about some of the changes made from the time when the game was conceptualized as Versus XIII. When talking about characters who we've seen revealed, he talked about people who would still have roles to play in XV:
I don't know if I may have just overlooked this one, but am I the only one hearing about this female dragoon for the first time?there are other characters that we have introduced in the past, like a woman with dark hair, and a dragoon—a female dragoon. I would like to reiterate that these characters are still in the game with their own important roles within the story, so you can look forward to playing FFXV to find out about them.