a completely new way to play " the game - will be an online, 4-player, co-op multiplayer expansion, titled "Comrades".

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Final Fantasy DLC Images 3 IMAGES

Following an item pack, a "Holiday Pack" and three "Episode" expansions featuring each non-playable member of the game's core party, the Comrades pack will be released.Speaking to IGN, DLC director Haruyoshi Sawatari said that his post-release focused team was only early in the planning stages for the multiplayer pack, but explained the base concept:"When we've released each of those three [character] episodes, and made each of the three characters playable, we're going to bring back [lead character] Noctis from the main game, and then add the multiplayer expansion pack which allows you to play as all of them together in new types of online adventures."It's unclear whether Comrades will take place outside of the main game world. However, there was some implication that this would be the case when Sawatari, speaking more generally about why these pieces of content were chosen to be sold separately, explained:"The stories we're telling through the DLC are going to be linked closely to the main game's story, but they're things that we feel we could only really do within DLC. It couldn't have been part of the main game at all. So the kind of gameplay experiences that we're delivering, and the kind of stories that we're telling really wouldn't have been possible within the game of XV. It has to be slightly removed in order to do that."Barring MMOs Final Fantasy XI and XIV, no numbered Final Fantasy game has previously featured online multiplayer.Today also sees the release of the first concept images from the character episode DLC, the Gladio, Ignis and Prompto packs - which will tailor their gameplay style to the character in question Sawatari would not comment on where in the timeline the episodes are set, or how long each would take to complete, but said that they would each feature "new locations to explore".No specific release schedule has been set, but the packs will be released in the order of Gladio, Ignis, Prompto, and Comrades. The current Season Pass order implies that the Gladio episode will arrive before Christmas, and while Sawatari stressed that this is not set in stone, he did say that "there's a lot more we want to add and change in that [episode], but it's in a state where it can actually be played now".After over 10 years of development in one form or another, Final Fantasy will be released on November 29 worldwide - a Square Enix representative confirmed taht there would be more information on the multiplayer expansion coming post-release.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor. Bagsy Ignis. Follow him on Twitter