Aranea Highwind Revealed as a New Character for Final Fantasy XV

[Night Fury]

araneahighwind.jpg
Aranea Highwind - friend or foe?

During the latest Active Time Report for Final Fantasy XV, fans were given a few more details about that mysterious Dragoon from the early trailers. We can now reveal that her name is Aranea Highwind (yes! Highwind!) and she's the commander of Niflheim’s Third Army Corps 87th Airborne Division. If you want a more straightforward explanation of what that means, it basically means that she's the leader of an all Dragoon army. Pretty badass.

The report has shown some battle footage of Aranea in action, and she has been described by the Final Fantasy XV team as a "skilled aerial combatant known as ‘Dragoon’ within the Imperial military." Let's be honest, there really isn't enough to go by in this little trailer though, and she was only in it for a split second which was just enough to whet my appetite for more, more, MORE!

To me, this news is massive. I was feeling fairly put out by the severe lack of kick ass females so far in the game, and it's not known yet as to whether Ms Highwind will be playable at any time during the game. This is certainly something for everyone to get excited about, as her surname is as much a part of Final Fantasy history as Dragoons are. I'm super pleased to see her, and it does begin to pique my interest in a game that was really beginning to look pretty stale. Several news outlets are already naming her as a villain, but I'm not going to count on that - who knows how large a role she will play in the game, and whether or not she will be a friend or foe...

This months Active Time Report has also given us more details on how elemental magic can have an effect on the environment, and Tabata has even hinted at another playable demo in the future... How very tantalising!

[Freya]

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

[Night Fury]

I did roll my eyes though when I saw she's got her tatas out. But, we can't have everything!

[Freya]

At least it's just cleavage, looks like the rest is pretty battle ready. I mean a slight midriff but she looks mostly well dressed haha

I'm just excited, I love dragoons so i'm excited we get another lady dragoon in the main series!

[Night Fury]

What an entrance as well! I really hope she is an ambiguous character and maybe is both good and bad...

[Freya]

I hope so! I think every dragoon that's ever been in the game has done that haha. She's got the Highwind name, let's hope she joins us at some point, even if it's temporary. Maybe she'll get the Beatrix treatment.

[Skyblade]

Which Metal Gear model is that?

I didn't see enough of Aranea to come to a conclusion about her, but it should be fun to learn more about her.

[Pumpkin]

[Depression Moon]

Her armor is ugly to me, especially her helmet. I do like the battle footage in the game though. It looks like they brought back controlling the other party members.

[Formalhaut]

Aranea? I can't help thinking of spiders.

[DMKA]

The battle system and camera look vastly improved. I'm glad to see Dragoon Lady is still in the game and voluptuous as ever.

Everything looks fantastic in that video and I've never been more hyped. March 30th can't come soon enough.

Although I have a feeling the release date is going to be something silly, like the second to last week of December.

[Psychotic]

Excellent, love a good dragoon!

[Mirage]

would be cool if she would join the party after the "road trip" was over.

[Elpizo]

I'm glad that some elements of the Versus XIII gameplay trailer that we saw years ago, like using the turret to shoot at enemies, was transferred over to XV. I think the combat looks interesting, at the very least, probably the most dynamic we've seen in the series, with the warp ability allowing you to go all over the battlefield in an instant. Even the stealth bit didn't feel tacked on but a properly worked out mechanic. Of course this is all trailer footage and trailers can only say so much, we'll have to wait and see how it actually plays. Not that I'll be able to play it, lacking a PS4 or X1, but I'm still interested in the game in general and would like it to do well.

While there is a lot of bad things that can be said about Square Enix, and in most cases very deservedly so, I did always get the impression that Tabata was an honest guy and really did everything he could within the restrictions the company no doubt placed upon him to make this a good game. If nothing else, just for him, I hope it pays off and the game will turn out to be good and enjoyable.

[Wolf Kanno]

Talk about taking some notes from Metal Gear. Even the music sounds like something from the series. Not that I'm complaining, it looks really good so far and the gameplay certainly looks more promising than what was seen in the last demo.

Arenea looks pretty interesting but I'm not digging the helmet. I'm betting she'll be a Beatrix character you face off with from time to time, and will most likely kick your party's ass.