Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata, who left Square Enix to form his own video game development studio JP Games, is now working on a Paralympics-themed RPG titled The Pegasus Dream Tour.
The Pegasus Dream Tour was announced by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as its first official video game, with the aim of boosting the popularity of Paralympic sports by increasing engagement with youth.
The IPC revealed that JP Games will be behind the groundbreaking title, which will be the the first project of Tabata’s new studio.
The Pegasus Dream Tour will be a sports RPG where players will participate in a virtual Paralympic Games that takes place in a fantasy metropolis named Pegasus City. Players will be able to awaken special abilities, known as Xtra Power, in a “world dynamically rendered in ways that only video games can achieve.”
JP Games is planning to release The Pegasus Dream Tour on multiple platforms, including smartphones, in 2020, alongside the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. No specific launch date was given, but it will likely be before summer of that year.
“This is not just an ordinary video game about sports. JP Games is going to represent fully the wonders that are unique to Paralympic sports in this brand-new role-playing game — a genre we excel in,” Tabata said in a statement.
Not much else was revealed about The Pegasus Dream Tour, including its gameplay, but it will enter the relatively untapped genre of sports RPGs. This will be a dramatic change for Tabata, who also served as the director of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Type-0 for Square Enix. However, given the success of Final Fantasy XV, it would appear that the first Paralympics RPG is in good hands, as Tabata shifts gears from the long-running Final Fantasy franchise into a completely new project.
Tabata said that he parted ways with Square Enix amicably, which happened as the developer canceled a planned DLC for Final Fantasy XV. Out of the four DLCs planned this year, only Episode Ardyn pushed through, as Episode Aranea, Episode Luna, and Episode Noctis were sent to the grave.
