Final Fantasy XV’s storytelling will be presented in an ‘unforced’ way similar to Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed The Last of Us, its director has said.
Speaking with Examiner, Hajime Tabata indicated that the hotly anticipated JRPG’s story will unfold seamlessly in conjunction with gameplay, and as such possibly moving away from the series’ more cinematic approach to storytelling.
“We are really trying to aim for something where the gameplay and storytelling are really one in the same,” Tabata-san commented. “It’s important that the story progresses through the gameplay in a very unforced way, in a similar way that it was done with The Last of Us, for example.”
Speaking of story, Tabata-san also revealed that one of the main themes of Final Fantasy XV will be the personal growth of its main protagonist, Noctis.
Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy XV will definitely be released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016, having previously revealed its intention to give the game a global simultaneous launch.
The development team recently said that Final Fantasy XV is now playable from start to finish, and teased new details regarding the game’s combat system. In addition, Square Enix also said that it may release airships as free downloadable content, and that a new demo is currently in the pipeline. New information on the game will be released in March 2016.
Final Fantasy XV was announced during Sony’s E3 2013 press conference alongside Kingdom Hearts 3. Prior to that, the game was known as the PS3-exclusive title Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which was originally unveiled nearly ten years ago. After a long period of silence on that project, Square Enix decided to rename and revamp the title three years ago when Versus XIII was roughly 25 percent complete.
A playable demo of Final Fantasy XV was given away with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD on PS4 and Xbox One last year.