Final fantasy XVI (Official Thread) ensure spoilers are wrapped in spoiler tag.

[Sad Bunny]

I don’t understand how you can be a final fantasy fan and not be hype as hell for this game. I would have never thought Ifrit would basically be the hero of a FF game putting all the other big summons to sleep. I have a feeling after this game he’s gonna be the fan favorite/prestige summon from now on. Sorry Bahamut

Day one

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

How did you arrive on the concept for FINAL FANTASY XVI?

Naoki Yoshida (Producer): Well, the company approached me and asked whether my team, Creative Business Unit 3, could make FINAL FANTASY XVI, as the next instalment in the FINAL FANTASY series. We started working on the concept for the game at that point.

Having played FINAL FANTASY XIV for a long time, and having had the opportunity to speak with so many journalists and players around the world, I wanted to create a game that would appeal to a broader audience - something that a wider range of gamers from different generations would play.

To achieve that goal, our initial concepts were to make an action-based game and tell a more mature story.

He may be simple to control, but there's so many things Clive can do! What did you focus on to make him such fun to play?

Yoshida-san: By focusing all of the controls on Clive, we've made sure that he's very customisable.

In particular, FINAL FANTASY XVI features the Eikons, and Clive can draw on the different Eikonic powers that he's obtained. There are lots of different Eikonic Abilities associated with each Eikon, and individual players can create their own battle style for Clive by combining these abilities.

There are all kinds of options. So, in exchange for not being able to control other characters, we've focused on creating lots of variation within Clive himself. That was the point we spent the most time and effort perfecting!

It must have been enormous amount of writing…

Koji Fox-san: It was! Because we span many different decades, these entries will change depending on where you are in the game.

Players will be able to see that as well. It's not just something static - they'll be able to see how it's changed. They can look at past entries and compare them to current ones and see what's different.

So, there's a lot there (laughs)

Another aspect that impresses me is how it makes the more fantastic aspects of FINAL FANTASY work in a more realistic style - how challenging was it to get that to come together so seamlessly?

Minagawa-san: Before working on FINAL FANTASY XVI, I worked on FINAL FANTASY XIV, as well as the art direction for FINAL FANTASY XII.I would say that the style, or the general direction for the graphics, was quite similar for all those games - what I've done with XVI is really more of an extension of the same style I was working with before. So, I wasn't too unsure about the direction to take in terms of the overall look.

Having said that, since we now have the capability to depict so much more, we did struggle with the characters. We didn't have the same kind of issues with the monsters, but the expressions of the characters were a particular challenge. Those of us that worked on the in-game assets found it really challenging to depict their expressions, which were more realistic than what we'd previously worked on. In the end, we managed to achieve a good visual style, thanks to the help and cooperation of the team working on pre-rendered scenes.

Overall, I would say that the most significant challenge was combining photorealism and a more illustration-like feel with the increased power we had to present things - finding the right balance and making sure it didn't look unnatural.

Yoshida-san: Probably the greatest challenge, on a fundamental level, was the moogle.

Minagawa-san: (laughs)

Yoshida-san: The development team was worried that moogles both be too difficult to create, and wouldn't fit the feel of the world, but our Assistant Producer was like, "I don't care, just put them in the game!"

In the end, we took her advice and put one in the game but it was a lot more work that we expected.

Minagawa-san: The biggest moogle problem arose when we were implementing performance mode, towards the end of development.

Performance mode alters the appearance of the polygons slightly, and we particularly struggled with the moogle…it just ended up with less fur.

Yoshida-san: (laughs a lot)

Minagawa-san: It kind of ended up looking like a hedgehog! We were like:"Is…is this a moogle? Hmmm..."

Eventually, we ended up putting in some processing specifically for the moogle.

Yoshida-san: So, to sum up, the moogle was the most challenging thing, right?

Minagawa-san: Whereas everyone was delighted by the morbol and created it right away!

Yoshida-san: Yeah.

Another thing I love is how natural the dialogue sounds - and how it flows through scenes. How did you find this tone for the game?

Koji Fox-san: FINAL FANTASY is a series that bounces around a lot. It has a lot of different settings, lots of different characters, so you're going to get stuff that ends up being bombastic and a little over the top. That's not a bad thing - a lot of people appreciate that.

But for this game, the theme is very dark and if were to go too over the top, it would detract from the serious tone that we're going for. We didn't want that.

