‘Final Fantasy XV’ Gameplay & Release Date: Director Says Upcoming ‘Final Fantasy’ Game’s Story was Inspired by ‘The Last of Us’

Final Fantasy XV

Hajime Tabata, the director of the upcoming "Final Fantasy XV," said that the narrative of the game is a bit similar to that of "The Last of Us" from Naughty Dog.

According to the director, he took inspiration from this game in terms of the blending between the story and the gameplay.

During an interview with the Examiner, Tabata noted that the plot of "Final Fantasy XV" is naturally integrated into the game's mechanics and doesn't force itself into the overall gameplay. This is show through main protagonist Noctis' interaction with the game's environment and other characters.

"One of the important threads of the story in 'Final Fantasy XV' is that tale of how Noctis goes from being a young prince in waiting to becoming the king of the country," he told the new site. "That tale is a really big part of the game."

"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," Tabata added.

But aside from the integration of the story into the gameplay, the director also noted that the female characters will play an important role in the development of the narrative. Although he did not go into detail regarding their exact roles, the women in the game will not appear as only the love interests of the male characters.

"There are quite a lot of female characters the guys will meet along the road they take and they really enhance the story, and perform a lot of different roles in the story," he said in a separate interview. "Not just as love interests but other ways as the story progresses."

Currently, "Final Fantasy XV" does not yet have an exact release date. But, according to Wired, Tabata confirmed that the game is scheduled to arrive this year. He said that more details about its launch will be unveiled in March.

The game is slated to arrive for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles. Last month, Tabata confirmed that rumors about the game arrive for the PC are not true. He explained that publisher Square Enix has no plans of creating a PC port for the game.

He then said that although the beta of "Final Fantasy XV" was developed for PCs, creating a full version of the game for this platform is very challenging.