Final Fantasy XV will have more dynamic playable action, fewer flashy cutscenes

Pre-rendered, non-interactive action sequences are a staple of Final Fantasy, but Final Fantasy XV game director Tetsuya Nomura says much of the type of action which would traditionally be in a cutscene will be gameplay in this new title.

"Since the beginning of 3D graphics, Final Fantasy has largely used pre-rendered movies, but what’s different about this new hardware is that it allows you to direct what has previously been pre-rendered and make it real-time. For this reason, even in considerably dynamic scenes, the player can still control their character," Nomura said in a promotional video feature and translated by Gematsu.

"The scene we saw at E3 where a Leviathan is rioting through a town, and the main character comes in fighting and flying around in a current of water. Until now this scene would have been completely pre-rendered into a movie by Visual Works (Suare Enix’s film producing team). But now you’ll actually be able to play through it in real-time."

Here's the full video, which is in Japanese. And here's the text translation.