'Final Fantasy 15' Release Date, News & Update: Launch Date to be Announced March 2016, 'The Last of Us' Inspired Upcoming Title

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Fans of the franchise rejoice as the latest installment will be finally released this year. The official release date for "Final Fantasy 15" will be announced in March 2016 as the game will be showcased during an event.

Game director Hajime Tabata confirmed that the release date for "Final Fantasy XV" will be launched this year during a New Year's Day announcement last week. However, the exact date remains a mystery.

"We will finally release FFXV this year, in 2016!" Tabata said in the blog by Square Enix. "In development, previous phases required wisdom and strength. However, moving forward the final phase will focus on effort and willpower."

Tabata closed the statement thanking everyone for the support in the last year and called for celebrating with everyone in the New Year. He also cTabata confirmed in an interview with Famitsu that the release date announcement will be in March this year.

"Currently, we've decided on all of its specifications and the beta version is under production so we can shift into the debug phase. We'll show the real XV during the release date announcement this March," he told Famitsu, as reported by Nova Crystallis.

In a recent interview, Tabata revealed that the narrative of "Final Fantasy XV" is modeled after Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic game "The Last of Us."

He added that the characters and how the story is told are influenced by the many recent smash-hit games.

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

The interview also revealed the challenges of incorporating the character development and the story in the game due to its genre.

When asked if the main protagonist of the game, Noctis, will have a love interest: Tabata says outright that it is more than romantic love but the familial bond of a father and son who are also both the king and prince of the nation.

"Another big relationship is the bond of friendship and then, of course, the bonds of love are the third element we are going to cover," Tabata explained. "It's not going to be a love story, that's not the main focus of the game, but it has those elements of love and romance within the broader story of Noctis's growth as a person."