Uncharted: The Lost Legacy had to be big to give it "more room to breathe"

Naughty Dog explains how The Lost Legacy came to be a standalone expansion.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is the upcoming standalone DLC for Uncharted 4, and in an interview with Game Informer, writer Josh Scherr and director Kurt Margenau explain how the they decided on the characters for the expansion, and why it's going to be separate to the main story.

"We had the unique opportunity to do something that was truly stand-alone," says Scherr. "This is something we can do completely independently while still in the same universe with the same characters, and exploring new relationships with them."

After considering a young Sully, and even Cassie, the team ultimately decided on Chloe as a playable character.

The DLC was planned to be around the same size as The Last of Us' Left Behind, but as ideas were bounced around, it became apparent that they'd need to think bigger.

"We tried to keep it small," explains Margenau. "As we started coming up with story ideas, it just became clear that with new characters and in this genre of Uncharted, it has to be big. With the gameplay stuff we wanted to explore, it felt like it needed more room to breathe."

The DLC boasts the biggest area in any Uncharted game, and marks the end of the series.

It's set six to 12 months after the events of the main game, and sees Chloe partner up with Nadine, roaming around southern India.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is out later this year on PS4.