Final Fantasy 15 storytelling similar to The Last of Us, says director

Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata wants the RPG's story to unroll in an "unforced" way.

The Final Fantasy series has traditionally relied on cinematic cutscenes and lengthy dialogue to convey its plots, but it sounds like Final Fantasy 15 moves away from Square Enix's storytelling method of choice.

"We are really trying to aim for something where the gameplay and storytelling are really one in the same," Tabata told the Examiner.

"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."

It's not super clear what that means. Judging by what we saw of the RPG in the Episode Duscae demo, story and character development may be partially presented in dialogue and banter as the player explores, rather than being reserved for situations where your only input is to hammer the "skip" button to get back to the action. I doubt Square Enix will completely ditch its famously gorgeous cinematics altogether, though.

The full interview goes into some detail on the RPG's story, of which Noctis's personal growth is a major theme.

Final Fantasy 15 is coming to PS4 and Xbox One in 2016, apparently.