Director Hajime Tabata has some big story news for Final Fantasy XV concerning the events we see unfolding during the game’s opening minutes. As always, the following article contains potential spoilers, so if you’re going in dark you may want to hold off reading beyond this point.

Speaking with IGN, Tabata revealed that Final Fantasy XV‘s story takes place over 10 years. That means the older, ragged-looking Noctis we see during Chapter 0 has aged 10 years from his initial, 20 year old appearance.

“In the opening sequence, you see Regis and Noctis talking to one another and Regis tells him to stand tall,” Tabata told IGN. “His appearance later on in the game communicates that he has [taken] that to heart and lived with those final words.

“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.”

As for why they chose 10 years? “There’s not a deep reason as to why we made it ten years,” Tabata added. “It’s just that we needed a significant amount of time to have passed within the game for certain reasons.”