'Final Fantasy 15' Release Date & News: Game Will Feature Open Worlds

Open world action RPGs are popular these days. "Final Fantasy 15," "Fallout 4," "The Legend of Zelda," and "Crackdown 3" all exhibit open world gameplays, which is a far cry from past games' linear and focused gaming experiences.

In an interview for an issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine (OPM), "Final Fantasy 15" director Hajime Tabata said that open world gaming style is here to stay now that the technology for executing it has been developed.

"I think in some ways, everyone is heading in the same direction at the moment. Guerrilla Games' 'Horizon' is going a very similar way as well. The idea of having an open-world, seamless travel between areas, having to hunt and fight . . . I think the technology is now at a place where people can try and achieve these things properly," Tabata said, as quoted by Games Radar.

New screenshots and concept arts for Square Enix's "Final Fantasy 15" were unveiled recently. Check them out on SegmentNext. The new images feature the game's all-male main characters riding Chocobos, which are mounts that can be ridden during exploration or while riding into battle.

There's also a concept art of the Catoblepas, a kind of Behemoth that resembles a buffalo and is a recurring enemy in the "Final Fantasy" series, SegmentNext wrote. The creature was also featured as an optional boss in "Final Fantasy V."

Addressing the four main characters' all-black outfit, Tabata said in the game's forums recently, as discovered by Nova Crystalis, that the clothing is the official battle gear of the Kingdom of Lucis, GameSpot reported.

"Noctis is a member of the royal family and the other three characters are parts of various Lucian national organizations and they are each wearing the specific battle dress relevant to their individual stations," Tabata said, as quoted by GameSpot.

He added that the color black has a special meaning in the setting of "Final Fantasy 15."

"In the Kingdom of Lucis where our heroes reside, the color black has historically been treated as a special color. Because of this, the attire of the royal family and those in occupations closely tied to them are unified by having black as a base coloring," Tabata explained, as quoted by the news outlet. "This part of the lore is the reason why the outfits of all four main characters are black. For the finished game we also intend on having their clothing having effects in battle and not just being a part of the world and its background. So watch out for that too!"

"Final Fantasy 15" is expected to be released in 2016 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, Games Radar wrote.