The director of "Final Fantasy XV," Hajime Tabata, has revealed recently that an older version of Noctis is seen within the game. He explains why a much older lead character will be featured in the latest installment of "Final Fantasy."

During the beginning of the 53-minute gameplay footage that was released during Gamescom 2016, it was shown that Noctis is older and sports a beard. IGN was able to speak to Hajime Tabata during this year's PAX West and he was able to give an explanation why the game features Noctis at that age.

The opening sequence shows Regis, Noctis' father, giving words of encouragement to his son. Tabata explained that the scene will have an impact as the game progresses. He also stated, "The whole change in Noctis' appearance from when the game starts compared to when years have passed [is so] that people would feel the passing of time, and that they were actual living, breathing characters rather than just symbolic characters."

He also said that they want to show to players that Noctis and Regis share some similarities in terms of physical features, and this is why the main character is seen with a beard. Tabata also mentioned, "It's not typical to see a lot of Japanese RPGs with a mid-aged man as the main character."

Tabata also said that it took a long time for them to decide if they would go with this move. He also stated that there is not really a deep reason behind the aging of Noctis, but they wanted to show that a certain amount of time has already passed in their world.

Recently, Tabata also mentioned that the second half of the game will be linear in order for the story of the game to keep on moving. However, the first part of the title will be an open world game and players can still go back to that option if they wanted,

"Final Fantasy XV" will be released on Nov. 29, 2016 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.