The first playable demo for Final Fantasy 15 won't allow players to cruise around on their very own bromance road trips, but there's a simple reason for keeping the car in the garage. Director Hajime Tabata didn't want players to feel like the series was suddenly all about driving, he told Polygon today during a translated interview.
"Originally we were planning on making the car be available to drive throughout the world and throughout the demo," Tabata told Polygon. "But we didn't want people to mistake it and think 'When did Final Fantasy become a driving game?'"
Instead, Tabata and his team decided to take things down a notch and focus more on the characters. Exploring the game's seamless world, too, is going to be a big focus in the upcoming demo, also known as Episode Duscae.
"You'll be able to experience the starting point of what an open-world Final Fantasy would potentially feel like," Tabata said. "You'll really be able to experience that seamless Final Fantasy world within the demo itself, but then if you play it, you'll still really get a sense that it's a Final Fantasy game. You'll get that balance within the demo."
Tabata added that there's "extreme improvement and evolvement" in the franchise that Final Fantasy 15 will clearly show; however, Square Enix wants to avoid turning people off by thrusting those big changes on players too suddenly.
"We've re-thought the demo in order for it to be more playable and accessible to people who know the franchise," Tabata said.
The demo for Final Fantasy 15 will be available to those who own Final Fantasy Type-0 on "day one." Type-0 is set for launch March 17. Stay tuned for our full interview with Tabata coming next week.