Square Enix has released six minutes of gameplay footage from the upcoming Final Fantasy XV: Episode Prompto. In case you were unaware of it, Episode Prompto is the second piece of story DLC for the game, after this spring’s Episode Gladiolus.
Like Episode Gladiolus before it, Episode Prompto‘s gameplay looks like a pretty huge departure from the main game. Except this time, what we see looks like a stealth infiltration mission. In fact, it feels very similar the original Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation. (That’s not a bad thing at all; Metal Gear Solid was one of the best games of that era.)
And it’s not just because of the stealth aspect; this feels so close that it could actually be a tribute to Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece. Here’s a screenshot from Metal Gear Solid to refresh your memory:
Episode Prompto features a very similar muted, blueish gray color scheme to that of Metal Gear Solid. It has narrow corridors and an angular, boxy look that’s quite unusual for a game on current-gen hardware. There are neck-snapping stealth kills and submachine guns. There’s a very familiar soft beep menu sound (listen to the tutorial hint sound at 4:05) . There’s a very MGS-inspired musical swell when Prompto is spotted. Episode Prompto even takes place in a cold, snowy environment (Metal Gear Solid, if you remember, takes place in Alaska).
The resemblance must be deliberate, right?
With Hideo Kojima no longer working for Konami, which unfortunately owns the Metal Gear franchise, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see another Metal Gear game on par with the classics. But at least we can re-live a little bit of that magic with what feels very much like a throwback to 1998.
Episode Prompto is due out June 27, 2017. You can check out the gameplay video below.
