Final Fantasy XV's director Hajime Tabata has explained why the highly-anticipated game becomes more linear as it reaches its climax.
Players will be able to explore a huge open world during the majority of the game, but there will come a point when they start to focus more on the story. Fear not though, it's "very close" to the end of the game and you can still go back to explore the world.
"I didn't want to end the game in an open world type of environment," he told IGN at PAX. "At the very end, when the main character and the enemy are going against one another, there's a build-up in the story.
"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."
Tabata teased that it's a sequence involving a train that marks the end of open world and the start of a more linear gaming experience.
"Once the train sequence starts, the whole structure of the game changes drastically, where it's really focused on the story developments, and developing in a fast-paced kind of fashion thereafter," he explained.
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"So you won't be able to physically go back and forth between those two areas. That said, you will be able to go back to that open world environment through the menu, so you will still be able to experience the adventure that awaits you over there, which amounts to over 200 hours of gameplay."
Following its two-month delay - which we'll be thankful for, apparently - Final Fantasy XV hits Xbox One and PlayStation 4 worldwide on November 29. You might even recognise some of the English voices in the game...
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