What we did want was to have something that felt very accessible and very natural. For example, shows like Game of Thrones show that you can have a very high fantasy setting, but you don't need to go complete renaissance fair with it! It still sounds unique and fantasy, but it's not going so far over the top that it won't alienate some fans who don't want that type of speech.

And, you know, being able to record in English means that we had a lot of freedom to work with the motion capture actors to make sure that we're getting things that felt very natural. Rather than just having one person talk at you for 10 tags of dialogue, you're having this back and forth that feels very natural. It's working on something that feels more like you're watching a movie or a drama rather than playing a game.

How challenging has it been to do something so new while still maintaining the identity of the FINAL FANTASY series?

Yoshida-san: This is something that Sakaguchi-san, the father of FINAL FANTASY, and Kitase-san (FINAL FANTASY Brand Manager) have both said to me: FINAL FANTASY is whatever the director making the latest instalment thinks is the best game, the best story at the time.

If they create a game with those points in mind, then it's a FINAL FANTASY - so there's no need to feel constrained by what's come before. Since they'd said that to me, I didn't really feel like this was a particular challenge. Of course, we hesitated and mulled things over, but I wouldn't say it was "challenging". Once we had decided on something, then that was all that mattered.

Does anything come to mind for you Minagawa-san?

Minagawa-san: Well, since FINAL FANTASY XVI is the latest instalment in the franchise, I think that for the art and graphics teams, we were all just working as hard as we could do achieve top-end visuals. With so many other great games coming out, we were desperate to reach that same standard.

There's always a question of balance: what to polish, what to compromise on, and everyone has their own views on which parts those should be. I would say that bringing all of that together is the most challenging part – although that's the same for all games, not just FINAL FANTASY XVI.

Having said that, because we had the ability to depict so much more this time, as I mentioned earlier, that balancing was all the more challenging. If you go overboard, you can end up with a single asset requiring outrageous resources…

Yoshida-san: Absolutely.

Minagawa-san: We had so much more freedom than ever before, and so we really struggled to find the right balance.

Yoshida-san: At the end of the day, isn't the most challenging thing about making the latest instalment in the FINAL FANTASY series in this day and age… money? (laughs)

Yeah, it's probably the development costs (laughs).

Minagawa-san: Well, I tried not to think about it (laughs). It was too scary!

 

[Carl Tethers]

I don’t understand how you can be a final fantasy fan and not be hype as hell for this game. I would have never thought Ifrit would basically be the hero of a FF game putting all the other big summons to sleep. I have a feeling after this game he’s gonna be the fan favorite/prestige summon from now on. Sorry Bahamut

Big dikkfrit

 

[MuzzyP]

Been seeing a lot of hype for this. Really hoping it's great. Haven't played a FF I've considered great since FFX.

FFXV was good, but not great imo.

Actually, FF7R was great, but I count it as a spinoff.

 

[Carl Tethers]

Game will be even more GOATed if they eventually patch in controls for other party members like they did with 15

 

[Animal House]

Now this is what I’m hyped for and Aliens Dark Decent


I’m all the way cool with this being a action RPG, it looks beautiful to

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Now this is what I’m hyped for and Aliens Dark Decent


I’m all the way cool with this being a action RPG, it looks beautiful to

Damn, i keep forgetting about Aliens

 

[Animal House]

Damn, i keep forgetting about Aliens

That gameplay overview trailer got me excited. It’s basically like Pathfinder but with Xcom like features. Yeah I’m definitely waiting for that one. I basically figure I can’t get all the games I want so I’m gonna cop the ones at the top of my list and wait for a sale for the other ones

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

That gameplay overview trailer got me excited. It’s basically like Pathfinder but with Xcom like features. Yeah I’m definitely waiting for that one. I basically figure I can’t get all the games I want so I’m gonna cop the ones at the top of my list and wait for a sale for the other ones

Yeah, im about to cop an Edge along with either SF6 or Diablo, then FFXVI, gotta budget for the shyt i can actually make time for

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

 

[The Mad Titan]

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

review copies are out

On the latest episode of the Triple Click podcast, Jason Schreier said that review codes are out and it's certainly an indication of how confident they feel.

"Tomorrow two great gaming exponents of the year will be released (one that I will be playing for months at least) and this month we had a bomb from the big N. As if that wasn't enough, I tell you that another of the serious GOTY candidates is already being played. Yes, that one. The little game saved us in 2023."

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

 

[Gizmo_Duck]