Final Fantasy Game Director Hajime Tabata in an interview with Examiner covered some ground regarding how the female characters will play a part in the world of Final Fantasy XV and the four male protagonists.
Final Fantasy XV is expected to have "quite a lot of female characters," according to Tabata, and a fair few of them will be on the opposing side, saying "There will be a number of powerful female characters on the enemy side as well." He continued by saying that, since the four main characters are all male, the narrative focus will be on them, but the female characters along the way will factor into the overall story and development; he included that they will "not just as love interests but other ways as the story progresses. Tabata then mentions that Cidney, pictured above, "is a very important part of the story because by keeping the car running she makes the entire journey possible."
The validation for the female characters within FFXV is important to Tabata, as the interview indicates, but a statement like the one he made about Cidney is rather vague and may indicate Cidney being unidimensional, especially after the speculations about her attire being unconventional for any mechanic, man or woman. As expected, Tabata and the rest of the team behind Final Fantasy XV don’t wish to disclose any details to the game, so speculation will only go so far. Nonetheless, the release date for Final Fantasy XV will land in 2016, according to Tabata, but there’s still a lot of time left between now and 2017.