brand for marketing purposes, the world of XV still uses its mythos and design elements. Kingsglaive was designed so it would not be necessary for people to watch to understand the main game. Despite this, references to the events of Kingsglaive were included in the game. Following the release of the game, director Hajime Tabata described Kingsglaive and Brotherhood as granting a better view of the game's world, adding that those who only played the game might notice the missing context. Kingsglaive was primarily developed by Visual Works, a division of Final Fantasy developer Square Enix dedicated to the creation of CGI cutscenes. The director was Takeshi Nozue. Nozue's previous notable experience with feature-length productions was the 2005 feature Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. While he had been co-director of Advent Children, he was sole director of Kingsglaive. Speaking about his role, Nozue said he felt overwhelmed by having to answer to so many producers on a single project. Tabata acted as one of the film's producer. While compared upon reveal to Advent Children, it was stressed that the two served very different purposes: while Advent Children was designed for fans of its parent title Final Fantasy VII (1997), Kingsglaive was intended for both prospective players of Final Fantasy XV and people new to the Final Fantasy series, acting as an entry point into the narrative of Final Fantasy XV. The project was also much greater in scale than Advent Children, requiring help from multiple external studios. Nozue later commented that another aspect of Kingsglaive was to bolster sales of the game's platforms prior to release, with a film offering a greater means of reaching potential buyers. Production work on Kingsglaive began three years prior to its release, with full development beginning in 2014 after an extended period of preparatory work. From this point, production lasted approximately two and a half years. So the production could be managed in the short time available, the film's development was separated into three phases, with each phase being dedicated to a particular part of the production process and run by a different unit director answering to Nozue. The film went through multiple phases of trial and error until the final product was solidified. Kingsglaive was kept a secret until 2016 when it was near completion, as the developers felt that they had announced its parent video game too early. So as to remain