'Final Fantasy 15' release date, news: More details on story structure, how players can go back from linear to open world
"Final Fantasy 15" director Hajime Tabata recently said that the gameplay for the highly-anticipated title will be half open-world and half-linear. At the PAX West event in Seattle, Tabata elaborated more about the structure.
Speaking to IGN, the game director first clarified that the game goes linear "very close to the end of the game" rather than the latter half of it. He also explained while "Final Fantasy 15" was structured that way.
"I didn't want to end the game in an open world type of environment. At the very end, when the main character and the enemy are going against one another, there's a build up in the story," Tabata explained.
"I wanted to ensure that that last part was a little bit different from the open world environment and more of a packed, condensed type of game experience," he continued.
The linear part of "Final Fantasy 15" will start when the train sequence begins. There, Tabata said that the story will be the focus, and that the development will be "fast-paced" and episodic will eventually lead players to the end.
Once players are at this part of the game, they won't be able to come back unless they do so manually through the game menu, which means that the gameplay won't take away the open-world theme from fans in "Final Fantasy 15."
"So you will still be able to experience the adventure that awaits you over there, which amounts to over 200 hours of gameplay. So that is still available to the player," Tabata explained.
Kotaku recently got to play "Final Fantasy 15" for two hours, and the site says that the game goes into the open world 10 to 15 minutes into the game after some introductory scenes of Noctis and the gang.
The site got to experience the real-time combat and revealed that new combat abilities can be unlocked throughout the game.
Fans will get to experience "Final Fantasy 15" in the flesh on Nov. 29.